If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, where do bad intentions lead?

[alexsarll]

Went to a tsunami benefit on Friday. In case you weren't aware, almost every small gig and club in London at the moment has been redesignated a tsunami benefit, as have the proceeds from several charity shops. This is handy as it means I can help buy medicines which will then be left on runways in the rain, without making the slightest actual effort. Drinkme were jolly good, but I was alarmed to realise that there are actually four of them. I was convinced they were a trio. What makes this worse is that I was stone cold sober on the prior occasion I saw them.

On Saturday I did library things and washing things and ticket pick-up things, yet still felt dissatisfied. Of course! I'd helped insecuregoddess choose some comics in the library, and this had stoked my own hunger for them.
"As unlikely as it seems, this unhealthy attoscopic copy of Earth developed entirely without superheroes."
First out of the bag was inevitably the second issue of Grant Morrison's JLA Classified. It is so good that I am actually *shaking* as Gorilla Grodd describes his plans to topple human civilisation while munching on dead superheroes. A boy of about eight is quite blatantly staring at the cover. When the seat next to me becomes free, the kid moves into it and (again quite blatantly) starts reading over my shoulder. I've never objected to this as some people seem to, I just feel quite guilty because:
a) I have by this point very nearly finished the issue.
b) This child is clearly far too young to be looking at Batman being roasted on a spit!
Then I remember that at that age I loved Nemesis the Warlock, which invalidates b) but only emphasises a).

One thing for which I am an absolute sucker is stories about how rubbish this Earth is for not having any superheroes. So sending the Justice League into the damaged infant universe of Qwewq and having them find a suspiciously familiar and pathetic planet was always going to get my vote. But then the new Tom Strong goes with the same theme!
"The world that Morovia created, the world I was imprisoned in...it was a terrible place. The skies were always gray, the politicians were all liars, the people lived in loneliness and fear. There was no sense of adventure or wonder [...] and I just realised no place like that could actually exist outside the mind of a madman."
Again, that fake world looked very familiar.
I love superhero comics. They're even better than tea.


I hadn't known what to do on Saturday night; heading to Notting Hill or Bethnal Green was just a little bit more than I could face (handily in the former case, since the AFH show was cancelled without warning). Ended up doing three events within walking distance, which was much more the thing. The second was at the TBird which for some reason was the most full I'd ever seen it, to the point of claustrophobia; the third was at the Dome and had good synthpop but an overall lack of atmosphere. Then yesterday, again within walking distance, I got to see people who had been presumed lost to the North and hear about Chapman Bros spoofs at All Tomorrow's Parties. Then I watched The Case of the Silk Stocking. Everett might have had a great Holmes in him, but this wasn't it. He seemed to understand that, like Bond, Holmes should be a b@st@rd, but beyond that he was a little too Wildean and languid. And I dispute the "travel narrows the mind" line. How would he have been able to feign death at the Reichenbach Falls if he never left Britain? As for the plot, not based on a Conan Doyle story - that's the most predictable and over-used twist in the history of detective stories. . I also listened to Marc Almond's Enchanted for the first time in years, and tried to work out why I used to dislike it so.

Blair apologists! How do you defend his enthusiasm for schools which teach creationism and are run by a man who deems homosexuality a sin? (As if deliberately to cheer us up, though, that was followed with a very endearing and thoroughly gay human interest piece about couples who still love each other lots after decades. Awwww.)

Still on the swastika hoo-hah:
"Markus Soeder, general secretary of Germany's Christian Socialist Union opposition, said: 'In a Europe grounded in peace and freedom there should be no place for Nazi symbols. They should be banned throughout Europe, as they are with good reason in Germany". Well, part of that "good reason" is that Germany killed millions in honour of that symbol, and as such demonstrated they couldn't be trusted with it. We didn't. And Germany dictating to the rest of Europe on any matter related to swastikas is just a little too ironic for me.

Comments

[innerbrat]

There was a twist, where?

Oh that...
That was only a twin if you're my dad and didn't know that fingerprints are genuinely unique until I spent half an hour telling him so.

It wasn't the crapness of it I minded, it was the terrible way in whic h they made it a sex story. What kind of woman meets her fiance's best friend, then within helf an hour is telling him he has repressed BDSM fantasies? I can't even see where she got that conversation topic from.

Sherlock Holmes and sex crimes should never be mixed.

Elementary like Sherlock Holmes bumming Watson

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

In fairness, fingerprint technology was fairly new at that time so you could see how the characters might not know. Indeed, I wonder how widely known that is even now?

There are Holmes stories in which sexual content is at least hinted at, so I can see that if you want to tell a new story it makes sense to do one Conan Doyle *couldn't* have written at the time. They just didn't do it very well.

The future Mrs Watson was rubbish, though, agreed.

Re: Elementary like Sherlock Holmes bumming Watson

[innerbrat]

In fairness, fingerprint technology was fairly new at that time so you could see how the characters might not know. Indeed, I wonder how widely known that is even now?No, far enough, but it waan't a twist for us, unless you're my Dad.

There are Holmes stories in which sexual content is at least hinted at, so I can see that if you want to tell a new story it makes sense to do one Conan Doyle *couldn't* have written at the time. They just didn't do it very well.
That's an understatement. They did it so poorly that it's more a case of what Conan Doyle wouldn't have written on account of Conan Doyle not being that bad a writer.

Re: Elementary like Sherlock Holmes bumming Watson

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

"The Sherlock Holmes story that couldn't be told before - because Conan Doyle realised he'd been having an off day and used it as a pipelighter."

Yes, I can see that.

On Saturday I did library things and washing things and ticket pick-up things,

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

You are insecuregoddess AICMFEP!

Re: On Saturday I did library things and washing things and ticket pick-up things,

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I went to the library with her; something must have rubbed off (fnarr fnarr).

Re:

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

Also: I am still reading the Guardian Weekend but yes, argh, that article is annoying me a LOT.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

The former, I take it? Yes, 'tis a bloody outrage that for a mere £2m one can turn the North East into a little bit of Alabama.

[capitalflash.livejournal.com]

yeah i read that. even when i was supposed to be watching transformers the movie. but yes, i find it appalling.

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

Yes, argh. Also, this makes me cross. http://in.news.yahoo.com/050116/139/2j1rp.html And this http://democracyforvirginia.typepad.com/democracy_for_virginia/2005/01/legislative_sen.html

On the other hand, Mozilla is rocking my socks today as I have just realised it has an undo/redo function!

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Schools in 'receiving cash from religious people who then get to appoint governors' shocker.

This is not exactly news, is it?

CREATIONISM. BEING. TAUGHT. IN. BRITISH. SCHOOLS.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression we'd ended that sometime in the last century, maybe even the one before.

BBC. FACING. CHARGES. FOR. BREAKING. BLASPHEMY. LAWS.

[innerbrat]

Face it, we live in a Theocracy.

Re: BBC. FACING. CHARGES. FOR. BREAKING. BLASPHEMY. LAWS.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

No, we only live in a theocracy if that charge is upheld. And even I'm not pessimist enough to expect that.

Re: BBC. FACING. CHARGES. FOR. BREAKING. BLASPHEMY. LAWS.

[rentaghost31.livejournal.com]

I got an email today asking me to sign a petition protesting at the "blatant lack of respect for the Christian faith" shown by the BBC, to be sent to my MP, the BBC and OFCOM.

I deleted it.

I nearly sent an email back to the sender telling him what I thought of his email, but I thought it might make him cry.(He is a bloke I know quite well.)

Re: CREATIONISM. BEING. TAUGHT. IN. BRITISH. SCHOOLS.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

No, as the lead governor for RE at a local primary school, I can assure you we still teach the Old Testament, and that some people believe it is literally true.

In a Europe grounded in ... freedom...

[innerbrat]

...they should be banned"

Germans really do think "irony" means "a bit like iron", don't they?

Re: In a Europe grounded in ... freedom...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not unique to them. See also recent controversy over that Sikh play in which Britons (without Sikh names) came up with lines like 'liberty does not mean license'.

Re: In a Europe grounded in ... freedom...

[innerbrat]

Well, of course it's not unique to them. Are you trying to remove my excuse to mock Germans?

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

Look, just give me a shopping list and point me in the direction of Forbidden Planet, would you?

I always think I've kicked my expensive comics habit until I read one of your LJ posts on the subject.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Morrison's JLAC and We3 are probably the two Must Reads; they're each two issues into a three issue run. His next projects are Vimanarama (Eastern mysticism pop adventure) and a crazy series of linked DC Universe miniseries called Seven Soldiers.
Mark Millar's Ultimates has just restarted and is kicking major ass too. Moore's not producing much and Bendis is coasting a little.

[violentbec.livejournal.com]

If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, where do bad intentions lead?

appleton, wisconsin. be afraid.

[publicansdecoy.livejournal.com]

Aiee, Doncaster. Well, sort of. I'm impressed that people in Doncaster were sufficiently motivated and informed to fight against something like this.

-x-

I *like* this one

[invadergaz.livejournal.com]

(papers published by John Burn and Nigel McQuoid, of the Vardy foundation):

"If relativist philosophy is acceptable, then sadomasochism, bestiality and self-abuse are to be considered as wholesome activities,"

There we go then. Since these activities are not only wholesome, but also an awful lot of fun, then surely relativist philosophy is not only acceptable, but positively worth encouraging!

>grin

Re: I *like* this one

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yes, if the post hadn't already been on the long side I was planning to single that bit out. Hurrah for SM and self abuse!