Matt Tuckey is a writer from Oldham, England. He covers celebrities, night life, Manchester, fitness, creative writing, social media, psychology and events. Some of this may, in some way, help others. Or maybe it'll just entertain you for a while.
Back on the 15th June, I attempted Crisp-Topped Marinated Sea Bass with Green Chilli, Lime and Coriander. This pescatarian one-dish recipe is an oven-baked twist on the classic Bengali fish-fry, a traditional Indian dish.
The majority of the prep time includes 2 hours of marinating, with 10 minutes prep beforehand and 30 mins in the oven. My pre-marinade prep time took over 40 mins, for some reason. I used brown bread blended for crumbs, rather than white, or by making my own.
With a squeeze of lime to finish, the end result was an incredible citric flavour. I perhaps overloaded the fish with the breadcrumbs, though.
Good pescatarian inclusion in India Express by Rukmini Iyer.
Comic Con Manchester returned to Bowlers in Trafford on Saturday 27th July. First up, local rock group Lina and the Lions took the stage with, as it happens, Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Star Wars cosplay troupe 99th Garrison stormed the building:
Ash from Alien cosplay
Toy Story 2 cosplay
Heisenberg
Boba Fett's throne, Book of Boba Fett
ECTO-1
Furries taking a timeout
Batmobile
Edward Scissorhands cosplay
'Is everything to your satisfaction?' Los Pollos Hermanos Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul set
And it wasn’t long before the panels began. Up first, two Top Gun stars: Michael Ironside (Jester) and Tom Skerritt (Viper).
“I
can’t hear a fucking thing,” admits Ironside. “I’m deaf in this ear. I
remember on Top Gun I was getting tested for flying, I thought, I’m
getting too old for this. I’d just got sober; I didn’t know my ass from a
hole in the ground. It was a lot of fun. 1983. Were you even alive
then?”
The mic goes out into the audience. The first question: When Top Gun premiered, did you know how good it was going to be?
TS: Absolutely.
MI: On the last day, I said to (British director) Tony Scott, ‘how do you feel about it?’ He said, ‘this feels like M*A*S*H. It’s going to be a hit.’
AQ: What was the most challenging part of the filming process?
TS: Filming in an aeroplane. Woo!
MI: Trying to understand Tony Scott’s accent. ‘Woo.’ It takes about 3 weeks to figure out what he was saying. He said, ‘don’t worry about it.’
MI: I’d sleep with him. He’s a total professional. I haven’t been able to do anything else with him.
SCV: What were your thoughts on the latest Top Gun film?
TS: It was well done.
MI: Bloody good. I’ll tell you anyway, I had a problem with (producer) Jerry Bruckheimer. I had part in Top Gun Maverick where I was supposed to be a drunk washed up guy in a bar, so I said no, I don’t wanna do it.
SCV: What are your favourite films of all time?
TS: MASH, Top Gun.
MI: Alien, a brilliant film, brilliant cast. Also Omega Code.
TS: MASH and Alien are the 2 best films from the end of the last century.
AQ: You made low budget films, then higher budget. What was the difference?
MI: The difference is time. The bigger the budget, the more time you have. With a lower budget, you’re dependant on cost.
An audience question relates to his upbringing.
MI: I’m the oldest of 5 kids. Mom would throw us coins, we’d grab them and go to the movies. A lot of the Brits, character actors, were very funny. It felt like my destiny. My grandfather knew the author of Starship Troopers (Robert A. Heinlein). I read sci-fi magazines; my grandfather gave me the original book. He told me a man should be prepared to die for his country. I said to (director of the adaptation) Paul Verhoeven, “Why are you doing this Nazi right-wing bullshit?”
Ironside puts on a Dutch accent.
MI: He said, “It’s gonna be so sexy.” In Europe, they got the satire. In the US, they didn’t. Paul Verhoeven was a war rat. He’d tell me, “I want to make people uncomfortable.”
Personally, I’ve listened to a few interviews with Verhoeven over the years, including a CD on the front of a 1998 edition of Total Film magazine. Ironside does a really good impression. (Here’s a contemporaneous Starship Troopers interview.)
AQ: Was David Cronenberg as crazy as people say?
(Cronenberg directed Scanners, in which Ironside took a leading role.)
MI: Fuck off. David Cronenberg is not crazy. He was calm and loving when I worked with him. He makes you feel safe, sane. What he’s like in the bedroom, I have no idea.
An audience question to Skerritt: Did you have any idea Alien would be as big?
TS: When I met Ridley Scott, I said he needs another aspirin. Amazing cast, though.
AQ: What happened to the leather jacket in Total Recall?
MI: Paul (Verhoeven) didn’t want anyone to wear a tie. I don’t fit in that jacket any more. That was 4 cancers ago. In a big film like that, you do as you’re bloody told. Everyone was dressed because Paul wanted it that way.
AQ: Ever thought of writing an autobiography?
MI: I’m till alive. It feels like you’re asking when I’m gonna die. Those memories are mine.
SoCalVal rounds off by asking what their plans are for the next few weeks.
TS: I’m going to Ireland. I had a relative in Galway.
MI: I’m planning to go to Aberdeenshire. My grandfather was there.
Ironside admits he’s still weighing it up. He’d hate to find out something awful from his family history, he tells us.
“Sometimes the shit you don’t know is better. I’d rather leave the past in the past, and go to Portofino (Italy) with the wife and get a massage.”
Fair enough. I'm not sure Portland Street’s Tropical Palms parlour would have the same aesthetic, so it's probably a good idea.
Tom Skerrit. Cpt Dallas in Alien. Duke in M*A*S*H. Mike 'Viper' Metcalfe in Top Gun.
Xander Berkley, Edward Furlong and Jenette Goldstein. In Terminator 2 they were foster parents Todd and Jenelle, and John Connor. Berkley was Ralph in Heat, Gibs in Air Force One, Frank in Candyan, Cpt Whitaker in A Few Good Men and Henry Hurt in Apollo 13. Goldstein was Vasquez in Aliens.
Ill at the start of this week. No idea what with. Just drained. Knew I had to be well for the end of the week for Comic Con Manchester. Thankfully, I was. Writeup to follow.
After the con, Monopoly Events were also putting on Dance with Darth, a house music night in Chute in Ashton. Good evening with friendly folks, familiar faces and good choons. I rolled in on my own and still found people I knew.
The night was named so as Spencer Wilding, Darth Vader in Rogue One, was in attendance celebrating his birthday. Wilding also had small parts in Harry Potter, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Golden Compass and Game of Thrones.
In social media, I figured out Emma Magnolia’s cryptic quiz. See the comments.
Also, in the same line of employment (click to reveal):
— Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matthewtuckey) July 28, 2024
Way back in ‘01-’05 when I was at university, Deansgate Locks was the ‘in’ place to go. Think of it as what Spinningfields is today. Now, the only bar to stay as the same brand the whole time was Revolution, the national vodka chain. Well, that’s just announced a closure there too. 11th August is the last night of trading.
Paris 2024 is already in full swing. 4 years ago, during the Tokyo Games, I was picking specific machines in my gym on which I could see the screens and could watch the Olympics while working out.
These days I have a chin-up and dip bar, a Pull Up Mate, parked up in front of my TV. I have records for movements on these. Let’s see if I can hammer these workouts over the next few weeks and see if I can beat some PBs.
Paralympic closing ceremony is 8th September, 7-10pm. Let’s see if, by the end of that ceremony, I can beat records for overhand, underhand and dip records. As it stands, they are:
Dips: 155
Overhand chinups: 23
Underhand chinups: 20
I currently weigh 76.5kg. Through lots of recipes and soup, I’m planning to drag it down to a target of 72kg.
Well, I failed. I was 76.5 yesterday. TBF I was 77.9 at the start. TBH I was just not disciplined enough: yes, I ate a certain amount of soup, followed some recipes etc., but I didn’t totally cut out bread. I ate a couple of massive rocky roads. There are a lot of family birthdays around this time so I’ve had a lot of restaurant meals. So, not everything was healthy.
During this time, though, I worked on cardio and body weight exercises. I added 1 more onto my extra-wide chin-up record. With this one I have my hands about a metre apart, palms facing each other. There isn’t much range of movement but it really targets the trapezium in the middle of the back. I also added 1 more onto my wide grip chin-up, where the bar slopes down at an angle.
A lot of my workouts were classes, so not actually in the gym itself. Routinely I’d do 2 gym sessions and 4 classes. I’d also do at least 1 5km run.
It all comes down to food. To resisting temptation. At this, I didn’t. I’ll try again another time.
Back in 2010 I met author Iain M Banks via Waterstones when he released Surface Detail, his penultimate SF novel. I read it in 2012 and found it to be a massively complicated, long, zany and violent book – enjoyable to a degree but way too heavy.
Other readers told me it wasn’t a good place to start with Banks’ work. Years later I decided to look into his work again; several fans told me to start with Consider Phlebas – his first SF novel and the first in his Culture series, of which Surface Detail is included.
Then, a few months ago, my employer did a deal with Waterstones and we got a bit of money off, so I looked at my book list on my valued Omninotes app and managed to find Consider Phlebas in store. I started reading it not long after, in late April, and tapped through it very steadily. I’ve been busy.
Again, this one is a heavy, hard Sci Fi book following Horza, an enemy of state sentenced to death in a quite grotesque manner, rescued at the 25th hour by a ragtag bunch of interstellar renegades, hoping to find a supercomputer that can help them win a war. What the crew of this new ship don’t know is that Horza is also a Changer, a species that can mimic other people, and is a threat to anyone who rules with force. If the crew realise this, they’ll kill him.
So begins a twisting, ceaselessly inventive tale involving numerous species, planets, ships, transportation devices and a doomed love affair.
I enjoyed it. I understood it as best as I could. Far better than Surface Detail.
I have another book of his, Matter, in my to-read pile.
