The old notebook has finally reached capacity, having served faithfully for - actually I've no idea how long, a tragic omission that I have remedied on page one of the new notebook with the bold title "6th August 2015" - having served faithfully.
I present the retiring champion and the aspiring newcomer:
Surely I don't have to point out which is the old, battered and well-worn one?
I don't know if this will work but let's have a go:
If that work's, it'll show the old notebook being flipped through, and a brief shot of how Conrad's frantic notetaking has gone from clipped articles of a few dozen words, to minor essays on the human condition.
The Great British Bake Off
Required viewing in the Mansion, and a terrifying tour de force it is. Since the first episode was last night, we get to meet all twelve contestants - because it is a contest! - in all their quivering knock-kneed apprehension. Twelve bakers, of whom both Wonder Wifey and Darling Daughter decided they immediately hated, HATED, HATED Stu, the hipster with a hat.
I don't think it's giving too much away to say that Stu is the first to go out, a fate at which both the harpies in our household greeted with loud "Hurrah!"s
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| Darling Daughter, gloating silently o'er Stu |
I had a bit to say on this subject matter last night, and, predictably, I have more tonight.
Recall, if you will, that Conrad likes his music. The look at this:
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| Guitar Tutor? GUITAR TUTOR? |
Fantastic Four
Oh dearie me, the posters are all around.And they look rubbish. How come the Human Torch is suddenly black? Why are they all mere children? How much of the script was written by a Demographic Targetting Autoscribe? Why is this being re-booted only 8 years after the last version?
A quick peek over at IMDB reveals a low score of 4.4 - which has dropped since lunchtime from 4.9! - and no details of budget, which will doubtless be enormous.
Hopefully it will be a huge flop and never generate an hideous franchise.
"Gravity's Rainbow" Strikes Again
This morning in the bathroom, I pondered darkly on what life may bring. "What coincidence is going to crawl out of the woodwork and bite me on my ass today?"
I had to ask.
Okay, I mentioned the Fantastic Four in the text above, and they were written down on the first page as an item - just trying to set the scene here, gentle reader - so what do I come across in this morning's reading? Why, that assembled team of heroes the Floundering Four, who, in one of Tom's characteristic herringbone* tangents to the main story, exist in Racketenstadt. You have Tyrone, Marcel, Maximilian and Miraculous Myrtle. I dunno. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something.
Then, in the text, Tom mentions two parents going by the names of Broderick and Nalline.
Fifteen minutes later Conrad is ambling his way down Miller Street and what does he espy off in a car park to one side?
A van. And on the side of the van?
"Broderick".
An expert word from our patron saint, please -
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| "The humans are manipulating your reality, Conrad. It's the only explanation." |
And From One Long, Weird And Complex Novel -
Lovely Laura at work mentioned a strange novel she'd read a while ago, after stopping by my desk when I had a copy of "V" or "Against The Day" on it and asking what my novel was about.
She then described "House of Leaves" by Mark Danielewski, where the arrangement and shape of the text has a bearing on the novel itself, which she described as long, complex and weird.
Those qualities tick all of Conrad's boxes:
I'll finish "Gravity" first before moving onto this, so you have a few weeks grace to prepare yourself for it.
- To Another Long, Complex And Weird Meditation
I've been after a copy of the second edition of Herman Kahn's "On Thermonuclear War" for a while, as it has updated material not present in the original 1963 edition. However, it costs a lot new, £30 plus postage, and even the second hand editions were going for silly prices, especially in terms of postage.
So I was glad to be able to get a copy for £20 inc. postage last night.
"But why? Conrad" I hear you cry. "What a grim and forbidding subject!"
Indeed. But you forget I am grim and forbidding myself.
Besides, I want to see if his assertions and deductions remain true, or have been made obsolete or irrelevant by the march of technology.
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| Nuclear war is grim. Have a flower instead |
* Also a type of formation mentioned this day in "One Bullet Away"
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