Chart Plan - #Oktoberfest #36 - Janelle Monáe - I Got The Juice

I think tonight I will put together a chart of all the drinks mentioned in my #Oktoberfest sequence. Normally when I do things like this I plan them to ensure I know what's coming next and ensure I don't repeat myself.

Early last year I heard what has been my favourite and most played album over the last two years , "Dirty Computer" by Janelle Monáe , and I often listen to it when walking to work. I thought about buying it on vinyl (which I could do) but it is naturally digital and here is my original post about it. This features the Dirty Computer Emotion Picture and fifty minute science fiction story / music video based on the album well worth watching on your big screen.

So #Oktoberfest continues with "I Got The Juice" by Janelle Monáe and again I am stretching the nature of drink, but you can drink any form of juice , even from Janelle Monáe so it does fit into my definition for #Oktoberfest and I am way over the 31 I expected for October (on 36 now) and will probably do two more.

Janelle Monáe also appeared in the Channel 4 Electric Dreams episode "Autofac" based on a short story by Philip K Dick.


The last couple of days the number of visits have increased from 1200 to 1800 a day , an increase of 50%.  October has had over 40K visits which is the highest ever (39K last month) so I don't know if 400K visits before the end of 2019 is a possibility as it stands at 334K now.

What Happened To Cyberpunk?

Reading 2023 it definitely falls into the Cyberpunk genre. The Amazon series "Mr Robot" (with Rami Malek and Christian Slater)  was a classic TV example of the genre. I first became aware of it with William Gibson's "Neuromancer" although the film of "Blade Runner" is a possible starting point, although this then harks back to Philip K Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"..

The reason I ask is that Steampunk seems to be ubiquitous and also seemingly easily defines, although putting cogs on something DOES NOT make it Steampunk. Steampunk is an analogue , non digital world often accompanied by Victoriana and has it's origins in many of the Disney takes on HG Wells stories, but I digress.

How often is Cyberpunk mentioned, or seen as a genre, it's certainly passing me by. It's not that I miss it as such but it seems to be lost under the general science fiction banner. I would love to be pointed in the direction of recent Cyberpunk, and no doubt people will ask me why I haven't noticed "XXXX" or whatever.

So music wise we go with "Love Missile F1-11" by Sigue Sigue Sputnik which fits snugly with the genre.

Xeronius

Another made up word, although it may be real. Sometimes Google is a positive. Turns out there are bands, artists , twitter users with that name but no definition, but a name wouldn't have a definition.

I heard some lyrics to a "Christmas" song on 6Music this morning which were essentially:

"I Hate This Time of Year

 It's Dark and it's Cold

And I Feel I'm Getting Old.."

To me that doesn't exactly give me positive vibes, quite the opposite. I don't think it'll be on my Christmas playlist. The song is "Home Alone, Too" by The Staves and can be listened to here (a radio session).

I decided to watch the final episodes of "Electric Dreams" Channel4's series based on Philip K Dicks' short stories, and"The Father Figure" played like and excellent Stephen King story, "Autofac" featured the wonderful Janelle Monae (her "Dirty Computer" is my album of 2018) in a post apocalyptic Amazon scenario which featured, for me, a brilliant twist. I am currently watching "Safe and Sound", with the chilling exchange:

Q: "Have your ever seen a terrorist attack?"

A: "They're on the news feed all the time"

You can see them on all 4 here.

So I think to accompanty this pre Christmas post we got to have more Janelle Monae, haven't we.