I’m under both the clock and the gun a bit this week, so let’s jump straight into the serious business. Enjoy links on dangerous caramel, drone metal, skronky jazz and a Disney movie you really need to rewatch.
Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.
Rob is reading…
The Murder At World’s End by Ross Montgomery. Curiously, the second murder mystery in a couple of months in which an old and sweary lady ‘tec joins forces with a young naive boy-chick to solve a knotty case as an impending apocalypse looms. The Murder At World’s End is a lot of fun, suitably twisty and engaging, with a very satisfying conclusion. A proper romp which I could definitely see adapted for some size of screen.
Rob is watching…
A couple of shows giving us joy this week. Can You Keep A Secret? is a hilarious sour-sweet comedy about a retired couple, their son and his cop wife who become twisted up in a story of fraud, blackmail and deception after the husband is wrongly pronounced dead. Wildly farcical and brilliantly written, but it’s the core four cast members who really make the show sing—Dawn French, Mark Heap and Craig Roberts are unsurprisingly hilarious, but Mandip Gill is a revelation, shrugging off the mantle of Doctor’s Companion to reveal a great set of comedy chops.
Off in a different galaxy, the long-awaited Starfleet Academy is a proper fan-service wallow. The 60th Anniversary show of the Trek franchise is chasing a youthful demographic while colouring the edges in nods, claps and callbacks to all the history and legacy of a show which seems more vibrant and relevant than ever. It’s a college show, natch, and leans hard into all those tropes, but is fearless in tacking its own course. Goofy, charming, heartfelt, a cast which instantly feel familiar and lovable and I mean come on Holly Hunter and Gina Yashere absolutely slaying it. I’m here for all the snarks and controversy—that’s a true sign of a show still capable of making waves and building communities.
Rob is listening…
To WROB, naturally. A UK/US showdown looking at the two country’s approach to indie rock in the early 90s. It’s not just Britpop vs. Grunge, you know.
Rob is eating…
It is Pie-anuary, so I made a pie. A proper, top side and bottom affair with homemade shortcrust pastry (props to Paul Hollywood and the guys from Fallow for guidance) filled with turkey, mushrooms and bacon in a vermouth and crème fraiche sauce. Key takeaway—shortcrust is half butter. Keep things cold and don’t muck around. Served with mash, carrots, greens and an admittedly bought gravy left over from Christmas.
Better than a roast. There, I said it.
Rob’s Low-Key Obsession Of The Week…
That sword fight from The Princess Bride, broken down in detail.
Science fiction is often, and I think falsely, hailed as a vision of the future. Note, we still don’t have flying cars, moon bases or robot servants (no, self-driving cars and autonomous Hoovers don’t count) and SF never properly predicted the one great technological disruptor of the 21st century, the internet. Sometimes, though, it can’t be denied that the genre got it right. Worryingly so, it turns out.
Ninth Art alert. Joe Quesada, a master of visual storytelling, points out a few home truths about how comics are unlike any other medium in the way they connect artist and audience, and how that interaction can be controlled or, in an unexpected way, broken.
Cooking videos, especially those short ones which favour a speed-run of ingredients and are under the impression that it takes three minutes to caramelise onions are, if you’ll excuse the pun, a recipe for disaster. Take the example of Michelle J on Substack who is frankly lucky not to end up with third-degree burns after an attempt to make caramel goes epically south.
All praise to Rita Collin’s, taking the good words around a country which desperately needs to relearn how to read. May her road be ever smooth and slightly downhill to speed her progress.
Fair warning—this is a very long read which talks about how the brain processes information while extolling the virtues of improvisational jazz. Pal Dominic is a great advocate of John Coltrane’s Interstellar Space, and I am certain he is fucking with me. All I can hear is an unmusical racket. But then he is, in the best way possible, an agent of chaos whereas I am significantly duller. What he would make of the next link is something for further discussion, but for now please dive into herstart’s theorem and make up your own mind.
The return of SunnO))) is a matter for slow celebration. The Washington State duo build great edifices of sound from the droning roar of overcranked guitars and a gleefully unreasonable stack of dimed amps. But there is beauty in the noise, and something transcendent in their minimal approach to maximalism. Let the storm take you.
In the western world, cooked rice becomes poisonous once you let it get cold. This, in countries where rice is a main staple, is utterly nonsensical. So what is the truth, and have I been risking certain death by reheating a tub of basmati for breakfast the night after a takeaway? The truth, as ever, is complicated and mired in misinformation and a spiky hint of casual racism.
The relevance of W.B. Yeat’s The Second Coming never seems to fade. Written in the aftermath of the First World War, the darkly prophetic poem resonates strongly with any moment where events seem to be slipping out of control. No surprise, then, that here in the second quarter of the twenty-first century, it rings with special force and clarity.
Surely Some Revelation Is At Hand
You don’t normally think of The Quiet Beatle in relation to Formula One. But he was a huge fan of Motorsport, and there’s a clue to that love on a track of his possibly least-liked album. Just when you think you know a guy…
Here’s a great post on the delicious production design of a movie Walt Disney hated, even though it came from his studios. It embraced modern bebop-jazz aesthetics, scribbly lines à la Ronald Scarfe and a glorious free fluidity of movement and creativity. There is no other Disney film like 101 Dalmatians—a visual treat, packed with verve, invention and sheer delight in what can be done with 24 drawings per second.
One last order of business. Pal Jillian snagged a spot in a new horror anthology, now available to buy at all good retailers. I’ve included a Waterstones link below, but other outlets are available. Please give it a go, and support your friendly neighbourhood horror scribes!
We Outro with Yes, in full imperial splendor during their Close To The Edge tour in 1972. Come for the harmonies, melodic intricacies and delightfully hippy-dippy lyrics. Stay for the full on spangly cape action. None more prog.
See you in seven, fellow travellers.
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 
Ronald Searle? Gerald Scarfe for Disney Hercules (the best Disney film don’t argue I’ll fight you).
Also next time I see you, remind me to tell you my Rick Wakeman story…
I also love Hercules, and Gerald Scarfe (Pink Floyd The Wall, natch). Always happy to hear scuttlebutt on that Wakeman chap too!