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How great would it be to have a little floating cottage in the Cotswolds?

If you’ve been paying extremely close attention, you might have noticed this is the same cottage we saw on Vicious’ little bio page back in the last issue. Apparently at some point she magically wrenched her childhood home up out of its roots and started flying it around. Never wanted to be far from home, I guess!

Ready for some possibly fun witch lore? 

In Serenity Rose, I always thought of magic as requiring the physical presence of a witch to retain its effects. So if a witch levitates, say, a can of Dr. Pepper, they have to stick around and continue juicing the can every so often to keep it aloft. The more powerful a witch, the longer the can will stay in the air without juicing, but nothing lasts forever. Which means every time Vicious leaves her house, the whole place starts to sloooowwwwwllly sink to the ground like a deflating balloon. Or an un-juiced Dr. Pepper.

STRAY NOTES: I think I still agree with the “people who are not safe” line. Doing something truly amazing always requires at least a little bit of risk, right?  Social, financial, reputational, you always have to put something on the line to seriously WOW people. Although maybe I’m minimizing the importance of dumb luck here… There have definitely been times when something I’ve dashed off with zero thought got a bigger reaction than the stuff I absolutely slaughtered myself to build. Not much risk in a lucky shrug!

The “RASPUTINA” patch on Sera’s backpack refers to one of my all-time favorite bands (and #1 on the “cello goth rock” list). Must have seen them perform over a dozen times back in the early aughts. Check ’em out!

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You know, if I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn’t draw a giant goddamned Morrissey statue in V’s conservatory.

Steven Patrick “The Mozzer” Morrissey was hugely important to me in my early 20’s. A rockstar who thumbs his nose at both traditional gender expression and extroverted party culture? How could young Aaron possibly resist such a creature?? Clearly, Morrissey was genetically engineered specifically for me!

But tragically, as so often happens, my hero did not age well. Over time his entertaining contrarianism shriveled into right-wing Brexiteer trolling. After a while it became kind of a bummer to even think about my old pal Moz. I can still listen to The Smiths and Morrissey’s early solo work, but it’s all tinged with the wrong kind of sadness now. (Weirdly, The Simpsons covered this extremely specific phenomenon a few years back. Benedict Cumberbatch played “Quilloughby.”)

John Lennon’s portrait there also has a bit of a tinge to it. One of the most brilliant musicians in rock history and a powerful voice for the peace movement, he was also known to be violently abusive in his personal relationships. Which sucks! For everyone! I’ll never stop loving John Lennon, but man, I dunno about hanging his portrait in my house.

Siouxsie Sioux, though? Yeah, I might still hang her portrait. Sure, she would wear swastikas to shock people back in her 70’s punk days, but who wasn’t back then, right? I’m sure even Queen Elizabeth II herself had a few swastikas laying around when she wanted to pop some monocles! Sure, swastikas were in the air back then! Ha ha, no, I’m not making excuses!

Actually, could using “Sioux” as a name be considered cultural appropriation? Early British punk culture is full of Native American appropriation, and Siouxsie’s name might be part of that. But of course the Native people in question never called themselves “Sioux.” They were the Lakota or Dakota. “Sioux” is just a word some confused 18th Century Frenchman wrote down one day. In fact, he wrote “Nadouessioux,” a combination of “Nadouessi,” the Ojibwe word for “little snakes” or “enemies,” and the French pluralization “-oux.” So basically 300 years ago a French guy wrote down the name of a Native American community based on what another community called them, added some French zazz, shortened it until almost all that was left was the French zazz, then centuries later Susan Ballion thought “There’s an interesting way to spell my name,” and now I’m asking you if that’s appropriation. Reality is WILD.

STRAY NOTE: The little butterfly guy at the top is “Mad Lord Flutterby,” who we previously met on the same Vicious bio page I mentioned above. He’s the creation of V’s mentor, the children’s book author/witch Dame Glaurie Thropp. Not sure if V or Glaurie conjured this little guy, but it’s nice to see V is keeping him nicely juiced.

BACK TO THE PRESENT!

Just vote. That’s all. Seriously, just vote. Please.

Even if you think, like I did in my college days, that the two parties are interchangeable corporate imperialist fronts, I guarantee you there’s at least ONE issue that should get you to the polls. If you care about trans people continuing to get healthcare, there’s only one choice. If you care about preserving abortion rights, there’s only one choice. If you care about Ukraine, there’s only one choice. If you have ONE reason to vote for one candidate over another, that should be enough to inconvenience yourself for just a few minutes. (Especially if you live in Pennsylvania.)

Please be like this guy!

NEXT WEEK: HUMBLE ENDINGS.