Normal(ish) services will resume soon.
So yeah, it's been a while, but here we are.
Maybe absence made the heart grow fonder.
Some movies have been seen, some television shows too, some music has been listened to, some books read, but leaving the confines of Castle Droog has not been a thing.
That will change soon as there's a few gigs coming up, and maybe the Odeon chain will let us use the guest passes they gave us at some point, but more about that later.
For now. Let's get into the music first.
Right now, right this very minute in time, the new album from Alice Cooper is playing.
Off the bat it aint too bad at all. There has already been some negative mutterings, but you wouldn't be going out on a limb in saying it is better than Welcome 2 my Nightmare.
Maybe some of the naysayers should give it a few days to bed in before sharpening the knives.
It's less cartoonish than w2mn for certain, a bit more old school too.
If you call yourself a fan and have all the studio albums then this could fit in with the early eighties material. Pre Constrictor anyway. The hair metal sheen is stripped away and Paranormal sounds all the better for that.
A review will follow at some point, but for now you can do the old try before you buy thing on Spotify.
All the latest gig news is here too. Clickety click.
Hmmmm. And what else has been flittering about?
The news that Eureka Machines are going to be recording another album made our week. Add in that there will be an anniversary double album release to coincide with the new material and excitement levels have hit defocon one.
Is there any doubt that it will all be fantastic? Nope. None at all.
For the uninitiated Eureka Machines are the greatest band that you have never heard of.
The latest album from CJ Wildheart is available to pledge for just now.
Robot hit the spot and there is no reason why Blood will fail to do likewise.
Apparently it is a bit rawer, a bit more of a punk blast.
That better be a promise.
Kiss it certainly has the energy levels set high enough to indicate that all promises will be delivered on.
You can pledge here.
As for movies we finally managed to see Spider- Man: Homecoming.
I say finally as there had been a few issues.
Not being one to officially complain about anything, and instead preferring to just moan ineffectual about things, I finally bit the bullet and sent a strongly worded email to the Odeon chain about an incident in our local theatre.
The intent was to get an acknowledgment from them that they messed up, but as well as an apology they sent a couple of guest passes.
No issue at all about that. Happy smiley faces all round.
Until we went to use them.
There was some small print, but like much small print it had went unnoticed.
We were slightly miffed, but you roll with that sort of thing.
On our return a few days later the cost of tickets had been jacked up as it was the school holidays.
Again it is mentioned, but lower down on their page online. Not really emblazoned at the top of the page.
By then I was starting to think that their apology and tickets were a hollow gesture.
Here's some tickets for you mate, but you can only use them for certain films at certain times.
As I was with my daughter I bit the bullet and payed the extra, but since then I've looked to see what else I could use these magical passes for. War for the Planet of the Apes seemed a good option, but I can only use them once the film comes off the suspended list.
Which is the same day as it leaves the local cinema.
Great. Just fuckin' great.
It was good. Very good. Tom Holland has taken the teenage Peter Parker and brought him to life. The character has jumped fully formed from the pages of the comic for the very first time. The Avengers movie only really hinted at this, but here he is in all his teenage glory.
Michael Keaton is a fantastic Vulture too, and over all the cast do a great job of this.
The story is solid enough for a super hero movie and for sheer escapist fun for the summer holidays the kids will love it and will all come away from the cinema wanting to swing from building to building.
So far so good.
The downside is that some of the CGI seemed a bit clunky. For a movie which is a part of an eye watering financial commitment to a franchise it just seemed to fall short of what was expected.
A minor complaint, and similarly not a huge issue either, but the cast of Peter Parker's peers appeared to be drawn from a UN meeting.
Flash as an entitled asian kid just seems to be pandering to a pc world.
That comment will of course draw some criticism, but if the original source was an asian kid then I would have been happy to see that unchanged, but he wasn't. Flash is a white musclebound jock. A walking talking stereotype.
That's who I wanted to see in the same vein as how I don't want to see a white Black Panther or a black Tony Stark.
Why not create a brand new stand alone asian character?
I'm a supporter of diversity, but I don't see the need for it to usurp the race and gender of characters that already exist.
A female Dr Who? Bring it on. A black 007? Not a problem.
One is a regenerating alien and the other is a code name. In context they work.
It just felt that it was being forced.
Young kids will fail to pick up on this, but like so many films just now it sometimes feels that it has less to do with promoting diversity and creating a movie that will appeal to the widest demographic.
Did they cast him with inclusiveness in mind, or to tick off a box? Who knows, but I found myself thinking about it when I should have been concentrating on Vulture getting his wings clipped.
The Big Sick was the Screen Unseen deal for this month and it's recommended that you do go an see it.
The movie isn't out to deliver a laugh out loud comedy experience, but instead takes a wry overview of relationships and the cultural difficulties that lie in the path of true love.
It's a gentle comedy, but it doesn't pull the punches when addressing the east meets west issues of romance. Call it a date movie for people who aren't morons.
Ooft. Again some offence might come from saying that. Offence by proxy as morons certainly will not have got as far into this rambling update.
And then there's the television shows.
The best that has debuted has been The Mist.
Taking the critically acclaimed movie - which was an adaptation of a Stephen King story - as the source material the makers of this have done a fantastic job in what is basically expanding on it.
With the luxury of spreading it over multiple hours they have been able to flesh out the characters and broaden the story arc without sacrificing any of the pacing.
It is this sort of show that illustrates why so many people are turning away from the cinema.
Within that format no one really wants to sit for over three hours, but some stories deserve to be told over a much longer period, and that's where the bite sized episodes come in.
An hour at a time at our leisure works.
That's not to say that the 90 to 120 mins movies haven't got their place, but if the story is focused on first and foremost then that should dictate whether it is ultimately told in the cinema or on the small screen.
More of this please.
And of course Game of Thrones is back. Suck it all you tits and dragons haters. :)
And that's your lot for just now.
I told you it was going to be rambling.
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