Batman & Robin #1

...

(silence, due to positive impression)

When I read BATMAN R.I.P., I was more than amazed at Grant Morrisons writing. If you're one

of the few whom I've not yet told of all the glory that was Morrisons run so far, let me summarise it quickly:

Batman has a son with the villainous Thalia al Ghul (daughter of Ra's al Ghul), revisits various characters from the 50s-comics (the league of heroes, consisting of various international superheroes which were created by DC for the european market in an attempt to create a "Batman"-counterpart for France/Italy/England etc.), fights 3 impostors (the Ghosts of Batman's past) and a villainous organisation entitled THE BLACK GLOVE and its evel head Dr. Hurt, who might or might not be the devil. 'Batman' was put on Crack and went "all ZUR-EN-ARRH" (see picture above), experienced something called "Bat-Might" (which was a regular character in the 70s-comics: a goofy miniature Batman that flew around his head only he could see/hear), fought a new Joker (who was a cross of Berlin-era Bowie and german-expressionism-film-villains) and finally, yep, sort of died, although we don't really know what happenned just yet.

"Batman and Robin" was described by Morrison as "a mixture of the campy show from the 60s and David Lynch's weirdness - a sort of twisted, dark Psychedelia". With ex-Robin-now-Nightwing Dick Grayson as new Batman and Batmans son Damien-Wayne-al-Ghul as new Robin, the series kicked off with its first issue yesterday.

And I can't put into words how big my amazement at it is!!

Take a look at THIS!!

This is 'Professor Pyg', Morrisons newest villain added to the Bat-verse. Professor Pyg transforms regular people into mindless puppets (see, regular person strapped to the table, mindless puppets to the left and to the right).

I don't want to spoil anything, but this is exactly the kind of villain I wanted to see Batman fight!! This #1 issue of 'Batman & Robin' is amazing in every way imaginable!! Frank Quietly's art is both hillarious and nightmarish at the same time, Morrison's writing is completely over the top, yet suits a modern day Gotham better than anything that dozens of other writiers have tried in this decade - he not only gives the character of 'The Batman' a new context and new importance, but also rejuvenates him. I encourage everybody to start reading this series now!!! It is twisted, it is nightmarish, it is colourful and it is damn funny!!

Scott Matthew

I took a hiatus from my promise to never go to a concert again (which is still up - don't you even THINK of telling me that you've got tickets to Morrissey next week) to see Scott Matthew in the Passion Church/Passionskirche.

I've first heard Matthew's music in the film SHORTBUS, which I encourage you to watch if you're bored - else, the film's not really delivering (to be honest, I thought it was a rather mediocre film, pepped up with gay-porn scenes, which may just not be my cup of tea). However, the Soundtrack was by far the best of SHORTBUS, but somehow I lost track of Matthew.

I was reminded of his when various friends o mine recomended his new record to me as one of the best efforts of a solo-artist in a very long time. And indeed, There is an Ocean that divides and with my longing I can charge it with a voltage that's so violent to cross it could mean death is an absolutely outstanding record.

So, after being quite torn, I decided to go, and it was definetely a very emotional concert. Matthew covered I WON'T SHARE YOU by The Smiths, a song that I've got a bit of a history with, and Neil Young's HARVEST MOON. I can only encourage everybody without a tinitus to go see him on his next tour - this guy really gets you!!