Weapons

Another Oscar winner for Saturday night and definitely one worth watching without too many spoilers if possible. The premise is that one night at 2:17 in the morning, 17 young children from the same elementary school class got out of their beds, went downstairs and left their houses, running off into the night. The next day we see an empty classroom with just their teacher Justine, and Alex, the only child not affected.

The opening section of the film is told from Justine’s perspective as angry parents demand answers and point the finger at her. She locks herself away with a bottle of vodka to escape the anonymous threatening phone calls and wakes up to find her car vandalised with the word WITCH daubed in red paint on the side. Is she really the nice, young liberal teacher that she seems?

The film then proceeds to show events from the different perspectives of people involved- a grieving father, a local cop, the head teacher of the school, a homeless person and finally the child Alex, as the truth is slowly unveiled. 

This is a horror film built around a mystery that keeps you guessing until the final act, with the Rashomon style structure working well, with overlapping timelines and viewpoints. There are a couple of jump scares but the film doesn’t rely on them to build tension and the conclusion is a satisfyingly gruesome one. There is some humour too (can we say Naruto running here), that undercuts the horror just enough so that the atmosphere isn't completely grim - without getting into spoiler territory the premise is one that could easily have gone to some very dark places.

Mushrooms

The strangest kingdom
Neither fish nor fowl, fruit nor fly
Tasty with toast

Planting, Maudlin

Planting an oak tree
Will I ever sit beneath
Its shady branches?

Mulberry

I've had black and blue
Straw, rasp, goose and lingon too
But never a mul

Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam & The Ants

When I was a kid growing up in the UK in the 1980s, Top of the Pops was the place where you see and hear new music for the first time. An outrageous or charismatic performance was guaranteed to be the talk of the playground the next day and more than likely would send the single shooting up the charts. 

Adam and the Ants were one such band. Why was that guy dressed like a 18th century hussar? Why did he have a white stripe tippexed across his nose? What was the deal with having *two* drummers? They quickly got a reputation as a teeny bopper band but this album shows they had a lot more going on than impressive clothes and fancy videos.

Aside from the African Burundi beat inspired tribal drumming, this album has influences from punk, rockabilly and even a bit of surf guitar from musical magpie and lead guitarist Marco Pirroni. Adam himself was a great frontman and lead vocalist with a different costume for every song.

Pirate-tastic!

https://album.link/gb/i/1108061200

Clouds, Bright Lightning

Clouds lit from within
Were lights dancing overhead
Sparks from Thor’s hammer

A Girl Called Dusty by Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield was easily one of the most engaging and versatile vocalists of the 60s, covering a huge variety of songs including blues, soul, ballads and show tunes. She effectively had two parallel careers with different songs hitting the charts in the USA and back home in the UK. 

The original version of this album was just under half an hour, but this remastered version more than doubles that, with some real gems included. My highlights are a delicious version of 24 Hours From Tulsa, Anyone Who Had a Heart and a very different take on Mockingbird. There’s guaranteed to be something on here that will appeal to just about everyone. Simply delightful.

https://album.link/gb/i/1443726966