A thundering new issue, an epic struggle on the football field and cherished childhood toys in our latest glimpse behind the blast doors.
With few exceptions, the most pant-wettingly exciting day of the month around SFX Towers is the day we finally get our eager mits on the fruits of our fevered minds - new magazine day!
In the past we would get dozens and dozens of copies in the office, so many in fact we would use them to wrap birthday presents or build tiny forts. Alas the forts are no more as, being an environmentally friendly multimedia company, Future ( SFX ’s publisher), have reduced the number of copies each magazine under its umbrella receives, and limited deliveries to two days a week. The upshot of all this boring corporate speak? A copy of issue 207 didn’t land in SFX Towers until Tuesday of this week, despite the fact subscribers were getting them as early as last Thursday. Maybe FROM THE OFFICE should pick up a subscription?
New issue aside, the talk of the office this week has been the cracking third season of Being Human , specifically the amaze-o series finale. Most of us have seen it now, but with the odd team member yet to get their hands on a copy, those of us who have experienced its wonders have been forced to adopt stealth tactics that would make Bond proud and keep any and all conversation to the pokey kitchen. Needless to say you won’t want to miss it, and if you’re wise you’ll heed Dave Golder’s advice and watch it live on Sunday night.
It’s a day of meetings for many of us. This morning Jordan strolled across to our other office just down the road to check out Lego Pirates Of The Caribbean and Dave B is in a meeting downstairs making many exciting plans for the future, including ones for our imminent redesign. Speaking of the redesign we can reveal that it comes with something rather special on the newsstands, though we can’t tell you what it is yet. Sorry to be such a tease. This afternoon we’ll be talking about the next Special and covermounts for future Specials too. If people have ideas, they’re welcome to go here .
With a copy deadline looming, Ian is juggling the desperate chasing of materials and images for the reviews section with preparations for a meeting about cover-mounted gifts - having sat up into the wee hours wracking his tiny brain for creative spins on the humble fridge magnet, sew-on patch and so on. This isn’t proving good for his blood pressure, prompting a series of Malcolm Tucker-style angry tirades. Sadly, these are too obscene to share, but his last one, which involved the phrase, “The tip of a massive iceberg of ****s!” was a bit of a classic.
On Monday Nick took the train down to the big smoke for a screening of Battle: Los Angeles and took the afternoon off to visit the Natural History Museum, or dino museum as it’s known round these parts. He returned with a video of the animatronic T-Rex, which he seemed very excited about when showing it to a somewhat indifferent Rob and Jordan. The youth today, eh? He also discovered this rather nifty electronic Star Wars game under his desk, which his tiny self received on Christmas day 1980. Makes you wonder what else he's got stashed under there.
Monday also saw SFX ers lock horns in battle! On the football field that is. Rob and Rich (Bath Galaxy) took on Russell’s Goalrushe in the Future five-a-side league and it was quite a match. Rob and Rich probably won’t be too happy reading this but... Goalrushe won 12-1! And Russell got two of them. Rob took solace in the fact that he managed to nutmeg Russell at one point – although his performance has convinced him he has to live better - “or quit something” the Jarvis Cocker lookalike gasped at the end.
Rob's week has mainly involved pushing his single culinary talent - making pancakes - to the extreme. In between all the sugary goodness, he's shared an evening with the Sharktopus (bitey), been almost impressed by The Cape (fighty) and enjoyed Korean fantasy Rise Of The Demon Empire (far from Blighty). This all helped make up for the fact that, thanks to Russell, he's been hobbling around the place with a snapped big toe nail (five-a-side is a rough game), but he will have his revenge...
Rich just interviewed Shrek. There’s nothing to add to that, really. Meanwhile Jordan finished watching Angel for the first time this week and finally understands what it’s like to be a Browncoat. No he’s not getting his Whedon fanbases in a fudge, rather it’s the fact that he reacted to the final episode with a strange mix of elation (at how sublime it was) and anger that (comics aside) there would be no more. Y’see he’s never had that with Firefly because Serenity was such a fitting way to cap off the series. He also got very excited this morning when he discovered that Misfits is coming out on Blu-ray, another excuse to watch it all again. Huzzah!
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Random Quote Of The Week: “I always feel safer with pop stars who are shorter than me.”
Whose pocket contents? (Last week’s answer: it was Nick’s mug!)
