Coming soon... Episode #5 - Guy Fawkes

Man, mask, myth, legend.

I’m confident enough in my own intellect to admit when my knowledge on a topic is limited, but I don’t think I realized how limited it was in the case of Guy Fawkes, our next theme for The Needle Exchange (which will be recorded, as it happens, this Sunday on Guy Fawkes Day).

Of course, I knew the mask. As a nerd, it V for Vendetta is required reading, if not necessarily required viewing (IMHO, Moore is right in hating most adaptations of his work). I tended to think of him as an anarchic symbol associated with an annual burning of effigies that saw likenesses of Margaret Thatcher or Rishi Sunak tossed into flames.

But, it feels more complicated than that as I dug in this week. While anarchists celebrate the attempted bombing by "the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions," the intended outcome was re-installing a Catholic monarch in England, which hardly seems the most anarchic cause.

So, I don’t know about you, but I am really curious what the Dilletante DJs cooked up for us with this particular main ingredient. I expect some politics, I expect some ‘splosions, and I’m really hoping I am right in expecting some maskplay.

Regardless, I’m sure it will impress, as our three musical anarchists never fail to when they start playing in the "Land of Do-as-You-Please."