Feeling A Little Flat?

A Rhetorical Question
We shall begin by looking backwards, actually, but no more than to Saturday evening and Doctor Who.
     Well!  This one counterbalanced what you might call a clash of the incongruous.  Lest you missed the episode I shall warn you but once - 

SPOILERS AHOY!

     The TARDIS materialises in Bristol, considerably smaller on the outside than it ought to be, much to the puzzlement of the Doctor - who ends up trapped inside it as the timeship continues to shrink.  This leaves Clara, outside, to go off and find out what's causing the problem.

Colin Baker would never have got out of that

     Invaders from the Second Dimension*!  These manifest as mobile patches of flat scenery, able to turn anything they touch into a 2D image.  "Anything" here including people.  Lots of people.  And when the 2D monsters acquire 3D, they really do look rather scary.  I suspect we might see more of these monsters in future, as they are rather novel.  Did I mention scary?
     This atmosphere is somewhat undercut by the Doctor's being stuck in the TARDIS, only able to stick his hand through the miniature doors, to comic effect.  As I said, a bit inconguous.
     Also props to the scriptwriter for creating a truly unpleasant character:  Fenton, played by stalwart character actor Christopher Fairbanks.  He was so horrid I wouldn't mind seeing more of him!

Fenton.  A walking bag of vice

     And the blog title leads me onto -

"Flatland"
An 1885 novel by Edwin Abbott, about a world that exists only in two dimensions.  I haven't read it but strongly doubt it involves invasion of the three-dimensional world.  Still, Doctor Who did remind me about it.  I shall post a link to the Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland
     This has multiple links to associated sites, and even free text editions.
     I think the novel wasn't especially successful when published but has caught the imagination of successive generations.  Perhaps including a certain scriptwriter ...

Flats land.  Close enough

"Against The Day"
Haha!  I am now up to page 825, so only a couple of hundred pages left.  The action here shifts from Vienna to Trieste, and on page 805 Mr Pynchon actually uses the phrase " - against the day."
     So you see, I am actually reading it.  As proof, Tom mentions "midinettes", the context making it appear to involve the clothing or textile industry, and what does teh Interwebz have to say?  "A seamstress or fashion assistant".
     Tom also mentions - I am not sure if this is the Coincidence Hammer at work again or not - "Novi Pazar".  Unless you are a student of Balkan history** then you won't be familiar with the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, one of those miniature statelets like San Marino, except the Sanjak got swallowed up by Croatia.

Or was it Serbia?

"American Vampire"
Conrad was aware of this comic series, but rather sniffily disregarded it.  Vampires?  Really?  They're just so passe, darling. Then he came across some artwork for it in a search for something completely different, and - he liked it!

Pearl was not having a good day.  For one thing, she was a vampire

     Besides which, it won an Eisner*** award!  For best new series in 2011.
     Yes, really!  That's impressive, isn't it?  So, on that alone, it merited a bit of attention.
    Which leads me to -

"Word For Pictures"
This is a volume of work put together by Brian Michael Bendis, a writer in the American comic book industry, explaining how to create comics.  He avoids, as he succinctly puts it, the trap of "How to create comics the BMB way".  There are interviews with other writers, and artists, and editors - that chapter alone is worth the price of the book if you have ANY ambition to work in comics, and an hilarious section from his wife, who is also his business manager.  She described BMB when she met him as the living depiction of a "starving artist".

In an alternative reality, BMB never met his future wife ...

     Anyway, I've not finished it yet.  However, if you have any interest in how comics are made, you should read this book.  If you know me you can ask to borrow it.
     The problem - this wouldn't be a post by Conrad without a wine-stain on the table-linen, would it? - is that it is profusely illustrated with artwork, a lot of it very catching indeed - but it doesn't necessarily tell you what or where the artwork is from.

Conrad In The Kitchen
I've done a thing or two in the kitchen today.  Drinking tea for England, for one thing, and a bit of Use Up Food Before It Goes Off as well.  Conrad - hates musical and wasting food.
     First up, those avocados needed to be sorted.  Thus - guacamole.

     A Slight Aside
     Allow me to introduce a herb-chopper.  One of those things that make life a little
     easier and less irksome.  You don't need it all that often, yet it makes a difference
     when you do:

Herb Chopper 10 Herbs 0

     Wonder Wifey got it at a car boot sale, not knowing what it was.  Useful is what it is!

     And so I made guacamole:

     Conrad's Rule applies here: "I have made it so I will eat it, regardless how it tastes."
     Tomorrow's lunchbox:

See, Mo?  Perfectly balanced.  

     Banana Rum Mousse
     Yes, there are bananas that need using up before they go black and rotten, so Conrad 
got down to business and dug out a recipe for the above.  No rum in the house, so I used brandy instead.

No! It's not a bowlful of  vo- never mind. I have to eat it, you know

     Currently setting in the fridge, and yes, Conrad's Rule applies.



* Shades of one of the best sci-fi films ever made:"The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension"
** Or a retentive-memoried oddball like Conrad
***  Don't pretend you even know what an Eisner award is. Go and Google it!