alexsarll: (bernard)
Alex ([personal profile] alexsarll) wrote2009-05-05 11:14 am

Thankfully, I had this written up before those two bottles of wine

I'm not especially into signings. I'll go along if it's a mate who might not be drawing a massive crowd, to show support, but queueing for hours just to be in the Presence...why? But, Gosh's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen signing was going to have copies of Century: 1910 weeks early, and that's another matter. Except, you could buy them in the shop, and the signing was around the corner. Well, since I was there, and my immediate agenda was to read '1910', and then read the Guide and the main bit of the paper, and since I was there, and since I could do all that reading while queueing...might as well hang around.
Two hours later, they're all read. I could make a start on the review section, but I wouldn't be doing that anyway. The question 'Why am I here?' no longer has a solid answer. I depart, and by the bus stop find that the Hawksmoor church has a deeply surreal exhibition in its basement, which I wander in perfect solitude. Alan Moore's From Hell turned me on to Hawksmoor; I feel more sense of communion with him down in that crypt than I would awkwardly saying 'Hiya!' in a crowded signing room. And then as I board the bus, a perfectly-timed text tells me there's a picnic in the park. If nothing else, the queueing means that relatively speaking, I'm one of the sober ones.
As for the new volume...well, I know there's been talk of each third of Century being a satisfying read in itself, so that the inevitable delays aren't a problem. But this is very much an opening chapter, and it's one whose animating spirit is Brecht, meaning that like him, at times it's rather heavy-handed for my tastes. But it's still Alan Moore, and it's still the League, so the intricacy of the patchwork is still staggering, the story still has more heart than it's sometimes given credit for, and the Iain Sinclair riff is absolutely hilarious - if you've read him, anyway. Whenever they turn up, I'm very much looking forward to the rest of Century, not least because the promised crossovers include Vincent Chase and David Simon's Baltimore. Speaking of Baltimore, there was a drunk perv getting thrown out of Power's on Friday who looked like an uglier Frank Sobotka, but who insisted he was a police officer. It wasn't until his attempts to taunt the bouncer expanded to include moonwalking that I realised, this must be what Michael Jackson looks like nowadays, whiter than ever (or indeed, red); minus the hat, mask and shades; and after the doctors' instructions to bulk up ahead of his London shows. I was there to see Borderville, whose singer weirdly turns out to have done the same course as me at the same college, while really reminding me of Jesse from Flipron. Extremely good band, but while they're great showmen, part of me wonders whether some of the subtlety and structure of the songs doesn't get lost live. They're also, I think, the sort of band who would benefit from a smart producer, as opposed to the sort who just spaff a load of money on one so's to have something to talk about in interviews. Other acts are Rubella (very pretty, shame about the lack of songs), and Alvarez King(?), who at least realise that they are 'freshwater fish in salt water'.

[identity profile] azureskies.livejournal.com 2009-05-05 10:23 am (UTC)(link)
Dammit, I was under the impression that to get one you had to participate in the signing. I didn't realise you could actually just go the shop and buy one. Bah.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2009-05-05 10:29 am (UTC)(link)
Me either, until I got there.

[identity profile] xandratheblue.livejournal.com 2009-05-05 10:37 am (UTC)(link)
If Alvarez King were freshwater fish in salt water, why weren't they slowly beginning to shrivel up due to their kidneys diffusing the saltwater too quickly?

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2009-05-05 10:45 am (UTC)(link)
It would hsve made for a more entertaining show, wouldn't it?

[identity profile] xandratheblue.livejournal.com 2009-05-05 10:53 am (UTC)(link)
Watching Michael Jackson was quiet fun though!

[identity profile] amuchmoreexotic.livejournal.com 2009-05-05 11:14 am (UTC)(link)
Oh shit, how did I miss this? I guess they'll be out of copies now. :(

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2009-05-05 12:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I would fear so. But there'll be more along in a couple of weeks!

[identity profile] verlaine.livejournal.com 2009-05-22 01:00 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I think Century: 1910 represents the first time I've had the thought that maybe Moore's didacticism and desire to show off the "never mind the quality, feel the width!" of his historical research may have overpowered the telling of a rattling good yarn. (Promethea was extremely didactic, but it still had a human story going on. The LXG mob are too grotesque to be very audience-identifiable by now, no?)

Still, I shall be buying the next installment with the usual feverish haste, so no harm done I suppose.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2009-05-22 09:30 am (UTC)(link)
I tend to reserve that abbreviation for the film travesty myself...

Similarly, I'm presuming that the next episode will have a different core idea - I'm guessing Moorcock or maybe Performance - so am prepared to just chalk my problems with '1910' up to Brecht. If '1969' comes across that way too...well, then we have to start wondering whether big company editors aren't such a bad idea after all, as we sometimes do when looking at the Avatar work of Warren Ellis or Garth Ennis.

[identity profile] verlaine.livejournal.com 2009-05-22 07:07 pm (UTC)(link)
My memories of the film are not quite as dreadful as everyone else's, mainly because I fell asleep about 10 minutes in.

I've enjoyed big song and dance numbers in Moore works before (The Killing Joke, V for Vendetta) and I don't THINK I have anything against Brecht, so it was strange that all the singing in 1910 fell flat for me. Hmmm. Oh well, roll on 1969!