Monday, Monday! What I have been up to recently.

Feeling frazzled and annoyed at nothing in particular, I have decided to write some random thoughts regarding what I am doing at the moment.  Yesterday, I submitted a short Sherlock Holmes Pastiche, try saying that on a Saturday night, and resubmitted a parody of a Doctor Who story for a non official charity book range called Professor Howe.  The story I have parodied is the late Douglas Adams 'The Pirate planet'.  It was particularly enjoyable to write even if I kept deviating from the original brief of parodying the story and started to write my own crazy psychedelic version of the story.  I enjoy my writing and wish I could earn a living from it.  Those who try to live on writing will appreciate how difficult that is.  Therefore, I continue to devote myself to my teaching which can be both rewarding and challenging.

So what have I been watching recently? The book of Boba Fett has proven to be an enjoyable exploration of the backstory of a character from the original trilogy or at least an exploration of how he survived the Sarlac pit and what he did in the intervening years between Jedi and the, for the want of a better phrase, 'The Mandalorian era.  Controversially, I wasn't ever that bothered about Boba Fett as a kid.  He was the bad guy who kidnapped Han Solo and then got bumped off by Luke Skywalker and that was it. Sure, he had cool armour but so did the Storm troopers.  Still it's my blog, and nobody reads it, so I'll stick to my guns on this. From my point of view, the development  of Boba Fett was an interesting one and personally, I feel that the dialogue between him and Cad Bane about Fett's new direction in life, could lead to interesting storylines in the future for the character whether it is in his own series or if he appears in other Star Wars series. His struggles to keep to his new direction in life while trying to slay the demons of his past could prove to be an interesting dynamic for the character. I guess if I were a massive fan of the character, in the past, and had read all the expanded stories of him in books and comics, I may have been disappointed by the direction the show has taken the character but all in all, for me, it has been a positive experience.

Musically, I am listening to a lot of Steve Hackett at the moment. Indeed as I am typing this blog entry, I am listening to a live double CD of Spectral Mornings and selling England by the pound. Hackett was a guitarist for Genesis from 1970 to about 1976/ 1977. His first few albums were favourites of my Dad. He bought them on cassette and would play them often in his car. At first, I bought Spectral Mornings as a nostalgic kick remembering how much my Dad used to play the album.  However, more recently, I have been listening to albums he has produced in the Last decade and have indeed got the following albums in my car on rotation: Beyond the shrouded Horizon, The Night Siren and Surrender of Silence. Three fantastic albums of Progressive Rock and an element of World music. Great driving music.

In the realms of audiobooks, I have been listening to the Warlock Holmes series by GS Denning which is a great Parody/ Pastiche series based, of course, on the Great Sherlock Holmes. The audiobooks are read by Robert Garson who really brings the characters to life. It is a parody with a fantasy twist. It takes place in a world where magic and demons exist usually to hilarious effect. The stories have me chuckling with the exploits of Holmes and Watson ably assisted by Lestrade and Grogson taking the original stories and taking them off on a chuckling induced tangent with plenty of in jokes affectionately aimed at the original canon and some of the assumptions and mores of the time. Well worth a listen and highly recommended.

My Final thought before signing off? Yesterday saw the 'Rings of Power' trailer drop. I read the Silmarillion when I was thirteen, obviously a very long time ago and while I have read the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit a few times again since, I have only a few recollections of the first and second era of Middle Earth. I intend to keep it that way just in case I become one of those self appointed custodians of 'Tolkien Lore' who ends up getting very wound up by the direction the Amazon team decide to take this adaptation in. By the way I hate the word 'Lore' being applied to Fantasy or Sci-fi series, it really gets on my goat in the same way, people like to 'Coach' each other at work. Maybe my reactions to such words are irrational but you know what? My Blog so there!  And on that very mature note, I'll end by saying I hope I end up enjoying the 'Rings of Power' but we will wait and see.