I can't leave this place to look after itself for five minutes...

[alexsarll]

I move that, if London does get its own satellite, it should be christened Zone 8.

Buffy's 'Season 8' has started reasonably well; hopefully now Joss Whedon is back on home turf he'll be better able to avoid the pacing problems that have turned his X-Men into such a slog. I like that he seems deliberately to be using effects and plots which fit with the world established on TV, but would have been prohibitively expensive to film; playing to the medium sounds obvious but a lot of transfer writers forget it. Speaking of such, for all that I love Babylon 5 it's becoming increasingly hard to defend Straczynski's comics work - taking charge for the middle stretch of Ultimate Power he gets about half an issue of comedy out of Thor's archaic speech patterns, not allowing himself to be obstructed by any piddling little details like Ultimate Thor not actually talking like that.

Even if you've never heard of Danger: Diabolik you may well have felt its influence, whether through the Beastie Boys' 'Body Movin'' video or Grant Morrison's Fantomex. But neither of them can quite prepare you for the oddity of the original. Filmed in Italy and clearly attempting to cash in on the swinging superspy trends of the period, it's set in a strangely nebulous country where the currency is dollars, the ambience continental (including a Morricone score) and the Minister of Finance played by Terry-Thomas. The action and violence oscillates between the genuinely dark and the knockabout A-Team style, and Diabolik himself is played in a strangely inexpressive manner, perhaps more through the limitations of lead actor John Phillip Law than any conscious decision. It comes across more as a rushed rip-off than a deliberate artistic strike for strangeness - and yet somehow that works. A fascinating curio.

Is anybody actually going to the Billy Mackenzie tribute show on Wednesday? It does look good, but ultimately...it won't be Billy, will it?

Comments

[jimyojimbo.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look out for Diabolik. For some reason, the Mody Movin' video always put me in mind of Lupin the 3rd.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I think they're drawing from a similar toolkit of Groovy! elements - and though the Beastie Boys pastiche is scene by scene, it's nowhere near faithful to the film, so could have taken other elements from there.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I love Youtube.

The thing is, I've already seen Propaganda live (albeit only very briefly), at the Trevor Horn Wembley show. And the Onetwo album really is desperately mediocre.

[azureskies.livejournal.com]

Straczynski... piddling little details

Since when have such things ever bothered him? I actually enjoyed his Amazing run waaaaay back at the beginning, but I can't believe quite how long he's been doing it now. And this "back in black" stuff - alright, it's clearly editorially mandated and owes more than a little to the movie, but you'd think JMS would at least address the fact that the reason why Peter stopped wearing the suit in the first place was that it scared the holy fvck out of his wife, and so deciding to wear it again at a time when his family needs his support the most is, perhaps, just a little ill-advised.

That said, the suit fits in rather nicely over in New Avengers - probably a combination of the storyline, Yu's artwork, and the fact that it features Spider-Man still actually acting like Spider-Man.

Diabolik - which I hadn't heard of until recently, when I saw it mentioned quite highly in a list of "best comic book movies ever" - certainly sounds like a lark, I might have to track it down.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I wasn't even convinced by the early issues of his Spider-Man or Fantastic Four, tbh; the latter was just generic, whereas the former had, in the whole 'totem' idea, one of those things you can instantly recognise as a future What Were We Thinking? (See also: Norman/Gwen. Ugh)

My estimate of him as having any worth as a comics writer came mainly from Rising Stars and Supreme Power, which both at least managed to be interesting for the opening 12 or so issues.

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

I think I'll give Billy a miss, as

a) as you say, there's no Billy (and as good and sensible as that line up is, they could have at least got someone in with a decent Billy-ish voice - maybe David McAlmont, the guy from Veldt, Alison Goldfrapp, the singer from Ilya, Andrew Montgomery etc.)

b) it's in Shepherd's Bush. That's the clincher.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Forum, or Islington Academy, even Koko - maybe. West London - BZZZZT!

[exliontamer.livejournal.com]

I'm giving it a miss on those grounds too, with added c) cost.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Not that one likes to admit to such vulgar concerns but yes, freebies might see me change my tune. Pesky charity events!

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

Obviously I wouldn't pay if I went either. But that begs the question - do dead artists still have PR companies 'working' them?

(I quite like the idea of ringing up the PR company for this gig to blag guest list places and then, with a perfectly straight voice/face, eagerly enquiring "Do you know if Billy will be actually making an appearance?"

A Varsity editor responds to feature ideas, sometime in the late nineties

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

"Nick Drake went to Cambridge - Fitz I think. We could do something about him."
"Yeah! Get on to Fitz, see if they've got a number for him."

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

Do it, the promoter's Frankie! He's both clueless and mentally stuck in 1986.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

But doesn't that mean that even if one does blag it, he'll lose the guestlist or fill it with other dead people or sthg?

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

Quite. I'm passing due to the West London issue anyway.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I saw Amityville at the Hopeless, and it was most odd...when I'd seen Geneva, you knew if Andrew was within ten feet of you, because he just radiated charisma. Whereas in Amityville, I stood next to him at the bar without noticing - but once he got on 'stage', some inner gate opened and the same presence flooded out. And if the songs weren't quite up to the standards of the first Geneva album, they were certainly better than the second. A shame he abandoned that; OK, it was an awful name, but St Famous is if anything slightly worse.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

What, even better than Ben Folds' voice?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Really? I've never been there, in part because it's never had anyone I've been mad to see, but also in part because I feared it might all get a little reverential.

(That said, right now I'm in a phase where the general idea of big gigs doesn't appeal, whoever's playing. I blame the Jarvis audience)

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

Hang on... what new Buffy?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

As opposed to the mostly lame spin-off comics they used to do, Whedon et al are now doing a canonical continuation of the story. (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=106241)

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

Man, I hope Hackney library gets these...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well I doubt they'd get the singles, so I fear you're looking at at least a three month wait 'til there's a bookstore collection...

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

Well, I have plenty to read in the meantime, and much more time-to-wait-for-things-to-come-to-library than money-to-buy-them-with...

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Time for a trip to Gosh....

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure about Gosh, but a lot of shops were shocked by demand and sold out, so you might need to wait for the second printing.

[augstone.livejournal.com]

i love 'danger diabolik', esp. the theme song "deep deep down". i really want h bird to cover that someday as well.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I mostly think that would work really well, though if you tried to do the look also, I worry what a Diabolik cowl would do to your hair.

[blurtime.livejournal.com]

Piece from today's Time Out on the Billy MacKenzie gig.

http://a336.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/55/l_529297df048447825bfabda77ea837b7.jpg

NB Frankie isn't the promoter - he's just helping the charity out with some flyering etc.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Hang about, which Cure and Siouxsie songs are about Billy?

[blurtime.livejournal.com]

Cure song = Cut Here

Siouxsie song = Say (actually a Creatures song)

once you know, they are obvious. They both mention him by name for a start.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Oh my life, so it is! 'Cut Here' is a lovely song anyway, but knowing this makes it so much sadder.

I don't feel so dim about failing to spot 'Say', simply because I never really got into Anima Animus (I did see them on the accompanying tour, and loved it, but more though the stage presence and because they played 'Pluto Drive' than for the new stuff).

[blurtime.livejournal.com]

NB... you can get the tickets at £12.50 if you use the promotional code

Billy 1 here: http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_london&query=detail&event=189587&referral_id=featured">ticketweb.co.uk

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