Just when you thought it was safe to Twitter
January 16, 2009 11:11 AM   Subscribe

In which Warren Ellis gets shikker before an audience of 14,000.

As a friend (and ardent Ellis fan) said when he saw this: "Trust me on this if you trust me on nothing: 99.99 percent of the people using Twitter haven't anything like Ellis' imagination and creativity."

Previously.
posted by limeonaire (43 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Kinda thin for a post. Further information about this deletion can be found on the internet. -- cortex



 
Lotsa Yiddish on the MeFi today. COULD THIS SIGNAL A RESURGENCE OF YIDDISHKEIT?

A quick phone survey has a majority of respondents say "Nu?"
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:13 AM on January 16, 2009 [2 favorites]


Wut.

Also: huh.
posted by billysumday at 11:16 AM on January 16, 2009


Mishegoyim.
posted by Mister_A at 11:16 AM on January 16, 2009


I'm not sure your friend is saying that much about either Twitter or Ellis.
posted by boo_radley at 11:18 AM on January 16, 2009 [1 favorite]


I have an actuarial life expectancy of 30 more years, give or take. I intend to live them taking as little notice of the existence of "micro-blogging" as I can.

That's a choice I'm free to make - and I'm making it.
posted by Joe Beese at 11:20 AM on January 16, 2009 [3 favorites]


INTERNET SHOW-OFF POSTS STUFF TO TWITTER.

Also has bad knees, declining ability to write decent comics.
posted by Artw at 11:20 AM on January 16, 2009


Astro-zombie, in your profile picture, are you wearing a pork-pie hat? I think that's awesome. I don't really have the facial structure to pull one off, and I'm glad to see someone who does wearing one. Hats sort of intimidate me for some reason.
posted by boo_radley at 11:21 AM on January 16, 2009


Warren Ellis: Too cute by half, and far too pleased with himself
Drunks: Tedious

Do the math.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:22 AM on January 16, 2009 [1 favorite]


boo_radley: It's true. But I did like the way he phrased it.
posted by limeonaire at 11:22 AM on January 16, 2009


Flagged as fershlugginer.
Should I know who this person is? Should I care that he's been knocking a bottle back? Oy gevalt.
posted by not_on_display at 11:23 AM on January 16, 2009 [4 favorites]


So it's come to this, Metafilter.
posted by Ian A.T. at 11:23 AM on January 16, 2009 [2 favorites]


Drunks: Tedious
Warren Ellis: Too cute by half, and far too pleased with himself
Twitter: Mostly annoying
Drunk Warren Ellis on Twitter: Pretty much what you would expect
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:24 AM on January 16, 2009 [3 favorites]


Alvy Ampersand: Commenting impaired
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:24 AM on January 16, 2009


Should I know who this person is?

Back when he wasn't a lazy bum he was pretty talented.
posted by Artw at 11:26 AM on January 16, 2009 [1 favorite]


Warren Ellis gets drunk on Twitter. Seriously?

Here is Heatz of Men by Tupac. This song is hype. This post, not so much.
posted by chunking express at 11:27 AM on January 16, 2009


Heartz! God damn it.
posted by chunking express at 11:28 AM on January 16, 2009


in which Metafilter learns that Twitter really needs a better way to link to consecutive specific tweets. or twits. or whatever.
posted by shmegegge at 11:29 AM on January 16, 2009 [2 favorites]


Also has bad knees, declining ability to write decent comics.

Sad but true fact: Ellis was actually just the front for his knees, who were talented and interesting writers in some sort of weird, How To Get Ahead In Business-esque deal. Ever since they cut out, he's been twisting in the wind.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:29 AM on January 16, 2009


... How To Get Ahead in Advertising, rather, shit. I'm in no condition to snark on anyone right now.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:31 AM on January 16, 2009


Also...

Metafilter: Too cute by half, and far too pleased with itself
posted by Joe Beese at 11:33 AM on January 16, 2009


As much as it isn't currently cool to like Warren Ellis, I do and I found this funny. Reminds me of Neil Gaiman's piece Being an Experiment Upon Strictly Scientific Lines. (I don't feel too bad about posting a link, as the story is only available in Angels and Visitations and not in his more recent and not out of print books.)
posted by Hactar at 11:34 AM on January 16, 2009 [2 favorites]


As a funnybook writer, i.e. an author of serial narratives, Ellis is proving a natural at Twitter, pacing out running gags, cliffhangers, foreshadowing, etc., along with the usual micro-blog updates and self-promotion. Few Twitter streams, drunk or sober, however, can compare to Not My Desk's classic run from way back in 2007.
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:35 AM on January 16, 2009 [1 favorite]


In fact I should write a Warren Ellis biopic…

The first act would be the rise to fame. Warren’s seemingly boundless creativity and distinctive snarky style causing him to rise to somics superstardom, racking up a string of iconic hits along the way- Lazarus Churchyard, Transmetropolitan, The Authority, Planetary…

Then the scene where it all goes wrong, someone introduces Warren to the villain of the piece, The Internet:

INTERNET: Hello Warren, would you like a handjob?

Form then on it’s a slow decline, a man crushed by his own ego and belief in his own press, eventually ending with him drunkenly twittering away in a darkened room…

We fade out to a title card, telling us how he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 2011, then a second title card giving us the year of publication of the final issue of Planetary in 2012*.

* Obviously this is science fiction.
posted by Artw at 11:37 AM on January 16, 2009 [2 favorites]


He's a better drunk poster than most drunk posters but he's still posting drunk and the essence of this post is, basically, net-famous people can post drunk. Isn't there something more interesting on YouTube?
posted by ardgedee at 11:37 AM on January 16, 2009


Please let mine be the flag that kills this thread.
posted by felix betachat at 11:40 AM on January 16, 2009


I donnut get this. I'll go get a drink and try it again.
posted by ghost of a past number at 11:42 AM on January 16, 2009


in which Metafilter learns that Twitter really needs a better way to link to consecutive specific tweets. or twits. or whatever.

Or that the poster didn't want to make a single-link post, for whatever reason.

I really enjoyed Planetary and Transmetropolitan.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 11:43 AM on January 16, 2009


Astro-zombie, in your profile picture, are you wearing a pork-pie hat?

Oh yes. I wear a porkpie hat all the time, as do all albinos.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:44 AM on January 16, 2009


Hats sort of intimidate me for some reason.

Act cool! It's a trilby!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:46 AM on January 16, 2009


Would you like a donut with that abortion, Joe Beese?

/inscrutable
posted by Mister_A at 11:47 AM on January 16, 2009


As much as it isn't currently cool to like Warren Ellis, I do and I found this funny. Reminds me of Neil Gaiman's piece

Oh, man, I don't know how to tell you this, but actually...about it being cool to like Neil Gaiman...
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:49 AM on January 16, 2009


So anyway, anyone going to the NYC con?
posted by Artw at 11:49 AM on January 16, 2009


Or that the poster didn't want to make a single-link post, for whatever reason.

His Twitter stream moves quickly, and the point wasn't just to link the Twitter stream, but to memorialize what I thought were a particularly best-of-the-Web set of drunkety-drunk ramblings of a first-rate mind. Anyone can post drunk, but few can do it with the wit and verve that Warren Ellis does.
posted by limeonaire at 11:49 AM on January 16, 2009


I know it's a horse of a different color, but is it OK to like Chuck Palahniuk? As long as I make frequent note of his shortcomings?

Please post reply via twitter.

Sincerely,

Fuck Off.
posted by Mister_A at 11:50 AM on January 16, 2009 [1 favorite]


kittens - I dunno, doesn't the prog of Gaiman kind of see-saw back into fashionability (or at least acceptability) as the punk of Ellis declines?
posted by Artw at 11:51 AM on January 16, 2009


kittens - I dunno, doesn't the prog of Gaiman kind of see-saw back into fashionability (or at least acceptability) as the punk of Ellis declines?

I...I don't know, but I hope this thread lives long enough for you to explain what this fascinating-sounding question means, Art.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:54 AM on January 16, 2009


#dumb
posted by cashman at 11:56 AM on January 16, 2009


Kittens – well, in the circles I hang out in Ellis really hit his stride of edgy hot-new-thingdom just as the Gaiman backlash started up, and everyone started pretending they thought Sandman was too twee and didn’t have the complete set of TPBs hidden away in a closet somewhere. Several years of bad and delayed comics later and Ellis no longer has that sheen, to the point where there isn’t even an Ellis backlash since everyone’s too busy piling on to Grant Morrison at the moment. In the meantime it turns out Gaimans capable of turning out books and movies and such.

Of course, the cool of Gaiman in livejournal land can only grow and grow, which probably translates to a massive rreal world cool deficit.

is it OK to like Chuck Palahniuk?

I dunno, that’s a lot of overexposure and hacked-out latter works to get over. I guess it would depend on just exactly how much of a formulaic self parody Snuff turned out to be.
posted by Artw at 12:00 PM on January 16, 2009


Warren Ellis gets shikker before an audience of 14,000.

I'm still waiting on refund for the absolute shit pile that was hard bound cover edition of Orbiter . That story was a major disappointment, though Collen Doran's art was good.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:03 PM on January 16, 2009


This was my train ride to work this morning. I was going to make an FPP, but I think i'll post it here instead. #darkTO #ttu
posted by chunking express at 12:04 PM on January 16, 2009


I...I don't know, but I hope this thread lives long enough for you to explain what this fascinating-sounding question means, Art.

Gaiman is Jethro Tull, with all the flutery and hardcore fans, and occasionally people will be all, like, "Jethro Tull is still doing decent work after all these years, and every once in a while, puts out a winner," while Ellis is like Lyndon, wondering when he stopping making the joke and instead became it, and hoping that folks won't find him out if he just keeps sneering as a dwindling army of suck-ups and wannabes make excuses for that butter commercial.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:04 PM on January 16, 2009 [3 favorites]


Hey guys Twitter is about the triumph of Humanity!
posted by delmoi at 12:05 PM on January 16, 2009


Kittens – well, in the circles I hang out in Ellis really hit his stride of edgy hot-new-thingdom just as the Gaiman backlash started up, and everyone started pretending they thought Sandman was too twee and didn’t have the complete set of TPBs hidden away in a closet somewhere. Several years of bad and delayed comics later and Ellis no longer has that sheen, to the point where there isn’t even an Ellis backlash since everyone’s too busy piling on to Grant Morrison at the moment. In the meantime it turns out Gaimans capable of turning out books and movies and such.

Yeah, but to diminishing returns, generally speaking...Coraline may change things, but Gaiman's film projects have yet to set the world on fire, and I don't know anyone who holds his novels in the same kind of esteem that they do/did his work on Sandman. In both cases, I think that the diminished rep really did correspond with a downward trend in quality; more to the point, Gaiman and Ellis could, I think, be hugely popular at the same time...if they were to make a simultaneous effort to write stuff that people liked, and were successful. In Ellis's case, GOTFI might be a helpful first step. (Just lookin' out for you, man!)

is it OK to like Chuck Palahniuk?

Sure, why not. Nihilists need their beach books, too.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:08 PM on January 16, 2009 [4 favorites]


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