#Riffe Gallery

[arron-foster-studio]

…….

A whole hearted thank you.

Recently, a few of my works were included in a dynamically stacked exhibition entitled “Sequence” which was curated by the artist Christine D’Epiro Abbott for @ohioartscouncil @riffegallery.

The exhibition, which includes the work of 14 amazing Ohio based artists aims to showcase and celebrate the diversity inherent to the field of contemporary printmaking.

My contributions to this show included two installations and a print-based frame. animation. The installation and animation documented here were bespoke for this show and have never been shown before.

I want to very publicly thank @cdepiroabbott and @riffegallery for including me in this impressive show. It is an honor and a privilege.

Sequence is open until July 5th at the Riffe Gallery after which it will be traveling to the Medici Museum in Warren, OH.

please check it out if you are able. You will not be disappointed.

surest of sure good times!

Image 1: From the Dust, looping print based frame animation. Dimensions variable. 2024

Image 2: From the Dust, Silkscreen and monotype on kozo. 72”x85” 2024

Image 3 and 4: From the Dust (details)

Image 5 & 6 : installation views 📷 credit @riffegallery

Image 7: showcard designed by @riffegallery with print by @artwerg

[cocoelle]

Welcome to the Real Talk Podcast with Morgan Kirkland. I thought I would share some of the guests I've been lucky to talk with on my podcast.

Left: Payton Peterson (Actress) / Right: Zayne Batista (Top Hairstylist in Oasis Springs)

Left: Kyla Tanner (Country Singer) / Right: Carlos Nevarez (Latin Singer)

Phil Kibo-Candle (Fashion Stylist) ( @simmireen )

Left: Jayceon Wolf (Professional Boxer) / Right: Agents of Insanity (Rock Band)

Left: Hudson, Alden & Lukas (Dancers @ The Solar Flare) / Right: Daniel Hawea (Tech Giant)

[fieldofheathers-stuff]

More thranto naps! Companion piece to the previous post, except instead of Eli doing Sudoku while Thrawn is knocked out cold now it’s Thrawn reading the Burlington Magazine or whatever while Eli sleeps. Gotta keep up with the art news.

Ps: The shirt is totally a riff on the National Gallery logo. We all know Thrawn would go bananas in a museum shop.

[sugardollcurse]

Hi! How’re doing? Can I request reader who’s in the arts and the boys? (Acting, writing, painting, etc.) The image of John helping out with reading lines in a funny accent sounds so sweet. Anywho, thank you! :)

𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒔/𝒐 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔

꒰ pairing ꒱ paul mccartney x reader, john lennon x reader, george harrison x reader, ringo starr x reader

꒰ note ꒱ HEY!! I'M IN ARTS TOO!! i'm doing fine today and thank you for requesting!

꒰ JOHN ꒱

"You’re really gonna stand there and say your monologue’s shite? After I just read it in me best Shakespeare voice? Rude."

John is your number one fan and your worst distraction.

He’s fully the guy who’ll read your dramatic lines in the thickest Yorkshire accent he can muster just to make you laugh.

You’ll be practicing a heavy emotional scene and he’ll interrupt like:

“You forgot the bit where you dramatically clutch your heart like a Victorian ghost.”

But when it’s showtime or submission time, he’s the most grounded version of himself.

He’ll silently sit through your work, eyes flicking between your expression and the page/screen/stage. When you’re done, he’ll nod, slow and thoughtful, and say something like, “It’s got teeth. Real ones.”

Keeps a notebook just for your ideas.

Seriously. Scribbles them down when you talk in your sleep, too.

At your gallery opening or play, he’ll stand at the edge of the room like a bodyguard, sunglasses on indoors, but his hands are twitchy with pride.

Can’t help but sneak into your studio space and leave little drawings or notes:

“This one looks like me. Don’t deny it. – J.”

He loves watching you when you’re in the zone. Says it’s hot, but he means it’s sacred.

꒰ PAUL ꒱

"I think it’s lovely. Even if it’s just scribbles, That’s what makes it worth something, y'know?"

Paul treats your art like a living, breathing being.

Something to nurture.

He’s always gently encouraging, never pushes too hard, but won’t let you talk down your work either.

Loves helping you brainstorm.

Has this habit of asking you why something matters in your work.

“Why did you choose that line?” “Why that color?”

If you're a painter, he'll sit behind you with his bass and quietly play while you work.

Sometimes it’s melodies, sometimes little poems he’s turning into songs.

“Your paintin’s makin’ me think of this riff. Mind if I try it out?”

Always saves the first copy of your work.

“First prints are rare, y’know,” he says as he tucks it into his top drawer.

Writes you a hundred little songs you’ll never hear unless you catch him at the piano by accident.

If you’re in a play, he’ll come to every performance with fresh flowers. Every single time.

꒰ GEORGE ꒱

"It’s alright not to want to share it yet. You’re still makin’ it. Still growin’ it. Let it bloom first."

George sees your creativity as something sacred.

He gets it in a way that’s quiet but so profound.

If you’re feeling creatively blocked, he won’t pressure you.

Just makes you tea, sits on the floor with his guitar, and waits until you speak again.

He loves watching your hands while you work.

Will literally sit next to you on the floor and just quietly observe the movement of your brush, pen, or gestures.

Keeps little parts of your art with him.

Pressed leaves from your set design, quotes scribbled on napkins, a page you tore out and threw away that he tucked into his guitar case.

When you get overwhelmed, he’ll take you outside.

“Too many walls in there. You need trees.” He believes nature can shake things loose inside you.

Will never show up in the front row, but he’ll be in the wings, in the shadows, his way of holding space for you.

꒰ RINGO ꒱

"Paint got on your nose again, love. D’you want me to leave it or kiss it off?"

Ringo is your hype man.

He doesn’t always get your work on a technical level, but he loves it because it came from you.

If you’re rehearsing lines or trying out a monologue, he insists on reading opposite you, even if he flubs the words or uses silly voices. “Oi, I’m an actor now! Ringford Olivier.”

Leaves snacks and water by your workspace like a little gremlin house elf.

“Can’t create masterpieces on an empty stomach.”

Has framed your worst sketches and hung them proudly.

“This one looks like a frog but it’s meant to be me. I love it.”

If you're a writer, he'll ask you to read him your newest scenes while he falls asleep.

“Just the next bit, please? Your voice puts me right out.”

You once caught him painting next to you with a ridiculous smock and a beret he bought just for the bit.

“I’m makin’ art, too! Look... it’s a dog. Or a boat. Might be both.”

taglist: @sharksausages, @wavvytin, @wimpyvamps, @finallyforgotten, @lennongirlieee, @silly-lil-lee

[gargoyleandgremlinpress]

This typeset of Pentimento by orange_crushed was created by @teleportbooks for me in the 2022 @renegadeguild typeset exchange! (And bound as part of my Binderary 2023 stack, and look, I am REALLY behind at posting right now, and going to schedule some posts to catch up.)

This fic is a MDZS Wangxian modern AU set in a museum, where Lan Wangji is an art conservator, and Wei Wuxian is an art handler. (Drama! Tension! Meeting after years apart!) One of the joys of a well-constructed AU is seeing how the author recontextualizes canon, and I really enjoyed how the pieces fit together in this fic, as well as Lan Wangji's voice and point of view.

I raided my wife's art supplies for this one (also for the most themed photo op I've done to date) and used two different types of canvas for the book cloth. The lighter cover is just untreated canvas, backed with fusible interfacing and tissue, run through a home laser printer for the cover, and the title on both the cover and spine is acrylic paint using a Cricut-cut stencil. The darker canvas on the spine was gessoed and had a backing on it, and it did NOT want to stick with wheat starch paste, and only held with great reluctance with straight PVA glue. But it worked in the end! The endpapers are some of my wife's gelli-plate printing experiments, for a modern art vibe.

The typeset is lovely and elegant, with a title page set up like a gallery placard, and @teleportbooks included all of the artwork referenced in the fic as if they were colour plates in an art book! Look at this gorgeousness...

I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out overall, and the setting was definitely fun to riff off with the materials used. (Although I will only use that darker canvas again under duress... or for something else where it's the perfect fit, honestly.)

[theoutcastrogue]

Cartoon depictions of the homeless increasingly reflect the hostility of today’s political leaders toward people on the streets. We’ve gone from images of charming hobos with bindles to zombies taking over cities. If you consume any news at all, you’ve probably noticed that the United States is pathologically cruel to its homeless citizens. This May, the brutal killing of Jordan Neely—who was strangled to death, at the age of 30, simply because he was unhoused and shouting on the Manhattan subway—captured the national spotlight, but it was just one of many such cases of unprovoked violence. In January, two cops reportedly kidnapped a homeless man in Hialeah, Florida, drove him to an “isolated and dark location,” and beat him unconscious. That same month, art dealer Shannon Collier Gwin faced battery charges after he sprayed a homeless woman with a hose outside his San Francisco gallery, barking “Move! Move!” at her. (Predictably, Gwin got a lenient plea deal of just 35 hours of community service.) Elsewhere in the city, homeless San Franciscans have been attacked with chemical bear spray on at least eight occasions. Other assaults have been more impersonal but no less vicious. On July 14, the city of Houston abruptly closed its only public cooling center in the downtown area, potentially condemning anyone without shelter to suffer heatstroke in 90-degree weather. Among the property-owning class, the phenomenon of hostile architecture—sidewalks with spikes that stab anyone who tries to sleep, benches with iron bars, and the like—has become de rigueur. The widespread callousness and lack of compassion are both infuriating and hard to comprehend. How on Earth, we might ask, did things get this bad? [...]

Looking back at older cartoons, one of the things that stands out immediately is the absence of negative attitudes toward the homeless. In fact, during the Golden Age of animation, creators seemed to have had a real affinity for the poor and unhoused, often placing their most iconic characters in that role. There’s a wonderful 1948 Warner Bros. short called “Riff Raffy Daffy,” in which Daffy Duck is looking for a place to sleep—first on a park bench, then a trash can, and finally a furniture display in a shop window—and has to dodge the harassment of the police, as represented by Porky Pig in a little blue uniform. (Literally, the cop is a pig!) Or, in the 1950 cartoon “Homeless Hare,” Bugs Bunny’s rabbit hole is destroyed by a new construction project, leading him to unleash his usual slapstick mayhem against the developers until they put it back. In these cartoons, homelessness is something inflicted on people by outside forces—gentrification and the real estate business, in Bugs’ case—and something which can be successfully resisted. Even Disney cast a homeless dog as a romantic lead in 1955’s Lady and the Tramp, contrasting Lady’s sheltered naivety with Tramp’s superior knowledge of the world. The title invokes the memory of Charlie Chaplin’s “Tramp” films, which similarly brought dignity and humanity to the role of a homeless man. (Bugs Bunny, too, takes inspiration from Chaplin, and multiple Warner animators have drawn him as the Tramp.) In 1961, Hanna-Barbera’s profoundly underrated Top Cat followed the adventures of a gang of wisecracking Manhattan alley cats, who, like Daffy, are always outwitting a meddling policeman. At worst, classic cartoons may trivialize the suffering and danger associated with homelessness—there’s a certain recurring image of the carefree hobo carrying a bindle, which paints the whole subject in a romanticized light—but the homeless themselves are rarely disparaged or made the butt of the joke. Quite the opposite. 

It took a few years, but cartoons caught up to the Reaganite turn. In episodes from the ’90s and early 2000s, there’s a palpable shift in the way homeless characters appear compared to earlier decades. The perspective is different: we’re now seeing them through the eyes of comfortably housed characters, rather than their own. Often they don’t even get proper names. [...] This trajectory leads us, perhaps inevitably, to SpongeBob SquarePants. [..] Squidward gets accused of stealing a dime by his comically greedy boss, Mr. Krabs, and quits his job in a fit of outrage. We then flash forward to see Squidward, now bedraggled and unshaven, living in a cardboard box on the street and begging for change. [...] Mercifully, the ever-cheerful SpongeBob gives Squidward a place to stay—but the moment he’s safely off the street, Squidward turns from a sympathetic victim of circumstance into a lazy, entitled freeloader, straight out of a Reagan speech. He makes no effort to find work and loafs around SpongeBob’s house for ages. [...] Eventually, an exasperated SpongeBob writes “GET A JOB” in his alphabet soup, before shoving him (bed and all) back to work at the Krusty Krab. [...] Worst of all, though, the episode suggests that homelessness can be solved on an individual basis if the people in question simply stop being lazy and “GET A JOB.” This is the biggest myth of all. In 2021, a statistical analysis by the University of Chicago found that 53 percent of people in homeless shelters, and 40.4 percent of unsheltered people, do have jobs. The problem is that their wages are too low, and rents are too high. According to statistics from the same year, it’s impossible for someone working a full-time, minimum-wage job to afford a single-bedroom apartment in 93 percent of U.S. counties, and there are no states in which someone can rent a two-bedroom space on the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. In other words, homelessness has little or nothing to do with personal responsibility, or lack thereof. It’s a consequence of large-scale economic decisions made by landlords and bosses. [...]

— Alex Skopic

[shark-myths]

You Were the Song Stuck in My Head

Every day of Patrick Stump's life is exactly the same. He commutes from Hoboken into New York City, he opens the gallery he runs but does not own, he alienates potential customers, he eats greasy sandwiches instead of the salads his doctor keeps recommending, and he fails to work on his dream of launching a painting career. Until the day celebrity fashion designer Pete Wentz walks through his gallery door. After that, his life is never the same again.

Patrick Stump / Pete Wentz | Alternate Universe - No Band | grumpy x sunshine | Alternate Universe - Celebrity | Art | Fashion & Couture | On-Again/Off-Again Relationship | Stuck In A Rut | Nude Photos (canonical) | Lust at First Sight | Fame | The Magic of Fate | rom com tropes | Humor | New York City | this is a little bit of a riff on notting hill and a little bit of a riff on serendipity and also something new | aka the closest thing i've ever done to a coffeeshop au

updates sundays - story playlist - 🎨

1: Spring 💮

2: Summer 🖼️

3: Autumn 🍂

4: Autumn, pt. 2 🎃

5: Autumn, pt.3 🌧️

6: Winter ❄️

[thankssteveditko]

Sony's PlayStation 5 Presents Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (the third game in the series)

I beat the main story and have enjoyed my time with the game overall! I want to talk about spoilers and things that I liked and disliked in the story, so here's a post with some scattered thoughts.

(Hello! I haven't forgotten that this blog exists! Like I said, no update schedule, I will read more of the Lee/Ditko comics whenever I make time for it. I've actually been sitting on a mostly-complete version of this post since I beat the game in October, thinking that I'd finish the rest of the side quests so I could throw in thoughts on those. But... eh, I'll do that whenever the inevitable DLC rolls around. I just wanna get these thoughts posted.)

Spider-Cop No More

First off: they downplayed the cop shit!!! This was the first thing that really struck me about the game, and I'm stunned that they actually listened to criticism on this. I thought we'd just be stuck with it forever.

It'll never be completely gone, of course. Spider-Man is always going to leave criminals webbed up for the police to take to prison, hoping that they'll do their time and come out the other side as Productive Members of Society. That's just a thing I begrudgingly accept as part of the genre that will probably never go away. But Spider-Man is no longer repairing police surveillance networks. You're no longer beating the shit out of random drug dealers. Gangs of escaped convicts still wearing their orange jumpsuits are no longer terrorizing the streets of New York.

Instead, Peter and Miles are played more as firefighters. Sometimes very literally! They work with firefighters, they rescue people from collapsing buildings, they rush injured people to the hospital. In general there's a huge increase in the number of random onlookers present during the big action setpieces, and the Spider-Men frequently have to save them from harm. One of the major side quest lines is even literally about a cult of arsonists, and you'll routinely find burning fuel tanker trucks you have to extinguish with your webs. It's great! Love this for them.

I also generally liked the side missions in this. There's a lot of good stuff with the Spider-Men being neighborhood heroes willing to help out anyone in need, no matter the problem. Some of them can get corny, sure, but that street level stuff has always been the real heart of Spider-Man to me.

Gameplay

The gameplay's as fun as ever. That probably goes without saying. I will not be spending a thousand words explaining that swinging is fun.

In particular, I really liked the changes to the Focus mechanic. I never loved the way Miles' game made you choose between healing and doing your special attacks, but here your four specials have their own cooldowns, and the Focus meter is spent on either healing or finishers. It still offers that risk/reward element, but those vicious cycles where you can't do any real damage because you keep needing to heal aren't nearly as bad as they were before.

Personally I didn't turn off the swing assist or turn on fall damage, because the streamlined swinging never bothered me in these games, but I'm glad the options are there for people who want them.

Kraven

I liked Kraven in this! I liked the way they leaned into his Hunters being this weird death cult, and him wanting to go down in a blaze of glory against a worthy foe, to the point that he's actually disappointed anytime a foe can't kill him. It riffs on things people liked in Kraven's Last Hunt without being the exact same story. I like that Kraven's gang is renting out this manor or whatever and just being a complete terror to the wait staff. I liked the way Kraven hunting Peter's rogues' gallery clashed with Peter's belief in giving his villains second chances. I liked that they were willing to have Kraven kill off a couple of the minor villains from the first game to sell how dangerous he is. (I know some people hated this, but like, come on. We already fought the Sinister Six. They don't need to do that again.) I like the way Kraven pushed Peter to the absolute brink, turning him more and more aggressive with the Black Suit. Good stuff all around, even if the Hunter enemy types did wear out their welcome a little bit by the end.

The Black Suit arc

I think I liked the way Insomniac handled Peter's Black Suit arc overall, but there's a tradeoff here.

They REALLY lean into the body horror tentacle stuff, with Black Suit Peter basically just being a skinny Venom by the end. The sequence where you play as Mary Jane while the symbiote puppets an unconscious Peter's body around and goes on a rampage against the Hunters was REALLY great at selling how scary Peter is becoming, and it made me completely change my tune on the inclusion of the MJ stealth missions in the sequel. Having to beat an out-of-control Peter as Miles immediately after Peter beats Kraven was also really good. This is all cool!

BUT, the thing is... with the symbiote powers being so freaky from the start, it really pushes my suspension of disbelief when Peter and co. take so long to become wary of it. I guess when you've been bitten by a radioactive spider and given superpowers, and when you live in the same universe as the Avengers and the X-Men, your perception of what's "normal" is going to be pretty warped. But they buy the whole "organic exosuit created to treat Harry's illness" story WAY too easily lmao. How do the self-aware slime tentacles help with his illness, exactly?

And I'm not sure how I feel about giving Peter Anti-Venom powers in the last act. It feels like it's primarily a concession so that they can give players that branch of their skill tree back, but honestly, the designer in me thinks it would be really cool (if risky) to just permanently lock players out of Peter's most powerful skills past a certain point. Yeah, it'd definitely piss people off, but it drives home the idea that Peter's given up greater power because it's the right thing to do. It'd put you in his shoes! Instead he just gets the symbiote powers back, but it's fine because the Venom voice in his head is gone and also the slime tendrils that explode out of his body are white now, which means they're good.

I have to say it. I'm sorry. The glistening white goo... they turned Peter into the Amazing Cum-Man. I changed back to the Classic Suit after rolling the credits and forgot I still had the Anti-Venom skills equipped, so I just saw regular old Spider-Man exploding his white goo everywhere. Terrible.

Assuming Peter is just stepping into more of a supporting role to Miles and not fully retiring after the events of this game, I really hope the Anti-Venom stuff is gone. I get that he needed it to counter Venom, but that's not what I want for Peter Parker.

Miles

Miles is good in this, and I really like his arc where he struggles with whether or not he should avenge his dad by killing Martin Li. I like how all that plays out. Unfortunately, they don't quite stick the landing when it comes to making him and Peter feel like equals in terms of narrative focus. His arc is definitely the B-plot to Peter's for the middle chunk of the story, which I guess was kind of inevitable since they decided to do the Black Suit arc. But Miles does at least get a lot of moments to shine, and by the end he's very much taking the lead as the main Spider-Man.

Becoming the main Spider-Man also gets Miles a new, wholly original suit that ended up being super controversial, and honestly... I kinda like it? Or at least I like what it's going for, even if the actual design could still use some work. It's something totally unique for Miles, and I like spandex/streetwear combo suits like what the Spider-Verse movies have popularized. But showing his hair is really pushing the limits of his secret identity. He hangs around Brooklyn Visions WAY too much for his classmates to not recognize his voice and haircut. And I understand why people would be wary about it becoming his "canon" look moving forward. But I think it's got potential.

On the subject of Miles, though, I will say that while I liked Miles' side missions, it feels like he's often saddled with the game's broad, kinda touristy, kinda token attempts at Showcasing The Diversity Of New York, in a way that Peter isn't.

I like that Miles has a deaf graffiti artist girlfriend that he and Ganke sign with, and I like that there's a series of side missions that explore some local jazz history, and I like that there's a mission where Miles helps a gay classmate ask his crush to prom. I like all these things! I like Spider-Man being involved with his community, and that said community includes such a wide variety of people! I like that this game slows down to savor these types of moments instead of just being all action all the time! But when I step back, I notice some patterns.

Hailey doesn't have a big role in the main plot, especially when compared to MJ, but Miles gets a side mission where you briefly play as her with muffled audio to teach you what being deaf is like. There are no major queer characters in the story - unless you count Felicia showing up for exactly one mission to mention she has an unseen, unnamed girlfriend in Paris now - but you get a side mission where Miles helps out a gay couple at his school, who then never come up again. To put it very uncharitably, they can feel like Very Special Episode missions. It's like the devs going: we're going to give Miles a Gay Mission, and an Impaired Hearing Mission, and a Cultural History Mission, so that we can say we touched on these things, but we're gonna make them all optional and keep them far away from the full-blown Superhero Stuff like fighting costumed villains. Those flavors cannot mix. Meanwhile, Peter gets to have a whole elaborate subplot about teaming up with Wraith to track down fucking Cletus Kasady. There's an imbalance here, and I think it's part of the reason why Peter still feels like the "main" Spider-Man for so much of the story.

I think this was all written with admirable intentions, but as others have pointed out, you can kinda tell that this game was mainly written by some white guys based in California. These attempts at depicting various marginalized groups can feel kind of detached in the same way that Insomniac's map of New York doesn't quite line up with the real thing. But I dunno. I'm not really the one to dig deep into some of this stuff as a white woman from Florida. I would be curious to read others' takes on this.

Maybe I'm just being overly cynical about the writers' well-meaning but corny and kinda out of touch liberal politics because of the podcasts.

The podcasters

I wish Jameson was in this more! They psyched us out by giving him a full character model for, like, two scenes. I like him being MJ's boss, but I wish we saw inside the Daily Bugle offices to get more Jameson.

At least his podcasts are better than the ones in the Miles game, though. Him completely trusting in Roxxon was just too much for me. Here he condemns Oscorp for the symbiote shit, and he also gets some moments where he takes the ongoing crises seriously and isn't just ranting about the Spider-Men. He isn't just a conspiracy theorist crackpot here. Shit like his "fuck Spider-Man, we have a justice system for a reason" speech makes him feel more like a human being with a point of view, rather than just a caricature. Definitely an improvement.

Unfortunately, I still find The Danikast grating. I'm sorry, Ashly Burch. It's not your fault. The quirky heckin' wholesome millennial podcaster lady who catches you up on current events and then reminds you to drink 64 ounces of water a day in the same breath is just too much for me. At least she doesn't have any lines as bad as her throwing in a "damn" and then going (direct quote here) "That's right - no censoring! That's how REAL I'm being right now!" like in Miles' game. Instead they give her this, like, almost psychic insight into the main plot to try and make her the angel on Peter's shoulder. The second Peter gets the symbiote she's like "Wow, y'all. Have you seen Spider-Man's new black suit? Something's different about him. He's been giving me such bad vibes lately. #NotMySpiderMan" Also she's supposed to be this, like, underdog independent podcaster who started her show on a whim and has become the voice of the people... but she's got billboards plastered all over the fucking city. Which makes her feel like an industry plant lmao

Again, there's a detachment with the writing. This is, like, some middle aged white liberal game dev guys' idea of what a modern leftist teenager would think is a Cool Activism Podcast. Unfortunately, because Insomniac thinks Danika's a hero, Mary Jane's triumphant ending is that she quits her job at the Bugle to become a podcaster, too, delivering a thinly veiled monologue about the pandemic to kick off her new podcast literally titled "The New Normal." She's going to save the world with podcasting, because that's the highest form of activism, I guess.

Venom

So! Venom! Venom was... okay.

Surprising no one, Harry Osborn is Venom. Harry's okay both as himself and as Venom, but I'm not sure his arc is a smooth one. He starts out as Peter's comically perfect best friend who returns to reminisce about the good ol' days and hand him his dream job on a silver platter, and then later he becomes a little ball of rage over the fact that Peter gets his symbiote and can't/won't give it back. I'm not sure that pivot is handled the most convincingly. You kind of have to write it off as the symbiote messing with their heads, I guess.

When he actually becomes Venom, I'm... mixed on the execution. On the one hand, the cool factor is absolutely there. He's a very cool big monster, and Tony Todd is great in the role. But he also wants to take over the world and make everyone a symbiote, and aside from any lingering resentment towards Peter, that's really all there is to him. It makes for a good video game to have a bunch of symbiote enemies and creepy symbiote nests and symbiote tentacles climbing up the sides of buildings in the last act... but is that really what I want out of Venom? Probably not. But he sure does look cool as a big monster guy to fight, and I was happy he was briefly playable.

Suits

Part of me feels like there's something lacking about the suit selection here, but almost every suit I liked in the previous games is back, and also I'm the type of person to give Peter the Classic Suit the second I unlock it and use that for most of the game. So does it really matter for me?

Peter's selection feels dominated by the various live action movie suits, but I get that those are going to be some of the suits people want to wear the most. I wish he had the Peter B. Parker skin to go with Miles' Spider-Verse alts, though. No idea why it's missing. Really I think I mainly just want more of the Spider-Verse designs.

Also I've complained about how most of the original suits designed for these games make Peter and Miles look like they were bitten by radioactive Alienware products, but I can just, you know. Wear other suits.

Misc thoughts

Everyone's already made this joke, but it's extremely funny that the Avengers didn't help with the symbiote invasion. Took one look at that and decided it wasn't their problem

On the subject of other superheroes, I do wish these games would acknowledge the Fantastic Four more. Peter's close relationship with that team feels woefully underutilized in his various adaptations

I like the trope of a boss fight that's a heightened version of a personal conflict between two people who are close, where throughout the fight the boss is airing out their grievances while the hero tries to get through to them emotionally. That especially works for Spider-Man! But WOW has Insomniac played that card a lot of times by the end of Spider-Man 2 lol

They're teasing the addition of Silk, I guess? I'm gonna be honest, I don't know shit about Silk, but I guess it was inevitable that they'd give us some form of Spider-Woman at some point. Gotta work all those costumes in somehow, and they're not brave enough to let one of the boys cosplay as Spider-Gwen.

They WERE, however, brave enough to let Harry say he loves Peter. I liked that little moment. They presumably meant it platonically, but clearly ol' Yaoi Lowenthal knows what's up

Post-leak addendum

So, obviously, by the time I got around to finishing this post the big Insomniac leak happened. I wish the game industry wasn't so secretive that it took a massive, dangerous data breach just to get our hands on some very basic info that would be public knowledge if Insomniac was a film studio, but here we are.

We now know that Insomniac spent somewhere around $315 million making Spider-Man 2 - triple what the first Spider-Man game cost to make. A quote about this from a leaked presentation has been stuck in my head ever since I first saw it on Twitter. “Is 3x the investment in [Spider-Man 2] evident to anyone who plays the game?”

To be honest, I'm not sure it is.

I liked Spider-Man 2, but I'd probably say that overall I liked it about as much as the first game. It's certainly a somewhat bigger game, with marginally more realistic looking graphics thanks to the power of the PS5. But I think I could do without ray tracing and more realistic hair rendering and whatnot if it meant that these games didn't take like five years and hundreds of millions of dollars to make. I could not give less of a shit if the swinging animations were recycled between games. I'd be fine with them being shorter, too.

I like these games, but as we look at that leaked project lineup and realize that Insomniac is turning into The Marvel Game Studio, I think about how many smaller, more original games that those resources could go towards if they scaled back the Marvel stuff just a bit. How many Ape Escapes or Patapons or Gravity Rushes could get made for the budget of just one of these massive AAA tentpole games of Sony's, which are apparently barely even breaking even? How many could be made for the budget of the "smaller, cheaper" Miles Morales game, which somehow cost $156 million to make despite using an updated version of the same Manhattan map from the first game? Hell, how many smaller games could have been made with the $39 million that went into remastering the first Spider-Man game for PS5 a mere two years after launch? How many people will lose their jobs if any one of Insomniac's upcoming Marvel games underperforms - which, in this case, could mean selling "only" 5 million copies? And would hardcore PlayStation fans even accept those smaller games at this point, now that they've been trained to only appreciate mega-budget Prestige Games with cutting edge graphics and treat everything else with disdain? How much worse will this get as the graphical arms race continues?

I think I just miss Japan Studio. Fuck Sony. Uhh but anyway the Spider-Man game this post was supposed to be about was good, some writing complaints aside. 8/10

[keyofnow]

Paperback Writer

The Beatles’ 1966 single “Paperback Writer” is noteworthy for —

Its new driving sound...

Its surreal storytelling...

Its unprecedented international success...

Its lackluster domestic sales...

Serving as a harbinger of Revolver...

Providing the musical matrix for The Monkees...

Its deeper connection to a through-line (one of many) in The Beatles Story.

Painting testimonial pictures....

It's a guitar riff nasty enough to take the paint off the wall — yet played so fluidly and melodically that it almost sounds baroque in its articulation.

Add to that the newfound thickness of the drums and stunningly deep bass tone (courtesy of copious company rule-breaking by new chief engineer Geoff Emerick and his accomplice assistant engineer Ken Townsend).

But what really drives “Paperback Writer” is how the lyric gives the appearance of a cover letter from an aspiring novelist pitching the treatment for their new novel. Layers upon layers. Who does that? It's mad! And also short and to the point, so it doesn't ever become tedious. Like an ideal cover letter!

What's it all about?!

After its release the single went #1 in twelve countries (includo UK and US), the most simultaneous #1's of any artist ever perhaps. Maybe not, but certainly in the top three, and definitely the most of any band ever.

Despite topping the charts at home once again, domestic sales were apparently the most sluggish of any Beatles record since “Love Me Do”. Curious.

Nonetheless, in the mass consciousness it served to bridge the musical space between the sounds of Rubber Soul echoing through the spring of 1966, and the opening strains of “Taxman” that would inaugurate the musical cornucopia of Revolver later that summer.

The deeper you go....

In essence “Paperback Writer” was Paul's subtle plug for his girlfriend's brother's new boutique bookshop, and books and reading in general.

Completely incidentally, “Paperback Writer” also represents exactly one half of the template for “Last Train To Clarksville”, the made-to-order Boyce/Hart composition to be released a few months later as the debut single for the made-for-American-TV Beatles knock-off series The Monkees. The other half of that template is the final track on Rubber Soul, “Run For Your Life”. Along with the entirety of Rubber Soul and the forthcoming Revolver albums, “Paperback Writer” and its b-side constitute the core matrix of The Monkees sound that would emerge over the next two years across six albums and as many singles.

And in the end...

Deeper still, the most magical element of “Paperback Writer” is the much larger story surrounding it — involving Pink Floyd, Peter and Gordon, Marianne Faithful, Yoko Ono, and The Beatles themselves — a story that centres around one Indica Bookstore (and Gallery) in St. James, London...

🍏

[thecoleopterawithana]

Even though John is under-powered in this period we still see what made him so magnetic to Paul and to others around him. There is a scene early in Part Two that I find riveting. It takes place a couple of days after George has left. The status of everything - the project, the band - remains uncertain, but they are ploughing on for now. John, Yoko, Ringo, Paul and some of the crew are sitting in a semi-circle. Paul looks pensive. Ringo looks tired. John is speaking only in deadpan comic riffs, to which Paul responds now and again. Peter Sellers comes in and sits down, looks ill-at-ease, and leaves having barely said a word, unable to penetrate the Beatle bubble. At some point they’re joined by Lindsay-Hogg, and the conversation dribbles on. John mentions that he had to leave an interview that morning in order to throw up (he and Yoko had taken heroin the night before). Paul, looking into space rather than addressing anyone in particular, attempts to turn the conversation towards what they’re meant to be doing:

Paul: See, what we need is a serious program of work. Not an endless rambling among the canyons of your mind.

John: Take me on that trip upon that golden ship of shores… We’re all together, boy.

Paul: To wander aimlessly is very unswinging. Unhip.

John: And when I touch you, I feel happy inside. I can’t hide, I can’t hide. [pause] Ask me why, I’ll say I love you.

Paul: What we need is a schedule.

John: A garden schedule.

I mean first of all, who is writing this incredible dialogue? Samuel Beckett?

Let’s break it down a little. The first thing to note is that John and Paul are talking to each other without talking to each other. This is partly because they’re aware of the cameras and also because they’re just not sure how to communicate with each other at the moment. John’s contributions are oblique, gnomic, riddling, comprised only of songs and jokes, like the Fool in King Lear. Take me on that trip upon that golden ship of shores sounds like a Lennonised version of a line from Dylan’s Tambourine Man (“take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship”). “We’re altogether, boy”? I have no idea. Does Paul? I think John expects Paul to understand him because he has such faith in what they used to call their “heightened awareness”, a dreamlike, automatic connection to each other’s minds. But right now, Paul is not much in the mood for it. His speech is more direct, though he too adopts a quasi-poetic mode (“canyons of your mind” is borrowed from a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band) and he can’t bring himself to make eye contact. “To wander aimlessly is very unswinging,” he says (another great line, I will pin it above my writing desk). Then John does something amazing: he starts talking in Beatle, dropping in lyrics from the early years of the band, I Want To Hold Your Hand and Ask Me Why. (To appreciate John’s response to Paul’s mention of a schedule, American readers may need reminding that English people pronounce it “shed - dule”.)

What’s going on throughout this exchange? Maybe Lennon is just filling dead air, or playing to the gallery, but I think he is (also) attempting to communicate to Paul in their shared code - something like he loves him, he loves The Beatles, they’re still in this together. Of course, we can’t know. I can’t hide, John says, hiding behind his wordplay.

— Ian Leslie, "The Banality of Genius: Notes on Peter Jackson's Get Back" (January 26, 2022).

[I was curious to read more of Ian Leslie's approach to the Beatles in general and Lennon-McCartney in particular, since he's currently writing a book about John and Paul's relationship: “John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs". He's also the author of that New York Times opinion piece that came out today.]

[theaskew]

Nick Aguayo (American, b. 1984, lives and works in Los Angeles), Riff Raff, 2019-22. Acrylic and marble dust on canvas, 60 × 48 in. | 152.4 × 121.9 cm. (Source: Miles McEnery Gallery, New York)

[transgenderer]

art gallery that riffs on duchamp's fountain by commissioning a series of intricately decorated functional urinals and displays them in their real restrooms, but the exhibit is deemed problematic because only men get to see/use them

Unisex bathrooms! All bathrooms should be unisex imo. It's just like, fine. I've been in unisex bathrooms. They're fine. The problems are imagined

[dustedmagazine]

Frog Eyes — The Open Up (Paper Bag)

Frog Eyes’ Carey Mercer used to seem like less of a songwriter/performing artist and more of a man continually struck by lightning. His early records were a shock of holy possession, full of wild, careening “whoooos” and apocalyptic poetry. However, since the late teens, starting a little before the band’s brief hiatus, with Pickpocket’s Locket and Violet Psalms and then, after a brief pause with 2022’s The Bees Mercer has shown increasing skill in channeling his unruly, gnostic energy into structured songs. The Open Up continues this trend, with radiant, guitar-driven clangor that cleaves to strong melodies and legible verse/chorus structures. Make no mistake, the weirdness is still in there, though trained up on trellises, pruned and sculpted into appealing shapes.

Mercer works with the same crew as always, his wife Melanie Campbell on boisterous, primary colored drums, Shyla Seller on keyboards, Mercer himself on guitar and vox.  Mercer’s voice has always been a central factor in whether you like Frog Eyes or not. Here, as ever, it’s full of swoops and lurches and sudden dramas, oscillating unstably with vibrato, barked and scatted with nonsense syllables that nonetheless carry a full load of angst and longing and joy. Campbell anchors this volatile energy with clattering ebullient percussion, never super complicated but infused with fanciful imagination. Shyla Seller has been more prominent on other Frog Eyes records—this one is straight up dedicated to the guitar—but you can hear her slipping a fey, nursery room charm into on electric piano in “I Walk Out of There (Ambulance Song).”

The Open Up is unusually full of guitar rock bangers, like the stop-start, clanging “I’m a Little at a Loss,” where a stinging, nearly rockabilly guitar riff provides a framework for vocal pyrotechnics. Mercer sings the title phrase in a rogue’s gallery of voices, from staccato falsetto to Elvis-y “All Shook Up” baritone; you applaud the art and the theater of it, even as the tune romps on to its conclusion. “Television, a Ghost in My Head,” is similarly driving, its propulsion inexorable but also stuffed with oddity, as Mercer plays and poses and struts through motorik rhythms.

But it’s with the ballads, really, that Frog Eyes solves the contradiction of easy melody and knotted complication. “I See the Same Things,” flows so fluidly, so easily, so prettily, that you may not, at first, notice what all’s going on underneath, the wild flails of whammied guitar, the tipsy concoctions of drumsticks on rims, the shimmering slow-jam of electric keyboards. The song holds you rapt and still, but it, itself, is neither of those things. It’s all the screech and groan and anarchy of Frog Eyes wrapped up in a lovely, lucid dream.

Jennifer Kelly

[harrisonarchive]

On The Ed Sullivan Show in August 1965; photo by Howard Grafton, via Robert Kidd Gallery.

Q: “How did you come up with that Rickenbacker riff for ‘Ticket To Ride,’ one of the most distinctive Beatles guitar signatures ever, which appears on Anthology Volume 2 in an August 1965 live version? Was the riff conceived expressly for that song?” George Harrison: “Yeah! But John was just playing the song to us on his rhythm guitar, and I had the 12-string Rickenbacker. It was also something to do with the fact that my part on the guitar was hooking into Ringo’s part. So when I came up with that little staggered riff, it dictated or gave Ringo the cue to play the part that he does. It had a big effect on Jim McGuinn, as he was named at the time — but Roger later — and a lot of other people. Even me. Years later even *I* thought that the Byrds had invented it! I forgot. [Laughter] In the books about Rickenbacker guitars, McGuinn talks about how the Byrds went to see A Hard Day’s Night at the movies, and they stayed and watched it through twice, saying, ‘What’s that he’s playing?‘ Afterward, they got the Rickenbacker, and that’s where they got that jangly sound I’d come up with on ‘Ticket To Ride.’ They also got Gretsch guitars like ours, too. McGuinn’s kind to always mention it.” - Billboard, March 1996 (x)

[lakemojave]

Thanks for all the music recs the other day y'all! Some of my favorites:

Supernormal - Everything Everything

I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby! - CMAT

Alibi - Hurray For the Riff Raff

Ouroboros - Charming Disaster

Gold Rush - Antibalas

Control - Biting Elbows

What I Want - Gregor McMurray

STONEFIST - HEALTH

Working Dream - Al Scorch

Take Me to War - The Crane Wives

Gallery Piece - Of Montreal

Jesus on the Telephone - Machinery of the Human Heart

The Forty-Ninth Parallel

Falling Up - Will Wood

People Will Always Need Coal - Public Service Broadcasting

Point and Kill - Little Simz

Do send me more! I like finding new music and y'all sent some good 'uns for sure

[janamelie]

Rocky Horror Stage Show Review

As a glance at my blog will tell you, I rarely post about “Rocky Horror” as it’s not my main fandom, but I’ve loved it for 30 years and have just attended a stage show for the first time since the 90s so am writing down my thoughts for my own benefit and sharing here.

I was aware that the current production is somewhat different both from the film and the stage show I saw back in 1994 starring Jonathon Morris.  (Yes, I am a Gen Xer and was heartened to see how many others in my age bracket attended, many in costume.)

If anyone’s curious, this was the earlier Friday performance at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre in the UK.

I’ll get the negative part out of the way first and it’s nothing to do with the actual show.  Unfortunately there was someone near me who had an ongoing argument with someone who was with her throughout the show and at times it interfered with my enjoyment.  (It definitely wasn’t audience participation; I know the difference.)

She carried on doing it after the interval despite being spoken to by staff.  During Columbia’s emotional “I loved you!” speech, “Toucha-toucha-touch me” and other quieter parts it spoiled it a bit for me.  After the show ended a bloke in full Frank drag told her off publicly for “being an arsehole” and I'm afraid to say she deserved it.  If you’re not interested in a show, stay at home and don’t ruin it for the rest of us.

Science Fiction, Double Feature

I love this song and the Usherette’s actress performed it well, getting into the spirit of things straight away with stockings and wiggles.

Dammit Janet

Another really catchy song and the actors handled it well.  They both have strong singing voices which is good as I have seen a Brad who wasn’t that great in that respect.

The Narrator’s first appearance was amusing as he ad-libbed in response to the standard insults thrown at Brad and Janet: “They can hear you, you know!” (The actors were currently frozen onstage so he could do his bit and he joked they weren’t allowed to move or there would be dire punishments.)

The Narrator was a highlight throughout - it really does improve on the film version when the pompous character is actually in on the joke and interacting.

Over At The Frankenstein Place

Well performed again and I enjoyed the audience holding up coloured lights to accompany it.  Riff-Raff’s first appearance got so much applause he just started singing right over it.

The majority of the audience seemed to have seen the show before or at least the film although the Narrator did jokily “spoil” them with his line “Stranger than a sex-crazed transvestite from outer space - whoops, spoilers!”

A word on the audience callbacks which have of course been a staple since the 70s.  There was a reasonable amount but not too much.  I have seen shows which were closer to the film and people would yell after almost every line which got a bit much so this was just about right.

Our hapless couple enter the Castle and are immediately surrounded by Riff Raff, Magenta and Columbia who play it more as pantomime villains than in the film but this doesn’t bother me as theatre doesn’t have close-ups and needs to play to the gallery.  The Eddie plotline is hinted at and then of course it’s…

The Time Warp

What can I say about this one?  Always a showstopper and had everyone on their feet.  Brilliant.  Columbia got to do her tap solo which was a highlight as it is in the film.  And we’ve barely recovered from that before…

Sweet Transvestite

Woohoo.  Frank’s actor was great, as charismatic and confident as you need to be for that part.  He embraced the sensual nature of the role and had physical interactions with practically everyone, even Dr Scott and in the encore, the Narrator by ripping aside his trousers to reveal stockings and suspenders.

The lab scene whizzes by and soon it’s Rocky’s entrance with…

The Sword Of Damocles

Thoughts on Rocky’s characterisation - of course in the film they went for a non-actor who was well-muscled as required for the role and had him only speak when singing.  I actually think Peter Hinwood’s performance works really well as the whole point of Rocky is that he’s just been born and everything is new to him.

But in the stage show Rocky speaks and is more openly rebellious, even telling Frank to piss off twice.  This tends to mean casting a professional actor who isn’t as muscular as Frank’s dialogue implies but that wasn’t an issue here - the actor had both acting chops and muscles.  The relationship between Rocky and Frank is a lot closer to equal.

Rocky compliments Frank on his “good job with the bodywork” and we go into…

I Can Make You A Man

I’m going to be honest, this is probably my least favourite “RH” song which isn’t to say I don’t like it.  I just don’t share Frank’s muscle fetish.  But it was well staged and leads into one of my favourites…

Whatever Happened To Saturday Night?

This song rocks hard and Eddie’s actor did it justice.  Not sure it got quite as much applause as it deserved but I get it - we’ve just met him, he’s taken the focus off Frank and is about to be unceremoniously killed for that.  I adore the way the film stages the song with all the Transylvanians rocking out too.

So Frank chases Eddie offstage with a chainsaw and returns to reprise “I Can Make You A Man”.  I’ll add here that as far as I’m concerned, no production which includes this blatantly queer, unashamedly lustful song is in danger of becoming too “mainstream”.  Frank was all over Rocky, complete with gyrating.  Even this audience which were certainly the most tolerant in that respect that I’ve been in still reacted to the stronger parts.  Mostly with approval though.

I realise that things have changed since the 90s in that respect and as an elder queer myself, it warms my heart.  I do think it’s partly that the plot of “Rocky Horror” is better known now.  And thank God for that as I don’t need to be in another audience who apparently thought they’d come to watch “The Sound Of Music” and nearly walked out.

After the interval, it’s directly into the bedroom seduction scenes which are staged a bit differently from the film and earlier stage shows - we go straight into (strongly) implied oral sex with first Janet and then Brad, both of whom only then find out that it’s Frank rather than their fiance / fiancee respectively.  After which both agree to more sex without too much persuasion needed, as long as Frank doesn’t tell anyone.  

All I’m going to say is that “Rocky Horror” has always been problematic.  It’s basically an X-rated panto and taking it seriously is kind of missing the point.  I enjoy analyses of it though.  But when you’re watching it live the music tends to override all that as it’s such a good time.

The production manages to make the Frank / Brad sex scene even more gay by having Riff Raff pop up next to them. Nothing happens as he’s just there to tell Frank that Rocky’s loose but for a second you think there’ll be a m/m/m threesome.  Which would of course fit the undercurrent in both show and film that Riff Raff at least is attracted to Frank if maybe not vice versa.

I hope I’m remembering this next part in sequence.  Janet enters the lab feeling guilty and upset and meets Rocky who’s hiding from Frank (the aforementioned woman who wouldn’t shut up meant I missed part of the dialogue and it differs from the film.  Grrr).

I think Rocky says something to raise Janet’s suspicions so she uses the monitor to search the Castle’s rooms and gets an eyeful of Frank and Brad getting it on.  I’ve never been clear as to whether her hypocritical shock is due to the fact that Brad’s having gay sex whereas she had straight sex but at least it leads to another of my faves…

Touch-a touch-a touch me

I love this in the film and it was well done here.  My only quibble is that Magenta and Columbia were up in the rafters and just provided a chorus rather than the full-on sapphic frisson which Patricia Quinn and Little Nell treat us to in the film.  But I guess it would be hard to make that work on stage.

Exit Janet and Rocky, enter Brad who also uses the monitor and sees his beloved with Rocky.  I’m not sure how much emotional sense it makes for him to then launch into…

Once In A While

But I don’t care because this was actually a highlight which it’s never been before in stage productions I’ve seen.  I understand it being cut from the film as it would have killed the momentum stone dead.

But in this frantically paced stage production it’s a welcome quiet moment and as I said before, Brad’s actor had the voice to pull it off without the Narrator needing to take the piss out of him to keep audience interest.  

Oddly though, Janet reappears in the rafters and sings along with the latter part of the song which makes no sense since she’s supposed to be shagging Rocky right now.  I suppose it’s a way to indicate she’s having second thoughts about wrecking her relationship which fits how the show leaves Janet and Brad, hinting they’ll reconcile.

Followed by Frank whipping Riff Raff (offstage of course, they don’t want to cause actual bodily harm to an actor) for letting Rocky escape and wailing about Rocky’s betrayal as he finds it out via that extremely convenient plot device, the monitor.  Via which they also notice Dr Scott’s arrival.

Once Scott’s inside, Rocky and Janet reappear and we get that hilarious repeated “Janet!”  “Dr Scott!” etc exchange which was milked for maximum humour, ending in Rocky telling Frank to piss off which was a bit jarring for me being such a film aficionado.  Although Hinwood’s glare does kind of imply that.

Dr Scott brings up Eddie and rather than the film’s “unknowing cannibalism” scene we just get the actors passing a joint of meat around and pantomiming shock which is fine by me as that bit is gross, let’s face it.  

It’s like that meme - I can excuse murder, very dubious consent and incest but I draw the line at cannibalism.  Nah, just kidding, it doesn’t bother me that much.

Eddie’s Teddy

A nice ensemble number which I don’t have much to say about.  Fine.

Planet Schmanet Janet

Good song which delivers the necessary exposition regarding the Floor Show, followed by Columbia snapping and confronting Frank about how he uses people but instead of getting frozen as in the film she’s hit with drugged gas and has a lengthy trip played for laughs.

Not sure about this change as surely it’s enough to have her frozen like the others to explain her continued participation.  It changes the situation from Columbia voluntarily staying in the Castle even though she knows Frank doesn’t love her to her actively deciding to leave until she’s hit with the gas.  Not keen.

Having frozen everyone except Magenta and Riff Raff, Frank reacts to her question about when they’ll return to Transylvania by saying their loyalty will be rewarded and this is interestingly different from the film.  He says “You will discover that when the mood takes me, I can be quite generous” and pulls at her legs (she’s seated) in a way which makes it blindingly obvious he means sexually.

Her retort “I ask for nothing, Master” happens as Riff Raff chases Frank away from her in an obvious nod to their incestuous relationship (yes, we do get the “My most beautiful sister” line).  I really didn’t get the sense that Magenta has any sexual interest in Frank even in this production let alone in the film.  Riff Raff, on the other hand, is jealous as hell of him but also wants him.  (Although I was seated to the far side so may have missed some nuances.)

So, to the Floor Show.  “Rose Tint My World” is such a banger.  It was beautifully staged with stunning costumes and lighting as Columbia, Rocky, Brad and finally Janet pop through the curtains in their basques, stockings and suspenders in rapid succession for their solo verses and then Frank makes his starring entrance for “Don’t Dream It, Be It” and “Wild And Untamed Thing”.  Love it.

Then of course Riff Raff and Magenta crash the party and Frank pleads for his life with “I’m Going Home” which was sung and performed beautifully and again, got so much applause that the actors had to talk over it.   

Frank takes the time during it to have affectionate moments with all four of his most recent paramours which is a nice touch, especially as he seems genuinely upset when Columbia tries to shield him from Riff Raff and is mercilessly shot dead.  For a moment at least, then self-preservation takes over.  But in vain, and he and Rocky also die.  I’m sentimental (sorry Magenta, don’t kill me) so I like the confirmation that Rocky clearly did feel something for Frank even if he was scared of him.

Riff Raff orders Dr Scott to leave but not Brad and Janet.  Clearly an oversight somewhere as the Castle takes off into space in an impressive special effects explosion and there they still are to perform “Super Heroes”.  They first walk away from each other then change their minds, hug and walk off together, hinting all is not lost for their relationship.

The sweetly melancholy tone continues for the “Science Fiction, Double Feature” reprise.  But like the film, they’re nice enough to leave us on a higher note, in this instance by bringing the whole cast back onstage for an encore of the “Time Warp” (this time including Frank which I love) and part of “Sweet Transvestite”.

Excellent decision both to leave us on a musically upbeat note and to (sort of) fix the ending which does kind of fit the “Kill your gays” trope.  I know that’s because the show is a celebration of old sci-fi films which usually did kill anyone even remotely like Frank but these days, who cares how awful he is if considered realistically?  He’s not real, he’s literally an alien and there is no reason he has to die except for drama, so bring him back at the end.  He’s too good to waste.

So that’s it.  I had a great time and as always loved the inclusive atmosphere.