funkierthanthou

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*Crickets*

Oh, hi. It’s been a while, no?

So this isn't anything official, but in case my only making 15 posts in 2016–and this being my first post of 2017–hsn’t given it away, I’m not really blogging here at the moment. I haven’t shut down or anything, and I’ve no doubt I’ll return to this when inspiration takes hold, but don't expect much action for a while.

Funkier’s gone through fallow periods before. Back when it was a group effort (2000-2002), we all burnt out on it after about 18 months and went off to do our own things for a while. It came back in 2005, again, as a group effort. After a while it quietened down, and I brought it back as a solo effort in 2011/12. I posted frequently right through to the end of 2015.

Life gets in the way. I’m still active on Tumblr itself, but more as an observer. I might spend my time on something more personal for a while. Who knows? Right now there just isn’t much time to spend talking about the latest movies or whatever.

I have no doubt I’ll be back here at some point; see you then.

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DJ Premier and Torii Wolf have released another track from their forthcoming LP and it sounds great

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Some days you just CAN’T. GET. RID. OF A BOMB.

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Russian matchbook labels.

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I always say you can't go wrong with Running Wild as a first Ballard book. Its really a novella, and it covers many of his obsessions in his usual blunt, accurate prose. High Rise is also a good place to start, and of his later works, Cocaine Nights is really good. I'm Just think, kids: in the nineties we were so it there we had a Ballard novel sold to us as a thriller suitable for reading on the beach!

Is there any of Ballard's work you'd especially recommend?

The Atrocity Exhibition is pretty much the purest distillation of Ballard. High-Rise is much more accessible, and has a lovely movie version out (although film fundamentally cannot capture the feel Ballard’s prose, and Wheatley wisely doesn’t try).

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People who dislike Ballard should suffer the same fate as the dog in High Rise.

Vox asserts that women ruined science fiction by pushing writers like Borges and Ballard.

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Charles Hayter. Introduction to Perspective. 1846.

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New Dinosaur Jr. LP incoming...

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I thought TKJ wasn't supposed to be canonical, that it was an Elseworlds story (or whatever DC called their alternative timeline stuff at the time), and it was an editorial decision to make it in-universe?

Some members of the DC fandom trying to play"But The Killing Joke gave us Oracle!!“ card is really bullshit since Oracle only came to be because Kim Yale & her husband got extremely pissed at what was done to Babs. They’re the ones who made oracle. If not for them then Babs would have been just another victim who faded off into the background. 

TKJ is, obviously and unfortunately, connected to the origin of Oracle but it deserves none of the credit for creating Oracle and revitalizing interest in Barbara Gordon as a hero. There was never any intention, from what we currently know, that Babs would ever be used as a substantial character again or if she would end up limbo’d until there’s a need for Jim Gordon/Batman angst.

The killing joke was supposed to put an “end” to Babs as a hero for good. She was just a plot point in the book. A plot point that could have destroyed her career as a usable character for years to come if not for Kim & John.They’re the ones who saved her and gave the world Oracle.

So no, The Killing Joke is not what gave us Oracle. If anything it’s the book that tried to get rid of Barbara Gordon for good. 

When people think of Oracle, they should think of Kim Yale & John Ostrander first and foremost. 

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The GrimDark Age.

To change topics, what would you call the age of comics that came after Alan Moore ended the Bronze Age with Watchmen? The Dark Age? The Iron Age? The Holographic Cover Age?

I’m not sure the “age” model works entirely well past the Silver Age. 

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Alan Dean Foster has adapted many films, and in most cases has to work from what is not the final script. With Alien 3, his novel was very different to the film as it contained the 30 minutes Fox cut from the film, plus fundamental changes like the animal in which the Alien gestated.

In the case of Star Wars, he kept the scenes with Biggs going off to fight the Empire. You can see these same scenes in the Marvel Conics adaption too, but here he filled in the gaps of the characters thought processes and a little of the background. Just like TFA.

He also played up the romance angle, since, despite his later claims, Lucas had not decided Vader was Luke's dad, nor that Luke/Leia were siblings. The book now feels very 'off' and I doubt it's canonical. The same will be true of the latest one.

As an aside, ADF had a deal where his Star Wars novelisation was credited to George Lucas and he got to write a sequel, which would be considered as the source material for the next film. This was Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and it shows just how different the vision for Star Wars was in 1978: it's the second of the 'Adventures of Luke Skywalker', doesn't feature Han or Chewie or 3PO, and Leia only features when Luke's wondering whether she fancies him or not. Oh, and he fights Vader, who confirms he killed Luke's dad.

It's an appropriate follow-up to the first novelisation, but about as accurate as the original Marvel run's Jabba the Hutt in terms of the films.

Don't put too much stock in spin-offs till the films are done.

We are not watching the same movie (and it’s weird)

TFA did this really interesting (and annoying) thing where a lot of important background information was buried in the tie-in material, and this is leading to a really weird thing where people’s whole concept of canon is different and contradictory, yet equally based on what’s actually made explicit in the movie.  Stuff like the position the Resistance holds with regard to the First Order and the New Republic, bits and pieces like that.  

But also, and most jarringly for me, regarding Ben Organa/Kylo Ren.  

People who have read the background stuff: “Oh my God, Ben was groomed and brainwashed from early childhood by Snoke, despite Leia’s attempts to use the force to protect him!  The subtext is grotesque! Does he have agency at all? No wonder he’s conflicted and prone to breakdowns when he’s literally had an abuser in his head since he could walk!”

People who have not read the background stuff: “Ren chose his actions, has complete agency, and is basically an MRA school shooter.”

Like, I’m usually into finding important stuff hidden in the manual, but I feel like, I dunno, this was important.  (Although I wouldn’t be shocked if it was made explicit in Episode VIII, it’s the kind of “I am your father” reveal that changes everything.)

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Reblogging for the scan's of Peter Chan's backgrounds.

So lately I’ve been playing the original two Monkey Island video games and I’m laughing like a hyena nonstop. These are probably the funniest games I’ve ever played, and are filled with so many great bits of dialogue. One of my favorite bits is a tombstone that says this line: 

Marco Largo LaGrande, Hell on sea or on land The Good news: He’s dead The Bad news: He’s bred

And of course there’s the classic Insult Swordfighting, where you defeat your opponents by dishing out sick burns like 

You fight like a dairy farmer!

How appropriate, YOU fight like a cow!

It’s a real shock to me that so many games have terrible writing when these LucasArts games from over 20 years ago are 10,000 times more witty and endearing. 

I also am really enjoying the artwork, particularly in Monkey Island 2. Although the artwork appears in pixel-form in the game (like the image above the paragraph), they actually come from a ton of lovely marker drawing scanned into a computer and translated into pixels. On the top of this post are a ton of great examples. 

The artist of these backgrounds is Peter Chan, who now actually has helped design a ton of movies like Monsters University, The first Harry Potter, Coraline, and The Boxtrolls. He also has worked on Double Fine video games, a studio that is a kind of spiritual successor to LucasArts, the studio that made these Monkey Island games. 

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And some new Tricky, too.

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Happy Friday, have an hour long Carl Craig mix.

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Hayao Miyazaki’s Happy New Year Studio Ghibli Illustrations 2007 - 2016

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Richie Hawtin just released a 2CD compilation of new music; Plastikman, FUSE, 80xx, Circuit Breaker and a bunch of his other pseudonyms:

From My Mind To Yours by Richie Hawtin