The Bluegown Blog

A wee while ago, as is my wont, I was browsing a local charity shop, when my eyes fell upon a DVD with the tantalising title Rare American Locomotives. The cover blurb promised 39 minutes of 'recently rediscovered' footage from the 1920s, plus a montage of British and European locos as a bonus. Mine for a quid, as indeed it soon was. Little did I suspect this E-rated disc would plunge me into a surrealist nightmare.

This blog has discussed before whether or not comedy actually constitutes 'art'. The conclusion is yes, but it is by far the most disposable of art forms, since humour is a transient thing and, possibly even more than music, subject to the whims and fashions of its era. However, just now and again there comes in comedy a shift so seismic, it takes on the importance and timelessness of Classic Art. In our time, Monty Python was that shift.

(image via digitalaviationart.com)

I’m not sure if it’s possible to be haunted by an airplane, especially one that hasn’t flown for over half a century, but lately it feels that’s what’s been happening to me. The plane in question is the notorious – not to say infamous – TSR2.

In this episode: The Avengers aka Avengers Assemble (2012)

[Note: In the UK, this movie is known as Avengers Assemble, presumably in order to avoid any possible confusion with the ultra-camp '60s TV show The Avengers, or the crappy '90s movie based on same. I personally thought that nobody would be dumb enough to confuse the two, but then TWO people of my acquaintance did just that - cela]

I'll admit, when I heard that there was finally going to be an Avengers movie, and that Joss Whedon was involved, I was a little perturbed. Maybe I've just been unlucky, but I've seen only three episodes of Buffy in my life, and all of them sucked donkey balls (I honestly prefer the original movie, lame as it is). To me, Firefly was just that annoying thing that came on the Sci-Fi Channel just before Andromeda, while Serenity wasn't any better (spaceships with hood ornaments?). But in the end, all my fears were allayed - Mr Whedon did a bang-up job.

I actually bought this at a charity book sale for the SO, who had fond memories of the TV adaptation, one of those delightfully creepy 70s sci-fi/horror series for children that never once condescended to its target audience. However, the book itself proved to be a distinct oddity.