I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Is David Bowie Dying” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

This six minute track starts with scraping and electronic sounds and a two note guitar melody that rise sand falls. Neon Indian, an electronic chillwave band, is the guest on this song

Around 2 minutes the music turns optimistic and soaring and then it  mellows out with trippy sounds. The lyrics change to

The mellowness lasts for about a minute then the angular guitars returns.  This second half feels less harsh and more trippy, although the wild effects are still in place.  This sequence runs through to the end as they repeat

Take your legs and run
Into the death-rays of the sun

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #10

This limited series ends with this issue.

Katchoo is the voice over as she worries about the five years the earth has left to exist–she will have this hanging over her head as she returns home.

Francine reports that her mother is doing fine–she has the will to be alive to watch her grandchildren grow up.  This, of course, makes Katchoo even sadder.

Back home, the girls are up in the air vent wondering why Aunt Libby is crying.  But she’s not.  It turns out that there is a heavily tattooed man with a gun telling her that he plans to kidnap the two little girls because the dykes who live there have a lot of money and he intends to get the ransom for them.

Aunt Libby is awesome and she gives him a ton of sass.  So much so that he actually forces her to the ground.  This causes the girls to scream out.  They are discovered.

He pulls off the grate as we hear a scream.

But the scream came from the man because Sam arrived just in time to neutralize the threat.  Aunt Libby says that most people are good but every once in awhile you meet a stinker like this one.  Sam says “what do you do with stinkers, we take out the trash,” as she drags the big guy out.

When Koo says that’s Sam’s just like her Aunt Tambi, Sam has a shock of recognition.  Tambi Baker?  You didn’t tell me this was her family.  Aunt Libby says The first tile of Tambi is don’t talk about Tambi.

As Libby comforts the girls, Ashley says, “I want my mommies” and Koo says “I want to be a marine!” [like Sam].

Far away Tambi and Rachel are discussing things.  Rachel says that Lilith likes to create the problem then leave it for others to deal with or die.  Tambi says, “You just described Satan.”

Tambi thinks that five years is probably optimistic once the public finds out about the bomb.

Rachel says they can stop the bomb if they wipe out civilization like with the black plague.

Zoe comments:

So if we do nothing the human race will torch the universe…or we can destroy the human race and save the universe.  I mean, I hate people as much as the next psychopath but I don’t want to kill all of them.

But Tambi has a plan.  Since this weapon is so specialized, there can only be 100 or so people who know how to make it.  Just neutralize those 100 people and it should be okay.

Zoe chimes in that she’s fine with killing 100 people.

But Tambi suggests calling in Julie Martin (from the Echo series) who had withstood the Phi bomb once before (too much to explain), and let her do her thing.

As the book (and this series) ends, Tambi calls in Katchoo for help.  But Katchoo declines, saying that she’s spending the rest of her days (five years or otherwise) with her family.

I’m not sure when it was revealed that Moore would be doing a follow up series [Five Years], but I’m glad I knew it by the time I finished this one.