Darkness On The Edge of Town

Nor Is It Restricted To The Suburbs
I hope that the following photograph gets the point across despite the reflections.  To get rid of them I'd have to prevent all movement across the entire floor of the Dark Tower, which is a little impractical, since movement keeps the lights lit.  Art?

     So.  There it is, the town, and there's the darkness, too, and - that is the edge of town.  Admittedly it's a long way off, almost bordering the Pennines, yet it's still there.
     And the metaphorical darkness in the heart of the city?  Well, given the low light levels and the rain and the fact that your humble scribe has to get to work on a tight schedule, I haven't taken any photographs, but every early morning shift like this one, your modest artisan sees Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell in the bleak light of dawn.
     A tad depressing.  All the revels of the night before (especially so if we're talking about the walk to work on a Saturday or Monday morning) are laid bare; the empty cans and bottles, the scattered food detritus, cigarette stubs, the odd body slumped in a doorway, evidence of a weak stomach, bin-bags of rubbish piled in heaps.  Truly, the morning after the night before, writ large in a physical way, like three-dimensional graffiti.*
     What's that?  You thought this would be a musical tribute to the hugely-unlikely named Bruce Springsteen and an album he released, which by an AMAZING COINCIDENCE just so happens to be the title of today's blog?  Frankly I doubt any such person exists. 

Loose Windscreen.  Close enough

     Well!  Aren't we serious today!  It must be time to smear the motley with bacon fat and let it loose in a dog pound.  Next -

New Music
Well, thanks to the Beeb, I now have another couple of reasons to squander my hard-earned cash.  Their Entertainment webpage threw up the band Boredoms, a Japanese avant-garde rock group (muso code for "Weird") who have been around for twenty years, which implies a sizeable back catalogue.  Oops.
     That somehow led to me finding the Teuton band Neu on Youtube, one of the pre-eminent Krautrock bands of the Seventies.  I suppose they''ll have tons of records in the back-catalogue, too.  Sigh.
     Thank you Auntie Beeb. Thank you so much.  My starving children curse you!

Sorry, kids - Daddy needs his CDs.

BOOJUM! Reviews Films
In our own inimical way.  Not that anyone would really want to mimic us here.
     Do you remember the house rules? 
     There aren't any.  There you go.  Or if there are, we make them up as we go along.  if you came here expecting a cold, dispassionate analysis along the lines of Mark Kermode (who is a big fan of The Comsat Angels, by the way) then THE EXIT DOOR IS THAT WAY!
     Pausing only for the liquid nitromethane that passes for my blood to cool, let us proceed.
"The Post":  Who on earth gives the green light to these films?  Idiots.  Who wants to stare at a wooden fence component for 90 minutes?  Is this a desperate attempt to be arty? I could keep on adding questions here but all I need to say is:  NO.  Will this lead to a sequel entitled "The Post 2:  High Stakes" and a sequel to that entitled "The Post 3: Black Mail" - I could go on.

Riveting.
(Or should that be 'Riveted'?)

"3 Billboards Outside Ebbing":  There are?  How fascinating!  Do tell me more!  How many major sewers of 3' or greater with a ceramic liner run under the metropolitan borders of Ebbing?  What is the failure percentage rate of traffic light bulbs at intersections within the town centre?  Does the Area Improvement Government Grant still apply to non-zoned municipal non-residential neighbourhoods? I could go on.

A cyborg platypus.
Because - why not?

"The Curse of Oak Island": This is actually a television series rather than a film, but you can't complain because I already explained how we do business here.
     Where do I begin with this one?  Way back when, the New Musical Express was a proper paper about music; nowadays it's an ad-filled homogenous "lifestyle" rag indistinguishable from The Metro.** So it is with The History Channel, which used to have actual, you know, history on it.  Now it is wall-to-wall woo, mixed in with tat, such as TCOOI.
     SPOILER ALERT! 

     There is no treasure.  There never was.  The so-called 'Money Pit' was a naturally occurring sinkhole.  TCOOI takes a whole season to not find anything, and tries to make things seem Dark And Mysterious.  That tagline in the paper reads: "The deeper it goes the darker it gets" yes because YOU HAVEN'T TURNED THE LIGHTS ON YOU WALLY!
     <sigh>
     It's up to a fifth season.  Really.  No treasure, no mystery and I bet there's not even an oak tree.
     When I take over this channel is going to go, instanter.



*  You know, that sounds oddly familiar ...
**  You may think this is a bit harsh.  IT'S NOT!