A splendid time is guaranteed for all...

Here's that announcement i'd mentioned... All readers are invited, of course. We'll make up an excuse for celebration on the way up. Over forty people are already expected, so feel free to pop by.
Tnx to Chuk@Tea for creating the flyer!

Bizarre out-of-context comic book panel of the day.

Art by Herb Trimpe and Sal Buscema, colors by Christie Scheele, words by Roy Thomas.
Original source: The Incredible Hulk N°135, 1971.

These have been making my days.

Some blogs i've been avidly reading and feeling inspired by lately. Before adding them to the sidebar(or not), i thought it would be nice to point them out to readers in their own bona fide blogpost.

I once declared i would never agree with whatever Momus says. Nowadays i find myself disagreeing with myself rather often, and perhaps consequentially Momus' Blog has been one of my favourite sources of brain food. It's currently in reruns (until september) and highlighting old posts, but still compelling. He also wrote some of my favourite Kahimi Karie songs, so when he writes, i read.

Did you know Adrian Belew is blogging? Well, he is. And he's delivering some fantastic anecdotes from playing in some of the greatest bands ever, if you'll forgive me using the superlative for the second time this month. Well, he was in King Crimson, Talking Heads, Zappa's and Bowie's bands, so i guess my opinion has some sort of foundation.

Warren Ellis is the writer of Transmetropolitan, one of my favourite comics ever. he's a very very nasty person and his blog is simply great. Don't expect much on the went-here-did-this side, it's mainly short poignant reflections and links to things done by equally deranged human beings. I'm admittedly a latecomer to this one.

I've also started reading Neil Gaiman's Journal again lately. Complete opposite, character-wise and blog-wise, from Ellis' approach but always a great read. Plus both have occasionally shared their opinions on this year's season of Doctor Who, as if i needed more reasons to read them.

A nice one to pop into from time to time:
Cozy Lummox - a designer working for Criterion Collection DVDs, with strong links to (you guessed it) the comics world. Good job.

A webcomic:
Dresden Codak - hilarious and beautifully illustrated(which justifies the slow updates), its characters include Werner Heisenberg and Tiny Carl Jung and i hope other people love it as much as i do because it deserves to become famous and its author deserves to be covered with gold coins for his efforts like Edifis in Asterix and Cleopatra.

An eye should be kept on:
nyctaper - promises to have some pretty interesting concerts available for download (i'm looking forward to the Richard Thompson gig myself), some is already online although he seems to have given quite a lot of space to that Roger Waters person i never really could get a hang of.

On the Winamp: Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians (Coldcut Remix)

Old and familiar faces 4 - Derf

Time: late january
Place: Here.

Her: Robin, can i ask you a question?
Me: (sensing danger) Sure.
Her: You always used to hang out with Fred, didn't you?
Me: Yes, that's true.
Her: (shyly) Well...why don't you hang out with him anymore?
Me: I think that would have something to do with him studying and bartending in Oxford now.
Her: Oh.

Coincidentally at the exact same time, in Oxford:
Time: Morning
Location: A pub where Derf is bartending.

Customer: I have a terrible hangover, give me a double whisky.
Derf: Are you sure that's a good idea?
Customer: No, but if i add this aspirin...

(Both are true stories. Aren't they all? Derf will, however, be returning to these lands later today -and had already been here in spring- and an interesting announcement from both of us is forthcoming.)

The webmaster loves his mother

Living room, about a month ago.

Me: What're you watching?
Her: One of those Lord Of The Rings movies.
Me: Cool, which one?
Her: I don't know, but they just killed a poor dwarf.

When Great Bands Suck

I was going to post my ultra-rare edition of Sgt. Pepper, but far be it from me to succumb to all this tacky celebration-ing. Instead, we have something fascinating in its own right, thanks to badness.

As you very well should know if you're carbon-based, one of The Greatest Bands Of All Times recently reformed, reuniting all three original members and are currently touring. You may think this is a rather common circumstance nowadays, but finding a band with all three characteristics (reunited, original members, touring) is, i assure, extremely rare. And keeping high in quality, no less. So of course it's Police we're talking about here.

Indeed, some days ago i came across a link to an Mp3 of their second live gig of 2007, in Vancouver, and promptly procured myself it in the manner that is typical of this kind of ethereal artifact.

When i first heard this recording, however, i could tell something was wrong. I didn't pay too much attention to the feeling and went on doing my stuff, thinging my things. Then i read Stewart Copeland's fascinating, hilarious and utterly sincere post - on his own forum, of all places!
(Tnx to Pelodia for pointing me there)

We crash through MESSAGE and then go strait[sic] into SYNCHRONICITY. But there is just something wrong. We just can’t get on the good foot. We shamble through the song and hit the big ending. Last night Sting did a big leap for the cut-off hit, and he makes the same move tonight, but he gets the footwork just a little bit wrong and doesn’t quite achieve lift-off. The mighty Sting momentarily looks like a petulant pansy instead of the god of rock.

-S. Copeland, on the 27 May 2007 Police concert in Vancouver.

Since it's out there anyway, this is one of the many places you may find said recording of said show. 173 Megabytes of poorly recorded rock music, played rather badly by three of the greatest musicians of the genre. Perhaps the most fascinating thing you'll hear this month. (Link courtesy of some guy in a mailing list i still tolerate receiving on an email account i hardly ever check, anyway. It probably won't last so grab it while you still can.)

You will enjoy this.
And as for that hyper-rare Sgt. Pepper version which anybody who's known me for more than a day has heard me at least mention, just wait and it'll eventually make it to these pages. As if today's offering wasn't enough.


Pictured above: first Google Images result for "police+vancouver"

Disclaimer: The webmaster is not responsible for the unauthorized recording, digitalization or uploading of this concert. I am not hosting it on my server and don't even have one as a matter of fact. It is not being used for commercial purposes nor should it be, it is merely being shared for study and analysis. It is freely available all over the internet anyway and is actually quite bad in the first place.