David Cart-writer

Tastefully Written (Or – Food and its Place in Literature) Bourbon and coffee on the mean streets, rehydrated rations on a starship, afternoon tea with the pastor, or a medieval style banquet in a castle in the sky. At some point, somewhere in our stories,…

I'm bloggin again (or trying to)! This time I'm talking about the purposes and uses of food and meal scenes in literature.

davidcartwriter.art.blog/2025/06/01/t...

New suit, who dis?

On our way home from a week-long hike up the Pennine Way. Gotta say, it was wonderful 😊
(Because I'm not allowed to say that the best part was th Spa at the end 😜)

YouTube video by Rage Darkwing Duck Theme - Full Version

Forgot to post a toon-theme last week so,back to it.

#9 Darkwing Duck. Let's rub some Funk on it this week! This slapstick Batman knockoff holds a dear place in my heart. It's a found family story with emphasis on leaning into each others strengths to get the job done!

youtu.be/z_75Gjpmi1k?...

YouTube video by Cartoon Intros BraveStarr Intro Opening Theme

#8 Bravestarr. This was probably my favourite even before I was old enough to realise how special it was.
Bravestarr took liberties with the source of it's MC, but the show was inspirational for the right reasons, many of which weren't even apparent to me until much later.

youtu.be/wUfJuOp7Dck?...

So, something's been tickling at my brain recently and, since I won't be going to the States during the Trump Moronarchy, I feel okay in calling it out.
Those fat-face mems of J.D. Vance reminded me of something, he's a fucking Garbage Pail Kid!

The background image shows the "round table" from Arthurian Legends

@aknighton.bsky.social takes his mind back to Fantasycon 2024, consults his notes, and brings us this debrief from the panel on working with Arthurian legends.

britishfantasysociety.org/writing-from...

YouTube video by Frog Leap Studios Gummi Bears Theme (metal cover by Leo Moracchioli)

OMG, I *almost* forgot to post an 80's toon theme-song this week!
Let's have a little fun at Number Seven!

#7 The Gummi Bears.This cover by #FrogLeapStudios truly embodies the same manic energy many of us felt as kids when that first fanfare played on a Saturday morning.

youtu.be/VAuhJt5TQb0?...

Okay! Progress post!
Ruin-Nation - 38.5k
Bentley Tales: Cocaine and Able - 31.5k
Rendered Flesh: Alpha Access - 25.5k
Camelot 2052 - 4.3k
Superior - 3.3k
So, yeah. All together it's about 100k, which is what I'd aim for in *one* novel. Shame it's spread over five titles 😛

YouTube video by ArisGreek30 Pole Position Intro/Theme Song (Remastered 720p HD)

#6 Pole Position - Another 80's show busting a killer beat. Maybe you know the show about two kids, tracking their parents, aided by transforming race cars, solving crimes, winning races then again, maybe not.

youtu.be/EQXqHNHPLHI?...

YouTube video by TV REDONE I HAVE THE POWER THE SECRET OF THE SWORD FULL SONG HE-MAN AND SHE-RA

#5 He-Man and She-Ra. What's better than one cartoon? Two! Together! The 1985 Movie, Secret of the Sword boasts an amazing title track 'I Have the Power' composed by Erika Scheimer, Suki Levi and Haim Saban.

youtu.be/3YEGoRio0DU?...

YouTube video by PriestTwilight Transformers - The Movie(1986) - Dare

#4 It's not really a list of kickin' 80's cartoon themes without the amazing Stan Bush, but! Rather than The Touch (which might feature later) I think these trying times call for us to blast 'Dare', from Transformers the Movie, loud and proud!

youtu.be/UKjNVVmLCGQ?...

YouTube video by John Van Tongeren - Topic No Guts No Glory (from The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers)

#3 The Galaxy Rangers. Influenced by Macross and the Million Dollar Man, The Galaxy Rangers is a personal favourite. The title track is epic, so epic that they worked it into an episode where the Rangers go looking for badguys in an interstellar Battle of the Bands!

youtu.be/ZnVCI1PhENQ?...

YouTube video by John Connor Jayce and the wheeled warriors Main Theme - Shuki Levy (Extended version)

#2 Often labelled a Star Wars cash-in, the cast of Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors certainly supports that idea.
But the found family story, more than destiny, is about living up to privilege.
The theme is top tier, one of the best of 80's cartoon themes.

youtu.be/MqL_SO2thsE?...

YouTube video by Cloudbuster Lisa Lougheed | Run With Us | 1988

#1 - 'Run With Us' - Lisa Lougheed, The Raccoons 1985.
The Raccoons was always about the conflicts between Industry/Capitalism and Community/Nature. The title song ‘Run With Us’ is, in itself, an 80’s Hair-Metal/New Wave masterpiece.
youtu.be/TyHXPNNjd-I?...

In the 80’s/90's we had cartoons with themes of morality, ethics & diversity, basically 'don't be a douche-bag'.
Luckier still, these cartoons had banging theme songs, which said similar in the lyrics.
So, I’m going to share a few of these tracks for fun.
Image Credit: Could't locate artist.

Every time, every damn time.

Being terrified was starting to give way to being really angry.

Todays work is going acceptably...

“Bentley Blower Pennywhistle!”

I don’t care who, or what, you are. Whether you’re demonic nobility, tossing it off in the fiery pit, or elder gods dreaming dark dreams in the vastness of space, when your parent uses your full name, you know you’re in trouble.

(Fiscal drag is a bitch, and means more people are being affected by IHT. Hate Fiscal drag, not IHT).

Farms produce very little in liquid funds. So please support your farmers. Support the protest. I know sympathy is lacking in the case of IHT, and it should for the most part, but this is important for many other reasons.

One farmer has already committed suicide to avoid the IHT rules. John Charlesworth, 78, was found dead at home in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. My home town. Don't kid yourself that this won't affect the vulnerable. Just because their landowners, doesn't mean they're rich.

The reason IHT is being applied to agricultural land is because that twat Clarkson told the papers that he bought a farm to avoid paying IHT. He's the fucking reason why this shit has happened. Just because he's supporting this cause, doesn't mean we shouldn't.

We should be supporting our farmers. Without farmers, fresh food is harder to get and more expensive, with a higher carbon footprint, as it comes from overseas. We should be caring a great deal about the carbon footprint of our food, as the US is about to wreck the atmosphere for the next 4 years.

Right now, we are an isolated little island with poor chain of supply for fresh food. Brexit was sold to farmers on the basis that the UK would support them better than the EU did (Massive spoiler, noone followed through on that because Of course they didn't.)

On the whole I have always been supportive of inheritance tax. It only affects about 4% of people, and it is a way of getting money into the treasury without robbing the poor and disabled.
HOWEVER. Removing the exemption on agricultural land is going to close down thousands of farms.

Copied from a close source

Ok. I'm going to share this here, because if I put it on bluesky it might go viral and I don't wanna have to deal with that...
First things first. Support your Unions. That includes the farm's union.

November through March is just a bad time. Wait for April.

Back to Bluesky after a break and I find this lovely recommendation for my little merfolk novella Fish! Not your typical mermaids - this mosaic explores a merfolk refugee crisis in the UK in the 2030s and pulls no punches.