Mid-Atlantic Moods
Last time I made reference to “Dame David Bowie” was about 15 years ago and someone got really upset, like, properly upset. But when I was a youth, Bowie was always referred to as “The Dame”, which means I must have got it from Smash Hits magazine, an unimpeachable source. Obviously I love the music of David Bowie. I can point out gems where you might imagine no gems were to be found, eg the 1992 soundtrack to Ralph Bakshi’s “Cool World”.
Who was the (live action) star of Cool World? A very young Brad Pitt. I remembered it being Alec Baldwin. IIRC Pitt plays a cartoonist who clearly has a bigger suit budget than any other cartoonist I have met (excepting perhaps Seth).
UPDATE: Apparently Gabriel Byrne is the cartoonist and Young Brad Pitt is a detective. That makes sense. We all remember Gabriel Byrne from his runs on X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Alpha Flight. And The Usual Suspects.
I like to think Cool World is an underrated gem.
In my defence, I’ve not seen it in a *very* long time.
Dolphins are, indeed, not relaxing.
Indeed. It think it was a about the early aughts when we turned on dolphins after learning about their real life behavior that belied the peaceful, harmonious, New-Agey image built up around them during the 80s and 90s.
And the ’70s!
Humans do some pretty depraved things too, y’know. Let he who has not sinned cast the first harpoon
Who ever claimed humans are relaxing though?
You should never trust a creature that always appears to be smiling.
In a nice synchronicity, I was just linked to this classic Mumsnet thread about whether it’s anthropomorphic to call dolphins evil or nice the other day – worth a skim!
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3386868-AIBU-to-be-livid-how-dolphins-are-portrayed-compared-to-how-they-are
Would Jack even know how to use an audio cassette? To a 21st century lad like him, a tape player might as well be an Edison phonograph.
Jack’s a smart lad. I’m sure he’d pick up quickly after watching a few historical documents (I.e. Wayne’s World, High Fidelity, etc).
I mean, there’s a very good chance he’s seen Guardians of the Galaxy, right?
And in fact it’s likely he’s already figured it out. See the September 4 page, panel 1.
I just want to reiterate how happy I am to see Jack again!!
Plus, cassettes are currently enjoying an ironic renaissance not unlike that of vinyl LPs.
I even recently bought one by Allison Crutchfield (because it came with a digital download and was inexplicably cheaper than just buying the digital download directly)
A band that I was in 10 years ago, put out a 5-track mini album on Compact Cassette that sold surprisingly well at gigs despite the fact that it was possible to download all the music for free from Bandcamp
The artifact I really covet is the ne plus ultra of vintage retro: Some darkwave band actually put out a single on an Edison phonograph cylinder
I’m old and out of touch now, but ~15 years ago some small labels (and the entire noise genre) were big on tapes partly because smalls runs of tapes were cheaper to produce than small runs of CDs and selling digital downloads from the merch table was a faff.
(Kristin Hersh is the only person I remember seeing selling a digital album on the merch table in that era; it was on a USB stick.)
My very first band was part of the DIY cassette scene in 1980. Having been inspired by scene leaders The Instant Automatons we put out 4 cassettes over the next 3 years. Anyone who wanted a copy just had to send us a blank C60 and a SAE and we’d record our album and return it along with a photocopied A4 sheet that folded down to form the cover.
Jack would’ve had my vote for Mystery Kid Most Likely To Unironically Own A Cassette even before he found himself in the ’90s.
It’s either two cassettes in a pack or a video tape, at that size. Audio tapes used to fit in one hand, or have we all forgotten?
Do you remember the many variations on “premium” cassette” packaging? Squashy softer plastic with the paper insert tucked under a kind of cellophane? Boxes where the tape pressed into a pre-formed recess? Rave tapes, two to a video cassette sized box? Yes, it was a richer era than we remember.
And that delightful sub-genre – inserts with so many folds that the cassette could not be removed from the case without tearing the paper and woe betide those who ever attempted to put them both back in the box…
Jack did embrace the Mod culture that time. He even rode a Scooter.
The dolphins are not what they seem.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
I had a shiver thinking that this story could end with Shelley who says to Jack “we will meet again in 25 years”.
I think the blend of Jack’s haplessness with his aura of mystery has grabbed hold of Shelley’s heartstrings. Ah, but she’s fated to remain with Bruno for some years yet.
Is she, though? That depends very much upon the way that time travel works in the Bobbinsverse. Unless the Shelly we all know and love met Jack in her youth as we’re seeing here, his arrival in the past is something “new” and is bound to have unforeseen consequences, future revelations blocked by gibberish notwithstanding.
Yeah, I thought about qualifying my statement with some sort of “depending how time-travel works”, but I decided to keep it simple.
Good policy. Depending how time-travel works, any declarative statement could be thus qualified.
We’ve seen meddling in time break up relationships and delete descendants before.
Fortunately for Bruno and Peggy, Shelley’s “type” would make at least two of Jack.
…Which, in a time-travel scenario, isn’t entirely out of the question.
In panel #4, thanks in part to Jack’s gesture towards Shelly, I keep wanting to read the sign on the door as one of John’s classic sound effects.
Meanwhile, the Panel 6 SFX was actually etched into the sidewalk as the concrete was curing, the signature of urban artist Don K.
Came here to say two things. 1) Love your work. It’s amazing to see Jack again. And 2) that Gabriel Byrne plays the cartoonist. Young Mr. Pitt is actually a human detective from the Los Angeles of the 1940s trapped in the cartoon universe from wherefrom the hypersexual “Holly Would” (Kim Bassinger) is trying to escape by manipulating the cartoonist in the real world.
Remember Cool World from a Golden Age of movie soundtracks of ’90s — like The Saint, The Crow — that introduced me to acts that continue to be favorites. Mostly by compiled by Graeme Revell, though I don’t think this was one of them.
I like his restrained, subdued performance on Real Cool World, but the David Bowie movie tune that never fails to grab me Absolute Beginners. It’s one of five or six songs that, if it catches me with my guard down, can bring me to tears.
Absolute Beginners is a really great song! And from a period where his recorded output was pretty sub-par.
I had the Absolute Beginners soundtrack, the double-sized CD version. Great stuff, even though the movie is… UNEVEN at best. It’s the only place you can hear Mr. Bowie’s rendition of “Volare”.
Poor Jack, no one believe him. I wonder what he will do now. Maybe he will meet the local young mad scientists and they will destroy timespace together?
I saw Cool World. Two hours of my life I’ll never get back.
I’d guess the diagnosis was a hypomanic episode rather than hypermanic, although Jack might not have noticed the distinction.
“Gabriel Byrne’s run on X-men”…John A. you have simply the best alternate universes!!
Yeah, remember when the X-men went up against Keyser Söze?
When I read “Dame David Bowie” here, I thought, makes perfect sense! John A’s genius hits the mark again. I do not recall the earlier reference.
Just listened to the tune and I love it.
Have never heard of the movie Cool World and now will seek it out, even though Bakshi doesn’t usually do it for me.
Cool World – I seem to recall this was some kind of hybrid take on Pygmalion.
Mid-Atlantic Moods exists, sort of? I’ve never clicked a youtube that said “No views” before.
Huh. I think I’ve been to Flagler Beach. Maybe I should play it to see if I remember what it sounds like
Back about 8 years ago or so (tumblr-times) there were a handful of single-function sites that served up low- or no-view videos from youtube. I’m sure it was just the passing of a fad that did them in, but I do wonder if there’s something else to it.
Suddenly I’m wondering why Jack is touching his wristwatch in panel 6. Is that an anachronistic smartwatch?
Digital watches had buttons, some even had built in calculators, with all the numbers in a tiny keyboard. They were cool and made me wish I was better at math so I could use them more.
Alas not enough to motivate me to learn more math