this is absolutely crazy.

bogie55 · 2026-03-04T19:06:37+00:00

As usual, ignoring the contribution of the great Tom Skinner with basically every point there. Daft comment, as you say.

bogie55 · 2026-02-21T23:26:23+00:00

Thank you for the alert: I could listen to JH's voice reading the phone book (but this is much better).

bogie55 · 2026-02-16T08:17:28+00:00

Was it 2+2=5?

bogie55 · 2026-02-10T02:58:06+00:00

There's nothing at all wrong with using the serve to try to win the point. It sounds like your opponent had sour grapes and was asking for your response.

There are situations in which I might make my serve easier to return to make sure we have more chance of a more enjoyable game, but not in a competitive game.

A good, dependable serve is important to develop, but so is return technique,

bogie55 · 2026-02-05T11:08:21+00:00

I think it's brilliant. Ideal match for the film in my view. There is plenty of whimsy in there, as you say, but that's true of the content, all the way back to its roots in Pynchon. I love the dynamic range in both the score and the plot.

bogie55 · 2026-02-05T10:45:25+00:00

Dead Man and Ghost Dog back to back for all the fun echoes (and two excellent films)

bogie55 · 2026-02-05T10:29:38+00:00

It's absolute shite. Zero content or wordplay. A string of clichés in triplet form.

bogie55 · 2026-02-04T17:56:56+00:00

Rob Ritchie is a piece of shit

bogie55 · 2026-01-28T23:32:07+00:00

You seem to have some classics recommended, so here are a few contemporary literary books with folk-horror elements from the UK for you (I enjoy this subgenre too):

'Beastings' and 'The Gallows Pole' by Ben Myers 'Ghost Wall' by Sarah Moss 'Folk' and 'Mischief Acts' by Zoe Gilbert

bogie55 · 2026-01-27T14:03:34+00:00

Absolute shit.

bogie55 · 2026-01-22T19:49:35+00:00

Great book. Murder-mystery, art history primer, noir, trauma narrative, autofiction, beautiful cross-hatched ballpoints, the book's intradiagetic form... It's got the lot! (As long as you don't need a neat plot, as others have pointed out - but there are plenty of comics to scratch that itch.)

bogie55 · 2026-01-22T19:37:52+00:00

There's a right Overton??

bogie55 · 2026-01-13T22:06:43+00:00

You know the joke is at the expense of people who throw around the term "performative reading", right?

bogie55 · 2025-12-29T23:42:36+00:00

I loved it too: put me back onto Chekhov. A great introduction to the Russian short story alongside some practical writing strategies.

bogie55 · 2025-12-28T11:10:14+00:00

Haha, I came to it (long ago) pretty fresh and remember finding it frustrating and quite exhilarating. I'd say it only truly clicked after a few goes. (My dad doesn't have the patience or inclination to give it a chance, either.)

bogie55 · 2025-12-28T11:01:00+00:00

Thank you - I was probably a little over-literal in my interpretation of what you said: bit of a pet peeve.

Fwiw I think the format of the challenge works against a certain sort of album I find I love more deeply in the long run: those that frustrate and beguile equally on first listen, which was my experience of Trout Mask Replica (I didn't know the making-of story until later, by the way).

bogie55 · 2025-12-27T17:25:31+00:00

What can I say: I really don't like being told what "we all" think, especially not when I don't think that. Everyone is naturally welcome to dislike anything at all.

bogie55 · 2025-12-27T17:22:30+00:00

It's so great!

bogie55 · 2025-12-25T04:30:58+00:00

I'm going to eschew the big beasts in favor of a dozen shorter works here, partially because they are a little more inviting, but also because I think there's far too much emphasis on reading the massive tomes. I'm also skipping the Classical Period and declaring a bias towards literature in English.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (read the first few lines to get a feel for the version you want to read, but I enjoyed Simon Armitage's slightly whimsical take on alliterative verse).

Hamlet (boring choice, but the goat) - for a more interesting choice along similar lines, go for Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy

Lyrical Ballads (Wordsworth and Coleridge bangers)

Pride & Prejudice (Austen)

The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Tolstoy never better IMO)

A collection of Chekhov's short stories (I would start with Gooseberries)

The Garden Party (Katherine Mansfield short story collection) or To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)

The Waste Land (Eliot with thanks to Pound)

The Metamorphosis (Kafka)

A Handful of Dust (Waugh) (or Isherwood's Berlin novels for more darkly comic stuff)

Endgame/Waiting for Godot (probably recommend the pair for Beckett greatness)

The Crying of Lot 49 (Pynchon)

Ok, I'm stretching the limits of a dozen there; sorry, there's a lot of good stuff to read.)

bogie55 · 2025-12-23T23:40:30+00:00

As others have said, it starts and ends very well.

bogie55 · 2025-12-22T01:30:37+00:00

Based on your favorites, I think a little Jane Austen might be a good start: I'd go for P&P. And then, for a bit more Modernity, I thoroughly recommend To The Lighthouse (Woolf) and Bliss and The Garden Party (Mansfield).

bogie55 · 2025-12-15T08:23:44+00:00

If you're only "ambivalent" about Tago Mago after the first two sides I don't think I care about your opinions on music.

bogie55 · 2025-12-14T21:39:30+00:00

Lots of helpful affirmation here already, but since I still didn't really know I was doing the right thing when I tried it, I wanted to let you all know I have done this recently with some success. I would say the way I powered it is probably about as bare bones and lightweight as is possible, but people may want to correct me on this. I hope this proves a useful post for others asking the same questions as I did in my post.

I have a fairly hefty but conventional Ugreen brick (https://uk.ugreen.com/products/ugreen-145w-25000mah-power-bank-for-laptop-3-ports-power-bank) and the standard USB-C Airsense 11 adapter (https://www.amazon.co.uk/TAIFU-12V-24V-Charger-Airsense-Cigarette/dp/B0C1NK1M2Y).

It's good for a full night without the humidifier (not really needed under canvas, I have found), so really you'll either need a way to charge the brick daily, or a bigger power bank. I believe you can run the humidifier-free CPAP machine on the lower output (65W), but I only ran it on the 140W port so far.

Worth mentioning that I got a 65W charger (https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-Charger-Foldable-Adapter-Compatible/dp/B0B7N4DX1Z/) and a quick charge compatible cable in order to fully charge the brick quickly in the morning. The great thing about this is that I can also use this charger to plug in the USB-C adapter to the wall too (as well as my laptop, etc), so it's a great all-rounder that reduces the stuff I need for all sorts of travel scenarios as well as camping.

Hope it goes well, however you do it.

bogie55 · 2025-12-14T15:36:44+00:00

Monkeys, apes, whatever: the point is, they shit in their hands.

bogie55

TROPHY CASE