#jan hammer group

[scary-pixie]

Tagged by @thewebspinner!

do this picrew and share the last song you listened to <3

Sitting with the neighbor's cat since the app didn't have a hamster, but in real life he's a TUXEDO guy!

Tagging @prometheus-ghost @fadingdreamerdream @shyloudpanda @draganwhorror @depressedcorvid

[jt1674]

[coloursteelsexappeal]

Jan Hammer Group - Don't You Know (1977)

[maquina-semiotica]

Jan Hammer Group, "Don't You Know" #NowPlaying

[rodpower78]

Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group, 1976. Center: Tony Smith, Jan Hammer, Fernando Saunder

[rastronomicals]

4:00 PM EDT July 11, 2024:

Jeff Beck - "Darkness/Earth In Search Of A Son" From the album With the Jan Hammer Group Live (March 1977)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: Little Fish in Big Ponds, etc.

[coffee-n-bagels-comic-universe]

Neutralised Bios: Bram (1994)

One of Three Grave-Diggers Abraham Machado

A grave-digger and a musician Abraham Machado.

"Morning, Mona, sorry I'm late, Cal… car troubles"

Name

Full Legal Name: Abraham Salvador Varela Machado

First Name: Abraham

Meaning: This name may be viewed either as meaning 'Father of many' in Hebrew or else as a contraction of 'Abram' meaning 'High father' and 'Hamon' meaning 'Many, Multitude'.

Pronunciation: a-bra-AM / AY-bra-ham

Origin: English, Hebrew, Spanish, French, Swedish, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Danish, Biblical, Biblical Latin

Middle Name: Salvador

Meaning: Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan form of the Late Latin name 'Salvator', which meant 'Saviour', referring to Jesus.

Pronunciation: sal-ba-DOOR

Origin: Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan

Surname(s): Varela, Machado

Meaning(s): Varela: Derived from Spanish 'Vara' 'Stick'. Machado: Derived from Spanish and Portuguese 'Machado' 'Hatchet', both from Latin 'Marculus' 'Little hammer'.

Pronunciation(s): ba-REH-la. ma-CHA-dho

Origin(s): Spanish. Portuguese, Spanish

Titles: Mr, Señor

Goes By: Abe, Bram

Characteristics

Age: 30

Gender: Male. He/Him Pronouns

Race: Human

Nationality: American Citizen. Born in America

Ethnicity: Hispanic (Sephardic Jewish)

Birth Date: 12th May 1964

Sexuality: Straight

Religion: Jewish

Native Language: Spanish

Known Languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese, Italian, Hebrew, (Some) Latin

Relationship Status: Single

Astrological Sign: Taurus

Played By: Alfred Molina

Appearance

Height: 6'3 / 190 cm

Eye Colour: Brown

Hair Colour: Black

Hair Dye: None

Body Hair: Hairy

Facial Hair: Varies between a Clean Shave and a Full Beard

Tattoos: (As of Jan 1994) 1 (Has 'Vivimos, Amamos, Morimos' [We live, we love, we die] tattooed under his left armpit, next to his heart)

Piercings: None

Scars: None

Health and Fitness

Allergies: None

Alcoholic, Smoker, Drug User: Social Drinker, Occasional Smoker

Illnesses/Disorders: None Diagnosed

Medications: None

Any Specific Diet: None

Relationships

Affiliated Groups: Mortimer & Co. Mortuary Services (Employee)

Friends: Cal, Mona, Meg

Significant Other: None

Parents: Rabbi Abiram Machado (63, Father), Haydée Machado (61, Mother, Née Varela)

Parents-In-Law: None

Siblings: Humberto Varela Machado (25, Brother), Aurora Varela Machado (20, Sister)

Siblings-In-Law: None

Nieces & Nephews: None

Children: None

Extras

Level of Education: G.E.D

Occupation: Grave-Digger

Employer: Mortimer & Co. Mortuary Services

Biography: Bram learnt from a young age that being a hardworking man would take him far in the world. He met and befriended a young Mona during his time vacationing in Eloia, Illinois for Hanukkah when he was 19. He moved to Chicago at 21 (after getting his G.E.D) and started working at the facility soon after. Assigned by Mr Mortimer to be a gravedigger after failing his physical fitness test to become a security guard. He soon became close with Cal, a fellow grave-digger and introduced him to Mona upon her joining the staff. Bram's harboured a crush on Mona ever since, even though he would never let her know as he's too busy acting tough.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Dave Whamond :: @DaveWhamond

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 28, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 29, 2024

Today—last night U.S. time—three military personnel were killed and 34 more wounded in a drone attack on the living quarters at a U.S. base in Jordan, near the Iraq-Syria border. U.S. troops are stationed there to enable them to cross into Syria to help fight the Islamic State. There have been almost-daily drone and missile strikes on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since the October 7 attack on Israel by Iran-backed Hamas. The U.S. has blamed Iran-backed militant groups for the attack, and while no one has officially claimed responsibility yet, three officials from such groups have said an Iran-backed militia in Iraq is responsible. 

President Joe Biden today called the act “despicable and wholly unjust,” and he praised the servicemembers, who he said “embodied the very best of our nation: Unwavering in their bravery. Unflinching in their duty. Unbending in their commitment to our country—risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, and our allies and partners with whom we stand in the fight against terrorism.”

“And have no doubt,” he said, “we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner [of] our choosing.”

Republican war hawks have called for retaliation that includes “striking directly against Iranian targets and its leadership,” as Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) said, or by “Target[ing] Tehran,” as Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said. Republicans are blaming Biden for failing to “isolate the regime in [Iran], defeat Hamas, & support our strategic partners,” as Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) wrote on X, formerly Twitter, today. 

But there is, of course, a larger story here. The Biden administration has been very clear both about the right of nations to retaliate for attacks and about its determination to stop the war between Hamas and Israel from spreading. 

Iran would like that war to spread. It is eager to stop the normalization of relations between Arab states and Israel, and is backing Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hezbollah in Lebanon—all nonstate militias—to try to stop that normalization.  

They are trying to stop what Patrick Kingsley and Edward Wong outlined in the New York Times yesterday: a new deal in the Middle East that would end the war between Hamas and Israel and establish a Palestinian state. The constant round of phone calls and visits of Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken with at least ten different countries is designed to hammer out deals on a number of fronts. 

The first is for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, which would require the exchange of more than 100 Israeli hostages taken on October 7 for thousands of Palestinians held by the Israelis. The second is for a new, nonpartisan Palestinian Authority to take control of Gaza and the West Bank. The third is for international recognition of a Palestinian state, which would be eased by Saudi Arabia’s recognition of Israel. If that recognition occurs, Arab states have pledged significant funds to rebuild Gaza. 

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected this proposal, but his popularity is so low people are talking openly about who can replace him. Hamas and Iran also reject this proposal, which promises to isolate Iran and the militias from stable states in the Middle East.   

Behind this story is an even larger geopolitical story involving Iran’s ally Russia. As Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg retorted when Senator Wicker called on Biden to respond to the attack that killed three Americans “swiftly and decisively for the whole world to see”: “Wasn’t funding Ukraine and Israel the first, critical step in deterring Iran? We are in this place now due to the Russian fifth columnists in the Republican Party including Trump who slavishly do Putin’s bidding.”  

Rosenberg was referring to the fact that Iran is allied with Russia, and Russia is desperate to stop the United States from supporting Ukraine. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, apparently thought his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine would establish control of the eastern parts of that country in a matter of days. Instead, the invasion has turned into an expensive and destabilizing two-year war that has badly weakened Russia and that threatens to stretch on.

In the United States, today marks the 100th day that extremist Republicans have refused to provide supplemental funding for Ukraine or Israel arguing that funding to protect the U.S. border must be addressed first. On October 20, 2023, as David Frum pointed out today, Biden asked Congress for “$106 billion to aid Ukraine and Israel against attack by Russia, Iran, and their proxies.” That funding has bipartisan support, but “[f]or 100 days, House Republicans have said NO,” Frum said. “Today, Iranian proxies have killed Americans.”

Republicans’ insistence that they want border funding has proved to be a lie, as Democratic and Republican senators have hammered out a strong agreement that extremist Republicans now reject. Former president Trump has made it clear he wants to run on the idea that the border is overwhelmed, so has demanded his supporters prevent any solution. Today, on the Fox News Channel, when asked why Republicans should let Biden “take a victory lap” with a border deal, Senator James Lankford (R-OK), who has been part of the border deal negotiation team, responded with some heat: 

“Republicans four months ago would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel, and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said we’re not going to give you money for this, we want a change in law. And now it’s interesting, a few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding, I actually don’t want a change in law because [it’s] a presidential election year.’ We all have an oath to the Constitution, and we have a commitment to say we’re going to do whatever we can to be able to secure the border."

MAGA Republicans in charge of the Oklahoma Republican Party showed where Trump Republicans stand when they voted on Saturday to “strongly condemn” Lankford for “playing fast and loose with Democrats on our border policy.” They said “that until Senator Lankford ceases from these actions the Oklahoma Republican Party will cease all support for him.” 

In The Atlantic, Frum noted that “vital aid to Israel and Ukraine must be delayed and put in further doubt because of a rejected president’s spite and his party’s calculation of electoral advantage. The true outcome of the fiasco in Congress will be the collapse of U.S. credibility all over the world. American allies will seek protection from more trustworthy partners, and America itself will be isolated and weakened.”

Rosenberg wrote: “If you are unhappy with Iran today, first thing you should do is come out for funding Ukraine fully. Nothing will embolden Iran more than a Russian victory in Europe.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[vinyl-connection]

TIMELESS

Cascading keyboard notes and flurries of guitar; soon they are dancing through a frenetic dialogue as dextrous as it is energising. Welcome to “Lungs”, the unexpectedly manic opening to Timeless, the entrancing 1975 album by John Abercrombie. “Lungs” was composed by the keyboard player Jan Hammer, he of Mahavishnu Orchestra fame. In group leader Abercrombie, Hammer found a six-string foil fully…

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A collection of radical right figures including white nationalists and ultranationalist European leaders gathered in Manhattan for the New York Young Republicans Club’s (NYYRC) annual gala Saturday night, where that group’s president declared “total war” on perceived enemies.

“We want to cross the Rubicon. We want total war. We must be prepared to do battle in every arena. In the media. In the courtroom. At the ballot box. And in the streets,” NYYRC President Gavin Wax declared to a room full of supporters at 583 Park Ave., an event venue on New York’s Upper East side.

“This is the only language the left understands. The language of pure and unadulterated power,” Wax added.

At the five-hour event, which Hatewatch reporters attended, white nationalists Peter and Lydia Brimelow of VDARE hobnobbed with Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser and White House official. Donald Trump Jr. was also in attendance.

Republicans publicly lauded members of an Austrian political party founded by World War II-era German Nazi party members. Racist political operative Jack Posobiec shared jokes across a table with Josh Hammer, the opinion editor of Newsweek. Multiple recently elected GOP congresspeople applauded Marjorie Taylor Greene, who told the NYYRC crowd in the event’s closing remarks that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol would have succeeded if she had planned it and that the insurrectionists would have been armed.

“Then Jan. 6 happened. And next thing you know, I organized the whole thing, along with Steve Bannon,” Greene said, referring to allegations that she had led reconnaissance tours of the Capitol for soon-to-be insurrectionists in the days prior to the violence.

“I will tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I organized that, we would have won,” she said, as attendees erupted in cheers and applause. “Not to mention, it would’ve been armed.”

WHITE NATIONALISTS AND NEOFASCISTS IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

Republican speakers repeatedly voiced an anti-democracy, authoritarian ideology, and extremists in the audience cheered wildly. White nationalists such as the Brimelows of VDARE and leaders from extreme far right European parties like Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD), whom German officials placed under surveillance for their ties to extremism, and Austrian Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ), ate and drank in the same room as newly elected Republican congresspeople, such as Long Island and Queens-based George Santos, Georgia-based Mike Collins and Florida-based Cory Mills.

Hatewatch reached out to Santos and Mills by email before the event about their willingness to appear in a global collection of radical right, anti-democracy activists. They did not reply. Hatewatch reached out to Collins on Sunday morning but had not received a response at press time.

A STEVE BANNON SELFIE FOR VDARE

Bannon, the former Trump adviser, physically embraced the white nationalist Brimelows at NYYRC, spoke to the couple for several minutes and took a selfie with them. VDARE traffics in the great replacement conspiracy theory and has published defenses of writings that a terrorist who gunned down 24 people in an El Paso Wal-Mart in 2019 allegedly authored. Peter Brimelow attended the white supremacist American Renaissance conference in November, whose host has portrayed Black people as being subhuman. The Brimelows publish writing authored by Jason Kessler, who helped organize the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

When Hatewatch attempted to speak to Lydia Brimelow after her conversation with Bannon to inquire about it, she walked away. Hatewatch did not get close enough to Bannon to ask him about the encounter with Peter and Lydia Brimelow.

‘PIZZAGATE’ JACK DESCENDS ON NEW YORK CITY

Posobiec, a radical right political operative, resides with his wife Tanya Posobiec in Hanover, Maryland. The couple took Amtrak Northeast Regional train 88 into New York’s Penn Station Moynihan Hall on Saturday afternoon to get to the NYYRC gala. Train 88 pulled in at around 3:45 PM ET, and a Hatewatch reporter observed Posobiec and his wife deboard and enter New York City.

“Antifa, don’t even think about it tonight,” Posobiec posted to Twitter three hours later, at 6:39 PM ET, with the location of the tweet marked Manhattan, NY.

NYYRC gave Posobiec a speaking slot and an Allen W. Dulles award, named after the former head of the CIA. NYYRC said in its December bulletin that the award is given to “an individual who embodies the virulent anti-Marxist spirit of [Dulles].”

Like the Brimelows, Posobiec has a well-documented history of radical right activism. He has boasted of his ties to the antigovernment Oath Keepers, fraternized with the Proud Boys, and at least twice, filmed propaganda videos with a pair of neo-Nazi brothers. He is primarily known for pushing the #Pizzagate disinformation campaign, which falsely suggested that Democrats ran a pedophile dungeon in the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizzeria.

Hatewatch spoke with Posobiec around midnight at the NYYRC event and asked him about his involvement in pushing the #StoptheSteal hashtag onto Twitter during the runup to the 2020 election. Although “Stop the Steal” became synonymous with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building, Posobiec started tweeting the hashtag from his over-1-million-follower account as early as Sept. 7, 2020, two full months before anyone tallied any votes.

While responding to Hatewatch at NYYRC, Posobiec first attempted to associate the hashtag with Roger Stone and then with Ali Alexander, two of his collaborators. Then he called it “a meme.” He never explained why he abruptly started posting the hashtag in September 2020.

While answering questions, Posobiec grew testy with a Hatewatch reporter and described SPLC as a “domestic terror organization.” Posobiec called that reporter a “scumbag” and a “troll.” After Posobiec’s speaking tone became palpably agitated, a crowd formed and NYYRC executive secretary Viswanag “Vish” Burra escorted both Hatewatch reporters to the exit, physically shoving one of them.

NEWSWEEK FLAUNTS ITS RADICAL-RIGHT CREDENTIALS

Starting in May 2020, after editor Nancy Cooper and chief content officer Dayan Candappa brought political activist Josh Hammer to run Newsweek’s opinion section, the 90-year-old publication has emerged as a hub for opinion pieces authored by radical right activists. Newsweek has published the extremist Posobiec as well as 2020 election-lie pusher Raheem Kassam in recent years, and Hammer has also hosted both of them on his Newsweek-branded podcast. The three men sat together talking and laughing at table #6 during the NYYRC event, near the stage.

When QAnon influencer-turned-congressperson Marjorie Taylor Greene took the stage, Hammer stood up and applauded. When she endorsed former President Trump as her 2024 presidential candidate of choice, Posobiec turned to Hammer and grinned. In January, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis invited Hammer on a tour of his office, and the Florida-based Newsweek editor has since hyped DeSantis as a potential presidential candidate.

“You gonna go up there, Josh?” Posobiec chided Hammer about Greene’s endorsement of Trump, eliciting laughter from the table.

A Hatewatch reporter approached Hammer after Greene’s speech, made an introduction and asked if he knew Peter Brimelow of VDARE.

“He’s right here, right now?” Hammer asked with excitement.

“I didn’t even know he was here!” Hammer said of the infamous white nationalist publisher. “I’m going to say Hi.”

The Hatewatch reporter asked Hammer how he got his job at Newsweek, and the opinion editor abruptly stopped talking. He asked the reporter to identify himself again. When the reporter did, Hammer’s expression slackened. He quickly claimed he did not know Peter Brimelow and left.

‘WHAT’S RACIST ABOUT PROJECT VERITAS?’

Multiple figures associated with Project Veritas, the hard-right propaganda group that engages in sting operations, attended the NYYRC gala. The group’s founder James O’Keefe and Project Veritas board member Matthew Tyrmand hobnobbed with NYYRC guests Saturday.

Legal trouble has entangled Project Veritas in recent months. Former associates sued Project Veritas in August, citing the creation of a “highly sexualized” work environment, which they claim included substance abuse and unpaid labor. (The group has denied these allegations.) In September, a jury in a civil case found that Project Veritas had “violated wiretapping laws and fraudulently misrepresented itself” during a sting operation targeting a group called Democracy Partners. The FBI raided O’Keefe’s home in November 2021 as part of an investigation into the alleged theft of a diary belonging to President Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley. (The group has claimed that they acted lawfully in obtaining the diary.)

Outside of the building on 583 Park Ave., O’Keefe argued with antifascist protesters, according to footage reviewed by Hatewatch. A different, self-described “independent video journalist” posted a series of clips to Twitter at 8:15 p.m., showing O’Keefe asking antifascist protesters on the corner of Park Avenue and 62nd Street, “What’s racist about Project Veritas?”

The same social media user posted a video to Twitter at 9:12 p.m. In it, O’Keefe could be seen standing on the street outside the venue alongside several other men, including Newsweek’s Hammer.

“Would you like to make a tax-deductible donation to Project Veritas?” O’Keefe asked the protesters.

Hatewatch observed Project Veritas’ Tyrmand sitting at table #4, the one closest to the center of the stage, alongside Trump-world power players Steve Bannon and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. A recent New York Times report named Tyrmand and Bannon as key U.S. figures in an effort to depict Brazil’s November presidential elections as being fraudulent, after voters in that country pushed hard-right favorite Jair Bolsonaro out of office. Tyrmand, who is known for his ties to the global radical right, took the stage and lauded the ultranationalist European leaders in attendance.

“This is an all-star room, and I urge all of you to meet everybody here and continue to spend time together, getting to know each other, so we can fight the battle, arm in arm,” Tyrmand said of the European extremists, including the contingents from Austria and Germany.

ALMOST MIDNIGHT

Speakers including Trump Jr. and Greene sought to downplay the Republicans’ failure to secure a so-called “red wave” victory in the 2022 midterms by attacking such familiar right-wing targets as Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and LGBTQ+ people.

“The party is in a pretty good spot, but America may not be getting it. We have a party right now that is actually delivering for the American people. But what we don’t have [is] our same people in Washington, who can make those things happen,” Donald Trump Jr. told the crowd after he came on stage.

Greene suggested eliminating Democrat members of House committees in her closing speech, as a way of shifting the tide of power in Washington. She also told the audience Americans it was “almost midnight,” meaning they risked losing their country to perceived enemies.

Greene praised a Project Veritas video focused on LGBTQ+ education published by the group, saying it shows that teachers “pass around dildos, buttplugs and lube.” (The school issued a statement claiming “[Project] Veritas deceptively edited the video with malicious intent.”)

Greene expressed her gratitude to Project Veritas for their work.

“Thank you very much. We appreciate that,” she said to scattered applause.

[snuh]

Jeff Beck With The Jan Hammer Group Live: Full Moon Boogie

[kulturegroupie]

Group photo of the A.R.M.S. musicians and Bill Graham, 1983.

Front row (left to right): Joe Cocker, Jimmy Page, Bill Wyman, Chris Stainton, Kenney Jones, Jeff Beck, Charlie Watts, and Bill Graham.

Second row (left to right): James Hooker, Paul Rodgers, Eric Clapton, Fernando Saunders, Ronnie Lane, Simon Phillips, Glyn Johns, Ray Cooper, Andy Fairweather Low, and Jan Hammer.

[cursedcomics]

Dream Job writing the Legion of Super Heroes pt. 10

Legion fans are also quite progressive with their support of the LGBTQ+ community.  The Legion also has quite a number of fans from the community who would like to see more characters that reflect their diversity and are not written as troublesome or consistently difficult.

I don’t want this book to drown in romance. I want the legion kicking Super Villain butt, but the expectations of fandom is that there will be romances.

No one wants the book to be strictly a gay romance novel with Eternals movie-style panicked rants followed by in your face gay kisses to make a point, but Legion fans aren’t put off by a non-straight relationship having a serene, well laid out romantic moment, whether it is a kiss, hand holding, or just a heart warming glance between two people.

I have no interest in showing scenes where two characters bicker so someone can say “look at them bicker --- they must be a couple!”  I would much rather show them in the background holding hands and get on with the superhero drama.

This will sound a little harsh but “There is a place and a time for a gay kiss”. Just like there is a place and time for a straight kiss.  I used to read Clairmont’s x-men where random guy kissed random girl all the time and wonder “Are the X-,men swingers?”

A tender moment between anyone should be in the flow of the story. You have to find that balance. 

I have no problem finding the right balance.

A recent US survey found that 7% of the US identified as LGBTQ+. While that seems low, lets go with that.  If the Legion had 50 members at least 3-4 of them would identify as such.  

So Lightning Lass, Shrinking Violet, Kinetix, and Chemical King.  

Done, right?

Just joking.

I think 5-7 would be better for storytelling purposes and would allow greater ability to please our fanbase and show a diversity of characters.

I am also personally a believer in a spectrum.  I think there are a lot of people who may have gay tendencies, but see themselves as straight. So another few characters who could be in that group and a few others people might assume are ---but aren’t ( --- Lyle?). 

And then you have Jan --- a spiritual kid who (to my take) falls in love with a person’s soul. Gay? Straight?  It matter to you, not him. 

So you may have gay characters who never get together.  You could have a LGBTQ+ member with a member who would not seem or identify as gay.

I think for most Legionnaires, participating in an LGBTQ+ relationship would be a jarring departure from their historic behavioral patterns.  Brainy? Jo? Brin? Imra? Drake? absolutely not.... But not for all of them.

I think having that potential helps for storytelling drama.

I think in writing a book about teenage heroes there should be a healthy dose of relationships blossoming and wilting.  I hope to include some of the vigor of “Young Heroes in Love” in this Legion. (Shameless plug, that comic was awesome doing its own thing.)

I do want to be clear though --- there are no sacred cows and I won’t bow to groups “claiming” characters. I have to write what makes sense when I am writing.

Male gay Legion fans like to claim Jan as with his pink costume it seemed he was created as a subtle tip of the hat to gay readers.  But...the legion changed writers a lot and he wasn’t written that way.  He lived a very content straight lifestyle for years until it was retconned in a (mostly) well written way into a relationship with a transwoman and then finally awkwardly hammered into a gay relationship.  

To me, as a fan that just reads heroism, that says Jan is deeply admirable because he loves the soul of a person, not their physical form.  Just something else to love about his unique brand of heroism. With all the horrible diseases we contract late in life, we should all hope to have that kind of lover in life. 

To other Legion fans it might read like Jan was always straight until he was radically retconned to be gay or that he was gay and then radically retconned to be straight before being restored to his rightful state.

The thing is both reads are equally valid and modifying him to be exclusively one way or another changes the character -- which I am absolutely loathed to do.

The whole point of this is to retain the characters you love.

I want him to be him and the story to take him in the way he is meant to go in this timeline.

I know there is a feeling that Ayla (Lightning Lass/Light Lass) and Shrinking Violet should be together.  I am not going to guarantee that either.

In the original timeline, Ayla had a rocky but long relationship with Timberwolf who didn’t quit the Legion in support of Ayla when she had what might be described as an emotional meltdown.  Vi had a long relationships with Duplicate Boy and then weirdly was abandoned by him when she was kidnapped turning her into ...kind of a wildly angry person.

Their relationship happened because VI basically swore off men after Duplicate Boy’s betrayal and convinced Ayla who seemed on the fence that they were better off together. She gave her a hard sell and Ayla eventually came around.

 And they WERE better together.

But...

There is zero comic support to the idea they started off KNOWING they were gay. Plus is this really the relationship we should have as the featured gay relationship in the Legion?  Two women who tried hard with men and were betrayed by them?  Can’t two women just know themselves and fall in love without it being somehow proof that men suck? I know a lot of lesbians and most of them do not have stereotypical chips on their shoulders like this Levitz era duo.

Vi and Ayla seem more like they fell in love with each other first, had horrific moments, and then PAINFULLY discovered they could be a happy lesbian couple.

The new timeline has to roll out in a quick manner. 

Compressing the timeline in this project gives an opportunity to eliminate the “everyone has to pair up in heterosexual couples” inclination in Legion history.  I am happy to remove that from continuity for time purposes, but really neither character starts out comfortable in their own shoes as lesbians. 

And there is a wild card in Kinetix.  To me, she does seem very comfortably lesbian. That will have her driving the ship.  So the chips will fall where they may.

And there will be other characters inside and outside the Legion that will play a role in these relationship dynamics.

It probably won’t be what you expect (or maybe it will), but I think you’ll be happy with the results. It won’t be a gay romance novel, but it won’t be 3 panels in code every 4 months either. 

[maquina-semiotica]

Jan Hammer Group, "Don't You Know"

[zabel99]

Hello! Morning 222, 2004-08-08

This episode was Tsuji and Kago's graduation special, and what a great episode it was! The gang plays what is probably the most complex game they've played on the show. It involves the appointed kings of two opposing teams, Tsuji and Kago, deploying their respective teammates to stand on a game board and compete in mini-games. When a player loses a mini-game she defects to the other team. Some of the games are standard fare such as arm-wrestling; Yoshizawa and Tsuji appear to have the most muscle in the group, easily defeating all competitors. Or a basketball free throw contest. Kamei, who neither captain wanted on her team on account of her perceived clumsiness, defeats Yoshizawa in a surprising upset! Other games are more ridiculous. They include: - a game of trying to pump up a balloon attached to your opponent to make it pop on her - a game of tossing balls behind you with the goal of getting them to land in a basket attached to your back - everyone's favorite "butt sumo wrestling" - "tataite kabutte jan-ken-pon" (叩いてかぶってジャンケンポン)

This latter game is Rock Paper Scissors played with a hammer and helmet as props. Whoever wins the jan-ken-pon quickly picks up the hammer and tries to hit (tataite) the other on the head with it before she can put on (kabutte) the helmet. Watching Yaguchi and Tsuji go at this was a hoot.