Bsides 02 - 2135: The Year Disco Came Back

[tbaker2500]

Wow. Writers can be a pretty desperate bunch, I guess. Does Resnick submit, or do you request?

[Mr. Tweedy]

Well, this is definitely Mrs. Tweedy's favorite episode ever. Her words: "That was awesome." "That was brilliant." "That perfectly encapsulated the hatreds of the two genres."

She was in a better position to appreciate the story than I was, since she used to be a punk herself and her dad told her woeful tales of the disco era. She says the story nailed everything. She loved.

You'd better watch out making stuff like this, Norm, this stuff Mrs. Tweedy thinks is all "brilliant" and "perfect." Mr. Tweedy might start to get jealous.

[deflective]

There's a lot of whining involved, ego coaxing, and one of us usually has to hire a prostitute...

Wait, a prostitute? There weren't any female voices in the podcast.

Who said the prostitute was female? rawwr!

wait, did normsherman just admit to being a prostitute?
the next time you guys have a hard time convincing him to something consider hiring his dad. i have it on good authority that he'll accept canadian money.

all seriousness tho, good job recently. escape artists have been getting a little choppy for the first time in years (a well deserved break really) and you've been stepping up huge.

[cammoblammo]

That was a fantastic use of the twenty or so minutes I had to listen.

The intertextuality was amazing---all those little side references to (now) obscure music and musicians. I mean, introducing a story about disco with 'Aqualung' was pure genius!

I also got all the names of the heavy metal stars towards the end. I must say I always thought that about Lars Ulrich.

I think what I'm saying is that this story dredged up some very happy memories from before my youth. If my children had listened to this they would have no idea what was going on, but I wouldn't care: the tables are turned. No longer do I have to sit and nod vacantly while they listen to songs about the fact that kissing girls is pleasant (huh? I knew that over twenty years ago and never wrote a song about it! What's next? Foetuses in kitchens?). We can listen to this story together and revel in a day when music was... well, when I knew what was going on.

The slightly scary post script was that I went into a shop after listening to this story, and the BeeGees was playing. This was on the same day Obama was crowned Antichrist, erm, I mean, President of the US. Coincidence? Better buy some flame proof underwear, just in case...

[pianoman69]

Thebrog and cammoblammo, actually, nailed the point to the wall, spackled some paint over it and hung a picture on the stud. Tweety's close, in that the interpretation does wax Biblical; but this is not meant to be taken as a flippant disregard toward the sanctity of scripture. The mindset I had was more of a: "Hey, God's got a sense of humor too, and he probably slapped his forehead and groaned during the Disco era, as well as any other movement where people defined their lives by entertainment."

Anywho. I'm surprised at how well this piece was recieved, and I am truly glad Norm decided to publish it--I'd always felt it was a medium that needed to be recited rather than read, and he did an excellent job.

People who've read the piece usually come away with the same taste Norm did initially, and then indulge me with patronizing compliments. So again: I'm surprised at the reception of the piece, and I'm glad you all like it. In fact, it made me so happy I did a backflip from my platform boots and landed perfectly into my bell-bottoms before barreling brainlessly downward from a cliff construed of derelict disco junkies piled in great heaps throughout the futuristic plain that is my subconcious.

[tbaker2500]

Welcome home, Pianoman, welcome home.

[Mr. Tweedy]

Tweety's close, in that the interpretation does wax Biblical; but this is not meant to be taken as a flippant disregard toward the sanctity of scripture. The mindset I had was more of a: "Hey, God's got a sense of humor too, and he probably slapped his forehead and groaned during the Disco era, as well as any other movement where people defined their lives by entertainment."

Oh, I didn't take it as flippant. I just took it as an inside joke where the people "inside" are the ones who've read some of the Bible's more bizarre passages and would recognize the similarities. From that perspective it's almost reverent. (Almost.)

[pianoman69]

There certainly are some bizarre biblical passages. Like when the forty youths say "Go on you baldhead, go on you baldhead!" to Elijah (or was it Elisha?) and God sends bears after 'em. I've always scratched my head about that bit--I read a forum once where somebody said: "George Costanza with the power of God".

[myke_deschain]

Sorry to bump this but I'm still going though all the back issues of DC and everything associated with it...

But yes I'm feeling what pretty much everyone else felt on this one.. Although it did have a good amount of priceless condescending one-liners, it failed to deliver as a story. Felt more like a 20 minute punchline.

[eric_marsh]

Disco is what drove me to become an opera fanatic.

[Talia]

Disco killed my dog and ran off with my wife.

:/

[TheDragonMaster]

Sorry to bump the thread. This episode just turned up in my feed last night, though I've been subscribed for a little over a month.

Awesome story! I grew up in the days following the... genre's in question, but this has re-sparked an idea for an RPG campaign I'd considered running a few months ago.

One question though. The song at the end, where would I go to pick up a copy (of that version)? I tried the link in the first post, but it leads to a fansite, and I'm not sure where to look for the song itself.

[myke_deschain]

Awesome story! I grew up in the days following the... genre's in question, but this has re-sparked an idea for an RPG campaign I'd considered running a few months ago.

you design games?!

[TheDragonMaster]

you design games?!

On occasion, though nothing anyone's heard of. I do keep a running list of campaigns I'd like to run, though most of those have now passed from the "campaigns to run" list to the "stories to write" list.

[Unblinking]

Haahahahahahaha!
Silly, silly fun, kept me laughing throughout it all.
I am a bit surprised though that with the combination of religion and Disco, there was no mention of "Disco Inferno" because, really, that would've been the perfect fusion of the two.