Twofer

A couple of different things to talk about today. First there's Tabico's latest, Weapon Ready, which I read all in a single sitting last Saturday. Once you get started on a great story, it's hard to stop, and Tabico certainly knows how to push my buttons. Of course, most of them are her buttons, too, like the eye thing. She goes in mostly for black; I, mostly for white. Weapon Ready actually gives you two for the price of one - and, in fact, includes the entire "bee girl" look (right down to the antennae) that Tabs enjoys so much. There are also rubberdolls, for those who like that sort of thing. ;-)

Then there's all that wonderful wandering-through-the-Hive-escaping-traps-and-trying-to-figure-out-just-what-the-hell-all-this-is action. Now, Tabico's written her share of hive stories before, and you might find yourself thinking of Rouge and Blue as you read "Weapon Ready." I know I did. But if you think about those other stories too hard, you'll end up being misled...which can be fun in its own way. "Weapon Ready" is very misleading, but that's all I'll say about that. I'd rather let you explore the Hive along with its protagonists instead of spoiling Tabico's surprises.

And so on to my second subject for the day. I'm still loading up my mp3 player with a random mishmash of today's alt-rock and the debatable "classics" of my childhood...like, for instance, "Rapture" by Blondie. I downloaded that one over the weekend and listened to it again, for the first time since the early '80's, on the drive to work yesterday. Even after all those years, I had a pretty clear memory of the loopy proto-rap section about the Man from Mars (See? Loopy, right?). But I'd totally forgotten the dreamy opening:

Toe to toe
Dancing very close
Barely breathing
Almost comatose
Wall to wall
People hypnotised
And they're stepping lightly
Hang each night in Rapture

Ohh, the EMC possibilities just abound, don't they? One of these days I'm going to pull a Jukebox and write a story or three based strictly around the lyrics to songs I like.

Anyway, just for the hell of it, I checked YouTube to see if the official video for "Rapture" was on there. Well, it was, and...there are just no words. You might or might not want to get this thing playing, but if you do, don't say I didn't warn you!