My All Over the Place Rant… Beware, there be Dragons here

It’s 0330 dark of the morning and I’m listening to Disaster-Piece’s IT FOLLOWS film score on CD (not something I would particularly recommend if you are in the house by yourself at this time of night), and I’m thinking…we are all adrift in the fields of the Lord.

That’s what I’m thinking.

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And I’m thinking of Carlos Castaneda and a Yaqui Indian called Don Juan and truths and fictions, and how the one becomes the other and the other the one.

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I’m thinking of the quality of person that would have actually voted for Resident Trump and be not ashamed.

I think the clinical term would be somewhere between fool and sociopath.

I’m thinking of seas relatively unspoiled by man, and islands far from this benighted shore.

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I think…

I think there are other worlds…

but this one is not quite done with me.

I think of duty and honor and truth and justice and loyalty, words co-opted by the venal to keep a nation of young men killing and dying and being mutilated and maimed for the 1%ers’ Dubai pleasure nations.

I’m listening to track 9 of IT FOLLOWS, the stereo panning in my Avanti Headphones, is working for me. Left, right… left, right. My brain relaxes, and formulates something beyond questions and answers.

It is a truly brilliant album, to accompany one of the standout horror films so far this 21st century.

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I’m thinking I can’t get down with media lynchings, especially by a notoriously untrustworthy and historically lynching obsessed nation as America. So the more they tell me to demonize anyone, whether a Cosby or Simpson or insert famous Black male target of the day, the more I have to question it. In a world full of evils to fight, it’s funny to me how the press never tackles the evil that really controls and infects their viewers lives.

Like the evil of Pharmaceutical companies that are getting rich selling you not ready for human use drugs that have more dangerous side-effects than the conditions they are created to combat. “Oh you have acne, oh use our product, but oh, it might sterilize or kill you. Heehee… but we told you up front so we’re not liable.”

No you pieces of offal, that’s not how it works, if someone buys a hamburger from me and it is laced with arsenic, that may make them very sick or kill them, that’s called attempted murder. Even if the burger was a good tasting burger, did its advertised job, side effects of food poisoning and possible death are not acceptable or allowable risks to eating a hamburger.

So that burger is not ready for human sale or consumption and is recalled, pulled from the market.

The pharmaceutical companies instead market you these not ready for human usage products, and lawyer up against their products being filled with arsenic.

The actions that would get an individual arrested for attempted murder, these companies are using to get rich on the sick and desperate . Now that is something the press should for 3 decades be raging against. Not a suspect celebrity murder case, and not an even more vacuous charge of sexual assault.

So when the press avoid the crimes of their rich corporate sponsors and overlords instead to pile on with, ‘what Black celebrity can we pull down today’, well that’s a train I’m not going to board, and that is a Dachau I’m not going to populate.

There are lots of racist cops walking around free that have committed worse crimes than either Simpson or Cosby have been accused of. There are lots of you judging them, Cosby, Simpson,… that should be wary of casting that first stone.

Simpson I don’t care about, except that the fact of a white owned media embroiled in demonizing him over 2 decades after his acquittal shows clearly the new face of lynch mobs. We have young men and women coming back from parts of the world we didn’t even know we were still fighting in… damaged, and having damaged, for reasons that stink of lies, and true evil, and rather than the press demonize the real monsters that fill our nightly news with blood, they want to waste energy on cases that in the scheme of things while significant to the families of the victim and the families of the accused, to the larger body of society, are not of import.

As far as Cosby, Cosby I was raised on, and in a world that would have you be less, he was one of the ones breaking barriers and opening doors so that a whole generation of young Black men and women could be more. There are very few people drawing breath on this planet that can claim to have done the good that Bill Cosby has done, and if you can not equal a man’s good, you are unfit to judge his evil.

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If he committed a crime, that is to be determined in a court of law.

But a man’s falling down does not erase his standing up, including the many times he stood up for a castigated people. So to take arms against him now is beyond ungrateful, it is cowardice of the highest order.

To let yourself be so crudely used, in this war of Black and White.

Now transitioning to another rant…

Why is local autonomy in nearly every walk of life being replaced by autonomy of these very few companies and oligarchies and families.

Once a blockbuster movie meant not only the studios did well but the regional independent local theater did well. These days theaters are mostly studio owned, so we have this incestuous chain of the studios getting paid in every part of the process, and local economies are obliterated by it. Reduced to only the most minuscule piece of the proverbial pie.

AVENGERS makes a billion Dollars, I don’t really care.

I care that it is or isn’t a good movie, but do I care if a Billion dollar studio make more millions and billions? Not in the least.

As it stands now these studios such as Disney and Fox and Warner Brothers (pieces of larger snakes) should have been broken up years ago and their anti-competitive and local economy suppressing monopolies ended decades ago.

The best thing that could happen to America is a nation where all the Disney Properties, most of which are over 50 years old went into the public domain where they belong so everyone can legally make money off of them and be enriched by them.

An America without the endless shadow of Disney and its lie of family values would suit me fine.

The album is over, the clock has moved on, and my rant…

My all over the place rant… ended.

For now.

“Come back and throw stones later, Mother will be more receptive”

—LION IN WINTER

2015 Podcasts the Year in Review: Old Favorites ended and New ones discovered

 

Looking back over the ten year history of this blog I’ve praised my share of podcasts, and seen quite a few shuffle off this mortal coil.

2015 seemed to be a volatile year, with many of my long standing podcast favorites either no longer releasing episodes on a regular schedule or hanging up their mics.

Among some of the great ones that seem to be on hiatus or done are:

 

  • HORROR ETC
  • SIDEBAR

 

 

All of these shows are and were great, and will be missed. And join other great departed podcasts such as:

 

  • INDIE SPINNER RACK
  • GEEK SYNDICATE
  • MONDO MOVIE
  • FREQUENCY OF FEAR

 

But I completely understand, these podcast and blogs, while dearly loved, require HUGE expenditures of time and energy, and sometimes… life gets in the way. And considering most of these podcasts are not a revenue stream, it is understandable that when the effort exceeds the rewards… it’s time to stop doing it. What is amazing is that some of these shows have gone as long as they have.

All that said, you may or may not still find old episodes online. I recommend grabbing them if you can. SIDEBAR particularly interviewed some great artists, and for those interviews to be not easily accessible, seems… a loss.

INDIE SPINNER RACK  had the best interviews with both Alan Moore (One of the greatest and most influential writers in the comics/graphic novel medium – it is a crime that companies, marvel and dc, are releasing books missing his name , and shorn of his insightful interviews. the reasons for this are both well documented and trivial. yes, alan moore can be something of a bridge burner, but his brilliance makes him worth the effort to mend those fences. when he passes off this mortal coil, as we all must, no one wants to be remembered as the company that stole his characters, and froze him out of work. pay alan moore and get him at least authorizing director’s cut versions or writer approved versions of his most celebrated works. it’s one of the reasons i will not part with my swamp thing paperbacks, it is because later introductions are devoid of his introductions, which are as entertaining and informative as his stories. )

and Stephen Bissette (Who remains to this day, with his run on swamp thing, one of the greatest and most influential artists to work in the medium).

 

So the above are the podcasts lost in 2015. Here are some select podcasts enjoyed in 2015:

 

Head over to the German Music Magazine GROOVE and pick up two of the best mix tapes of 2015:

 

DECONSTRUCTING COMICS – anytime you get the chance to hear Stephen Bissette speak, take it. Not only one of the great superstar artists of the 80s with his game changing work on Swamp Thing, but simply an informed, erudite speaker on a number of topics.. including the history of horror and cinema. This Sept 2015 podcast is a recommended listen. They also have an episode of huge interest to any fan of either Edgar Allen Poe or Richard Corben. They also offer a Transformers episode that offers reviews on recent transformer comics.

 

 

THE DOLLAR BIN (Also a show that appears to be on indefinite hiatus) had a couple intriguing episodes in 2015, one covering HIP HOP FAMILY TREE, and one with Golden Age artist Allen Bellman:

 

And if these guys really are  done producing new shows, some of their classic shows that you want to get, while avaiilable, are:

I grew up on Steve Englehart comics and you don’t get today’s sophisticated comics, without first going through him. One of the first to help transition comics from kids entertainment to college and beyond entertainment.

Not one, but two interviews with one of the most elusive, and one of the most talented and innovative writers in comics, Christopher Priest (His SPIDERMAN VS WOLVERINE remains one of the joys of my collection, as well as his excellent run on BLACK PANTHER and QUANTUM AND WOODY).

 

A Bob McLeod interview (Made important because Bob McLeod’s work on the NEW MUTANTS is burned into my brain. That fight with the New Mutants and the Sentinels in a mall, blew my mind as a kid. And as an adult, those images still define for me what great artwork and storytelling should be.)

So quite a few of my favorite podcasts slowed down or completely stopped in 2015. However when one door closes another, as they say, opens.

So some podcasts I started listening to in 2015, and have added to my subscriptions are:

 

  • THE COMICS ALTERNATIVE- Their monthly preview episodes helped me all last year put in my monthly comics order
  • INKSTUDS- Interviews with Comic Book  Creators… some really indispensable interviews.
  • READING LIVES- Interviews with Writers… LOVE IT.
  • WTF- I think without argument the most listened to and successful podcast, with guests from  comedians, musicians, actors, and now a sitting president, Marc Maron out of his garage has created podcast as both high art, and passionate conversation.
  • FILMSPOTTING:SVU- Reviews for the streaming age
  • GILBERT GODFREY PODCAST – I do not find Gilbert Gottfried funny, but his knowledge and love for classic film and television, means he interviews people I want to hear, and he has had some GREAT gustd this year. Thankfully co-host Frank is there to get the podcast back on track when Gilbert starts amusing himself and no one else
  • FAT MAN ON BATMAN- Kevin Smith’s love for the creative process and all things Batman… is an addictive listen
  • HOUSE TO ASTONISH – A comic book podcast from across the pond

AND WRAPPING UP MY 2015 REVIEW, WANT TO GIVE ACCOLADES TO SOME OF MY FAVORITE, AND LONGEST RUNNING PODCASTS THAT ARE STILL GOING STRONG. ALL AWARD WINNING PODCASTS (they all won my Welles Award a few years back, and in my mind have been award winners every year since):

  • CGS – Comic Geek Speak -one of the oldest podcasts, and with great losses, and welcome additions, still an eagerly awaited listen
  • 11′ OCLOCK- One of the most informative and jam-packed and fun of any podcast. The chemistry these three have… works.
  • B-MOVIE CAST – Love this podcast on classic, crazy, genre cinema. Wonderful chemistry between the hosts.

Well folks, that is the podcast scene here as 2015 ends and 2016 takes the stage. Please use this list to see what was special about those shows we lost, and to jump aboard and support those we still have.

Thanks for reading and be well!

Movie Poster of the Day! Support Quentin Tarantino’s THE HATEFUL EIGHT!

hateful_eight_ver10_xlg


Finally we get a good poster for Quentin Tarantino’s eagerly awaited eighth movie… THE HATEFUL EIGHT!

I for one am definitely looking forward to it, as it has a great cast and an intriguing premise, and I’m a fan of westerns. Tarantino remains one of the most interesting filmmakers, and this is one I want to lay down my money for.

Plus it would be great to send a big FU to “not-worthy-to-be-named Tarantino haters”, by making this movie a box-office smash! 🙂

FAVORITE & THE BEST : Favorite July Podcasts! Part 1 of 2!

July’s FAVORITE podcasts Part 1 of 2!

B MOVIE CAST– A great 2+ hours of B-movie celebration. A long running and well enjoyed favorite, that I have praised for years, that I look forward to every week. Consistently one of the best!

COMIC GEEK SPEAK – One of the earliest podcasts and still one of the most popular and enjoyable, this one is a bunch of friends letting you in on their love of all things comics. With closing in on 1500 episodes, this show has seen many changes and many moments memorable and heartfelt. Dedicated to Jamie D, this show will always be one of the best.

FILM SPOTTING – One of the newer movie podcasts I’m trying, after the hiatus of a couple other movie podcasts.

FILM SPOTTING SUV – For those of us who have cut the cable bill and have embraced all things streaming this is an informative listen, keeping you abreast of the latest movies and shows to watch… courtesy of streaming.

HORROR ETC – Another long running show, this Canadian horror movie podcast is up there with B MOVIE CAST as being one of the best, while still being very unique. Always a highly recommended listen.

SIDEBAR – A trio of impressively versed art lovers, helm this excellent process show, with interviews and commentaries of some of the most acclaimed cartoonists, pencilers, painters, etc. A must have addition to anyone’s podcast rotation!

Creepiest Post of the Day: Screaming, Furry, Nearly Indestructible Bugs?!!

Okay in some way this has got to be the GMO companies, and the government’s Black Bag projects at work. :).

What am I talking about?

Give a reading here, and when done listen to the good folks at B-MOVIE CAST here (around the 20 minute mark) discuss trying to kill, the near indestructible RED VELVET (COW KILLER) WASP/ANT!

Vince of B-MOVIE CAST mentions trying to kill one of the huge bugs by stepping on it (a natural reaction, I would think to a blood red bug, the size of a few bees on hormones crawling toward you), only to have its head and upper body walk away from the crushing with it making a bloodcurdling screaming noise.

Game over man! Game over!

Damn Secret Government gene-splicing experiments! 🙂

p.s. The pic is of the wimpy male, The female has no wings, and is the one in the habit of killing anything that bugs it. Just like human women. I’m JOKING!!!!!

PODCAST OF THE DAY: B-MOVIE CAST #217 Connery in OUTCAST (1981)

B-MOVIE CAST is easily one of my favorite podcasts. Every episode is a joy. Give a listen, you might find it becoming your favorite as well.

Listen to it here!

And view their website here!

And subscribe to their award winning podcast (they won the WELLES AWARD!!! An award which I’ll be dusting off and having a 2012 version of this fall) here!

Enjoy and tell them HT sent ya!!

PODCAST & SONG OF THE DAY!

The always excellent B-Movie cast is in fun form with their latest episode covering the 50s classic TARANTULA. And in addition they introduce me to a great song I had never heard before, Bob Schneider’s Tarantula from his LOVELY CREATURES album

An enjoyable podcast, and a fun, addictive song.


“If you’re reading this because you just heard 40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet) and don’t know about Bob, your’re in luck! In addition to this pop-friendly brilliant single you’ll receive an excellent introduction to the multi-talented Bob Schneider and his tremendous versatility. I dare you to not tap a toe to “Til Somebody Catches a Feeling”. Elvis Costello is wondering why he didn’t write “Everybody’s Doing It”. Latin rhythms are abound in crowd favorites Bombabaza and Tarantula. In between there’s funk, ballads, and other crunchy grooves.” –Jeffrey D. @ Amazon

Listen to the podcast here (a sample of the song is at the end), and purchase the album here: Lovely Creatures CD

Enjoy.

“I met a woman down in Mexico
Sweet as sugar with a heart made of stone
We drank tequila by the light of the moon
I didn’t know that she would be my ruin
She said she knew about the voodoo ways
And could make me love her till the end of my days
She lit a candle then she took my hand
And in the street I heard the mariachi band

She tried to say she was the last of her kind
She started to change I nearly lost my mind
When she said that I’d be her honeybee
I realized she had put a spell on me
I looked around and my eyes grew wider then
I realized I was inside her spider den
Caught in her web I never had a chance
When she did her tarantula dance

You say its too fantastic that it cannot be true
But I say that can happen and it can happen to you
One minute you’ll be thinking that everything’s fine
The next thing you know well you’re there with your heart on the line”
–Tarantula by Bob Schneider

Five FAVORITE AVENGERS Posters!!

So I was at the post office flirting hard, with the fetching postal worker behind the counter. And to her credit she was throwing it back pretty capably, and we got on the subject of the AVENGERS movie. She has no interest in the AVENGERS movie or any superhero or action flick.

She was much more psyched by THINK LIKE A MAN and WOMEN THOU ART LOOSED and other relationship tinged flicks. I must admit I died inside a little to know my future wife has no interest in slam, bam action flicks, but oh well. Diversity they say makes a happy home. 🙂

On a serious note, taking a page from her book, I’m glad the AVENGERS movie is finally here, and I’m glad Joss Whedon is helming it, but I’m not really that wowed by the trailer I’ve seen, or the poster.

Of course I’m going to go see it, and I hope it’s great as everyone thinks it’s going to be, but I’ll be happy with good. Let’s put it this way, on anticipation level, not crazy about the default AVENGERS poster, this one:

The poster just bothers me, because it’s so un-artfully done, if you take my meaning. I can’t quite define what grabs me the wrong way about it, but it does. It definitely puts me off. It is so bad it actually has me worried about the movie. 🙂

If you can’t take the effort to make a decent poster it just hints at sloppiness or laziness somewhere else in the film. I’m hoping that’s incorrect and the buck stops with a lazy marketing department (which is far from an isolated thing in Hollywood, unfortunately.)

So I went searching for AVENGERS posters that did look good, and found these top 5! (Some of the best ones are fan created) Enjoy!

First the honorable mentions. The solo posters with Scarlett Johansson for obvious reasons 🙂 :

Now counting down to the best, #5:

#4

#3

#2 A great poster from Australia!

And my #1 favorite AVENGERS poster, is this simple but sumptuous use of open space and duality in this Japanese poster. I show the logo and logo free posters. It’s great!

Well I don’t know about you, but I feel better for having seen those nice looking posters! Easily pleased aren’t I? 🙂

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Searching for a Good NEW Movie Podcast!! Separating the Wheat from the Chaff!

Well one of the only decent movie podcasts out there, MONDO MOVIES (which I mentioned in my podcasts of the year award) is going on hiatus, which leaves me scrambling around looking for a replacement. Thankfully HORROR ETC and B MOVIE CAST are still out there, but I’ve been looking around for a podcast that can handle broader genres, and more current movies as well; to fill the place of MONDO MOVIE

Unfortunately all the “film-this” and “film-that” podcasts I’ve listened to so far, I really don’t like.

I can’t stand movie critics, I’m looking for quality movie REVIEWERS.

There is a distinction

Reviewers are people who can tell you the things they love, not just rail against the things they dislike, or the things that didn’t fit their preconceptions.

In contrast, crtics, those who define themselves as critics, I find usually very pretentious and worse, very cynical, spouters of diatribes where people toss around “sh*t”, “fuck”, “hate”, “screenwriters didn’t even try”, and other absurd profanity or absolutes, that is usually the remark of someone who couldn’t write a script or a story or anything creative to save his life, so the gist of the creative impulse becomes tossing snarky comments rather than instructive comments.

Like something, dislike something, but cloak your opinion in something resembling perspective and reasoned stance.

I’ve been listening to these podcats contenders, and a lot of it is review by committee, some immature hive-mind, where the least flattering perspective is the one the entire group devolves down to. Almost like a whole generation afraid to be caught liking a film, that their friends don’t like. You can hear them devolve or back up on their opinion, and offer halfhearted praise, ready to be quickly rescinded.

It is so juvenile the discussion/critiques that passes as informed opinion on these shows. It is this really sad generation, that has no backbone or appreciation for anything that isn’t lowest common denominator, and will acquiesce at a moments notice to throwing rocks, if the hive mind defines it.

So yeah I’ve gone through a bunch… and still looking for a decent movie podcast. I’ll keep you updated on the hunt.