Rob Masters

After a long hiatus brought on by the death of G+ and the demise of our cheese subscription service, we're back. This time we've got St Duke's Red, a Epoisses de Bourgogne styled washed rind cheese from the notable W.A. manufacturer HaVe, based in Wokalup, near Harvey. Not as potent to the nose as the French offering, St Duke's Red is definitely bold in its aroma, and you certainly know when it has been in the room. Because of that, it is relatively friendly as an introduction to the 'stinky' family, and the rich earthy flavours are rewarding. We found it enjoyable with fruit, onion chutney, and a light salad. It would certainly go well on a more sophisticated cheese board, and a strong fruit paste, such as plum, would also be an excellent complement. HaVe cheeses are available through selected outlets in W.A.'s South-West:  https://www.harveycheese.com.au/retail-outlets.html and check with the particular retailer as to their specific...

This week, let's travel to Iceland (or Spain) and take a look at one of Bjork's creations.

Galaxy Trucker Digital has an interesting scoring system. There is a base score for if you made a profit (i.e. did not lose completely) of 100 points, and a couple of multipliers for game length and type of game. Most importantly, you get points for who you defeated in the game. These are added to your base points, and the multipliers are applied. The actual credits scored in the game do not come into it at all. The points for who you beat are the interesting bit. You get 20 points per level of the person you beat. You go up levels according to what appears to be a geometric scale. So what is my point about all this? I was investigating the leaderboard earlier today. It ranks every online player according to their total point score - not level. I'm in the top 100 players in the world. So I looked around at the other players, and that is where I noticed something odd. With many such leaderboards, you see scores per rank fairly level to begin with, with jumps between them v...

The following link is not really a part of the series. It fits none of the criteria, not even a little bit. And yet, it still deserves a special mention. https://twitter.com/i/status/1209511648618172421 The ... carol(?) in question was created - no - instigated by the indomitable Janelle Shane, over at  https://aiweirdness.com/  .

Gorillaz need little introduction, and "Feel Good Inc" is a classic of their work, both musically, and cinematically. That said, I am not a big fan of their music, or the rather dark and sad worlds they typically portray. Despite this, there is no denying the genius present.

I would be deeply remiss if I did not include the inimitable Kate Bush in this series. Her landmark "Cloudbusting" set new standards for music videos, and remains a classic. Although borderline in the SFF stakes, the ide a that  Wilhelm Reich's orgone rainmaker worked is speculative enough for me. And where would the steampunk movement be without the inspirational engineering of the rainmaker? So sit back, and enjoy the bittersweet magic of Kate Bush and Donald Sutherland.

Lorn was having a really bad day. It had started out normally enough - jump in, run radio and spectrographic scans on the highest- probability planet, the usual procedures for a scout checking out a new system. The scans had come back with a good 02/N2 mix, decent hydrographics, and only the usual background noise in RF. There were tags showing chlorophyll based plants - generally a good sign that the ecology was going to be broadly human-compatible. She was checking those results when the targeting alarm went off. Somewhere another ship had lit her up with radar, and the only reason for that would be - there - heat plumes, accelerating fast.  Missiles. And more of them than her little scout ship could hope to deal with. She was too close to the planet to jump, and not fast enough to outrun them. She had one chance.  Using pure brute force, her little ship killed as much of the orbital velocity as it could, and Lorn set the autopilot on a fast r...

Ingredients 1 orange, juiced 60ml light syrup from canned strawberries (or 10ml strawberry cordial syrup) Dash peach bitters Soda water Fresh strawberry Slice of orange Method Add bitters to a large goblet, add orange juice, syrup, and top with soda.  Garnish edge of glass with fruit, add straw, and stir lightly. The sugar from the syrup takes the edge off the juice, but should not be enough to make a sweet drink. The peach bitters bring the other flavours together without overpowering.

It would come to no surprise to anyone who knows us that we are big fans of They Might Be Giants, and that it would be inevitable that they would make an appearance in this series. Here's the animated (comic?) horror movie that is "Damn Good Times", borrowing heavily from the classic "Nosferatu" from 1922. With bonus Wagnerian vampire valkyries. Animation by Divya Srinivasan.

This week we have a steel version of The Great Glass Elevator, fortunately without any Vermicious Knids, thanks for Angie Aparo's "Spaceship".  I do apologise for the quality of this one, but it is the only example I can find.

GoSun are running a giveaway for their solar-electric Fusion oven. Usual rules apply if you use the link below. GoSun Fusion Ultimate Bundle Solar Oven Giveaway #giveaway #win https://kingsumo.com/g/y9vohi/ultimate-gosun-fusion-bundle-giveaway/m5kvldl

A birthday special for Leece today. Thomas Dolby, and "Europa and the Pirate Twins", which features what may be a time-travelling Mr. Dolby. Was this what lead to the events in "She Blinded Me With Science"? Maybe!

M83 with "Claudia Lewis", starring Lily Collins and Israel Broussard. A fun highschool romance featuring a sweet alien girl ('Claudia Lewis') and a couple of very accepting humans.

This week we return to Lindsey Stirling, this time visiting a steampunk Wild West with "Roundtable Rival". A brilliant bit of storytelling, some wonderful costuming and choreography, all rounded out with magnificent acting. Her instrument, incidentally, is a Real Thing - not a prop! It appears to be a Romanian horn-violin (or possibly a Stroh violin).