Conrad - STILL Hates Musicals!

More Than Ever
What do I do to seek inspiration when the Muse is slacking off?  Why, stare out of my lounge window, to see the First Bus 409 coming by.  The drivers are such dreadful cowards that they seek safety in numbers and never travel in packs of less than 3.  Normally their posters advocate the wonders of various foods or cosmetics - to which Conrad responds with a citric sneer.  No, what he wants are posters about films, because these are the grist for BOOJUM!'s mill.*

A mill.  On a hill

     So, you can imagine my fervid frown when, instead of films, what parades before my eyes but - MUSICALS!  <disgusted shudder>.
     Yes indeed.  First up is a montage of Disney film posters, with the allegation that these are now to be performed on ice.
     On ice. 
     Really.  How does a two-inch layer of frozen dihydrogen monoxide make anything better?  The answer is IT DOES NOT!

In ice - now that would be better ...

     That was the first thing that annoyed me.  The next - no, it doesn't take much, does it? - the next were posters for an entity called "Wicked", featuring a black hat with a green face.  Art?

Or something

     Conrad believes this musical is itself a spin-off from another musical, "The Wizard of Oz" which is about <thinks> er - Australians?  There was a little dog, and Arkansas, and robot zombie dinosaurs, though I may have hallucinated that last.
     Anyway, the verdant visage above is nothing like the rotten old hag present in the film, which constitutes fraud in my opinion.  And surely it contravenes the Geneva Convention to spin a musical off from another musical?  Believe me, when I take over some people are going to most definitely rue the day.

Rue

     "Aha!  What's this!" I exclaimed gleefully, spotting a film poster, presumably for a sequel:  "Just Cause 4".  "Given the title, probably another vile legal potboiler, because Blimey!  Lawyers and solicitors do think highly of themselves."**
     But no.  It is, so it would seem, some kind of computer game.

Just cause me grief, why don't you!

     Bah!  Where are the films, I ask you?  Don't be fooled by "Red Dead Redemption", because that's a computer game, too <sighs heavily at the lot of the blogger seeking inspiration>.
     Time, one feels, to set this pack of slavering Siberian wolves loose after giving the motley a thirty second start.***

Ask Me Another
Billy stood in for Steve as question-master at the Pub Quiz last night, by arrangement, since Steve had been, as he put it, "On the lash" and feared his professional demeanour would have been compromised.

Lashed

     We got some incredibly easy ones to begin with.  "Juno was one of five what?" was the first question.  
     D-Day Landing beaches, along with Gold and Sword, in the British and Canadian British American sector, and Omaha and Utah over in the American South Canadian.
     "Try harder ones!" I thought not said.
     "Which band recorded 'Dark Side of the Moon"?
     Well Duh! Pink Floyd, and the tracks are: On The Run; Breathe; Money; Time; Any Colour You Like; The Great Gig In The Sky; Us and Them; Time Reprise; Brain Damage; Eclipse.  That's just off the top of my head  <Googles> Oh, and Speak to Me.

The correctly named far side of the Moon.
(Please note the absence of aliens and secret NASA bases)

     When I was younger and more of an anorak, I could have told you the composers for each track; I still recall that Nick Mason was the sound-effects bod for "Speak to me", which is either sad or impressive.

Back In The Dark Tower
O Yes.  After eight months of working from home, today marks a return to the office's of my Enormous Anonymous Retail employer, meaning a three-hour journey there and back.  I know you feel my pain.
     More prosaically, it may mean a slippage in the schedules of the works of wonder you see before your eyes, so - Be Patient!

Behold, the Dark Tower!
(It got lighter over time)

Finally -
I may have offended some of my Ruffian fans yesteryon, going on about the Dogger Bank Incident and how the Ruffian navy was rubbish.
     Since we are talking 114 years ago, I think we can safely say this is no longer Current Affairs, nor has it any Political applications, since the Ruffia of that time was an autocracy run by the Romanovs.
     It did serve to introduce the Russo-Japanese War, probably the biggest war you've never heard of, and which might be called the last war of the Nineteenth Century and the first of the Twentieth.  Like The Comsat Angels, it was immensely influential (yes that is reaching but we've not had a Comsats mention for ages) and its effects lasted for generations.  So, expect to hear more about it in the near future.

Gallant Rooskies in hasty defences.

     I think I invented a hex-and-counter wargame for this about thirty years ago, of which nothing remains except the idea -
     NO!  No, Conrad, you are not to go off and invent another!  Finish that game of 'Square Bashing first!




*  Mill?  Maw?  Only you can tell!
**  Well they do.  They positively infest television schedules.
***  But it is wearing lead boots.