Waffle

Albums I've been listening to:
Sigur Rós, Takk.... Everyone and their dog put this in their end-of-year list for 2005, just as I was getting into that meandering, ethereal sound a bit. This one's good, but it's not that good, and certainly not the big progression from their previous records that people have said it was.
Bettye Lavette, I Have My Own Hell to Raise. Similar formula and approach to the comeback album Solomon Burke did for ANTI in 2003, Don't Give Up On Me. May actually be better. I love that croak she's got in her voice.
Vashti Bunyan, Lookaftering and Just Another Diamond Day (the latter on vinyl from Magic Buzz record store in Groningen). Two albums in 35 years, blah blah blah, lives up to the hype. Wouldn't want to have only records that sound like this in my record collection but Lookaftering in particular is an album to grow into slowly.
Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band, No Roses also on vinyl. A bit intimidating to get into. I'm not sure if I quite "get" the appeal of Shirley Collins's voice. She's highly thought of as a folk singer and has been for almost 50 years, so the fault is likely to be entirely at my end. It's not like I got Sandy Denny immediately either. There's some lovely shambolic backing from what wasn't really a band at the time, just a bunch of musicians hired as needed. Compared to that other seminal folk-rock album, Fairport Convention's Liege and Lief from the year before, this record has more of a punk feel underpinning Collins's traditional vocal style.
Planet Orange, Drip Drop Dripping. Good, as expected.
Ritchie Blackmore, Getaway. Double CD of session recordings from Blackmore, recorded between 1963 and 1982. About half of it is Joe Meek-produced singles of varying levels of cheesyness. Judging from it, Meek's reputation as an innovative producer is overrated and it's actually a relief to get to Disc II and its Derek Lawrence-produced sessions which put Blackmore at the center of attention more and have a more hard-edged sound. Blackmore himself is on cracking form in every last track on the 2 CDs, even those where he is coupled with such inept singers as Gunilla Thorne. The best bits for me as a Deep Purple fan though are the last dozen or so tracks in which he works alongside Ian Paice and Jon Lord, resulting in an instantly-recognisable, Purple-esque ensemble sound. When those three were in one room, the results just had to sound good.
Deep Purple, various live tracks found on iTunes. It looks like Purple's Australian fan-market record company has made a deal with iTunes allowing some of their output to be released on iTunes, albeit at a somewhat inflated price. So we get the Orchestral gig at the Rotterdam Ahoy from 2000, and an Australian gig from 2001. Cherrypicking from those albums, I got the two tracks from Rotterdam featuring special guest Ronnie James Dio singing his own material backed by Lord, Paice, Morse and Glover, and two Deep Purple nuggets from the 2001 concert, "No One Came" and "Mary Long". Unfortunately, the Dio tracks aren't nearly as impressive as I remember them being when I actually was in the audience at that very concert. The Australian performances aren't among the band's strongest either. Jon Lord in particular sounds as if he was counting down the nights to his retirement (which would take place soon after the Australian concerts). I hear that the current Deep Purple tour has them on much better form again, which sort of makes me wish I'd got tickets for their January gig.
OST, Walk the Line: For an actor, Joaquin Phoenix is a very good singer, getting vocal performances in that are very close to Johnny Cash's original feel without copying him exactly. The same can be said for Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, and the backing band is very strong. Listening to the whole album from beginning to end is a bit much, though, because it's all well-worn Cash material without major changes to the arrangements.
New London Consort and Philip Pickett, Songs of Angels. I haven't given this one a full hearing yet, but one thing stands out already: Compared to the only other Phill Pickett recording I have, Bones of All Men with Richard Thompson (review), the sound palette on this one is radically different. It's not so much that the rock rhythm section and acoustic guitar are missing; it's that on Bones all instruments including the renaissance ones were recorded as if they were rock instruments: up close and in your face. On Angels, everything has more of a concert hall sound, more distant and harder to distinguish, but also more alive and cohesive. There are some extended pieces on this record and I look forward to listening to it properly (I got this off iTunes so it went directly into the random playlist.)

And with that, I think I'm caught up... It does get easier if I don't bother with the Amazon links; it's not as if these were used much anyway. My favorite records for 2005 were Aerial by Kate Bush, Here Come the Choppers by Loudon "Dad-of-Rufus" Wainwright III and Front Parlour Ballads by Richard Thompson, by the way. Aerial grew on me more quickly than I expected, so consider my review of it superceded.

Because Pete is puzzled over the lack of a response from the likes of me to the Mohammed cartoons: What he said.

Whoa, Patrick Nielsen Hayden is right, this does save a lot of work. And makes for a good game of Outrage Bingo.

Update: One of these days I'm going to learn to cut and paste, or maybe to check that I've cut and pasted the money link correctly. This is like the second time in two days that I rendered a perfectly good blog post nonsensical by putting the wrong link in. What was originally the second link to Pete's post should have been, and is now, the link to this Crooked Timber post by Chris Bertram.
Crooked Timber!
Crooked Timber!
Crooked Timber!
Crooked Timber!

You'd think after two years I'd have got the hang of this blogging thing, but who am I kidding. I haven't got the hang of counting either after more than 30 years. I'm hopeless and should just club myself to death.

Are there any of you out there?
Well, there's a note coming on Pantheon to the effect that I want to give you some new updating content on that website, but I can't make it Pantheon. However, it will still be about gods and demons.

Then there's a link to my Livejournal, where I enumerate all the Pantheon-related things I *would* like to create for you, and ask for your comments.

Read up.

Fafblog on the Mohammed cartoons:

"What if it's not really a picture of Mohammed," says me, "just a picture of a picture of Mohammed?"
"Metablasphemy!" says Giblets. "It is sacrilegious and pretentious!"

Don't read the rest, the above was the best bit.

I've had some nice things said about my webcomics lately. Here's an overview:

On Webcomicsnation's new "Peer Reviews" feature, Pat Jones wrote:

Enter the "hive mind" with me now....
When's the last time you've seen an alchemist's rump? Never? In The Eye of the Underworld, writing by Geir Strom and art by Reinder Dijkhuis, you'll see an alchemist's rump and much more. This completed fantasy adventure tale highlights Reinder's black and white line art and Geir's gift for comic farce. Reinder drew The Eye of the Underworld in a very different style than his solo masterwork, The Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan. The Eye of the Underworld is a powerful amulet, stolen by Caliph Iznobezzer from the Witch Queen. She orders the renowned alchemist Ioannis to retrieve it. Along the way, Ioannis teams up with Farah, the Caliph's beautiful daughter, who dresses like a ninja and proves to be his equal, in every way. The Eye of the Underworld makes a great introduction to the prolific universe created by the "hive mind" of Reinder Dijkhuis (Netherlands), Geir Strom (Norway), and Daniel Ostvold (Norway). Their collected works overlap and enhance one another. You can fall in love with their characters and read their adventures for days, immersed in magical fantasy.

By design, "Peer Review" articles are puff pieces, but someone has to take the trouble to write them, and Pat was very complimentary when he emailed me a draft of the review.
Over on Livejournal, Will Howitt wrote:

...I got sucked into Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan this week, and read the whole archives from start to finish. Reinder Dijkhuis has been drawing this for many years, and there must still be lots of material that's not on the web site, but it's a uniquely engaging and intriguing saga, for those who are into such things ... check it out.

And finally, Galith wrote:

One of my guilty pleasures is online comics, and I've recently discovered a new one that I think many people on my friends list would enjoy: The Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan.

The art style is similar to Asterix the Gaul and the writing is light hearted fantasy. Serious things do happen, and they are taken seriously when they do, but the world always seems bright, hopeful, and very multi-dimensional. Both magic and magical creatures are present in the world without being overwhelming, and all the magical sentient races seem to possess really interesting backstories and unique customs. As does the witch culture. As does Christianity.

I also really like how the comic handles nudity. It is really nice to read a comic with well-drawn nudes and near nudes (both male and female) where none if it is "fan service"; it's just the way things are. Characters spend large amounts of time not wearing clothes, and it isn't weird or sexualized, it's just the way things are. If you go to a witch sabbat and the weather is nice enough then you walk around "sky clad". If you're a fairy you don't tend to wear clothing. If you step outside of the time stream and your clothes don't go with you. If you're in a bath or getting into or out of bed you tend to be naked. It's just the way life happens.

The comic starts off a bit blah, I wasn't that moved by the first few story archs (although I did find some of them were quite funny), but the quality steadily improves as the series progressed. I found the last major story arch to be just as engaging and humorous as a Disk World Book. If you've got the time I recommend you check it out (and tell me what you think).

Which did make me think "I do have a lot of perfectly good reasons for my characters to lose my clothes, don't I?" but I know that's not what he really means, and besides, the comparisons to Asterix and Discworld are quite flattering anyway. Thanks Pat, Will, Galith!

So far, the online coverage of the controversy over the Jyllandsposten cartoons depicting Mohammed has checked out with what I heard and read in the real news, so I haven't felt any need to put my 2 cents in. However, the past few days I've been reading contradictory quotes from the US State Department's response to the controversy. Especially within Europe, quite a few writers have been appalled at what they see as State cowtowing to the Muslim mobs, but other sources cite State's principled stance in favour of freedom of the press.
So I decided to look for the fullest version of the statement I could find. State.gov's own site, at the time of writing, is useless, and so is Google, but a Technorati search showed a lenghty quote at cartoonist Colleen Doran's blog:

QUESTION: Yes? Can you say anything about a U.S. response or a U.S. reaction to this uproar in Europe over the Prophet Muhammad pictures? Do you have any reaction to it? Are you concerned that the violence is going to spread and make everything just —

MR. MCCORMACK: I haven't seen any — first of all, this is matter of fact. I haven't seen it. I have seen a lot of protests. I've seen a great deal of distress expressed by Muslims across the globe. The Muslims around the world have expressed the fact that they are outraged and that they take great offense at the images that were printed in the Danish newspaper, as well as in other newspapers around the world.

Our response is to say that while we certainly don't agree with, support, or in some cases, we condemn the views that are aired in public that are published in media organizations around the world, we, at the same time, defend the right of those individuals to express their views. For us, freedom of expression is at the core of our democracy and it is something that we have shed blood and treasure around the world to defend and we will continue to do so. That said, there are other aspects to democracy, our democracy — democracies around the world — and that is to promote understanding, to promote respect for minority rights, to try to appreciate the differences that may exist among us.

We believe, for example in our country, that people from different religious backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, national backgrounds add to our strength as a country. And it is important to recognize and appreciate those differences. And it is also important to protect the rights of individuals and the media to express a point of view concerning various subjects. So while we share the offense that Muslims have taken at these images, we at the same time vigorously defend the right of individuals to express points of view. We may — like I said, we may not agree with those points of view, we may condemn those points of view but we respect and emphasize the importance that those individuals have the right to express those points of view.

For example — and on the particular cartoon that was published — I know the Prime Minister of Denmark has talked about his, I know that the newspaper that originally printed it has apologized, so they have addressed this particular issue. So we would urge all parties to exercise the maximum degree of understanding, the maximum degree of tolerance when they talk about this issue. And we would urge dialogue, not violence. And that also those that might take offense at these images that have been published, when they see similar views or images that could be perceived as anti-Semitic or anti-Catholic, that they speak out with equal vigor against those images.

QUESTION: That the Muslims speak out with equal vigor when they see — that's what you're asking?

MR. MCCORMACK: We would — we believe that it is an important principle that peoples around the world encourage dialogue, not violence; dialogue, not misunderstanding and that when you see an image that is offensive to another particular group, to speak out against that. Anti-Muslim images are as unacceptable as anti-Semitic images, as anti-Christian images or any other religious belief. We have to remember and respect the deeply held beliefs of those who have different beliefs from us. But it is important that we also support the rights of individuals to express their freely held views.

QUESTION: So basically you're just hoping that it doesn't — I'm sorry I misspoke when I said there was violence, I meant uproar. Your bottom line is that both sides have the right to do exactly as they're doing and you just hope it doesn't get worse?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I —

QUESTION: You just hope it doesn't escalate.

MR. MCCORMACK: I gave a pretty long answer, so —

QUESTION: You did. I'm trying to sum it up for you. (Laughter.)

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. Sure.

QUESTION: A couple of years ago, I think it was a couple of years ago when, I think it was the Syrians and the Lebanese were introducing this documentary about the Jews — or it was the Egyptians — this Administration spoke out very strongly about that and called it offensive, said it was —

MR. MCCORMACK: I just said that the images were offensive; we found them offensive.

QUESTION: Well, no you said that you understand that the Muslims found them offensive, but —

MR. MCCORMACK: I'm saying now, we find them offensive. And we certainly understand why Muslims would find these images offensive.

Yes.

QUESTION: One word is puzzling me in this, Sean, and that's the use of the word "unacceptable" and "not acceptable," exactly what that implies. I mean, it's not quite obvious that you find the images offensive. When you say "unacceptable," it applies some sort of action against the people who perpetrate those images.

MR. MCCORMACK: No. I think I made it very clear that our defense of freedom of expression and the ability of individuals and media organizations to engage in free expression is forthright and it is strong, you know. This is — our First Amendment rights, the freedom of expression, are some of the most strongly held and dearly held views that we have here in America. And certainly nothing that I said, I would hope, would imply any diminution of that support.

QUESTION: It's just the one word "unacceptable," I'm just wondering if that implied any action, you know. But it doesn't you say?

MR. MCCORMACK: No.

I'd say that this is a typically measured, politicianly response that includes plenty of language emphasizing that yes, people do have the right to say and print insulting cartoons. So at least there's no need to claim that the Americans are weaseling out on the issue.

Update: On the other hand, the Bush administration's love of freedom of expression doesn't extend to that of American scientists trying to get some science done. Andrew Revkin reports that NASA scientists get harrassed by presidentially-appointed commissars telling them what they can and can't say (hat tip Eric Millikin )

The Man Who Wrote Everything, Lo Hartog van Banda died on February the second at age 89. Apart from being a prolific comics writer working mainly for the Marten Toonder studios, Banda wrote many children's series for television, including my favorite when I was five years old, De Bereboot.. He also wrote the classic childrens's series Ti Ta Tovenaar, another series I watched when I was little.
Googling for Banda now, I realise that he really did write everything I used to watch or read. When I was a bit older than that I used to borrow the black and white Blook and De Argonautjes (with art by a very young Dick Matena) books, and the colour Arad & Maya books (drawn by Jan Steeman at the time his style was transforming itself) from the library again and again.
And of course he was a ghost writer on several of the properties that came out under Toonder's name. He contributed to Tom Puss & Mr. Bumble, Panda, Kappie (a comic whose concepts he would later re-use on Bereboot) and Koning Hollewijn. Banda resigned from the Toonder studios and rejoined them several times.

Banda's work was very much of its place and time. Jeroen tells me he watched the old Bereboot episodes when they were repeated a few years ago and was shocked by the racial stereotyping in it, which toddlers of the 1970s were blithely exposed to. Only few of his works reached audiences outside of the Netherlands, particularly his three Lucky Luke scripts of the 1980s and '90s, the first of which sold enough to make him a millionnaire. Many readers in the Netherlands consider him the only Lucky Luke writer who even came close to the quality of Goscinny's work.

Banda was still working as of a few years ago, but had recently been plagued by poor health.

I've added a fun new feature to the Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan website: a "Random Comic" button. No longer will you have to labour under the tyrannical constraints of linear narrative. For now, I've put it on the home page only, but as it's really a simple link, I can demonstrate it here as well: Jump to a random ROCR comic [Update: bad link corrected. Is my face red.].
"Random Comic" links work better on gag-a-day comics than on story-driven comics, but they're still pretty addictive time-wasters on story-driven comics that have them, and really if you want to check out a comic that you're new to, a random episode is at least as representative as any of the other choices you've got such as the previous comic or the first (both popular choices when people read mine for the first time).
The feature is driven by Oh No Robot. The transcription project has now progressed to the point where I can use the work to improve the website. At the time of writing, 440 episodes have been transcribed out of just under 1200. Once I get past the 50% mark, I'll put an Oh No Robot search box or link on the home page as well.
I could use some help with the transcriptions, by the way. I think I've gone about it the wrong way: I usually transcribe the latest comic within an hour of publication, and I've already done most of the comics at the front of the archive, so the episodes that people are most likely to visit don't have a "Transcribe this comic" button on them, so readers don't notice that I'm asking for this. If you want to help transcribe please pick some that Oh No Robot itself suggest for transcription, or start with some of the stories that I haven't done a lot of work on myself yet, such as Guðrún or The Corby Clan. Thanks, please?