It is possible to hear them in the crudest possible sense; they are enough like us in that limited respect. But they are different as well and the human ear cannot register half of what they call common speech. They human eye cannot see things that are an obvious and pedestrian part of their world. In the truest sense of the word, none of them are human. Their percussionist is an android, decanted from a Mother serving the Quad-Cities Metrosprawl. That’s as human as they become. They call themselves a band. Duplex 8. The android, Alex, plays the drüd: a strummed, percussive instrument. It’s a little like a piano, a little like a xylophone with strings. It is neither of those things: nothing designed in terms of human logic. It is as alien as those who play it. Alex, the android, is the only one from Earth whose fame rests in his status as a master of the drüd. Android mentalities and android emotions, he asserts calmly, are particularly suited to an understanding of such an instrument. Androids, he jokes in a scathing, mocking reference to Amendment c5, are not human. (Alex was decanted from the Quad Cities Mother 8 years before the controversial c5 Repeal. Critics have suggested that this informs much of the complicated Duplex 8 aesthetic.) It is impossible to describe the music of Duplex 8. Alex and fellow band members define it as the love child of Terran Rock-and-Roll and Denebolan Zot. Because of this, Rock-Zot is beginning to gain measurable popularity among Androids and more outré facets of biological human society. Finland has claimed the Rock-Zot crown, and all four members of Duplex 8 have been granted honorary Finnish citizenship. In three weeks, they will appear on their first North American tour… * Rock Zot? Sometimes I wonder about my Muse. I’d initially decided to call that particular musical genre: Denebolan Swing Zots but my Muse—always stubborn—decided that such a name simply didn’t fit. I’ve learned to actually listen to my Muse. * I took this picture during Bill’s and Tara’s visit to Chicago. Other aspects of the Chicago Theater have appeared already, and this is a face-on view of the main entrance. There actually is a flat screen tv mounted between the front doors, but there was no Duplex 8 advertisement drawing attention to the immanent arrival of the group. If I’m not mistaken, Flea (He of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) was doing the Flea-thing with no shirt on. Does he ever wear a shirt?) I like Flea, but I wanted something else on that screen, and so I recycled the aliens I’d intended to appear elsewhere. This is the end result. I hope you like it as much as I had fun making it. The video screen/image is the only extensively-postworked aspect of this image. The rest is as it appeared on my camera screen, resized—of course—to fit Renderosity’s file size requirements. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting…and be warned, I think Duplex 8 (partially named for the night-club “Duplex” in Prague) will make quite a few more appearances in my gallery. I’m really curious about aliens and androids forming a rock group in which pheromones are listed as one of the primary instruments. (I suspect that Duplex 8 has turned the music world on its ear…and all because I didn’t want Flea playing guitar in this picture. I’m weird like that.)