Twitterpated

• 00:42 You know what song sucks? That "I'm Proud to Be an American" thing. #
• 00:45 Is it more evil to do self-serving things, or to do things just for the sake of being mean? #
• 11:00 If Americans are going to mix jingoism and religion, can't they at least come up with their own deity? #
• 11:01 I mean, doesn't the God of the Bible already have Israel as his favored nation? Why should he take the USA as well? #
• 15:38 @eehouls Pitchfork isn't too white, just too pompous. #
• 18:52 tinyurl.com/crkwl2 I guess the gridlock in the Catholic prayer receiving office is why God needs all those saints. #
• 21:08 tinyurl.com/avpt7m Pizza in a cone. Not sure if it's real. #

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You can't get the buttons these days

At one point in their long, illustrious careers, the members of XTC decided to come up with an EP of pastiches of the psychedelic rock they grew up listening to. For this, they transformed into the Dukes of Stratosphear, made up of Sir John Johns (Andy Partridge), The Red Curtain (Colin Moulding), Lord Cornelius Plum (Dave Gregory), and E.I.E.I. Owen (Dave's brother Ian, who played drums for this project). The initial result was the 25 O'Clock EP, which was later followed up by the Psonic Psunspot LP. Both are available on the same CD, which is sold under the title Chips from the Chocolate Fireball. And, really, the whole thing is awesome. There's quite a bit to like in psychedelic rock in general, from the overblown vocals to the dreamlike tunes to the lyrics reminiscent of nonsense verse. And the Dukes bring out the best of it in their own work.



( If you doze much longer, then life turns to dreaming. )

Next week, we'll take a look at my favorite regular XTC album (and possibly my favorite overall album by anyone), Skylarking.

In and Around Oz

When L. Frank Baum first conceived of Oz, he gave the impression that it was a hidden country somewhere in or near the United States, isolated from the rest of the world by a desert that surrounds the entire land. Later on, however, he started introducing other fairylands located across the desert from Oz. Ozma of Oz brought in the Land of Ev and the underground Nome Kingdom, while Road made explicit the fact that most of his other fantasy countries were in the vicinity of Oz. This included fairly normal lands like Ix and Noland, as well as stranger ones like Merryland. So our isolated magical land became merely the MOST magical of a lot of different fantasy countries. And even that can be called into question, when places like Mo are right on the other side of the Deadly Desert. The amount of Oz-like characteristics that these other countries have varies considerably. The people of Mo are immortal, but those in Ix apparently aren't. Talking animals are the norm in Merryland and not totally unheard of in Ev, but a total anomaly in Noland and Pingaree. Many of the surrounding nations have witches and wizards who practice magic quite openly, while King Gos of Regos claimed not to believe in magic. But it's never really clear where the lines are drawn, although the most magical countries (Oz, Mo, and Merryland being the big three) are isolated even from their somewhat less magical neighbors, by a desert in the former case and mountains in the latter two. We know that Oz was enchanted by Lurline, and perhaps some of the other places have similar origin stories. But are the properties of the more mundane fairylands the result of leaking magic from places like Oz, or was Oz already more magical than most of the Outside World when it was enchanted? I tend to opt for the latter (after all, the Flatheads were apparently alive before Lurline's visit, which they presumably couldn't have been in a place like the United States), but maybe with a hint of the former as well. Ruth Plumly Thompson seemed rather fond of the idea that the inhabitants of the lands surrounding Oz weren't deathless like the Ozites, but did have very long lifespans and some sorts of magical protection from some of the less severe forms of death, but it's inconsistent. Ruggedo observes in Pirates that "in fairy countries sovereigns are not destroyed or killed by such simple accidents" as falling into the sea, yet Ozma recounts how King Evoldo of Ev destroyed a long life that Ruggedo himself (while still called Roquat) had granted him by jumping into the ocean and drowning. (And if Evoldo had somehow survived his watery excursion, surely Roquat would have used this as fodder against Ozma and Dorothy in his legal wrangling.) So it's kind of a mess when you try to put it all together, but that's the case with a lot of stuff in the Oz books.

Next time, I'll be covering how fairylands differ from non-fairylands, and what sort of magic is effective in the civilized world. Well, unless I come up with some other topic that I think deserves attention first, but I don't know what that would be.

The Association, Part 4

So, it's back to this meme again, with the subjects chosen by themall:

1.puns

We learned in high school English class that puns are considered the lowest form of humor, and a lot of people hate 'em. I've always been fond of both making and hearing them, but it's definitely possible to go overboard with them.

2.oz

Well, I've already written about Oz, but getting back to the first item, the abundance of puns is one of the things I like about them. In fact, there's a fair amount of humor in general, yet the authors still take the stories seriously.

3.libraries

Hey, you can take books home and read them FOR FREE! How could I NOT like that? I studied Library Science in school, but I'm still waiting for something more than temporary or part-time work to come from it.

4.xtc

Andy Partridge has been putting out amazing songs for the past thirty years. And while he doesn't seem to be doing as much writing nowadays, I get the impression that there are still plenty of ideas in the man's head.

5.pennsylvania

What can I say? It's Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in the middle. {g} Seriously, I've never been to Alabama, so I couldn't say for sure, but central Pennsylvania does seem a bit dull. I grew up in the southeastern part, myself.


Oh, and I'll also mention that I received three new books from bethje today, namely Belle and Sebastian: A Modern Rock Story, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, and a book on Alphonse Mucha. She also gave me Dragon Quest V last Thursday, so she truly went above and beyond for this anniversary. I guess I'll remove some things from my Amazon wishlist now.