The Swipe Volume 2 Chapter 1
Soggy New Year! 2024 has begun with All The Weather, storms rolling across Britain in a violent attempt to scour humanity off the land. My daily commute through the picturesque Thameside village of Sonning has tested the car’s amphibious capability to the limit. Your thoughts and prayers please for Sonning resident George Clooney, whose £12m mansion has several new unexpected swimming pools. Snow next week, apparently. Say what you like about climate change, it keeps things interesting. It gives TLC and I another excuse to hunker down and work on the huge backlog of snacks and treats left over from Christmas. Another slice of pannetone? Don’t mind if I do!
Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to the 2024 volume of The Swipe.
Rob is reading…
The Devil In The Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson. This is a title which may be familiar to members of The Readership who haunt second hand bookshops. It’s one of those regulars, a book which everyone recommended, read and passed on. If you see a cheap copy, snap it up. A taut atmospheric tale of murder and treachery set in London’s most notorious debtor’s prisons in the mid-eighteenth century, it’s a quick read but highly diverting. Samual Fleet, an intriguing mix of Sherlock Holmes and Loki is the stand-out character, much more interesting than the bland curate-turned-rake hero.
Rob is watching…
The Taskmaster New Year Treat. You all know of my love for the show, but the 2024 opener took things to a whole new level. It shows off a brilliant choice of contestants who really stepped up to the mark and allowed their silly sides out. Greg seemed to have the time of his life. It’s sweet, hilarious and giddy with the joy of madcap invention. Honestly, even if you’ve never watched the show before, an hour spent in the Taskmaster’s company will cheer you up no end.
Rob is listening…
to Mdou Moctar, A Touareg guitarist based in Niger, whose music is one of those regular reminders that the blues is older and much more universal than we think. There are elements of psych rock in here too. You can sense an ancient vein of tradition threading through the music, an unspoken history we all instinctively understand.
Rob is eating…
Yorkies. Strangely, we didn’t get any with Christmas dinner this year (it was a slightly stripped back affair and all the nicer for it) but I now have a hankering for the crunchy puffiness. Kenji Lopez-Alt does the lord’s work in cutting some of the myths and legends around the creation of the perfect yorkie down to size. I feel a toad-in-the-hole coming on. I have a ton of pigs in blankets in the freezer…
Rob’s Low-Key Obsession Of The Week…
Motion Extraction. Just watch the video and prepare to have your little minds blown.
I am happy to debunk any rumours of paranormal activity in the former home of one of my favourite authors. I reckon the place is haunted, though, if only by the benign and positive energy Kurt left behind.
Kurt Vonnegut’s House Is Not Haunted
Tegan O’Neil’s review of the first edition of the collected Nemesis The Warlock totally nails the weird, wild anarchic vibe of the comic. Remember, this stuff was being pumped out weekly to impressionable kids like, erm, me. I was 10 when 2000AD first hit the newsagents. I snagged issue 2 and never looked back. Nemesis is part of my cultural makeup. CREDO!
In our regular look at How Comics Do It Better, Josh Neufeld explores the use of graphic works in medical education. Specifically, how doctors and patients can communicate more effectively with each other, helping with accurate diagnoses and, ultimately, a better experience for everyone. It’s not just bang pow zoom, you know.
A deep dive into the creation of a brilliant opening sequence for a brilliant film—the crash of the colony ship Hunter Gratzner in Pitch Black. The art and craft and graft that went into this two-minute sequence is astonishing.
The Fall Of The Hunter Gratzner
Everyone knows about Anne Frank, and rightfully so. Curt Bloch, another of the thousands of Jews hidden from the Nazis during the occupation of the Netherlands, didn’t just write diaries. He put out 95 issues of a satirical poetry magazine!
Kissas—Japanese jazz bars—are a fascinating example for a culture I can only really explain in terms of the English version. That would be the shed at the bottom of the garden to which the man of the house retreats to get some me time. Kissas seem a little forbidding, very male, properly geeky. I can’t see them as female-friendly spaces, but then maybe a guy just needs a moment with an obscure hard bop album and a glass of beer every so often…
Michael Gerber digs into the current Nazi issue rumbling around Substack and how, sometimes, pointed satire just isn’t the right tool for the job. I think the ‘Stack’s stance on ‘free speech’ is wrong-headed, but speaks to the essential truth behind the platform—controversy sells. Expect to see a sideways shift from some of your favourite writers, perhaps back to a self-built online space.
Defector, for the fourth year running, offers a run-down of medical emergencies that offer up a whole other set of questions. Full transparency—I was on the floor in a knot of giggles by the end of the list, which starts at the top and works down.
Did The Splits Near A Screwdriver
I wince whenever a celebrity airily announces they’ve written a children’s book. As if it’s the easiest thing in the world. They’re largely ghost-written, tossed off as another marketing opportunity, a waste of everyone’s time. Let’s not mention the nasty, spiteful work of David Walliams who has somehow taken all the ugliest bits of Roald Dahl’s output and amplified them. If I was a parent I wouldn’t let his books in the house. Look, writing for kids is hard. They are a tough audience who deserve the best. There are many great writers working in the field. Choose wisely and build the love of books into your little monsters. Which brings me to the magical moment in the middle of The Wind In Willows when Ratty and Mole meet a god. I’d like to see Ben Miller pull that off.
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Last up, this roundtable discussion featuring some of our best modern songwriters is stuffed full with insights into creativity and craft. It takes a little while to get going but as the writers take control of the conversation, the whole thing takes flight. Take the hour and enjoy.
Let’s Outro with Richard Hawley, playing a live set in support of his new greatest hits package in his local. Hawley, like Mdou Moctar, channels a deep river of musical history, singing songs which feel timeless, plucked from the thick air of pub smoke and factory chimney and knitted into a warm hug. You know these songs, even if you don’t.
See you in seven, fellow travellers.
