May 06
Click for larger imageOutis Comments: This one truly has it all. Car-like, no-roof spaceship? Check. Chrome trim? Check. Scantily clad dame? Check. Dramatic posing? Check. Drinking on the job? Check. Gratuitous discharging of beam weapons? Check. And lastly: William Gibson recommendation? It’s there.
Published 1994
(Average: 8.67 out of 10)
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May 6th, 2019 at 9:13 am
What in tarnation is “ciderpunk”?
May 6th, 2019 at 10:03 am
So how’d you guys meet? AA meeting?
May 6th, 2019 at 12:29 pm
@THX Youths that drink lots of Bulmers and vanadalize things?
May 6th, 2019 at 1:49 pm
I’m just going to fast forward until I hit the Ray Harryhausen stop motion set pieces.
May 6th, 2019 at 1:56 pm
I’m cringing at all the Art of the Deal-inspired one-liners from Mr. Wide Lapel and Even Wider Tie in the back seat already.
And how I missed the fact that there’s a Teat Shields tag until now, I don’t know, but pour yourself a Hornsby’s on me, @Tag Wizard. You’ve earned it.
May 6th, 2019 at 2:35 pm
@Danno – Soon to be a major motion picture. “The Cider Punk Rules”.
May 6th, 2019 at 2:48 pm
Star-go-nuts: The story of Ed McMahon’s tragic decline into a world of booze and hallucinations.
May 6th, 2019 at 3:46 pm
PS Actually, I think that really is supposed to be Big Ed boozing it up in the back seat. Took me a few minutes to get it.
May 6th, 2019 at 3:53 pm
He wasn’t kidding about his brand new combine harvester.
(Kids and furriners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0zxE0SUG1c – the year was blighted by novelty records – this was in the same year as ‘Convoy’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘No Charge’ and Demis Roussos. No wonder Punk happened.)
May 6th, 2019 at 5:26 pm
If that’s big Ed in the back, is that Paul Schaefer driving/shooting?
May 6th, 2019 at 6:04 pm
Boomer Holiday in Space.
May 6th, 2019 at 6:23 pm
@JuanPaul—Too much hair?
May 6th, 2019 at 7:16 pm
CIDERPUNK! I’ve had this book for ages, and never noticed that. Humbled and confused, I am.
May 6th, 2019 at 8:52 pm
I’m more of a lagerpunk, myself.
May 6th, 2019 at 11:13 pm
I gotta say, that looks like a sweet ride.
So…”ciderpunk” is a literary movement named after the drinking habits/lifestyles of it’s authors rather than the content of their writings? Pity, I would look with interest on the adventures of Space Johnny Appleseed.
The discharge of beam weapons does seem gratuitous, since there do not seem to be any targets for them to shoot at. Maybe they’re shooting at Space Rocks we, the reader, cannot discern? There might be a couple lurking behind the “a” and “u” in the title.
*Ed McMahon is either seriously pondering the flavor of his booze or he’s wondering how he ended up in this Space Car with such a pair of weirdos.
I guess the Space Car must have one of them fancy Inertia Dampers to eliminate the effects of acceleration or Ms. Teat Shields is likely to take a tumble out into space sitting like that.
May 7th, 2019 at 1:40 am
Please can someone explain the configuration of that back seat compartment to me? Ed McMahon/George W. Bush is leaning back against some sort of bulwark/console that appears to be uncentered – maybe 3/5ths of the back seating area is on the left side, and 2/5ths is to the right side of the divider.
Furthermore, the only visible door is located at Ed McMahon/George W. Bush’s feet on the rear left hand side. Do all the car’s occupants gain entry through that single portal, or do they just leap in over the sides? The white tufted leather interior would seem a poor choice for the average side-jumping goof unless they polish their shoes carefully before boarding the topless jet-car.
The reason that Ed McMahon/George W. Bush is already half in the bag and gazing rearward is because he is being forced to ride with two hooligans with nothing better to do than ignore the direction of travel while maintaining poor firearms discipline. You would drink and look away, too, in that case.
May 7th, 2019 at 2:44 am
@Ryan, the entire back seat is also a hot tub. A hot tub with individual compartments to keep any tentacled aliens from getting touchy feely under the water.
May 7th, 2019 at 5:20 am
Well, @JuanPaul now you’ve done it—that loose talk of touchy-feeliness has forced the image I’ve been suppressing all day, with mighty effort, to force itself into my consciousness, the awful thought that, there is, indeed, a headrest on the passenger side of the front seat.
May 7th, 2019 at 7:16 am
@ Bruce
Maybe in Garnett’s version of reality, space is littered with traffic signs. Because why not. (I hope those beam weapons make nice clean holes and don’t vapourise everything Trek style because that would be no fun and just plain unsporting.)
May 7th, 2019 at 4:58 pm
I can’t believe Billy Gibson read this. It looks terrible, by the cover. The art isn’t even a good kind of terrible. It’s static, dull, cliched. Say what you like about the anatomy in “Brigands of the Moon” but at least there’s fairly realistic action in it and some rollicking good fisticuffs.
May 7th, 2019 at 5:07 pm
This reminds me of those “Humpday Hubbard” covers we had a couple of months ago. But they were done by a different artist.
May 7th, 2019 at 5:33 pm
@Tracy: out of context it looks like at best a backhanded compliment. It looks like me describing to my wife why Lionel Fanthorpe, ‘Tales of Topographic Oceans’ or ‘Star Maidens’ come under the heading of ‘a guilty pleasure’. I wonder if Gibson’s next line was my usual get-out: ‘it’s research, honest!’.
May 8th, 2019 at 12:14 am
I’ve only just noticed that little skull cap – The future Pope looks a bit more relaxed and informal than his predecessors and so do his bodyguards in the space popemobile with their unconcealed weapons.
May 8th, 2019 at 1:30 am
Lovely space motorboat, but how are they breathing?
…or maybe they’re robots who don’t need to breathe?
May 8th, 2019 at 6:20 pm
It’s Donald Trump…in spaaaaaaaace!
May 8th, 2019 at 8:52 pm
@Anti-Sceptic: Are you starting a GoFundMe for that? He’s good at getting the public to finance his deals.
May 9th, 2019 at 1:49 am
@Anti-Sceptic: hair isn’t nearly overblown enough, as Verylatetotheparty has already pointed out. Indeed, if you look at the expanded picture, the disk of hair on top of his head looks downright concave – have we been mistaken all along and he’s actually a Kappa?
@Anna T, the air is being held in by a force field, of course. Don’t you know SCIENCE???
May 9th, 2019 at 7:25 am
Jason Statham? The guy in the back looks like the opposite twin of Mike Pence (which would make him the good twin), in a flashier suit, a decent wine, and a hawt space-babe.
Pretty sure the guy driving and shooting is Paul Shaeffer with a fake mohawk. Which, as @BC and @JuanPaul noted, means this is Talk-show Sidekicks Gone Wild, but I don’t recall the woman from anything. At least on network, possibly something on cable? Perhaps Mr. x-n remembers her…
It’s also 50’s T-birds (the car) In Spaaace! With Escher-esque back seat. Maybe that configuration is what holds the air in and the lady down. But you’d think the backseat TV would be larger, and a flat screen in The Future.
PS If it’s ciderpunk, why is Ed/GW/Mike drinking wine? Answer me that, William Gibson!!
May 9th, 2019 at 1:22 pm
Ciderpunk (n.): near-future fiction written by Kenneth Bulmer.
May 9th, 2019 at 1:35 pm
@GSSxn—Vanna White?
May 10th, 2019 at 12:57 pm
@B.C.: I was disappointed when I clicked on that link – I thought Vanna White might be a paint that’s the opposite of Vantablack. I could really use that for my hallway that doesn’t get much natural light.
May 12th, 2019 at 5:10 am
@Vlttp—Have you considered Fern Green? Not only does she star in the sequel but she’s great for brightening up a light-deprived hallway.
May 14th, 2019 at 12:53 pm
@ B.C.: Much appreciated, there’s too much infinite worlds of the human imagination round here and not enough decorating tips.
May 14th, 2019 at 1:27 pm
@Vlttp—Although I do think the Feng Shui overall is quite positive.
May 14th, 2019 at 5:05 pm
@B.C.: Well Feng Shui all sounds a bit fancy for my tastes, but overalls are a sensible precaution, and if you don’t have any overalls just wear that jumper your auntie knitted you for Christmas.
May 15th, 2019 at 6:36 am
@BC: Looks a little too out-there for Vanna. But who knows what she does In Spaaaace, away from that drip Sajak? If as we’ve surmised, it’s all sidekicks, she’d be the likely candidate given the publishing date.
@Vlttp: Gloss white is the most brightening, but a pain to keep clean. I’d go semi-gloss, maybe some mirrors, put a higher-watt bulb in the fixture.
Auntie will be so sad if you get paint on that jumper, though. Not angry, just disappointed.
May 16th, 2019 at 4:31 am
I am *shocked and dismayed* that everyone’s missed (or is avoiding) the obvious joke (though Tom Noir up at #14 is sniffing at it)…
He reads some whiskeypunk,
He reads some vodkapunk,
He reads some ciderpunk,
He reads some lagerpunk,
He reads the novels that remind him of the Baen times,
He reads the novels that remind him of the DAW times….
No apologies at all to Chumbawumba – mention on GSS is more than they deserve, IMO….
May 17th, 2019 at 1:08 am
@GSSxn: Thanks very much, sound advice – although I’m told mirrors reflect less light than a similar area of light coloured wall, so I’ll probably just go with a pale semi-gloss. I’m sure no one will mind if I start using the submit page for colour charts.
The jumper, well she keeps making the things, bless her, so it’s a way to quietly dispose of them and say it was an accident “because I liked it so much I wore it all the time” – the only other option is to quietly dispose of my aunt and say it was an accident.
@B.C. On consideration, Feng Shui overalls are probably a bad idea. If I stand in the wrong part of the room for too long it could cause disharmony and I don’t know what would happen if I store them in the wrong drawer afterwards.
May 17th, 2019 at 2:20 pm
@Verylate—Mixing up one’s overalls and drawers is indeed devastating to the Feng Shui balance. It is also certain to give one’s beloved auntie the fantods.
May 17th, 2019 at 10:54 pm
@Vlttp: Of course not, colour chart away. Depends on what light exposure the room gets whether you want your semi-gloss to be pure white, a little on the blue side, or a smidge to the red side. Me personally, I’m inclined to the warm colors, but you might want to go for absolute white for maximum brightness.
Try fobbing the jumpers off onto hipsters who will wear them “ironically”. Auntie might be pleased that you were charitable with them. Depending on how hideous they are, you might give them to homeless people in the winter, but they have higher standards than hipsters do.
@BC: Possibly even the screaming fantods. (Good word, that)