Alternatural Thoughts: Disco In-Fairness

Met the Village People yesterday. It was an interesting experience. As a little grade schooler, I’ve had ample exposure to their songs, as well as to Abba’s, because my parents liked them during the time and played their tapes in the car whenever possible. My siblings and I were pretty bombarded with that, and frequent spins of Beatles and Elvis records back then were almost always within earshot. So it’s kinda strange but a welcome opportunity that I was among those who were sent to cover the press lunch for the VP's Manila concert and talk to them. Not that I'm a fan or anything, but, well, they're the Village People.

It’s weird but cool how people’s paths and lives cross sometimes, when you directly meet or talk to someone or some people who entertained you or shared a fragment of themselves through their works. I don’t really think about it too much, as it’s work and I don’t get too sentimental about it, but I can still appreciate that I get to meet people with some importance to some of my relatives, or friends. They must think it’s cool that I get to interact with them, however briefly.

And it is, I must admit. While it’s first and foremost a job, it’s one that I love, my attitude about celebrity and fame notwithstanding. And, stepping back and looking at it from the outside, I get to talk and write about different interesting people, which may ultimately look good in my resume.

Was able to interview the “Construction Worker” and the “G.I.”. They were in full costume, but they obviously don’t look the way they used to, of course. It's great that they’re still performing for their fans after almost three decades. Talking to those two original members of the iconic disco group yesterday was fun and a little eye-opening; you just learn about people’s metamorphoses and their contributions to pop culture when you least expect it. Mr. Construction Worker, by the way, wore a button, pinned on his denim jacket. It had a picture of George Dubya, and the caption, “A village in Texas has lost its idiot”. I laughed and told him that I love it, and he replied, “Thank you!”

I was given a pair of tickets to the show, and gave them to those who were most excited about it, which turned out to be one of the sibs.

Update: I noticed that parts of the article I wrote were cut off, unfortunately, due to space constraints. It exceeded the character count, apparently. Will just post some of the q & a's that were removed here.
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How has the group changed, musically?

David Hodo: We pretty much do the same thing we’ve always done. It’s a recipe that continues to work for us. We haven’t been required to change a lot because we’re so unusual anyway. We do new music, but we stay up with dance music, which is our passion.

Alex Briley: It hasn’t changed a lot. We did a lot of clubs and stuff but now we’ve gotten into the fair circuit in the States. The only thing that’s different is, children of the fans from the ‘70s are coming to see us now.

How does it feel to be gay icons?

DH: It’s fabulous! We’re not only gay icons, we’re icons for a decade. People know us. We’ve been a punchline in every movie, in every sitcom.

AB: Everyone has decided that there’s something to say about Village People. If it’s a joke or something funny, people say, “Oh yes, I know who they are!”

DH: You can see us from ten miles away and know who it is.

You went through a “Bowie-esque” phase back in the ‘80s.

AB: We did a “renaissance” album, with different costumes and facial makeup. It’s a completely different look and sound. It did well in pockets around the world. It was fun.

DH: I think that album has some of our best music, but it also has some of our worst!

Have you gotten used to touring after all these years?

DH: We’re always touring. After this, the group goes to Texas to do a show, and we’ll be in Belgium next week. I remember being out for eight weeks once. And I was so homesick, I’d cry! But now we’re able to judge it for ourselves and say, “Okay, this is long enough!” So we come home and take time off. That’s one good thing about running our own business. I don’t think we’re ever gone long enough to miss our families.

What’s the most important thing to remember about the music industry?

DH: You gotta have good lawyers. And you gotta have lawyers on top of lawyers.

Describe the Village People’s legacy, in a nutshell.

DH: I think “YMCA” will probably be around forever. It’s possibly the most famous pop song in history, and people will say it’s from this crazy group who dressed up like cowboys and Indians. I think it’s a great legacy to leave behind. We represented fun.

AB: We basically represented fun and energy. It’s like Halloween everyday!

DH: In fact, it’s funny, we’ve always got a big show for Halloween, and to us, we never get to wear any costumes for Halloween. It’s always our work clothes!

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Historicalifragilistic

According to the "Grandmaster" entry in All-New Marvel Universe # 6:

“As the game unfolded, Earth-616’s Avengers (unwittingly representing the scholar) and a league of heroes from the divergent cosmos (unwittingly representing Grandmaster) were manipulated into fighting over some of the most powerful objects in their respective universes.”

That means that the 2003 crossover JLA-Avengers really happened in continuity. The unnamed “scholar” is Krona, while “a league of heroes” is the JLA, and “divergent cosmos” refers to the DC Universe. Nice. The "Galactus" entry from last year’s MU-Fantastic Four handbook also briefly mentioned the crossover and its effects without naming the other company’s characters, as did the sadly lackluster Crime Syndicate story arc (it had the incubating Krona Egg). It’s nice that the two mainstream companies are sharing some history and recognizing that this event took place. Some of their titles are blatantly disregarding important ones, although parts that don’t work anymore are thankfully forgotten. Time really is a stretchy thing in comic books, and elements that don’t make sense anymore are conveniently shoved away (like specific eras that point out a character’s age, etc.). I wonder, though, if DC and Marvel’s co-owned dorky character, Access, will make a re-appearance. Since he didn’t show up in JLA-Avengers, it’s safe to assume that he’s been forgotten, at least for now.

Creecher Feecher