Spider-Noir Drops, Now 'Make Your Choice'

Today is the day a TV series, I've been waiting to see ever since I knew it was in production, has finally dropped.

Amazon has released Spider-Noir. It's a Spider-Man series set in the 1930s. The 'Noir' in the title gives it away - yes, it's a film noir crime detective series with Spider-Man the lead detective.

Well, that last bit is speculation on my part. I surmise the person who becomes Spider-Man is the detective.

What I do know, because I've seen the graphic novels for it many years ago, is this: Spider-Noir is based of comics/graphic novels with Spider-Man fighting crime in 1930s New York.

The main character is played by Nicolas Cage. I cannot think of anyone more suited for a role like this because he brings star power plus he's a GIGANTIC comic book guy. 

One unique selling point of this series is the ability to watch it in black-and-white (like film noir is meant to be viewed) or in what Amazon describes as 'True-Hue Full Color'.

It's brilliant to be given these options, but there is only one choice for me. It has to be black-and-white.

Too Hot

Here's the annual 'it's too hot out there' blog post.

It is, though.

Yesterday was worse, though. I had an Amazon parcel delivered in the early evening and, after receiving the package, I couldn't close the front door. I had to wait a couple of hours for the door to cool back down before it was a size that would fit the frame. Insane.

It was humid overnight, but - to be fair - it wasn't as bad as Sunday-into-Monday.

4

I chose to put on my 'Life is Better with Cats' socks this morning. For a couple of reasons.

Today would have been Squeak's fourth birthday. Well, kind of. I don't know for sure when his actual date of birth was, but I opted to coincide it with my friend's birthday (it would be easy to remember!).

Unfortunately, Squeak left us in December 2023. I often find me wondering whether he would still be doing some of the mad things he'd do like sitting himself in a Walkers Crisps box with both of his front legs hanging on the side (that photo, alongside Oreo, made appeared during Channel 5's coverage of NFL Monday Night Football!).

Would he still come in for the hugs as soon as the lights turn off? Oreo still does, so I'm sure he would have. 

Or, better yet - would he randomly choose to lay right on my back when I am on my laptop like he used to?

An AI cartoon Copilot created from a real Squeak photo in my collection

I also wonder whether Oreo still remembers his friend. He himself has an unofficial birthday coming up.

I Agree With Last Night's Fight Result

I saw the 'controversial' conclusion of the Oleksandr Usyk versus Rico Verhoeven fight and think the referee made the right call.

Usyk had knocked his challenger down. Mark Lyson then instructed Verhoeven's team to reinsert their fighter's gumshield back into his mouth and the contest resumed. Usyk came in on the attack once again and Verhoeven wasn't doing a good job at defending himself from the onslaught. The ref came in and stopped the fight one second short of the end of the eleventh round.

With that said, going by the scorecards, it looked like Verhoeven was seemingly on his way to victory because two judges had the fight tied 95-95 while the third had it 96-94 in favour of Verhoeven.

I wonder if this will get a rematch. Verhoeven deserves one.

A Returned Call (From A Call I Didn't Make)

I had a phone call this morning.

The person on the other end said he was returning my missed call.

Couldn't have been me. I haven't put credit on my phone this week, so I pointed that out.

It then struck me - my number must have been cloned by scammers. So, I suggested that might have happened to the man who rang me back.

Well.. the caller wasn't ringing 'me' back, was he? Ha. 

Gawd. I hope this isn't the beginning of a stream of people calling me because scammers used my number to hide behind their con.

What a bunch of spoofers.

Kyle Busch Passes Away

I don't follow NASCAR Racing, but I did know who Kyle Busch was. 

The driver died yesterday at the age of forty-one leaving behind a wife and two young children.

Devastating. That's really all I can say to sum up that part of this story.

As I mentioned at the start, I knew Busch. It vaguely had to do with his driving career. I remember the driver from his appearances on WWE TV. He was once a special guest host of Monday Night Raw during the period when World Wrestling Entertainment would have people from other sports and entertainment show up for a night. 

I surmise it was over a decade later when Busch became WWE 24/7 Champion in an angle with R-Truth.

In-between those stints, I'd hear his name mentioned on American radio and think to myself 'ah, he's the WWE fan'.

I got to say that twice within the past day. The first was when I came across a social media post from The Athletic with a news report stating that Busch had been hospitalised due to a 'severe illness'. Then, hours later, I read he had passed.

When I looked up his biography for today's post, I noticed another thing we had in common. As well as being WWE fans we also shared the same birthday.

Funny Trivia Note About Yesterday's Europa League Final Result For Villa

Here's something I loved to realise about Aston Villa's Europa League win last night.

Villa manager - Unai Emery - has now won the league on five occasions. He has done it with three different teams.

His Sevilla teams won it in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. That was followed by a win for Villareal at the conclusion of the 2020-21 season. 

Last night saw him lead Aston Villa to the trophy with a 3-0 victory over Freiburg.

Notice something?

All three of Emery's  Europa League winning clubs have 'Villa' somewhere in their names. 

A brill trivia note.