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Pump Up the Late Shift Jam

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Bastard Tweed

04:18 / 17.08.04

As the self-aggrandizing pack insert I got with my luckies once proclaimed, "If the only way you can describe your cigarette is 'smoky' then you're smoking the wrong brand."

I dunno about RAW, much as I enjoy the ILLUMINATUS! trilogy, I get the feeling he may be the kind of guy who can get enthusiastic about things for the wrong reasons.

the cat's iao

04:24 / 17.08.04

And I wonder if there is a right brand of cigarettes to be smoking. Bad habit. Wish I'd never started.

Yeah RAW. I dunno'. I like his stuff alright, but I think I see what you're saying...although, if you cared to elaborate a little?

Bastard Tweed

04:27 / 17.08.04

Did you see any of the commentary on the Planet X storyline in Grant Morrison's New X-Men?

the cat's iao

04:38 / 17.08.04

Commentary by Wilson on Morrison's work?

the cat's iao

04:41 / 17.08.04

And, regardless of your answer, no I did not. I don't know anything of the New X-Men or Morrison's work on it.

Bastard Tweed

04:43 / 17.08.04

No, I mean the commentary on this board.

Okay, keep in mind, I'm only speaking so openly because I don't think the other Comics forum regulars are around. They kept defending it because of the perceived idea lying behind it. They fell so in love with the metaphor that it seemed to be presenting that they refused to acknowledge (in my opinion) that the execution itself made for an execrable and wholly disappointing storyline.

That's what I mean.

the cat's iao

04:52 / 17.08.04

Oh. OK. No, I didn't see any of that either. I mean, I didn't bother reading commentary on a comic that I haven't read. It'd be like reading the Big Brother thread! Anyway, I notice two things. One, that you use the words 'perceived' & 'seemed' in very key places. To me, this implies that perhaps people got hung up on one reading/interpretation, and perhaps at the expense of going into more. Two, that you are using this to illustrate your point about Wilson: that Wilson has this fault as well.

Is that about right?

the cat's iao

04:54 / 17.08.04

Oh, and a third: that New X-Men was kinda' crap and not worth bothering with!

the cat's iao

04:58 / 17.08.04

Ah crap, there's like a forth, fifth, and sixth, and likely more if I keep thinking about it. So you seem to also be saying that RAW has fallen in love with a certain metaphor or set of metaphors & that his way of relating this isn't always so fantastic.

Bastard Tweed

04:58 / 17.08.04

One: The only reason I don't use the words "seeming" or "perceived" or "apparent" every time I make reference to concept or value judgement is because reading my posts and listening to me in conversation would quickly become repetitive. But especially when it comes to art I think that it is impossible to pin down what it's saying, I don't even think the artist that made it is even truly capable of such a judgement, the shifting, amorphous nature of art etc. etc.

and Two: Yes, I think he does.

Bastard Tweed

05:01 / 17.08.04

Actually, for the most part, I dug the holy living fuck out of New X-Men, even during the times when the art work took a serious dive in quality. I just thought that was a distinctly crap storyline and it pissed me off royal that nobody here was willing to acknowledge that using metaphysical macguffins to explain away it status of pants.

(I'd better stop this before they catch on that I'm talking crazytalk with impunity)

the cat's iao

05:07 / 17.08.04

Oh, I totally agree about your point about art & interpretation.

And I'd more or less agree with you on the second, about Wilson, as well. Still, I like his stuff alright, but yes, he certainly has been in a bit of a rut, and much of his stuff is the same over and over.

Bastard Tweed

05:10 / 17.08.04

Well, sometimes an author has a very specific message that he wants to get across and if he feels he hasn't succeeded then he just tries again. And again. And again and again and again.

And again.

I just hope that Morrison never falls into a similar rut because he's really quite good, in my opinion but I sometimes see the warning signs of such an eventuality.

Bastard Tweed

05:12 / 17.08.04

Ahhhhh. Raiding the liquor cabinet.

Can you say smoky, single malt, twelve-year-old, scotch?

I sniffed the glass and I almost had an organism. Life is so sweet for the next half hour.

the cat's iao

05:13 / 17.08.04

I just thought that was a distinctly crap storyline and it pissed me off royal that nobody here was willing to acknowledge that using metaphysical macguffins to explain away it status of pants.

Um...I think that last bit is, well, a little indecipherable, but y'know, people will often defend something they value even when they can recognize it's crap if only to satisfy themselves by maintaining the status of the value, and hence, the meaning, in their lives...

Bastard Tweed

05:16 / 17.08.04

Allow me to paraphrase the argument made most often, as I perceived it.

"Y'see, Morrison made a crap storyline on purpose in order to point out how crap such storylines are. He was making a spot on warning about the dangers of that school of thought in writing superhero comics. It's actually quite an achievement if you look at it in the right way."

the cat's iao

05:24 / 17.08.04

I'm now so tempted to join you in a scotch. I've some single malt, ten year old kickin' around...

Hmm, I don't know what to say about the X-men thing, 'cause I haven't read it, and probably won't. Again, people will often arrive at an interpretation which satisfies their sense of value. Or they're idiots. Six of one, really...

Bastard Tweed

05:28 / 17.08.04

To be perfectly honest, the main reason it pissed me off is because normally this board is an ideal hub for intelligent intercourse and I felt rather let down. It just reeked of uncharacterist sycophantism.

Ah well.

Scotch. My reccomendation? Cut it with club soda. You keep almost all of the flavour but you spread out your supply to make the experience last.

the cat's iao

05:32 / 17.08.04

Well, I don't even want to get started on sycophantism or about the ways in which sometimes this board is a let down...

Scotch--I drink it on the rocks. That's how I like it.

Bastard Tweed

05:35 / 17.08.04

You have. A ten year old. Single malt. Scotch.

And you're drinking it on the rocks?

I am staggered.

Why?

And yes, I have indeed decided to join you.

[raises glass]

Cheers!

Bastard Tweed

05:39 / 17.08.04

Sorry. It's one of those things that can't be explained. Just as an englishman insists that beer be warm and an American insists that beer be cold, you just don't have high quality scotch on the rocks.

It's just, well, wrong. Deep down. On a profound level.

Wait, wait. I'll get offa my high horse. When you first started drinking scotch were you drinking blended malt?

Bastard Tweed

05:42 / 17.08.04

Tom Waits' Hold On is one of the saddest songs ever written, I'm listening to it for the first time in over a year, and I'm drinking astoundingly high quality scotch.

Life is good.

the cat's iao

05:43 / 17.08.04

Hmm, I only started this past winter. I know little about the whole culture of it, really. I did drink some blended, but also some single malts.

I guess you are concerned about the ice diluting the scotch, yeah?

Bastard Tweed

05:47 / 17.08.04

Actually it's more along the lines of low temperature. With middling scotch it gets rid of some of the "yech" that such brands are cursed with. But with the truly great single malt it feels like something of a sin to reduce it. That's why club soda is the preferred mixer; it doesn't reduce the flavour, it just spreeeaaads it out.

the cat's iao

05:55 / 17.08.04

Hmm, I like a drink to be cold. But tell you what: the next time I have a glass, I'll try it as-is: no ice, room temp..

Anyway, my alarm is going to go off in six hours and thirty-eight minutes to get me up to go to work. It's been a pleasure, as usual, Czern, but I must bid you goodnight.

Bastard Tweed

05:58 / 17.08.04

Yeah, well, you go do that sleep thing. But remember, while you got the quality stuff, try it neat. At least once.

Good night.

gingerbop

23:01 / 17.08.04

All scotch should be burnt.
*shudders*

Are we up?

Mazarine

23:05 / 17.08.04

Some of us are. How goes the trapezing life, ging? (I used to be Mazarine, by the by, I'm not sure if you were around when the change occurred).

Ganesh

23:09 / 17.08.04

I'm up. Xoc working tomorrow; I'm not. Listening to new Simon & Garfunkel 'best of' I bought today, starting with 'Bleeker Street'.

Tipple of choice: vodka and choice of Slimline tonic or Diet Coke. I did consider opening the bottle of Veuve Clicquot in our fridge but Xoc, not unreasonably, pointed out that Tuesday evening's an insufficiently celebratory occasion for champagne.

w1rebaby

23:11 / 17.08.04

I'm told that the only way to dilute single malt is with water. Not in soda or ice form, just a small jug of water at room temperature, with amount added according to taste.

I hate whiskey, no matter how expensive, but I've picked this up from other people drinking it in snobby Edinburgh pubs.

gingerbop

23:11 / 17.08.04

Thanks- indeed I was somewhere when there was a bracketed Mazarine. Lurking behind a tree, I'd imagine.

No trapezing as yet, but next Wednesday I'm starting a tightrope walking course. I'm not entirely sure how I'll do at it. I never liked beam very much, but then presumably they're not going to ask me to flip on a wire. However, it's about a tenth of the width.

I'm kind of looking forward to moving out, getting a new flat (hopefully with some other people on the course) and getting a job that I can go home from.

How about you- was it you, or am I confusing you with May again, who had kittens? How are they, and what the fuck to I do if my cat gives birth with nobody else around? How is everything else non-feline-related in your life?

Ganesh

23:21 / 17.08.04

I hate whiskey, no matter how expensive, but I've picked this up from other people drinking it in snobby Edinburgh pubs.

Me too. I also hate whiskey, although I attribute this to adults 'amusingly' offering it to me as a child, every Hogmanay, with the consequent association of whiskey with trying to push my uvula back into the anatomical position after copious and violent vomiting.

Can't quite understand why any Scottish people still like whiskey.

Mazarine

23:25 / 17.08.04

Tightrope isn't too bad- I sucked at it, but my balance is the suck. A lot of people I knew picked up on it really quickly.

The kitties are fine, growing incredibly fast. They're almost ten months old and are already as big as my parents cats, who are ten years old. We suspect they will eventually be enormous. North Carolina remains extremely nifty.

What's your current living situation? Avec the fam?

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