Góðan Daginn
In the relatively short life of this Substack I have already played the “Pretending To Talk About How Bad The World Is But Then Revealing That I’m Talking About Welsh Rugby” card, which means instead I’m going to talk predominately about my honeymoon. Those who follow our socials will have seen that I have been in Iceland celebrating married life, eating weird food (horse, reindeer and puffin to name a few) and looking at a series of waterfalls that slowly got more and more impressive. I won’t regale you with a full day by day breakdown, I’m sure this will be a subject we talk about on our next episode, but I did want to talk through a moment from our first day because it was one of the weirdest moments of my life.
So my first time driving an automatic and driving on the right side of the road involved two hours with snow blowing across an icey road. Which is totally fine and I was fine. Definitely fine. Our hotel for the first few days was a bit out in the sticks, prime northern lights and clear skies territory. We arrived, parked up and I was completely and definitely fine. Because I’m a crafty man who planned ahead, I mentioned it was our honeymoon in every hotel booking I made, and it turns out this paid off because we had our room upgraded!
Again, I need to stress, this was our honeymoon. Traditionally quite a romantic time.
We were walked to our “Suite” and very enthusiastically told that all of their suites are themed on the continents and we would be staying in the “North American suite”. Sounds fancy? So my wife and I were led into the room we would spend the first few nights of our honeymoon in to be greeted with an absolutely incredible view over a nearby river and mountains and, next to the window, a life-size Bison head. On the adjoining walls a bear skin, half a kayak that also was a lamp and a lot of bows, arrows, tomahawks and a huge two person saw like you see in old cartoons. It was a surreal way to start a honeymoon and a memory which will stick with me for a very long time.
We can’t lose all 5 games again though, surely?
What’s New With The Podcast Nobody Asked For
Our next episode is coming to you on 30th January and has us figuring out our Top 3 Fictional Pubs We Would Go To Until This All Blows Over - the artwork for which I am yet to make. We talked quite extensively about whether to explicitly have an episode about how the world has gone to shit and this felt a fun way to do that while also being able to talk about pubs, beer and hopefully have an air of optimism that this will all blow over. This subject, more importantly, is also the first one where I wouldn’t have crowbarred “Season 2 of Full Contact: The Six Nations Documentary” into my choices. Darkest Timelines? Well the new series of Full Contact is during the winless year. Films that make us anxious? Well the new series of Full Contact is during the winless year. Worst character we’d still prefer as President? Warren Gatland is in the new series of Full Contact which is during the winless year.
For our Patreons who are a “Friend Of The Podcast” or higher you will be getting an Undrafted episode on the 1st February.
We were also featured on Feedspot’s list of “20 Best UK TV Show Podcasts” at number 12, which is absolutely insane. A huge thank you to Feedspot for including us.
Movie Recommendation Nobody Asked For
What we have been watching recently
For what should be obvious reasons this issue’s recommendation is coming straight outta Iceland. My wife is a performer, which I have mentioned on the podcast because it’s far more interesting than anything I do, and she has a special spot in her heart reserved for the Eurovision Song Contest. One year I decided to tweet along with the contest and Carol Vorderman retweeted something we said, a high point for both the Podcast and myself, which means it also has a special spot in Podcast lore. It’s an absolutely mental competition which always features some incredible songs and, more importantly, some insanely weird ones.
What I’m saying is that it would be ripe for a lazy parody, which is what I assumed this film would be when it was announced. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Turns out Will Ferrell’s wife, Viveca Paulin, is Swedish and she passed her unironic love for Eurovision over to her husband. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga is a love letter to everything that makes the song contest the camp spectacle that it is. Highlighting it’s absurdity without being mean, it is a hilarious film which features some fantastic songs - I know Husavik (My Hometown) is the crowd favourite but I really do love Lion of Love. I don’t know why. It resonates with me. If my soul could sing, it would sound like Alexander Lemtov.
Some Honourable Mentions:
Prometheus. Shot in Hekla, Dettifoss and Vatnajökull National Park ths is Ridley Scott’s prequel to the Alien series. A divisive film with a stellar cast, it is definitely worth revisiting. On Disney Plus
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. With scenes filmed in Stykkishólmur, Skogafoss and what has now been called “The Walter Mitty Bridge” even though it appears in the film for about 4 seconds, this is an incredibly shot adventure comedy that stars and is directed by Ben Stiller. This film weirdly changed my life, which is mental really, it opened me up to travel and leaving my comfort zone unlike anything else. Within a week of watching this I had booked tickets to Australia, the first time I had done anything like that before. On Disney Plus.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. With Hjörleifshöfði and Hafursey standing in for the Erso homestead and the Imperial research facility on Eadu, this is easily one of the best Star Wars films ever made. It feels like Star Wars, which is something missing from the prequel series. On Disney Plus.
Midsommar, a 2019 folk horror directed by Ari Aster which may well be a masterpiece. It was not filmed in Iceland.
Podcast Recommendations Nobody Asked For
What we’ve been listening to recently
Last issue’s podcast recommendation was Three Bean Salad, which Graham highlighted as being a real source of inspiration to the podcast. I have decided to pick another podcast which was a huge inspiration for me when we were figuring out formats and what we wanted to do. The Socialy Distant Sports Bar has Elis James, Mike Bubbins and Steff Garrero talking about “sport”. Each episode they bring a sports clip (two if you are signed up to their patreon) and talk about it, they also recommend a documentary and a book. It’s very Wales heavy, which I am thoroughly here for, and always a delight. As with what we try to do, these are the conversations you have with your friends when you are down the pub. It’s one of the podcasts I listen to every week and long may it continue.
Other Things Nobody Asked For
The beauty is in the miscellaneous
Imagine if Rick and Morty was made by two people from Barnsley and Matt Berry, and was also a video game instead of a TV show. You are now imagining “Thank Goodness You’re Here” an incredibley surreal game from the two person studio “Coal Supper”. You’re a salesman who has come to the town of Barnsworth to meet the Mayor and, while waiting for his meeting, you help out the eccentric townspeople with their ever increasing list of problems. It was one of the most joyful playing experiences I have had in a very long time, there is absolutely nothing else like it. Currently available on Switch, Playstation and PC and I strongly encourage you to at least watch the trailer, the song is insanely catchy.
Sjáumst hinum megin,
Ian (or for this issue Ian Kevinsson)
