Bob & Omar

Just a few words for a couple of righteous friends / ex-work colleagues who recently passed away.

Omar Jama. I started out in TV pretty much the same time as Omar. Most of the time I worked with him he was a sound engineer, though, ambitious chancer that he was, he went on to much greater things. Member of the 1991 Madrid Seven, when we drew straws to trash a hotel room, Omar got the short one & never complained. He will be sorely missed.

Bob Ando. A great director with whom I worked with on & off at Middle Eastern Broadcasting for years. Master of bridging the awkward English/Arabic divide whilst half cut, Bob was a true old-schooler with the confidence to stay on one camera for more than three seconds.
I learned a lot from Bob, he once asked me over talkback: 'Is 30 seconds long enough to get that 40-piece band off stage...and their chairs? Because it was Bob, I said yes.
I worked my very first audience show with Bob, and, as I was fairly petrified, had the good sense to get me drunk beforehand. Just prior to addressing them he whispered 'Don't go to pieces or anything' in my ear. Thanks for that, Bob.

Bob & Omar...RIP.

Merry Christmas From Octopus 99

Top 10 Sword & Stab Films

#01 : The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad (1974).

#02 : Demetrius And The Gladiators (1954).

#03 : 300 (2006).

#04 : The Long Ships (1964).

#05 : Troy (2004).

#06 : The 300 Spartans (1962).

#07 : Conan The Barbarian (1982).

#08 : Jason And The Argonauts (1963).

#09 : Gladiator (2000).

#10 : Up Pompeii (1971).

Crikey, it's harder than you think coming up with ten Sword & Stab films. It would have been 'Sword & Sandals', but I spotted shoes in at least a couple of these timeless epics.

Tell me all the titles and win a Sack Of Christmas Shit.

Airfix 1:72 Astronauts

Oooo Yeah.

The Whizzer

Good to see The Whizzer back in comics.

This Just Don't Need A Title

Eat Mud

Birthday Prezzes

Got some great stuff from Kek, Mrs Zero & Davider. Thanks all...El Dorado is just Genius - Mitchum's a fucking great drunk, and I love the totally misleading Race With The Devil cover.

Molly Zero

In an alternate universe it seems Molly & I got married.

Magazine - The Light Pours Out Of Me

Howard Devoto : My favourite singer/lyricist ever.

Airfix Nazis

Fucking Genius #2

Fucking Genius

Oh, yeah.

Ice Bird Spiral - 'Swineville'

May thanks to Kek for this.
The fact that it's an Asda cd somehow makes it all the more potent.
I won't attempt a review - suffice to say I listened to it whilst filling in my tax return - so if I go to prison you'll all know why.
Deep Genius.

Underwater Fluff #02

Ancient Britons

Current retro obsession is Airfix H0/00 scale figures. One must have a hobby.

Die Hard 4.0

Fucking Fabulous.

Jar Of Monsters

Underwater Fluff #01

The Big Country - composer Jerome Moross

Following an earlier phone conversation I felt this needed to be seen...More from Jerome Moss at a later date.

Books For Sale

Currently listing a shed load of westerns on Ebay, including a pile of Oliver Stange's Sudden books and some superb early '60s Zane Grey paperbacks. Not to mention Breed, 70's pc hero.

frankenstein jr. and the impossibles

Especially for the Kekster..and any other members of the legendary Fluid Men.

Marine Boy

Godlike Genius

Vacancy

Had a whole Day Off and just finished watching Vacancy - pretty good, kind of Psycho meets Assault On Precinct 13.
It's so straightforward. Great opening titles too.

And, even though Beckinsale doesn't wear rubber at all in the whole film, it's still worth checking out.

Holy Moley

So, anyway, even though I'm mentally stuck in 1974, Mrs Zero & I do still seem to be opening a shop. Tomorrow. Weeks of hard work seem to have resulted in this happening.

The shop is called Pushkin's and we're going to sell stuff of varying kinds. Some expensive stuff and some cheaper stuff. Basically it's all stuff we're selling. We're a Stuff Shop.

The Trigan Empire

Picked up a humongous pile of knackered old Look & Learns in a charity shop the other day (not a popular thing to do when the house is already half full of ex-shop stock). When I was a kid I learnt everything from Look & Learn - Ned Kelly, dinosaurs, Rommel..which I'm pretty sure is all you really need to know.

Needless to say I tore out all the Tales Of The Trigan Empire. I was into this stuff long before I discovered Marvel & DC, then tragically left it behind once I had discovered Daredevil.

Don Lawrence's art stands up pretty well today I reckon. The bottom two panels - from The Red Death, jolted me right back to 1974, where I hope to remain.

Favourite Roadsigns #1

Slightly worrying.

Can

Can on TOTP2 just the other day. Groovy.

Me Very Tired

Christ, I haven't been this tired since 1979 when I directed Zulu Dawn.
I was actually going to do a proper post tonight on The Trigan Empire, but my limbs and brain have stopped working properly so here's a Xena: Warrior Princess beermat that Lurch gave me last weekend on my lightning London stopover. Many thanks for putting us up, Dude. Drinking beer and playing bar billiards was just what the doctor ordered.
Also, cheers to Niowulf for coming all the way to North Devon just for a beer last week - sorry we were so submerged in shop stuff.

Nazi Clothes Rail

Found this as I was flicking through a wholesale fixtures & fittings catalogue. I want it in the shop but I reckon Mrs Zero will probably stop me.
It would be just perfect to hang those SS jackets on that I'm planning to sell on her days off.

Holy Shit

Looks very much like Mrs Zero & I are opening a shop tomorrow. I can't help thinking that somehow I should have seen this coming and in some way prepared for it.

Kenneth Robeson: Doc Savage Omnibus #3

Cover Art: Bob Larkin.

Webb's Photo Site

A helluva week..I can't go into it as it'll just take all night. Instead I'm just going to plug Mark Webb's fantastic new site (go a whole inch right & click the link there..sorry if that's a stretch for you). It's puffins & birds & landscapes..he's got a really good eye, so it's well worth checking out.
Above is not a picture by him, it's by me, hence the shitness of it. Although I was with him doing some hard drinking when I took it, so I guess that makes it relavent. I tried to get the whole goddamn bridge in but as I went futher & further back I almost fell down into the gorge so I settled for this.
What the hell, it's not a bad photo from someone who can't fucking smoke in pubs anymore.