I Know, I Know -
We have inverted the convention, haven't we? Well get used to it, because that's how we roll around here. Okay, we've been dealing with the ocean frequently of late, and I would now like to introduce an artwork from farthest Japan on the subject matter in question. Art!
By Hokusai
This iconic Japanese woodprint is known as "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa", created about 1830, and shows three fishing boats in peril within sight of Mount Fuji in the background. There is speculation about exactly what kind of wave this is, with the consensus being a 'rogue wave'; that is to say, a freakishly large wave of no predictable origin, coming out of nowhere very unexpectedly.
Which is an introduction to another form of artwork considerably more modern in conception. Art!
Yes, this is a Lego rendering of the same. Unlike many Lego sculptures, I have found quite the informative website about this one. It was constructed by Jumpei Mitsui, in either late 2020 or early 2021. It consists of 50,000 bricks - I know you like details such as this - and was preceded by careful study of wave motions and a detailed sketching. It took our protagonist 500 hours to complete the whole thing, which means he must have been working solo. Art!
I hope he has a cushion under his knees, Lego corners are extremely unforgiving. The whole thing is about five feet across, and we have an alternate angle on it. Art!
It could only be improved by having the sea move up and down, and the boats crawling along the ocean's briny deeps. Can't see that happening any decade soon.
SO! There you have another in one of BOOJUM!s occasional visits to Lego sculptures, because it's always interesting to see how hard other people work in the pursuit of an artistic vision. Whereas we - well, we exist at roughly the artistic level of a trilobite.
(makes trilobite noises)
Conrad is here minded of the band Seventh Wave, a prog outfit around for a few years in the Seventies, and whose album "Psi-Fi" he once had, with the stand-out track "Star Palace Of The Sombre Warrior", which makes as little sense as you'd expect. If Art will exert himself -
Shades of Hokusai
Motley! Break out the Blood-Flavoured surfboards, and let us go Shark Surfing!
Before I Forget
Your Humble Scribe set this one up earlier, and then forgot about it, because he was so busy being awesomely creative in other ways, and because I'd not had my eleven o'clock gin coffee. Eleven o'clock coffee. Art!
It made me snigger. In case you were unaware, having either been living atop a pole in the Gobi Desert for the past fifty-five years, or down in a Marine Submersible Environment - hang on, do they exist yet? ignore that one - ANYWAY in that cult series "Starry Trex" (I think, the font is a bit confusing) you had the starship 'Enterprise' beetling about the galaxy, amongst whose crew were the Security members, who wore Red Shirts. If ever an away-team convened with members of Security, they were inevitably the ones who got scragged. Art!
I know, I know, he's all red. You get the point.
Kirky feeling both smug and safe. Redshirts considerably less so.
I don't need to do a reverse-image search to be able to tell you that the artwork here is by the incomparable Mike Noble, and comes from the pages of "TV 21" comic, where it had supplanted the stories about Captain Scarlet. In fact we might be able to - O you're already awake, Art? Splendid -
Star Trek - where the calamari fights back
"Terry Talks Movies"
Indeed he does, and since he and Conrad's taste in movies appear to chime, Your Humble Scribe has been watching several of his Youtube videos. Terry appears to be about as long in the tooth as Your Humble Scribe, which is to say brushing the edges of middle age, and which also means we've probably watched the same films and television programs in our early years.
But not all the same. Thus, when he posted a video of another 5 'Hidden Gems', Conrad checked it out. I've seen "Sapphire And Steel"* and "Kolchak", but what's this "M.A.N.T.I.S"? Art!
The acronym stands for <ahem> "Mechanically Augmented Neuro Transmitter Interactive System", which is a variety of super-exoskeleton that gave the black hero incredible speed, strength and dexterity, enabling him to fight crime as a superhero. Oddly enough I watched this video the day after putting up a picture of another, considerably less super exoskeleton as a book cover. Art!
M.A.N.T.I.S. only lasted one season, and since viewing figures weren't that great they re-jigged it halfway through, throwing in all sorts of nonsense. There's probably some flying monkeys in there, too, courtesy Wayne's butt. However, if Terry thinks it worth a shot Your Humble Scribe may possibly pick it up some enchanted evening when he returns to Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell.
Still Seething After All These Jeers
Yes! Conrad emerged from his pit this morning with enough time to tackle the three Codewords in last weekend's M.E.N., banging them all out in an hour, which also includes sorting out the laundry and drinking tea. Who says men can't multi-task! Inevitably they stretch the unwritten rules to breaking-point. I shan't go into "ORTHODOX" or "ORTHODOXY" as those have already been raged about. No, let us go straight to -
"AGAVE": Say what? At first I thought I'd gotten "OGIVE" wrong, until a quick look in my Collins Concise revealed the truth. It's a plant, native to tropical America, with elongated flower stalks rising from large, succulent leaves. Some species are used to create sisal.
WHAT ARE WE EXOTIC BOTANISTS NOW!
Agave with puny human for scale
"FATWA": Fatwa? Fatwa! I'll give you fatuous - how the devil are we to keep track of imported foreign words into ENGLISH. As evinced by the next word, which is -
"AMIGO": ARE YOU DOG BUNS SERIOUS? Do you think that Spanish Codeword compilers include "FRIEND" in their solutions? NO THEY DO NOT!
Close enough
I have more - O! so much more - but my blood pressure won't take any more, so I shall call it quits for tonight. Count on more Frothing Nitric Ire tomorrow, mind.
* Which was WAY TOO CREEPY for children's television.
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