Make Believers

Episode #11: Velvet Pickle

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Special Notes: Poor penguins! From Werner Herzog’s Encounter at the End of the World.

Links of Interest:

• Bengali Tiger by Six Point Brewery is mighty yummy, if you enjoy IPAs.
• Animals with slightly faded color schemes who aren’t all out albino? For the most part, they’re leucistic. The white tiger, however, is a genetic mutation of the actual Bengali tiger.
• Listen to the panel Ming participated in with Chrissie Zullo and Janet Lee while the three were visiting Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC to celebrate the release of Womanthology!
• The Steampunk World’s Fair is sure to be a gas… or a STEAM!
• Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, we want to smell you!
• Caterpillars and penguins are delightful and mysterious in their ways.
• Alexa’s favorite flicks this week were Microcosmos and Million Dollar Mermaid, while Ming longs to someday see The Notorious Bettie Page.
• Healing Spices will teach you the tubular truth about turmeric!
• Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics and Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand are Ming’s main read this week. And don’t forget to check out A.C. Gaughen’s Scarlet for a YA Robin Hood era romp!
• Speaking of YA, Alexa dug Five Children and It along with its sequel, The Phoenix and the Carpet, when she was a kidlet.
• Velvet Goldmine is the best. THE BEST. Here’s a board game Alexa and Ming began devising for the movie way back when they were wee freshmen in art school.

VELVET GOLDMINE board game
Players: Brian Slade, Curt Wild, Oscar Wilde
BRIAN:

1. You witness your ‘Aunt’ doing ‘business’ with the theater’s proprietor.
2. You perform ‘Tutti Frutti’ on a makeshift stage in your living room. Your family is apathetic.
3. You grow up quite suddenly and dashingly. “Which are you, a mod or a rocker?” Roll 1,2,3,4, proceed three steps and become a Mod. Roll 5,6, proceed five steps and become a rocker.
4. Use dildo on self.
5. Break up with your girlfriend.
6. You are now modern and buy a Vespa. See that young lad? Yea, that one, with the shiny pocket watch? Follow him and bugger him senseless.
7. You become a nymphomaniac streetwalker in Birmingham. Roll 1,2,3,4: One night you catch the flu and die. Roll 5,6: You are rescued by a slightly older gentleman who brings you to a lovely little cottage.
8. Rocker, huh? You become swiftly and dashingly addicted to heroin. You lose half your body weight, which makes you irresistibly attractive the local pub manager. Your rampant alcoholism sets in. Go one space to rehab.
9. REHAB. Lose one turn.
10. You are an aspiring musician with hippie clothes and hair. You try to get into an exclusive glam nightclub. Admission is 5 bub. If you were a rocker/heroin addict, you don’t have it. Retire to a lovely little cottage with a slightly older gentleman. If you were a mod, you didn’t have to pay for rehab so you give the man your change and go in.
11. In the club you see Mandy and meet Jack Fairy. You steal Oscar Wilde’s pin and dance the night away. Advance 3 spaces to the Sombrero Club.
12. You do heroin again. Go back to REHAB.
13. Like a peppermint, eaten away, you choke on something and die.
14. SOMBRERO CLUB. Get noticed by an older gentleman. He swiftly buggers you and becomes your manager.
15. You develop an interest in astronomy. Trace a ladder to the stars with your unfiltered cigarette, trampishly.
16. You attempt suicide. Go to REHAB.
17. You go down like a knackered lift at a local rock festival. But you see the Wylde Rattz and Curt, and wish you had thought of it first. You will, Luv, you will, but not with this management.
18. Jerry Devine pins your manager! You perform ‘The Whole Shebang’ on ‘Top of the Pops.’ Advance 3 spaces.
19. Every girl in England is wearing glitter eye makeup, and a significant percentage of boys as well.
20. You drop your scarf whilst running. Go back two spaces and get it.
21. Photo shoot with Gerry Divine and Co.
22. SHANNON! Will you fight, will you swagger or sway? If you roll a 1, 2, 3: advance three spaces. 4, 5, 6: advance six spaces.
23. Who do you most fancy meeting in America, Brian?
24. Brian?! Who!?
25. CURT WILD!
26. After a rough day at the recording studio, you and Curt do heroin together. Go to REHAB. Lose 3 turns, but proceed to HOT SOULMATE SEX when you get out.
27. You and Curt are seen naked in bed together after the orgy.
28. You and Curt go to the amusement park and sing Satellite of Love.
29. You and Curt tongue-kiss until your face goes numb.
30. HOT SOULMATE SEX
31. You and Curt eat ice cream. Move back one space.
32. You get in a fight at the studio. Roll 1,2,3,4: advance one space. 5,6: advance two
33. Curt leaves you. You decide to fake your own death. Bad idea. Proceed two spaces.
34. You kiss and make up, congrats. You live happily ever after.
35. Sniff coke off Coco’s ass. Laugh at Mandy. Roll 1,2,3,4: become withdrawn from society, years later become Tommy Stone. 5,6: go find Curt and apologise. Go to HOT SOULMATE SEX

CURT:

1. You are born in a trailer. Incest was perhaps involved, but you are still damn cute.
2. At age eleven you watch your siblings grabbing each other, playing in the sprinkler. You are strangely aroused.
3. You are caught in the loo at the service of your older brother.
4. They guarantee the treatment will fry the fairy clean out of you, but all it does is make you bonkers every time you hear electric guitar. Advance two spaces to music festival.
5. You become a heroin addict. Roll 1,2,3,4: advance one space. 5,6: two spaces
6. You cover yourself in oil and glitter and get noticed by Brian Slade.
7. Your heroin addiction gets out of control. Go to REHAB.
8. REHAB. Lose 5 turns, then proceed to SMOKY AMERICAN NIGHTCLUB.
9. SMOKY AMERICAN NIGHTCLUB. Brian Slade comes over and says hi. Have lunch with him the next day.
10. NEXT DAY. Decide you’d like Brian to be your main man. Oh yeah, and cut a record. Proceed to recording studio.
11. Recording studio. Roll 1,2,3,4: get angry and leave Brian, proceed to Death of Glitter. Roll 5,6: make up and finish the record and live happily ever after.
12. Death of Glitter. Love + Art = Tragedy. Make love to some kid on the roof as a spaceship flies by. Years later, recognize this same guy in a depressing barroom. He looks better now. Maybe you should give him a chance.

OSCAR WILDE:

1. You are born on planet Stardust
2. Recognizing your potential, you are sent to Earth.
3. You want to be a pop idol.
4. You meet Michael Sheen. He’s alright, but you can do better.
5. You meet Ioan Gruffudd. Date him! Stay with him, for the love of God, he loves you and has a really cute hat!
6. Meet Jude Law. Lose your mind. Proceed directly to Gaol.
7. Reading Gaol. Write De Profundis.
8. Get out of Gaol. Die.

Episode #10: Captain Infinity

Make Believers #10 [ 1:20:39 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Links of Interest:

• Wegman’s! It’s in Massachusetts now!
• Hey Euge! To witness our junk in trunk solution, um. NSFW. Or life.
• Alexa’s Batman-themed album, Blackout Shades, is a sonic gothic exorcism. The Bradbury Building is a high point of LA.
• Ming’s got some cool stuff going on! She started a new Star Trek: The Original Series themed webcomic with her frequent collaborator, Kevin Church, called BOLDLY GONE, and her online shop is finally opening!
• Dark Shadows! Will Willlie ever leave? Or come back? Or finally leave? Tune in next week!
• Peacock is Cillian Murphy’s latest adventure dressed as a lady.
• Alexa’s fave creature of the moment is the fossa! Ming’s is THE TENTACLE.
• Our favorite BBC detectives! Sherlock, Luther, Zen, And Tony Hill!
• For dated movies with a timeless message of sci-fi environmentalism, Ming acknowledges that Solarbabies exists, while Alexa suggests Silent Running.
• The Fresno Nightcrawler is gonna get you!
• Looking for love, or your very own CAPTAIN INFINITY? Good luck, brave soul. OkCupid.com

Episode #9: Blackout Shades

Make Believers #9 [ 1:03:51 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Music Notes:

♪ Listen to and/or purchase Alexa and Mark’s Batman-inspired album, Blackout Shades, at the Maiden Names’ Bandcamp!

♪ Watch the Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow music video, directed by Neil Cicierega, at www.yoursuffering.com or below:

Explaining an Affinity for Bats
By A.E. Stallings

That they are only glimpsed in silhouette,
And seem something else at first—a swallow—
And move like new tunes, difficult to follow,
Staggering towards an obstacle they yet
Avoid in a last-minute pirouette,
Somehow telling solid things from hollow,
Sounding out how high a space, or shallow,
Revising into deepening violet.

That they sing—not the way the songbird sings
(Whose song is rote, to ornament, finesse)—
But travel by a sort of song that rings
True not in utterance, but harkenings,
Who find their way by calling into darkness
To hear their voice bounce off the shape of things.

(Source)

Episode #8: Hip-Happenin’ Shoppenin’

Make Believers #8 [ 50:18 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Correction(s): Alexa mentioned that Kunjip was near 10th St., but it’s actually on W 32nd between Broadway and 5th. Here’s the website: http://www.kunjip.net/

Music Notes:

♪ Listen to Alexa’s Scarecrow/Jonathan Crane inspired single, “Your Suffering,” at the Maiden Names’ Bandcamp! And watch the music video, directed by Neil Cicierega, at www.yoursuffering.com or below:

Links of Interest:

• New York Comic Con was a huge, overwhelming blast!
• Hey Adam S.! Thanks for saying hi!
• Do you dig Star Trek fanfilms and tales of James Tiberius Kirk’s romantic exploits? Then Bastards of Kirk might just be for you!
• We briefly met some of the Black Tribbles podcast team and they were super nice, extra funny, and snappily space-dressed!
• Alexa and Mark Boccard’s band, Maiden Names, has released their first single! The full Batman-themed album drops 11/11/11.
• Comicazi is Ming’s new local comic shop in Davis Square, and it’s a pretty sweet spot.
• Check out Banana Design Lab‘s site for My Beating Heart, the Fireplace Simulacra, and more fun inventions!
• Trevor Grove has mad crazy sculpting abilities. Here’s the Walter White sculpt that blew Alexa’s mind!
• We thought Hobo with a Shotgun was a terrible letdown. Rutger Hauer’s autobiography, All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants, and Blade Runners, however? A true gem. Thanks, Brandon Bird!
• Octopus Pie by Meredith Gran is a comic we both enjoyed!

Birk O’Halloran’s notes on Heroine, from Iconic Wine:

The project started August 2010 while I was on a trip to Sonoma for a wedding.  While taking some extra time to visit friends in the area, I was given an opportunity to buy some grapes from Steve Matthiasson’s (the Michael Jordan of vineyard management in my opinion) vineyard Michael Mara.  A great site just inside the Sonoma coast area, it sits on the valley floor but in a dead river bed. Something about the soil and silt there retains huge amounts of acidity in the fruit and stresses the vines severely, making for a great growing site.

Dan Petroski, wine maker for Larkmead and Massican, is both a friend and consulting wine maker.  With his guidance we made 4 barrels across two separate harvests.  All aged in neutral oak for 10 months, each barrel was vinified differently to add complexity.  Each barrel had varied amounts of botanage and malolactic fermentation.

The wine is 100% clone 4 chardonnay, bottled on August 12th and aged 2 months in bottle before release.  The wine is probably much brighter and fresher than people expect from California chard.  I think people mistake richness and body with complexity.  I hope we made something more subtle and refreshing while still producing a complex wine that tastes good.

The inspiration behind the label, other than my being a giant nerd, is also that the super hero comic is a largely American art form. While I love French and Italian wine, it always makes me laugh when Americans wine makers name their wine “château something”. For that reason, I wanted the label of my wine to reflect a uniquely Californian sentiment.

Episode #7: A View to a Kawaii

Make Believers #7 [ 1:31:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Before We Begin:

Christopher Walken once said of his blond makeover in the James Bond film A View to a Kill:

“In the Bond movie I had my hair dyed an impossible yellow color, and that became my motivation in a lot of scenes: I had a secret subtext, which I never discussed with anybody. Every time I had a scene with somebody I’d be thinking: What do you think of my hair? Do you like my hair? Do you like what they did to me? That they made me look like this? So next time you see the movie, every time I torture somebody I’m really thinking, You see what they did to me with this hair?”

Music Notes:

♪ Japan’s Ambassador of Cute has an EP called Chozetsu Harajuku Otome Kakumei, and you can buy it through http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/ if you search for Kimura Yu.

Links of Interest:

• Lamar Abrams makes some supremely slick drawings. Nab yourself some of the action with the Remake graphic novel!
• Japanese street fashion via the American anime convention scene is available for your eyes and closets to enjoy at Sixh!
• Speaking of street fashion, Alexa makes beautiful, unique, hand-painted T-shirts for dirt cheap dollars. Pop on over to her deviantArt for more details on how to commission her!
• As always, Ming can’t recommend Jeremy Messersmith’s music highly enough.
• So, Homestuck… CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN?!?!
• To catch H.P. Lovecraft’s tales of Cthulu and other classics in comic form, look no further than SelfMadeHero!
• Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian is a bit hard to get your hands on, but it’s a rip-roaring adventure of high seas stakes and grotesques! Look for it at Olympian Publishing or from Mr. Bastian himself, perhaps?
• Consult with the Hogwarts Sorting Hat to determine your house affiliation!
• HOARD EVERYTHING. For your learning! Love, The Learning Channel.
• Check out Alexa’s Proof of Kimura Yu Kawaii~!

Episode #6: With Love and Dada

Make Believers #6 [ 1:21:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Music Notes:

♪ Alexa loves Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, particularly the track “Ready to Start.” Ming loves Jeremy Messersmith’s The Reluctant Graveyard, and she drew a poster for its attendant tour!

Links of Interest:

• Interested in Akvavit? Alexa recommends Aalborg, which is Danish made but a Swedish favorite. And how could you go wrong with this decadent, warrior-ready accessory?
• Yuengling and Narragansett are our trusty classic beer picks of the week.
• Samantha Brown wants to take you around the world!
• Ming enjoyed Captain America and the First Thirteen #1 and Batman Inc. #6. Thanks for the recs, Kevin Church!
• Loved Hellboy and want to see more Ron Perlman in more prosthetics? Beauty and the Beast awaits!
• Marvel motion-comics are now on Netflix WI. Black Panther, Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D., Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, and Iron Man: Extremis.
• If you’re a fan of conspiracy theories and symbology, then The Vigilant Citizen has got you covered. Check out their take on “Lady Gaga, the Illuminati Puppet,” Part 1 and Part 2. And if that doesn’t read enough into your pop culture, then they’ve also analyzed the Born This Way, Telephone, Alejandro, and Bad Romance music videos.
• Tim Callahan not only poses a thoughtful question, he also writes a damn good Grant Morrison tome.
• CHAOS. REIGNS.
• Extraordinary Chickens and Extra Extraordinary Chickens are the cutest!
• Here are Ming’s antique store finds:

Episode #5: Anarchy 99

Make Believers #5 [ 1:37:27 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Links of Interest:

• We dressed up as Supergirl and Thor! And here’s an in depth look at Ming’s Thor costume, courtesy of Comics Alliance.
• Be sure to try out the official Make Believers superhero-themed cocktail menu!
• Sandra Lanz is too kind, and quite talented to boot!
• Boston Comic Con is a great show, if you’re in the New England area!
• Are you intelligent? Our condolences.
• Jess Fink’s Chester 5000 XYV is an excellent, extremely explicit take on the time-honored erotic theme of “girl meets robot.” Also check out her work in the Adventures Into Mindless Self Indulgence comic, if you can get your hands on it!
• Speaking of Mindless Self Indulgence, get your hands on Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy, too… if you dare.
• Becky Cloonan’s Wolves mini-comic is dire, dark, and devastatingly grand. As are all her works!
• You guys, listen. Just listen. xXx, okay? And Fast Five, also. Actually, just Vin Diesel. All of his stuff. All of Dwayne’s, too.
• WE LOVE WONDERELLA!
• Ross Campbell’s Wet Moon is more than worth the meandering journey.

Addendum: We neglected to address a few listener questions from Tumblr, so here are our answers in text!

1. soulbots said: Favorite place you’ve traveled to?
2. geekvariety said: Favorite cartoon? Favorite car? Favorite writer? Favorite artist? Favorite song? Favorite country? Favorite person named Scott Hall?
3. ladiesmakingcomics said: Anything else about women comics creators you wanted to say at the BCC panel but didn’t get to?
4. -flakes said: What is the one thing you guys could eat forever? And, don’t say Avocados, Alexa.

1. Alexa: New Zealand. So so beautiful. Ming: Vietnam. My stay was too brief, but it was a gorgeous blur.
2. Alexa: Batman: the Animated Series. My Mitsubishi Lancer. Edgar Allen Poe. Edward Gorey. “Combat Baby” by Metric. I like the U.S.A. Ming: Batman: The Animated Series. My mom’s Toyota Prius. Mary Renault. Egon Schiele. “All My Ghosts” by Frank Black and the Catholics. The United States.
3. Alexa: Yes, and I think we addressed that in the podcast. Ming: What Alexa said, and of course, so much more. It’s a broader societal issue that no single comic can fully address or fix, but like so many issues of that magnitude, it’ll never be resolved by complacency.
4. Alexa: Morning Star brand vegetarian bacon. Ming: Perfectly ripe blueberries.

Episode #4: Brouhaha Fiasco

Make Believers #4 [ 1:42:28 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Music Notes:

♪ Alexa Rose - Treading Water ♪ Right-click save-as to listen to this original song composed and performed by Alexa, inspired by Daniel Lee’s real life hero story featured in Episode #3.

Links of Interest:

• Boston Comic Con, April 30th – May 1st, is right around the corner!
• Discover Treasure Quest on The Discovery Channel, of all places.
• Check out Jimmy Aquino’s writeup of Invader Zim Live! And check out the previously recorded version of Invader Zim as well, if you can find it.
• If you’re interested in collecting some original comic book art, take a look at work by Eric Canete, Evan Shaner, Paul Maybury, and many more!
• Call of Cthulu? A great film. The Haunting in Connecticut? A film in which Cthulu does not feature.
• Cory Doctorow wants to have some real talk with you about the value of personal privacy.
• Muriel Barbary’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a beautiful piece of narrative therapy.
• Parnassus Book Service is a treasure trove of unexpected reads, tucked carefully away in Yarmouth Port, MA.
• Captain Sisko YELLS AT EVERYONE.
• This is Ming’s Irish friend, Ryan Murphy. The hamster instigator: