Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
A Fiendly Face and a Change in the Scene
Can you believe I painted again? I had been watching bits and pieces of Haxan since Fall started (mostly I just fell asleep to the Franz Schubert music in the beginning). I had thought about doing some kind of picture of the devil from it, but then just last week Mark Poutenis (Thinking Ape Blues) beat me to the punch by paying homage and drawing up his own version. Oh well, I still wanted to do my own, so here it is. It looks just a bit unfinished, but I kind of like it that way, so it stays. This was the best I could get it photographed, though. The original is not quite so 'bright' red, it's got more brown in it. It's very low key, and I decided to do swirls, which are invisible here, but in other shots pick up too much surrounding light and make the whole thing hard to see in spots.
Sorry about the delayed posting. I didn't really feel like writing anything last Friday, I guess. Plus I don't have a comic this week--I've been working on my archaeological illustration, which has seemed more difficult than usual to nail down. You wouldn't believe how hard it can be to draw knots.
I've been looking for a record player for a while now, and on Friday I was getting frustrated that no 2nd Chance store has carried them for weeks now! Ever since vinyl records are coming back, people have been buying up the record players--thankfully, they don't much care for the actual records from 2nd Chance stores, just the ones of antique stores and new ones put out by bands who want to return to the vintage format (which I think is kind of cool). Anyway, I finally found a shitty-but-functional one from St. Vincent de Paul's! I finally got to hear Rod & the Cobras, and was able to dig out my old Dennis Larson album, not to mention getting to hear the Fantasia soundtrack and Alley Cat on the "slow" setting.
I've made a change to my blog this past week that I'm still developing. I will no longer be posting "What Am I Watching?" on this blog: I made a third one with the same name and will be posting movie reviews on there from now on. This way I can devote more time if need be to one particular movie at a time and provide better information about it. Find in in my profile, or just go HERE.
Monday, October 06, 2008
A Childhood Nightmare and a Little Middle-Eastern Thrash
ANYWAY, last Saturday night I let Isabella stay up a little late so she could help me figure out paper mache. She was a big help tearing up paper and helping mix in flour, and last night she helped me paint it a little.
I was excited for this week to come, because it's Fall Cleanup week in East Grand, and I had a hankerin to get the basement taken care of. I had an awful lot to sort through, especially since quite a bit of our things have gotten water damage over the summer (I know, my fault). It killed me to have to go through my comics and end up throwing out about 1/4 of them because they got so waterlogged they just fell apart in my hands. What really got me, though, was opening a box of framed drawings I was nervous about. My JROTC certificate I got my senior year for outstanding achievement is together but virtually ruined, and my 3 favorite pencil drawings ar completely wrecked, including the "Dusk" band drawing from high school. Oh well.
On Wednesday night, I decided to move some things out of the garage into the basement. It all fit onto a pallet, safely out of potential water zone. I can store stuff efficiently like it ain't nobody's business, I just don't always want to, because it makes it harder to get at when I need it. But the garage never looked spacier. Now, if the weather permits, the men can have somewhere to go during my Halloween party when they get tired of all the nagging---I mean, when they start doing stupid things that annoy their women.
Speaking of Halloween party, I am hearing more and more enthusiasm for the whole dressing up thing. I do not require it, but I greatly encourage anyone who wants to show up in costume to feel free.
What am I Watching?
I don't remember if I've mentioned it yet, but I thought I would take a moment and endorse a couple online comics I've come to read regularily. One is a comic that started around the time I started Golden Brown in 2006 and has since taken off and evolved way beyond my own little story. It's called Dr. McNinja, written & drawn by Chris Hasting, inked by Kent Archer, and now colored by Carly Monardo. I'm sure I've bored people talking about it by now, but if you do lik Golden Brown, Dr. McNinja makes just a little more sense. Another I've been reading for a while is Red Meat. It's a somewhat-weekly strip that makes a little less sense, but is very funny. The creator, Max Cannon, even has a couple little cartoons on the Comedy Central website. The last one is called Thinking Ape Blues, by Mark Poutenis. It's pretty much about the adventures of a naked man, an ape, and a robot. Really, it's more about their observations and philosophies, which can swing easily into the misanthropic. I like his opinions on stuff. I consider these guys esteemed colleagues.
Townies- Schlarb, Ohio is overrun by weird people. As the story goes, the local mental institution had taken in "freaks" from all over the county, and when they were let out, they stayed in Schlarb, where they are apparently harrased by locals with more immature malevolence than brains. I thought the characters were interesting--especially Dickie (played by Harvey Pekar's buddy, Toby Radloff!), a local garbage picker who finds a fresh corpse in the back of a pickup and makes her his girlfriend. Despite this, the characters could have been better developed, as could the story. There isn't really any defined plot to follow, and even when an attempt is made to go deeper into a character's head (Caduceus, for example), it falls flat and fails to deliver. The ending is open-ended and confusing, but all in all, it was still a good movie, and it's always entertaining hearing Toby Radloff talk.
Heavy Metal in Baghdad- A journalist comes into contact with Acrassicauda, "Iraq's only metal band", a group of young men trying to make a go of it in a country that offers them no hope or opportunities for metal. He tries to keep in contact with them from 2003-2006, and finds many changes with them along the way. It's really interesting to get an Iraqi's take on things like the fall of the Hussien regime. They mention that the first year after it was great, it seemed like there was a lot of hope, but in the following years they saw massive bombings, rebellions, violence, and all of it apparently presented in a different way to the U.S. than the Iraqis see it. By 2005, the camera crew is warned to never go anywhere alone in Baghdad for fear of kidnapping. Band members were reluctant to even do interviews because they might be seen with English-speakers and thus be targeted. By 2006, they had managed to get out of Baghdad and end up in Damascus, where they couldn't get jobs, couldn't get out, and even after recording a 3-song demo and playing a good show eventually had to sell their instruments to pay their rents. What I heard of these guys sounded great, and I can't even fathom the kind of shit they've had to live through and come to know as "normal"--two of the band members are best friends, they lived 15 minutes apart in 2005, and hadn't seen eachother in months, because neither wanted to risk his life making that kind of trip. The ending was depressing, but the good news is the band is not dead: they are all currently in Istanbul, and still trying to make it. They have even set up a Heavy Metal in Baghdad blog to keep us updated.
Rabid Grannies- A family congregates to the house of two old sisters celebrating their 92nd birthday. The family is a bunch of greedy assholes, apparently, and the only one not invited appears to be a satanic third sister who delivers a box to them with a curse inside. The curse turns them into hungry demons who proceed to kill their family one by one and eat them. Effects are cheesy, but there is a nice effort put into the killing scenes, even to the point of disturbing in a couple. I thought the grannies as demons were very silly, but in the moments before they turn, when they're still human but with husky voices and crazy 1000-yard stares, they are creepy as hell.
Bloody Mama- One of the many films detailing the exploits of Ma Barker and her sons in the 1920-30's, directed by noneother than Roger Corman. I was surprised to see not only Shelley Winters (Poseidon Adventure, Lolita, Roseanne) in the starring role, but also a young pre-Taxi Driver/Godfather II Robert DeNiro in the role of Lloyd, one of her sons. This version strongly suggested sexual relations between Barker and her sons, and even a little bisexuality here and there. A few effects and a lot of effort was put into the killing scenes, and the acting was phenomenal, especially Shelley Winters.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
No More Politics! and Movies? I'm Wearing My B-String Now...
Anyway, Karissa has been watching Bailey a couple days a week while we're waiting for her business to get going. It's taken a few days, but Bailey has warmed back up to me. When Karissa would leave the room, she didn't want anything to do with me, she wanted her and was pissed that she got stuck with me. But today, I played my guitar for her real fast and she was dancing and and smiling, and didn't realize that Karissa had even gotten up to go to the bathroom until she came out.
A new page of Golden Brown will be out by friday, as it always is. I do welcome comments, even derisive ones. I likey da feedback.
Speaking of which, holy shit it's 10/2, and I don't have my Halloween stuff up yet!! I gotta get it done!
I'm still planning a Halloween party for 11/1, I believe I've told you people all about it before, so make sure your night is cleared. Costumes are not required, but encouraged. I'm currently working on good Halloween music to be played during. I hope the snow holds off until after...like maybe until 12/15, or so...
What am I Watching?
Popcorn- Film students decide to put on an all-night horror film fest to help fund their new department (really? A Cailfornian college with a new, underfunded film dept?). To add to the experience, they rehash old theater traditions by renting out a soon-to-be-demolished historic theater, and stocking it with gimmicks, give-aways, and interactive props. Unfortunately, someone in the department has a hidden family grudge. Ugh...film types...The students in this movie acted like the drama students in my high school. Could just be the 90's acting, though. I really don't mind much the 80's & 90's music in horror flicks. It was mindless and without substance, but so is much of today's horror film music. The only difference is that horror films didn't require a separate release of soundtracks back then as they do now(see: Jason vs. Freddy, for example). The killing scenes were pretty okay, actually, at least for 1992. The back story being revealed near the end, however, fell kinda flat.
Last note: Wanna see how to make a proper soundtrack/score for horror flicks? See anything Rob Zombie has directed.
Microwave Massacre- An average joe is sick to death of his wife's "gourmet" cooking. After she gets a brand new microwave (very futuristic for 1983!), he goes off the deep end in a drunken rage and kills her. In morning, he realizes what he's done, chops her up and ends up cooking parts of her (he is starving, after all--I mean the poor guy hasn't had anything good to eat lately!). After dating a bit, he realizes he connects sex and food in his mind to produce a sexual cannibal fantasy.
I loved this movie. The small things first: Jokes about censorship where the bleep on tv comes before the profanity instead of over it, the constant Dangerfield-esque jokes about eating and sex, the boobs, the big swinging pendants. The big thing that struck me right away? Jackie Vernon playing the guy who eats his wife! Don't know who Jackie Vernon is? Here's a hint: "Frosty the Snowman was a jolly, happy soul..." Yeah, that's incredibly fucked up. Incidentally, this was also his last film.
Even Dwarfs Started Small- A film out of West Germany from 1971 about a group of inmates from an insane asylum that become fed up with the bad treatment of their keepers and go on a rampage throughout the grounds, causing much property damage, and apparently, merriment. Oh, and the entire cast is made up of little people. The only other known film to do that was Terror of Tiny Town, made in 1931. This was just bizarre. At points it really kind of drags on, but at other points it's at turns humorous and disturbing to watch. Two scenes toward the end, in particular, are both funny and creepy: one scene shows one of the institution staff going nuts himself and screaming at a fallen tree limb to stop raising its finger to him. The other is a prolonged scene in which one of the inmates is laughing hysterically at a camel that is trying to lay down but for some reason cannot.