263: a sad old man
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Immortal X-men 15 is out, where we barrel on into the dual plot structure. On Krakoa, Xavier tries to defend the grave of his people. In a mysterious desert, the Krakoan people try to survive. We set up what the first meant in last issue – this is where we start digging into the second side.
It's also our Selene narrator issue, so she shows her hand (which includes expensively lacquered nails – though you have to assume with her powers, she can just do that at will). She's more of a lens than a focus, but she gives shape to the issue, and was a lot of fun to write, as evidenced by the opening.
And the rest of the details can be seen here.
I would normally put this in the links, but I want to highlight it.
All good questions. Comics gets a tiny, tiny amount of money compared to other art forms, even those with smaller cultural footfall.
This week had a friend's birthday, so he arranged a bunch of us to gather in a London bar basement and have a party. First time I DJed in forever. It really was. I'd lost my headphone splitter, which led to a significant panic on the day trying to find one on the day. However, it was a lot of fun, playing records for friends, with friends. It was myself, Al Ewing and Sarah Gordon behind the decks. Or, really, by the decks, and by "decks" I mean "ipad".
This is what we played, which I'll break down into vague time periods.
HOW DOES THIS THING WORK?
Where we plug things in and try to make sure everyone's music is connected and things actually come through the headphones and stuff. I'm mainly playing, but there's no attempt at provoking a dancefloor.
Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) - Spiller (feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor)
So Emotional - Whitney Houston
Absolute Beginners - David Bowie
Cherish - Madonna
I Wanna Be Your Lover (Single Version) - Prince
Cambodia - Kim Wilde
Self Control - Laura Branigan
Out of Touch - Daryl Hall & John Oates
Blue Heaven - Public Service Broadcasting
why did you let my kitten die? - Angelica
SARAH'S FIRST SET
Sarah takes control. Still way too early and sober for significant dancing.
Groove Is In the Heart - Deee-Lite
There's A Barbarian In The Back Of My Car - Voice Of The Beehive
Trampolene - Julian Cope
Vogue - Madonna
Don't Falter - Mint Royale & Lauren Laverne
This Year - The Mountain Goats
Suck the Blood from My Wound - Ezra Furman
All The Small Things Blink-182
MY FIRST SET
Figuring it is too early for dancing, I play some actual recent dance music and therefore fulfil my fantasy of playing bubblegum drum and bass in a London basement. I then wimp out, and have a wander through some vibes before ending with a call to arms in the form of Popscene. Dancing starts now.
on & on - piri & tommy
X&Y - Caity Baser
Superglue - Coupdekat
Super Kiss Attack - Electrocute
Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Saint Etienne
wrote for luck - happy mondays
La tristesse durera (Scream to a Sigh) - Manic Street Preachers
Popscene - Blur
AL'S FIRST SET
Al's traditional opening provokes shapes, and bemusement from the one person who hasn't seen us do this before. However, it is still too early for significant shapes. Shapes will come.
The Eve Of The War - Jeff Wayne
Nothing But a Heartache (Radio Edit) - Freemasons
So Emotional - Whitney Houston
The Man - The Killers
I CAN BE YOUR MAN - Betty Who
2 Be Loved (Am I Ready) – Lizzo
SARAH'S FIRST SET
Sarah steps up and hammers the dancerfloor into existence. Barbie Girl is the first thing I remember landing big, but Party Time was the song some of us came to hear. We were actively sad it wasn't played at last year's Thought Bubble as we'd spent the whole summer wanting to howl it. So, yes, we had our chance to scream “do you want to make love to a sad old man?” and provoke the evening's first moment of bemusement from people coming down from upstairs.
We Can Be Anything - Baby Queen
One That Got Away - MUNA
I'm So Excited - Le Tigre
Barbie Girl - Aqua
Firestarter (Edit) - The Prodigy
Dragula - Rob Zombie
Party Time [Explicit] - The Northern Boys
Scatman (ski-ba-bop-ba-dop-bop) - Scatman John
Untouched - The Veronicas
All The Things She Said - Tatu
Tragedy - Steps
Believe - Cher
House of Love - East 17
KIERON'S SECOND SET
That Sarah had done god's own work made me not want to blow it, so turned to a very me-circa-WicDiv set. With the exception of the closing Sandstorm, there's nothing one wouldn't have heard me play, and likely in a similar order to this. It was, as many people noted, a determined attempt to murder the audience. We even picked up a wandering dancer from upstairs at the end.
House of Jealous Lovers - The Rapture
Fuck the Pain Away - Peaches
Milkshake - Kelis
Hot In Herre - Nelly
212 (feat. Lazy Jay) - Azealia Banks
Call Your Girlfriend - Robyn
Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen
Sandstorm – Darude
AL'S SECOND SET
Where I feel pretty guilty – I played a classic me set, but it's normally played to bigger crowds, so there's room for people coming in and out the floor. The equivalent of an army with reinforcements. I'd ridden the horse way too hard, and survivors were difficult to make do anything but pant.
Heaven Is A Place On Earth - Belinda Carlisle
If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man) - Bonnie Tyler
You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi
Dare - Stan Bush
Gloria - Laura Branigan
What Is Love - Haddaway
SARAH'S THIRD SET
Sarah jumps in for a quick last set before the closing, turning direction to something shouty.
Everybody (Backstreet's Back) - Backstreet Boys
Last Resort - Papa Roach
What's My Age Again? - Blink-182
(You Gotta ) Fight For Your Right (To Party) - Beastie Boys
THE PASS THE MIKE ERA
Last 20 minutes were each of us just picking a song to follow the next. It went Me, Al, Sarah, Me and then a closing track we debated. We traditionally end evenings with Total Eclipse, but this is a new thing. What serves the purpose? This serves the purpose, and witchy ballet shapes emerged.
The Killers - Mr Brightside
Ebeneezer Goode (Beat Edit) - The Shamen
Ride on Time - Black Box
We Are Your Friends - Justice Vs Simian
Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush
In short: fun. We missed it. Must do again.
- My comrades at Rowan Rook & Decard are doing another kickstarter. This time it's for Eat The Reich, which is about Vampire trying to eat Hitler. We're now past the “Do we punch Nazis?” stage, and into debating whether one should eat Nazis, and specifically, how they should be seasoned, prepared, etc. You can read an excellent Linda Codega interview with Grant and Maz about it here.
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Neil Kulkarni writes a love song to Radio 3. I don't think I've ever deliberately listened to Radio 3. This was good enough to make me spend my morning with it. “They became part of what I had to create for myself to keep clinging on - a routine. Yes, at times a balm. But more often, a thrill, a laugh, a smile. My god I needed that. And Radio 3 gave it me without peripheral annoyances, without endless trails and ads, without condescencion and without pleading. They came at me - as they still do - like a friend, direct, across the table. Here’s beauty. Here’s a way of time unfolding with less pain.”
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In their latest newsletter, Aditya meditates on one of their guiding principles – why you and nobody else?. I think this is a good and useful one. Clearly, it's also a luxury, but it's the sort of luxury that one really has to take to have a career doing this. You become known for doing what other people do, you'll be shuffled out pretty quickly.
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Ramzee pointed this at me. Fake Geek Girls podcast take on the whole of The Wicked + the Divine. I haven't listened to it all yet, but what they have seems really smart. With the 10 year anniversary approaching, it's interesting to see the perspective. We probably should do something for the 10 year, right?
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I sang Iris to sleep by whispering Darude's Sandstorm this week, which led this to be forwarded to be. Hilarious and amazing lullaby scenes.
- Inspired by Steve Lieber and Jim Zub, Chip does his own “what I would probably tell you if you brought me your portfolio” in his own Eisner-Award winning idiom.
A few weeks when I've felt weirdly unproductive while still getting some pretty heavy stuff done. A handful of scripts handed in, chipping away on my existent commitments. The tight plotting of a lot of the remainder of X – it's not quite done yet, but it's only a handful of issues away. Perhaps most importantly, I wrote and passed the character bible for Project TPF over to the artist. This was actually really nice to do. Every day I just hammered out another potted bio for each of the primary cast, and it just came flowing out. This is what comes from genuinely chewing over something for a long time. Sure, this is still early (various characters have question marks around certain traits) and is being given to the artist to be grown from additively, exactly like Jamie grew the similarly-sized-and-shaped WicDiv bible, but it still feels solid. There's more questions to be answered, but the answers we've got here are good. I'm excited. This feels like a real thing.
Next up? Taking the print-size pages and converting them to smaller files so I can properly browse the half the OGN that's written, and have a proper nose. Results from the Initial nose: Coo. Finishing off the X-men issue I'm writing at the mo – It's only due a week friday, so I'll likely take it to first draft and then leave for a while. I also need to write the DIE RPG Quickstart scenario, which is something I'll talk about next time.
Oh – and also in the near future is that I need to write a 36 player game for Dragonmeet in December. Yes, I'm on my bullshit again.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London
6.9.2023