Abracadabra!

 In A Manner Of Speaking
Today your humble scribe went into work to do overtime, meaning an early start (for a Saturday), and over half the day gone by the time that finished (sad face).  Mind you, there were compensations - which has to do with the title of choice for today.
     I happened to be sitting next to Pete, and mentioned that mobile phone app, "Shazam", and if it was free.

Close enough.

     "It is," confirmed Pete, talking your humble scribe through installing it on his Portable Devil Box mobile phone.  I then used it to identify a track Anna was playing, without her noticing the phone being waved about.
     "That's James Bay, isn't it?" I asked her, to voluble confirmation that indeed it was and she was going to see him live in concert - shading into too much information.  Ooh, I am impressed with this app!  Almost - almost - worth coming into work to acquire.
     Well, Abracadabra!  and there was Shazam, which I've already used to identify the Biting Tongues on the "Hardcore Henry" soundtrack - which is a story for another day.

"Fourth Mansions" By R.A. Lafferty
I first got this (barely) sci-fi novel as a remainder from John Menzies, back in the day (when, charmingly, they had to scar the pages to prevent re-sale) for about 20p, and after finishing it my thoughts were "Ha!  I got a bargain there!" as it was well-written, inventive and quite unique, especially the supporting wise man's character.  He had two organic helpers (not familiars!), one being a shellfish that detected evil and whistled at ultrasonic frequencies to warn him, and the other being a dog-ape "plappergeist", that normal humans could only see out of the corner of their eye.  Not to be confused with a poltergeist; I know because I Googled and there were zero hits for "Plappergeist".  Not sure where the name originates except in mind of RAL.  "Geist" is German for "Ghost" of course, and Sophie in the office didn't recognise "Plapper" as being anything in German.

The edition I had, with a rather ambiguous quote from Roger Z
(And no, I've no idea why frogs)

     I realise this has nothing at all to do with anything else, it's just that the word "Plappergeist" happened to turn up in the sea of sewage that constitutes my mind.

Film Reviews
Yes, except first let me go finish off my pot of Jasmine Tea.  I love this stuff and I don't know if any retailers stock it any more.
     Okay, let the motley begin!
     "Eye In The Sky":  I refer you to yesterday's blog.  In fact let me see if I can add in a link to it in a bit of utterly shameful self-promotion:

http://comsatangel2002.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/all-eyes-there-are.html

      - because you need to read the bit about flying cows cruising underwater in the River Thames, something like that.  Just go and read it!

NO!  Art -

     Right.  We will now assume you have read it, so the following makes sense.
     It really doesn't matter if you have an eye in the sky, or a whole collection of them, if your eye's not linked to a brain then you've got squat, frankly (this would have been more amusing yesterday with the whole "I" theme).

Redeemed

     Batman Versus Superman:  Haven't seen it myself.  The news is that it's a modern marvel* of mediocrity, a monument to Meh.  Mark Kermode, film reviewer and major fan of the Comsat Angels, says it lacks the vital spark, whilst Empire only gives it a qualified three stars.  On the other hand, it scores 7.3 over at IMDB, and it's made $428 million in less than two weeks.  Doomed to success, one presumes.

What B vs S lacks, apparently.  Wait, what -

     11.22.1963:  Actually a television series rather than a film, and featured in a wrap-around cover on Friday's Metro.  Conrad picked up two copies of the prose comic by mistake and thus left one face up on the desks next to him.  Every single person who passed had a good look at it!  Which bears well for it's viewing prospects.
     Further to this, I saw a trailer for it at the cinema today.  As you probably already know, it concerns our hero being sent back in time to alter history.  The conceit that 11.22.1963 brings is that the past is a sentient force that doesn't want to be changed:  it fights back!

Our achingly clean-cut hero

Finally -
I know that the broadcast news likes to end on a light-hearted story after unloading a freight-train's worth of grief and horror, so allow BOOJUM! to follow in those footsteps:

???

     These photos feature Dan and his lovely wife Lisa.  No surnames here, as we would need signed approval with notarised witnesses for that, except Conrad always had a childish urge to shout "FIRESTARTER!" whenever he greeted Dan.
     Dan and Lisa are currently working in Japan, where one of their friends has posted this.  What is it?
     I have no idea.  A fake ferret hidden in a bunch of artificial flowers?  It must be a manga thing.  Of course, if you have any suggestions, please forward them to the Mansion.



     
* Do you see what I did there?  Do you?  Aren't I clever?