Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to Geeky Brummy here at Birmingham Botanical Gardens for a very special episode. Joining me as per usual, Mr. Leif Rose. Hello. Ms. Sam Edwards.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Hello.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: And Mr. Keith Greenville. Hello.
We are in the national Bonsai collection at Birmingham Botanical Gardens which I don't think many people actually know is tucked around the side of the Medicine Cafe here established in 1993.
Some beautiful bonsai trees which I'm very afraid that to even get close to because they seem to be beautifully manicured. But it's part of the little Japanese garden at the back just between the hot house and the cafe, so would recommend coming here. But anyway, we are here tonight because as part of Flatpack Birmingham Botanical Garden, the Mockingbirds Garden Cinema series, we are screening Spirited Away as part of Birmingham Anime Film Festival.
So we'll be having a wander around the gardens.
Hopefully we might be able to catch a few people interview about Spirited Away and Gone Cinema.
Otherwise you're just gonna have to listen to Earth Waffle.
But we shall see you short.
[00:01:24] Speaker C: Longtime listeners of the show should know that if you want comics in this city, you come to Worlds Apart Birmingham. Formerly known as Nostalgia and Comics. This is the site of the UK's longest running comic shop and is the perfect place to stock up on all your latest US releases as well as great manga titles and lots of other nerd accessories.
Located on Small Book Queensway, the store also stocks a large range of Gunpla along with Funko and Loungefly items.
If you're on the other side of the city, you can find the Forbidden Planet Megastore on Bull street.
You'll be able to find all the latest releases plus graphic novels and nerd toys. Here, pop downstairs for all the latest comics, graphic novels and books and upstairs for toys and games.
Over in Digbth, you can visit Second City Comics inside the Red Brick market. This specializes in back issues trading cards, but remember it's a cashless market so card payments are required.
Also in digbth we have lostalgica, which stocks a range of back issues along with a load of other vintage paraphernalia. Over in Wolverhampton we have Worlds Apart's sister store Forbidden Planet which is located in Ralphwind Square. This stocks the same kind of stuff as you find in Worlds Apart, but conveniently located in the centre of Wolverhampton. And then skipping over to Coventry in Cross Cheaping, you can find the other Forbidden Planet which stocks a wide range of comics, books, games to toys and everything else that your geek heart could ever desire. Of course I'd always recommend that you come down to Worlds Apart, formerly Nostalgia and Comics for all of your comics needs if you can, but hopefully those other choices will give you an option if you're a bit further out of town and can't make it into the big city.
[00:03:09] Speaker D: Covering 15 acres, Birmingham Botanical Gardens is a registered charity and originally opened in 1832, it houses over 30,000 plants, some contained in its beautiful grade 2 listed glass houses. As a charity, the Botanical Gardens offers membership with discounts for students, families, disabled guests and more, which gives unlimited entry event discounts special offers to other gardens in the UK. Find out more about them at Birmingham Botanical Gardens birmingham.org.uk or at the link in the Description. Flatpak is an arts organisation which exists to show amazing work bringing people together and develop new ideas created with a love of film in all shapes and sizes, particularly where it bumps up against other art forms. Their flagship event in May sees them at venues across Birmingham with the magnificently eclectic Flat Pack Festival. Flat Flatpak is a lead partner in Film Hub Midlands, an initiative as part of the BFI Film Audience Network to develop a thriving film culture in the Midlands and among other things, this means working with partners across the region. Flatpak Projects is a charitable, incorporated organisation and their work wouldn't be possible without a wide range of funders and supporters including Arts Council England and the BFI. You can find out more about them at finding flatpakfestival.org.uk or at the link in the description. For three years now, Birmingham Anime Film Festival has been part of Gardens Cinema in association with Flat Pack and the Mockingbird at Birmingham Botanical Gardens with an opportunity to show a classic film in a beautiful setting. Previously we've shown My Neighbor Totoro and the Boy and the Heron. This year it was the term for Spirited Away with the Return of the Sakine Quartet playing a selection of Joe Hisashi classics to get the audience into the mood and make it feel even more magical. It's one of my favourite things about BAF and has sold out every time an anime has been screened.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: I'm here with the amazing, the wonderful Sakim Quartet. We just had the pleasure of listening to you guys practice so amazing music. Really looking forward to the concert a little bit later on. So here for Botanical Gardens for our screening of Spiritual Way, the wonderful music of Joe Hisashi. Do you guys want to introduce yourselves and explain how you got into becoming into a quarter and performing events like this?
[00:05:57] Speaker E: Yeah so we are the Sakina Quartet. We met in 2016 at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. We all trained there together and have been playing together since, which is quite a privilege.
It's been a lot of fun. We do a lot of the candlelight concerts around Birmingham, so we regularly perform around Birmingham Cathedral, St. Paul's Church, sometimes at Botanical Gardens as well. Quite a lot of different venues. Repertoire, different repertoire, including Taylor Swift, abba, Queen, Coldplay, Bollywood, more and more. So, yeah, that's us.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: That's fantastic. So what guys? What did get you guys into Birmingham? Was it you more moved here for university, for the conservatoire, or are you local?
[00:06:42] Speaker E: All individual reasons, but we all met at the conservatoire, so that was the sort of main thing.
But now we're all doing lots of freelance work, but still together. So, yeah, the Conservatoire brought us here.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: It's beautiful. So far, just behind Millennium Point. I don't think people realize where it is sometimes, but yeah. So Joe has asked you music done for a giant orchestra, for things like Spiritual Way. How do you guys interpret that? And get that down to a quarter.
[00:07:13] Speaker E: It's well arranged. It's well arranged. The music is just so juicy and lush that it just works with strings.
But we're very lucky to have the arrangements that we have.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Brilliant. And the cat is joining us. You cannot see him on camera.
The cat has come over because enthralled by the music, of course. Where can we find you guys? Online. So if you want a bookie for a private event or things like that, or want to keep up with what concerts you're doing publicly.
[00:07:42] Speaker E: So we have an Instagram het and Sakine is spelt S E K I N E because of this lovely lady here.
So Instagram or Facebook and then you can email us and chat to us whenever you like. Come say hi.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: Brilliant. Thank you very much, guys. I really look forward to the concert later and we'll speak to you. Great. Cheers. Thank you.
Right, so we're here at the amazing Nostalgia in the Custard Factory in Digbth.
Coffee cakes, sandwiches, comics, clothing, retro vintage, vintage vinyl. Vintage vinyl, vintage cameras. Lots and lots of fun stuff to come down. Vintage clients, vintage sunglasses.
Yeah, and yeah, plenty to come down and have a fun play with. So if you are in the neighborhood, we really recommend popping in, having a coffee, having a chill and just come and flickering stuff.
Gonna quickly go through some of the titles coming up for Birmingham Anime Film Festival starting on Thursday the 25th of September through to Wednesday the 1st of October.
So the first one, Ghost in the Shell. Does this really need an introduction?
One of the greatest animes of all Time.
[00:08:56] Speaker F: It's pretty good.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: Scarlett Johansson's in it.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:01] Speaker F: Please direct your hate messages towards Keith.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: Keith and Keith Lou. So this is the original 1995 movie. 97. Sorry movie. So it's been remade a fair few times over the few years of Masamune Shirao manga to start off with.
Then came the Mamoruoshi film, which is still seen as probably the best interpretation. I would say.
Well ignore the Hollywood interpretation for the rest of this bit, but there's an amazing standalone complex as well, which is the TV series. If you've not watched it. Really, really recommend. There.
There's been the second movie, Innocence, which was really good. There's been Ghost of Shell Arise has been a few others. But this is kind of the genesis of the anime version of the Ghost in the shell.
Section 9 investigating.
Can't remember what the name of the killer. Now. It wasn't Laughing man, that was standalone complex.
But yes, anyway, really watch it. It's amazing. Really, really recommend.
Doing two Miyazaki movies this year. The first one is Lupin III the Castle of Kali Ostro.
Hope I pronounced that right.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: I don't think you pronounce the G I. I don't think you're meant to because I'm assuming it's Italian. So it would be.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: Yeah. So anyway, so Lupin iii.
[00:10:19] Speaker C: Just call it Lupin iii.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: Yes. The problem is there's quite a few loops.
[00:10:23] Speaker F: There are quite a few things.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Yeah, but. Yeah, so we showed Lupin III the first last year, which is the last film that Monkey Picture was involved with. But this was the first time they turned the TV series which Hao Miyazaki started and cut his teeth on into a kind of full on movie. It wasn't.
[00:10:40] Speaker F: It was the second movie.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: The second movie.
[00:10:42] Speaker F: Sorry, it's Hayao Miyazaki's first movie.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Hayao Miyazaki's first ever anime movie. But yeah, so he directed quite a few episodes of TV series. I think we watched it all of season one and the majority of season two.
And then. Yeah, so it's his first anime film. And yeah, it's a really fun film. You want to go into a little bit.
[00:10:59] Speaker F: Yeah. So I. I like. I've actually seen this before, like ages ago. And it was.
It's a really good heist movie first and foremost. Like.
But it's also just like. You can tell it's Hayao Miyazaki even though it's his debut. You can't. Like there's nothing in it that sort of makes you think, oh, this is the work of an amateur. This is just a Hayao Miyazaki movie. It's got those moments where it's like everything slows down. You get like the wind across the plains and all this sort of stuff.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:25] Speaker F: But then like, it's just got loads of fun action and stuff. Like there's a car chase in it. That's just great. Where you driving across the wall in a Fiat 500.
It's just. Yeah. And it's just a really fun heist movie. If you're a fan of like things like Indiana Jones. Yeah, it's definitely worth watching.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Yeah. I think Guillermo Dell's Horror and Spielberg both rate it highly. It's one of their favorite films, so really, really worth a watch. Coming on to the next Ghibli movie.
We already showed this once this year at the amazing Botanical gardens, which you'd have seen earlier in the footage.
But we're doing Spirited Away again, so this will be on Friday at the Mockingbird.
Again. Do we really need to talk about.
[00:12:07] Speaker F: This one too much?
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Miyazaki's first Oscar.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: If you're not aware of it, then that's all the more reason to come and watch it.
If it needs the introduction, then you should definitely be coming to see this film.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Beautiful. One of my favorite movies of all time.
Showing the subd version this time because we did the dub version at the live screening. So you got the Japanese voice cast rather than the American voice cast.
Really, really good film. Watch that. We're also doing two Shytoshi Con movies this year, so Satoshi Khan films are always a favorite. And this is probably the best double build that kind of works thematically, which is Paprika and Perfect Blue. So it's an exploration of the mind.
Paprika, it's kind of a dream machine. Gets stolen and then it goes into what's. What's reality, what's the dream world. It's really kind of messed up to be fair, but really good.
And then of course, Perfect Blue, which is probably Satoshi Kon's best known work.
Darren Aronofsky's Stolen, I think every single scene in that rip by now across all of his works.
[00:13:07] Speaker F: To be fair, I think he did pay for the rights. So he didn't steal it. He just.
[00:13:10] Speaker C: He just bought the rights.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: But yeah. So again, about a stalker, about this J pop idol who decides to go a bit more mature in her career. The stalker gets obsessed and it gets into this kind of weird again. What's real, what's not real with the Fan club. Etc. So really, really recommend that one.
Makoto Shinkai. I think we talked about him a lot on the show before. But we're doing the Makoto Shinkai marathon again. Starting off with a place promised in our early days. Moving on to 5cm per second, which is my personal favorite. The Garden of Words. Children who Chase Lost Voices, which is also known as Journey to Agartha. I think in America it's got about 15 different titles. This film. The full title is Children who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below. But everybody just calls it Children who Chase Lost Voices.
And of course your name and Weathering with you, which are probably two of the bigger films that he's known for. Your name was probably his big breakout title. It was the first film to be a Ghibli production in Japan at the box office.
And then since then Hayao Miyazaki's been out retirement twice to beat him back. But yeah. So what do you guys think about Makoto Shinkai Films?
[00:14:19] Speaker F: I really enjoyed your name and Suzume. So obviously we're not showing Susan.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: Yeah. But it's kind of Suzume's the other third part of that kind of disaster trilogy that it makes of. Yeah. But your name is a good personal favorite.
We're also showing a bit of TV tasters for the first time this year. So the wonderful people at MVM have let us show a couple of episodes from their fantastic titles which you can check out on their website. We'll pop the link down below.
We're showing two episodes of Berserk. The TV series.
[00:14:48] Speaker F: 1997 TV series have to be specific.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Because there's a second one cuz Berserk's been made again a few times. So the manga is one of the great stalwarts of Japanese manga. It's one of the big ones that everybody kind of knows. It's always struggled a bit with the anime adaptations. There being so many.
[00:15:05] Speaker F: I think partly is because that really detailed art style is really difficult to translate to animation.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:12] Speaker F: I would say because it's just so like meticulously done.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:16] Speaker F: That like you just can't replicate it. Like I've seen what the animation looks like compared to the manga. It's a big difference.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: But I think the anime version. This one is probably one of the better interpretations of it. It keeps its 18 rating. Berserk is a kind of quite messy and quite violent film screenings.
This one kind of keeps that vibe all the way through. Really do recommend it. The second series we're showing is which Blade So this one's a bit different because it's also a comic, isn't it, Keith? Yeah. So it started off as a American released comic, which then has been adapted into an anime, which is usually the other way around, which is usually a Japanese source material gets adapted and then translated into a western like Ghost in the Shelf.
But yeah, so it's a really interesting comic. Keith, you want to tell us a bit about Witchblade?
[00:16:05] Speaker C: I don't really know it that well. It was one of the kind of like Wild Storm books, early ones when kind of Jim Lee and Jim Valentino and Todd McFarlane left Marvel and they started forming independent comic companies. So it was part of the plethora of comics like Spawn, Youngblood, all of those kind of things. The early image Wildcats and all the rest of them. So this is kind of one of those early titles that kind of like. It kind of traded off a little bit on its kind of cheesecakey kind of styling. So it was kind of riffing off things like Vampirella and kind of stuff like that. So it's kind of like there was another character called Fathom that was knocking around at the same time. So it's kind of that kind of interesting. Yeah, I mean, there's a bit of bayonet beyond to it as well.
[00:16:50] Speaker F: Well, I also have a vague memory that I think they did like a crossover with Tomb Raiders some point in the 90s.
[00:16:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it's crossed over with a lot of stuff in the comments.
[00:16:58] Speaker F: And stuff as well, because I vaguely remember seeing. I think it was this where it was like that and Lara Craft together.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: So it's basically the whole premise is it's a blade which gets inherited. The main character collects it. We don't know if it's a demonic blade or an angelic blade. So it's the whole thing of is this to be used for good or for evil? And it's kind of. It's a blade that takes over the person. So it's kind of a little bit like that game a few years ago with the demonic possession weapon thing.
I can't remember the name of it. I'm trying to think the guy was called Johnny. I think it was like that kind of cartoony vibe game. Can't remember.
[00:17:34] Speaker F: No, I can't remember.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: If I do remember, it will be flashing up in giant letters underneath.
But yes. And the third one we're showing is Serial Experiments Lame, which is I'm going to hand over to Leon.
[00:17:45] Speaker F: Yeah. So it's basically. It is. It's About a sort of isolated girl.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Who.
[00:17:51] Speaker F: Effectively like merges herself into the Internet is the best way to describe it. So it's about like a sort of a network of connected things called the Wired. But like it was made in like the late 90s. But a lot of what it's sort of saying kind of works today with a lot of, you know how the Internet is today and people sort of like even though we're more connected than ever, a lot of people are more isolated than ever and that sort of thing. So it kind of touches on a lot of those sort of themes. Touches on themes of identity.
It's a very surreal anime.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: So yeah, these are absolutely fantastic shows. And as mentioned mbm. So these will be two taster episodes thrown up. So if you want to go and watch these in perpetual in the hallway, you go and pick them up on mbm. I think most of them are in Blu Ray or dvd and I think there's some limited edition Steelbooks, especially on Serial Experiments lane coming.
So really do recommend it.
Personal favorite, and I think it's one that everybody seems to love is Penguin highway up next. This will be shown at the Mac.
It's going to be the dubbed English language version, but it's a fantastic film. It's basically what if magical penguins appear with a coming of age story mixed together. That's all you need to know about it. Go in, really enjoy it. We really do recommend you try that one.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: I think if you're a family that's looking for kind of like a taster of like how good manga anime can be, being dubbed as well just means it's an accessible way for children of all ages to get in and kind of enjoy it.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Talking of accessible, perfect segue. Thank you, Keith. Next one is a Colorbox greeting. So colorbox work with the Mac and Flatpak.
So these are relaxed, accessible screenings. There's usually a workshop ahead of it and then it'll go into a screening of the film which will be in a rack performance. And I think tickets are always 2 for 1 for color box reading. So check out the Mac website on that one. But we're showing Oko's Inn which is where Oko goes to the countryside to see her grandmother running a traditional ancients in basically onsen near a Japanese spring.
But the spirits all over. So it's kind of quite warm, friendly movie about that one. And the third dubbed movie we're sharing as well is A Letter to Momo which again quite a bit of sweet, heartfelt movie. This one Young girl called Momo. Her father passes away. She moves in with a mother on a small island town and she encounters three goblins who nobody else can see or hear. But they kind of help her process the loss of a father and the chambers in her life. And I just think that one is a really nice, bittersweet movie. I really do recommend it. PG so family friendly film.
Then a few more titles to go through as fast as we can.
Next one is Colourful Stage Emiku, who can't sing overtily on this one. Yeah.
[00:20:44] Speaker F: So this is the Hatsune Miku movie that is based on the latest of many Hatsune Miku video games. So if you don't know, Hatsune Miku is a vocaloid, so a virtual voice instrument, so you can sort of have this sort of robotic voice singing in your songs. And lots of people use this.
Pharrell Williams has like used Vocaloid stuff. Anna Managuchi's used Vocaloid stuff specifically. Even made a song about Hatsune Miku using her voice.
But there's a whole series of like rhythm games based on like all the music that's been made of her stuff. And the latest one is Caught from Stage, which is a.
It's a mobile game and it's got like five different bands and each of them has like a different Miku associated with them. And there's like an alternate world where Miku lives. And this one, the movie is about a sixth Miku who lives in a world where it's a lot grayer, it's a lot duller. It's based on people who have not sort of built out the thoughts of people who have not achieved their creative dreams. And so the plot of the movie is, how do we bring cold and light back to that world? Yeah, that sort of thing. So it's basically just.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I think Hatsune Miki is probably the most well known of all the Vocaloids, Unlike she is a global phenomenon. I think somebody even married Miku at some point.
[00:22:18] Speaker F: Yeah, I like. I like the Krypton Future Media, the company that owns Hatsune Miku is just like, we are. We are not associated with this wedding. In English.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: Next one up is Inuo. So this is a reinterpretation of Hideo Furukawa's novel the Tale of Heiki, the Inuo chapters.
But what they've done is taken this book and it's set in the 14th century of Japan and it's got a hip hop, psychedelic music vibe to it as well. So something really kind of unique and took forever to make. So I do really recommend you watch it.
One Piece Words. Next one. So again, if you don't know One Piece, you've probably been living in a hole for the last 30 years.
Probably the most successful manga of all time. I think one of.
[00:23:02] Speaker F: Yes, one of them.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: Definitely one of the longest mangas of all time especially.
[00:23:07] Speaker C: And I think it's just been introduced to a new audience as well because the BBC have put everything episode on iplayer.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: There's the live adaptation on Netflix as well at the same time. So you probably heard of One Piece. Straw Hat Pirates.
Kind of going for the Grand Treasure. Can't remember what it is on the Grand Line.
Really do recommend it if you're not watching it. The live action is really, really good adaptation to be fair, for a change. But this is one of the anime movies. Do recommend it. Give that a watch and then two more films to go. No, sorry, three more to go. Next one. Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba the movie Infinity Castle. There's lots of colons in that. I'm not going to say whatever.
Demon Slayer is probably again one of the more modern popular animes. It's everywhere. It's been going for going for a little while now, but the movie's always really popular. Infinity Castle was a really kind of pivotal moment in the show. So this film's coming off the back of that. It's planned to be a trilogy, so give that a watch.
[00:24:04] Speaker F: I mean the title doesn't need to be that long because it literally uses the English title and the Japanese title.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: Next to each other. Yeah.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: Wasn't that something like the.
The most successful animated film of its year or all time or something? That's some sort of massive record as.
[00:24:22] Speaker A: An absolutely massive following year. Yeah. So. So last two films for today. Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Freedom. So this is a follow on for the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Anime.
I'm not even going to attempt to explain the Gundam timelines, but this is one of the alternate timelines not set in the Universal century, which is the main timeline which most people are aware of.
[00:24:42] Speaker F: Or you could just play the new Super Robot wars game and you get all the timelines at once mushed together.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: Yep. But basically. So this follows on from the Gundam Seed Destiny, I think. So it's a follow up to that one.
Again, if you like giant robots fighting giant robots in space, you're not going to go wrong.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: Who doesn't?
[00:25:00] Speaker A: And the final one for today is the end of Evangelion, which again, probably needs no introduction. Neon Genesis Evangelion again, probably one of the most famous animes of all time called Major Riots when the original ending of the film got shown. So this was an alternate Rift reinterpretation where Hideki Anno just basically went, well, screw you to the audience and killed all your favorite characters in amazingly beautiful work. So really do recommend that. Give that a reviewing. Got a few more titles to announce. Can't confirm them yet.
Just keep on the. Keep an eye on the website baf.uk you can find all the ticket links on there and they'll take you through to the Mockingbird of the Mac website to book directly with them.
Thank you.
All right, it's time for our usual one Geek thing. What's the one Geek thing we were up to and around recently kicks off, Sam?
[00:25:56] Speaker B: I've been watching a brilliant new show on Disney plus called Alien Earth.
So this is a spin off, obviously, of the Alien franchise.
It's basically. It sets, I think, between the first two Alien films.
Something it's early on in the continuity.
[00:26:19] Speaker C: Basically, pre Alien, post Prometheus.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: Okay, right.
[00:26:24] Speaker B: That's probably what I'm thinking of.
So it's, as the title suggests, it's actually set on Earth rather than in space.
And it's at a time when the Earth is controlled by five massive corporations which have sort of taken over Weyland Yutani.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: One being Weyland Yutani.
So they're controlling life on the planet instead of national governments.
A Weyland Yutani ship that has been exploring space and picking up samples of alien creatures, which may include a particularly famous one, Crashlands on Earth, in a. An area controlled by one of the other corporations, Prodigy.
And it's basically about Prodigy collecting the alien samples from the ship and trying to figure out what to do with them.
But obviously, as you would imagine, everything starts going wrong. The aliens don't particularly like being collected and it. Yeah, it all goes bad.
But it's really, really like. The action scenes are really exciting.
It's done a great job of capturing the suspense of the first film.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: So it's Noah Hathaway, I think, directing.
[00:27:53] Speaker C: From Legion and Fargo.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Yes, yes. And I think he did one of the Alien films beforehand. No, no, it's first time. First time, sorry, because I know it was. Oh, sorry. It was made at the same time as Covenant, which is why there's a bit of incongruity between the two of them.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's following as well a kind of group of characters who are known as hybrids.
So in the alien world, you've got the synthetics, like Ash and Vishop from. From the films.
But hybrids are where they've taken the minds of children and implanted them into synthetic bodies. Which basically means there's a group of adult actors having great fun playing children.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: The Lost Boys from.
[00:28:40] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a very.
[00:28:42] Speaker C: Not so thinly veiled analogy with the. With the Peter Pan.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: But the actors are clearly having a great time and it is that they do portray them really well. Like, it feels like you're watching a bunch of kids who just happen to be super strong and.
Yeah, and the alien creatures. So there is obviously the alien that you would expect, but there's a whole menagerie of other creatures as well who are Kester's sister, sinister and horrible as the main alien. There's one in particular that's like an eyeball with a load of tentacles which is creepy as anything.
[00:29:23] Speaker A: So that's on Disney plus here in the UK and I think it's on FX over in the States.
[00:29:29] Speaker C: Fx?
[00:29:29] Speaker A: Hulu.
[00:29:30] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: Cool. Awesome. Thank you very much, Sir Lee. How about yourself?
[00:29:37] Speaker F: Okay, so I went up to Glasgow a few weeks ago to go to the Glasgow Indie Games Festival.
I just was like looking at like what gaming events are going on. Saw that one and went, good excuse to go to Scotland. I've never been there, so let's go.
So it's kind of. It was like a very small event, sort of trying to think of like sort of equivalent space in Birmingham, probably sort of similar to like event spaces. You'd get around the custom factory where like quite small, quite compact, but they had like 14 games on display and a room for talks and that was basically all you had, but like some highlights that I saw there.
So there's a game called Asterism, which is described as an interactive music video.
So it's like lots of different gameplay styles going on depending on, you know, what the song is and everything. So it's like going through a whole album and basically the. The woman who made that just made everything. So made like stop motion animations, made all the. All the crafts and stuff for it. She did all the music and then did all the programming of the actual game. And I was. I actually spoke to her and it's just like really everything.
Is there anything you can't do? Like, so.
And then.
So some of the other ones we had Ken Mathea's Curse, which is basically what if Earthbend was set in Scotland.
And like, I love.
One thing I loved about that game was like when they introduced the combat mechanics you are beating up a gate because it's broken and you need to fix the gate and wrenching it. Yeah, it's one of those like, sort of like I'll just give it a good kick and it'll. It'll work.
[00:31:12] Speaker C: I've done that kind of DIY in the past.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Percussive maintenance, I believe.
[00:31:16] Speaker F: Yeah. And I just love that it's like the full combat thing with just a gate that you're fighting.
There's a game called Krunda, which is basically a.
So it's a platformer, but it's like. It's a physics based platformer where you're on different planets and each one's got its own gravity and you're trying to use the gravity to kind of fling yourself from planet to planet to try and collect certain things and come back.
That was a lot of fun.
There was Rainy Day Racer, which is a racing game set in Scotland. So therefore it is constantly raining and experienced that already.
And. But the great. But because it's raining, like you're constantly. It's just all about like drifting and stuff because it's like just slippy constantly.
Which was also a lot of fun. There was Reality Drift, which is another racing game, but it's kind of similar to Outrun, but like every so often, instead of like going to a different part of the city or something, you're sort of going through a rift into a different reality. So you go into space or you go into the mushroom world and all this sort of stuff. And then Ritual of Raven, which was basically a farming game where you do everything by programming little sprite things to do all the actual farming work.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: So coding basically.
[00:32:38] Speaker F: Yeah. And then finally the game that won game of the show was Paul 2, which is basically what if Paul?
But everyone plays at once and it's just chaos.
And I did see a lot of people playing that over the course of the weekend.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: I've been in that pub.
[00:32:56] Speaker F: Yeah. So it was. It was a fun time, you know, it's just a really nice little venue and stuff as well. So.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: So if you want to know more about next year or some of the games, where's the best place to go and find it?
[00:33:06] Speaker F: The best place to find it is Glasgow Indie Games Festival.
Is the website so awesome. Yep.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Thank you very much, Keith. How about yourself?
[00:33:17] Speaker C: I'm gonna go with the most generic choice of all and just go for cinema because it's been a particularly good summer for cinema. There's been a lot of things around, but we're quite well Served in Birmingham for cinemas, obviously. One of the big names has kind of gone over the last couple of years, but we've still got a fairly decent SeaWorld. We've got two Odeons. Take your pick of which one you go. For those, I would recommend the looks of it five ways.
We've also got the Everyman, which is just by the mailbox.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: We've also got independent cinemas as well.
[00:33:49] Speaker C: Yeah, we've got the real up in Quinton. There's. Is it still called the Empire, the.
[00:33:53] Speaker F: One that's up in Newbury, the Omniplex. And it wouldn't be an independent because it is a chain.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:58] Speaker C: But still, it's still a cinema. But Omniplex, what a name for a cinema.
And we've just had a plethora of great kind of blockbuster titles, a lot of kind of smaller independent titles, you know, together. Weapons playing over the summer, lots of good horror stuff coming out.
[00:34:13] Speaker A: Bring it back.
[00:34:14] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah, we.
[00:34:15] Speaker C: We've did. We've done really well with kind of blockbusters this year, Superman and Fantastic Four, kind of revitalizing the superhero genre, which has kind of kicked off with Thunderbolts a few months back.
And kind of as we head into September and the end of the year, there is a really good range of films coming up in the next few months, which I think are going to carry on that kind of desire for us all to get back into cinemas.
A lot of people I know kind of still think it's expensive and not really worth it. And films come to streaming quite quickly, which they do, because I think Superman has been a pretty fast turnaround from screen to digital. I think it's just. Just been released as a digital. To buy at home.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:58] Speaker C: Thunderbolts is now on Disney plus plus.
[00:35:01] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:35:03] Speaker C: With the title giving it away on the front page. But, yeah, I think. I still think it's. For me, it's still one of the greatest experiences any human being can have, apart from kind of something like live music. Being in a room with people experiencing cinema, whether it be exciting, funny, horrific, it adds something that you don't get when you're in your own front room with the mobile phone and kind of other distractions when you're there immersed in a film in a darkened theater, is one of the greatest things that anybody can do with their time. And I think we've been really well served over the last few months.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Also, special mention to Mockingbird of the Mac, who have an amazing, amazing range of independent titles and things like anime, which you can check out.
[00:35:49] Speaker C: Just rewind back to where I was saying about cinemas. Oh, Mockingbird.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: But I just also want to give a plug for comedy coming back as well. Naked Gun's gone down really well.
There's the Roses. That's just come out as well. So it seems like. Yeah, yeah. So it seems like big students are starting to experiment, something for everybody.
[00:36:07] Speaker C: Yeah, we've had lots of good kids stuff as well. Bad guys too, did really well over the summer. And we're kind of heading into another kind of round of like, really good children's films.
[00:36:16] Speaker F: What I'm enjoying about a lot of all this, though, is that a lot of the stuff that the executives have been saying that's not going to sell.
[00:36:23] Speaker A: Has been selling and all the stuff that they expected to sell really well has not. So.
[00:36:28] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah, because it's stuff like weapons, stuff like Make a gun. Like I went to both of those and the cinema was packed.
[00:36:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, who would have flopped. Yeah.
[00:36:37] Speaker C: Who would have predicted at the beginning of the year one of the most successful films of the year would have been a Minecraft movie?
[00:36:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:43] Speaker F: I mean, let's not talk about the Minecraft.
[00:36:47] Speaker B: It's definitely true that there's. I've noticed an increase in people out the cinema as well when. When you've been going there, it. It's sort of taken a while since COVID I think, to kind of fill out again.
[00:36:56] Speaker F: But yeah, like, it's interesting because obviously my. My local is the. Is the Omniplex that we mentioned and the thing with that is, when it was Empire, it was usually pretty quiet whenever I went and now every time I go it's quite busy and I think just like since been bought out. Yeah, it's like.
[00:37:13] Speaker A: Well, I put some investment back into it.
[00:37:14] Speaker F: Yeah, I mean, it has improved. Like they've completely stripped the inside out and replaced everything.
[00:37:18] Speaker C: So, yeah, I think as well, it's a. It's a case of like the cinemas understanding that it's not just big blockbusters that bring audiences in. It is the kind of smaller, more interesting films that normally would have maybe run for one or two days or a week. Now, again, a bit more kind of interest and people are going. Because that's the kind of experience you can't get anywhere else.
[00:37:37] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. So, yeah, cinema. Go and check out your local cinema to wrap things up. I'm going to quickly say about one geek thing that I did, which was Matt Lovell, who's one of the producers. Don't really see him on camera much anymore, but me and Matt went to Basement Jacks in London, which their 10th anniversary homecoming gig. I think it's been 10 years since they did anything live.
You probably know them off their music stuff. They started off doing Brixton DJ sets and then expanded into doing records. To be honest, one of the best top five gigs I've ever seen. Absolutely amazing.
So much work that they put into it. So much, so many singers like that.
I don't think you realize how much of an ensemble Jake Basement Jacks is because just the two DJs, but they've got so many partners, people they collaborate with such a back catalog as well. People think it's like they've got one or two songs, but it's like hit after hit after hit after hit. So if you've not listened to Basement Jacks for a while, go and listen to a Basement Jack playlist. It's guaranteed to get you up and get you dancing, even if your knees aren't don't work like most of the other millennials that were there, like me were like, oh, we should actually get up and pop for this bit. So really do recommend going back, have a listen, check out Spotify or Apple Music or your Blade.
And that's one geek thing.
Thank you very much for joining us on Geeky Rummy this issue. I've been Ryan Parish. You can find me at Ryan Parish on bluesky and that's about it.
Sam, where can we find you online?
[00:39:07] Speaker B: You can find me at sdedwards89, on bluesky, Instagram threads, wherever, pretty much.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: Lee, how about yourself?
[00:39:19] Speaker F: You can find me on BobBetber, on YouTube and on Bluesky.
[00:39:24] Speaker C: Keith, it's hard Luck Hotel on Blue sky and Instagram and Wednesdays on the Geeky Bummy Channel doing the old comics roundups.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: Yes. And you can find these two fine gentlemen as well. Sam on Thursdays. Leon Fridays with our movie and game roundups. What's coming up? What's our recommendation of the week? Sam, you started adding Trader of the Week, I believe.
[00:39:45] Speaker C: Indeed.
[00:39:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And Lee picks some of the greatest indie games that you will never hear of in any of the public outlet.
[00:39:52] Speaker F: I'm very picky but like if there's a good hook, it's going to be offense.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: And Keith always picks a trade of the week as well. So if you're not into regular comic buying, some really good trades to get really good collections, everything on geekybrummy.com you can find us at Geeky Rummy on Instagram threads, Blue Sky, Facebook, all at Big geeky brummy or geekybrummy.com and you can get the podcast. If you're watching this at any of your podcasting services of choice, or if you're listening to the podcast and you want to see what we look like, you can find us at YouTube @Keiki Brummy. But thank you very much for joining and we'll see you all soon.
[00:40:28] Speaker F: Bye.
[00:40:30] Speaker C: This issue of the Geeky Brummy Podcast was hosted by Ryan Parish with Sam Edwards, Lee Price, and Keith Bloomfield.
Additional content by Matt Lovell. This issue was produced by Viv Parish, and this was a Geeky Brummy production.
