The Umbrella Academy

So I’m back home now. I left at about 9:30 and got back at 6:45ish. So I’d been out like… 9 hours? Which is crazy long to me.

At first I got to the station and the machine was actually working which was good but then I got on the train and… I’d picked up the wrong book to read on the trip (Seven Dials instead of Cards on the table). The bad luck further compounded when I realised I didn’t have my student id which meant I had no photo ID (cue panic cause the email I had to pick up Jame’ cd said to bring photo Id). It was also an annoyance as it meant I could use my student discount, not that many places have it (though cinema was one of them). I’ll have to figure out where it is.

(Update it’s in the wallet I didn’t take)

Once I got to Birmingham I went straight to the Forbidden Planet by the station. I got the new The Umbrella Academy (thoughts later), the Marvel pride issue (a variant with Daken shirtless which is so hot) and some 95p comics (something called Monday Monday, a Star Trek Mirror universe thing, National Anthem andThe Amory Wars) though damn going through those comics was so annoying. There were about 5+ boxes and they had zero order. I was looking for Star Wars one and only saw one (but it was an issue 4).

I had a wander round a few places and saw some of the new sets in Lego but didn’t get any. The Fortnite Klombo is so big and so adorable and I love the happy plants. I went in Game and got the Final Fantasy starter set though damn it had the same issue as the local one (no prices on anything) which is so irritating).

Then I went to the hmv and, thankfully, I picked up the cd no trouble, yipee! Causa the heat I didn’t stay long, so I went to look in the other Forbidden Planet. I looked at the new Star Wars locations (there’s a few new things from the shows but it feels inevitable there’ll be another update to that) and got Exquisite Corpses (which I was intruiged by cause one cover had a fox masked character) and the three kids from Skeleton Crew. It’s funny Neel was full price and getting the three of them was just £5 more. (But now Neel has all his friends yipee!)

I got a meal deal from sainsburys then returned to hmv, getting James’ vinyl (to the amusement of the lady that served me (and the new MCR three cheers cd. Then I joined the line and it was crazy long already so I stayed in it.

This was when I read The Umbrella Academy issue and… honestly I’d pretty much forgot what happened in the last issues which, fair cause it was about 6 years ago (thanks wiki) but it was mostly establishing the sparrow academy and how they’re all utter insufferable jerks (apart from one who I felt sorry for). I think I’ll have to get a subscription set up for them (and preorders for the others).

James started signing just before 1 and it took until about 2:40ish for me to get to him (and when I looked back the line was where I started and beyond…opp). But ahh he was so nice! He asked my name and how I apwas and I told him I’d seen him at both the Birmingham gigs (which led to him asking if I was coming to the gig) I was too shy to ask for a hug or anything, but damn, the hmv person taking pics popped off. There’s like *counts* damn there’s 46 what?? That’s crazy.

(And yay when I got back apparently his album is in the running for number 1 between Sabrina Carpenter and Oasis which ??)

I had checked train times and to get to the cinema before a Clown In A Crornfield the last train was 3 and that’s the one I got on so it was cutting it a bit more fine than I’d have liked. When I got to the cinema it was very quiet and when I got in there was only like 5 other people (at least according to the seating it seemed). My seat was a little closer to the screen than I’d have liked but it was ok.

First trailers, cause I noted them down so I’d not forget.

*Together - It started off kinda romantic drama vibes and then the vibe shifted completely. Do I know what’s going on? Not really but it looks like body horror, there’s slight found footage recordings and it gives me the vibe of a specific x-file (Field Trip, cause I sense that’s the vibe that’ll happen but who knows?)
*I Know What You Did Last Summer - it looks like it’ll be pretty good but also the return of people from prior films makes me wanna watch them! I’m sure they’ll be on tv beforehand, but I’ll have to watch)
*Megan 2.0 - I’ve not seen the first Megan (it was on tv this weekend at an away ward tome so I might watch on the player) so without context this looked so ridiculous.
*28 Years Later - It looks like it’s gonna be well down, but at the same time I’ve no real interest in seeing it. One I’ve not seen the others in so long and I just feel it’ll be so depressing.

Anyway Clown In A Cornfield thoughts under the cut.

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End film thoughts! Now I’m gonna flop and just chill in general.

The past few days have been, again, pretty low energy which is annoying. I blame the weather because it’s both warm and heavy which is a bad combination. We’ve meant to have a storm for the last few days and there has been dark clouds sometimes but they don’t last. I hope we get one sometime, just not today.

Cause the food shop messed up last week we had to go to home bargains on Friday which didn’t help, not least cause mum insisted on getting compost (at least it was by the door so we didn’t carry it around the whole store). But yeah, carrying a load of stuff back in the heat was not it.

I had been debating getting another game for the switch 2 when my money went in and I narrowed it down to Sonic x Shadow Generations and Civilization VII which are vastly different games. While we were down at Home Bargains I did pop in game to take a look at things but it’s so weird cause 80% of the stuff has no pricing and it just felt off. (I went in for the Final Fantasy MTG starter and they didn’t have that either)

I’m still undecided on one of those (and I know there’s another too but it’s gone out my head) but I did get another game instead. Seapeekay played Lost In Random - The Eternal Die and it looked pretty good, plus there was a 15% launch discount so I picked it up. It’s very much a similar style of Hades (you do runs beating enemies in hopes of getting stuff to upgrade and do other runs better) and I am really enjoying it. It does have the thing of ‘one more run’ so I do multiple ones in a row oops. I did manage to beat the first bosses yesterday but only just.

Speaking of gaming I finally started Dredge this weekend. It’s funny I’ve had it for months and only started now it’s on game pass. In a similar vein to Eternal Die it has a ‘one more day’ but it did take a bit of getting used to at the start. I’ve just got to the cliffs so I’m gonna explore round there when I’m next on. But I do love the lil boat and sailing round. The only issue is sometimes it’s tricky to read the text (especially when it’s purple) so I kinda wish I had it on the switch but that feels a small issue.

Yesterday was DND which was really fun and I’m so looking forward to the next sessions (cause there’s a reverse heist and acdemics cluelessly in love). But ugh I got hit by the curse again. Like why does my laptop decide to either mess around or demand an update right before a session? This time it decided that it was going to just stop detecting the internet which I knew was fine cause I was in my pad but ugh. I wish it would behave. (I am fine with joining the sessions on the pad it’s just the webcam in it makes it awkward)

I found out yesterday that Warped tour was doing a stream and I looked at the listings for it and the only band I had any possible interest in was Asking Alexandria. I checked the time and it was around 2am here and since I was still awake I decided to watch.

The thing is though, I had low expectations for it. I’d heard such bad things about the recent tour that my expectation was pretty much on the floor and yet I watched it anyway. It was better than I expected though only slightly. Danny was still wearing his absurd get up. Like I love an aesthetic where you can’t see a person’s face but it really doesn’t suit him at all and you can tell it’s not an aesthetic thing but only there for one reason: To hide him not singing. At times you can’t blatantly hear it’s a backing track (sometimes his mic is no where near his face!) whereas other times he is actually singing so the whole thing is very weird. I’m glad I didn’t pay to see them cause you can tell that they either need to get rid of him outright or just get someone (Paul) back to support him (and you have to wonder why they haven’t already). I mean they played one of my fav songs of theirs and it was just… not great which does suck.

Though it was funny seeing comments badmouthing him (and get deleted) before their set even started.

I also found out yesterday that there’s an adaption of The Seven Dials Mystery that has been filmed which sounds cool but I had to laugh cause I looked it up and who is playing Superintendant Battle? Martin Freeman. I dunno who I’d have pictured in the role but him? I’d not have thought that in a million years.

Today I’m off to Birmingham though I have woke with a funny tummy though I’m hoping that’s just nerves. Fingers crossed it settles some.

It’s a return to doing song Saturday! I mean to to do this for the last few weeks but then things happened and I got sidetracked and… well, here we are.

So from the subject this is gonna be not one, not two but three things.

So first Is Dark Divine - Make Me Disappear



So here is a new fixation which is Dark Divine and I fully blame Anthony (the singer) cause look at him. I have binged a few of their vids so could probably do a post of just them but…

This is their las test song and it’s one of those cases where I prefer the song to the video. Like I adore the song and the video does have a nice aesthetic with the atmosphere (and Anthony does look hot). But it’s also a performance vid so it’s not to exciting. There is a few shots of a giant hand so the vibe is it’s controlling Anthony like a puppet but the thing is it doesn’t work cause there’s only a handful of shots (like yes I’d like to see Anthony chained like a puppet why are you denying me this)

Second song is Micheal Clifford + Waterparks - Give Me A Break



So this was described as a ‘love letter to fanfiction’ by Micheal which sounded like an odd thing but you can see what he meant. Cause it’s a girl writing different scenarios and the boys playing them out. The vibe isn’t very serious and it is funny how every scenario (a classroom, coffee shop, doctors room, bathroom) has both romantic vibes and then Awsten killing Micheal various ways

(There is captions and I really need to read through them but I get distracted by what’s happening)

It is wild and funny at the same time. You can tell they had a good time making it. (And I love Awstens line about living freaking out).

But also damn that last scene of Awsten and Micheal kissing. Which yup, that’s definitely launched a bunch of fanfic. (And I wonder how many takes they had cause they’re clearly into it) And you know what’s wild? They’ve teamed with Wattpad to do a fic contest. I am absolutely being serious

Lastly there’s James Marriott - Something’s Wrong



So partly this is here because I’m seeing him on Monday (which is a crazy sentence) but also it’s just a crazy video. Like Something’s Wrong is my fav of the new album singles and then the video is just.

When there was pics of James and Will in cowboy get up (I’ve no idea why but I love it) people called them Brokeback Brighton which is crazy. They’re rivals in this and the rivalry between them takes over James’ focus from the person he came with (girlfriend?) and it definitely felt a few times it was going to end up going from rivals to lovers. Like there’s a few shots that has the vibe of sexual tension but they don’t even kiss (missed opportunity obviously but maybe give me a break spoiled me there). But yeah the vibes are so… I love it.

It’s time for another post which, as always, is gonna be extremely random and unfocussed

First off the Clown In A Cornfield got listings posted and the Odeon in Birmingham has an earlier showing. Except it’s at the worst possible time. It’s at 12 and the signing is at 1 so there’s no way I can do it. There is a second showing… but it’s not till 8:50 and there’s no way I can stay in Birmingham until then.

However the Walsall cinema (which I pass through on the train back) has a showing at 3:30 which is much better (though annoying cause it costs more). But hopefully I’ll be able to see it.

Also good news is that we’ve got back to the American Horror Story run, yipee! We’re midway through Asylum and watched two very wild eps. Like one had an Angel of death and the next one had a murderous Santa played by Ian McShane which is a wild sentence. Honestly this show is wild because I’ve literally no idea what to expect. I do hope we can watch more, and I would like to watch the other seasons too, but the goal is definitely to finish Asylum before Tuesday. Why Tuesday? Cause a show is coming to shudder called Hell Motel and were so gonna be checking it out.

Unfortunately my eyes went completely achy on Tuesday night which is so annoying. Like it got to the point I couldn’t even look at the pad and was just lying with my eyes closed listening to an audio thing. Ugh. Thankfully it only lasted a night but still, it was annoying.

However earlier that day, and yesterday, I was finally able to sit down and finish reading The Seven Dials Mystery which was pretty good. I’m not gonna say too much about it but ai was amazed towards the end when there’s a love proposal and the guy said ‘I’d be your dog or your slave or anything’ which was a completely unexpected thing for me to read (but honestly that’s so based of Agatha to do she was truly ahead of her time).

And then in the documentary thing about her travels last night I found out she surfed?? Which is a completely wild image but I love that.

(But yeah I’m hoping to start Cards On The Table soon cause I’m so behind on the read Christie list)

Also yesterday the forbidden planet in Birmingham posted on insta the comics for the week and the next The Umbrella Academy is out?? I’d no idea, I thought it wasn’t out until later in the year. But that’s another thing to look for Monday. (And another reminder I still haven’t finished season 3 of the show which is probably bad but then again I’ve also heard season 4 is bad)

And TUA adjacent I saw an insta pic of Mikey with the rest of MCR (just their feet for some reason but) and I just know I’ll go crazy when we have new shots of Ray. I’m sorry in advance. (Also the new Three Cheers cd is out so that’s another thing I’ll be looking for).

My love of Who is slowly coming back after that disaster of the finale, thanks to listening to some audios, but I feel it’ll be a long time before I can watch stuff with this era cause it now feels so tainted which I absolutely hate. Hopefully a new Collection boxset gets announced soon to take the edge off.

(Although as I type this there’s been a notification that there’s an animated Who series in the works for a ‘pre school audience’ which… how does that even work?)

Writing has been so annoying too cause I wanna write and i have images in my head but as soon as I open the writing app I use it’s like my mind is empty. Ugh it’s so annoying.

I think that’s everything I wanted to ramble about but I’m sure, as always, that I’ve missed something.

But ugh the weather is so weird and hanging and it feels like rain and headache weather again. Bleh.

So it’s post time again!

The past few days have been pretty eventful, mostly cause Thursday was a big delivery which meant I had to stay in all day. The delivery was for two things. First The Acolyte visual guide that I preordered as soon as it was announced. I’m excited to dive in to it and give it a proper read (I’ve not yet sadly). I do wonder if it’ll make me wanna do a rewatch of the show, even though it only came out last year (but Yord and Qimir are so hot so…)

The second thing was the Switch 2, which I was only able to get cause mum offered to help with it. It didn’t arrive until late in the day and then setting it up took awhile (updating it, transferring stuff from the original switch, installing Mario kart) but I’ve been able to go on it some.

Thoughts so far?
*Mario Kart World is so beautiful. Like really it looks so great!
*The Cow racer is unlocked from the start, I feel this is important to share
*Other character unlocks are a bit more random. You get some for doing Grand Prix (and costumes unlocked from food) but so many of them are only unlocked by getting your racer transformed mid race which is… a choice)
*Free roam could definitely use a quest tracker
*Fortnite is noticeably improved. Like I only went on it to get the emote first day and I could see the difference just from the main screen and it plays much better too (no more dealing with things loading funny!)
*It would be nice to get demos to other games

I would like a single player game to play but I’m not sure what. I thought Donkey Kong was next week but it’s not till next month and I’m considering Civilization (cd keys has it with 20%) so I might find a review and see if it’s worth it.

And speaking of Fortnite the Star Wars season ended (boo) but the last event was so cool! You had to sneak on the Death Star and help disabled some stuff (and fight Palpatine!) which was cool. I did get everything in the pass too (I did wish it had another page or two though) though I am annoyed I just missed out on the last party up reward (at least it wasn’t Star Wars themed). Now the new season is super hero themed which is pretty cool.

Speaking of super heroes I watched Captain America Brave New World on Saturday and it was pretty good. It definitely had similar vibes to Winter Soldier, with Sam investigating a conspiracy which seems to be the vibe Cap films go, though I like that. What did surprise me is how it’s a sequel to Eternals with the celestial thing appearing at the end of that being a major plot point, and also the hulk film which is a wild choice cause it was forever ago and I think I only saw it once. But I did enjoy it and I love Joaquin so much he’s a lil cutie.

At night I watched a film called Deadware, which I spotted on Amazon prime. For the description I was instantly interested (two friends are playing an online game on video call and it turns out to be haunted). I loved the retro vibes of it and it’s very minimalistically done it’s basically a desktop screen with the game in a window with two ‘webcam’ videos. It’s a similar vibe to Host in that respect, though not as well done but it was still pretty good especially in the short found footage still shots during the game.

It’s the time of games showcases. Friday had the Summer game fest and there was a lot of stuff there but not much that stood out to me. There was a few games that had a+ designs but I could just tell I’d not have fun with them. Sonic racing did announce new characters outside of sonic including Minecraft and Hatsune Miku (I dunno which is more surprising). And there was Resident Evil 9 as a reveal at the end! It amuses me that some of Racoon city is still standing cause wasn’t it meant to be destroyed?

Then yesterday was the Xbox showcase which was pretty good though most of the ones that interested me were smaller games. There was At Fate’s End (done by the spiritfarer devs so I was instantly curious), No Ghosts At The Grand looks intruiging (and spooky) and it’s vibes very all of the place in a good way (it started with you fixing a hotel then there was sigil sand talk of a conspiracy and portals?), there’s planet of Lana II which looks pretty and a game called Keeper with a walking Lighthouse. Oh and something called Resonance with the Minotaur. (And Outer Wilds II looks pretty good and Clockwork Revolution though I feel the latter might be a game to watch not play)

There’s also a portable xbox confirmed to be coming and… it looks pretty much like a switch.mi dread to think how much it’ll be.

Energy has also been pretty all over the place, being low raptor times with my focus being off which is so irritating, especially when I wanna do things (fic has pretty much stalled despite me wanting to) and then yesterday my stomach also went funny which ugh.

Mum was on eBay the other day and found a copy of The Moustrap and we were both shocked cause it was buy it now for £2 (usually they’re £20+) so I snapped it up (with Lord Edgeware Dies) and they came this morning. Both look in such good condition and I’m still surprised by the bargain we got.

Now though I’m gonna flop, hopefully rest and do some marvel snap and magic arena (the latter has a final fantasy update tomorrow). I’m also refreshing the. Cinemas to check for next week listings glut they’re not up yet alas. The odeon in Birmingham has just one showing of one film next Monday (28 weeks later) which is crazy.

And Next week is the James signing and ahhh!