When I read on Classic Rock that Marilyn Manson had released a promo clip with the proclamation: “6:19. The time has come.” I immediately thought of XaW Files, and that I hadn’t blogged that episode yet. It’s a pretty good and eventful episode, so I can see why Marilyn Manson would particularly like it.
I was never into Marilyn Manson, but liked some of his groundbreaking creativity and outspoken views. Rammstein are the first such industrial-style band I’ve really liked and listened to.
This episode’s central theme is a The Good, The Bad and The Ugly parody, featuring famous Portuguese footballers instead of my favourite movie of that genre’s original characters.
Other common themes in this third of a trilogy book are reminders of earlier books in the trilogy and another band, Baron Rojo, who seem to have had a musical career similar to Metallica and Guns N’ Roses: starting raw and maturing to classic. I saw them at the Reading Festival in 1982:
Chapter 6 Episode 19
Three shots broke the desert silence, and three figures fell. They would not rise. Not in this book anyway, and this is the last we’ll know.
Catching Up Between Episodes
Standing in the baking desert heat was stifling, so we knew that time must be running out for our lost companions, who were somewhere out of sight in grave danger.
We therefore couldn’t wait to get on with the truel, but had to wait overnight between episodes.
When light broke, we realised the Spaghetti Western theme had evolved into one including sci-fi elements like time-travel multiverses, and we were not alone.
Thickening the Plot
We had been joined by the de Castro brothers Armando and Carlos, and Angel Arias, from a Spanish rock band called Baron Rojo I remembered seeing a long time ago.
From the mind of Cervantes, who Grey of course met in Western Australia WoO, there was Don Quixote, Sancho Panza and the author of the false Second Part of Don Quixote, Avellaneda.
And from a future journey I’d thought I was heading towards after Zaragoza; one that must be next on the cards, with only three episodes left in this chapter; there were the Portuguese footballers Eusebio, Luis Figo and Ronaldo.
Too Hot to Handle
Meanwhile, the heat had melted my three constituent colours into green, grey and yellow oozy liquid and we were running away down the inclines we had lined up on.
Luckily for us, and hopefully you, we ran into ourselves, and our chemical reaction saw us back on our feet in no time.
*The Good, the Bad and The Ugly Spoiler Alert*
Just in time to hear three shots ring out. I looked at Baron Rojo, and saw Angel Arias had been felled, just like Angel Eyes in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.
*The Good, the Bad and The Ugly Spoiler Alert Finished*
Avellaneda seemed to have suffered a similar fate in the Cervantes group, while Ronaldo was down in the Portuguese footballers truel.
Love Mouse Latest
As the gunfire settled I thought I heard some familiar squeaking, and some that was more unfamiliar. I looked up and saw Love, Lovus and Lovulus running towards us, along with a mouse I remembered from somewhere.
The mouse overtook our mixed-up vole and offspring, but then overran us, so we had time to greet each other before Love introduced us to the returned Speedy Gonzalez; probably the funniest cartoon mouse ever.
Love said Speedy had put them up when they arrived at the graveyard not knowing why they had to be here, or what fate held for them.
In all the excitement I’d forgotten about Stella and Werewolfie, and now asked if they’d seen them.
Love said they’d stopped in Madrid, with Stella seeing an advert for an upcoming fashion show, while Werewolfie had seen the Madrid derby was on that weekend.
I might have known!
References
Baron Rojo are a legendary Spanish band who played at the Reading Festival in 1982.
Wikipedia: After that, they released their fourth studio album En un lugar de la marcha in 1985 with songs such as “Hijos de Caín” and “Cuerdas de acero”, as well as two live albums titled Barón al Rojo Vivo (1984) and Siempre Estáis Allí (1986).
The band then began experimenting with new elements including orchestral compositions, as can be heard on their 1987 album Tierra de Nadie.
Me: this seems a progression from raw early albums to classical later ones, like the Guns N’ Roses and Metallica career trajectories that influenced this trilogy.
As Gorky stressed the difference between plot and character stories, there is a similar greenYgrey divide centred on the Don Quixote books, between chivalric romance and the modern novel:
Don Quixote Themes from Wikipedia
It stands in a unique position between medieval chivalric romance and the modern novel. The former consist of disconnected stories featuring the same characters and settings with little exploration of the inner life of even the main character. The latter are usually focused on the psychological evolution of their characters. In Part I, Quixote imposes himself on his environment. By Part II, people know about him through “having read his adventures”, and so, he needs to do less to maintain his image. By his deathbed, he has regained his sanity, and is once more “Alonso Quixano the Good”.
When first published, Don Quixote was usually interpreted as a comic novel. After the French revolution it was popular for its central ethic that individuals can be right while society is quite wrong and seen as disenchanting. In the 19th century it was seen as a social commentary, but no one could easily tell “whose side Cervantes was on”. Many critics came to view the work as a tragedy in which Don Quixote’s idealism and nobility are viewed by the post-chivalric world as insane, and are defeated and rendered useless by common reality. By the 20th century the novel had come to occupy a canonical space as one of the foundations of modern literature.
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