BOOJUM!: This Bloody Weather!

Apologies For The Vulgarism
     However if I wrote what I thought then your eyeballs would boil in their sockets. Really!
     Yesterday Conrad dourly doffed his coat, thinking that it's better to have and not need than to get turned into a mass of wet laundry. Arriving in Manchester there were sufficient breaks in the cloud to promise that - perhaps! - the day would turn out sunny.
     No such luck - the weather got worse and we ended up with a torrential downpour that lasted for hours. Young Dan (the mad impetuous fool!) only had a t-shirt* and no umbrella and Conrad imagines he swam home.
     Then today - again with the coat; totally un-necessary, a mere burden, deadweight. I have come in from over an hour sitting in the Bit Beside, having to wear a hat to keep the sun from boiling the brains in my skull.
     Damn weather - make your mind up!

The Lesser Stinkwort^. No, sorry, some roses blooming.

"Flowers in the Window" - Travis

How To Name Your Dragon
Darling daughter last night alleged there were not that many films that had dragons in them. Instantly - for we are that kind of pedantic, hair-splitting, get-one-over clan - we others tried to rebut her assertion. Here are a few films we know of that buttress our claim and sink hers: How To Train Your Dragon 1 & 2; The Never-Ending Story 1, 2 & 3; Pete's Dragon; Reign of Fire; The Hobbit 1 & 2; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Dragonslayer; Sleeping Beauty; Eragon; anything Toho Studio's did with King Gedorah*; Spirited Away; that weird Korean film with Robert Forster whose name escapes me; Dragonheart; and that proves my point**.

Sorry, elderly, arthritic dragons with asthma and liver-spots don't count.

That's Quite Enough Of That!
The "that" in question is "Begin Again", a film poster that Conrad has seen on the sides of several buses. Initially he didn't think it fruitful ground for a post because the pictures and accompanying tagline are so weak: "The must-see film of the summer" reads the blurb, and the poster itself is two head-and-shoulders looking at each other.

Sorry I can't find the even less informative bus poster

      The bus posters lack even the tagline visible above.
     So what is this film about? We're not being told, are we. My, my, why can that be? Perhaps because it's a vapid, lazily-plotted, written and shot romantic comedy to pile up on the mountain of dispensible, disposable rom-coms already out there?
     It might not be, after all, but Conrad does not intend to let his eyeballs wander over this when it starts playing. Rather than beginning again he won't begin at all!

Oh, The Agonies Of "Do I Already Have That"?
     Whilst visiting the Modern Babylon***, Conrad likes to pop in to the Oxfam shop and see what books they might have on military history that he doesn't yet possess. Looking at the shelves today was a case of "don't like the look of that" "don't like that author" "already got that" - and the anguish of "Do I already have that?" because Conrad came out without his Bookbarn list. He took a gamble -

The volume in question is on the left.
And, no, "If The Dead Rise Not" is not a zombie novel!

     The title is a little hard to read, but it's "Amiens to the Armistice" and - win-win - Conrad doesn't already have it. Whoopee for me! Your qualified enthusiasm is politely anticipated.
     The Philip Kerr novels featuring Bernie Gunther might almost have been written specifically for Conrad as they tick nearly every box that his warped and peculiar mind could conceive.

Bobcat Goldthwait
     As BOOJUM! is wont to do, let us look briefly at someone who is definitely not "A" list, nor even "B" list, in the Hollywoon pantheon: Bobcat Goldthwait. If you recall Conrad's skimming over the career of Bruce Campbell - who unashamedly describes himself as a "B movie" actor - then you must be aware that there are armies of actors/directors/producers/writers who humbly perform out of the limelight that the "A" list stars command. Bobcat is one such person.
    Conrad's initial contact with Bob was - er - not sure quite how to put this - it was a long time ago - I was drunk at the time - via the "Police Academy" films:

No picture can do justice to Bob's weird, borderline-annoying voice

Now, Bob has done a lot of work since then, frequently in the field of voice-artistry - Eek! The Cat, Beavis and Butthead, Hercules, Buzz of Star Command - but his big step was to work behind the camera as a director and writer in different genres: World's Greatest Dad, God Bless America, Willow Creek. A bit like Peter Berg on a smaller budget, if you like.
He has also slimmed-down and looks considerably less manic:

Almost like a 50's golfer-next-door TV actor.

There you go, ladies, gentlemen and cyborgs - Bobcat.

Finally
I know I mentioned about a tour of the Bridgewater Hall, but there were so many photographs, not to mention the notes that I took, that this will have to be a separate entry. Let me instead finish with a bit of cute-animal exploitation: