GarethRDR

The Fingerchoke of Doom.

Yes, very much. Increasingly I've found myself unable to have a lie-in anymore also, once my body hits that 8 hours then up it gets. I hate it. I miss lie-ins. The other side of that bastard coin seems to be sleep paralysis always decides to kick in just at the very moment I feel a leg cramp, so I'm lying there motionless with my brain screaming at the rest of me to **** move as the searing pain gets worse and worse. Getting old(er) is fun!

In real terms that's only actually 0.0001 staff they're letting go of.

How can you tell?

It's been billed as the Young Bucks presenting "unseen backstage footage" so in spite of reports of it not being a swerve, I'm fully expecting it to be some totally unrelated footage of YB kayfabe "brawling" with FTR or something. Gonna be car crash popcorn if they actually do show it though.

Unlikely, they'd have had to remove the crayons from their noses first.

Nice try, copper.

Rejoice! More new Les Savy Fav. This is a song about getting bummed by the ghosts of The Rivingtons in the back of a spectral limousine.

The quicker the Prometheus and Covenant "storylines" can get whatever the retcon equivalent of ejected out of a **** airlock is, the better. I hold only AvP2 in less regard (that being the undisputable nadir of the series). Álvarez has at least been saying the right things to pique my curiosity on Romulus (particularly around having brought in the OG Stan Winston guys to consult on the practical effects side). What I am hoping for is a stripped back, standalone piece that keeps the spirit of the original films without being beholden to them (essential doing what Prey did). What worries me is hearing how involved Scott and Cameron have been in alleged service of the "wider mythos"... it's Alien for Christ's sake, not the Bayeux **** Tapestry. Doesn't help that after the Zygote short, I'm back to being angry that we'll never get Blomkamp's film. Thanks Ridley, you ruddy melt.

One, two, three four five Right backs in the squad.

Eiza Gonzalez was cast in the Salma Hayek role for the Dusk Till Dawn TV series adaptation. You're welcome.

I would like to offer Born Slippy .NUXX as part of the greatest B-Sides discussion.

"LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE RAPE GANGS OF MY PLANET."

Well, Nottingham is the gun crime capital of the UK.

The bad jokes/mild transphobia guy?

No. No no no no no no. It looked cheap, tacky and plain **** awful when Puma did it for a season to all their national teams and clubs, it only really works in the context of the MLS because they've been doing it long enough already and the garish bombast is on-brand for the American audience (okay, maybe that's a bit harsh) but **** me does it look so amateur-hour. Our badge is our identity (Heck's efforts to the contrary), we don't need the name emblazoned across the chest like some Fisher Price alphabet fridge magnets. The options should only ever be 1) chest sponsor that pays us 2) a charity we want to support 3) nothing at all (nothing at all, nothing at all... stupid sexy Flanders). Not that, um, I feel particularly strongly about this, or course.

Chill Amsterdam trip now right out the window, managed to grab a last minute resale ticket for Underworld tonight at some converted gasworks. Double set with no support apparently. 'AVE IT.

Wonder how many neo-nazis Heilung will bring with 'em this time.

Control (with all the DLC) is going to be on Game Pass shortly, for anyone who's not played it. I cannot recommend this game enough.

I'm a somewhat subscriber to the notion it was almost intentionally made so as a protest/two fingers up from Wachowski to the studio threatening to do a film with or without them. Doesn't make it good or right (or even watchable) but the story's not exactly subtle in it's indictment of modern Hollywood. Personally I just keep on treating the series as if they never got past film 1 anyway. Maybe throw chunks of the Animatrix in there too.

Christ on a bike, the nonsense they won with last year was enough of a disgrace (Finland were absolutely robbed), have they no shame?

I've had an absolutely rancid chest infection since about last Wednesday onwards, that only now after some pretty gnarly antibiotics (that have given me the worst diarrhea of my life) and a week off work is starting to abate. This has been spectacularly ill-timed, as last Thursday we flew out to Berlin for what was my wife's Xmas present to me, tickets to see Komfortrauschen (whom for context, I only came across last year when they were announced for the upcoming ArcTanGent festival, which we're not going to make it to this time around and I had been lamenting that fact as they very much tick all of musical boxes and then some). Try as my lungs did to put a dampener on the weekend (day after the show was spent feeling very sorry for myself in the hotel room), the show itself was phenomenal, and thankfully the adrenaline coursing through me seemed to carry me through most of it (no doubt partly helped by the feeling of "where the **** are we going, we're going to get stabbed" on the walk through what seemed to be a dystopian industrial wasteland to get to the Kantine am Berghain venue). I am dearly hoping they play a string of shows over here in run-up to ATG, and I cannot recommend them enough as a live prospect (especially if the notion of throbbing 90's German techno performed by a drummer, guitarist and bass player via a mesmeric array of pedals and no backing track particularly appeals). It's a testament to how good they were that the my condition didn't ruin the entire weekend, but it's certainly not what I had hoped for a first gig proper abroad. To that end, roll on next weekend, which I have long had booked as a mini-break to Amsterdam for just myself. I have had no plans for this trip other than to chill in a nice AirBNB, recharge the batteries (it's been a tough year thus far and we're not even through feckin' March), buy a lot of tasty snacks (and some "cakes" of the celestial variety) and generally veg the heck out. Out of curiosity, I though I would see if the Melkweg had anything good on whilst I was over, and as luck would have it I'll now been spending next Sunday evening excitedly gurning my way through my first DJ Shadow show. I don't believe in karma, but I've bastard-well earned this slice of good fortune.

Boltgun (just added to Game Pass) is amazing. Even if you've no interest in 40k. Haven't enjoyed an FPS this much since Doom 2016.

I mean they're not huge huge, sure, but I'd always considered Editors as successful and "big" enough in the grand scheme of things? Even at their worst, they navigated deftly away from getting subsumed into the landfill indie of the era, as their stuff was always a cut above. As far as their B-Side and related material goes, biiiiiiiig fan of that Stereolab cover they did.

The one up in Dundee is great. I guess mileage will always vary depending on what exhibitions they've got on, but the structural design stuff around it is fascinating.