Un-On Demanding

The Seventeenth of April Two Thousand and Fourteen. Maundy Thursday.

Just a quick update for the lovers of irony out there (and when I say 'irony', I mean it in the same way that Alannis Morrisette does, which is to say it's not really irony but it almost sounds as if it might be and until they come up with a word that means 'near-irony' I'm going to say 'irony'. I mean, you could argue that there's nothing wrong with saying 'near-irony', but you can't really have near-irony, can you? So they need a word for that thing that would be near-irony if there was such a thing). After making a big fuss about how my viewing habits were tending toward streaming here, circumstance has conspired to return my telly-watching to something like it was when I was a boy.

Maybe it's when you reach a certain age, you start to revisit themes and ideas you'd long since abandoned. I buy most of my comics digitally now, but with a few shops having 50p boxes with titles from a year or more ago I've returned to making more eclectic purchases. Do any Manchesterfordians here remember the name of that second hand bookshop on Peter St? I used to rifle through the comic boxes there and find all manner of nonsense, from the 60s and 70s (this was in the 80s) in there. I'd buy whatever I fancied, rather than following a particular writer or artist. I feel I've recaptured some of that reckless excitement when I root through the bargain boxes now. An hour or so flicking through them all and pocketing stuff that catches your eye. At ten bob a throw you can't go wrong. The search is part of the enjoyment.

I actually had this telly!

And now I find I'm going back to those heady pre remote control days with my TV viewing. I found out that my Nineteenth Telly Recommendation, Community is having its fifth season shown on the Sony channel here in the UK. Now I don't have any access to Sky or Virgin (but if you do, tune in. They're showing older episodes at teatime and the new series is on at 10 on Thursdays) but me Mam and Dad do. And since they're not bothered about using Virgin TV Anywhere on their mobile device of choice, they've let me log on to this service so that I can watch the Sony channel and catch up with it! However, since I'm not connected to all their Tivo gubbins I can only live stream channels. In other words, I have to make sure I'm not doing anything when the programme airs and have that one and only chance to watch it. In order to fully recreate the TV watching experience of my teens I intend to make up a cup of tea during the ad break and come back too late so I miss the first two minutes of the second half. I wonder how long it will take before the novelty wears off?

I'm guessing just the one episode.

More soonliest.

Staycation Breakfast Blog 02 - Rendezvous Café

The Sixth of August Two Thousand and Twelve. Monday.

Hello. Just popping in to show you a picture of my breakfast. Here it is:

This was at the Rendezvous Café here in Scarborough on the corner of Westborough and Northway.

You get exactly what you pay for at the Rendezvous. It's not the best food in the world, but it's unfussy. In my veggie fried breakfast I want sausages, hash browns and egg and that's exactly what I got here.

I had the good fortune to live with a bus driver for some years and back when she worked full time if she ordered jam and toast while she was in uniform she (and any hangers-on) would get a discount.

They also do a very good nut roast dinner (three scoops of mash!) and I'll probably have a go at that sometime in the hols, probably after the exertions of next week.

So yesterday was comics day and it went something like this:

Started off with the reprint of Incredible Hercules 138 and 139 from Mighty World of Marvel.

More Hercules in Chaos War 5 (the end of Greg Pak and Frank Van Lente's superb run of Hercules stories - funny, clever and with a very dry line in sound effects...

Along with Heroes for Hire 1 and Avengers Academy 5 all reprinted in the latest Mighty World of Marvel.

Paul Cornell's Saucer Country 1

More UK reprints: Batman and Robin 3 and 4, plus Batman 8 from issue 2 of Titan's new Batman anthology.

Parts 1 to 6 of Avengers: The Children's Crusade from the UK Collectors Edition Avengers Assemble - Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung's follow up to their excellent Young Avengers run.

The conclusion of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's latest volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Century: 2009

Mark Millar reprints in CLINT nos. 2.1 and 2.2 featuring Super Crooks, The Secret Service and Hit-Girl.

Issues 2 to 5 of IDW's Doctor Who comic featuring the 11th Doctor, Amy and Rory.

And then I finished the day with a marathon of Ultimate Spider-Man, reading issues 113 to 128 digitally, 129 to 133 - and Annual 3 - in a premiere hardback, before going digital again for the two Ultimatum Requiem issues. Phew! This is still my favourite Brian Michael Bendis comic and these particular issues feature some outstanding art from Stuart Immonen, a favourite of mine. Loving Bendis' work on the character of Miles Morales, the new Ultimate Spider-Man - it's boss.

Right, films today. Let's see what's on.

More soonliest.

LDS

The Twenty-Third of April Two Thousand and Twelve. Monday.

I think my first memory of Leeds is as a boy trainspotter. Oh, I was fearless then. Expeditions to the far flung reaches of West Yorkshire and Merseyside. Apart from the thrill of seeing Inter City 125s in their natural environment (it was all electric in Manchester - although cabbing thyristor controlled loco 87 101 STEPHENSON (and yes, all capitals is important cos all the other 87s had lower case nameplates) at Piccadilly is not to be sniffed at) what I remember most of all is that I'd taken a Pot Noodle (plus ça change) and a flask of hot water but had to ask for a plastic fork from the buffet as I'd forgotten to bring one. It was curry flavour, since you ask.

York is the nearest city to Scarborough and is just under an hour away. Ideal for a post work pop to the comic shop or to see an indie film that won't be on in Scarborough for a bit. But for a proper three shop comic mooch it has to be Leeds.

I've been doing an online British Sign Language course - very handy for someone who works shifts. The tutorials and assessments have taken place over Skype. But the body responsible for the examinations changed the rules so that now you have to meet the tutor in person to be assessed. Since the tutor is based in Bognor Regis this is a bit tricky.

Nevertheless, a grand tour of England was arranged and the nearest the came to Scarborough was - you've guessed it - Leeds. The stage was set for a very pleasant day out.

I didn't want to take any time off work do I asked if I could go in the afternoon. No problem, but this did mean that I was up at 5 and pretty much going on nonstop until the evening. A positive side effect of this was that sleep deprivation, my old friend, worked its magic once again. My mind experienced a near-drunk state of consciousness that eliminated any of the nerves I had been feeling in the run-up.

It all went well - not sure when I get my results but the mood while chatting gave the necessary reassuring signals. In fact, it was pleasing to hold a conversation in (very basic!) sign for a few minutes. I learned the signs for 'Forbidden Planet' and let them know I was off on a hunt through the bargain boxes for 50p comics.

Comics are expensive. There's a huge debate going on right now about their future with the rise of digital throwing the role of bricks and mortar comic shops into question. There aren't that many shops in the UK and the USA has a few clusters in places like New York and Chicago but its size means they're spread pretty thin throughout the rest of the country. As a rule people - and, more importantly, kids - don't buy comics from newsagents any more - these specialist shops are the only outlets. That's why in Scarborough I enjoy buying the reprints you get in the Marvel Collectors' Editions and Clint from WHSmith - it's a bit of a flashback to the days when American style comics were readily available on the high street (that's pretty much the joy of rooting through the bargain boxes - reliving the searches for odd issues from my earliest comic shop visits).

So that's a typical day out in Leeds for me. I love the journey back - music in, reading comics and tucking into my own modest version of Orient Express dining. On this occasion it was a meal deal from Boots - sweet potato flatbread, snack-a-jacks and cream soda. I live like a king!

One last observation about Leeds. It takes about 2.5 hours by bus to reach Scarborough from there by the fabled Yorkshire Coastliner. This leads to queasy passengers, having travelled on their free passes but not realising how long it would take, coming into the railway station and asking how much it would be to go back on the train. Invariably, what little colour they have left in their cheeks drains away when they are told it's £24.90 - 20p more than they would have paid for a day return in Leeds (don't ask...). In fact, the last people I explained this to were deaf, testing my signing and neatly tying up this blog entry.

More soonliest.