Urk, you probably meant to cast Mirren as Mrs. Apis. The prologue sequence during the opening credits can then have Mirren and Dench fighting it out to the death with lightsabers with the winner assuming the persona of Mrs. Apis.
Moscow, Moscow
Love tastes like caviar
Maidens are for kissing there
Ho ho ho ho ho, hey
Moscow, Moscow
Come, we’ll dance on the table
Until the table collapse
For someone who was demanding English, I note that Mrs. Apis doesn’t complain at “terpsichore”.
Speaking of language, bees use dancing specifically to convey location information about food sources (direction/distance, and I think height in some (but not all?) species).
More common communication is done with pheromones and physical contact.
(Dr. Lee: “Oh, one more thing! You need to spray these scent atomizers around!”)
While it seemed clear as to what was intended, I see that “terpsichore” is not used in English to be synonymous with the verb “dance”. It is either capitalized and used to refer to the muse as a noun, or modified to “terpsichorean” and used as an adjective.
So Mrs. Apis would have all the more reason to complain.
I guess it would make sense for Queen to refer to Apis as the muse, figuratively.
Mrs Apis didn’t respond directly to what Mayor Queen said. It could be that she didn’t consciously take any of it in, as she was so focussed on how dreadful, yet compelling, Virginia’s suggestion in panel 1 was.
Owlmirror, to be more pedantic (which is what I do!) non-solitary bees use it to communicate location information for all sorts of things, including e.g. good nest sites when swarming, which seems to have been the evolutionary origin of the dance.
The mechanism by which the waggle dance works is known, and requires almost no intelligence from the individual bees at all: they don’t need to observe other bees, see which way they’re dancing, compare multiple dancing bees with each other, or even know that “longer waggle” means “more desirable location”: it is enough to wander at random and set off in the direction of the waggle when you cross a waggling bee’s path, keeping going for longer if you accompanied the waggling bee for longer, and everything else falls out of that. An extremely elegant distributed algorithm.
Many races believe that [the universe] was created by some sort of God, though the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle VI believe that the entire Universe was in fact sneezed out of the nose of a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure. The Jatravartids […] live in perpetual fear of the time they call The Coming of The Great White Handkerchief […]
(Tune: “Simple Gifts”, Elder Joseph Brackett, by way of “Lord of the Dance”, Sydney Carter)
You danced in an office back in old Annex One,
And you toyed with your staff and you had a bit of fun.
You had lots of tiki stuff and plots and plans,
And your best friend was a clockwork man.
REFRAIN:
Dance, then, whoever you may be(e);
To talk, you’ll all have to dance, said Lee.
All gathered here, we’ll have terpsichore,
‘Cause I need you ladies to dance, said Lee.
They thought you a buzzkill when you made a fuss,
But you said that prim is the new lascivious.
You had a secret daughter who was called Pavane;
She split from you but your dance went on.
REFRAIN
You went doolally and we thought you’d gone,
‘Til I wound up here where you all were hanging on.
Your names and your flowers finally clued me in,
And it dawned on me who you must have been.
REFRAIN
We crashed a rocket in the mayor’s house.
(My plan worked fine so I wish you would not grouse!)
You say my mind is too far gone to save,
But we’re ’bout to have a glowstick disco rave!
REFRAIN
You might feel silly now, but holy snot,
I bet you’ll prove that you really are Gavotte.
We’re trapped in VR but we can soon break free,
If you would all kindly dance, said Lee
Dance, dance, wherever your bees be
I am the Queen of the dance, said she
And we are all one, wherever we may be
And we are all one in the dance, said she
The different final refrain could be called the epilogue or the outro, depending on what kind of story the song tells. Given the somewhat prose nature of the lyrics here, I would probably call this alternate ending an epilogue, since it sort of wraps up the story, rather than simply ending it.
I will admit that I have only a moderate education in music, so there may be yet another term that I’m missing here.
@Owlmirror: I was trying to write the song in Dr. Lee’s voice (except for the “said Lee” in the refrain), but if I’d gone a different direction, your refrain would be pretty good. And thanks!
Also, I have no idea what the term for that final refrain that’s different from the other refrains would be.
‘Tis a gift to make honey, ’tis a gift to be small,
‘Tis a gift to dance under the disco ball.
And though we’re divided and we had a fight,
Our dancing, dancing, will make it right.
“Holy snot” is an excellent expletive.
Not to mention it rhymes
Huh. So it does. I’d been subconsciously “pronouncing” it as Guh-Vote / Guv-Oat this entire time. Because I suck at French.
In that case, I have been mispronouncing “snot”.
A benefit of hanging around Nick, I guess.
I want Helen Mirren to play her in the movie.
She would be excellent at it.
So maybe Judy Dench as Mrs. Apis, Sarah Silverman as Melanie (or Bea), CGI Maria Ouspenskaya as Mme. Delphi…
Urk, you probably meant to cast Mirren as Mrs. Apis. The prologue sequence during the opening credits can then have Mirren and Dench fighting it out to the death with lightsabers with the winner assuming the persona of Mrs. Apis.
Judy Dench could be Mme. Delphi.
Be excellent to each other!
And… PARTY ON DUDES! (Abraham Lincoln)
Lucky there are no Terpsichorean Ecdysiasts or this strip would be NSFW.
The cobras are probably all terpsichorean ecdysiasts, if they writhe rhythmically or aesthetically while shedding their skins.
“You expect me to talk?”
“Oh no Mr Bond, I expect you to dance!”
Are you about to get a little bit Genghis Khan?
Moscow, Moscow
Love tastes like caviar
Maidens are for kissing there
Ho ho ho ho ho, hey
Moscow, Moscow
Come, we’ll dance on the table
Until the table collapse
What better reason to dance then that can there be? ^_^
Regarding what I may or may not know about the future of this attempt:
“Heh
Heh
Heh.”
YESSSSS!
For someone who was demanding English, I note that Mrs. Apis doesn’t complain at “terpsichore”.
Speaking of language, bees use dancing specifically to convey location information about food sources (direction/distance, and I think height in some (but not all?) species).
More common communication is done with pheromones and physical contact.
(Dr. Lee: “Oh, one more thing! You need to spray these scent atomizers around!”)
Perhaps she heard the question as “Well? Shall we, Terpsichore?”
Hm.
While it seemed clear as to what was intended, I see that “terpsichore” is not used in English to be synonymous with the verb “dance”. It is either capitalized and used to refer to the muse as a noun, or modified to “terpsichorean” and used as an adjective.
So Mrs. Apis would have all the more reason to complain.
I guess it would make sense for Queen to refer to Apis as the muse, figuratively.
She could also say “Shall we honor Terpsichore?”
Mrs Apis didn’t respond directly to what Mayor Queen said. It could be that she didn’t consciously take any of it in, as she was so focussed on how dreadful, yet compelling, Virginia’s suggestion in panel 1 was.
Owlmirror, to be more pedantic (which is what I do!) non-solitary bees use it to communicate location information for all sorts of things, including e.g. good nest sites when swarming, which seems to have been the evolutionary origin of the dance.
The mechanism by which the waggle dance works is known, and requires almost no intelligence from the individual bees at all: they don’t need to observe other bees, see which way they’re dancing, compare multiple dancing bees with each other, or even know that “longer waggle” means “more desirable location”: it is enough to wander at random and set off in the direction of the waggle when you cross a waggling bee’s path, keeping going for longer if you accompanied the waggling bee for longer, and everything else falls out of that. An extremely elegant distributed algorithm.
Let’s leave religious mucus out of this.
#include "voice of Peter Jones as The Book"Many races believe that [the universe] was created by some sort of God, though the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle VI believe that the entire Universe was in fact sneezed out of the nose of a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure. The Jatravartids […] live in perpetual fear of the time they call The Coming of The Great White Handkerchief […]
#include "Journey of the Sorcerer"…and today I learned that VT’s name from Cowboy Bebop actually means something. Go figure…
Is it just me or is Dr. Lee’s hair in a bun in the first panel and down in the last panel?
Ahem. “Let your hair down” ?
Not much of a dance party. No guys.
I believe that is called a “taco fest”.
(Tune: “Simple Gifts”, Elder Joseph Brackett, by way of “Lord of the Dance”, Sydney Carter)
You danced in an office back in old Annex One,
And you toyed with your staff and you had a bit of fun.
You had lots of tiki stuff and plots and plans,
And your best friend was a clockwork man.
REFRAIN:
Dance, then, whoever you may be(e);
To talk, you’ll all have to dance, said Lee.
All gathered here, we’ll have terpsichore,
‘Cause I need you ladies to dance, said Lee.
They thought you a buzzkill when you made a fuss,
But you said that prim is the new lascivious.
You had a secret daughter who was called Pavane;
She split from you but your dance went on.
REFRAIN
You went doolally and we thought you’d gone,
‘Til I wound up here where you all were hanging on.
Your names and your flowers finally clued me in,
And it dawned on me who you must have been.
REFRAIN
We crashed a rocket in the mayor’s house.
(My plan worked fine so I wish you would not grouse!)
You say my mind is too far gone to save,
But we’re ’bout to have a glowstick disco rave!
REFRAIN
You might feel silly now, but holy snot,
I bet you’ll prove that you really are Gavotte.
We’re trapped in VR but we can soon break free,
If you would all kindly dance, said Lee
REFRAIN
Kudos and bravo.
A possible alternate refrain:
Dance, dance, wherever your bees be
I am the Queen of the dance, said she
And we are all one, wherever we may be
And we are all one in the dance, said she
Or maybe just for the final repetition. I think there’s a technical term for a refrain that has a variant final form, but I cannot recall what it is.
The different final refrain could be called the epilogue or the outro, depending on what kind of story the song tells. Given the somewhat prose nature of the lyrics here, I would probably call this alternate ending an epilogue, since it sort of wraps up the story, rather than simply ending it.
I will admit that I have only a moderate education in music, so there may be yet another term that I’m missing here.
@Owlmirror: I was trying to write the song in Dr. Lee’s voice (except for the “said Lee” in the refrain), but if I’d gone a different direction, your refrain would be pretty good. And thanks!
Also, I have no idea what the term for that final refrain that’s different from the other refrains would be.
‘Tis a gift to make honey, ’tis a gift to be small,
‘Tis a gift to dance under the disco ball.
And though we’re divided and we had a fight,
Our dancing, dancing, will make it right.
Well done, Robert Nowall!