Let me preface this by saying… I am not a tv guy. If you’ve followed this blog any, you know that. I can, and routinely do, go months without watching TV. I in fact do not own a tv. But I do own laptops and quite an extensive DVD collection. I keep abreast of what people are saying is hot or good in TV land, and eventually get around to trying the DVDs. And usually all these hyped shows… I’m unimpressed. LOST, 24, PRISON BREAK, HEROES all shows I’ve heard rapturous praise, and finally seen… they’re uneven at best, with some great episodes, but mostly a lot of filler, sub-par episodes. THE WIRE is another show that I heard so much praise for, and finally watched it cannot hold a candle to its predecessor HOMICIDE. Typically it’s the British Television shows that I think are currently knocking it out the park. Shows like HUSTLE and ULTRAVIOLET and JEKYLL and TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH. Because their seasons are tight, they avoid the filler and weak episodes so common to American Television seasons. There are exceptions, a few American shows, that are televison at its finest. DAY BREAK is one of those shows. To say it’s 24 meets Groundhog Day, gives you a crude and unwieldy signpost, and ultimately a lacking one. It is those two things, those two vague and well worn themes, but done right and brilliantly and strong for the whole season. I have things to do, and places to go, and I cannot stop watching the bloody DVDs. It’s BRILLIANT! So of course it was canceled in one season. I mean multi-ethnic cast, strong Black lead character… Oh please cancel me now, and let’s leave on crap like SMALLVILLE, or another CSI or LAW AND ORDER. But while it may have only been one season, at least is was a GREAT FRIGGING SEASON! Try it for yourself. And don’t forget to listen to all the commentaries, pretty great stuff.

I’ve actually got a nice little backlog of articles, but as way of excuse, a couple of the articles I’m hawking to paying outlets. One is in the can. Three more are toying on the lip. But here is one entry, that I actually conceived of a while back for a New Years resolution style presentation, but it was a delay getting the feedback from one of the presenters… He knows who he is! But, I’m being facetious, ultimately other things just kept bumping it, but now some of the Web’s coolest personalities consent to answer my questions and present you a pretty damn amazing selection of their favorites. Without further ado, read and be awed!!! Modest aren’t I? In this posting David W of the magazine and blog BADAZZ MOFO, and filmmaker of the extremely well received short BLACK SANTA’S REVENGE is at bat. HT: what are your 5 favorite movies that most people haven’t seen? David W of BADAZZ MOFO: In terms of blaxploitation, my five favorite films that haven’t really been seen, or at least haven’t been seen as much as they deserve to be seen, the top one would be Melinda. This is hands down one of the best films of both the genre and the era, but it’s never even had a release on home video. (This is me, HT, interrupting. David and I have pretty different tastes in movies [How do you not love the Poitier/Cosby Trilogy?!] , but I picked up Melinda on his recommendation. The first few minutes, I have to tell you… wasn’t impressed. But I stuck with it and it just kept getting better, and better, and better… it’s absolutely fantastic! WoW! The flick has everything, and at its heart is about a self-centered man, who learns to care deeply for something other than himself, and what happens when that is taken away. I don’t subscribe to the term blaxploitation, think it is a dismissive term for what was an empowering time/movement, but however you want to label MELINDA… it’s great! Okay, back to David’s list:) David W of BADAZZ MOFO:My list of favorite “seldom seen” classics of the blaxploitation era looks something like this (in no particular order). 1. Melinda – Calvin Lockhart and Rosalind Cash, both at their finest. 2. Together Brothers – Barry White’s score is enough to make this movie a classic, but it also happens to be a very well put together thriller that holds up to repeated viewings. It has yet to get a legitimate release on home video, but it’s turned up on cable recently. 3. The Spook Who Sat By the Door – This is not only my favorite blaxploitation film, but one of my favorite movies, period. It finally got a release on DVD, but most people have never even heard of it. 4. The Landlord – The directorial debut of Hal Ashby isn’t quite blaxploitation, but it comes close, and it is one of the greatest movies of the 1970s. People know Ashby mostly for films like Harold & Maude or Shampoo, but this is really his best, most provocative film. 5. Gordon’s War – This is just balls-out great blaxploitation, with Paul Winfield leading an ensemble cast of ex-Green Berets who decide to clean up the streets. I can’t help but think if this starred Charles Bronson, it would be modern classic. HT: Good list there David. I’ve seen 3 of the 5 you list, and plan on seeing THE LANDLORD and TOGETHER BROTHERS in the next couple weeks. But yeah the 3 I’ve seen are definitely great films. Okay onto the next question, what are five great books that most people haven’t read? David W of BADAZZ MOFO: I feel like I’m something of a populist reader. I’m trying to think of books I’ve read that no one else has read that were great, but that combination is difficult to come up with. I have a ton of pulp novels from the blaxploitation era, but most of them aren’t that good, or that memorable. The one exception is Roland Jefferson’s The School on 103rd Street , which I think is an incredible political thriller with a great blaxploitation vibe. Jefferson ’s book reminds me of the novel The Spook Who Sat By the Door, also an all-time favorite, which I guess deserves a place on this list. 1. The School on 103rd Street – Roland Jefferson’s paranoid thriller involves the discovery of underground concentration camps in black communities throughout the United States . 2. The Spook Who Sat By the Door – Great movie, even better book. The first black agent in the CIA leaves the agency to start a guerilla war against the United States . 3. Donald Goines’ Kenyatta series – I’m sure plenty of people have read master crime novelist Goines series Crime Partners, Death List, Kenyatta’s Escape and Kenyatta’s Last Stand, but all four are required reading for fans of urban action thrillers. Honestly, I’m not sure if Goines wrote the last book in the series, which came out shortly after he was murdered. The writing style is a bit different, but it, just like the other three, is a gritty, action-packed bit of pulp fiction. 4. Joseph Nazel’s Iceman series – Nazel cranked out seven Iceman books, chronicling the adventures of a badass killer. Honestly, I can’t remember anything about any of the books, other than the fact that they were better than other series from that era, with the exception of maybe Marc Olden’s Black Samurai series. 5. If I’m So Famous, How Come Nobody’s Ever Heard of Me? – This has no place on this list, as it’s the autobiography of B-movie actress Jewel Shepard, but I love this book. Shepard is brutally honest about her life and her career, and this book has stuck with me over the years. HT: Wow, he schooled me! As I like to think I’m on the cutting edge of the best books and films out there, but some of this list has flown under my Nubian Noir detector. Only ones on this list I’ve read are Goines KENYATTA’S LAST HIT, and also the phenomenal Marc Olden BLACK SAMURAI series (took me forever to collect, but well worth it!). Speaking of Marc Olden I also highly recommend his absolutely brilliant and ahead of its time (in its construction) POE MUST DIE (I have a review in the works). But yeah, definitely intend to get all these books. This is real literature, not the poorly packaged hood stereotypes that passes for Black literature today. And moving onto # 5 definitely interested, David did a great interview with Jewel Shepard in his essential, if short lived magazine, BADAZZ MOFO! I highly recommend pestering David for issues while supplies last! Tell him HT sent ya! Okay David, I see you’re getting sleepy so let’s wrap up this BEST OF LIST by providing your five favorite songs or albums that most people haven’t heard. David W of BADAZZ MOFO: They are… 1. Street Justice by The Rake – An epic, ten-minute rap song about a guy who’s family is attacked by thugs. When the punks go free, he tracks them down and kills them. Fucking brilliant. “You gotta meet the punks on the battle front/You gotta beat the punks/Street Justice!” 2. Spider-Man – From the bizarre, mid-1970s Album Spider-Man: Rock Reflections of a Superhero. Both the song and the album are incredibly cheesy, but I still listen to it like I was eight years-old. 3. Thunder and Lightening by Thin Lizzy – Makes me want to go out and kick someone’s ass. 4. Daddy’s Little Girl by Khaleel – The most depressing song after Cat’s in the Cradle. 5. Big Dumb Sex by Soundgarden – From the Louder Than Love album, which came out before anyone knew who the were. HT: Wow. From Spider-man to SoundGarden, talk about eclectic. . Great lists David, I intend to pick up all the above. Thanks for taking the time to put up with my nagging and provide these. And we’ll have to do this again. And in closing readers, you can find more from David W at his site WWW.BADAZZMOFO.COM. And he also has a BADAZZ MOFO book on the horizon, so that’s one you should keep an eye out for. Okay we have a few more of these lists, as soon as I hunt them up. So keep an eye on this site for move. And if you dug this, drop an email or leave a comment. That’s all folks!

An interesting read though I personally think that comparison is more than a bit of a stretch. First it’s never lost on me the fact that Lewton, the producer, is considered far more the shaper of his films than the various directors. And it’s a well deserved acclaim, Lewton was very much the creative driving force for his productions, Jess’ pedigree was decidedly different. While Jess’ work in the beginning of his career showed promise and style and a certain craft and mood, subtlety and restraint were never his strong suit. And subtlety and restraint and leaving much to the viewers imagination, less is more, is at the very heart of the Lewton style, and why (even though Lewton’s body of work is brief, less than a dozen films, and his life, unfortunately, also brief) his films 70 years later are regarded as masterpieces, whereas even the best films of Franco are barely footnotes in cinema, are to most curiosities at best. This may sound like I’m unduly disparaging Franco, or have an axe to grind against him, and that’s not the case. I haven’t seen as many Franco movies as some, clearly ( I mean the guy has made a 187 films, and most of these are films Franco himself has probably not even sat through, nor would he want to) but I reckon I’ve seen more than most people. I’ve seen the generally regarded highlights, and tonal shifts in his style. And it’s clear that his early films are of a different level of quality than his later films. Unlike many, I’ll be the first to say that Franco’s early films, are not just curiosities… they are accomplished if flawed works. And his DIABOLICAL DR. Z, an out an out masterpiece, which has been liberally borrowed from by a generation of filmmakers since… to include Dario Argento. The deep focus photography in this film is just gorgeous to look at! Go here for a pretty impressive and detailed review on the movie by the good folks at ECCENTRIC CINEMA. Unabashedly a brilliant film, especially taken in context of when it was filmed. As the last and the best of Franco’s Universal inspired, but fresh and innovative in their own right, Gothic thrillers. The four films in Franco’s gothic quartet are: THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS (1962) THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF THE HORRIBLE MONSTER

Welcome back to part 2 of the incredibly strange cinema of Jesus.

That’s Jesus Franco, of course.

- Click here – for an interesting article comparing Val Lewton (the great 40s director of CAT PEOPLE and LEOPARD MAN and SHE WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE to name a few) and Jess Franco.

And last but not least, Franco’s best film…

THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z!!!

There’s a wonderful review of DR.ORLOFF (which till recently was the most accessible film from this period of Franco’s career) by Scott Ashlin of 1000 MISSPENT HOURS that I urge you to read in its entirety here, but for the moment I want to present you a snippet of it, because I think Mr. Ashlin perfectly captures the dichotomy between Franco’s early work, and the bulk of his career:

“It’s hard to believe the same man could have directed both The Awful Dr. Orlof and Oasis of the Zombies. Here in his first outing as a horror director, Franco displays a visual flair and a concern for narrative cohesion that would vanish from his work almost completely by the beginning of the next decade. Hell, he’s even got his infamous zoom lens fetish under control. It’s also obvious that Franco took far more care with The Awful Dr. Orlof than he would with his vast 70’s and 80’s output. The film is derivative, to be sure, but it is derivative of so many distinctly different things, and the pilfered elements are reassembled in such a thoughtful manner that it manages to find a personality all its own. Most of the subject matter is stolen from Eyes Without a Face, of course, but there are also echoes of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and a whole slew of Edgar Wallace mysteries (most notably The Dead Eyes of London) to throw the story into a completely new equilibrium. Meanwhile, Franco aims for a very different overall feel from his primary model. The Awful Dr. Orlof’s production design has more of a Universal look to it, and there’s a dash of sleazy sex that makes for one of the very few signposts this movie offers pointing the way for the rest of Franco’s career. With all that going for it, I suppose it’s only natural that Franco would return to the character of Dr. Orlof— and to actor Howard Vernon as well— again and again over the ensuing years. By most accounts, none of The Awful Dr. Orlof’s many sequels match the balance and poise of the original, but you can hardly blame Franco for hoping to recapture his apparently freakish early success.”

While the above quote is incorrect in regards to ORLOFF being Franco’s first foray into horror, or the sequels not being as good or better than the original, he’s on the money in the bulk of his statement. There’s an almost palpable sense of confusion and frustration when reviewers contrast early Franco, with 1970s and later Franco.

It’s a sense of loss almost, the realization that Franco is (was?)an actually talented filmmaker, who for reasons known only to himself decides to forsake that talent, and for the last thirty years of his career make largely flashy, incomprehensible, pornography.

But even in DR. Z you began to see the lack of restraint that would mar all his later films, and set Franco on his path of soft porn schlock. It is not talent that is the great dividing line between having a film career like Lewton and having a film repertoire like Franco. No, not talent. Talent isn’t the difference between THE LEOPARD MAN and VENUS IN FURS, or better still… talent isn’t the difference between DR.Z and VENUS IN FURS. There’s talent in evidence in all three films, however what VENUS IN FURS lacks is restraint.

It lacks the restraint to have a script, to tell a story, to be true to that story, to have actors who can be true to that story, it lacks the restraint to be anything more than pieces of an idea, moments of inspiration, instant gratification.

That is the difference between a great film, and a mediocre mess, more than talent, people forget now, but going into the 1960s, there was no more acclaimed young director than Jess Franco. So the difference lies not in talent, but in restraint.

More than anything a director, has to know what is a story, when he has a story, and what serves that story and what does not. It takes restraint to make and film and shape a movie. Somewhere along the way restraint became a virtue or perhaps a vice, too heavy for Franco to be bothered with. And his films since have shown that.

And I realize many of Franco’s soft-core films are end products of changing moral and economic times, but not really.

There’s a prurient nature in Franco (and I say that without judgment, there’s a prurient nature to most of us ), even in DR. Z.

Franco almost loses the thru-line of his story, you can sense this nearly gravitational pull, the director’s desire to get lost in the act of watching female flesh jiggle.

Believe me, that’s a huge past-time of my own, so I can sympathize. .

However if Franco had given into that obsession (as he would after DR. Z) … had failed to show restraint, given into his desire for moments over meaning, DR. Z would have been just a forgettable soft-core porn film, rather than what it is… the lynchpin movie between the American Universal Monster movies of the 30’s and 40s and the Euro-Gothic Horror Films/Giallos of the 60s and 70s.

But for Franco’s restraint early in his career, or his being restrained, cinema would have lost a film, a quartet of films, that I believe we are all the better for the having.

You can tell a lot about people by the things they love.

People who waste a lot of time telling you what they hate, have nothing in their lives they love. And in the fullness of time they and their works will fall away. Which is why I don’t give a rats ass about neo-cons, or racists, or all the machinations of suspect men.

Because they carry in their empty, torture prone souls, their empty, torture prone ends.

But the things you love, define you.

Me, I’m a child of the 70s. a child of Fred Sanford, Fat Albert, John Wayne reruns, real Saturday morning cartoons, and a pre-FOX-TV and pre-media consolidation world. I’m a child of parents who played honest to goodness records for us. I’m a child of Motown, and Calypso, and Johnny Cash, and Harlem Globetrotters, and Nat King Cole Christmases, and Oj Simpson commercials and movies, and pre-crack inner cities.

I’m a child of comic books on the newstands, and Ali, and Foreman, and Frazier, and Hagler, Hernes, Sugar Ray. I’m a child of Saturday Night classic Universal Creature Feature movies, and tv without adult ads, or adult diaper ads, or diarrhea ads, or erection medicine ads.

I’m a child not too far removed from the age of free love, and civil disobedience.

I’m a child of Shakespeare, and Poe, and Baldwin, and Leroi Jones, and Nat Turner, and Frederick Douglass and Stan Lee and Steve Englehart and the team of David Kraft and Keith Giffen on the DEFENDERS. I’m a child of Conner and McEnroe, Arthur Ashe and Billy Jean King.

A child of Cosby, and Poitier and Belafonte and Prior and Roundtree and Jim Brown. I’m a child of Black not African American, of freedom not fascism.

We live in an age that has turned its back on everything that has brought us here. An age of media over morality, destruction over decency. But that’s all right.

The closer we get to the flames, the more we’re going to have choose. The more we get impelled… to act.

The more lost our age becomes, the more that age will turn to the places where it was once found.

And there’s hope in that certainty. And love.

I’ve done over 100 posts. So a lot of good stuff is buried in the back pages where the casual or 1st time reader isn’t going to find it. So I wanted to use this post to point you to some of the older ones that I think may interest you. Take a look.

The First Post or who this crazy guy is

This was the first thing I wrote on Percival Everett. And I like this post, it has a decent flow

This post went from music to the military without missing a beat

This post goes off the rails some, you can feel the train start sliding, but there’s a line or two in here… I like

I think this might have been my first rant. This post is why I have the Blog, this type of post. I love the reviews, and the articles, and the occasional interviews, but sometimes… just to speak clearly, to scream clearly… is a good thing.

Review of Christopher Priest’s THE CREW

List of some of my favorite fighters

This was my first WordPress post, as I was moving over from Blogger. Nice little recap post.

This post on Grant Morrison’s body of work… is one of my better posts. Give a read.

I like this post because it draws attention to Rick Veitch and his series MAXIMORTAL. Which for my money,you need to read. Forget the B/W trade paperback, grab the original issues and read this series in color like it was meant to be. Strong recommendation.

I got tired of people hating on Greg Land and Tom Cruise, hence this post

I give love here to Don Newton and Kevin Nowlan, two of my favorite artists

Another of my favorite posts, this covering my favorite actor… Sidney Poitier!

I think layout wise, flow wise, content wise this is probably really close to the top. Covers art books.

I really dig this list of best comic book runs, because they are books that flew under the radar

This is the blog now running smoothly, and kicking out a great eclectic mix of reviews!!

Wikipedia?… Just Say No

The Jerimiah Johnson movie review, is one of my favorites

Fluoride and Cigarettes are good for you…this is where I started stepping on toes

Ebay and The Peter Principle

This kicks off my 3 post coverage on the 2007 NY Comic Con! Great event, Had lots of fun! And got to talk to nifty people, read and you’ll see.

And the last post I want to toss some attention to is THE CONSCIOUS CARNIVORE. Definitely worth a read.

Okay and as a special present to all of you who think I cannot get any crazier, here’s a link to a post I hid (I moved it into the future) because I thought it was too wacky… even by my standards. Oh well… we’re all friends here. If I can’t vivisect myself in front of you, what good is a blog?

I’ve been really pretty darn productive going into this new year. Which is really very unusual for me.

I’m usually a very reliable procrastinator. But despite myself, I’ve been oddly effective at following through with things and getting things done, in the last week or two.

Hmmm…. don’t quite know how I feel about that yet. I’m the last of the really effective, and fun procrastinators… a slacker if you will, or hippie if you prefer…

I despair for a world where I give up slacking. Hmmmm…. troubling times, troubling times.

Well enough of me mourning for my slacking, time to be about the ABCs. “Always Be Closing!” Yeah I like Mamet movies too. Seemingly no end to my failings.

Blog moved… check.
ComicSpace page…. check
Domain Registration…. check.
Refinance… check.
Remodeling House…. check.
Sneakily killing former enemies…. check.
Page of art a day… check.
Repair Business…. check.
Working Out regularly…. check.
Prostitutes…. priceless.

God where was I…. yeah, so being very effective in this new year. I promised a local artist, I’d give her the script to a kids book we’re going to work on. Going to shoot for 32 to 48 pages, and get a good chunk of it storyboarded tonight.

Considering I have to be at work relatively early, I’m going to quickly update this blog, update my Comicspace page, post a bunch of auctions, post some ads for local web designers and artists, make a note to renew my prepaid legal membership, send off some resumes, and… work on the kids book… and make time to read a couple books.

I’m starting to feel being productive is way overrated.

Book of the Day: AAAIIIEEE!!! – A collection of horror stories by sometimes publisher Jeffrey Thomas, I couldn’t find too much on this book prior to purchasing it. A couple Amazon reviews that were repeated endlessly throughout the web, but no real 3rd party reviews. But being suitably a collecting fool when it comes to certain books, I took a chance that this book was more than just a vanity project, and had some real merit. Two stories in and I’m suitably convinced… Jeffrey Thomas, knows his way around horror. I’ll give a full review when done, but so far… it’s pretty darn good.

Movie of the Day: BAKENEKO: A VENGEFUL SPIRIT- An odd mixing of samurai film and ghost story, an inexplicably popular genre in Japan in the 1960s, this flick is one of the best examples of the genre I’ve seen. With really top notch sword play, an engaging storyline, and some effective horror/visuals. Suitably atmospheric and sinister. And never has a man putting his hands on a woman’s sleeve ever cost more. . You’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it. Recommended.

Comic of the Day: Didn’t read any today. Yes I know… sacrilege, but from my back issue bin I’ll recommend Rick Veitch’s MAXIMORTAL.

To my mind Rick Veitch has never been given the credit he deserves. People talk about Miller’s this or Moore’s that, and those accolades are deserved, but let’s not look over Veitch’s sizeable and scintillating body of work from SWAMP THING to RAREBIT FIENDS to BRAT PACK to what I consider not only his best work, but one of comics best works… THE MAXIMORTAL.

Veitch self published this title a decade ago, and a better dissection and examination, both satire and very serious ode to the comics medium… you will not find. I stack it up there with Moore’s WATCHMEN and FROM HELL, and Mckean’s CAGES. It is that great of a book, with wonderful literary odes and allusions done years before Moore’s LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. Veitch’s finest hour, a book that deserves to be sought out and read often. It is one of my personal favorites, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Well boy, I spent way more time on that then I wanted to . Gotta run. Please enjoy and I’ll see you next update.