Blog Archives
Radionomactivity
One for all you internet radio junkies…
So I’ve been listening to Radionomy for a while now. My default station is a stream called “Generic Male DJs – Ultimate 80s“, which plays ” 80s New Wave, Alternative, Synthpop and Dark Wave music.” Recent tracks include R.E.M., Devo, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Peter Gabriel, and Depeche Mode. Playing right now is the legendary supergroup Haircut One Hundred. That should give a basic impression of the station.
But what caught my interest is that one can start their own station through Radionomy. It starts out for free, but over time the station needs to get a certain number of listener hours or a charge will be incurred. If a station picks up enough listeners, the station can make some cash.
I’m kicking around the idea of starting a station. Inflicting my music on the world is only proper.
Used To Be In The Eagles
Mojo Nixon mildly cheered up but maintains it should have been the other one.
I liked a handful of Eagles songs, especially after Joe Walsh joined the band. I had a concert ticket for their 1994 tour, but it got cancelled due to Frey being ill. I did see them in concert when they finally resumed the tour in 1995.
I didn’t care much for Frey’s solo work – what I heard of it, anyway – but I always did like this song…
2015
You’ve got to admit it
At this point in time that it’s clear
The future looks bright
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we’ll be A.O.K.
-
Donald Fagen, “I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World)”*
2015 has been a crazy year, in the most literal sense of the word. Grab your spandex jacket and go have a great night.
* International Geophysical Year, July 1 1957 – December 31 1958
Colonel Future
As the year nears its end, let’s look back on the past of the future. Tomorrow was different back then.
Edmond Hamilton was a science fiction writer and primary driver behind Captain Future, a juvenile-oriented space opera series. Known as the “Man of Tomorrow” and “Wizard of Science,” The Captain sailed through many adventures…
Hey, wait, what’s he doing fighting that other Man Of Tomorrow? And did he get a promotion?
Colonel Future appeared in Superman #378 in 1982, and threw down with Supes. But who is this mystery man?
Upon recovering from his ordeal, Hamilton did what any scientist would do in his situation…. don a retro-futuristic costume and embark on a career of crime.
A man gifted and cursed with the power to see the future…. but only when in mortal danger. This was a pretty wild idea in comics at the time, and kinda blew my 12-year old mind.
Superman flies off to find Colonel Future stealing more scientific equipment, and once again fails to stop him. Our Hero begins to wonder if the Colonel really is a man from the future, as he seems to know exactly how to best Superman at every turn.
Following another defeat, Supes flies off to deal with the threatening asteroid…
The good Colonel learned his lesson… or so it seemed.
Colonel Hamilton returned in 1984…
…after having a vision that convinced him Superman was soon going to die.
Unlike the first story, which was pretty clever and engaging, this one turned out to be rather lame. The guy at the end of the page is dressed as Superman to collect for a charity drive. Several others are doing the same, and some criminals get the idea of infiltrating by wearing Superman costumes and stealing the money. Through a complicated event chain, Hamilton ends up in a costume and gets shot at and techinically dies until resuscitated by Superman, fulfilling his vision.
The story did give us this neat sequence, though –
There’s also a brief scene of Hamilton congratulating a Dr. Isaacs on a proposal for a navigation system for the space shuttle. Perhaps a shout-out to another science fiction writer turned supervillain?
BONUS ROUND: In 1978, four years before this Colonel Future appeared, there was another version in a retro-style Superman story set in the 1940s…
The Colonel was of course stopped, and four years later he appeared again, lamenting how his failure to kill Superman had hurt his standing among the supervillain community –
And that was it for this version of the Colonel. He was last seen in July 1982, a mere 5 months before the jetpack version first showed up and replaced him.
Indeed, the first Colonel didn’t even get a write-up in 1985’s Who’s Who series, listing nearly every DC Comics character that ever appeared, while the not-so-villainous villain version got a full page…
So just how did Edmond Hamilton come to be connected to Superman, anyhow? A couple of readers wrote in asking that it be explained for younger readers, and one even suggested a possible inspiration for the story of Colonel Future –
Strangely, the editor’s response didn’t mention that longtime Superman editor Mort Weisinger created Captain Future in the first place!
Extra Trivia Bonus: Captain Future’s real name was Curt Newton. The first appearance of each version of Colonel Future was drawn by legendary Superman artist Curt Swan, who drew some of Hamilton’s Superman stories. A second appearance of the first Colonel was drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger. All of which, I’m sure, probably amused the writers and editor of the stories.
Saturday Night Studio – Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers (And The Van)
“Our music definitely hearkens another era,” says Nicki Bluhm, “but at the same time, we want it to be contemporary. Reflective of now even though it nods to other times. We want it to be vintage modern.” – Nicki Bluhm
Nicki Bluhm rides around in a van and sings various songs while the band plays in the back. That’s the entire gimmick.
Is she any good?
I guess they do qualify as a band on the run, or at least on the go, and they do an okay cover of McCartney & Wings… their version isn’t awesomely great, but I like how they interpreted the classic intro (which I always thought should have been expanded into songs of their own).
They cover Madonna’s “Material Girl” which just amuses me, and they do a nice fadeout at the end, and do a good job with Stealer’s Wheel as Nicki is stuck in the middle.
My favorite is “I Can’t Go For That” by Hall & Oates, which features a little toy-style keyboard and the …. unique… solo, in addition to what I consider to be one of her best vocal performances –
I kinda have to include this one, given the title –
Rocktober Saturday Night Studio – Halloween
Some music to scare the trick-or-treaters with, along with a trick or two in the mix.
Happy Halloween!
Rocktober – The Dark And Stormy Night Rises
“Everything comes back down to Batman, in the end.” – Donal Graeme
It’s dark and will likely be raining tonight, apropos for the night before Halloween.
A sequel was attempted…
..but ultimately not produced.
The phrase “It was a dark and stormy night” comes from the 1830 novel Paul Clifford, written by Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, and was picked up years later by Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz, who gave the line to aspiring author Snoopy as part of that decorated WWI Flying Ace’s ongoing efforts to be published.
The novel began thusly –
“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents – except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”
Sounds like the setting for Gotham. Or a metal video game.
Schulz had Snoopy write out his novel, starting with the famous line and building from there, and can be read it its (short) entirety here.
In 1981, writer Len Wein and artist Walt Simonson did something fun for the 500th issue of Detective Comics, where Batman originated, by doing a remix of sorts of Snoopy’s novel, presented in its (also short) entirety above.
Somewhere along the line, Charles Schulz did a drawing for DC Comics artist Carmine Infantino, who drew Batman in the 60s –
Rocktober – Fatitude
I can make no sense of this –
The word is out, better treat me right!
Now I get it … he’s dressed up for Halloween as Weird Al. Ding dong, yo.
There’s more needing feminism here, but my favorite is this one –
“I need feminism because I need contradiction”
I can’t tell if that’s for real or a truth bomb costumed as Progressivist BuzzwordThink. Or maybe just a troll.
H/T to Goodbye America
Rocktober – Don’t Pay The Ferryman (And A Very! Important! Sponsor Message!)
Going back to the early 80s to unearth an MTV staple of the day – Chris DeBurgh’s “Don’t Pay The Ferryman,” a vaguely spookish song with allusions to Charon about a man crossing the water who is warned by mysterious voices not to pay that vulgar boatman.
And now a brief word from our sponsor –
Full demented episode here.
nightskyradio 