Here comes the curtain coming down on another year.

Before it does, time to savor some highlights…

Oh, and the leaning tower of Pisa with the surfboard and balloons at the top?

I’ll say this much – it’s a little hard not to stare when you see a complete stranger at the beach dressed in a swimsuit bearing your site’s logo. How exactly that happened is, like why swinging-from-the-jungle-vines Tarzan never had a beard, one of life’s mysteries.

PEPSI, WHERE’S MY JET? (January)

THE RISE, FALL & RISE AGAIN of GARY NUMAN (February)

A DAY TOO LATE – Short Fiction (February)

Why were People in the ‘Olden Days’ so much less attractive than Today? (March)

Top Secret UFO Projects Declassified – Part 1 (March)

Top Secret UFO Projects Declassified – Part 2 (April)

Murder on Palmyra Island (April)

A Year in Teddy Land (May)

The Rise, Fall & Rise Again of Gary Numan – Part 2 (May)

A Salute to TV’s Mrs ‘C’ (June)

Classic Letter from 1865 (June)

Three Days in Singapore (June)

Nine Days in Korea (July)

King of Comedy Don Rickles (July)

Birth of the Internet (August)

Street Names (August)

Computer Passwords (September)

The Rise, Fall & Rise Again of Gary Numan – Part 3 (September)

NON-Renewing my Queensland Theatre Subscription (September)

The Rise, Fall & Rise Again of Gary Numan – Part 4 (September)

Goldeneye the Game (October)

Favourite Films of the 2000’s (October)

Short Story – ‘FLUSHED WITH SUCCESS’ (October)

Why Do Homeless People Prefer to Sleep on Grass Rather than Concrete (October)

Motley Crue – Def Leppard Concert (November)

Shipwrecks (November)

The Rise, Fall & Rise again of Gary Numan - Part 5 (November)

Loopholes (November)

Best Book Covers of 2023 (December)

NO BLOG FOR YOU… OK, JUST A LITTLE BIT THEN

THIS BLOG IS MASSIVE IN GERMANY

This Blog is Making me Thirsty… and Informed and Entertained

This Blog is Huge in Singapore

What It Isn’t

Triggering

Nobody Puts this Blog in the Corner

Remember the time that thing happened? Me neither.

Back in late January, a tiny but potentially deadly radioactive capsule (containing caesium-137) fell off the back of a mining truck as it was being transported to Perth, Western Australia.

This sparked a frantic search along a 1400 kilometer stretch of outback highway. The search was likened to looking for a needle in a haystack. The capsule was eventually located more than a week later, just two meters off the side of the road.

Back in October, Brisbane Broncos player Ezra Mam scored a hat-trick of hair-scorching tries in the rugby league grand final. Razzle-dazzle on that scale is a pretty rare thing. No one’s done it in the NRL’s ‘Big Dance’ for 15 years.

And in the entire history of league grand finals, just one person has ever gone one better – four tries – on one single occasion (okay – you prized it out of me – it was back in 1951 by Rabbitohs winger Johnny Graves).

It was truly incredible! Almost as incredible as the fact the Broncos somehow still managed to lose the game.

Anita Pointer (member of The Pointer Sisters) Aged 74 – January

Child star Adam Rich (‘EIGHT IS ENOUGH’) Aged 54 – January

Australian singer Renee Geyer Aged 69 – January

Child Star Lance Kerwin (“JAMES AT 15) Aged 63 – January

Italian Film Star Gina Lollobrigida Aged 95 – January

Lisa Marie Presley Aged 54 – January

Guitarist Jeff Beck Aged 78 – January

Actress Cindy Williams Aged 75 – January

Rachel Welch Aged 82 – February

Aussie Ken Warby (speedboat world record holder) Aged 84 – February

Actor Tom Sizemore (“Saving Private Ryan”) Aged 61 – March

Singer Tony Bennett (aged 96) – July

Singer Sinead O’Connor (aged 56) – July

Mark Goddard (aged 87) October

I’d thought for certain – before I actually went to the cinema to see it – this ‘award’ would go to THE EQUALIZER 3 (Denzel Washington) but… well, that didn’t really turn out like I thought it was going to.

No, by far the most mind-smashingly spellfull film I saw this year was one I recorded from television on the SBS World Movies channel.

DELIVER US FROM EVIL is a Korean movie released at the height of the pandemic in 2021.

‘Great’ is too weak a word to describe the experience of it. Pulsating – primal – poetic – and palpably all-eclipsing might be a little closer to the truth. Yeah, I liked it.

Oh, and if you like your military history, this one (which I saw at the cinema just a few days back) – and features the same main actor from DELIVER US FROM EVIL – does the job quite well also –

Plus two-shortlisted words that almost grabbed the gong…

SCENIC WRITER’S SHACK has some big events planned for 2024, so until then…

Staying happy: that’s what it’s all about, right? Better click HERE