Two four-day weeks in a row and we blink and it’s the weekend again. The season of bank holidays is upon us, and we get to breathe a bit before summer rolls in on us. There are five tomato plants in the office, all reaching and stretching towards the sunlight, unfurling pale yellow flowers in delight as the days lengthen. There’s a lot of crap out there. We believe in focussing on the small things which bring a little joy to life. It would be hugely presumptuous of us to assume our weekly emissions could be factored into your list of small joyful things, but hey, we’re here regardless.
This week—time loops, frog porridge and the scariest episode of Space: 1999. If you’re gonna go niche, go hardcore niche.
Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.
Hit up the link below. It will provide you with the opening page of a book. Read it. If you like what you get, you can find out what the book’s called, who it’s by and where you can get a copy. Honestly, it’s that simple. It’s also massively enabling for the bibliomaniacs amongst The Readership (we like to think the majority of you are book-hungry, to put it mildly). Some habits are worth tending like tomato plants. Feed those hungry roots.
You don’t get a great deal of good food writing in the local press these days, sadly. Which makes this review of a humble cafe in Chorlton in Manchester all the more remarkable. It understands the big rule of good writing about food—it’s never just about what’s on the plate.
Film School Rejects has issued a list of the 75 best closing shots in cinema. They will no doubt have missed your favourite. Maybe you’d like to tell us how badly they messed up. You know we love to hear from you.
Nothing More Important Than An Ending
Our home town of Reading is best known nowadays as a tech hub, making the grade in the Sunday Times list of Best Places To Live for 2022. Traditionally, though, Dingtown was defined by its production of The Three B’s—beer, bulbs and biscuits. Handsome and charismatic local writer Steve Charnock looks into the most important of those three and reflects on the resurgence in brewing in Dingtown. We’re waiting for the craft biscuit revolution, frankly…
The most important B in Reading
In further food news… look, give it a year and we’ll all be eating this stuff.
We finish the food portion of proceedings in the same way everything we eat ends up. This long piece by Ian Belcher was published back in 2002 but still has much relevance to the tail end of the human condition. Shit happens, alright?
We were not aware, before reading this great review of Frank Tashlin’s The Girl Can’t Help It, that the director started off in animation. It makes a lot of sense, looking back at the film. Animators know to work moment to moment, punchline to punchline, letting the funny bits build to a hilarious whole. We recommend The Girl Can’t Help It as a snapshot of the moment Hollywood saw rock and roll as something to exploit without quite knowing how to do it. This was, of course, the dizzy point in time where audiences would tear up cinemas in glee at the opening credits of otherwise dour and preachy youth drama Blackboard Jungle just because it was soundtracked by Bill Haley and The Comets’ Rock Around The Clock.
Editor Rob considers his childhood…
‘I was a nervous and easily spooked child who loved science fiction. The 70s, as the scariest decade for British kid’s entertainment, were no fun for me. On the BBC, Doctor Who under the evil auspices of Douglas Adams explored all the horror tropes going, from mummies to aristocratic one-eyed tentacled art collectors. ITV was no better. Space: 1999 regularly featured horror icons like Christopher Lee and, in the notorious episode Dragon’s Domain, showed moments designed to scar a boy’s psyche for life. No wonder I spent most of 1978 behind the sofa shivering with fright…’
The Cut is a petrol-head free zone. Perversely, we love automotive design. We especially love this excellent database of concept cars, wild-eyed dreams of motors which never existed. Useful for artists looking for futurey inspiration or just those of us who like to imagine taking a ride in something less ordinary.
Last call. Joseph Mallozzi is a TV writer with an extensive CV and a pleasing sense of delight in his chosen form. He’s always entertaining and informative but he’s on point when talking about his favourite kind of SF story—the time loop episode. There are rules, of course, but the fun comes in finding out how to break them. Re-rewind. Flip it back and reverse it.
A whole concert for your Exit Music pleasures this week. The return of Arcade Fire has been met with delight by all members of The Cut Crew. Their epic set at the recent AT&T Block Party shows a band on top form, ready to go. Fists high. Get hollering.
See you next Saturday, neighbours.
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 