Xenon's Seventh Circle

Things that have happened recently.

1. I bought a camera. It's nothing special, but it's fun for knocking about the countryside with. The focus has a macro setting, for extreme close-ups of things, and I have become ridiculously fond of it already. I will do my best not to bore everybody rigid with stupid pictures of things that I find lying about the Cotswolds. Promise. Well, maybe.

2. The BBC finally got around to making an announcement about their long promised documentary series Shark. It's going to be bloody awesome. But it's also the first major marine documentary since the death in 2012 of Mike deGruy, so it's going to be weird watching it. Most of you won't have heard of Mike, although you've probably seen his work - he's the one who got the famous footage of the orcas snatching sea lions off the beach in Trials Of Life. He's been a hero of mine since way back, and his film Sharks On Their Best Behaviour is one of the best things I've ever seen. And he should have still been here to work on this, damn it.

_{3. I turned forty.}

4. I have begun to raid eBay for films with Pierce Brosnan in, preferably as a thief. I blame Remington Steele, as television has largely ceased to make sense if it doesn't have Pierce Brosnan in it (preferably as a thief). Fortunately for me, he's had quite a prolific career, featuring a remarkable degree of thievery. Even when he's not actually being a thief, he seems to go in for an inordinate amount of lock-picking and safe-cracking. I might find this suspicious, but I'm too busy being entertained.

5. Any minute now, I'm going to go and feed the ice cream van man his music machine. It's been playing the first few bars of The Entertainer over and over again for the last half hour as he circles the area, and seriously, he's begging for violence. I may consider beating him to death with a wafer sandwich.

(Technically this last one hasn't happened yet, but it may very well have done before you read this).

6. I have been going through my YouTube "Likes" list, in order to remove dead links (NBC is cruel, and loves to deprive me of Max Weinberg). Whilst doing this, I found a whole bunch of videos that I forgot existed, and if you've been a member of YT for any length of time, I strongly suggest that you do likewise. Old likes are such fun! I found shedloads of a very giggly Dean Martin, a whole bunch of Fry & Laurie, about thirty different live versions of Queen's '39 (including a rather wonderful collection of leotards a la Freddie, and an inordinate amount of John Black vs Stefano DiMera on Days Of Our Lives. I miss them. :( Every so often Drake Hogestyn declares his undying love for Joe Mascolo on Twitter, but it's just not the same.

7. William Hartnell and Peter Lorre made a film together. Actually they made it in 1950, but it was on TV the other night. I don't want to say too much, because I don't know if liadt has got around to seeing it yet, but suffice to say that they probably shouldn't have bothered. I can quite understand why they would have wanted to try - who wouldn't want to make a film with Peter Lorre?! I'm sure we'd all like to, given the chance. Or, at least, we would back when he was a bit less dead. (Although he died in 1964, which puts him out of the reach of most of us, but you know what I mean. Probably). Anyway, I appreciate the effort. It's just a shame that it didn't turn out a bit better. Maybe if it had had Pierce Brosnan in it, stealing things? A pre-natal Pierce Brosnan, obviously. Sort of like Outlaw Pete, but even younger? No? Everyone's a critic...

Now if you'll excuse me, my mother wants some pictures of the cats. If past experience is anything to go by, this will mean pictures of ears, paws, and fleeing tails, but I have to try. One of them is actually looking quite cute right now, which is either a good sign or a trap. Still, James Bond never lets certain defeat put him off, does he. Think smart - think Bond.

I may be some time.