Set in a dystopian Australia where everyone drives around like crazy hoons, guzzling tinnies, setting fire to stuff, raping, pillaging and generally being anti-social louts, my first struggle with Mad Max was that it was hard to differentiate it from a non-dystopian Australia.
I'm joking of course. sort of. I love Australia. Well, Neighbours and Prisoner Cell Block H. And Round the Twist. Heartbreak High. Sons & Daughters. Country Practice. NOT Home & Away. Spit.
Oh, and that song 'Down Under' by Men at Work is the perfect study of their culture. Up there with 'Home Among the Gumtrees'. Work sent me to Melbourne in Business class in 2016, the most random thing that has happened in my whole working life. It was bonza. Like fair dinkum. See, I even speak the lingo dingo.
Bit of a rush job on this particular night. Fell asleep after work. Bit disorientated. Couldn't BRAP. Had a holiday coming up. To SiFiPieFi or not to SiFiPieFi? Still half asleep, I sort of convinced myself it was the right idea.
I actually 'rolled' the dice for Mad Max 2, but was worried if I watched a sequel before the original, it might not make sense.
It didn't make sense anyway.
In fact the original Mad Max isn't even in my list of Top 100 Sci Fi films. Mad Max 2 and the more modern Fury Road both rank in the top 50.
Today's Space Raiders were pickled onion ..... probably the most famous flavour:
Boggot Globules sounds like something people in the West Midlands order with mash and peas.
I've been to Cyber Cities, it is a bit like Hemel Hempstead. And Duncan Mackay has already ticked the new micropub on 2eta Reticuli IX but I'm glad to say, there was no cask on.
Despite feeling half asleep still, I put on my Telebugs t-shirt & hat on to make me feel a bit more sci-fi and cracked open a bottle of Belgian Beer called Zot. A 'Dubbel' which I think means it is brown and strong.
I was pretty sure that is George Formby in the jester's outfit. This beer (ignore the sink, I didn't tip it) took me the entire film to drink. I am REALLY trying hard with these Belgian beers but I tell yer what lads, they don't make it easy .....
My rationale behind the decision is sound enough. I love drinking red wine at home because I don't drink it elsewhere. But it is too powerful on a 'school night' and as we know it only pairs with Western and Wotsits, NOT sci fi.
I don't much enjoy drinking English ales at home cos it is too much like what I drink better versions of in pubs. So Belgian beers felt like a sort of compromise halfway house. But let's mark it 'in progress'.
Music wise, I went for The Lillingtons.
Great lads, not only do they do a song called 'All I Hear is Static' (I was working on the Static Data team at work for 2 weeks so it seemed fitting, plus it was THAT team I brought back from Australia), but they are the Sci-Fi arm of more famous pop-punkers Teenage Bottlerocket.
With lyrics like "I saw the Apeman, walking the moon, I saw the Apeman, he's having a bad day, because Neil Armstrong, took his banana away" how can you NOT love them?
22nd June was the date, and the night's are fair drawing in, as my friend John would say, and it was getting dark as the opening titles rolled.
Arguable as it which of the two brown liquids below was easier to drink .....
Our pie was part 2 of the Sainsbury's Chicken & Ham Hock duo. Bit of swede mash, mushy peas and gravy. Lovely stuff.
Mad Max was a bit too brutal and high octane for my tastes! Why everyone is hooning around on a road reminiscent of Lincolnshire's A15 I never understood, but I think it was something to do with the Just Stop Oil protests.
Mel Gibson was fresh faced, young and well behaved which was weird to see. Lizzie Birdsworth off Prisoner was a gun toting lady with a simpleton son who looked like Harry Maguire but wasn't Des Clarke.
Vince Gill who in Prisoner was majestic in his role as Margo Gaffney's other half, and prison boiler service repair man, was a crazed baddie here who didn't live long. His girlfriend Lulu Pinkus was Karen Travers university buddie who got preggers off her tutor.
There was a baddie called Toe Cutter! TOO SOON! Although I hadn't damaged my toe I don't like to talk about back then. So it wasn't soon enough.
A goodie called Goose got burned alive, which really upset Mel Gibson. I guess you could say his goose was cooked.
And that was that. I'll be back tomorrow (20th July) to finally watch Liquid Sky. Another Sainsbury's Pie. Saucy Space Raiders. And might have a stab at 2 or 3 more Belgian brews. And excitingly, we have new music courtesy of our cassette provider Uncle Matt which definitely isn't Meatloaf, it says on the tape.
See you then space cadets, Si