From the Editor’s Desk

Greetings Futurelads and lassies! Do we have some mail this week! Rachel from Wilmington writes,

“What’s with the Arthur link?” — Rachel

Rachel, that’s just a little inside joke on Thomas and Suzy’s parts! Here at The Bunker, to sum up the situation we’ve been saying: “how touching,” all week long! And guess what else, we heard from the queen herself, Seka! Referring to our Vega Pornbots, Seka writes,

“I thought this was very funny and is most likely to be in our very near future.” — Seka

The Futurists sure hope so! Be sure to check out Seka’s website. But be warned, it may not be work safe!

РCurtis, Se̱or Editor

From the Editor’s Desk

Salutations and thanks for reading! Here at Futurists HQ, which we fondly call the Bunker, we’re always cooking up ways for more Pornbots. Problem is we’re plum Bo Diddlely out of ideas! And how about that Bo Derrick? Is she a 10 or what! This is why we love getting mail! Be sure sure to keep your peepers peeled for next week’s comic when a grocery bag mishap befalls one of our beloved robots, and Thomas finally asks Suzy out! Way to go Tom-Cat!!!

Curtis, Senior Editor

Operation: Red Chicken Disco Jesus was shot sometime when I was in high school. Chris edited a full version of it at some point. However, I’m not certain if this version exists any longer. Over the weekend, I came across a tape with most (if not all) of the original source footage on it. So I recut the movie, added some sound effects and a song.

Why the film was called Disco Jesus is a question now lost to time (or at least to me). As I seem to recall, there was an actual script entitled Red Chicken. In the film, “Red Chicken” is the name of the mission to destroy the demon. At some point in time however, everyone stopped calling the film Red Chicken and rechristened it Disco Jesus. It is possible that the rechristening had to do with a character called the Highwayman who does not appear in the Redux edit of the film. In addition to the unhinged soldier, the Highwayman was played by Brian. All that was ever shot of the Highwayman was Brian in a trench-coat with shoe polish on his face walking down, you guessed it, a highway. Personally however I suspect there wasn’t actually a reason for calling the film Disco Jesus, other than we liked the name.

• Note: In the film at around 2 minutes and 39 seconds the painting Tina is featured. An earlier post on Protozoic, discussing the painting, has become increasingly popular with our German readership.

Roomba was filmed and scored by Megan Register. In the film, the Roomba cleans, must overcome ominous obstacles in the forms of walls and chair legs, and sweeps about in a robotic vacuum ballet. Be sure to visit Megan’s blog Melodic Insomniac.

Dan Deacon — 4.18.08, Old Club, Swarthmore College, PA

Dan Deacon’s Swarthmore show at Old Club was an occasion marked by flagrant disregard for societal rules. No one made me pay anything at the door and once I got inside there was more freeness in the form of beer (even if it was warm, who cares). When I had to piss I was instructed to go in the communal bush on the side of the building. Sure, I had to wait for the woman in front of me to finish popping her squat before I could go, but it is a minor complaint. The real irony is that if this had of been happening at the Sheraton Hotel, I would have been waiting for someone to stab me with a switchblade and mug me, but because it was happening at a college it was about as dangerous as romper-room.

And that’s pretty much how the show went. Totally safe, totally fun, like pure bliss. If there is a Heaven, it is gonna be Saturday Morning cartoons and Dan Deacon. Deacon was as much musician as he was a crazed electrician-maverick and one-man light show. Garbed in an ensemble that may only be described as pure color, Deacon set his gear in the center of the floor, proclaiming himself the antithesis of all that is and will ever be superstar DJ. Sure it is dance music, but it is punk-DIY-ethos at its finest.

If your child is going to have a birthday party, all I’m saying is hire this man to play it. If you do, I guarantee when Christmas rolls around, the kiddies won’t be hollering for Santa Claus, but rather for Deacon Claus.

Photos of the show are at flickr.com.

Here follows the sixth and final piece of the Vort Conspiracy saga I wrote back in the day. Unfortunately a bit on the short side compared to the previous pieces. In theory there would have been more, but from my recollection at this point I’d pretty much used up every scene, character, and detail I’d wanted to include when I originally started out writing the thing.

If one was supposing things that might have happened, then I might have thought up some additional details that seemed interesting enough to include eventually, had I thought about it long enough. But other thoughts came first and no related ideas seemed to be beating a path to my door as they had with these first chapters.

Read the rest of this entry »