test please delete

[NickFitz]

Back to the "Every Bond In Order" project tonight with Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

I'm pretty sure I've seen all of the Bond films up to the mid 1970s as well as various ones after that, but I didn't really remember this one, or no more than a few bits that seemed vaguely familiar; so I've either never seen it before, or only seen it once in the Granada cinema in the 1970s.

I did like the scenes in and around Las Vegas because it must have been filmed at about the same time as the events of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas were, or were not, happening. In particular, the scenes inside Circus Circus were interesting; that's the place that Hunter S. Thompson memorably described as "what the whole hep world would be doing on Saturday nights if the Nazis had won the war"

And after that, another episode of The Americans.

Goodnight all

[original PM]

Quiet in here today...

[WTFH]

Morning Afternoon all
Unpleasant drive along the A30 last night, now in Cornwall, not long until the weekend starts.

[NickFitz]

Afternoon denizens

Rudely awoken this morning by the phone, it being a call from the pimp, which I chose to ignore. Every few days I seem to need a lot more sleep than usual, but I suppose it's good for me as I feel much better for it

Anyway, now I'm up and about I find an email from him, asking if I'm ready to go back to ClientCo yet

I tried phoning but he's out of the office this afternoon or something, so I've emailed and told him that, assuming they're still happy with me doing a three day week, I can get back there two weeks on Monday. So with a bit of luck we should have the contract sorted out on Monday, assuming this isn't a false alarm, or him accidentally re-sending an email from last year or something.

So not boomed yet, but it's looking like I will be soon

[NickFitz]

Shopping done in person

I'd run out of the M&S sausages that I use for my sausage finger rolls, so this being able to drive thing happened just in time

[NickFitz]

After that disappointment, I resorted to something you can always rely on: misery, in the form of a Swedish crime drama. Tonight's Nordic wretchedness was Jägarna 2 , or False Trail in English (though it actually means "The Hunters 2" in English, being a sequel to one that apparently hasn't been subtitled in English yet). This was suitably bleak, giving the impression that life in the more rural areas of Sweden is a hotbed of violence with undercurrents of passion and torment, and generally interesting to some degree if a bit horrid. It reminded me of the Swedish woman who spoke at the Interesting conference last year (not to be confused with the Boring conference) who explained that these noir-ish dramas give a wrong impression, as life in Sweden is generally exceptionally dull, and absolutely nothing happens in most places almost all of the time. She didn't expand on this (the main focus of her talk was about how they all still believe in various supernatural beings that need to be placated in rather homely ways, while pretending to be very modern and not believing any such nonsense, but they really really do) but I got the notion that the reason they're so good at dreaming up these rather weird scenarios involving horrific crimes in communities of a few dozen people is that they are so bored all the time. Anyway, if you like bleak, it was very good

And now The Hunters, complete with subtitles, has appeared in the iTunes store, so I'll finally get to see what it was a sequel to

[NickFitz]

I wasn't sure what to have for tea tonight, but a trawl through the freezer revealed beef in red wine with dumplings that was one of the first things I made in the slow cooker. So some of that with croquettes and peas turned out to be just the thing

[vetran]

I wasn't sure what to have for tea tonight, but a trawl through the freezer revealed beef in red wine with dumplings that was one of the first things I made in the slow cooker. So some of that with croquettes and peas turned out to be just the thing

yum I had slow cooked beef in beer (a cheap mild) & veg , which was nice

[vetran]

Back to the "Every Bond In Order" project tonight with Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

I'm pretty sure I've seen all of the Bond films up to the mid 1970s as well as various ones after that, but I didn't really remember this one, or no more than a few bits that seemed vaguely familiar; so I've either never seen it before, or only seen it once in the Granada cinema in the 1970s.

I did like the scenes in and around Las Vegas because it must have been filmed at about the same time as the events of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas were, or were not, happening. In particular, the scenes inside Circus Circus were interesting; that's the place that Hunter S. Thompson memorably described as "what the whole hep world would be doing on Saturday nights if the Nazis had won the war"

And after that, another episode of The Americans.

Goodnight all

Misogynist , racist pervert!

Millennials watching old James Bond are not impressed  | Daily Mail Online

Dr NO! Millennials watching classic Bond movies for the first time blast 'sexist' and 'racist' plots online - and describe Sean Connery's 007 as 'basically a rapist'

enjoy

[NickFitz]

During dinner, being out of new stuff featuring surgery, I watched something on iPlayer about the trial of some Yank who shot a load of people, and videoed himself doing it with a GoPro

After that disappointment, I resorted to something you can always rely on: misery, in the form of a Swedish crime drama. Tonight's Nordic wretchedness was Jägarna 2 , or False Trail in English (though it actually means "The Hunters 2" in English, being a sequel to one that apparently hasn't been subtitled in English yet). This was suitably bleak, giving the impression that life in the more rural areas of Sweden is a hotbed of violence with undercurrents of passion and torment, and generally interesting to some degree if a bit horrid. It reminded me of the Swedish woman who spoke at the Interesting conference last year (not to be confused with the Boring conference) who explained that these noir-ish dramas give a wrong impression, as life in Sweden is generally exceptionally dull, and absolutely nothing happens in most places almost all of the time. She didn't expand on this (the main focus of her talk was about how they all still believe in various supernatural beings that need to be placated in rather homely ways, while pretending to be very modern and not believing any such nonsense, but they really really do) but I got the notion that the reason they're so good at dreaming up these rather weird scenarios involving horrific crimes in communities of a few dozen people is that they are so bored all the time. Anyway, if you like bleak, it was very good

And now The Hunters, complete with subtitles, has appeared in the iTunes store, so I'll finally get to see what it was a sequel to

And then, for light relief, I watched said Jägarna (1996), which proved to be as bleak as expected, and pretty violent to boot. It opened with several reindeer being very graphically shot, bled, decapitated, and gutted, and there were guest appearances from other reindeer carcases at various points throughout. So it's ideal Christmas morning viewing for the kids: "This is what happens to Rudolph and Co. now they've finished the deliveries"

(Also, the fact that it was made in 1996 explains why Rolf Lassgård looked so much younger than he does in Wallander and Jägarna 2.)

After that, episode 1 of Better Call Saul. For some reason I've always lost track of this after a few episodes, even though I think it's brilliant, so I've decided to make a proper effort to get through it this time.

And then some more of S5 The Americans. I'll have finished that in a week or two at this rate.

Goodnight all