Rob Wickings's Blog, page 37
August 7, 2020
The Cut – Issue 13
Thirteen weeks of this foolishness! The smart move would be to bail while there’s a scrap of dignity left to wrap around our scrawny thews. But no, that is not how we operate, as well you know. Therefore, o our Readership, the luck is all good for you. Enjoy this week’s slumgullion of linky loveliness.
Come on, we’re all friends now. Say it with me.
Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.
Jonathan Harris, aka Money Burning Guy, has long been a feature on our Twitter stream. Discordian, magician and adherent to the erasure of toxic money to our psychic well-being, Jon is always thought-provoking, controversial and hugely entertaining. His account of a modern pilgrimage to the site of the Large Hadron Collider contains, frankly, multitudes. This is a long read. Make time for it.
https://link.medium.com/p6VVZfqMJ8
Gods, we miss the cinema. This Little White Lies piece on the magic of the only church we’d pay for says a lot about the joys of communally sharing an experience in the dark.
Less sniggering in the back row, thank you.
https://lwlies.com/articles/a-personal-ode-to-going-to-the-cinema-video/
This one goes out to all the home workers. All of you in your business up top/sleepwear underneath Zoom-wear, trying to deal with a small human meltdown in the middle of a big meeting. More specifically, all of you who have had the furbaby in your life plant their fuzzy ass on the keyboard at just the wrong time—know that you are recognised and understood.
https://gizmodo.com/my-cat-wanted-to-blog-so-i-let-him-write-this-one-1844484259
We feel it’s important for all of you to realise how unusual these times are. Any response to The Situation that doesn’t involve violence or weapons discharge in the early hours of the morning is valid. This one is for all of you staring bleakly at an empty page or a blinking cursor. It’s OK. You don’t have to build something right now. Gods know, The Cut is just a week’s Internet browsing in a palatable format. It’s better than nothing, but only just.
https://www.themarysue.com/pandemic-creativity-problems/
Our second LWL link this week, but this is a goodie. Based on their Food And Film issue, here’s a gathering of some of the best food moments in movie history. Dunno about you folks, but we’re building up an appetite…
https://lwlies.com/articles/a-movie-guide-to-fine-dining/
Right. Cheese. Cheese is important. Cheese is the reason Cut Command is not vegan. Plant milk is fine. Eggs can go back up where they came from. Cheese—yeah, sorry, that gets Rickrolled. The New Yorker looks at how unusual cheeses can slip off the table and into memory—and what can be done to bring them back!
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/how-a-cheese-goes-extinct
More from the New Yorker and further cheesiness. Queso, that gloopy spicy blend of spray cheese and chili is a joy in the right circumstance. It can really pull a plate together. But, as with so much else these days, failed appropriation can lead to a bad taste in the mouth for all concerned…
We’re into the simple pleasures bit of the post. We loved this story from Outside magazine on a couple of pals who put everything, including their friendship, into building a cabin on a remote site in Washington state. Those of you who enjoy a bit of Kevin McCloud and Grand Designs will find much pleasure here… Atogther now—‘we plan to be in by Christmas!’
https://www.outsideonline.com/2415766/friends-diy-cabin-build-washington
In another attempt to narrow down our potential audience, we present a lovely piece on the design of Lego control panels. Seriously, if you have any interest in user experience or good design in general, there may be something in here for you.
If you don’t like Lego, you’re dead to us anyway.
https://www.designedbycave.co.uk/2020/LEGO-Interface-UX/
The Ninth Art Correspondent pulls a buzzkill…
I struggled long and hard on whether to post this very long and very detailed post on the ugly downfall of comics superstar Warren Ellis. Part of that comes from not quite wanting to believe a writer whose work you have followed and enjoyed for years turns out to be a complete horror show. But hey, here we are in a year where everything you know is flipped. Ellis’ behaviour is, of course, just a symptom of the larger problem staining the entertainment business as a whole. I hoped comics creators were better than that. Seems I was wrong. More fool me, which is one of the main reasons for posting this. I learned things I didn’t want to, but I should not be afraid of opening up to it, learning from it and trying to do better.
I post this with a big fat TRIGGER WARNING for sexual exploitation and a huge SNARK ALERT for the tone. There’s an element of “oh, I thought everyone knew’ in this that rubs me up wrongly—the revelation of Ellis’ skeeviness came as a horrible shock to me. Nonetheless, this is important writing on an important topic. But I do understand if you want to slide past it. I read it and felt the need for a long shower and a hard, cleansing cry afterwards.
Full disclosure: I own a significant proportion of Warren Ellis’ work, including his novels, novellas and limited edition projects. I was also, briefly, a member of the Freakangels message board, an offshoot of the increasingly infamous Warren Ellis Forum. I really didn’t fit in.
http://www.tcj.com/the-2020-report-day-two/
urrgh. Right, That’s enough of that. I was delighted to get an actual tip land on the Ninth Art desk this week from our long time pal Leading Man Clive. He writes…
My recommendation is a FREE weekly web comic called ‘Lavender Jack’. Written & Drawn by Dan Schkade. Set during the early 1900s in an alternate reality Europe, you’ve got characters who seem to be based on pulp archetypes: a rich dilettante with a double life as a vigilante; the world’s greatest detective; an aristocratic husband and wife team who bear a strong resemblance to Tarzan and Jane. But it’s all given a witty and diverse twist. Art is reminiscent of Herge and Will Eisner, and the less heavy side of Alan Moore (Tom Strong, The League of…) for the writing. The first ‘story arc/season’ is finished, and it’s about halfway through the second one. I bloody love this!
July 31, 2020
The Cut – Issue 12
Here we are again, my lovelies. Four months of linky goodness from Cut Command, beaming out from our transmission tower high on a hill overlooking the biggest town in the UK. We are proud to provide you, therefore, with the finest in Reading material.
Look, come on, four months of lockdown will do a number on anyone’s head. Let’s crack on, shall we? Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.
Let’s start with a litmus test of our likely Readership. Are you the sort of person that would cheerfully read 4000 words on marmalade? If so, congrats, you’ve definitely made The Cut. If not… well, give it a try anyway.
(We issue an exemption to our pal Cav Jam Lady, who is a true star despite her aversion to Paddington’s favourite spread).
https://longreads.com/2020/07/23/marmalade-a-very-british-obsession/
Who remembers the amazing clip of Gordon Ramsay preparing pad Thai for a renowned Thai chef? Gordo thought it was a pretty fair job. The chef looked at him as if he’d presented a turd in a bowl, and proceeded to tear a thick strip off in a stunning piece of turnabout telly. Here’s more in that same mood, as Youtuber Uncle Roger is shown a BBC Food clip on how to make fried rice. It doesn’t go well…
We spoke recently on the joys of fanfic and how committed lovers of a franchise can move things above and beyond original intentions. This does not just apply to telly, films and books. Gamers are also known to take up the reins when a RPG in which they’d invested time and heart and soul suddenly shuts up shop. Here is a tale of a love that would not die.
https://uppercutcrit.com/how-fan-servers-are-preserving-dead-multiplayer-games/
A very fine Daily Grindhouse piece kicked off all sorts of reminiscence in Cut Command this week. Scariest movie moment you saw as a kid? Blimey, where do we start? The biggest freak out we can think of is the vampire shooting out of the coffin in the TV movie version of Salem’s Lot, but that’s the start of a very long list. We’d love to know yours, Readership!
We were moved and fascinated by this piece on TV producer Verity Lambert, which makes clear an uncomfortable truth—women and minorities have to work a lot harder than their white male counterparts not only to get their voices heard, but also to have their achievements properly remembered. As Walthamstow’s finest, John Bull, makes clear, Verity had her hands on the reins of many, many more shows than the one she is mostly remembered for…
https://medium.com/cult-tv-archive/beyond-the-doctor-the-remarkable-verity-lambert-b21ca74e7407
In big news for Brit comic fans, the mighty Pat Mills has fired off an all-new, all-thrill project to inject a little burst of action into your day! Spacewarp is a 100-page anthology of linked stories based around a central idea—humanity has been invaded by a sadistic race of super-powered aliens known as The Warp Lords. As with all Mills’ work it’s political, dialectic and stuffed with ideas. It can feel a bit like there’s too much going in every page, but our Pat has always been a maximalist and is never boring. If you’re a 2000AD or Brit comic fan, you’ll need to check this out. More details from Down The Tubes, and an Amazon/ComiXology link below…
https://downthetubes.net/?p=119934 – Pat Mills’ new comic, Spacewarp.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spacewarp-Pat-Mills-ebook/dp/B08CNF3H8K
George R. R. Martin was supposed to be opening the massive Worldcon science fiction convention in New Zealand this week, an event Game Of Thrones fans were looking forward to for a very specific reason. They had long been on his case to finish the final Westeros book The Winds Of Winter, and GRR had made them a solemn promise last year…
But I tell you this — if I don’t have THE WINDS OF WINTER in hand when I arrive in New Zealand for worldcon, you have here my formal written permission to imprison me in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid, until I’m done. Just so long as the acrid fumes do not screw up my old DOS word processor, I’ll be fine.
Which has led many to observe that the wily old goat knew something was going on and he wouldn’t be able to attend. Well played, grand master. This all plays into a deeper and more problematic issue—that of entitlement on the part of readers towards authors and the biteback when they don’t perform according to expectations. Bookriot has more…
https://bookriot.com/authors-dont-owe-you-books/
The Situation has caused disruption in so many big and little ways. For our Rob, a major difficulty has been a step-change in the way he writes. He complains:
‘I’m a mobile writer. My weapon of choice is an iPad with a Logitech keyboard that I can sling in a bag and troll off to write. I love sitting in the corner of a pub or cafe a short walk from the house. It feels somehow freeing and the change in atmosphere (as well as the booze and/or caffeine intake) really does spark up my inner word machine. The Situation put a stop to all that. I really hope it changes, because it’s had a much more intense impact on my writing life than I’d like to admit!’
Lithub gives more context to the story.
https://lithub.com/is-this-the-end-of-writing-in-cafes/
There has to be a film in this story of a cruise liner that launched only to find it had become a Covid pariah, drifting from port to port, never allowed to dock. We’re struck by how, unlike the crew and passengers of the SF comedy Avenue 5, the people stuck on the ship became something like a family. This is strangely heartwarming.
Some of the older members of the team remember Denys Fisher games. They would take a TV show and loosely base a board game around it, leading to some downright odd results. We were always very fond of the Colditz game. Tim Worthington explores Denys Fisher’s world and highlights the worst and the best examples. Warning—contains some problematic 1970s TV celebrities.
https://timworthington.org/2019/07/11/a-fast-exciting-all-action-game/
We are delighted to see John Foxx is back on the critical radar with his band The Maths and their latest album Howl—a real blast of sharp-toothed electronica with a guitar-edged bite. The Quietus takes a dive into John’s history with the man himself, who is as charming, erudite and full of stories as you’d expect. Plenty of embedded tunes to enjoy as well. If you like it synthy, get on this!
https://thequietus.com/articles/28666-john-foxx-guide-to
And finally. Attack Magazine has a great rundown of tracks that sound better if you play them at a different speed to the intended. This is a vinyl thing, of course. The turntable at Cut Command is a direct drive where you actually have to take the platter up and physically move the drive band to a different cog to change speeds, which had led to some interesting experimental mixes (The The’s Hanky Panky sounds darkly funereal to 33rpm, for example). Anyway, lots to hear and enjoy here, whatever speed you choose.
The Attack piece is by reason of its vinyl bias dance music heavy, which gives us the excuse to drop as Exit Music our favourite slowed-down track. As featured on WROB’s Cabinet Of Curiosities, Dolly Parton’s Jolene played at 33rpm seems somehow even more sad and desperate. Which is the mood we all need right now, yeah?
Oh well, we’ll cope. Enjoy the sunshine. See you in seven.
July 24, 2020
The Cut – Issue 11
Well, slap our withers and call us rosy, there goes another week! Time she doth fly, up into the rafters like a deranged pigeon to root around in the loft and make an ungodly mess. Much, indeed, like this ish of The Cut, which it has, we’ll be honest, been a bit of a scramble to pull together for deadline what with work and lives and whatever this fresh hell that is supposed to be normal is doing to us. WE HOPE YOU’RE GRATEFUL. Anyhoo. Let’s have a look at what the time-pigeon has dislodged, shall we? Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.
Let us consider Judge Dredd. It’s long been recognised that Mega-City One’s most ferocious lawman serves as parody and satire in equal measure to the thrills, chases and gunfights which may have drawn us in as excitable, sci-fi obsessed nine-year-olds. We offer for your approval two articles looking into this side of the man in the hat and his screwy world, both of which offer some fascinating insight. Also, who knew there was a new animated Dredd web-series out there? You do now!
https://filmschoolrejects.com/judge-dredd-vs-dredd-on-the-satire-scale-d823322cbf7f/
https://neotextcorp.com/culture/the-devil-you-know/
Keeping it comics, we wanted to highlight a delightful set of short films that came out a few years back, giving us the closest look yet at what a Calvin And Hobbes live-action production might look like. As creator Bill Watterson has no interest in merchandising or expanding the reach of the strip beyond what already exists (and who can blame him, as how do you improve upon perfection?) it’s nice to see this glimpse at another viewpoint on the boy and his tiger. These are really, really good.
https://news.avclub.com/hobbes-me-brings-a-beloved-comic-strip-to-stylish-lif-1798246596
You may be unfamiliar with Arnold Lobel’s Frog And Toad books. They are a heady mix of the aesthetics of The Wind In The Willows, the mood and atmosphere of The Moomins and the melancholy romanticism of E. M. Forster. Slate takes a good hard look at the stories and Lobel’s life to reveal stories that are very much more than the sum of their parts.
https://slate.com/culture/2020/07/frog-and-toad-anniversary-arnold-lobel.html
We stay in a literary frame of mind by sharing this excellent Open Culture list of free short stories. It’s a really good primer for the precision and detail needed to pull off a great piece of short fiction, featuring some of the best writers around. Whatever your tastes, you will find something to love here. And should you feel the urge to have a dabble yourself, we offer some tips from Mister Sandman himself, Neil Gaiman, who provided some powerful knowledge-bombs in his recent Masterclass series. Solid gold awaits the brave traveller.
https://writingcooperative.com/neil-gaimans-top-13-writing-tips-d78848fd85f0
It has often been thought that the deranged visions of Heironymous Bosch were brought on by the artist eating bread made with wheat tainted with a hallucinogenic fungus. But there is another contender for his singular vision of hell. Darnel is a grain that looks almost exactly like wheat and grows alongside it. In large doses, it’s fatal. In small amounts it messes with human vision and speech, acting as an intoxicant. Darnel is mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays and it seems the effects were recorded in documents from the Ancient Greeks. The symbiotic relationship between the grain and our bread- and beer-making urges has existed for a very long time.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wheats-evil-twin-has-been-intoxicating-humans-for-centuries
If you want a drink in New York, you have to have something to eat as well. That rule, imposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio, has made the life of the poor schlubs running bars in The Big Apple that bit harder. To get round the new rules, dollar menu items are appearing that owe more than a nod to the infamous pre-Prohibition bar-snack , the Raines Sandwich. Vice has more to digest on this…
Our long read this week is from writer Jonathon Maselik, and digs deeply into the drinking culture of Northern Pennsylvania. Bar culture across the pond has always felt odd and a little uncomfortable to us. The tipping etiquette and expectations is a potential minefield. We found this piece moving and worried that in some places it struck a little too closely to home, despite the cultural differences…
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/drinking-alone
Talking about writing that speaks very clearly to us, this short missive from artist and zinester Austin Kleon says a lot about introversion and the quest for healing silence. It’s difficult to filter out the noise, even in lockdown. But for those of us who crave the quiet life, it’s desperately important to find that still point in the day.
https://austinkleon.com/2019/02/02/on-solitude-and-being-who-you-are/
And finally. We were saddened to hear of the passing this week of Tim Smith. His band, Cardiacs, were a singular mix of psychedelia, punk and prog who committed completely to his vision on how they presented themselves. As worker drones of the Alphabet Business Concern, Cardiacs had a dress code and musical direction that were strictly adhered to. Think a skewed English version of early Arcade Fire with more pancake makeup and gurning. That’s not right, but it’ll at least set you on the road. Tim was hit with a rare neurological illness that blighted the last ten years of his life—a tragic loss to English music. Who knows what twisted magnificence he could have wrought if he’d been at full strength in these strange times?
Our Exit Music, therefore, is in tribute to Tim and Cardiacs. Their anthem and a great starting point for anyone who wants to know more. Is This The Life? Well, there’s a question.
See you in seven.
July 17, 2020
The Cut – Issue 10
As a way to do something with our incessant lockdown-centric web browsing, it’s good to see The Cut is still providing positive and continuing creative energy. Issue 10! A whole two and a half months! We could have written a book by now! Oh well. As displacement activity goes, there are worse ways to spend our time. How this all fares when we’re dragged back to the day job is anyone’s guess. Still, here we are.
Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.
We begin with another gem from the extensive Brain Pickings archive. As Maria Popova points out, one way for women in the Victorian age to sneak sideways into the realms of science was through art. Beatrix Potter’s observational skills and analytical eye over the details of the Northumbrian landscape led to admiration from many of her peers, regardless of the whole Jemima Puddleduck side-gig. Poet Emily Dickinson also had a keen eye and an urge to catalouge the natural world. Her herbarium is a beautiful and instructional object which, as Maria points out, reflects her sensual art as well. Let’s check it out…
Fanfic has, to put it mildly, a poor reputation in the literary realm. At best, it’s porn or plagiarism. At worst, illiterate trash.
Well, that’s the story. The truth is wildly different. Fanfic writers are passionate about the characters and worlds they write about, and the communities based around them are massively supportive of the best of the work. When writers take established continuity and go wild with it, the end result can be much more fun than the canon. There is some amazing fanfic out there. Lest we forget, writers like Neil Gaiman, S. E. Hinton and the godsdamn Brontë Sisters have all dabbled in the field (yes, ok, and E.L. James). This Input piece on how fanficcers have rewritten and erased a particularly heinous trope in TV writing is an inspiration all by itself.
https://www.inputmag.com/culture/tv-lesbians-fix-it-fiction-fanfic
Get your notebooks out. We howled over this AskReddit thread on the best literary and TV insults. All your faves will be in here, but we guarantee you’ll find some new shots of absolute gold. You’ll be memeing for days off the back of this one.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/hofgi1/what_is_your_favourite_insult_from_a_book_or_show
Matthew Holness is one of our great dark iconoclasts. From comedy writer and performer to creator of the truly brilliant Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace (launchpad, lest we forget, not just of Holness but Richard Ayoade, Alice Lowe and Mmmmmmatt Berry) to author and director of work that has flirted, then snogged, then gone balls deep into horror. Haunted Generation has a long conversation with Holness, touching on subjects as diverse as Peter Cushing, Kent noir and just how long is appropriate to find a major location before filming.
(Disclosure: our Rob has a credit on Matt’s most recent feature, Possum, and is proud to claim he was the first person to ever see That Bloody Spider Thing on film).
https://hauntedgeneration.co.uk/2020/07/11/matthew-holness-possum-the-snipist-and-garth-marenghi/
As it seems mask wearing is a part of all our futures, we may as well make the most of it. Japanese tech is, as ever, at the forefront of how we relate to people outside our immediate bubbles in the future. Introducing a Bluetooth-connected mask that can display speech-to-text and probably emojis in version 2 of the software release. The possibilities are limitless—well, ok, maybe not but we think there’s a lot of fun to be had here, particularly in communicating one’s disdain at the mal-informed offcuts amongst us that believe the act of wearing a mask is giving them 5G and sending the government DNA samples.
We love The Expanse. Seriously. Best SF on the telly box at the moment. Twisty plots, brilliant SFX and characters to stan forever. Although we remain Team Drummer, we completely understand the love for Amos, the Roci’s bulldog. His deadpan delivery and ever-present simmering edge of violence makes him magnetic on screen. If we were writing fanfic, it would be about this guy (or maybe Amos and Drummer hooking up. Damn, that would be hot). The Ringer tells us more…
https://www.theringer.com/tv/2020/1/14/21064995/amos-the-expanse-amazon-prime-season-4
A couple of announcements from our friends and X&HTeam-mates. First up, our close pal Dom Wade has taken part in an interview on Cambridge Radio’s Behind The Bike Shed show to promote his doco Steel Is Real (But Carbon Is Quicker). A great intro to the film and the British cycling scene he documents so well.
https://cambridge105.co.uk/shows/behind-the-bike-shed/
Our Rob intermittently podcasts as one half of the Of Dice And Robs show on KaijuFM. It’s a show of chance, coincidence and conversation in which he and co-host Rob Maythorne use dice to choose the topics for discussion. It’s loose-limbed, easy-going and a bit nerdy, but the Robs bounce ideas off each other with an amiable charm. Worth a go? We think so.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/satan/id1456748415?i=1000484191981
This week’s Exit Music… well, there’s new Bob Mould in the world. And he’s pissed off. Which, when it comes to Bob Mould, is good news. The angrier he is, the better the music. Therefore, Forecast Of Rain (along with American Crisis, the first track from the forthcoming album (Blue Hearts, out on September 25th) which led one observer to note ‘I haven’t heard him scream this much since Zen Arcade’) is the glorious racket of a thunderhead looming. Fast and heavy, and ready to flood us all. It’s great to have him back and raging.
And that’s us. Ten weeks and counting. If you’ve been with us since the start, thank you. If you’ve joined us on the road, welcome. We plan to go coast to coast on this, then deploy the amphibious pack and hit the ocean like Roger Moore and his Lotus Esprit in The Spy Who Loved Me.
The road goes on forever. Strap in. See you in seven.
July 10, 2020
The Cut – Issue 9
We return—refreshed, rejuvenated, revived. Four nights in a field communing with nature, falling asleep to the sound of sheep (incidentally, why does sheepish describe a hesitant vocal delivery? The fleecy beasts sharing our space were proper vocal). Also, we have had actual haircuts and drunk actual pints of actual beer in actual pubs. Does this mean things are back to normal? Fukc no, don’t be silly. But for once, just for a fleeting moment, we dare to hope for a better world. With that in mind, let’s begin. Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.
The Onion has always been an exemplar of how to do online satire. Formally rigorous, delightfully sweary and always full of surprises. Many have copied them. Few have succeeded (I’d tag the UK’s own Daily Mash as a good example of the form). The venture had moved to New York a couple of months before 9/11. Their first issue on new turf would deal directly with one of the most shocking events of modern times. How they dealt with it and came up with a true classic of comedy writing is detailed below. A great piece of oral history .
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/onion-911-issue-oral-history
Corrie Corfield’s pics of BBC TV Centre before it closed in 2012 are a lovely ramble around a building that for many is deeply symbolic of British broadcasting history. Much of what we as a nation saw and listened to as part of our daily lives was made in this idiosyncratic question-mark shaped building in West London. I defy you not to get chills or at least a warm glow from some of these photos.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrie_corfield/albums/72157629853283466/
Gavin Rothery is the special effects wizard who gave Duncan Jones’ Moon much of its old-school visual flair. His first feature as writer/director, Archive, is out today and I urge you to give it a look, particularly if you’re a fan of Alex Garland’s Ex Machina. However, we’re drawn by a piece Gavin wrote back in 2011, in which he posits a theory about Blade Runner we’d genuinely never come across before. A fine example of his lovingly detailed approach to SF. We approve strongly.
http://www.gavinrothery.com/my-blog/2011/10/1/a-matter-of-electric-sheep.html
Our second deep-dive oral history of the week looks at the very long day’s work that resulted in USA For Africa’s We Are The World. An extraordinary roster of talent rolled into an LA recording studio in circumstances never before experienced. Remarkably egos were, as per the iconic sign, largely checked at the door. Hindsight leads us to questions as to how the money was spent, and we can mostly agree the song itself was not the greatest. It’s the making of the record that makes the story interesting.
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a32868751/we-are-the-world-history-interview/
Our Space Opera Correspondent writes:
I grew up reading stories of our neighboring planets, imagining the wonders we would find there. Huge canal structures on Mars. Rainforests on Venus. The writing of authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Ray Bradbury coloured my dreams in swathes of red and green. Sadly, we now know better. Mars is a desert, Venus scoured by boiling storms of methane. But there is still a school of thought that, given the money and will, we could make Venus habitable. Check out this joyful article from Nautilus, and dream with me a little.
http://nautil.us/issue/43/heroes/the-romantic-venus-we-never-knew
Let us consider the megastructure. For most of us, the primary example of the form is The Death Star. But SF is ripe with giant artificial constructs, bigger than planets, frequently built by unseen and long-vanished alien civilisations for reasons unknown. Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels are stuffed with the things. The trouble with megastructures is the way they tend to swamp the narrative with their vast unknowability. From Larry Niven’s Ringworld to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s recent novella Walking To Aldebaran, the setting has a way of swamping the story. Nevertheless, I loves me a megastructure. Tor’s overview gives us a few notes on the form.
https://www.tor.com/2020/07/03/a-brief-history-of-the-megastructure-in-science-fiction/
Who doesn’t like a big bang? We certainly do. Daily Grindhouse details some of the best explosions in movies. Plenty of great moments in here. We’d also tag the demolition of The Kremlin in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Actually, the fish tank pop in the first M:I film is top notch. Oh, and the Nostromo cooking off at the end of Alien. What are your faves, Readership?
http://dailygrindhouse.com/thewire/the-big-question-whats-your-favorite-explosion-in-a-movie/
We have been following and enjoying the work of Dan Harmon since his time as show-runner of Community (if you have not seen it, we recommend you redress that hole in your cultural knowledge base as soon as possible. Trust us, worth your time. Currently on Netflix. Harmon developed a concept he called The Story Circle as a way to easily hothouse script ideas. It’s a fiendishly clever way to navigate around the structural needs of a script which also addresses the essentially looping manner of sitcoms—ending up back where you started Having Learnt Something. The Story Circle has become so integral a part of Harmon’s hit animation Rick And Morty that it was featured as a plot device in a season three episode. Harmon explains more…
And finally. Two brilliantly crafted profiles from Vulture on a pair of our strongest, bravest and most talented British Black artists—Michaela Coel and Thandie Newton. Both have fought long and hard to get not just heard, but respected with regards to their particular talents. Both have faced obstacles which would have broken lesser mortals. Neither have allowed these obstacles to stop them. We at The Cut love them both, and we hope you do too.
https://www.vulture.com/article/thandie-newton-in-conversation.html
https://www.vulture.com/article/michaela-coel-i-may-destroy-you.html
Our Exit Music comes from the challenging and idiosyncratic John Martyn. He was a man who carried many demons with him and was not afraid to let them out to play, as a recent biography unflinchingly details. However, he was also an extraordinary musical innovator. We offer for your approval a live version of ‘Outside In’ from 1978, which highlights his use of effects, creating sounds and textures that remain influential to this day. Many artists, from The Edge to Ed Sheeran, owe a debt to John Martyn.
And that’s us. A slightly less structured, more ad-hoc slumgullion of linkery this go-round. We still have the song of the sheep ringing in our ears, and have we mentioned how great our hair looks now? Anyhoo. Stay lovely, Readership. See you in seven.
July 3, 2020
The Cut – Issue 8
Holy macaroni, it’s July! As our strangest year ever continues to take us on a voyage into uncharted territories, allow us to help you navigate your way to safe harbours, sheltering from the storms. Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.
There’s an old saw in SF circles which states “there’s nothing so dated as yesterday’s future.” It remains a constant fascination to us how so-called ‘prophetic’ works of speculative fiction got some things right and other bits not so much—call it the ‘where’s me jetpack’ conundrum. When it comes to the internet, most writers were caught off guard. John Brunner’s ‘The Shockwave Rider’ is a notable exception. Then William Gibson came along. As previously stated in The Cut, Gibson’s work is almost un-nervingly on the money, to the point where some people argue we are living through his slow apocalypse, The Jackpot.
Easy as it would be to bang on about Bill’s futurological nous, we’re here to talk about yesterday’s future—specifically the movie version of his short story Johnny Mnemonic. As a snapshot of how Hollywood began to portray cyberpunk, this CNET piece is right on the money.
https://www.cnet.com/news/when-hollywood-finally-noticed-the-web-what-it-got-right-and-oh-so-wrong/
A sidebar from the man himself…
Wasn’t me who told Robert Longo to ask for more money, but this is the best account I’ve seen of what actually happened. Though it does neglect to mention that I wrote the screenplay, sole credit. Or, rather that I wrote the screenplay that Robert Longo shot.
We love Anne Billson, film writer, author and cool cat lady. If you’re a film fan, horror buff or simply enjoy some great photos of Belgian bars and beer, she’s very much worth a follow on the socials. We approve strongly of her recent Guardian piece on movie hospitals, which moves swiftly from the proto-Carry On of the Doctor In The House flicks to Lindsey Anderson’s extraordinary state-of-the-nation work, Britannia Hospital. Ignored or vilified on its release, it’s a worryingly contemporary satire on the National Health in every sense of the word.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jun/25/what-movie-hospitals-teach-us-about-society
Blimey heck, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is ten! It’s one of those movies custom-engineered to become a cult favourite. Director Edgar Wright’s insistence on close fidelity to Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comics made it look and feel unlike any other film released at the time. In fact, to our mind, there’s still little to touch it in terms of sheer bonkers commitment to the cause. Entertainment Weekly has a highly entertaining oral history on the making of the film. Mind-boggling to see that cast list now. Scott Pilgrim was a massive rocket-boost to the careers of many of our best-loved names.
https://ew.com/movies/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world-oral-history/
Finally in the film section, we were deeply saddened to hear the news this week of Carl Reiner’s passing. One of the great talents of post-war American comedy, he’s been behind so many classic hilarious moments. From The 2000 Year Old Man to The Man With Two Brains, the world is a funnier place because of him. This touching piece on Reiner and his partner in crime Mel Brooks and their daily dinner date from The Guardian is a sweet reminder of the mind and heart of a comedy genius. So long, Carl.
Our Ninth Art Correspondent writes:
I make no apology for the aggressive nerdery of this bit. The late 80s was a boom time for all sorts of experimentation in the English-language comics form. Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, even the scrappy indie scene that brought us Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Elfquest—to my mind, as a reader growing up with his nose in the racks of Forbidden Planet in Denmark Street (yes, I’m that old) this was a golden age.
One title people seem to have forgotten, or choose to, is Dave Sim’s Cerebus. Starting as a funny-animal satire on creaky old fantasy tropes (Cerebus was an aardvark who dressed like Barry Windsor-Smith’s version of Conan the Barbarian), the book quickly evolved into a free-wheeling treatise on anything Sim had on his mind. His take on gender politics in particular was mature and inclusive.
Until it suddenly wasn’t. In a series of text pieces scattered through later books that devolved into bizarre rants, he flipped the discourse into a foul torrent of bug-eyed misogyny. In the course of a few issues, he lost both respect and audience. But Sim doubled down, and the book became ever more furious at what Sim saw as anti-male bias. Cerebus quietly ended in 2004, and Sim has published little since.
John Roberson’s article on Medium digs hard into the change in Sim’s narrative, taking as background Sim’s most effective story arc—Jaka’s Story. It’s a long read, but seriously worth it if you’re as much of a comics nut as me.
Welcome to the ‘not sure where this fits so we’ll put it here’ section of The Cut. We really enjoyed this long read from Unherd on sex imbalance, the growth of so-called ‘incels’ and how this sort of thing has been going on for a lot longer than we might have thought. To be brutally honest, though, we’re largely including it because of the (era-appropriate?) mis-spelling of the word ‘Viking’. Our Rob is getting ideas now. For gods’ sake, someone hide that horned helmet.
https://unherd.com/2020/06/incels-could-become-the-new-vikings/
Some really interesting discussion is going on in the food writing world right now, following the implosion of Bon Appetit over issues of race and misappropriation of recipes. In short, it comes down to a simple question—why are the people best positioned to talk about and showcase a particular country or region’s cuisine not given the chance to do so? BA’s Research Director Joey Hernandez posted on how the beleaguered site hopes to do better and lose the white-bread versions of food heritage here.
In the same vein, the increasingly essential Vittles newsletter takes on the challenge and runs with it. Lara Lee’s passionate and evocative piece on the varied flavours of Indonesian sambal puts you very much in the company of an expert. She stirs in her personal history with the condiment, adds a dash of geopolitics and finishes with a triumphant swirl of a recipe for tomato sambal. We felt both hungry and ready to cook at the end of it—surely a mark of really good food writing.
https://vittles.substack.com/p/vittles-216-sambal
We try to big up our friends in their new ventures when we can, so it’s a pleasure to bring the new venture by old friend of the site Keith Eyes to your attention. Home Media Minefield looks at the different versions of a film that are available to bring to light the hidden extras and extra-value items you might not have realised were part of the package! Keith is a charming and knowledgeable host, and we again felt like we were in good hands. He’s four eps in, and skewing towards Star Trek movies in the current run. Trust us when we say he really does know what he’s talking about.
The whole channel is available here- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-y3zQyTMIWFt-LJ6YdkR5w
We were drawn to this video essay on modern ska—or rather the practice whereby some punk bands are adding a jaunty brass section to their lineup and calling themselves ska. Inevitably the situation is a lot more complex. And yes, we’re still talking about cultural misappropriation, which is always going to be a part of the conversation when we consider that rock and roll, jazz and the blues all came out of the Black experience. Obvious, really, innit? Anyway this is solid, thoughtful music criticism. Worth seeking out the Ska Britannia doco that gets heavily quoted in the piece as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Ad02QGNes
I’m spoiling you with this week’s End Music, by sharing two clips. Firstly a blast of Aussie punk from The Saints. These guys were real trailblazers, issuing the punk clarion call early enough to spook Malcolm McLaren. He rushed the Sex Pistols into the nearest studio upon hearing ‘I’m Stranded’, fearing he was about to be beaten to the punch. In fact, the track was released several weeks previously, but The Saints didn’t have the image or the clothing to ping the radar of an outrage-ready press in the way the Pistols did. ‘Stranded’ feels like the missing link between Iggy, The New York Dolls and the sneer of Rotten and co—lyrically bleak, musically both blunt and sharp. Who’s up for a pogo?
And finally. Michael Stipe has been quietly releasing new music for a couple of months. This collaboration with Big Red Machine’s Anton Dessner feels very much of it’s time. Sad, yearning yet hopeful, it has the legs to become a theme for the year. Great to have you back, Stipey. Readership, please to enjoy ‘No Time For Love Like Now.’
Time to end transmission. Expect a truncated edition of The Cut next week as we celebrate the gradual reopening of the country with a staff retreat somewhere in a field in Hampshire, awlright. There will be yoga, yurts and yoghurt. We’ll be like different people at the end of it.
See you in seven.
June 30, 2020
Skin, Bone, Fat And Dust
I am a terrible foodie.
No, let’s walk that back a little. I am a terrible omnivore. I have well-documented issues with eggs in particular, and the whole gelid, fatty range of food textures in general. I refer to this range of sensation as flob and wobble. Under-done rind on bacon, or any animal fat that’s not very well rendered. Hotel mushrooms. Raw oysters.
You get the picture.
This is not an allergy thing. The only intolerance I have to flob and wobble is that it won’t go past my soft palette without making a swift exit, occasionally through my nasal passages.
All of which, according to some food writers, makes me a poor version of a food aficionado. I am, in short, cutting myself away from a huge range of sensory experience, including a great swathe of regional and classical Chinese cuisine.
No less an expert on this food culture than Fuchsia Dunlop notes:
One of the great barriers to outsiders’ appreciation of Chinese food is the Chinese love of textures that others consider revolting, as I’ve written before: the slimy, slithery, bouncy and rubbery; the wet crispness of gristle; the brisk snappiness of goose intestines…
Yep, I can feel my throat closing as my gorge rises right there. Intellectually I understand there’s more going on in the wide world of cuisine than my body will allow me to experience. Physically I am incapable of indulging in said experience. Gristle and goose intestines simply won’t go down. Believe me, I’ve tried. I’d probably starve to death in rural China.
No, of course I wouldn’t. But would I be having a good time if flavourless flob and wobble was all there was on offer? That’s more open to debate. I’d probably just stick to rice, thanks.
Let’s walk back a little further. Once, when I was fresh of face and straight of spine, I spent my student years in Bournemouth. My college had no halls of residence. Instead, we young innocents were farmed out to local B&Bs and hotels, who needed money during the off seasons. Part of their contract was to feed and water us. The budget for doing so was, to put it mildly, limited. As was the menu. Our hosts did their best, but had about eight meals on their repertoire, which were strictly rotated.
On Sundays, we got pork belly. Always. And this was not slow-roasted, crisp-skinned pork belly. This was, I think, boiled. It landed on the plate as a sad, grey, gelatinous lump, with a tiny eye of meat peeking out from under a thick cloak of fat. It looked like a section of car tyre coated in lard. The collapsing potatoes (boiled in the same pan as the meat, I think) and army-fatigue-green cabbage served alongside were a feast by comparison. The memory of it haunts me still. I’m convinced that meal, the very epitome of flob and wobble, was a deciding factor in the ten years of vegetarianism I embraced in the nineties.
Yeah, I know, hardly Proustian, but it evokes a reaction. Mild nausea, mostly.
I’m less precious about this than I used to be. I can now sit in the same room as TLC while she eats scrambled egg, which used to be a complete no-no. But avoiding that deal-busting squidginess has become a culinary challenge for me. Fat, after all, equals flavour. If I can hang onto the taste while losing the texture, then mission bloody accomplished.
Which brings us to skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs. The cook’s favourite cut for everything from fakeaway-KFC to currys, braises and stir-fries. Cheaper and much more tasty than breast-meat. I’ve learned to bone them out with a small sharp knife (these go in a freezer bag for eventual stock creation). If I’m keeping the thighs whole for a quick dinner, skin-side down in a hot pan until the flob renders down golden and crispy is a good move. But we can do better.
Take the skins off, lay them flat in a solid baking tray and cook in a medium oven until the little blighters are the colour and texture of a prawn cracker. Maybe 180 degrees for 15 minutes? Keep an eye on them. Once the kitchen smells like roast chicken you’re most of the way there. Eat ‘em as a snack. Perch ‘em on top of a chickeny stew like a slice of melba toast.
Or go for the true boss move and make magic dust.
Dry some thinly-sliced mushrooms in a cool oven for the same amount of time as the skins—drop the temp to about 110, I’d say. Check ‘em after 20 minutes, they may need a little more time. Once you can snap one in half like a Quaver, blitz the shrooms and the skins together with a little salt and perhaps some dry thyme. The mixture will be like damp sand—that’s the fat in the skins. It will change and dry out a bit over time.
Magic dust is umami gunpowder. A pinch will do the job of an Oxo cube and two shakes of the Lee and Perrin bottle, while adding a distinct otherworldly funk and twang. Shake it over chips or popcorn. Rub it on a steak or some ribs. Stir into a burger mix. I make a lentil and nut patty that’s pure fire once the magic dust goes in. Yes, I know the dust isn’t veggie. Neither am I.
That’s how I like my fat, Readership. All the flavour. None of the texture.
My tolerance for flob and wobble remains limited. But that’s OK. I may be a terrible foodie. But I know what I like.
June 26, 2020
The Cut – Issue 7
We’ve had better weeks. Reading, our home town, was subject to an event now described as terrorist action. Three people died as a result. We are horrified, but not terrorised. We stand with all our friends and neighbours in this oddball place we call home, and look forward to seeing everyone in Forbury Gardens very, very soon.
I wrote in more detail about the whole thing earlier in the week–https://excusesandhalftruths.com/2020/06/23/the-lion/
We love you, Dingtown.
With that in mind, I’m intent on sharing the late Dame Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again. No, not that one. The version we all know and played on a loop over VE Day is a re-recording made with a full orchestra and chorus in 1953. The original 1939 track is a much more spare, almost melancholy take on the song, featuring simply Vera and musical pioneer Arthur Young on the Novochord–an early form of synthesiser. So a prototype of the model Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke would take up as Yazoo. Anyway. This has an eerie charm. Kinda suits our mood. Keep smilin’ through.
Let’s stick with music, as we’re already half in that mode. Yacht Rock has been around since the late seventies, but only really found a true identity in the last few years. As our pals at Mental Floss discovered, it only really developed as a musical genre following a documentary figuring out the style and how it differs from the broader church of soft rock. If you’re nerdy about your music, you’re in for a treat. See you at the marina!
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/624635/yacht-rock-music-resurgence
In our final music link, we bid a fond farewell to a noisy band who made a very quiet exit–Boston’s own Mission Of Burma. Massively influential on the grunge scene, they couldn’t turn reputation into renumeration, and simply decided after not playing for years to call it and go. They came, they went, they made a glorious racket along the way. Moby did a version of their anthemic ‘That’s When I Reach For My Revolver’. We choose not to hold that against them.
https://www.wbur.org/artery/2020/06/19/adieu-to-boston-post-punk-band-mission-of-burma
Meanwhile, over in Culture Corner, we bear worrying news from the comics world. Many museums and galleries are suffering through 2020, with no revenue to speak of. The Cartoon Museum, which moved to new premises last year on the crest of a wave of increased footfall and critical acclaim, is feeling The Situation very keenly indeed. They are now desperate for funds to make it through the year. It would be a damn shame for the Cartoon Museum to shutter. As one of the few sites giving proper cultural scrutiny and celebration to The Ninth Art, it should be protected. Down The Tubes has more…
https://downthetubes.net/?p=119016
This Vice piece on The Open Book Project, dating back to September last year, popped up on r/books on Reddit and was just as quickly pulled for reasons the mods didn’t make clear. It’s an interesting idea, taking as its core principle the notion that Amazon, Kobo et al can pull the books you bought from your device at any time. Effectively, we lease rather than buy them. A very good point. There is a counter argument of open-source readers being an easy vector to use and enjoy pirated content, which is again kinda fair. All of which doesn’t help the fact, at the time of writing, that the Open Book Project remains a proof of concept rather than an actual object you can sit with and read. Which really is a shame.
There are people out there gleefully feeding great libraries of content into the hungry minds of nascent AIs to see what they come up with. Those of us with an SFnal imagination view this in the same way as feeding alligators human blood to see if they like the taste, but hey, that’s just us. We recommend looking at Janelle Shane’s work on the area via her AI Wierdness blog and newsletter, which is equal parts hilarious and un-nerving.
Stranger is yet to come. The character who presents him/her/it/ytself as Shardcore also has form in this area. Yts latest prank is to feed a GPT2 instance with the collected works of Charles M. Shultz. The results are incomprehensible, but strangely familiar. Welcome to the uncanny valley, in other words. Shardcore’s accompanying piece is hugely insightful on why this sort of work is important, and what it means in the face of fake news, deepfakes and indeed for the history and future of appropriation and attribution in art. Remix culture just got a little more complicated.
http://www.shardcore.org/shardpress2019/2020/06/17/algonuts/
Just the one film link this week, but it’s a goody. Writer and critic Sheila O’Malley takes a deep dive into the role costume plays in film narrative. In particular the films of Walter Hill with, we’re delighted to note, special focus on his masterwork, Streets Of Fire. (for more on why we love this film so much, may we point you at the Streets Of Fire episode of our old podcast The A To Z Of SFF?) As ever with us, it’s a geeky swerve but well worth your time.
http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=158661
Because we are nothing but consummate professionals, we now do a side step into the kitchen via the announcement of some food theatre. Restaurants have always had an element of the theatrical to them–the aniticipation, the reveal, the hit to the wallet–and dinner shows are very definitely a thing (there’s one just down the road from CutHQ, The Mill At Sonning). Now, one of our all-time favourite food writers, Nigel Slater has announced a new online version of his autobiographical play Toast, to be performed in July by the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield. Each ticket will come with a programme, recipe card and, delightfully, two Walnut Whips! This looks like a fun excuse for a night in… not that we need one right now, right?
https://www.thelbt.org/shows/nigel-slaters-toast-2/
We also stan hard for Gabrielle Hamilton, chef-proprietor of New York restaurant and memory palace Prune. She’s writing some beautiful pieces for the NY Times while she can’t open to customers. This, on the enduring power of the humble chip, is moving and funny and speaks equally of family and the ever-present worry that comes along with being a parent. There’s also a recipe for the best-looking fries I’ve ever seen. Hard work, but totally worth it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/magazine/homemade-french-fries-kids.html
And finally, a little housekeeping. If, like us, you’re a fan of email newsletters, we’re now happy to give you the option to sign up and have your weekly fix hit your inbox on a Friday morning.
You can either sign up with the form in the sidebar to the left, which will give you notifications every time we land a post on Excuses And Half Truths. If you prefer to just get The Cut, we now have a presence on Substack, an email newsletter service. Click below and follow the instructions. Hope you can join us!
Join The Cut On substack
Our Exit Music this week is dedicated to all the good people of our home town. Rob was talking prog on his Twitter feed last week (which you can also check via the sidebar–man, we know how to spoil you lot) which brings us naturally to our personal favourite, Yes. Recorded in 1973 at the height of their batwing-sleeved, wizard-cloaked magnificence, we consider I’ve Seen All Good People to be a prime expression of joy and togetherness.
See you in seven.
June 23, 2020
The Lion
It was the headline in The New York Times that finally brought the situation home to me. ‘UK Terror Attack.’ A phrase I’d heard plenty of times before. The London bombings of 7/7. Manchester. The nail-bomb in the bar of the Admiral Duncan in Soho. This one is different. This one strikes closer to home.
On Saturday 20th June, the eve of summer solstice, an individual who will remain un-named here walked into Forbury Gardens, the park in the centre of Reading, screamed something incomprehensible and began attacking people. As a result of his actions, three people are dead.
I find it difficult even now to describe the sick horror I felt as the news unfolded live on social networks. From the reports of police and air ambulance at the scene, to speculation as to the motives of the killer, to video unwisely and unthoughtfully shared. This would have been wrong anywhere. But it happened in my home town, in a place I know well. A place where people always gathered to enjoy a little quiet time in a peaceful green space.
How are you supposed to react when violence descends so suddenly? Anger, sadness, despair, helplessness—all of these are valid in the face of an act most of us would consider to be unthinkable. I went through the lot in the hours after the unnamed individual was arrested. We hear terrible news every day. Death in every costume is a part of the news cycle. We scroll through it and move on. It’s part of the pattern of modern life.
Then something happens in a local park and you can’t just scroll past. The pattern disrupts. The sense of order slides to the side and away from you. The place where you hung with friends in hazy summer sunshine is a crime scene—worse, the site of terrorist action. How do you find a way back from that?
Short answer—one day at a time, one step at a time. Right now, the people of Reading are grieving. We have lost people, friends and family. We’re in the news for all the wrong reasons. Today, we’re not the quiet, slightly eccentric Thames Valley town with the music festival and the reputation for biscuits. We’re a place of interest, somewhere of which Questions Are Being Asked and Lessons Are Being Learnt. There are, gods help us, agendas in play. Strange, flawed lenses are directed our way now, and the image they project is not one of a place I easily recognize.
Because this is my town. I wasn’t born here, I don’t have the burred Reddin’ accent. But I view it as my home, more so than I ever did of the corner of East London where I was born. It feels right to me, and has done since TLC and I first drove here to look at houses in 2004. We stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn just over Caversham Bridge. We had a drink at the Fox and Hounds back across Christchurch Meadows, my first beer in Reading. We have made friends and a life here.
I know my town. And I know how strong the people who live here can be. I already see the evidence, as we quietly come together (as best we can in these skewed, uncertain times) to find comfort and strength against a terrible moment, a mark in our calendar we will remember in our own way.
We have a symbol now, a muster point to gather when the time is right. Of course, it’s in Forbury Gardens, because no fucker takes that from us. The Maiwand Lion, that absurd and magnificent statue roaring at the world, has become the image of our stance against violence and terror. And of our town. The biggest in the country. Our warm and welcoming town. In Canada they call it the center of the world, because all the trains seem to come through us. That makes me smile, because in a way it’s true. The world comes through us, and some of it stays behind, adding another hint of colour. That’s part of our strength too.
All my heart goes out to the victims of Saturday’s awful events. I know nothing I can say can help, but I stand with you. For the rest of us, to my town, I know we have the spirit and character to mourn and carry this with us, to make it part of who are and what we stand for. The sun is still out, and we will soon be back in Forbury Gardens, every one of us a lion.
It would be a failure on my part not to include a link to the most thoughtful and nuanced piece on the events I’ve read to date. It’s a very Reading thing that it comes from a writer better known for snarky local pub reviews and general shit-stirring.
https://shitandnotshitthingsinreading.com/2020/06/22/fear-and-forbury-gardens-reading-in-recovery/
Correction: an earlier version of this post noted New Zealand considered Reading to be the centre of the world. According to our commentator ClareVision, it is Canada that views us as the UK transport hub. We apologise for the misinformation.
June 19, 2020
The Cut – Issue 6
Another week down. The shops reopened, but frankly we’re happy behind the walls of our compound, letting all the goodies we need come to us. Queueing, we have decided, is not our bag. We may never shop in the old-fashioned way again. Anyway. Let’s do this. Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.
We’ll start with some rotten news so as to get it out of the way. Comics Twitter has rung this week with multiple accusations of predatory behaviour levelled at creators Cameron Stewart and Warren Ellis. Ellis in particular has long been a favourite at Excuses And Half Truths, so this news stings hard. Neither have yet addressed the accusations directly, although Ellis’ primary comms vector is his email newsletter that lands on Sundays. Should make for an interesting read if it arrives. Our stance at The Cut is clear—we stand with, believe and support the women in these cases.
More on the situation from comics retailer Mike Sterling of Progressive Ruin: https://www.progressiveruin.com/2020/06/18/buy-a-cd-said-the-guy-obviously-in-his-50s/
Ugh, that was depressing. Let’s move on. A few years ago, one of X&HT mainstay Rob’s side hustles was writing a blog on ethical fashion. Those of you that have met him and see the way he dresses may be surprised by that. Although he hung up his on-trend writing cloak a while back, our news feeds still tickle with the occasional tip from fashion land. This piece, on the way That Darn Situation has affected the business and will likely complete upend its traditional business structures, is fascinating and speaks to the one big truth we’re all facing—everything is changing, and faster than we can possibly imagine.
Talking of change, the sudden uproot and dunk of Edward Colston’s statue earlier in the month continues to resonate in all sorts of unexpected ways. Our engagement with public artworks has flipped as we discuss and try to contextualise them in ways we would not have considered before. Colston has long been a divisive figure in Bristol’s history—the music venue named after him has been planning to change its name for years, so perhaps we should not have been surprised when the bronze hit the water. Here’s a slightly different interpretation on events from The Quietus, viewing the whole incident and its aftermath as a work of art in its own right.
https://thequietus.com/articles/28402-colston-statue-bristol-essay
The video of the week has to be this extraordinary lockdown version of Alien. The invention and lateral thinking that has gone into the set and creature design is simply jaw-dropping. The end result gives a real sense of the original while having it’s own identity. This cheered us up enormously.
We have long been fans of animator Richard Williams. The Readership probably know him best as the mastermind who melded live-action and animation in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. His magnum opus, however, was The Thief And The Cobbler, which remained unfinished at the time of his death. Comic Book Resources takes a deep dive into the history of the project, and a glimpse of what might have been.
https://www.cbr.com/the-thief-and-the-cobbler-tragic-tale-of-unfinished-masterpiece/
A couple of foodie things. This love letter to London wine bar and restaurant 40 Maltby St came to us courtesy of @smugfacelazybones on the Twitter. It’s just the sort of elegiac and evocative food writing we really enjoy. We also recommend signing up for the Vittles newsletter. Some really tasty stuff awaits you.
https://medium.com/@vittles/menu-12-vh-18-9067201d0db9
We also thoroughly enjoyed this Eater video in which chef Nyesha Arrington was challenged to come up with Tacos two ways from the ingredients and materials in her home kitchen. Watching a skilled cook problem-solve and retrofit a recipe is endlessly fascinating to us, and the food Nyesha eventually produces looks so, so good. We were entranced, helped no end by chef Arrington’s engaging and easy camera presence. We think you’ll dig it.
Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings is a great source of thoughtful and insightful essays on art and culture. We have lost days in her archive. This piece on the love letters of Moomin-mamma Tove Jansson is lovely, having something of the atmosphere of the books. Bracing, ethereal and slightly melancholy. Suits the mood of Situation-World, don’t ya think?
https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/06/12/tove-jansson-letters-tuulikki-pietila/
And finally. In a screeching doughnut-turn of tone, we were cheered by this set of interviews with the people behind and sometimes inside some of our best-loved TV puppets. Sadly it’s missing the most surreal of them all, Gilbert The Alien, but this is still a lovely wander round some sweet memories of Saturday morning and weekday afternoon telly.
This week’s End Music features Washington sludge-monsters Melvins. Their first TV appearance in 1995 shows them in typically noisy, snarky form, running rings round a hapless interviewer before melting the front row with a caustic blast of grungery. Volume to eleven for this one, please. Further context via Dangerous Minds: https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_melvins_mind-melting_first_ever_television_appearance
Here endeth the japery. It’s been a weird, slightly sad week for us, with occasional bright spots. We hope yours has been better. Thanks as ever for joining us here at the coalface of the information mines. See you in seven.
