“A view of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman from one of the Orion spacecraft’s windows after completing the translunar injection burn on April 2, 2026. The image features two auroras (top right and bottom left) and zodiacal light (bottom right) is visible as the Earth eclipses the Sun.”
• I was surprised this week to find myself quoted by David Hudson at Criterion Current in an overview of the schedule for Cold War Visions: Nuclear Anxiety in Eastern Bloc Cinema, a short season of films that will be showing at the Barbican throughout this month. One of those films is Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, a cult film round here, which a handful of lucky Londoners will be able to see on a big screen.
• 邪神三十六景 (Thirty-six Views of the Evil Gods) is collection of drawings by Takeki Yamada that combine Hokusai’s celebrated views of Mount Fuji with beings from Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. I’m a little underwhelmed by the results but the book is out there for those who want it.
• Among the new titles at Standard Ebooks, the home of free, high-quality, public-domain texts: Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon. (Previously)
• Coming soon at Unquiet Things: The Art of the Unknown: A Visual Treasury of the Esoteric, Uncanny, and Unexplained by S. Elizabeth.
• At Public Domain Review: Elizabeth I’s manuscript copy of Pierre Boaistuau’s Histoires Prodigieuses (1559).
• New music: Enter the Nuummite Cosmos by Brotherhood Of Sleep.
• At the BFI: Where to begin with Peter Weir.
• A Brief History of the Dust Jacket.
• Out Of The Unknown (1984) by Died Pretty | Brian’s Nightmare / The Unknown, Part One (2005) by Robin Guthrie / Harold Budd | A Gift Of Unknown Things (2017) by Teleplasmiste
Thanks, John, I’ve been an avid, admiring, and appreciative reader for years.
Nice short Weir piece, but I really couldn’t get into Master and Commander. Maybe I should try again? But I really should start at the beginning with him!
Died Pretty seem to have been big in Australia but in the UK never seemed to achieve much substantial recognition beyond the readership of Bucketfull of Brains, which is where I first encountered them. Odd, considering the number of Australian bands who were critically fêted at the time. I was also a fan of their early aesthetic on the Next to Nothing/Free Dirt/Pre–Deity run of sleeves.
Free Dirt is a classic.
David: Thanks! I’m a little unnerved when I’m quoted as any kind of authority but I think I can support those comments.
Dave: Yes, Master and Commander is definitely worth another viewing. It’s a historical film that doesn’t insult the audience by pandering to contemporary mores. I was disappointed with The Last Wave when I watched it again recently. I hadn’t seen it for years, and remembered it as being better than it was.
Paul: I confess I only know Died Pretty from the Children of Nuggets CD collection. The only similar Australian band I’m at all familiar with is the Hoodoo Gurus. I had a few of their albums and even saw them once when they toured over here.
“Beautifully restored…”
Can I assume from this comment that at some point Criterion will release a new version of Ikarie XB-1? That’s one I don’t have.
I don’t know about Criterion but Second Run released a region-free blu-ray a while ago:
https://www.secondrundvd.com/release_ikarieBD.html
I’ve got the earlier DVD release, and can vouch for its excellent picture quality.