Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 28, 2024 19:59:05 GMT -5
So, I recently read X-Men issues #96–103 for the first time. These issues find Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum really finding their feet with the new X-Men. Issue #96 opens with the team mourning their fallen comrade Thunderbird, with Cyclops in particular feeling very guilty about his death. This issue also sees the arrival of the bonny lass Moira MacTaggert and almost immediately a burgeoning romance between her and Banshee is evident – though Professor Xavier also seems romantically interested in her. The name "Moira MacTaggert" really rings a bell with me, though I'm not sure why. I strongly suspect that she must eventually become a superhero and I hope someone reading this will be able to let me know. Moira MacTaggert rings a bell because you've read something with her before. You mentioned months back that you read a Dark Phoenix Saga HC. She's in the first few pages of Uncanny X-Men #129. Ahh...right, that must be it. I don't really recall her from that arc but since she's in it, that must be why the name rings a bell. The ethics of the image inducer will be revisited in the future. It's also the subject in one of the backup stories in a Classic X-Men, a series that reprinted X-Men from Giant-Size X-Men #1 through Uncanny X-Men #206 (skipping over a handful of issues), with new backup stories. Ah, I see. Good to know that it wasn't just me that felt it was kind of ethically problematic or not quite in keeping with what the X-Men stand for. Owning a castle is also not terribly consistent with Banshee being portrayed as more of a working class guy. Yeah, that's a very good point. Marvel had a long tradition of having folks from the British Isles reside either in castles or gothic mansion by this point and dating right back to the Silver Age. It's a recurring Marvel trope of that era which always me roll my eyes and chuckle whenever I see it. But fun fact: one of the leprechauns is the first character to refer to Wolverine as Logan. Does that happen in these issues? Or a bit later? I don't recall reading that, but maybe I did and just failed to register that it was the first time he had been referred to as Logan?
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 28, 2024 19:22:55 GMT -5
Since we seem to just be naming our favourite canine characters and sidekicks now too, I'm just gonna leave this here...
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 28, 2024 13:02:52 GMT -5
Incidentally, has Judge Dredd’s world ever featured a dog unit? I guess Mega-City One’s judges are more about using technology to stop criminals, but I don’t recall ever seeing a police dog in that world. There were robodogs in Judge Dredd and I'm sure I recall Dredd being attacked by a pack at some point. I don't think I've ever seen Judges using dogs or robodogs to aid in the apprehension of perps. I'm pretty sure there were robot dogs in Robo-Hunter too, which is, as I'm sure you know, set in the same world as Judge Dredd.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 28, 2024 10:33:21 GMT -5
So, I recently read X-Men issues #96–103 for the first time. These issues find Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum really finding their feet with the new X-Men. Issue #96 opens with the team mourning their fallen comrade Thunderbird, with Cyclops in particular feeling very guilty about his death. This issue also sees the arrival of the bonny lass Moira MacTaggert and almost immediately a burgeoning romance between her and Banshee is evident – though Professor Xavier also seems romantically interested in her. The name "Moira MacTaggert" really rings a bell with me, though I'm not sure why. I strongly suspect that she must eventually become a superhero and I hope someone reading this will be able to let me know. There's an ongoing sub-plot building in the background of issues #96 and #97 concerning Dr. Steven Lang and his anti-mutant programme, Project Armageddon (but more of that later). The main source of action in issue #96 comes from the appearance of the monstrous Kierrock the Damned, although it's a bit of a WTF moment – not least because the creature was unleashed by Cyclops throwing a tantrum and shooting his eyebeams off everywhere earlier in the issue, inadvertently destroying a weird ancient monument. Cool monster design for Kierrock by Cockrum though. Taking of cool designs, Cockrum excels again with some great spaceship designs among the alien armada that Professor X sees in his dream in issue #97. There's an appearance in this issue of a villain named Eric the Red, but he's pretty underwhelming and the less said about him the better. I really liked the Christmastime story in issue #98, which sees the return of the Sentinels. I'm not sure how I feel about Nightcrawler using an Image Inducer to disguise his appearance and make him look like a regular human. I mean, it's a very comic booky type thing to have, but somehow not being "out and proud" about being a mutant kinda goes against what Professor Xavier and the other X-Men stand for. Though I do absolutely accept that Nightcrawler looks so obviously non-human that having the team getting around with him in public without attracting unwanted attention would likely be a problem. By issue #99, Dr. Lang has captured Wolverine, Banshee, Jean Grey and Professor Xavier and imprisoned them all on an abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. orbital platform. Taking the adventure into outer space is a nice change of pace and it's very cool to see Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus commandeering a Starcom space shuttle in order to rescue their teammates. The big reveal of issue #100 is that Dr. Lang has created "X-Sentinels", which are android duplicates of the original X-Men. The appearance of this group of evil doppelgangers is a gripping dramatic touch, but it's a shame that they turn out to be androids. I was thinking when they first appeared that they were gonna be clones (I've been reading too much Spider-Man, I guess). Lang is eventually killed by Jean Grey and, as the X-Men all escape the orbital platform in the space shuttle, Jean is bathed in solar radiation, resulting in her dying and transforming into a new persona, the Phoenix (complete with new, ready-made costume). Comics, eh? We don't really get to see what Pheonix can do in these issues because she immediately passes out and is taken to hospital where she's in a critical condition for a while. Cyclops keeps vigil at her bed side while the other X-Men go on holiday to Banshee's family castle in Ireland. Yeah, because every Irishman has a hereditary castle, of course. Predictably, there turns out to be a lot of funny business going on at Banshee's family castle and the team are soon attacked by Black Tom (who is Banshee's cousin) and the Juggernaut. Speaking of the Juggernaut, I had no idea that he was Charles Xavier's half-brother! Every day's a school day. Anyway, there's a really exciting battle between the X-Men and the villainous pair in issues #102 and #103, at the end of which Black Tom and Juggernaut appear to perish. The appearance of a group of Leprechauns during the fight – yes, that's right, real Leprechauns (this is Ireland, after all) – is a bit of a WTF moment, but hey…you know, comics, right? Overall, these were some really enjoyable issues. Storm's problems with claustrophobia make for an interesting and fairly original Achillies heel for a superhero to have, although I think its perhaps a little bit overplayed. But yeah, for the most part, I really enjoyed reading these comics.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 28, 2024 7:44:48 GMT -5
More of my top albums of 1994 (and more British indie rock for Slam_Bradley to enjoy )... #2 - Definitely Maybe by OasisOasis's debut album Definitely Maybe was a major shot in the arm for the British record industry in general and the indie rock scene in particular back in 1994. The songs on it absolutely upped the ante in terms of the songwriting quality that an indie album could or should feature. Right from the opening track, "Rock 'n' Roll Star", the band's musical manifesto is laid bare: noisy guitars, punk and John Lennon-influenced sneering vocals, and melodic, fiendishly catchy songs. Along with Blur's Parklife, which was my #5 pick, Definitely Maybe was the other key album of the early Britpop scene. It was an exciting time to be a UK indie music fan, as we watched the slightly niche scene that we had all followed so passionately for the past 3 or 4 years going overground and impacting on the mainstream. My one criticism of Oasis has always been that their lyrics are at best banal and at worst just sound like placeholder lyrics that were the first thing that came into songwriter Noel Gallagher's head. But griping about the lack of meaning in their lyrics misses the point when the material is as melodically strong as it is on Definitely Maybe. This is a collection of 11 life-affirming, fist-pumping indie songs. Sure, it's all basic meat-and-potatoes indie stadium rock, but Oasis never sounded as vital and exciting as they did on theis debut album. Here's "Live Forever", the third single taken from the album. Its simple, nursey rhyme-esque lyrics, sugary sweet melody, and swaggering punk attitude demonstrates exactly what it was that made Oasis so special in 1994…
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 28, 2024 7:40:54 GMT -5
1994.6 File Under: Easy ListeningI know this album well, as a friend of mine back then was very into Bob Mould's various musical phases, including Sugar. For me, Copper Blue was probably my favourite album that Mould has produced.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 28, 2024 7:36:43 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1994 #2 - Johnny Cash - American Recordings
I think we may've discussed Cash's American Recordings on here before, but I agree that these records were absolutely a return to form for him. For me though, they still don't reach the heights of his Sun Records or Columbia era stuff from the '50s and '60s, but they are, as you say, a whole lot better than most of what he put out in the '70s and '80s. For me though, too often on the American Recordings albums it sounds a little like Cash is just going through the motions. There are absolutely exceptions to that, of course, and some of the performances on these albums are absolutely stunningly good, but a fair bit of it sounds rather pedestrian to my ears. I don't actually own any of the Rick Ruben-produced Cash albums in their entirity, but I do have a smattering of tracks from them on various different compilations. From this specific 1994 album, I know "The Beast in Me" and "Bird on the Wire", both of which are very good versions. I think one of my biggest gripes about these Ruben era albums is that it's a shame they don't feature more of Cash's own material. Maybe he just wasn't writing as much as he had back in the '50s and '60s, but yeah, it's still a shame.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 27, 2024 8:20:50 GMT -5
I think someone here mentioned a Graphic Novel with Black Widow but I'm not sure... This could be referring to the old Golden Age Black Widow (Claire Voyant). In his 2008 mini-series The Twelve, J. Michael Straczinsky retconned her to be a lesbian and there were definitely scenes depicting her kissing another woman. Maybe that was the first time Marvel showed a lesbian kiss? Although 2008 sounds a bit late for that, but then again, maybe not.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 26, 2024 18:18:24 GMT -5
This sums up my reaction pretty much every time there was breaking news from around 2015 - 2021. (Spoiler tags for adult language) {Spoiler}{Spoiler: Click to show} Since then, it's been a more low-grade persistent sense of disappointment, but it is unfortunately becoming relevant again. Interesting that you chose to post the BBC News indent there. Do many if you Americans get your news from the BBC?
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 26, 2024 14:26:21 GMT -5
Never heard of Alvin before, but I have heard of the Blasters (though never actually heard their music). They were kind of a cowpunk band, right? Of these two tracks you posted, "King of California" is especially nice and wears its Bob Dylan influences very much on its sleeve (I was less impressed with "Fourth of July", I'm afraid). Nice stripped-back '90s engineering and production on both tracks though. I don't know if you're familiar with the American singer-songwriter Willy Mason from the mid-2000s, but based on these two songs I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that he was a fan of Alvin. The Blasters would be at the intersection of Roots Rock and Cowpunk. You definitely should give them a listen. Alvin was with the punk band "X" for a short time before he got his solo record deal. I'm not familiar with Willy Mason, but I'll give him a listen. Yeah, I think I will give the Blasters a listen. I quite like the few cowpunk bands that I do know, like the Beat Farmers and (to a lesser extent) the Long Ryders. It's a fascinating sub-genre seeing punk and new wave energy colliding with country & western.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 26, 2024 11:59:34 GMT -5
#3 – Dave Alvin – King of California
Never heard of Alvin before, but I have heard of the Blasters (though never actually heard their music). They were kind of a cowpunk band, right? Of these two tracks you posted, "King of California" is especially nice and wears its Bob Dylan influences very much on its sleeve (I was less impressed with "Fourth of July", I'm afraid). Nice stripped-back '90s engineering and production on both tracks though. I don't know if you're familiar with the American singer-songwriter Willy Mason from the mid-2000s, but based on these two songs I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that he was a fan of Alvin.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 26, 2024 9:53:32 GMT -5
More favourite albums of 1994... #3 - MTV Unplugged in New York by NirvanaI'm not generally a fan of live albums, but there are some that really hit the mark and Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York is certainly one of them. Recorded in November 1993, the performance was released as an album in late '94 around 7 months after Kurt Cobain's death. In true Nirvana fashion, the band totally subvert MTV's unplugged formula by playing almost none of their hits ("Come As You Are" would be the only exception), by running Cobain's acoustic guitar through an amplifier and effects pedals to make it sound like an electric guitar on certain songs, and by inviting obscure cowpunk band the Meat Puppets on stage to play three of their songs with Nirvana. Reportedly, MTV's executives were NOT happy about these artistic choices, which is, of course, absolutely brilliant and totally rock 'n' roll. For me, the thing that this album makes explicit is the fact that Nirvana were just this little garage band from Seattle who, because of Cobain's excellent songwriting, became one of the biggest bands in the world. But it was a level of fame that they were never really supposed to achieve; it was a position they were never really meant to be in – and, as well all know, Cobain ultimately paid the price for that. There's poignancy to the idea of this noisy little band with the amazing songs being catapulted to the heights of super-stardom and, ultimately, tragedy – like Icarus flying too close to the sun or something. But there's also an inspiring and empowering component to it as well and both aspects are palpable in these performances. It's hard to pick out highlights from the album, as pretty much every song is a highlight. That said, Nirvana's cover of the Vaselines' "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" is breathtakingly beautiful and more than a little moving. The band's versions of their own "About a Girl" and "Dumb" blow their respective album versions away too. But really, the whole performance is utterly compelling and serves as a requiem to Cobain himself. Here's a video of the band's spine-tingling and harrowing version of Lead Belly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"…
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 25, 2024 21:48:21 GMT -5
Unfortunately these issues aren't part of Englehart's run but came immediately afterwards. I just looked them up at comics.org to check and they were written by Marv Wolfman. Ah yes, you are of course quite correct. Englehart's last issue was #18, I believe. But these issues continue the story that Englehart had started -- though not in the way he intended, I'm sure. So, rather than just have the run stop abruptly at issue #18, I decided to get the series up to issue #23 because that looks like a suitable jumping off point. That's why they were on my "wants list" and why in my head I was thinking of them as part of the Englehart run, even though they're not. Thanks for the correction though.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 25, 2024 17:35:20 GMT -5
Myself, I've always had impeccable musical taste. Even the bands I listened to and bought records by as a little kid are great and still get listened to round my house (Adam & The Ants, XTC, Depeche Mode, Thompson Twins, Tears for Fears etc). The first two albums I bought in grade school as a little kid were some early Beatles albums...so I stand by the same statement haha I became weirdly obsessed by the Beatles at a very young age too -- I'm talking, like, 3 or 4-years-old here. This was before I'd even heard their music! I can remember asking my Mum what the band members' names were and trying really hard to memorise them. By around age 7, I had discovered the so-called Red and Blue compilation albums ( 1962-1966 and 1967-1970) in my parents' record collection and had quietly spirited both of those upstairs to my bedroom, where they were on almost constant rotation on my second-hand turntable. For a lot of years I believed or assumed that those two albums represented the Beatles' entire output. I was therefore amazed at age 13 or so, when a class mate at school bought in a cassette tape of the Abbey Road album. I was amazed to see song titles on it that I had never heard of ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "You Never Give Me Your Money", "The End" etc). That was the moment when I realised that there must be other Beatles albums out there that featured untold numbers of songs that I hadn't heard. I went to my local library and in the referance section I found a book called The Beatles Album File and Complete Discography by Jeff Russell. In it, I found details of every Beatles album and I can vividly remember marvelling at exotic song titles like "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Within You Without You", "I'm Looking Through You" and "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey". Starting on my 15th Birthday and Christmas of that year, I began to ask relatives for Beatles LPs as presents, since, on my limited paper round wage, I couldn't afford many records. I was also careful to ask for the albums in strictly chronological order, so that I got to hear Please Please Me first, then With The Beatles, followed by A Hard Day's Night and so on. The reason I did this was because I wanted to experience those albums in the order they were originally released to better appreciate the band's musical development. I guess I was already a bit of a Beatles obsessive by then.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Apr 25, 2024 17:20:59 GMT -5
I'm not sure that Pearl Jam have ever made a bad record. I stopped buying their records after Binaural as I was more into other types of music by then, but they continue to grind out the records and the impression I have of them is that they're a classic American rock band. A lot of that is thanks to Eddie, but one of the things I liked about Pearl Jam is that they let the other members of the band write songs too. They even let the drummer write some songs. For me, Binaural was the first PJ album that didn't blow me away. It still had some very good songs on it, but it felt way patchier than, say, Yield. The first real inessential album in their discography was the follow-up Riot Act. I still own that album, but it's not an album that gets many listens. After that, there was the album with the sliced avocado on the cover, which I think was just called Pearl jam. That really wasn't a good album at all, although I kinda liked the single "World Wide Suicide". But after illegally downloading the avocado album, to try it out before I bought it, I decided that it wasn't good enough to bother purchasing. Another post- Binaural song I really like is "Just Breathe" from Backspacer, though that sounded more like an Eddie Vedder solo record TBH. But like I say, Ten, Vs., Vitalogy, No Code, and Yield are all pretty much faultless albums in my view.
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