The Week in Womble aka Confined Spaces

March 24, 2020 Matthew Cavanagh

Helloooo! Is it safe to say the last few weeks have not gone quite as I’d hoped? Work has gone from one weird moment to another I took a long weekend (more on that in a mo) and then I find out Tuesday I’m working from home for the foreseeable future. Isolation is something introverts say we love - well its not quite the break from it all I imagined. Particularly when you can’t actually go anywhere as of last night I’ve got supermarkets and the outside left. That’s possibly going to change further. This feels very much like a storm has hit the world and I think the consequences of coronoavirus will change a lot of our way of life. I’m hoping people realise a) the welfare state and NHS are there for a reason and need full support; b) populists struggle with actually managing a crisis rather than helping create one and c) community is so important but that’s a while away now I just want my family and loved ones safe (yes you included!) – please take care of yourself.

Starburst Film Festival

So LAST weekend I was very lucky as my geek calendar was pretty much emptied of events by the end of the weekend to spend a little time watching some short films at the Staburst film festival. The atmosphere was sombre and I think people knew things were on ths cusp of changing. The festival was small but really good and I enjoyed particularly the short films – strangely a lot have an 80’s vibe for them. I saw fpr the first trime in Decades The Running Man which while has every action film cliché in the book still has a smart point about blood and circuses. One to keep an eye olut for if you fancy a bloody black comedy is Chestersberg – a millionaire manages to make a village no longer part of the UK and decides to make murder legal. Does feel an interesting look at the type ofpeople who love to build up walls so they can do what they want.

The trailer for this is https://www.chestersberg.com/

What have I been watching?

The Untamed – not ben able to get back to this but I think in isolation that catching up will not be an issue

The Stranger – This Netflix show looks like a US draa but is shot in Manchester. A man gets approached by a stranger and told his wife has lied to him about something super important and then we see the Stranger is up to a lot of stuff. Really gripping with Richard Armitage, Dervla Kirwan and Pal Kaye. Two episodes in and its got very interesting and dark. Does feature violence to Llamas

Race Across The World – This BBC2 show is also on iplayer – five couples are trying to win a cash prize by making a land/sea based trek around the world on a limited budget. The last two wpisodes are in South America – it looks brilliant; the couples are ‘intersting’ and watchung people try to get around without a phone is fascinating – worth a look.

This week on the To Do list is Farscape catch up.

What have I been listening to?

I have finished The Magnus Archives Season 4 – I hope to be able to talk to you about that later this week but if you enjoy Horror then you need this in your lives!! A show that is so good I had to binge it is the greatest compliment!

Now I’m going to be making more use of the podcast library!

What have I been reading?

Runalong Readalongs

I’m restarting this from next weekend. life got crazy so

Discworld – This weekend Pyramids

Next Week - Deverry - Darkspell

Subjective Chaos

This week I want to try David Mogo Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

Blog Update

Ok its been three weeks but we have

Re-coil by J T Nicholas - a really interesting look at an SF future with little death

Shadows & Tall Trees Volume 8 edited by Michael Kelly is a fantastic horror collection