We have been treated to some rather spectacular clouds at sunrise over the month of December, and sometimes I have even looked out of the window at the right time. This one was full of pinks and purples to kick off the day…
Gloucestershire (c) K Wicks Photographer
How did I miss this little gem? For years this film was just a trailer to me, one of the ones at the beginning of your VHS. I got a vague gist of the plot, noted the actor, film and year it came out (which is what my brain likes to remember), but never actually got round to watching it. I don’t think I ever saw it randomly in the TV guide or at Christmas either, so if a film dropped off the radar it was gone and your chance was missed.
So, when my husband mentioned The Lawnmower Man (1992) the other day during a conversation we were having about virtual reality, I thought why not. In this current age of access to any film at any time through various mediums, I found it on one of my subscriptions and finally got to watch it.
It’s not fancy, or over scripted and lays the premise out well in the early part of them film. Now and again, I actually forgot I was watching a movie from the 90’s, to me it has held up well. The graphics were really cool and reminiscent of Tron (quite refreshing after the amount of CGI I have been subjected to in films recently where possibly only 20% of the film is real), and I liked where the story went and it was at a good pace – it does go a bit crazy and out there towards the end which was hilarious and I could tell which bits they ‘borrowed’ from Stephen King’s short story of the same title. Also there was something about the main characters early persona that seemed very similar to a certain Simple Jack in Tropic Thunder – definitely something there, although Fahey didn’t quite go ‘full retard’ like Ben Stiller did for that role. Also it was interesting to see a projection (however fictional) of something that is now becoming mainstream and is marked as the future. Virtual reality is the next big money maker apparently and after films like this and Ready Player One, it does make me question further whether our sometimes fragile minds will be able to take it…
I thoroughly enjoyed this film, might not be the greatest, but very watchable to me.
Eddie’s Evil Elf By J.A. Sullivan First published in Midnight Gore: Bloody Christmas – December 2018. Little Eddie Stewart was about to slay the giant tyrannosaurus that had boarded his ship with his trusty cutlass, when something woke him. He couldn’t say exactly what had roused him from his dreams, but he wasn’t thirsty and…
Films have been my thing for over 30 years now and I usually refrain from doing reviews. I can usually talk until the cows come home about films, so why not see if I can convert that into written word. I have recently seen some awful ones and think maybe it’s time to share my opinion on these films and throw in the great ones too for good measure. I’m not one for spoilers or giving you a plot run down or character names etc, I will say what I thought of the film.
It’s funny how the most recent ones that have made the grade have been films I seem to have missed when they came out an age ago or just never got round to watching. We didn’t have the luxury of recording everything or having constant film channels, if you didn’t see it at the cinema, rent the video from Blockbuster or see it on the TV you didn’t get to watch it. Film lending among friends wasn’t very common, they were expensive and people were prone to not returning things! Now we have access to pretty much any film from any time, technically my dream come true. I used to say to myself (because no-one else was interested), I wish I could have access to a virtual blockbuster video store through the TV, then I wouldn’t have to be disappointed that the film I wanted wasn’t available. And now two decades later we are here, and can I think of anything to watch most days? Of course not. Too much choice now, but that is another story…
RASPBERRY CHEESECAKE
I’ve used raspberries for this cheesecake, but you could also substitute blueberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries or strawberries. (this is adapted from an internet recipe for a whole cheesecake of which I cannot find the source).
My adaption is for 4 ramekin servings
SYRUP
110 g raspberries
50 g caster sugar
50 ml water
5 g cornflour
BASE
65 g digestive biscuits or Hobnobs
25 g butter, melted
FILLING
75 ml double cream
25 g caster sugar
130 g cream cheese, such as Philadelphia/mascarpone (or mixed)
½ tsp vanilla extract
Syrup = 90 g of the raspberries into a pan with the sugar and 40 ml of the water. Slowly bring to the boil to dissolve the sugar, then simmer for 7 minutes or so. Mix the cornflour with the remaining 10 ml water and add to the pan, stirring. Simmer and stir, for 2-3 minutes until thick. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Base = Crush the biscuits in a food processor until they are the texture of coarse breadcrumbs. (Or smash them in a plastic bag with a rolling pin which is my preferred method.) Melt the butter and add the blended/crushed biscuit crumbs, evenly divide the mixture between the 4 ramekins and leave to cool.
Filling = Whip the cream and sugar together until fairly stiff. In another bowl, beat the cream cheese to soften, then fold in the whipped cream and vanilla extract. Lightly fold through half of the raspberry syrup (not too thoroughly though if you want a rippled effect).
Spoon the mix on to the biscuit bases, mix the rest of the raspberries with the remaining raspberry syrup and divide between the 4 dishes on top of the cream cheese mixture.
Place in the fridge for 2-3 hours until firm. Eat and enjoy.
We finally got some snow. Lots of it. It is the perfect kind of snow to get out in and photograph, so that is exactly what BG and I did. It wasn’t too cold, either which made it really nice. I got some amazing shots and I’m still going through most of them, but this […]
via Winter Wonderland… FINALLY! — TJ Fox: Sharing the Experience
A personal look at mental abilities and labels of society and how they can affect navigating your way through adulthood. Discussing living with Aphantasia and Hyperphantasia and how they influence day to day life. Within those also looking at anxiety, mental time travel, PTSD, dreams, fear and more.
Around a decade ago, I found my way to setting up and running a local blues record label. I did this as a hobby business after I had set up my accounts company, I had spent the time needed to make it successful and employ a number of people so I could do other things. These other things turned out to be wasting my time on other people. I was surrounded by musicians and thought maybe if someone could pull together the admin side and help guide their creativity, it might just work.
I laugh now at my misplaced optimism. Organising people and their dreams isn’t the easiest thing to do, and given the choice knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t do it differently. I wouldn’t do it at all. It was many (way too many) hours of my own time for which I have nothing to show apart from this one CD left from the label launch. The lesson for me being, not all creative people actually want to do anything with their talent, if they have any. My motivation was better used for myself and my own dreams. Maybe I was just to afraid to push myself and it was easier to try and push others? There were moments where it was fun, but mostly just a lot of hassle.
Although after I stopped helping other people, I wrote a few blues songs myself and recorded one of them A Capella (by this time I had had enough of musicians). I love music and what can be done but it isn’t my dream. One of my favourite films is still The Blues Brothers and it’s probably my favourite genre. I concentrate on my writing and publishing now and running my bookkeeping business.
So far I have published two books of poetry, three novels, a book of short stories, two colouring books and just recently my first non fiction book. Writing and publishing my own books has been my dream since I was 6, so now I am finally doing it, I think I will just keep going. There is so much more to be written.
This morning I was up a bit earlier than I would have liked, but the sunrise made it worth it.
(c) K Wicks photographer
The One That Knows No Fear: stuntman extraordinaire. For young Timmy Wilson, this stuntman is his only reason for living. Every Saturday he watches as The One That Knows No Fear cheats death. Now, the stunt show is coming to his hometown and Timmy can’t wait to watch him perform in person. A coming-of-age, cosmic…
via The One That Knows No Fear by Steve Stred #BookReview — Sci-Fi & Scary
MKW Publishing 