C immerian encounters, Game Of Thrones obsession and sleepy heads in this week’s peek inside SFX Towers
Welcome, one and all, to the glorious return of FROM THE SFX OFFICE! This fly on the wall has been a busy bee of late (all those pages don’t write themselves you know) but now the klaxon has sounded on issue 211, he’s free to fly around the interwebs and tap insider information, direct from the life vein of SFX towers. We may have mixed our metaphors there somewhere.
In our absence issue 210 has hit the shelves, Thor thundered into cinemas across the land (for the record the office consensus is a resounding thumbs up) and Smallville bowed out after 10 years on the small screen (for the record the office consensus was a resounding “meh”). Looking to the future, team SFX will be powering down to London next weekend for MCM Expo, where the two Daves and Jordan will be taking to the stage on Saturday at 2pm for a panel on “How To Get Into Sci-fi Journalism”. If you’ve ever wanted to write for a living, don’t miss it!
Nick confronted Conan the Barbarian last week. Yes, perhaps the most improbable team-up since Spider-Man met Howard the Duck. He was interviewing Jason Momoa, star of this summer’s upcoming Conan reboot. We like to imagine they tore into roast hogs’ heads and knocked back flagons of raw ox’s blood while sultry-eyed Cimmerian wenches laughed at the quotable bits. But it probably involved neatly-cut sarnies, complimentary Perrier and a hovering publicist.
Last night Dave B and Nick ventured to the eminently championable Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath ( http://www.mrbsemporium.com/ ), where China Miéville was in town to promote his fine new novel Embassytown . Some splendid nibbles were consumed, vocabularies were expanded in true Miéville style (word of the night: “epiphanic”) and the man himself was later found arguing with Nick over a picture of a sea beast. “Dude, it’s an octopus!” maintained the novelist. “It’s a squid!” countered the journalist. A careful count of tentacles was demanded. When it came to nine, they agreed to call it a squidopus.
Rich is catching up on some very glamorous adminny stuff, wondering what star rating to give to “The Rebel Flesh”, and looking forward to seeing Attack The Block tonight. Ade, over the past two weeks, has been working on top secret plans for the Weekender 3. He’s also getting very excited about attending San Diego Comic Con in July (anyone coming over?), Man Utd winning the league, Doctor Who (which gets better each week) and Darth Vader himself (Dave Prowse) calling up to ask why he’s not getting SFX anymore!
In between dressing up as Wolverine and becoming utterly obsessed with Game Of Thrones , Rob has somehow found time to interview Bob Hoskins, get beaten at football, spend a glorious morning with advance copies of Alan Moore: Storyteller and The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 1969 (spoilers: they're both terrific) and release a record (which you can download for free from www.robandtherules.com ). He is surviving on a diet of orange Lucozade and Hobnobs.
Ian isn’t here. Russell is knackered. Ditto Catherine. Jordan on the other hand is full of beans having finally moved to Bath, meaning early mornings are a thing of the past for the rosy-cheeked scamp. Late nights aren’t though, at least they won’t be once he gets a bed of his own and no longer has to sleep on the couch in front of the TV – a sure fire recipe for late night gaming. Despite a totally unnecessary lack of winks, he’s still bouncing around after meeting Simon Pegg and Nick Frost last week for next issue’s Fannish Inquisition, and his discovery yesterday that Bath swimming pool has a Jacuzzi and a slide. A slide! Age restrictions apply, but fortunately his boyish good lucks were enough to fool the guard, who knew looking like a 15 year old would pay off so handsomely?
PS. It’s Dave G’s birthday tomorrow, everyone wish him a good ‘un!
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Random Quote Of The Week : “I’ll have a Rob Knob.”
Whose headphones?: (You'd be surprised how much a person's headphones says about them, bonus SFX points* for guessing the two owners)
* SFX points are 100% irredeemable everywhere. Except in your dreams.
