Minions, Emmys, Only Connects - Facebook posts

A month of Facebook posts, cos they've got to go somewhere.

Sept 2: Excellent, if unexpectedly sad, programme about some of the British artists at this year's Venice Biennale. We're going to Venice this week so we were worried about any art getting spoilered for us, but in fact it just gives you a taster. We know, from having gone before, that there's sooo much art in Venice we won't see a fraction of it. The sad part? Khadija Saye, the central person in this show, died in the Grenfell Tower fire after this documentary was made. We get an interview shot in her flat in Grenfell Tower! That is a weird thing. Anyhow, we can recommend this programme (and can't wait to get to Venice).



Sept 4: An interesting phrase came up on a Facebook flashback post this morning: "Everyone needs to laugh, especially these days." I read a lot of that sentiment, and I always have. "These days". What's so bad about these days that's worse than the past?

Is it more a reflection of the writer of the statement and their increasing pessimism and disillusionment or do a significant number of people really think that the state of the world in 2017 is that abysmal?

It could be the week in particular that the writer of that post, from September 2014, was writing. About which I can remember little. I know it wasn't the year when all the celebrities kept dying and we voted for Brexit and Trump.

I know it wasn't the year we went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the year Princess Di died. I know it wasn't one of those years when Reagan was president and we lived in constant fear of nuclear war, or when Thatcher was in charge and it was all ghost towns and riots round here. Was it as bad as the 70s which I remember as a mess of skinheads, bin strikes, power cuts and IRA bombs? Or was it the 60s, when they assassinated a president and went to war in Vietnam? Or the 50s when everything was rationed and we lived in prefabs on bomb sites? Or the 40s when they made the bomb sites in the first place?

In short, I quite like it these days. Am I mad? Here, have an Abbott & Costello sketch (which was the subject of the original 2014 post of which I spoke).



Sept 4: Thank heavens for Minions. Last night we especially enjoyed the Minions movie cos we needed cheering up after watching animations at the Bristol Festival of Puppetry. The animations were good, they were called Cabinet Of Curiosities, but my god, how dark? There was a horrible one with holocaust victims depicted as balls of string, then an even more nightmarish one with dead bodies and no happy ending. Czech and Polish animations, with all that entails. And shown in such an order that we'd totally forgotten the less bleak ones in the middle by the time we came to the end of 90 minutes of films, and all exited shell-shocked and depressedly miserable. Quite the most dispiriting film show I've seen in a while (but well done Puppetry Festival for showing a challenging programme. But, blimey.). So, thanks again Minions. You made it all better. Banana!

Sept 8: Oh well done AI guy. You just signed the death sentence of hundreds of people in Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria and 100 other countries where they were just waiting for this sort of thing to cut out the middle man. Now one scan and you can be accused, imprisoned and killed. And I bet this seemed such a lark when you invented it.


Sept 10: Well, we were just laughing out loud, sat here in bed of a Sunday morning watching the pilot of Mr Winner. Once you get past the rather gag-heavy radio-style first half of the script, the farce is brilliant. Stay for the aquarium scene and I think we've got a new Mr Bean / Some Mothers Do Ave Em here.

Sept 14: Okay, got a topical Only Connect for you. What do these companies have in common?

Technics

Panasonic

Nationwide Building Society

Barclaycard

A: Sponsors of Mercury Music Prize

Sept 15: Quick question - where the hell do I see any of these TV shows? I've just read the contenders for the Emmys, and there's only three or four I've actually seen, a couple more I've heard of, but most I've neither heard of nor know where on earth you can see them (in the UK). Anyone know?

Big Little Lies
Feud
Genius
The Night Of
Full Frontal With Samantha Bee
Real Time With Bill Maher
Baskets
This Is Us
Transparent
American Crime
The Wizard of Lies
Silicon Valley
Black-ish
Atlanta
Better Things
Celeste

Sept 17: I bought a lovely Kull The Destroyer comic at the weekend (antique shop in Gloucester, £1), a real gem by Roy Thomas and Mike Ploog from 1973. What a reminder of how comics have changed since my childhood. Look at those colours. All over the place. Hardly a splodge stays within the outlines. Why was this? I mean I love them, but this was state of the art 40 years ago, and it very much emphasises how the line work was paramount and the colour art almost a second thought. How do other comic art lovers feel? Is this naff colouring a problem or a joy? And do the present day uber-photoshop-painted comics pages make them better or worse?


Sept 21: Thanks to Lew Stringer for prompting me to a bit of research on comic sales. Having learnt that US comics struggle to sell more than 50,000 a month these days, I've found a site that not only shows you US comic sales for every month from now back to 1995, it also has some sales figures from the 1960s. Check 1966 out. Batman was selling 898,470 copies a month, and another half dozen titles sell half a million an issue. Poor old Marvel are just outside the top ten (selling less than Archie comics) with Spider-Man selling 340,155 a month. I appreciate I may be the only person interested in these things.

Sept 23: My Facebook feed is equally split between people who think the way Uber treat their drivers and endanger the public is bad, and people who think the way Uber saves them money and gets them home at night is good. (There is a third group, including me, who has never taken an Uber cab so has no idea what everyone's talking about.) Given the way lots of right-minded, good & liberal people are defending Uber, I'm guessing Uber aren't as bad as sweatshops and slave labour? Or are people in London just really self-centred?

Sept 24: Oh well done my bank. My bank (who shall remain nameless for, cough, security reasons*) have redesigned their website to make it unnecessarily hard to use. Until the weekend, if you wanted to make a payment, it displayed the words "Make A Payment". Now, have a guess. Which of the blobs on the left hand column is the Make A Payment blob? It took me two incorrect stabs to find it.

* I know, I know

Sept 26: Stories that may not have made today's Metro down in England. Mark Millar is awarded the Tennents Golden Can.

OK, got a Tea Time Theme Time for you. What do these three songs have in common?

(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang by Heaven 17
Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio? by The Ramones
Happy New Year by Abba

A bit of a fiendish thing this, feel free to guess. I'll be amazed if anyone gets it first time. 

ANSWER 

All three songs have lyrics that are past their use-by date.

Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio? by The Ramones
"It's the end the end of the century, it's the end the end of the 70s"
- out of date for 17 or 38 years, whichever way you look at it

Happy New Year by Abba:
"In another ten years time, Who can say what we'll find, What lies waiting down the line, At the end of '89.."
- out of date for 28 years

(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang by Heaven 17
"Reagan is President Elect"
- this was out of date before it even came out! Reagan was President Elect from November 1980 till February 1981 (after which he was President, obviously). The single was released in March 1981 and the album came out September 81.

**********************

Sept 28: Let's see. On Thursday I worked face to face with 75 accountants in London, then on Friday flew in a crowded plane, then on Saturday worked with 60 kids in Northern Ireland, then on Sunday flew in a crowded plane, then on Monday flew on another crowded plane and worked with 60 primary school kids in Stenhousemuir, then on Tuesday I worked with another 60 primary school kids in Falkirk, then flew in another crowded plane. I can't imagine how it happened, but here's today's light reading. Wikipedia on The Common Cold.

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Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here. 
Read more at http://kevfcomicart.blogspot.com/#7kfjDE7vEwt9ClPE.99