I've said before that this week's DnD Character Colouring Book... my first ever wizard, Lady Ovelia, was one of the hardest to get right. But, honestly, this version is probably about right. It's just a shame this is a posthumous portrait, given that she met her end in the middle of a creepy temple at the hands, eyestalk, whatever, of a zombie beholder.
I had done a version of her after the Face Customiser came out... then they dropped both some new dwarven rings as well as the snake familiar. I went with albino snake for the purposes of the model, but her familiar was actually a Spiny Bush Viper, because they're adorable little danger noodles... even if it only ever really showed up as a skeleton because of the location we were playing. And then I copied a bunch of text explaining the origin of the magic staff she has and turned that into "carving" on the staff.
So let's call this the "if she'd survived" portrait.
Anyway...
This week's soup was what I'm going to call "Rice and Chorizo Soup". Basically that, plus tomato plus veggies. It was very good. And nicely spicy from the chorizo without being too much. And it mellowed out nicely across the week.
This week's mini movie reviews are an eclectic bunch. Technically only two of them are movies I got from the library, the other three are fairly recent movies that were either on Kanopy or SBS On Demand.
Firstly, The Northman. It's a very... pretty movie. And I like that the end is what it needed to be. It is one of those things where the reveal that happens midway through doesn't really feel like a reveal mostly due to the actor playing that particular part. Also, weirdly, both the movies I borrowed this week had Anya Taylor Joy in them... and so long as the movie industry needs someone to play a vaguely Eastern European woman who may or may not be a bitch, she's gunna have work.
Also, I'm just going to generally say... the reason given for the fact that a scene that should just be full on nudity but isn't is that "you can't show wang on planes" is... some bullshit.
The other ATJ movie was The New Mutants, which even a casual glance at the Wiki page will tell you had a checkered history, not helped by Disney buying Fox towards the end of the process. But, as a "Marvel/X-Men" movie, it's actually pretty good. Mostly because it's not doing the thing that those movies usually do, and I don't think any single character gets called by their "superhero name" at any point during the movie. It's more "superhero movie as supernatural horror". Honestly, I feel like they need to do more of that... we've done the superhero thing to death, let's just start putting superheroes into other genres. Or, you know, we could have an original idea and make a movie that doesn't rely on existing IP.
But I like New Mutants for taking big swings and doing something different.
Next up was The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which I think got "Dracula" slapped in front of the title because the great unwashed didn't know that that was the boat that Dracula sails in from Transylvania to London in the titular novel. It... wasn't very good. I mean, they tried, lord help them they tried. But when I say that this script/idea/project had been bouncing around for 20 years, that tells you a lot. What they ended up with was "dumb monster movie" just dressed in the text of a single chapter from an 127 year old novel. Also, it doesn't help when even when "Dracula" is mostly played by somebody in makeup, it ends up feeling like CGI nonsense, because the bits that stand out are probably CGI nonsense. And when your creature design is Gollum meets the Flying Gremlin from Gremlins 2.
So... Shin Godzilla isn't a comedy. It's not supposed to be a comedy. And yet. When the Godzilla design mostly just has derpy eyes that don't seem to look in the same direction and most of the movie is people from the government standing around talking to each other and a lot of the individual performances feel like they're being played for comedy... it starts to feel like a very dark comedy.
And lastly... The Vourdalak... a 2023 French film based on an 1839 novella. Which is a proto-vampire book written before Dracula. And, weirdly, they chose to make the movie on Super 16mm and using mostly practical effects (including making the titular Vourdalak/vampire/zombie/creature a practical puppet), giving the entire movie a late 70's/early 80's vibe. Like, if you told me that they made the movie in 1983 and it sat in a warehouse until someone discovered it five years ago and restored it, I would totally believe you.
It's good though. Weird as hell, and, honestly, sometimes the 16mm of it all kind of gets in it's own way, but overall it's done well.
So, this week the weather got real cold on Tuesday and Wednesday. Like, actual frost on the windshield of the car first thing in the morning, new lowest July temperatures for a bunch of places, equal lowest for Adelaide, very damn cold for here in Australia cold.
No Friday Night DnD this week because Mr and Mrs are off on vacation for a week... so no DnD next Friday either. And because my back has been being a little bitch all week, or rather, my leg, funnelling issues from my back, so Fluffy and I didn't do a movie night.
Anyway...
Today was Finding New Things To Replace Broken or Dying Things Day.
Firstly, supermarket, as usual. I am inventing soup this week... I have no idea how it will turn out. I am hopeful, but also, am questioning my future life choices. At best, I hope it's fine. At worst, I'm mixing two different ideas and hoping for the best.
After supermarket, we went to Big W on the hunt for a new kettle. Because my current one has a small leak at the bottom, which comes and goes, but honestly, I'm not fucking around with the combination of electricity and boiling water. Also, my wireless mouse committed suicide one too many times last weekend and stopped working, so I was back on crappy corded mouse until today.
I had assumed that Big W was the better option for kettles. I honestly don't remember where I bought my current, metallic red shiny kettle... and the blog doesn't help, all it tells me is that I got it "at Arndale" in 2015. The assumption then would be either Big W or Harris Scarfes, since those are basically the only options. And more likely Big W, because I don't like Harris Scarfes. It does mean that that kettle has lasted me for almost a decade though, which is decent. Especially for something that I don't know that I spent a ton of money on.
Where was I? Oh yes... Big W. Turns out the options in Big W were... boring or ugly or dumb or looked flimsy. Sometimes all four. So we decided to head over to Kmart, even though Kmart, because I know that last time we were there they have many kettles.
And yes, that was correct. I had, potentially two many choices. Sadly, none of those choices were shiny or red. A number of those choices were boring or ugly or dumb, but there were a few that I really liked, and a couple of those were the clear variety, which just amuses me that you can watch your water boil. Also, both of those kettles lit up as they boiled... so... yes? Admittedly, I would have gotten the one that changed colour to denote different temperatures, but did I need to spend and extra $10 on a feature I was never going to use, on a kettle that was a slightly worse shape? No, no I did not. But the one I have lights up blue because... water? I have no idea. It's not as pretty as my red kettle, but if it lasts as long I'll be pleased. It won't.
Mostly because we're living in 2024 where nothing lasts that long.
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