Month March 2021

MIXED MOVIE QUOTE: HAMLET’S DAY OFF

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Where there are students, there must be a film unit. Where there is a film unit, there must be a film chosen by the teacher solely to give them something enjoyable to watch while they ignore the fact the little shits are doing anything except watching the damn movie.

To whit: this week, I’ve watched Ferris Beuller’s Day Off.

Twice.

THUMBNAIL THURSDAY GOES ALL WRY NEW YORKER ‘SMILE HUMOUR’

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Given my feelings about organised religion, I have to be honest with you: this is a softball so soft I must have been bathing myself every night in New Yorker ‘wry’ cartoons. I genuinely can’t remember anything about this one, but given how long I must have spent drawing all those little details, it must have been a rip-roaring day at the old day job when I scribbled it out.

“Do you ever wonder what you’ll do if you die and go to the great hunting hall of the Vengeful Mraargh and find out we were wrong about all this?”

RIP, Champ of champs.

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Stunning news today, with the sudden death of former undisputed middleweight champion Marvellous Marvin Hagler.

The man was an all-time great, both in and out of the ring, and was one of my absolute favourite boxers of all time: an explosive machine with thunder in both gloves and a will that seemed genuinely supernatural. Other boxers didn’t beat Hagler. At best, they held him off long enough to escape with a victory and all their faculties attached.

Was he the best middleweight of all time? He’s the best I’ve ever seen. The best of the ‘Four Kings’. Better than Hearns, better than Duran, better than Leonard, and if you’re better than them, who else is there? Sugar Ray Robinson is the only name left, and wouldn’t you have just died to have seen that match?

And to top the argument off, he was, of course, the victorious side of the greatest boxing match ever staged: the three-round blastorama with Tommy Hearns dubbed ‘The War’. And it was.

66 is no damn age at all. RIP, Champ.

The greatest boxing match ever staged. Told you so.

IT’S NOT AN ADDICTION IF YOU KEEP COUNT.

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Luscious returned from a weekend trip to Perth yesterday with a surprise Lego set for me. Which takes my collection — not counting Bricklink and other random part orders (which probably actually account for another few thousand, but don’t tell her) — past 100,000 pieces. Obviously, it’s impossible to work out exactly which is the 100,00th part, so let’s saaaaaaaaayyyyyy….. this one.

This is my 100,000th piece.

TELL ME WHY: I NEED TO LIKE MONDAYS

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Monday has become my writing day. I finish work at noon, head to the local library, and spend some time — if not actually always putting words on the page, then at least doing nothing else (I’m still hesitantly working my way back into things).

Today, I managed another 1000 words on Vitelli’s, the short story I started a month or so ago. It’s now up to just over 3000 words. Was a time I’d knock that over in a week, but I’m trying not to compare myself to Past Lee: those days are gone, and I was a different country, then.

I have a story, it’s past 3k, and there’s more to come. It’s a tiny draining of the swamp, but it’s real.