Open Bar: Subpoenaed by Congress, but still refusing to testify

[chaotic neutral observer]

MTV used to do fantastic TV.

I thought "The Maxx" was brilliant.

The sounds in my head have started again.  Good.
...
Someone coming.  Someone dangerous.  I can smell the sweating leather and peppermint.

[Faust]

Now knowing that Aeon Flux is an exploration of gnostic myth, I felt like I should revisit it -- watched a handful of episodes a few years ago and just cringed the whole time. It didn't land for me. Are you saying some parts are better than others? I watched a few of the short non-talky ones, and then the one with the Demiurge... didn't really sift anything from it.

The demiurge uses the literal Gnostic imagry but hasn't much in the way of referencing gnosticism, it's more a parable on faith in general:
In some cases leading to a manic desire to feel that connection that leaves the people feeling empty and unfulfilled  (hence why Aeon wants to blast it as it represents a controlling force over individuality), and Trevor wants it (as a unifying symbol of control), it was a weird theme, that everyone being in a shared connection could 1: be more depressed, 2: that the shared connection could be a force of oppression.

Every episode deals with a different theme entirely but always in the balance of order or control, and the weird BDSM power play between Trevor and Aeon is a manifestation of that.
My favorites are a last time for everything: A cloning episode more to do with identity and feeling comfortable with a partner when the risk of missing out on a free individualistic life is taken away.
ReErasure, about a bliss drug that causes memory loss, with themes of longing and regret.
The purge: Individuality and control (would it be ethical if the state could change a person to want to be good (as the state views it), which uses weird themes for law and order such as a tv audience as a loose stand in for a court

It is punk, it is style over substance, uncomfortably filthy (but never attractive or for the viewers enjoyment which I think is a good distinction), pretentious at times, but it is a bunch of 15 minute epsiodes that goes through a roller coaster of themes and discards them after each. I'd say give it another chance, especially if you only ever watched the shorts and the Demiurge, because the rest of the Talkie episodes are only like an hour or so more. There's episodes I really dislike but I enjoy the ideas they plant.

And yeah, The Maxx is the perfect companion for this, for the same kind of metaphor over literal story telling. Mr Gone was fantastic.

[Doktor Howl]

It can be anything it wants. 


Except watchable.

[Faust]

Thems fightin words! Wait a minute,  you dont like blade runner either, I dont think we are going to agree on this

[Bruno]

Then there was "The Real World."

It was a story about a tv show that went on to infect every channel on cable, even the educational ones, especially the educational ones, and then went on to infect the federal government of the United States.

Will it rise to the status of Extinction Level Event? Stay tuned to find out!

[Faust]

I try not to watch too much of "The real world", there's too many conflicting interpretations and all of them depressing

[Bruno]

It's not much of a first-person RPG, either.

[altered]

IT BEGINS

I HAVE THE POWER AND THEY COME TO ME

AHAHAHAHA



(With thanks to QGP, whose fault this all is)

[chaotic neutral observer]

IT job came through, I take it?

[altered]

Not for a fucking second, no.

However, I now have people who want to be MY roommate. In fact, I have CHOICES. In fact, I Am In Control.

Just goes to show you that sometimes the best answer to how to get through a door is simply "Be On The Other Side".

That's not a koan. 

[altered]

It's that time!!!

Getting a shower and then it's off to see THIS SHIT LIVE

https://elizabethcolourwheel.bandcamp.com/

https://streetsects.bandcamp.com/

If you like sappy 90s goth rock and a bit of doom metal check out Elizabeth Colour Wheel, if you like running power drills being thrown into a trash compactor while a madman freaks the fuck out on top of it all then check out Street Sects

What a fucking concert this will be

[altered]

Update:

I feel like a piece of deli meat and Street Sects isn't talking stupid bullshit re: homelessness gentrification and the American underclass


Vocalist is in my corner, said I should hit him up if I ever need help

My lungs feel punctured and my limbs feel like tooth picks being used to pick up a large chicken carcass

Fuck yes

[Doktor Howl]

Thems fightin words! Wait a minute,  you dont like blade runner either, I dont think we are going to agree on this

Also, Dune is best used as a doorstop.

[Doktor Howl]

Update:

I feel like a piece of deli meat and Street Sects isn't talking stupid bullshit re: homelessness gentrification and the American underclass


Vocalist is in my corner, said I should hit him up if I ever need help

My lungs feel punctured and my limbs feel like tooth picks being used to pick up a large chicken carcass

Fuck yes

THERE AIN'T NO REST FOR THE WICKED
MONEY DON'T GROW ON TREES

[Cramulus]

Against the advice of others, I'm on Book 3 of the Dune series. Yeah, the prose is terrible and the dialogue reads like a mashup of the bible and a philosophy lecture.

But it does stimulate my imagination like few books have -- every 100 pages or so, I have to put the book down, stare at the ceiling, and go WHAT. WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST READ. WHAT???

and that's kind of amazing -- very few books I've read in the last 5 years have that kind of WTF factor.

Though worth nothing -- Philip K Dick books like Ubik have that effect on me every 25 pages or so