Breaking Out
I went for a walk around Edinburgh Botanical Gardens a few winters back and was caught by how many plants were trying to press through the glass of the hothouses, I don’t think I’ve really noticed that before.
It was cold and wet out, yet these hothouse plants didn’t want to be confined and wanted to grow as they would even though if they got out they would die.
This is a working title while I explore further.
Edgelands
“First coined by Marion Shoard, the term edgelands refers to those in-between spaces created by urbanisation where space for nature still persists alongside cities, towns, shopping centres, motorways, canals, and so on. These zones sit between urban and rural areas, and they also sit uneasily between the two categories of urban and rural, often defying an easy definition.”
Working in my usual areas of liminal spaces at the edge of towns this seemed like a natural extension of other projects that I’m working on, I will be working on these images (and newer images) to choose which I want to use to represent this idea, book and exhibition.
traces (swinging)
A ongoing project investigating the space that’s been left by the change in attitude to photographing children in public and looking at what’s been left behind.
Often involving found objects abandoned by the families these will stand in stead of what used to be one of the most photographed subjects by amateur and professional photographers alike.
An internalised taboo has come into force that stops photographers from feeling comfortable photographing children in the public sphere, even their own.
An image of predatory behaviour that is leaving a huge gap in the photographic record of social history.
Jordan Thomas, Daniel Gete. Oni Press, (96p) ISBN: 9781637158074. Graphic Novel, read 23/04/25, eBook ★★★★☆
Skin Police Vol. 1: Crimes Against Nature
Set in a future of almost zero fertility, cloning, instability, and societal collapse.
Oh yes, the cloning…
It was thought that the cloning would help keep the world population stable and people thought it would be a joy to raise a little version of themselves, all really good ideas, though a bit vain.
But there was one major setback, three out of four clones would ‘pop’ and turn into hallucinating blood thirsty killers.
The United Nations of Europe, a one-party superstate with some nods toward the Mega Cities of the Dredd world, has come up with a solution, total eradication. But after societal upset and collapse with records going astray and a lot of the ‘Dupes’ being procured on the black market this is difficult.
In comes Eckis, a very Dredd-style character with his Andersen rookie along for the ride, and it is such a ride. Future tech, traitors, underground resistance, government conspiracies, and an enforcement agency with a shoot now… no questions later attitude.
The art style is nice and graphic with lots of reds and bright colours often at odds with the world we find ourselves in, the internal ‘thoughts’ of the dupes who pop are excellent and imaginative, there are a couple of subplots running through to humanize the main characters, and the ending of Volume 1 is a great reveal!
Another great offering from Oni Press and I’m looking forward to the rest of this coming out.
I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
So Many Films…
The modern era of streaming has given us so much choice, so many good films and television from all around the world. There isn’t a minute of the day when we can’t watch practically anything that we want, if it’s not on a streaming service it can be bought to watch digitally over the Internet.
Though this is brilliant for me there is a downside, too much choice, way too much choice. I’m crippled by analysis paralysis, skipping through all the services and not stopping on anything as the next choice may be better!
That’s one reason that I’ve started this part of the blog, to give me a bit of a focus and to try and encourage me to make that choice, but I’ve let it all fall by the wayside a bit, so I’m relaunching my TV and Film watching and reviewing alongside some album reviews. I’ll be updating all the lists over the next couple of days and may just rewatch some favourites to get the reviews started again.
One of the things I’ve done to help that is to make lists, lots of lists, I like lists, it also means I can use a random number generator to choose a film from the list and just go and watch that.
I’m also going to be running polls on Bluesky for people to vote on to help me decide as well, I always like getting recommends or even just people’s views on the four films I’ll put up for voting on.
Another app I’m going to use to try and relieve the pressure of choice is Reelgood which has a randomiser at the bottom of the main page throwing up a random choice based on the services you’ve entered.
Hopefully these methods should encourage me to watch more TV and film and will mean I have more to write about.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
I was originally just going to write about science fiction, horror, and fantasy film and television but after consideration I’ve decided to look at all films and television and include music to review as a lot of my life revolves around these three.
I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for a while as I’ve been a huge science fiction, fantasy, and horror fan since as far back as I can remember but never really got around to settling on a format until I decided to just up and write a blog.
I still remember lying in a bed at my Nana’s house watching all the old films and TV, including Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), and all the other old classics with Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi, and others which I always thought were in black and white but as I got older realised it was the telly that was b&w and some were in colour.
Then there came my Doctor, Jon Pertwee, and all those other weird 70s television shows that you weren’t quite sure of what was going on like Children of the Stones (1977).
1977 came and Star Wars: A New Hope burst on to the scene turning this niche genre mainstream, this was quickly followed by Alien (1979) still one of the best sci-fi/horror films made.
Whilst this mainstreaming of science fiction was going on horror got a makeover from the creepy but kitsch films of an earlier era to more mature genre, The Exorcist (1973) saw a good story with mainstream actors and well-developed effect for the time, this was quickly followed by one of the first mainstream slasher horror films, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and this saw an explosion of what was termed as video nasties.
In fantasy, the 50s/60s saw a raft of fantasy films including those by, or influenced by, Ray Harryhausen, but the 70s were a bit barren. Some good comedy films by The Monty Python squad, but the 80s saw a massive surge with films like Legend (1985) and Willow (1988) which were solid sword and sorcery adventure fantasies but the 80s also surprised us with the ever fun Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and the hilarious codpiece Labyrinth (1986).
And from the 90s on there were just a great selection of well-made genre films and television series that we were spoilt for choice.
I want to explore these old and favourite films and television series and write some reviews which I had never thought about doing at the time.
I also want to explore the new as they arrive and the old and unusual as I find them and will be going to the cinema far more often than I have in the past few years.
So watch out for small but honest reviews, occasional watch throughs of t.v. series and other genre content
Almost as strong as my love of good film (good is definitely a relative term here 😉) is my love of music.
Initially just loving all the golden oldies than my Nan played I developed a real taste for music with energy, especially in the mid-70s onward. Punk, New Wave, Rock, Metal, and much more was tempered by a growing taste for indie bands, singer song writer, jazz, blues, and classical.
This has developed into a really catholic taste, willing to give anything a listen, not discounting genres just finding bands/musicians that are to my taste or not.
So to go along with the Film and TV reviews there’s going to be chat about music as well.