" The Soul Of The Plot"

It's A Quote
I can't put the whole thing in as it's rather long and would probably cause the internet to go out of control.  A quote from - sorry, what's that?  O go on then:  "And much of madness and more of sin and horror the soul of the plot."
     From Edgar Allen Poe, whom you could describe as a chap with an interesting imagination and for a nineteenth century author he could certainly <ahem> get his freak on.  The relevant word here is "horror" and we'll come back to that after I've worked up an artistic sweat.

Mr Poe, looking worried about the laundry.
KILLER HAUNTED GHOST LAUNDRY, but still laundry

     No, Poe is nothing to do with the post.  Not unless he invented "Doctor Who"*.
     On a whim - which accounts for 95% of all Conrad's behaviour - I looked up "The Seeds Of Doom" last night.  This is a particular storyline from that stoic British drama-mentary "Doctor Who", wherein those Martian pikers the Ice Warriors threaten Earth.  Ruddy immigrants, coming here and stealing our climate!

Oh well.  "DOOM", "DEATH", all much of a muchness

     Of course, not happy with their reconstruction**, the producers have to jazz up the title, which is done with predictable regularity.  "Ooooh it's not catchy enough let's add DEATH to the title."  Go on, just check it out, because if it's not DEATH then it's TERROR or DOOM or HORROR or DEADLY.  They haven't used all 5 at once but give them time, give them time.
     Lazy scriptwriters have yet to cotton on to this, as they'd never need to create a title again.  Imagine how it works:  THE SEEDS OF DOOM; THE SEEDS OF DEATH; THE SEEDS OF TERROR; THE DEADLY SEEDS; THE SEEDS OF HORROR.  You could mix it up rather***, and have THE HORROR OF THE DEADLY SEEDS OF TERROR-DOOM.  Thank you, hyphen.
     Ooops, forgot the also ubiquitous EVIL as well - THE EVIL OF THE HORROR SEEDS OF DOOM.

Close enough

     Please don't imagine we're limited to plant offspring and feel free to include ROBOTS, DALEKS, WEIRD GREEN SPLODGES AND - oops, sorry, that should be "and" - QUARKS.
     Carrying on like a derailed locomotive, let us hope that EU Directive QLZ192/614b never comes into force, as it concerns "Minimising Trauma In Adolescent Television Viewers", or all those wonderfully evocative titles will end up being watered down into stuff like THE SEEDS OF DOO; THE SEEDS OF ERROR; or even THE SEEDS OF MILD PRE-WATERSHED DANGER WITH A TINGE OF HUMOUR AND A BAD PUN ABOUT A DALEK.  We should be so lucky.
     Right!  Now that's out of the way, I think the motley can commence!

Light and frothy entertainment!

"The Smile In Japanese Art"
Another book photo, not a collection of words assembled at random although I grant you this is not a title you ever expected to see, is it?   I'm not sure if the price is present <checks> and it isn't, yet that happy smiling engineer of yesterday - Art?

British railway attack; gives one a smile attack

      - this tome was going for £40 so I expect nothing less for TSIJA.  Art?

A very real thing.

     Call me an unaesthetic boor, or a Phillistine (which is easier to pronounce) but that hideous girning maw is a smile?
     I'll show you a smile.

Ensmalled for very obvious reasons.

     There.  Good luck getting to sleep after seeing that one.

"The Raid 2"
I've had this for an age and decided on a whim to actually put it in the DVD player and watch it.
     The title is something of a misnomer, as there isn't a raid in this one, and rather less gunplay (Indonesian criminals are not rich and many cannot afford a gun or even a knife), which leaves more room for lots and lots more fistplay.  O boy if you like chaps whaling the tar out of each other this is SO your kind of film.  Also nice to see that, even in early 21st century Jakarta traditional values still matter - the bad guys all politely line up to tackle Our Hero one at a time.  I know we British didn't rule Indonesia (that was the Dutch) but I applaud their ability to queue.
     I had to rewind the ending, thinking I'd missed a bit or the translation had gone toes-up, but the director's voice-over confirmed that it is as it is.  Enough ends left untied for another sequel or two.

I'd pay attention, if I were you - he says "Stop it"

A Letter For Sophie
No!  That Sophie, not this Sophie.  She is currently off work recuperating after surgery; the delicious^ Anna went to visit and said the poor lady was bored.
     Bored!  What she probably means is that she can't go shopping.  Be honest, Sof.
     Anyway, Conrad being the generous soul he is, I've written her a letter.  All original stuff, no copying blog notes or shortcuts like that.  Art?

     This will have her back in the office in no time^^.


*  I'm quite aware that some South Canadian, somewhere, is convinced this is true.
**  Questions about how can it be a reconstruction if it's in the future will be ignored.
IGNORED I TELL YOU!
*** Yes, like an atomic-powered lemon-wedge squeezer, I am going to get every drop of humour out of this one.
^  I'd better point out that this is a metaphor, as you lot can be both dense and uncouth.
^^  Heh.