Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Don't push too far?
Your dreams are China in your hand?
It's good advice and advice I've taken seriously ever since December 1987 when the T-Pau song featuring those very lyrics was ruling the roost atop the UK singles chart.
However, that song was not to stay there, because Yuletide was looming and the Pet Shop Boys were about to grab the coveted Christmas Number One slot, with their unlikely cover of Always on My Mind.
There was little drama on the corresponding album chart, however, with Now That's What I Call Music! 10 hogging the pinnacle for the entire month!
And what of cinema?
Sadly, although I've seen several of those offerings, the only one I can remember anything about is Overboard. Therefore, I shall nominate that as my Steve Does Comics Movie of the Month.
And what of the galaxy's greatest comic?
But I do note that Progs 551, 552 and 554 featured a strip called Bradley. A strip of which I know nothing other than it was brought to us by Alan McKenzie and Simon Harrison.
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23 comments:
Wow. December 1987 was peak teen brat Me. I had so little time for anything except myself.
I didn’t see any of those films (until we got a VCR at the end of 88), and I don’t remember any of these progs AT ALL.
I do remember the records though. Always On My Mind is a massive nostalgia hit.
John Higgins got a Christmas bonus with two covers in a row, though.
Fairytale Of New York had to settle for No.2 behind Always On My Mind.
But FONY has since had many chart entries including No.5 last Christmas.
The only one of those films I've seen is 'Wall Street', Steve, and I approve of it. Oliver Stone was pretty cool in those days.
I have also seen John Huston 's last film - which also came out this month, even though you didn't mention it - 'The Dead'. It was an adaptation of the James Joyce story btw, not the Peter Milligan/Massimo Belardinelli series from 2000AD, and it wasn't bad.
I've read 'Empire of the Sun', but have always avoided seeing it. Perhaps I'm being unfair, but there's something a bit off about the prospect of Steven Spielberg adapting JG Ballard...
In theory - based on the well known DW formula - this is a good month for the galaxy's greatest comic, seeing as we have two decent series: Bad Company II and Nemesis (hey, unlike the rest of the Squaxx dek Thargo round these parts I found John Hicklenton's work interesting).
Plus, on top of that, a couple of this month's Dredd episodes were drawn by the mighty Brendan McCarthy!
But I still didn't feel the thrill power.
-sean
PS Good to see West Ham pick the right time to win for a change. The Guardian coverage of the game at the weekend made me laugh: "it's so toxic at Spurs even West Ham were shocked..."
-sean
Oh, I nearly forgot to mention: to this day I still have no idea what Bradley was about. It just looked so awful I never bothered to try reading it past the occasional first panel...
-sean
In 'Wall Street', the fatherless protagonist's surrogate father figure is Gordon Gecko (whose values he rightly rejects - eventually! ) Compare 'Cocktail', in which Tom Cruise's surrogate father figure is Bryan Brown - or 'Top Gun', with Viper, playing a similar role. Surrogate father figures were a big thing, in such 80s movies!
Ah, 'The Dead' - a female choice: settling for the safe provider (Gabriel Conroy), over the late 'wild man' (Michael Fury). Like Wuthering Heights, with Edgar Linton or Heathcliff. Lots of other examples, too - I suppose!
Phillip
Father figures certainly were big in Hollywood in the 80s. All those boomer directors working out their daddy issues. Also the Newman / Cruise dynamic in The Color Of Money.
I've read Empire Of The Sun and seen the film, and you're not missing much.
Beautiful photography and some English thesps giving it their all, but it might have been better if Spielberg had made it later in life. It feels like he has one mode, joyous uplift. And it jars here.
Matthew - Yes, The Color of Money's a very good example - I should have thought of that!
Phillip
Hey - there's John Tunstall (Terence Stamp), in Young Guns, too - he's a father figure (albeit disposable), to all the regulators!
Phillip
Phillip, to continue the discussion from the previous thread, it seems that Sir Keir is going to do absolutely nothing about the tariff and Greenland threats.
If I ran the UK - you lot should be so lucky! - I would respond with eviction notices for US bases. Admittedly I am the kind of person who would get rid of them anyway, but still...
No offence to any of our American friends here intended.
Happy Martin Luther King Day y'all.
-sean
Sean - No surprise there; Sir Keir's as spineless as a jellyfish!
Phillip
Sean- no offence taken! Truth be told, I'm one of those Americans who would side with the Danes and Greenland against our Mad King Don. If you all suddenly stop hearing from me, I've probably been hauled off by the men in dark suits and masks...
Filmwise, I've seen several of those; among them "Empire"- found it pretty unremarkable, particularly for Spielberg.
SEAN et al.
I am probably throwing my american flag in the garbage this week. Done flying it. If I still had a French wife I’d be moving to Perpignan or such.
FWIW, Demmark had the highest per-capita losses in Bush Jr’s Afghanistan war and were there from the beginning until 2021.
Taking Greenland… well what can one expect from a 5-time draft dodger who is butt-hurt a black US president got the Nobel prize and he didnt.
But trump is just a symptom of the US disease. He did get 48% of the vote. And many of those voters think he and the republicans are morally superior. Go figure.
CH
Let's be thankful Farage isn't PM - he'd be offering to help Trump with the invasion of Greenland.
Will we never learn from history? Pandering to bullies and tyrants never works. As Sean said, UK and EU should threaten to close all US bases and US embassies too. If Trump is allowed to seize Greenland it'll be the Panama Canal and Canada next.
The real loser in this is europe. Pray Russia is content annexing Ukraine.
I don’t remember these progs but do recall The Judda in Dredd and the Brendan McCarthy issues. I never took to Bad Company nor this era Nemesis and so I reckon I used the new year to take a break from 2000AD. China in your hands (and T’Pau generally) were ok but quickly reached fatigue level, as they seemed to be everywhere. Apparently CIYH is inspired by Mary Shelley, but you have to listen to the extended version to get the verses that make this obvious. I don’t think I ever bothered.
I Wall Street seemed a big deal at the time, with Gordon Gekko become an anti-hero amongst the Reagan/Thatcherite yuppies. At least we now understood what insider trading was all about. I don’t think remember stripped shirts and slick-back hair seemed the fashion choices of the quick to follow.
Always nice to beat Tottenham, but I fear relegation lays on the horizon for West Ham. That stadium will feel even more sterile when there’s only 25,000 for the championship games…
DW
I think someone with even less attention to grammar has posted for me ;-)
Please ignore the random ‘I’ before Wall Street and the ‘don’t think’ between I and remember stripped shirts…
DW
I think even Farage has responded against Trump’s latest tariffs. I reckon the EU will raise retaliating tariffs against the US, while the UK will do nothing, and suck it up. Meanwhile Putin rubs his hands like a greedy school boy in a sweet shop, waiting to move on Poland, as soon as the EU remove all US military staff.
DW
DW, the problem for the UK is that at some point it will have to decide whether its aligned with the US, or continental Europe. Arguably the British have already made the choice, with Brexit but the govt still seems to be trying to have it both ways.
That's right about Farage. Apparently he's against these tariffs and is going to have a word with the Donald at Davos. No doubt the US president will listen to the MP for Clacton!
Perhaps Sir Tony would be a better bet to interfere for the UK? Trump likes him, which is why he's been invited onto the Gaza Board of Real Estate Devel... sorry, Gaza Board of Peace.
Along with it seems Vladimir Putin. You couldn't make it up.
-sean
*intercede
Not 'interfere'
%#@*ing spellcheck
-sean
On a lighter note.
For any hardcore Kevin O'Neill fans, copies of his last work, the double hardcover 'Silent Pictures' set, are still available at regular price on eBay from Knockabout comics.
Before it goes OOP [only 800 copies printed] and scalpers start charging stupid money.
It's good, too.
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