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Chrissie

2024 Viewing (Q1-2)

Just to catch up on what we watched, in terms of mostly old television, during the first half of this year! Previous viewings are here.

The Rockford Files seasons 4-6 (DVD)
Mission: Impossible seasons 1-4 (DVD)
Starsky & Hutch seasons 3-4 (DVD)
Dragnet (1967-70) seasons 1-4 (download)
Kojak season 6 (1989/90) (download)
Maverick seasons 1-2 (download)
The Deputy season 2 (download)
Bat Masterson seasons 2-3 (download)
Jesse Stone movie series (2005-15) (DVD)
Reacher season 2 (download)

I don’t necessarily think these posts are the most interesting to readers… but, it has become a kind of “log” for me anyway. Nonetheless, to try to make it slightly more interesting, a bit of commentary follows…
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Tod Slaughter Take 2

Following up this post… I did a Tod Slaughter commission back in April, and the postal service lost it in transit. So, I started work on a replacement.

Anyhow, shockingly enough, the postal dopes eventually found the original, and sent it back to me! In doing so, they did manage at some point to damage the well-packaged artwork (albeit fairly minimally), just to add extra insult. Cue rant about incompetence and overpriced services.
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About Neil

(Also Known As: Overrated Writers I Hate #1. Maybe.)

I have no idea whether or not the allegations against our beloved, saintly Lord Neil of Gaiman have any validity. It wouldn’t necessarily surprise me, but I’m happy to be on the fence.

However, it’s not the worst time to indulge my view about his character and his work. I believe the two, being more or less inseparable, are best summed up with the word charlatan. I’ve spent 30-odd years being astounded (and quite disappointed) by the amount of praise and gushing idolatry directed at this insufferably smug, annoyingly fey, all-appeasing goon. His work is, without doubt, amongst the most shallow, meaningless, insincere and vacuous ever to be published to significant acclaim.
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Births & Deaths

So, as almost all horror fans know, today is the birthday of both Vincent Price and Christopher Lee… and just yesterday was Peter Cushing’s date of birth, by odd coincidence.

Lee, Price & Cushing, 1982
Christopher Lee, Vincent Price and Peter Cushing—publicity shot from 1982, during the shoot for HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS.

Also, for me, a significant day for losses. On this day back in 2006, we not only lost the legendary cartoonist Alex Toth—my mother also passed away. Has it really been 18 years? Not to me. Time makes no sense these days.

A few pics of mom…
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Underrated Artists I Love #2: Herb Trimpe

This has been a long time coming, and, for me, an obvious choice! You can see #1 here.

Ah, Herb Trimpe. Some people actually don’t like Herb’s work—and some people dismiss him simply as a “Jack Kirby Clone”. These people are horribly & completely wrong. I found Herb in the mid-’70s, as a little kid, in UK reprints of his Hulk stories via the weekly Mighty World of Marvel. In spite of initially reading his last name as “tripe” (yeah, yeah, those people above would agree!) (I was just learning to read at the time), I immediately took to his work—and I’ve never changed my mind.

Incidentally: as any real fan knows, Herb’s last name rhymes with shrimpy.

If you’re with me thus far, I’ll assume you agree that Herb Trimpe was an awesome Hulk artist. Here’s Herb’s back cover for Marvel Treasury Edition #5 (1975), which is a fine example of how good a match H & H were…

Marvel Treasury Edition #5 back cover
Someone made him angry…
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Ranked: David Bowie Albums

So, folks, should this be the first in a series? Ranking albums by a particular artist? What do you think? Maybe I’ll do it again! First up, it had to be BOWIE. Of course. Who else?

So: I’m ranking what I take to be the THIRTY studio albums by David Bowie. Some people might exclude the Tin Machine albums or the Labyrinth soundtrack, but I think they’re significant enough to count as canon. Okay?

Let’s begin with NUMBER THIRTY…

(IOW, the worst Bowie album!)

Never Let Me Down (1987)

30. Never Let Me Down (1987)

The infamous “Phil Collins” period of Bowie, as some fans call it. “Day-in Day-Out” and “Time Will Crawl” are pretty strong singles, but the overwhelming ’80s production and lack of conviction make this undoubtedly his worst album.
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Remembering the Two Freds

As hinted at in this post, March 14 would have been Fred (Jr)’s 20th birthday, if he was still here. He died in 2018.

Well, further to that, today would have been a big birthday for the “original” Fred, who was born on April 26 1994. Yup, the Big Three-Oh! Of course, no Westie in the long history of Westiedom ever lived to be 30, but it’s a bittersweet landmark that I wanted to note. I also plan to make a few more postings about both of the Freds in due course, 2024 being a big year for them. Below are a couple of pics of OG Fred in the meantime (I’m working on scanning many more)…

Fred July 1994
OG Fred as a pup, early July 1994.
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2023 Viewing (Q4)

Long overdue: the viewings for the approx last quarter of 2023. Previous viewings @ here.

Haven’t felt much like blogging for some time (hardly anyone reads this thing & the Internet in general has become something I really dislike—a rant for another time, mebbe!), but this is a tradition now. Onwards.

The Rockford Files seasons 1-3 (DVD)
Starsky & Hutch seasons 1-2 (DVD)
Columbo seasons 3-10 (DVD)
The Deputy season 1 (download)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series 2 (DVD)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes series 1-2 (DVD)
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes series 1-3 (DVD)
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes series 1 (DVD)
Reacher season 1 (download)
Tulsa King season 1 (download)

Some commentary…
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