Caveman Script?

Fascinating article from the New Scientist, via Strange Attractor, about some work revealing some interesting, repeatedly grouped glyphs over a number of different prehistoric sites. Won't bore you with the details but it looks as if we were all captivated by the painters artistry we might have missed something even more significant, the origins of a crazy early script. The full article is well worth a read.

Special Presenter

Kay Burley has always been one of Sky News' more low brow questioners, taking the unthinking tabloid approach to it's nadir. Anyways after recently making Peter Andre cry on live TV she decided to mock Joe Biden for his strange forehead bruising unthinking the fact that it's Ash Wednesday and err he's a good Catholic-ish. C'mon Burley save it till the Pope arrives - eg what's that funny hat about? isn't he Hitler's kid?
Guido & BBC thanks.

Heavens Above

Scots perceive giant Toblerone UFO in the sky, probably my favourite UFO story in an age courtesy of the BBC. I suppose it's pretty strong evidence for the theory that sightings are some sort of psychological projection, I mean a chocolate bar for fooks surely could only be topped by a shimmering bottle of Bucky.

From the same data release is the story of Michael Howard MP's house being buzzed by UFO's with a number of witness, drop off or pick up? not sure anyways Icke-ists will be frothing at such details. thanks to the Grindaau.

If you're interested there's a nice article on Forgetomori bout the psychosocial evolution of the concept of UFO's from Nazi secret weapons to Alien craft. Not entirely convinced by the source article but it's a interesting line on the phenomenon should make good movie though, with Iron Sky looming.

Dross, Toon & Gorman

Whatever you do don't watch Couples Retreat it's a really, really bad film. Presumably it attracted such a starry cast cause they'd all get to visit a stunning tropical island for a few weeks but they could have least tried to make an effort with the film. Script by the numbers and maybe two laughs throughout do not make a enjoyable movie.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the latest animated feature from DC, was ok I'd seen this story played out in the TV series a few years ago and it was handled much better. In the earlier version the alternate DC-Earth J-League were more political, facististic overlords than the comedy Mafioso crime syndicate they're portrayed as here.

Dave Gorman live at The Festival Theatre - well that's what I'm gonna call it as it's advertised as part of his cycling tour but it had nowt to do with it. Bit odd, why not just change the name. Anyways he was quite funny even without a theme to base it on, peppering the show with vignettes of family life and other witterings. He will need to tighten it up though if he plans on continuing with straight stand up, that or trim the show down from 100mins.

Supplementary Visions from the Devices

CQ is little more than a b-movie within a b-movie though sadly it seems to have greater ambitions. Basically a feckless, self filming, obsessive editor is pushed into finishing a Barbarella-esque film being shot in mostly stereotyped Paris. It manages to homage Fonda's scifi classic well and Farraday from Lost shows some decent acting chops but it's paper thin and just a little too self conscious for my tastes. A few laughs would have lifted it considerably.

Dr Terror's House of Horrors is probably the best Amicus portmanteau I've seen so far, starring Roy Castle, Donald Sutherland, Lee & Cushing and, strangely, radio DJ Alan Freeman, five bizarro stories unfold from a tarot reading given to passengers in a train compartment by creepy Dr Schreck. This is a gem. I'd remake it or do a homage myself. Tubby Hayes provided some of the Jazz but I want to know bout the Voodoo music.


Beyond the Valley of The Dolls, god bless TCM, not seen this Russ Meyer does mainstream classic in a decade and it stands up well to the interior-memory-image-thing in my head. It's a funny, sexy satire on the showbiz life in LA and has a little bit of everything. Seen it before but this time around I was blown away by the music, some seriously ear pleasing 60's sounds throughout unless my ears are deceived by the usual D & D tis cool though I know someone to ask.

Space, Grime and soon2be Mob Meat

Outland, starring big Sean, is solid space-western fare playing out very, very much like High Noon. It's not bad though managing a suitably grimy feel to the mining station and a reasonably intelligent script. Acting is professional mostly and even though Connery plods along with the same look on his face throughout his weary charm works well in this role.


Crikey o riley Fish Tank is two hours of seething British misery, it is a good film - don't get me wrong - all the actors are brilliant, it looks amazing and even has a few touching moments of lightness but it's almost like poverty porn, smug-burb-understand-chav shit or something, dunno but something felt off to me.

Somewhat related - I've been watching Tower Block of Commons. I wouldn't recommend watching it however as it sent me straight back to sharpening my mutherfunkin pitchfork as frankly ignorance abounds with every utterance. Oaten is probably the most tolerable (humility has it's rewards I guess) Nadine Dorries is a plastic faced nightmare of semi thinking, Loughton is like a fricking Tory hatchling - a stuffy, cloned middle class future awaits us all! The majority of my bile is reserved however for the massive prick that is Austin Mitchell, the fatty pseudo intellectual souse so ignorant he makes my arms twitch punchy style. Maybe's he's Andrew Neil's secret brother/lover? they're certainly on a par in studied-stupidity and they've both made long careers suckling on the teat of our politics with little discernible betterment. The simple fact about this show that irks me is that all these MP's seem shocked by the lives of ordinary Britains and that is an terrible indictment of our system all on it's own.

Wolfe Wolfe

Wolfe has a new book on the horizon and he's continuing his trend of allowing terrible cover art. I seriously love his books, own a fair few and I've bored plenty of people about him of the years but c'mon Gene get some new specs. I had a cringey experience once while reading There Are Doors on GNER and for further proof here's some guy's flicker collection of Wolfe cover badness and little sample below.

Bookworms beware! here's a sweet link to a 100 great Sci fi novels as compiled by an io9-er. Via Lupine Nuncino. Maybe I'm biased cause Wolfe takes the number one spot and quite a few other places but wtf there's no Alfred Bester? anyways it's certainly swelled my amazon wishlist, oo-er mrs.

And here's another interesting list of the top 15 Scifi book series, this time courtesy of Listverse

Purchases heard & unheard

Also there's a nice post from Metger on Andre Williams, wrote Shake a Tail Feather etc etc anyways there's a documentary coming out bout this shambolic musical genius. Chicken thighs!