Monkey Business

 I'm posting again, but unless my reader is following every post as they're put up, seeing the new content might be a bit weird and all over the place; so this page will be something of a growing index to the entries that aren't naturally positioned around this here one. It might also provide an insight into ten years of Simian mental meanderings...

Posts so far:

2/7/21 : New Plymouth (11 November 2015)  - a photo essay

3/7/21 : Giving a Hoot (11 March 2018) - heirloom and restoration microproject

4/7/21 : Justice Denied (3 December 2017) - a film review.

5/7/21 : To Enhance Your Land Raiding Needs (7 March 2016) - another Adventure 2000 Matchbox toy

6/7/21 : A Pallet Bench (5 October 2020) - scrap wood furniture

7/7/21 : Drokktober 2019 begins - Days 1 through 15 of a (nearly) daily Judge Dredd doodle.

8/7/21 : Daddy's Little Heartbreaker (6 November 2016) - I make an RPG game! Nearly. Frequently. 

9/7/21 : My Zombie Weekend (11 June 2016) - a cautionary tale of viewing movies cold.

10/7/21 : A Box of (Past) Delights (8 January 2018) - a model childhood.

11/7/21: Drokktober 2019 returns - with Days 16 through 21

12/7/21 : Palindrome! Drokktober Days 22 to 26

13/7/21 : Drokktober 2019 forever - Day 27 through to Halloween and the end!
               Bonus post: What is the Future of the Future? - Manic Street Preachers review.

14/7/21 : The Midlands Cuckoos (6 March 2019) - Moore and Parkhouse's The Bojeffries Saga

15/7/21 : License Expired, Go Offshore (30 June 2018) - Bootlego!

16/7/21 : The Mirky Dozen: Wild and Woody (10 July 2015) - The Return of the Hobbit's elves

17/7/21 : Wonderful (25 June 2017) I hated Wonder Woman! Phshaw -yeah, right!

Try July

 

Whoa-o here he comes...

Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.

It's July, my birthmonth*, so I'm going to spend the next thirty-one days posting once a day on this blog and do some stuff. I have a few things planned this month: a birthday, and a D&D session on Zoom, so that'll fill a couple of days. Some home projects, too. School holidays need filling up, and some old entries the teeming masses have been left on tenterhooks about need to be addressed. Did I finish the J Grubb General Store model? What about the elves? Has my model painting improved at all? No. Are there more Dreddworld judges to mess up graphically Yes! Could I fit a gnome article in? Always. Did I see that Justice League movie? How dare you!

I will post past things, future things, backwards, forwards, sideways and out of sequence, as Jetsam has always been. Time is fluid, and I am, if nothing else on this blog, a big fibber.

Stick around, readers. This is either going to roar to a majestic conclusion or I'm gonna total this thing!

(*Today is also my mum's birthday. Happy birthday, Mum. I miss you)

Shocktober!

Yes... Back!

Thankyou, Mister Grimsdyke, that'll do nicely.

My October challenge for 2018 is to backfill this blog by Halloween; sods of mouldering posts tipped into a yawning black hole like some purveyor of the grave-digger's guilty art. Wish me luck!

December to May

Well, why not. Rumours of my death et cetera.

Oh, there's a bit to add in the past four months. Stick around! I might add them!

In the mean-time, crikey, the spam-wolves have been busy...

May to September

The last three months have been a bit of a blur. And Gorillaz, some TV and film, modelling and RPGs. And podcasting, of course. And work. Lots and lots of work. Some of this will be covered over the next month as I undertake yet another wave of blog in-fill, So watch this space...

Bloody Hell

Hello Readers.

Sorry, I've been somewhat distracted from my blog of late, and am currently working away to remedy this; so for a while things might go a bit wee-woo on the chronological front as time flows backwards over these pages. There'll be a return to normality, ollowing a short series of dainty wee posts here and there to tide things over.  Just go with it - there's bound to be a good story somewhere in there.

Cheers!

Jet

"Don't Bury Me!" etc.

Hey, Mr Pullman - wanna help me with my blog?

Nope, I'm not dead. Dead busy. Bringing work home. Neglecting the podcast. Being an antisocial slacker. Keeping weird hours. Oh, it's terrible.

Normal business will resume shortly. And then - woo boy, buckle up your pants because I'll be posting backwards for a while!

I did stuff in June, and that stuff needs documenting!

Shock and Ore

Readers following me through Blogger might well know by now that I've been conducting some sneaky back-fill this past week and before the year ends, more in the interest of putting completed posts in their allotted place than bumping up the numbers. No, really. Yes, there may be more to come. Sorry.

Anyway,  strike me pink with black and white striped heavy metal pants if by sheer coincidence I actually made some kind of deadline. Just as I was putting my review of Iron Maiden's The Book of Souls to bed, I read on the internet that the same day, Christmas day 2015 (Boxing Day here in NZ of course) marks the fortieth anniversary of the band's original forming by Steve Harris in Leyton. Blimey.

Hair of the Dark! The band in 1976 (Steve Harris far right)

Early Maiden is an almost unrecognisable thing to the casual fan, and I'm not claiming to be anything beyond that, myself. No Bruce Dickinson, of course - nor even a Paul DiAnno. Also, no Clive Burr or Dave Murray or even Des Stretton. Just 'arry and a line-up that was borne, replaced and eventually formed itself into the 1978 version that brought the band to a wider audience than Stratford's Cart and Horses, their first residency. Eddie, presumably, was still a fever dream in Derek Riggs' head, of whihc more, surely, in a later post.But there's the name, the imagery, and the beginning of the whole story, and I find it rather fitting that an ensemble which took its name from a line uttered in The Man in the Iron Mask would be the one that stuck: a fictional torture device invented by antiquarians evoking fear and dread - a bogey. It remains one of the most recognised, influential and yes, iconic band names in rock history.

Documentation of those very very early years is still a work in progress, as this year saw the release of Origins of Iron, a compilation of tracks featuring former IM members, plus there's a unoffical book out there, somewhere. There always is. We have, apparently, this era to thank for 'Wrathchild', 'Transylvania' and 'Prowler' - small acorns, indeed.

Happy anniversary, Harry!

Peace on Earth, Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum...

It's nearly the end of 2014, and this video is now four years old. Dated, stilted, and more than a little awkward and weird - but enough of Bing and Bowie's original team-up, here's the heartfelt tribute. Merry Christmas, one and all from me and the Simian household, and oh yeah, peace on Earth and all that, too.

Link here because embedding disabled :(

Oh, and this is offically my 300th post. Jings!

The Monkey's Pause

Hello, Reader

Now then. This blog has been quiet again, and there's a reason: I am busy.

My current illustration job, David Haywood's book Mary's Christmas Gorilla is, in the words of Ab Fab's Marshall "at a very exciting stage", which in short means I've not got a lot of time for much else besides work, domestic stuff and illustration. You want to see a picture? Here's one:

This is Mary's teacher - or was, at least, before it was decided mutually between author and illustrator that she was a little too scary even in the role of antagonist. Perhaps I shouldn't have based her on a few real people I know - I dunno. She looked even scarier with the eyepatch, believe you me.

So there was quite a bit of stuff I wanted to blog about recently. It's election day here in New Zealand, so a rare post on national politics and the mood of the nation has, mercifully, been vetoed on this day of all days, because, reasons. You were better off without that spiel from this Simian, trust me.

HOWEVER, I was also going to blog about Shihad's recent astonishing return to form, FVEY, produced by their old sparring partner Jaz Coleman and bringing back the lead of their first two albums Churn and Killjoy with a vein of angry energy throughout fed by Jon Toogood's personal/political angst. It's an absolute belter, their most focussed since The General Electric and most urgent since Love is the New Hate. Nine albums in, most bands struggle to find the old magic, but this is just bloody awesome.

I also meant to blog Manic Street Preacher's Futurology, which is about a month old or older now. It's an interesting work, and I'll return to it soon.

Which leaves.. what? Friday Night Local? I'm resting it for a few weeks, folks, although you nearly had a video from FVEY, and a tribute to the late, great Peter Gutteridge of Snapper, The Clean and The Great Unwashed, who we lost a week ago. They'd have filled a few gaps, but I don't want this blog to simply be a string of You Tube videos, so we'll see them later.

Yes, all of these will come in the fullness of time, along with more Eighties genre movies, more Dreddworld judges, and maybe even some hints at just how my Mirkwood Elves are coming along. That should set me up for a few posts once October has raised its late-Spring head and daylight saving has arrived.

In the mean-time, there's everything else. See you on the other side, folks!

Rewind the Blog

Happy New Year, everyone

Back after a ten-day holiday at home/s on the Mainland, and back to the routine of work tomorrow.

Around the tail end of '13 I had more time to read (but only read, alas) some social media and in that time was surprised to read how rough last year had been on some of my friends - the number of times I saw iterations of the phrase "good riddance to a crap year" was... arresting.

For myself 2013 was just another year - altogether survivable, and mostly harmless. If anything it was an unproductive year, and that's not a good thing for most of us. I think as a species we have an innate urge to create in some form; even those who profess to not have an artistic bone in their body still follow some existential will to do something, maybe out of fear of doing nothing.

"The act of creation saves us from despair" goes a line in the song below, from an album I'm more than a little embarrassed to admit I didn't know had even been released until the end of year music overviews (it's not alone - the Chills released a single, 'Molten Gold' to coincide with Martin Phillipps' 50th birthday this year - whoosh over my head it went, but check it out - it's lovely). I'll return to Manic Street Preachers' Rewind the Film very soon, but for now here's the opening track This Sullen Welsh Heart, equal parts hope and despair, and a gorgeous and moving version it is. Taken from an intimate live performance on Later With Jools Holland it retains the studio version's guest talent of Lucy Rose and in its stripped-back sound is very indicative of the album in all. I picked the album (and Postcards From a Young Man, along with Wilco's Hotel Yankee Foxtrot) up on sale at the Warehouse in Timaru (a store whose sales have never let me down!) and am really looking forward to getting to know it better.


After this, some rewinding of my own with holiday-inspired entries, and some much-overdue painting updates. And to all of my splendid readers and friends out there, here's to a much more creative, enjoyable and prosperous year ahead...

Blog Update: Stray Monkeys

Balin's Tomb. So close to being finished. So very close!

As usual, it was painted in front of the TV in some not-flash living room light, so as always the final check of things is done in daylight. The television wasn't bad viewing last night though; Glastonbury on UKTV, and of course Manic Street Preachers playing their first ever live performance in New Zealand, on The X Factor. Tonight's the night of their Vector Arena performance., and no I can't, thanks for asking (a logistical issue above anything else, I should add.)

All of which reminds me that I have loose ends on Jetsam. Balin's Tomb must go up of course, but also there's the issue of the third installment of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century, and I'm not entirely finished with the Manics themselves; probably two short installments to go there.

And then the decks are cleared for a while, for some new projects!

Blogjam Explained, Exhibit B:

Jetsam is made from crap I haven't thrown away yet, or am in the process of throwing away, or sometimes bottling out and keeping for a while longer. The significant thing is that it's the stuff I've hung onto. Right now the Monkeyhouse is going through a B-I-G tidy up as we make more room for Jet Jr's growing needs, so more of the third drawer stuff is appearing!

Blogjam Explained, Exhibit A:

Also why it took me so long to update my Facebook photo.

Ten for Ten

It's the 10th of June, the days are shortening and I'm buried deep in illustrations, work and bashing keyboards with my blunt stubby fingers trying to learn some of the finer points of digital art. It's slow going.

Still, we're mere days away from the midpoint of the year, so time to restock some blog posts. I skipped May and much of April, so I'm going to try something different: ten posts over the next ten days posted once, then re-dated, seeding the weeks I've missed retrospectively, and all done just on the 21st, the Shortest Day.

New topics, new posts, and some stuff that's been sitting in the Drafts folder for a while. Here we go!

Hello, Good Evening, and Welcome to the Blog

So this is my blog, after several years of contributing to a communal space, I've finally made my own. And what will I be writing about?

A lot of rubbish is my guess. But specific rubbish - carefully selected and filtered from the disparate collections and tail ends of past hobbies, obsessions and interests over the years. Jetsam is material that has been jettisoned, but after all this time on the planet I've come to understand that nothing is ever truly thrown away; it all becomes an aspect of what a person is or isn't, what they reject and abandon is as much a part of them as what they keep.

So for better or worse this is me. Or selected bits.
Welcome, make yourself comfortable, and try not to disturb the porcupine.