Hotchie motchie! Another wild ride of a week, eh? We feel as if we’ve been shoved headfirst into the bell of a euphonium which is being enthusiastically but tunelessly played by an elephant with really bad halitosis. If you too are getting the hardcore blasts of bad wind blues, then retreat to your safe, quiet space—here at The Cut we will firmly coddle your mollies.
This week we’ve got dragons, William Burroughs putting a coffee bar into a time warp and the story of how the Emperor got his Groove.
Now be the time. Here be the place. This be The Cut.
OK, maybe one peek at the ongoing Sitiational car crash, but only because it is pertinent to our Ninth Art Desk’s remit. Of all the things you’d expect to be affected by Brexit, hands up who had comics on the list? Yeah, us neither. Let’s invite John Hendricks of Big Bang Comics to put us in our place…
Ugh, enough of this gloominess. Shall we consider the art of the casting director? What goes into the process of picking the perfect person for a particular role? Don’t mention the casting couch, there’s a lot more to it than that!
This next link is a goody. Famously irascible psychonaut William S. Burroughs spent time in England in the early seventies, and fell out with the management of his local coffee bar. Many people would choose to drink elsewhere. Burroughs decided to use a tape recorder to nullify the joint from existence…
How William S. Burroughs Used the Cut-Up Technique to Shut Down London’s First Espresso Bar (1972)
NeoTextCorp is always good value for that pop-culture/Ninth Art interface. Chloe Maveal takes a long hard look into the visual choices made by George Miller in his direction of Mad Max: Fury Road, and how it ties into the aesthetic of classic Brit comics, limited colour palettes and all. Of course, 2000AD artist Brendan McCarthy is credited as a writer on the film, which only ties everything more closely together…
‘Mad Max Fury Road’: The Best Comic Book Movie (That Was Never a Comic Book)
In yet another of our Readership Compatibility Tests, we ask—who’s interested in a brief history of dragons in Western literature? Honestly, we need to say no more.
A Brief History of Dragons Throughout Western Literature
Our intake of wine over the past twelve months may have increased somewhat. We’re sure there are plenty of you out there who would be forced to confess the same. Much as we’d love to claim that we do our research into terroir and flavour compounds, we can still be drawn to purchase when faced with an alluring label. There are some very specific design rules behind the branding of wine, as Eater explores…
https://www.eater.com/wine/21303085/how-to-design-wine-label-art
We are big fans of the outlier films in the Disney canon. Frozen? Meh? Snow White? Whatevs. We like the odder offerings, like The Black Hole, Basil The Great Mouse Detective or Treasure Planet. The most bonkers of them all is The Emperor’s New Groove, which went through a deeply difficult and protracted birthing period…
https://www.vulture.com/article/an-oral-history-of-disney-the-emperors-new-groove.html
Is it a sign of impending doom when we feature a second obituary in two months? Well, read into it what you will. But we urge you to read this tribute to ‘professional clipper of coupons, baker of cookies, terror behind the wheel, champion of the underdog, ruthless card player, and self-described Queen Bitch’ Margaret Marilyn DeAdder, and mourn a world that must face the future without her.
http://www.cobbsfuneralhome.ca/obituaries/151483
There’s a saying passed around science-fictional circles which states ‘there’s nothing as dated as yesterday’s future.’ If you consider how much SF is a reflection of the times in which it’s written, you can see the reasoning. Fifties communist paranoia fed into the alien invasion stories which were all the rage. Concerns over the environment and fear of nuclear warfare were the foundation for strange tales of mutation and apocalypse in the eighties. As for nineties-style cyberpunk… well, we’ve just passed the date when the movie version of William Gibson’s story Johnny Mnemonic was set (January 19th 2021, to be exact). Leah Schnelbach for Tor looks back at the movie, and sees a world with strong parallels to current times…
Is It Possible That Johnny Mnemonic’s Future Is Better Than Our Own?
And finally. You may remember, back in the heady days of a couple of weeks back, a twenty-four hour furore around a guy who became known as Bean Dad. He made an attempt at a learning experience with his kid, and The Internet had Opinions. As ever, we came to the story late, only to find that we had come across Bean Dad before. In fact, we’re a fan of his work. John Roderick is a sweet and funny podcaster and musician whose work as songwriter in The Long Winters offers a masterclass in solid power pop.
Should we feel differently about John because of the Bean Dad thing? Well, as we (along with everyone who Had Opinions) don’t really know him through anything other than his internet presence, no, not really. This, we suppose, ties into the old argument about art versus artist, which sees no sign of settling any time soon. We’re all flawed, we all make mistakes, and there’s always more to the story. Anyway, we provide a little context from John’s podcasting pal, Merlin Mann…
https://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/9604198827/carparts
…and offer up a song called Carparts. It’s not here to influence your opinion. It’s just a really, really good song.
See you in seven.
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 