CD and LP purchases February 2008

This covers three batches. First in Exmouth Market, £3 CDs, then £1 CDs from Flashback in Islington...

Angie Reed - XYZ Frequency [Chicks on Speed 2005]
Ben & Jason - Hello [Go Beat 1999]
Cat Empire - Two Shoes [Velour 2005/2007] Australian-Cuban party music.
Edwyn Collins - Home Again [Heavenly 2007]
IV Thieves - If We Can't Escape My Pretty... [One Little Indian 2006]
Maazel / Sibelius - Symphony 1, 6 [Decca SXL 6364]
Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory - Tree Colored See [Mush / Rough Trade 2005]
Patrick Duffy - Luxury Problems [Harvest / EMI 2005]
Quasi - Hot Shit [Domino 2003]
Seafood - Paper Crown King [Cooking Vinyl 2006]
Sinead O'Connor - Theology [Rubyworks 2007]
Stromba - Tales from the Sitting Room [Fat Cat 2005]
Suzy & Maggie Roche - Why the Long Face [Cooking Vinyl 2006]
The Montgolfier Brothers - Seventeen Stars [Poptones 2000]
The Rogers Sisters - The Invisible Deck [TooPure 2006]
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters [Fat Cat 2007]
The Woodentops - The BBC Sessions [Renascent 2007]
Vashti Bunyan - Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind [Fat Cat 2007]
White Hassle - Your Language [Fargo]

And Decca classical LPs from Haggle Vinyl in Islington:

Britten - Spring Symphony [Decca SXL 2264]
Maazel / Sibelius - Symphony 1, 6 [Decca SXL 6364]
Maazel / Sibelius - Symphony 3 [Decca SXL 6364]
Mehta / Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra [Decca SXL 6379]
Munchinger / Suk, Wolf, Strauss [Decca SXL 6533]
Solti / Holst - The Planets [Decca SET 628]
Solti / Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra [Decca SXL 6749]

Alan Moore is wrong: In defense of comic books.

Comic book writer Alan Moore recently slammed his peers for churning out either revenge fantasies or neurotic college student stuff.

This is nothing new. I encountered Moore at a D.R. and Quinch signing in the mid-80s, and he was a grump back then too. Yet it did get me thinking about my current appetite for comics after ten years away, and prompted me to share what I’ve enjoyed about comics in the past year.

I’ve read about two graphic novels a week, making up for lost time, and I’m hooked again. It helps that I’m not paying for them. My local libraries in Westminster have outstanding collections. Free comics means I’m more open minded and apt to try something I wouldn’t pay for.

Vertigo has been consistently good (* for my favourites):

100 Bullets – Ghetto drug wars. Didn’t grab me
Books of Faerie – Weak swords and sorcery in fairy-land
*DMZ – Excellent sci-fi dystopia, when intern reporter loses himself in the warzone of New York City

Exterminators – Bug exterminator gruesomeness
*Fables – Fabulous reimagining of fairytale characters undercover in New York
God Save the Queen – Stylish Brit-pop detective mysticism
Hellblazer – He’s great in Swamp Thing, but his own title doesn’t grab me
Invisibles – Started strong, but lost me half way through volume 1
*Loveless – Strong revenge Western.
*Lucifer – A favourite. The religious theme is fascinating, seeing the eternal battle from the devil’s point of view. The first issue of this and many Vertigo titles is available as a free download. And if you're reading it on a laptop, rotate the PDF 90 degrees and view full screen. Not bad at all.
Stardust - Forgettable
Originals – So-so gang coming of age story set in mod future
Preacher – Grizzly, mystical Western, much less appealing than Loveless
Seaguy – Silly, camp one-off
*Swamp Thing – Vintage Moore. Myth with substance
Transmetropolitan - Forgettable
V For Vendetta – Preferred the film
Vimanarama – Goofy Indian superhero conceit
We3 - Disturbing pet cyborg tragedy

A few from Image Comics:

Astro City – Stylish sci-fi reimaging of superheroism
Bone – Charming fairy tale about three friends away from home
Casanova - Forgettable
*Gødland – Trippy Jack Kirby tribute. Great
Madman – Loopy desperado
Sea of Red – Pirate yarn. Weak
*Walking Dead – Zombies have taken over America. The few humans remaining struggle to survive. I never thought I’d read a zombie comic, but this is one of the top titles in any genre.

And Dark Horse:

300 – Like the film, but without the codpieces, and less camp
BPRD – I’m struggling to remember this one. Need to reread
Hard Boiled – Frank Miller detective stuff. Understandably a one-off
Hellboy – Struggling to remember this one too. Mainly the movie comes to mind.
Conan – I like the barbarian genre, and the Savage Sword of Conan and Dark Horse series are generally great. The original Marvel series doesn’t hold up so well.
The Incredibles
Star Wars: Legacy – Formulaic, but satisfying. I get the sense that the quality is inconsistent across the many Star Wars titles, and certainly don’t need a comic version of the movies

Marvel:

1602 – Amusing to see familiar figures in Elizabethan London, but no great shakes.
Astonishing Xmen – All of the X titles (perhaps half a dozen TPBs) were fun enough, but blended together (Xmen, House of M)
*Runaways – Like Powerpack but with oomph. Great writing. I sped through 30 issues in a couple of evenings.
*New Avengers – Witty writing, and Spiderwoman - wowser
Amazing Spiderman – A few strong story arcs, particularly the one about the mystical side to his powers
*Daredevil – This title has gone from strength to strength with great writers, and the Rykers plotline with Kingpin, Punisher etc. Thrilling
Ghost Rider – Simplistic
Fantastic Four – I’ve dipped into early material with the pocketbook size collection, and a couple of recent TPBs
*Planet Hulk – What fun.
*Shanna the She Devil – Frank Cho sure can draw sexy ladies. Wowser. It looks like a second volume is due, although not sure where they could take the plot line.
Marvel Zombies – Yuck. But I read it.

Various:
*Alice in Sunderland - Now I need to visit Sunderland, centre of the world
*Five is the Perfect Number - Italian mafiosa back from retirement. An elegant, lyrical take on genre standard
Batman: Hush Volumes 1 and 2

*Batman: Dark Victory - Jeff Loeb's work on Batman has been the first time I've cared about this character.

Batman: Black and White

*Battle Pope 1 and 2 - Blasphemous and hilarious

*From Hell - A classic

Many from America's Best Comics:

Tom Strong - Nostalgia for 50s wholesomeness

Promethea - I like the mystical texture, complexity, and arcane references, but found myself drifting off. May require rereading.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Tomorrow Stories

Top Ten
*Smax - This barbarian / time-travel oddball title was really fun

There have been dozens more in the past year that I simply can't recall right now. I'm glad to have rekindled a passion for comics, something to share with my brother, and read on the tube or while being interrupted by family.

I wanna be a transmitter. Alan Lomax told me so

In a 1991 CBS interview, folk musicologist Alan Lomax explained to the CBS interviewer about the wrecking ball effect of the entertainment industry that's unbalanced global cultural equity, and turned twentieth century populations into passive cultural consumers. [Source: Uncut magazine, March 2008]

Lomax's statement got me thinking about my own transition from 'transmitter' to 'receiver' (his terms). I used to paint, write and draw, right into my mid-twenties, and now I'm a salesman who obsesses over music, film, and comics. This used to make me ashamed and regretful, but these days I revel in the art of art appreciation, with only a tinge of regret that I'm a passive cultural consumer. And I take comfort that I write about culture here and on the Steve Hoffman forum, and get active and explorative in my hobbies, so it feels less passive.

That said, my mum was a passionate dabbler in all the arts, my dad conducts, step-mom dances and teaches dance, one brother plays music, another photographs, aunts are all artists. My wife photographs for exhibition, and maintains a great Flickr site. My daughter paints and dances, son dances and draws. In fact, while I used to be one of the most dedicated and prolific artists in the family, I'm now silent. Various family members have voiced surprise and disappointment, half-hearted encouragement to 'get back into it'. There's a strong family distaste for business and respect for art.

My favorite medium is poetry. I haven't written a poem in ten years. I tell myself this is since I used it as self-therapy, and don't have that burning need for therapy any more to fuel the process. And the more I read, I doubt I have anything original or differentiated to add of a quality to warrant attention, or engage an audience.

I know this is all an excuse, and I'm being lazy and cowardly. I expect I'll get back into it. No doubt, I'll be out of practice, and not come up with anything worthwhile for a long time. I give up easily, and lean heavily on deadlines set by workshop groups and courses. But if I persevere, I expect I may come up with something insightful.