Spider-Man: No Way Home

Yesterday I went to see this film. Given the omicron variant is being a bitch I had to balance out all the variables. I booked the largest screen/auditorium and made the the seats were definitely spaced from other vectors, facemasks were worn. A group of young men were there not wearing facemasks and I don’t think they were all exempt but there’s no folly like the stupid invincibility of the young. Wearing a facemask actually show that you care about others, you are reducing your airborne vectors, you are being considerate. These young men, quite clearly, aren’t aware of that or just don’t care. It’s easy, I think, to want to think about others and do your best for them. I really should remind myself that the tories have one a majority the last few general elections when the alternative was a society trying to help people.

It was dark, cold and foggy on the drive to the cinema and with roads closed near the village the journey was a bit longer than hoped for. The tide looked low on entry to the cinema. I could see all the mud flats and they were covered in seabirds having a rest from attempting to fly with almost zero visibility. After watching the film I rated it on IMDB and there is a communication that covers all the rules for the ratings here. I then tweet my result and because I have re-installed twitter onto my phone I could do that straight after the rating rather than having to use the PC to send it.

I didn’t hate this film. But I didn’t really enjoy it. But I was happy to see how the story was resolved and how they would figure certain aspects out. I don’t like superhero films and stories because it always ends up – who has the bigger fists wins – and that’s a lazy trope. It’s toxic masculinity class 101. Anyway, this film was mostly dull. I don’t like Dr Strange as a character and I didn’t really like most of the plot. It felt as though they had run out of ideas and just needed to bring back all the baddies because being creative is too hard.

From here on there be spoilers.

This is a film about selfishness. Utter selfishness. Peter Parker could have fixed it right at the beginning by not changing the spell every few seconds. Dr Strange could have stopped the spell and then re-started it but apparently the rules in this universe don’t allow for that. Peter Parker was selfish at the beginning and then ruined many people’s lives and cost millions of dollars of damage. He could have fixed this at any point by hitting the button on the McGuffin. The problems created in this film are so easily stopped. Press the fucking button.

The reason he doesn’t press the button is this universe Peter Parker believes that people should be given a second chance, that they have the chance at redemption. What christian wank this is. Just accept christ on your deathbed and say you are sorry to the imaginary man in the sky and you are redeemed and accepted into heaven. Parker wanted to fix these terrible people without their consent. I’m not sure what was meant to happen after that? Were they going to live in his universe? If you had the amazing power of being a bad superhero do you think you could go back to living in the suburbs? I’m not sure that would end well. The reason these people become bad is that they are egotistical cunts.

What was the end game? It seems Parker came up with a plan but with no idea how to resolve then ensuing issues. This is another classic modern trope taken from the real world examples of Iraq and Afghanistan. If you look back at the end of WW2 there were plans put in place to rebuild Europe and Japan. There was never a plan for Iraq and Afghan. Right, ok. This has gone political. I probably need to stop. Look, the thing is, Peter could have hit the button at anytime and fixed it all. He didn’t. He’s a selfish prick.

I was hoping we could see some Miles Morales, but it didn’t happen. I feel that the script could have been loads better with the other spidermen. I felt stale and slow. It didn’t really work. Perhaps the writers need to watch some buddy movies, or some where they get the team together.

So, this is communication 1998 and I’ve been writing a few things that happened in each year as I get through the publishing of communications. The last few have been interesting as nothing of note has stuck out at me on the wikipedia page and I so there’s this blank area when I wasn’t really into news as such. I just didn’t take that stuff in. Anyway, here are some things that happened in 1998:

  • Andrew Wakefield’s lying study into MMR vaccines and the lies told by the media of the day launch the anti-vaccination movement.
  • The second Congo war starts, it will leave 5.4 million dead.
  • Google Inc is formed.
  • An oil pipeline in Nigeria explodes killing 1,082 people.

Tasman Sea

It’s been tough, this last term. There’s plenty to moan about and discuss. But I’ll leave that to private conversations rather than let everything be out in the open on this site. If you can believe it I have my limits. I’m typing this as my flight sim heads across the sea from Hobart, Tasmania to an airport in New Zealand. I’ve got about fifty minutes to go. This is the longest over sea flight I have done and I keep looking at fuel levels. I think I might travel the length of New Zealand and then island hop to Hawaii, after that I’m not so sure how to get to the Americas. Maybe I’ll head to Galapagos and the South America. I honestly don’t know. I’m not even sure what the maximum range of my aircraft is. I can tell you that the T7 that I’m flying seems remarkably “loose” in the sky and I’m not sure if that’s the updated aircraft or just my flight sim. I guess I’ll find out when I try and land.

I’ve been tweeting the flights for a while now and I’m looking forward to whatever I’ll do when I return to the start point. I’ll need a new challenge but I’m also hoping that X-Plane 12 will be out by then. If they could make a version that uses multi-core rather then a single core then that would make me very happy. I don’t know how complicated that is but I do know they use an Apple computer for writing everything. I get a reasonable performance at the moment except over very built up areas and so multi-core could sort that out for me.

I’ve been checking online every now and then for PlayStation 5 stock. I was curious but I didn’t think I’d actually end up with a decent result, but . . . the other day I checked Argos and then Currys/PCWorld and it turned out there was a bundle in stock at PCWorld. Well, what could I do? I didn’t think I would buy one but the dream of GT7 on a 4K TV with raytracing got me and I clicked the order button. It’s coming on Tuesday. I need to rationalise AV corner now and think about getting game saves etc over from one machine to another. It’s probably time for the DVD and Blu-Ray player to go. It’s very rare that we actually watch anything on disc and the PS5 can be called into use whenever that ability is needed. I’ve promised myself I’ll try and get into more games over the next year. I want to use the games I have in the library. I will possibly report back on if it’s good or not in about a week.

The kids play mostly PC games when they are here. One on a laptop and the other uses my beast of a machine. I use my own PC for flight sim mostly. My fingers don’t really operate at a ASWD level, they are too used to a PS5 type controller. I could learn but there are other things I’m going to try and learn to push my brain a little. I guess I might reveal those things sometime in the future.

I’ve recently actually paid for a couple of albums. I’ve had Children Of The Dark by Mono Inc. in my head for ages and decided it was time to try and purge the earworm. It turns out that didn’t work and I keep getting their songs going through my head. I’m looking forward to seeing them in concert at sometime in the future. I’ve been wondering about whether it is best to buy an album or to stream music and I’ve mentioned that before on this site. For me, I thought buying an album meant more of the money I’ve spent would go to the artist. If I don’t listen to the songs many times more of the money in terms of royalties goes to the artist than if I just streamed the songs. Now, Daniel Graves from Aesthetic Perfection has said that he makes more money from streaming that album sales because I guess some people play individual songs over and over. I don’t know if it would make my contribution more to the artists as I often only play a song a couple of times and not over and over. It’s something I’m going to think about over the next week or so.

Well, I arrive in New Zealand in about ten minutes so I need to head back to the flight simulator and get ready for landing. I’m really worried about the handling of the aircraft and I hope I don’t crash on the landing as by my own imposed rules I would have to start the flight again!! Keep an eye on Twitter for progress.

This is communication 1997. Here are some things that happened in the year 1997 ACE:

  • Hale-Bopp makes its closest approach to Earth.
  • The UK hands Hong Kong to China.
  • The country went Diana mad. I was left remarkably unfazed by the whole thing and didn’t really care.
  • The Prius goes into production.

Dune Demolishing

So, this week I’ve watched Demolition Man along with the 1984 version of Dune. There are other things going on but none particularly interesting enough for this site, except maybe the caves and cliffs update to Minecraft. Why did I choose to watch Demolition Man? It’s even worse than that I paid for the privilege of watching it on a streaming service rather than “download” it which I would have done in the past. So, I didn’t download it as I only do that on an old laptop, the new PC hasn’t been tainted with any torrent type software or files and I refuse to let it become untouchable. A podcast I listen to reviews films, specifically terrible christian movies although they sometimes do jewish and muslim films too.

These guys chose to review Demolition Man this week and I remembered really liking it when I saw it at the cinema and the “three seashells” thing is something that I think about now and then. It’s sometimes nice to watch the film before it gets reviewed, most of the time I’m not bothered but this time I thought it was worth it. It’s very interesting seeing how far film technology has come in my life time. This was a high quality film and the effects are some of the best of its time. I mean, they look terrible compared to nowadays but they were still pretty good and didn’t mess with my enjoyment of watching this film. It’s a great film.

Dune, 1984 Lynch version, also happened to pop up in my interest this week as I had discussed the 2021 film version with a friend and as much as I knew I’d seen the original I couldn’t really remember much about it. So, I watched this too this week. What did I think? Well, it’s more gross and despicable than the 2021 film, and I think it’s probably a better film. Again, there are issues with the technology being so much more improved these days that it’s hard to make a film look terrible because of the effects [especially so when there’s so much money involved]. Everyone raves about the sense of scale and vista that Villeneuve creates but the Lynch version has the same sense of wonder and mechanical amazement. I’m not sure people who reviewed the recent version had watched the Lynch version within memory.

I think I have a bigger issue with the overall plot of films like this one which I consider to be absolutely fucking lazy. This isn’t really the fault of the movies but more a fault of the writer of the story. My problem is: it’s just a fucking jesus story! Stop being so fucking lazy and making your lead character the last chance of a prophecy. So many books and films have prophecy and saviour figures that it reinforces upon society the religious views prevalent at the time. Even Harry Potter is the result of a prophecy. This child was born to do the things he did. Every time a book or film with this lazy-ass plot device makes it big it reinforces two things in the population:

  • The concept of religion and the prophecies from the past allowing us to redeem ourselves if we believe in the correct god.
  • The concept that people are born into a particular standing in life and that you need to learn your place.

Both of these concepts annoy the fuck out of me. Both of these concepts continue to encourage and force the disparity we see in society, they discourage altruistic behaviour and they encourage fucking idiots to become leaders of countries because that’s their fucking birth right. You know that t-shirt that says if you aren’t angry then you aren’t paying attention? I’m a walking human version of that. I have to constantly pull away from the news to pay less attention because everywhere I look I see entitled pricks trying to do a job they have no idea to do because they think they should be doing it. These assholes genuinely think this is their purpose in life. To be in charge. To make decisions that will affect populations. But, the problem is, they aren’t qualified to do it. They are slimy cunts who have the right parents and attended the right schools. They don’t give a shit about everyone else, they just care enough to try and maintain their position of power.

I read an headline in The Guardian recently where someone was saying that will all the recent shenanigans they are thinking of changing their vote. Fucking What? How stuck in your ways and forgiving do you need to be if you are only now thinking of changing your vote? How much shit and bollocks do the tories need to create for you to just around now start thinking of changing your vote? What a selfish prick. If you can’t see that the current bunch in charge are utterly incompetent then maybe you shouldn’t be voting in the first place. I suspect it’s more about getting to the balance point where you can accept your hatred of voting Labour rather than the selfish view of continuously voting for the tories because you always have.

Well, that went sideways as a communication but I think it’s all on message for the general themes of this website. In other news I bought an album by Mono Inc because I’ve had “Children Of The Dark” going through my head for weeks now.

This is communication number 1996. So, let’s see what things happened that year that made a mark on my life:

  • Fokker goes bankrupt.
  • Australia bans automatic and semiautomatic weapons following a mass killing.
  • IRA Manchester bomb.
  • N64 is released.

I don’t think I was paying much attention to the news in this year as looking through the lists of happenings, not much actually reminded me. I was news-blind. I wish I was such now.

Use Your Illusion II – Guns ‘n’ Roses

Each new communication seems we get a little closer to ending the work that has been the album reviews because that is literally the definition of writing about a finite list. But, I will go back to the beginning and start over with all the EBM, Aggrotech music once I’ve finished this. It looks like there’s around thirty or so to go but I don’t think I’ll finish them this calendar year. Here’s a tweet about a journey around the world that I’m undertaking at the moment. Nothing to do with music but it’s nice to add something into these communications.

Here we go with my review of Illusion II. It’s very similar to Illusion I in its feel and atmosphere. They did come out on the same day.

Civil War – boring.

14 Years – Doesn’t have a huge amount going for it.

Yesterdays – plinky plonky boring.

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – great live, but then it’s not their own song. Dull as.

Get In The Ring – something worth listening to. I testament to Axl’s treatment by the metal music press. He calls out the journalists and reckons he could fight them. Look, when you are out of it on drugs and alcohol you think things should be settled in one way only. I do like this song.

Shotgun Blues – Nope.

Breakdown – whatever.

Pretty Tied Up – I quite like this one. It’s a bit more upbeat that most and makes me smile.

Locomotive – I’m playing this right now and I genuinely can’t remember this song!!

So Fine – boring.

Estranged – boring.

You Could Be Mine – used in a film. A good song.

Don’t Cry – AGAIN? What. Isn’t this on number one?

My World – really nope.

I know it looks like I hate this album and I do think I would skip a lot of the songs if they came on now but I loved this and the other one. They forged a part of me. I mean, I saw Guns ‘n’ Roses three times in the early 90s and had a great time at every concert. I’m not sure Illusion II stands the test of time, or possibly the test of my patience with ballads.

This is communication number 1995 and we get closer to the massive TWO THOUSAND each week. I wonder if the end of the second thousand communications will happen this side of my christmas break or in it. It depends how keen I am to keep writing stuff on here. Here are some things that happened in the year 1995:

  • I started learning to be a teacher after a year of doing sabbatical stuff.
  • Genocide in the Balkans.
  • Windows 95.
  • Existence of top quark is announced.

Use Your Illusion I – Guns ‘n’ Roses

There was a time when Guns ‘n’ Roses were the largest band in the world. This is communication 1994 and it’s quite close to the release year of 1991 for these two albums, Illusion 1 and Illusion 2. I can remember walking around near South Kensington underground station trying to find an “Our Price” record shop to buy these things. My thinking was that that there are shops near the tube station and so there should be an “Our Price”. Where I grew up where there were lots of shops there was an Our Price so I think my logic was solid I just hadn’t realised at that point just how “shoppy” London can be. I had to walk all the way to Kensington High Street to find a shop that could sell me these albums. I know I bought them on album and then transferred them to tape to listen more conveniently, record players being quite rare in drivable vehicles.

I have listened to these albums recently and I would think it’s been around twenty years since my last full run through of the songs. There are some songs that I really like and many that I’m just not fussed by. I wonder how much my experience of these songs has changed over the last thirty years. I think I’ve changed a lot in my tastes. I mean, fuck ballads. But then I don’t think I’ve ever really loved Don’t Cry and November Rain – they are too popular and musically written to create that popularity.

Right Next Door To Hell is a good fast song that smashes the sound and experience into your head. But it’s followed by:

Dust N’ Bones which is a bit bluesy and shit. It was with these two albums that G’n’R started having lots of backing singers on tour and it all went a little not-dangerous. But what are you going to do when you are the biggest band in the world.

Live and Let Die can fuck off.

Perfect Crime is a bit boring and so much of the same. Maybe I’m too old for this shit. I’m not bothered by most of this. I do think Appetite is still an amazing album though.

You Ain’t The First is boring.

Bad Obsession I absolutely love the slide guitar at the beginning of this song. It’s an awesome sound. Is that a harmonica in the mix? Not sure, but I don’t think I like it. The song isn’t terrible though.

Back Of Bitch. I really struggle with the term bitch when referring to people. I don’t like it. It reeks of a poor attitude and behaviour.

Double Talkin’ Jive I quite like the solo and overall I think the song works quite well.

November Rain – utter shit.

The Garden – is that fucking Alice Cooper? Such a malevolent voice. Makes this entire song something worth listening to.

Garden Of Eden – nope.

Don’t Damn Me – again, a decent riff and a decent song. I like this one.

Bad Apples – nope.

Dead Horse – OK.

Coma – I quite like a decent opus and this one works for me!

I guess the next album to be reviewed will be Illusion II with bloody Civil War and other songs that are wildly popular but just piss me off. Oh well. I can’t help being a grump.

This is communication number 1994, so here are some things that happened in that year, the twenty-third of my time on Earth.

  • I graduate and prior to that had won an election.
  • Bill Clinton calls for a ban on assault weapons. I wonder how that’s going.
  • The Downward Spiral is released.
  • Kurt Cobain takes his own life.
  • Ayrton Senna is killed the day after Roland Ratzenberger dies.
  • The Channel Tunnel is opened to passengers.

Not Quite Caves And Cliffs

I’ve been busy over the last while playing Minecraft now and then. This video is long overdue as it’s a walk through of the latest base area, which I think was finished a few months ago but I just hadn’t got around to recording the walk-around. Things have been quite busy. This last weekend gave me the opportunity to spend some time setting up the recording software again [it hadn’t been used really since the new screen was purchased]. It took a while to figure out how to create new scenes and get widescreen recording to work nicely. However, this Minecraft video is in standard 16:9. Why? Because I don’t think Minecraft looks good in ultra-widescreen. I’d rather put a decent product onto YouTube than one where I think I’ve compromised in video quality. I’ll be uploading some flight sim stuff soon and that will be in lovely widescreen.

Comms#1993, here are some things from that year.

  • A 21st birthday party ends in hilarity.
  • A bomb in a van under the WTC explodes killing 6.
  • Waco siege, Texas. 76 die.
  • Jurassic Park is released [first DTS film].
  • Marine dumping of radioactive waste is banned.
  • Doom is released.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

There wasn’t much choice at the cinema when I looked to book a ticket. Eternals was on along with some films I had already seen but I am not going to bother with Eternals. I don’t like superhero films and if I want to watch them I’ll do it on a streaming service. Ghostbusters: Afterlife was all that was left, but that doesn’t mean it was a poor choice, I wanted to see this. It was dark and stormy so I couldn’t see where the river water was for a tide report, but there were some reflections of lights high up the mud bank and, more telling, there were sea birds just resting all over the place, floating around, and I think they were taking shelter from the storm.

After seeing this film I rated it on the IMBD website and there is a guide to the rating system within this communication. I flip-flopped between a six and an eight because as much as I enjoyed this film and it gave me the “feels” I wasn’t sure I was going to see it again. But, let’s face it, for a film to make me happy and smile thirty five years since I watched the first version, it deserves a decent score. I then tweeted my score.

I really enjoyed this film. It felt like it was paced quite slow to start with but I think that’s because modern films are paced too fast in case the audience decide they hate the film. Making people wait for the “action” is perfectly good. There doesn’t have to be loads and loads of action all the way through the film. We don’t need films to keep racing to the lowest denominator of the public. There should be room for improving society and not just destroying it all the time.

I smiled at many points in this film and laughed [inwardly – I’m not a freak] in the right places and sometimes in this wrong places. The person three seats along my row seemed to laugh too loud and too much, but you know what? Each to their own. It’s better than the narcolepsy person I was near for one of the Matrix fims. I’m going to try and give little away about the film but that also means I can’t really talk about the ending. I will say that I loved the effects of the big-baddie, I thought they looked really good. The voice was interesting and in the credits it mentioned that Shohreh Aghdashloo had been the voice and that didn’t surprise me. She has such a unique voice and accent it really works in this situation.

The touches of music that plinked away in the background were perfect and hinted at the original film enough that I’m considering getting the soundtrack in digital form. The Ghostbusters OST was the first album I ever bought with my own money. I can remember my mum asking me to make sure I wanted it as it was quite a bit of money. Clearly I wanted it. If I want something then I always want it. I think.

I enjoyed this film a lot. It is nostalgic. It is lovely. It is worth seeing.

Comms#1992 and we get closer to the millennium each week. I wonder what number 2000 will contain? I’m not going to plan this, I’m just going to let it happen. Now, I’m one of those who can count correctly and so in terms of years I recognise 2001 as the start of the third millennium because that is very clearly when it starts. Here are some things from the year 1992 C.E.

  • The Maastricht Treaty is signed.
  • 263 die in a coal mine disaster in Turkey.
  • The LA riots following white cops being acquitted of beating a black man when a video clearly showed them doing so.
  • The Balkans are going to shit.
  • The first text message was sent.
  • The Fulham Five first lived together.

Up From The Ashes – Don Dokken

I really do just like some classic cock-rock. And this I think is classic cock-rock. I don’t know anything about the history of Dokken and Don Dokken, it’s mid to late 80s stuff and all information about rock bands came from magazines in those days. I didn’t really care for that stuff. Does it matter who leaves what band and who fought whom? I guess it’s a bit like a soap opera if you are really into that stuff but I don’t think I was really bothered by it. When Izzy left G ‘n’ R it was more a understanding of “yes that makes sense” than OMG G ‘n’R are breaking up. Bruce left Iron Maiden and I wasn’t fussed and so on.

Sometimes I wonder why people give up on a thing that clearly makes them plenty of money. If I had an acting job that meant loads of money but it was shit TV then part of me would want to keep doing that job. However, the motivation of money is much higher in my personal priorities having grown up with not much of it and as an adult choosing a career where the financial rewards aren’t great [even diminished under the tories]. Ah, now I see my motivation – I chose a career path that I find fascinating and fun and the lack of money is just a side product which I cope with – hence other people choosing to leave their success and seek fulfilment. Good on them.

I don’t think Dokken were ever megastars with the ability to retire whenever they want. One of their songs was used for a film soundtrack and that’s about the limit of their fame and fortune. Their favourite album of mine was recorded in Japan and as a previous headteacher of mine said to me once regarding his own music success in Japan – they buy any old shit over there. So as I write this the songs are playing and they are broadly speaking very well constructed rock songs with reasonable riffs and verses that are a little too ballad for my tastes now. I don’t really like songs which slow down. The verse should be upbeat and then the chorus should be even more so. It’s an 80s thing to have ballad shit in songs and keep repeating it. I don’t think I’ve ever really liked it.

Some song highlights are:

  • When Some Nights – I like the guitar and bass combo in this one. It’s the fist song with some life in the album.
  • Give It Up – good bass sound. Good quality sing along song.
  • Down In Flames – interesting opening with mechanical voice.
  • The Hunger – opening drums – amazing, riff – amazing. Balled verse – shit.

Comms #1991, so here are some things from that year:

  • I was working at Raytheon/Cossors and almost considered joining the air force if the Gulf War became “bad” whatever that means.
  • I started university and met some great people.
  • Dissolution of the Soviet Union.
  • The Moby Prince sinks killing 140 people.

Windows and Window

It feels like it’s been a busy month and also such a struggle to keep up with everything that has needed to happen. Basically I think I’m saying it’s been too busy and I want it to stop. This weekend I have been mostly fixing a laptop that kept moaning about files missing and therefore it was unable to perform some windows updates. Obviously it would only tell you this after it had spent about two hours looking promising with the update. It didn’t feel overly safe turning off windows updates so I tried to fix it.

I made it worse. I managed to mess it up so it would even boot to the windows login screen. I had been doing some DISM work within windows trying to get the windows image to fix itself so it would run the update. Oh well. After quite a bit of attempting to boot to safe mode I finally got the laptop to boot to command prompt and from there I was able to browse the various drives within DOS. I found a setup.exe file on a bootable USB stick and just thought I’d see if it runs. It did. It proceeded to reinstall a fresh copy of windows and slowly over the next twelve hours I got all the previous software and files reinstalled. Small items are still being loaded as I write this but mostly, the machine is back and running quite well.

No major files were lost because I have a very clear – save it in the cloud as well policy. Useful things are only saved in a OneDrive type situation so that things aren’t lost in exactly this kind of situation. Even my NAS Drive is triply redundant, although two of those are physically in my house, so if it burns, I lose those. I don’t know who else thinks like that but I do. There have been many times I’ve come home hoping that my house hasn’t caught fire and burnt down the entire row. No, I don’t leave naked lights on or anything like that, it’s just a thing.

I also resealed some of the outside rubber things on a window. I had removed it a while back with the aim of buying some more and then replacing it. I think it’s the source of a leak I have with rainwater appearing on the window cill. The old stuff looked “dried out” and cracked. I think it just being a south facing window did that with direct sunlight all the time. I ordered a variety pack because there are approximately thirty different types of window gasket and then I chose the one that fitted best. I don’t think it’s an exact match for what I removed but it did seem to fit snugly. Yesterday I spent an hour fitting less than a metre of this stuff to the window. The issue now is that the corners of the gasket don’t fit super tight so I have some duck tape there at the moment. I need a rain storm to hit so I can judge the effectiveness of this stuff.

The oven heating element blew again about a week ago. I know I’ve changed it in the past and when I searched this site for some information it turns out that was in 2016. I suppose five years for an oven element is OK? I’d prefer it if I didn’t have to change it but at least it’s something I can do with relative ease. I’ve pencilled that in for next weekend along with a busy Saturday. Once again I find myself wanting everything to just stop for a month or so.

This is communication number 1990. Here are some things that happened that year along with me becoming of legal voting age and taking my A-Levels.

  • The Pale Blue Dot photograph is taken and sent back to Earth.
  • The NZ Navy stops daily rum rations.
  • A fire in an illegal club in New York kills 87.
  • Germany merges economies.
  • Berlin Wall destruction begins.
  • Iraq invades Kuwait.

United Abominations – Megadeth

Here’s the thing with Megadeth; since they gave up drugs and became all christian they’ve kinda gone a bit shit. I understand the reasons for coming off drugs, that makes loads of sense, I’m not sure I understand the christian part because doesn’t that mean that god made them an addict in the first place and he’s a fucking asshole? I do know that twelve step programmes might not work that well and one of the steps is to surrender yourself to a higher power. Fuck that shit. In Scandinavia they have a programme that doesn’t depend on abstinence and that works better I suspect. Anyway, it’s a complicated picture and not one that I’m going to do justice to in this here little blog.

This album is not on my iPhone. I think that says it all really. While it’s in my collection and on the NAS drive in the house I won’t listen to it anywhere else. To be perfectly honest if I want some Megadeth in the house I wouldn’t even put this album on. I think there’s only so much twiddly thrash metal you can have in your head at one time before all the songs start to sound the same [I will admit that typing that just made me sick]. The Megadeth albums on my phone are:

  • Killing is my business . . . And business is good.
  • Peace sells . . . But Who’s Buying.
  • So Far So Good . . . So What.
  • Rust In Peace.
  • That One Night – Live In Buenos Aires.

So, there. You now know what I think of this album.

This is communication number 1989 and as has become a recent tradition these are some things, curated by me, that happened in that year.

  • 47 died in the Kegworth air disaster.
  • Union Carbide agree to pay the Indian government 470million for causing the deaths of 3,700 in the Bhopal disaster of 1984. [$127,000 per human life in case you wondered].
  • 97 people die in the Hillsborough disaster.
  • 51 people die in the Marchioness disaster.
  • 11 die in bomb attack at Deal Barracks, Kent.