There and Back Again - Mad Max: Fury Road and Cartel Land

Courtesy of my Amazon LoveFilm subscription, I watched the latest instalment of the Mad Max films. Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy), haunted by the death of his family, captured and used as a blood donor in a post-apocalyptic landscape, tries to help a group of women escape from their evil overlord.

Mad Max is one of those subjects that's difficult to discuss objectively. It's all about how you feel: rationalising doesn't work. Subtle things like, I dunno, plot or the quality of the acting, pale into insignificance. You have to judge it on it's own terms. You have to ask "Is it bonkers?". The answer is Yes. Yes it is. Yes, it's very bonkers. There is, however, a lot of driving around the desert in amazingly weird vehicles covered in spikes, so it is fun, but part of your brain feels a little uncomfortable as it tries to evaluate subtle things like plot, which is futile as there is none.

Much more downbeat is the subject of this documentary film about a Mexican and an American and their answer to the criminal cartels dominating life around the border between the two counties:

Even though Mireles is no saint (at one point he virtually orders the death of one of the gang members), you have more than a little sympathy for him: his situation has been brought about by the gangs on the one hand and a corrupt and cynical government on the other. Nailer is much more complex, but again there's the feeling of a government too far away to care. The film matches up with a book I found at the shop a while ago, called Amexica, by a journalist who covers the area:

Shaun the Sheep - The Movie

I've bought a small Blu-Ray player and the first film I've played (apart from the first Thor film, which I already had in dual format) is, appropriately, the Wallace and Gromit spin-off Shaun the Sheep. Shaun and his friends decide to liven up their lives by taking a day off, inadvertantly putting the farmer into hospital with memory loss:

Because there's no dialog, all the laughs are visual, essentially a silent comedy, and it's brilliant (how do you hide a flock of sheep in the middle of a city?) Fun for children of all ages and very recommended.

Building a 3D Printer

Yes, folks, I've decided to join the 21st Century and build myself a 3D printer. It's delivered in weekly parts, as a magazine subscription, courtesy of Eaglemoss publications:

I've built it in stages, collecting a few months worth, and I photographed as I went. First the x-axis is constructed:

The rather chunky stepper motor is hidden behind the gearing, connected to a test circuit. The y-axis is fixed to the frame of the printer:

This shows where the print head is connected: the head moved across, while the piece moves perpendicular and vertically. The piece is printed on a heated plate:

When I got most of the structure assembled, I took a little video of the z-axis working:

This weekend, I put in the power supply and the covers:

The next phase will be to connect up the printer head, but I've installed the software that's used to load the models into the printer and connected it all up and switched it on, and it all communicates, so thumbs up so far. 21st Century, here I come!

Happy New Year

Suffering the last of April's storms, I thought I'd sit down and write something at long last. The main reason for the long time in writing is the amount of work and the long drive home, which the roadworks at J30 of the M25 have made even longer.

I've not really been ripping through the movies much, although there are one or two interesting ones. First, Fruitvale Station. On New Years Day, 2010, Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan) was shot and killed by a Transit Policeman in San Fransisco, while handcuffed and unarmed. The film depicts the day leading up to his death, as well as showing flash-backs to his earlier life.

Although this is a film worth watching due to it's subject matter, it's not preachy or trying to convey any message other than that of a waste of life, and it does carry you along. The only complaint I have is that the sound quality is bad and it's difficult to follow the conversations. Recommended.

Tomorrowland stars George Clooney as a former child inventor who discovered a parallel, futuristic city.

A strange, confused film that just avoided bombing at the box office, it's difficult to see who it would appeal to. It's too complicated for children and teenagers (where is Tomorrowland, is never successfully answered), and there's too many children in it to appeal to the adults. This is mitigated to some extent by the gobsmacking special effects in the visualisation of Tomorrowland, how everyone in the 1960's thought the 21st Century would look.
There's also been a new series of Bosch on Amazon. Harry Bosch investigates what looks like a gangland shooting:

Slightly less distracted than the first season, Welliver slips back into the role like an old, favourite jacket. Ten hours well spent.