Alexx's Patreon Update: February, 2022

[alexxkay]

Finished chapter 11. Did not get to chapter 12, due to a side-task that caught my attention. I am now, in addition to creating chapter-by-chapter annotations, going back to my roots and working on a Jerusalem Timeline

• Annotated chapter 10 of Jerusalem, Hark! The Glad Sound! Highlights:
  • General: This chapter is from the viewpoint of Tommy Warren, as he awaits the birth of his first child, Alma Warren, on November 18, 1953. Tommy reminisces about his past, especially the period immediately following WWII, and his experience of the "Whispering Grass" incident.
  • The title is from a 1753 hymn by Philip Doddridge, "Hark, the glad sound, the Savior comes". Alan Moore often jokes about his enormous ego; drawing a parallel between his own birth and the birth of The Savior is another in that line.
  • "Mad Marie" - A real marathon pianist named Marie Ashton. In 1958, she allegedly set a world record of playing the piano for 133 hours!
  
  • "Maxie Miller" - Max Miller, "the Cheeky Chappie" (born Thomas Henry Sargent, 1894-1963) was a real British comedian, known for his risque humor.
  • "white book" - A website of the Max Miller Appreciation Society recounts:
    

    In one of his acts he would take from his pocket two books, one a white book and the other a blue book, explaining to the audience that these are joke books and asking them which the audience would like; the crowd almost always chose the blue book. The jokes in the ‘blue book’ were the naughty ones.
    

    (The association of "blue" with profanity goes back to at least the 1880s.)
  • "ordinary working people had got televisions so as they could watch the coronation" - Per Wikipedia, "Millions across Britain watched the coronation live on the BBC Television Service, and many purchased or rented television sets for the event. The coronation was the first to be televised in full". The televising of the coronation also formed the background of a 2006 episode of Doctor Who.
  • "first woman railway guard in England" - "Railway guard" is the British equivalent of the American "conductor". Many railway jobs which were traditionally held by men were (temporarily) opened up to women during the two World Wars.
  • "as pleased as Punch" - The capitalization of Punch refers to the origin of the phrase with Punch and Judy puppet shows. It is perhaps not coincidental that Punch is an abuser.
  • "fake seams" - During World War II, shortages of material for women's stockings led to a fashion for faking the appearance of stockings with makeup (see image).
  • "a group shot of the outfit Uncle Johnny managed" - See photo below. Moore described acquiring the photo in a 2016 interview:
    

    Apparently her uncle used to be in the same band as Audrey Vernon at the end o' the 1940s, an' [...] she still had a copy of one of their P.R. pictures [...] which has actually got Audrey - who I've never seen, I've never seen an image of 'er - but it's got Audrey at the front, er, in an otherwise all-male band with her piano-accordion, so, er, they're gonna send it to me so the second edition of Jerusalem, yeah on the dedication page I want this photo...

• Started work on the Jerusalem Timeline. Added events for chapters 1-11.
  • It's mostly year-by-year, but more granular when it seems called for. For a certain day in 1909. and a few days in 2006, I'm actually tracking time of day, as there are many overlapping events from multiple chapters.
  • As is ever the case when I start doing fine examinations, I'm discovering a few inconsistencies. These are noted both in the Timeline, and in the individual chapter notes. None are too significant, but Alan Moore, though he is The Master, is not infallible.
• Integrating reader comments on various projects.

Projected for next time: Jerusalem, chapter 12, finishing off Book One! Also, doing a pass through Voice of the Fire (in many ways the prequel to Jerusalem) to add that material to the Timeline.