the Perverted Cabin

Friends

2011-03-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

Very thankful to have the friends I do in my life. So creative. So inspiring. It's like a journey with these folks. Fuck that, not a journey. It's like a movement. I find that I'm more inspired by my friends in their achievements and their tenacity in failures. Truly blessed to have good people in my corner. I cherish all you dudes and dudettes. Extremely lucky to not be plowing this creative struggle alone.

Keep it up guys. I love you for it.

Do You Want To Live Forever?

2011-02-17T23:18:00.000-08:00

A new podcast will begin being posted here as well as on my YouTube channel. Hosted by Hoch, Chappy, and myself it's called The Silver Screen Saloon. We just bullshit about films we love completely uncut and uncensored. For film lovers or people who just want to listen to us talk and sometimes make fools of ourselves. Maybe it's your cup of tea. Maybe it's not your flavor. But we welcome all listeners, even the haters.
Devil Town is in post-production. ADR sessions are about to begin with the actors. I would say we are about 2 1/2 weeks out from a final cut. It will be good to have it in the can. I look forward to seeing it complete and moving on to future projects. Onward and upward!

WOMANIZER. The new web series. Was on a bit of a delay. Gearing back up. Coming soon...

The feature screenplay "Dixie" has came along quite nicely. Binaco (co-brain) did an incredible pass on the script bringing it to an epic version of what we originally light bulb-ed. Very cool to have a creative partnership with a like-minded artist. We essentially started together in a sense as we both tackled our first attempt at a feature length script together. It's cool to see the evolution going into the sixth year of writing. I have faith in "Dixie" and projects to come.

I'm working independently on a feature length script called "Almost Heaven". It's been sort of a passion project of mine. Loosely based on a true story my Dad told me one time with a helluva lot of artistic freedom. I have the outline. I'm 10 pages in. I sometimes fear the dialogue. But the challenge of it all is what makes me know it's worth doing it. Goal: produce to picture

Another script I'm knee deep in is "Laugh Track" with Hoch. Somewhat of a love letter to the lore of Los Angeles following a man by the name of Eddie Springfield. No plot details. 20 pages in. Outline solid. Can't wait for this one. Very fun story.

I have 6 scripts that are currently in heavy note taking/planning stages. A few off-kilter dramedies, a horror script I'm pumped for, an adventure, and another horror story that needs finished. Not to mention revisions. A lot to get outta my head. Ideas vamoose!

Another huge part of my artistic outlet is the music of GDO. January 1st we put out "Dead Wrestler" and we're about halfway into a full length called "Hollywood Starwhackers". 13 tracks. Gets better with each one.

The website is still coming damnit. It's coming.

All in all there is a lot to be happy and excited about. A lot of cool projects that are different but still apart of the whole. The website will show this whole. I'm constantly trying to be prolific. Sometimes I'm not, but sometimes I hit strides. The discipline is setting in. Focused on conquering.

Do you want to live forever?

RANT - Creative Teamwork is a Myth

2011-01-22T10:39:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of people in this world that think they are career creatives. They do a little here and there and are fulfilled with their creative output. They shoot a short, make a sketch, write a song, and they're creative. BULLSHIT. To be a career creative is to give your life over to it. Do you really think you'll ever get to a point in your life where you can make money at what you love by doing it once or twice a week? Fuck no, you can't. You know why? Because there are people out there that eat, sleep, and breath this shit every waking hour of every waking day. I wanna be prolific, but I'm finding that that old adage "NEVER WORK WITH YOUR FRIENDS" is holding true. When you work with people who don't have or want to have that style of work ethic it holds you back. Plain and simple. It holds you way the fuck back. You will never progress if you wait around for other people to care. You will never be a success if you wait around for other people to execute. You will never be creative if you depend on non-creative people. It's time to fly solo. No more shorts. No website. No sketch comedy. No stupid music. NOTHING. The only thing that I, myself, can do and depend on is write. I must sink myself into my writing. Not writing shorts or sketch comedy that everyone depends on you to do every single fucking aspect of from thought to edit. They want all the work done for them. They don't wanna help. They want the glory. They see all the trivial acts of making that big project come to fruition and see the hard work while you see the ultimate goal and relish in the steps you must take to create it. Making a website and a company is an act that takes a team and I no longer want a part of it. It's not fun anymore. It's like daycare constantly hounding people to create. Constantly chasing people down with texts and phone calls. Constantly seeing if they're gonna be here for the project. Constantly reminding. No one else does this. Just me. It's bullshit. It's unfair. And I want no part of it anymore. I have put my life on hold to chase my dreams with people I thought were of the same mindset. They are not. They don't believe it can happen or they would make the moves. They want to have that bullshit life and try to make it as a career creative as well. That will never fucking happen unless a fluke of goddamn luck flies up their ass. Shit doesn't work like that. You can't work a nine-to-five, have a family life, have a social life, sleep all fucking day, and then give up a few hours to "chase your dream". That's goddamn ridiculous. It's laughable that anyone would think that is the formula to making it really happen. Fuck that. I'm tired of waiting for people who have one leg in. I'm drowning in this shit, both feet over the edge because that's what it takes. Sometimes I wonder if I should just hang this shit up and go get a serious 9-5 and a family. Goddamn. I'm giving my life away right now and eventually I'll have nothing to show for it. Years pass by quick. Too fast. One day I'll wake up and be on my deathbed and I'll have waited for these people that never were truly about the cause. They say they are. They lie a good game. But they are not part of the solution. They are part of the problem. I'm so fucking sick of being the goddamn cheerleader twenty-four seven. When I'm quiet, nothing is said. I'll go a week without mentioning the "goals" and "projects" we've all planned together just to see if anyone else rallies people for these goals/projects. They don't. If I don't bring it up, it's never talked about. I'm tired of that. It shows that I'm the only one that really gives a good goddamn about making an impact in Los Angeles. We're in the town where we're literally a few miles drive and a meeting away from setting ourselves up for the rest of our life, but yet that doesn't light a fire under anyone's ass but mine. FUCK OFF. I'm tired of being the creative rally cry in a group of goddamn complacent mutes. It's over. I'm sinking into my feature-length scripts like I have been for the last week and they can go shoot and record whatever it is they want. Let's see how much work gets done with all that shit when the cheerleader isn't around. Let's just wait and fucking see....

Assessment I

2010-12-06T23:39:00.000-08:00

Assessment: at this moment in my life what is shaping me? What intake is influencing me, affecting me? Hmm... what makes my cockles, cockle? Get my drift? Tha-thump... tha-thump. At this very moment... what do I love?

Cliche alert: Family and friends. Man's best friend (Joker). Deep thoughts. The female form. WRITING. Nonsensical senses of humor. Weird characters. Full blown infatuation. Laid back modesty. 60s-70s CINEMA. Cathartic storytelling. Minimalism. Captivating dramatic television: SOA, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, etc. Quiet reads. Long drives, or walks. Visiting places with historic significance. Mixed Martial Arts. Cold hard facts and conspiracy theories. The infinite limits of space. Cartoons. Sweet Ice Tea. creating art across all spectrums. Bill Hicks. People who are non-political and politically incorrect. Folklore and the unexplained. Trying to be a better man. TV Comedy: Eastbound & Down, It's Always Sunny, Parks & Recreation, etc. Mountains. GDO: the Gawdamn Dirty Outfit. Dialogue-driven drama. Silly YouTube videos. Terse Prose. Ancient Oaks and Weeping Willows. Old School Horror. Dallas Cowboys. Museums and Art Galleries. Dick and fart jokes. The mysteries of science and religion. The 1970s. Grilling steaks and bashing vegans. Knowing my role in the universe. Richard Pryor. Discovering the true power of the interweb. Appalachia. Joe Rogan's Podcast. history of Hollywood. secret societies and the Occult. turkey burgers. grey and red walls. Jed Clampett. The forest. Composition notebooks. Blue Dream and Grape Ape. Art of photography. Candles and ant traps. West Virginia Mountaineers. All the mistakes that have put me here and buried me. And the one that got away...

the soundtrack or selections from my iPod:
AC/DC, Angelo Badalamenti, Antony & The Johnsons, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Arson Anthem, Avi Buffalo, Bad Brains, The Band, Band of Horses, Beach House, Bill Callahan, The Black Keys, Black Mountain, Black Sabbath, Blitzen Trapper, Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Bruce Springsteen, The Cave Singers, Chuck Mangione, Clutch, The Coasters, Corrosion of Conformity, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Cramps, Crowbar, Daft Punk, David Bowie, David Vandervelde, De La Soul, The Dead Weather, Devendra Banhart, The Dictators, Dirty Projectors, The Doors, DOWN, Drive-By Truckers, Eddie Floyd, Electric Light Orchestra, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Fang Island, Fleet Foxes, Fleetwood Mac, The Fleshtones, Frank Zappa, Ghostland Observatory, Hank III, Harry Nilsson, Helmet, Hot Water Music, Huey Lewis & the News, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, Iggy Pop, Jens Lekman, Johnny Cash, Johnny Paycheck, Kanye West, Kid Cudi, King Khan & The Shrines, Kings of Leon, The Kinks, KISS, Kris Kristofferson, Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Magnetic Fields, Mastodon, Mayer Hawthorne, Motorhead, My Morning Jacket, Nashville Pussy, The National, Neil Young, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Old Crow Medicine Show, Opeth, Otis Redding, Outlaw Order, Pantera, Passion Pit, Patti Smith, Pentagram, Phoenix, Phosphorescent, Pink Mountaintops, Plants and Animals, The Raconteurs, She & Him, The Shirts, The Sonics, Stone Temple Pilots, Superjoint Ritual, The Sursiks, The Sword, System of a Down, The Tallest Man on Earth, Tapes 'N Tapes, Temple of the Dog, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Tool, Trombone Shorty, TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, Warbeast, Warren Zevon, Waylon Jennings, The White Stripes, Witchcraft, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yeasayer, ZZ Top

stand up comedians cracking the funny bone:
Bill Hicks, Richard Pryor, Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, Dave Attell, Mitch Hedberg, Brian Posehn, Bill Burr, Louis C.K., David Cross, Eddie Griffin, Dom Irrera, Joe Rogan, Sam Kinison, Doug Stanhope, Joey Diaz, Sarah Silverman, Greg Giraldo, Little Esther, Jim Norton, Ron White, Ari Shaffir, Ricky Gervais, George Carlin and Dave Chappelle if he would ever work.

Art in the Worst of Times

2010-11-26T18:28:00.000-08:00

As the world tears itself apart, art continues to be created. In the worst times of turmoil, creativity flourishes and masterpieces are produced. Hate births creation. War bares art. Suffering breeds honesty. Turmoil creates truth.

Yeah, that's it.

Ramble. Ramblings. Ramble On. (part 3)

2010-11-26T15:07:00.000-08:00

It's the dark ages with nukes. Medieval moments in time. North Korea. Iran. Russia. China. A web of unstable axis powers. Nuclear competition for the 22nd century. Why should America have all the bombs? That's what they ask. Hell, I don't have the answer to that one. God bless the USA is what I say. And for that I have no frame of reference for some tyrannic country that has their hand tightly grasped around the throat of their people... and again, that's my opinion. The opinion of a fortunate American. No forced warfare or government participation. Easy middle/lower class upbringing. Americana as apple pie. Bicycles and swing sets. The past looks bright. Future feels uncertain. Premonitions of things to come look bleak. The pieces of this puzzle are looking complicated and terrifying. Sacrifices are ahead in the world's affairs. Is this it? It's so predictable. Could see it coming a mile away. Storybook in it's execution. And yet it fell together perfectly. World War 3. The stage is so beautifully set. Fear overtakes the youth of America. Fingers crossed for no mushroom clouds. Here's to idealistic thoughts of a better future. Here's to hoping.

QUOTE: Billy Wilder

2010-11-11T23:57:00.000-08:00

"Hollywood didn't kill Marilyn Monroe, it's the Marilyn Monroes who are killing Hollywood."
-- Billy Wilder

POETRY: Pouring the Rain

2010-11-11T01:01:00.000-08:00

Wasn't it raining that day?

Pouring, right?
It was flooding the subway
yet it was a perfect night

Music was playing in the breezes
Feel-good kind
Umbrellas and petticoat squeezes
A great moment in time

Hot and cold in the back and forth
Lies on either side
Was scorched on the drive up north
when two worlds collide

I watch too many movies for this
Romanticize it all
My heart left with the subway
And I'll never call

by
C.E. Smith

Recommended Artist: Ghostland Observatory

2010-11-09T21:11:00.000-08:00

From the album Paparazzi Lightning (2006).

Studio Update: GDO working on new album in CA!!!

2010-11-08T01:27:00.000-08:00

Word on the street is that the underground phenomenon know as the Gawdamn Dirty Outfit has relocated from the gorges of Appalachia to the majestic foothills of California. A studio is said to be near completion that will serve as the lair of great artistic venture to the plethora of troubadours that fall beneath the shadow of GDO.

A new record is underway. Writing has commenced. Much ditty to deliver. Concept EPs are on the horizon as well. With bigger things coming down the pipeline.

Just please have pity and remember to tell your committee that the advocates of the ditty are here for the city. Sincerely, the Troubadours of the Ridiculous Ditty. GDO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7f2i25c6g0

QUOTE: George Carlin

2010-11-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?"

-- George Carlin

Mainlining Memory Lane

2010-10-30T22:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I am by myself I think of old times. Times in my life. Moments and the people who surrounded me during. Each coming with a feeling (vibe), smell and a soundtrack. A shot of recollection. Mainlining Memory Lane.

Cabin Creek days. Junior High. RHS Spring of 2002. Senior Week @ Myrtle Beach. WVU. The Blue House. New York City. 2006. Tower Records 866. The Spring of 2007. Full Sail. Brooklyn. The Green House.

Nostalgia is consuming. Dangerous. I can get lost in it. I try not to. Most times I don't. I know to live in the now, not the past. Reminiscing without regrets... Ah, to know then what I know now. Here's to falling short all those times and the countless screw-ups and mistakes I've made up to 27. Some I can live with - others... eh.

A toast to the women and great friends that touched/shaped my life up until now. I miss all you guys. Even the pricks and bitches. You guys were awesome. And I love you for it.

Cheers.

Pillaging and Plundering (in the Valley)

2010-10-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

Working a steady 9-5. Getting those bills paid down. Feels great. The Valley is hot. California landscapes continue to induce awe. The writing bug is inspired. Creating. The horizon is full. And approaching fast. Arrival of old friends (brains/artists). PROJECTS/RELEASE. Constant possibilities. Bombarding the muse. Pillaging and plundering from here to eternity. Something wicked this way comes. BIG THINGS. Tomorrow is here. One, two, three. It's a go.

POETRY: Western Welcome

2010-09-25T04:06:00.000-07:00

Tucked back in the West,

between Death Valley and the Pacific crest

Lies a magical fantasy world

of forgiven sin

and loose ends;

La-La-Land of pretend.

Constructed on make believe and desperate sleaze,

dreams on their knees.

Wasted Sunset harlots possessed

with the ghosts of silver screen starlets.

Shuffle through the hustlers and hussies,

palm trees and pool ponds,

the scum in the street full of imagination schemes

and empty American dreams living in the Hills...

This is real, the Western frontier.

Howdy.

Step into the Mecca.

Welcome to California.

by
C.E. Smith

Stupid update

2010-09-09T15:46:00.000-07:00

Moved in. Sweet digs. Job is cool. Life is hectic. But good. Joker is home. Couldn't be happier. Revived. Hopeful.

POETRY: Free Lust

2010-08-31T00:42:00.000-07:00

Ratchet down clear-headed thoughts

drown in spirits

and smoke.

Peek the curves waxing a '55

soaps and suds.

heart-broke.
---
Overflowing the bosom brim

hips hypnotize.

high.

Smirks a sashay-strut shining trunk

seductive-sinister

eye.
---
Lechery longing for humid traces
beads of summer
sweat.
Sponge dipping from ardor philter
lawless outlaws
wept.

---

Ditched trench for tall-grass peeping

shackled, ate the

key.

Bewitched by witchy beauty

lust forever

free.

by
C.E. Smith

HAIL! The Cramps

2010-08-29T22:06:00.001-07:00

From the EP Gravest Hits. California horror-pop dripping in beach fuzz rockabilly.
"The way I walk is just the way I walk. The way I talk is just the way I talk."

QUOTE: Charles Bukowski

2010-08-28T17:03:00.000-07:00

"you boys can keep your virgins
give me hot old women in high heels
with asses that forgot to get old. "

-- Charles Bukowski

Blaze a Road

2010-08-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

It's sobering when you realize the path you are taking will not lead to your ultimate goal. Realizing that soon is a luxury. LUXURIOUS, I am. Sometimes there are anchors around your neck, holding you under. They prevent you from gaining any new ground and keep you stuck in a constant state of waning ambition. These anchors unknowingly create pivot points sometimes that when executed upon provide a new sense of direction - a renewed revival of oneself.

Not a bad thing when you realize you don't need who you thought you did. Clashing gives way to mixing... new bonds. Create for yourself and stay on your path. Others desires and wants will take them where they want to go. Do not be drug down that same trail. Blaze a road of self-worth. Lead them. Never follow.

HAIL! Down

2010-08-09T15:37:00.000-07:00

From the album NOLA. Nawlins southern doom dipped in syrup and marinated in Black Sabbath.
"I gave my life to reason and now I'm watching my life go. My wit is falling apart. I can't shake temptation's wings."

QUOTE: Edgar Allan Poe

2010-08-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before."

-- Edgar Allan Poe

PLUG: Bullpen Altercation

2010-08-05T23:33:00.000-07:00

My creative compadre, Josh Chapman, just shot this hilarious video at Power Park in Charleston, West Virginia. A dickhead minor league pitcher gets butt-hurt when the trash talk turns. HYSTERICAL.

Check it out! YACHT ROCK

2010-08-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

Check out this web series called Yacht Rock. Very funny.

QUOTE: Buddha

2010-07-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea."

- Buddha

Rage, Rant, Curse and Blaze

2010-07-28T05:57:00.000-07:00

I am explosive. I sometimes lose my cool. Vary often I speak out of line; Or say something abrasive. I'm blunt. I'm unpolished. I'm real. Short fuses with no patience run in my blood. DNA. Chastisement and disrespect are greeted with equal measures at extreme, venomous levels. Blood pressure raises. Impulse interrupts. Attack mode. Shortest Straw. No time for idiots. No time for arrogant teachers or belittling fools. People of no stature who create their fake facade of constructed success. Call fraud! You fucking tool. How is someone like myself suppose to keep any type of dignity by letting someone of equal merit scorn me with unjustified insolence? You can't. Expect a forceful rebuttal. I am who I am. This is me. No compromise. Take it or leave it. Ya in? Ya out? Opinions are voiced at 11. Defend your stance or fall by the wayside. Creative genius wins out. Who's got the goods? Best man wins. If feelings are hurt in the process it was all due to the creative push and pull of production. Thin-skinned need not apply. Sensitive push-overs get out of here. Find a hole and dig in. Grit your teeth and give it back. Thick rhino skin. Impenetrable. Razor sharp tongue.

Fight for the idea. Never let it die. No matter how big of a prick you come across as the idea is always king. Fight for it. Respect all who give and deserve it. All others are meaningless. Non-entities on this journey to dream achievement. So people think you're an introverted dick-head. Create and forge ahead. You need your circle of artists and the connections you make along the way. All others are casualties along the warpath. Stepping stones to get to the plateau. Victims of the quest. Forgotten faces lost to the cause. Shit talk is appreciated. It's the coal in my furnace and the log on my fire. Burning for eons. Stack your riches and accumulate your nine to five wealth while I claw and tread water, for upon my rise to the summit you will still be upon that same plateau teetering at a mundane monotonous pace. Out of sight. Out of mind. My cool is only lost for the things that I am passionate about. Anything else isn't worth a breath of my frustration. Rage, rant, curse, and blaze because that is you and that's how you will survive. Take me to the top.

It starts with a spark of interest and it becomes a flame. I feed the flame and it becomes a fire. I feed the fire and it becomes a roaring blaze.

REVIEW: Inception

2010-07-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

Inception. I can't think of the last time I watched a movie that was operating with such an original concept. Not to say this is groundbreaking cinematically. But in terms of story this original tale shines through the stagnated Hollywood scene where remakes and sequels reign supreme. Nolan has been able to function within the confines of the Hollywood system while still delivering unique visual storytelling with human emotion. That isn't done very often. Not anymore at least. Nolan is a modern day auteur in a time where auteurs are hunted and killed by the mighty dollar.

A heist that takes place within your dreams. It's a world where ideas are stolen and implanted in unsuspecting, powerful business men. Ideas that will change the very nature of the man. It's a world where being an "architect" or a "forger" means something entirely different than what we're accustomed to. Where your very memories can be the death of you. Aside from the story and execution, it is the ensemble cast that makes this dreamworld a reality. Every single thespian plays the hell out of their role. From the smallest screen time to the lead, every actor deserves a pat on the back because the whole really reflected the sum of it's parts here. Bravo. A shining silver gem in the cinematic summer of shit.

Recommended Artist: Fang Island

2010-07-23T17:42:00.000-07:00

From the album Fang Island (2010).

HAIL! Waylon Jennings

2010-07-22T18:47:00.001-07:00

I love music. Discovering new bands is like meeting new friends. It's art. Something that an artist created out of nothing. Much respect to that. Mainstream today blows. But you can dig and find good music. Good music is still being made. It's just not being spoon fed to you. With that said, all great new was spawned by a great old. "HAIL!" will periodically feature the forefathers of music that inspired the thousands of musicians creating today.

HAIL! Waylon Jennings.

Operation: Polished Turd

2010-07-21T03:08:00.000-07:00

Doing new draft passes on all the previous screenplays. Multiple new projects are in the midst. Laziness is currently prevailing. One streak of prolificness could produce great growth. Polish all the rough draft turds. Clean 'em up. Dress 'em up. Send 'em out into the world. To the suits. The movers. The shakers.

Once they are out there a certain pressure will alleviate. Although it will never cease. Too many ideas. But with the ideas floating out there anything can snag it. The goal is to constantly improve and keep the scripts OFF the shelf.

Morgan Freeman on Race

2010-07-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

Morgan Freeman grew up in the South during the height of the Civil Rights' movement. Amazing insight from a very talented artist.

POETRY: Job Hunt

2010-07-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hello world out there.
I keep sending resumes to you.
But they vanish into your quizzical stare.
Another hope to lose.

Name on a paper.
Gives birth - follow up call.
Can't escape to her.
Chances of a lottery draw.

Stand out they say.
Away from the faceless.
Outside the box - no fray.
Shroud the tasteless.

Talent is trumped,
For plastic Hollywood spaces.
Dignity dumped,
For fake social graces.

by
C.E. Smith

QUOTE: Friedrich Nietzsche

2010-07-12T01:52:00.000-07:00

"Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent."

--- Friedrich Nietzsche

Ramble. Ramblings. Ramble On. (part 2)

2010-07-11T17:47:00.000-07:00

Back against the wall. Put myself in a tight spot. Financially and Socially wrecked. Currently digging out with no effect. No effort. Where's the desire? Is it there? Where the hell is that passion-fueled desire? ha Ha HA. Funny. Thought it was gone. There all along. Never could find that path before. It was covered in leaves. The autumn of my life. Ramble. Ramblings. Ramble On. Can only go up here. Well, no it could go down. Can't let it, though. Never let it get worse than it is already. Up Up and Away. Beyond the neon dreams. Beyond the thoughts of failure. Beyond the talent questioning. It's there. Always has been. We know this. Can't run. Head on. Full steam ahead. Full on collision with a locomotive. Train of achievement. Fix the crash and burn. Walk away unscathed. Capture the talent. Don't second-guess it. Take care of your shit! No more irresponsibility. Hone it or leave it. And leaving isn't the option. Set the goal. Knock it down. Move to the next. Repeat. That simple. DISCIPLINE. One thing I've never had. LAZINESS. Very very prevalent. Switch-a-roo. Change it. Reverse it. Drop one adopt the other. Epiphany came today. "My life is falling apart." Before it crumbles, stabilize that shit. Rebuild. Fill the cracks with progress. And song. Leave the rest behind. Think 16. Dream was alive. Youth on your side. No debt. Think 16. Step by step. Drag the want. Drag the want all the way to the need. Ramble. Ramblings. Ramble On.

QUOTE: Jack Handey

2010-07-09T01:13:00.000-07:00

"Love can sweep you off your feet and carry you along in a way you've never known before. But the ride always ends, and you end up feeling lonely and bitter. Wait. . . It's not love I'm describing. I'm thinking of a monorail."

— Jack Handey

Recommended Artist: The Tallest Man on Earth

2010-07-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

From the album Shallow Grave (2008).

REVIEW: Cyrus

2010-07-07T01:32:00.000-07:00

Cyrus. Great indie film. John C. Riley is one of the great actors working today. Marissa Tomei is gorgeous and a fireball of talent. Jonah Hill is effectively creepy and grating. The story was a classic, simple independent fare. Desperate Man (Riley) on his last rope finds the Mysterious Woman (Tomei) of his dreams, only to realize she comes with her own baggage (Hill). Highly recommended. Cynical and heartfelt. Emotionally awkward. Again, I gotta say it's a damn shame films like this aren't getting a wide release. This IS film, Hollywood!

John C. Riley could really act in anything and he would heighten the experience. Jonah Hill has certainly filled the Belushi/Farley role rather nicely. Here's hoping it ends better. To his credit Hill has expanded into roles the two late greats never got the chance to explore... the indie dramedy. Hill is picking great work, but I wonder how far his versatility will go when Apatow isn't selling at the box office. The film was nearly ruined by a couple idiots laughing. It progressed from a satisfying "group laugh" to an immature cackle with no comedic timing. Usually these very situations would not only fuel the moron's stereotype, but also skew the film toward a negative light. BUT this film was too enjoyable. A fresh new comedy with great performances. I could stare at Marissa Tomei for days. Watch it!

rating: A-

Let Freedom Ring with a Shotgun Blast

2010-07-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

We travel across the sea on hand-built ships to blaze a new path, become our own men, conquer the new world, and make it our own. We are pilgrims. Enslaved natives and claimed new territories. We have fought tooth and nail for our freedom against the British Empire. Fought against each other for moral victories. Traveled across the seas again to face and foil evil itself. Through terror and war we continue to fly the flag and fight the good fight.

America is great. The greatest. No matter how many douche-bags or greedy government tycoons tarnish the stars and stripes they cannot blacken what has been built. Until the empire falls like the many before it, let freedom ring with a shotgun blast.

God bless America.

FLICK FLASHBACK: Prince of Darkness

2010-07-03T11:53:00.000-07:00

Simplicity. This sums up John Carpenter's storytelling style. Keep the shots and the composition simple and classic. Tell the story. In every film he has lensed he has kept that simplicity, almost becoming the cinematic equivalent of the classic campfire tale. This is extremely evident in the second film of his Apocalypse Trilogy, Prince of Darkness.

They really don't make films like this anymore. The religious horror film has really faded since the turn of the millennium and the continual growth of science-based reason. A new generation of skepticism and anti-faith. In my opinion there is nothing more terrifying than a horror on a biblical scale. It's the ultimate fear. A terror which cannot be stopped by mortal man. A horror of the Gods.

Think of the films rooted in religious context: Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, The Omen, Hellraiser, and John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness.

By far Carpenter's most under-appreciated film from the 1980s, even more so than The Fog or They Live. No one ever really talks about this film. It's different. It's out there a little, but completely original. Carpenter actually wrote the script under the pseudonym Martin Quartermass. Funny enough the idea was loosely based on an episode of the BBC series Quartermass.

Although critics panned the film as cheesy, I found the movie to be extremely entertaining. A hidden gem from the 1980s with a credible cast and an out there plot. It holds a small film feel while pushing the highest stakes imaginable. Bravo to Carpenter for making another classic with an unsettling eerie sickness that builds from the opening score.

Loved it. A great hidden gem of 1980s horror.

Mel Gibson: Beyond Thunderdome

2010-07-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

There is something about a celebrity self-destructing before the public's eye that speaks to truth on such a grand level. A person of such recognition and achievement that no corner of any continent can hide their stardom. They are a "character" within the minds of the everyman; An ICON that becomes synonymous with our culture and it's landscape.

Then it happens. The cracks begin. It shows. Like a light of normality pouring through the scrim of celebrity. There it is. Average. Usual. Standard. Normal. It jerks them from their cloud; they crash to earth like a silver screen satellite. Public turns on the star. They are not special anymore. Their luster has become dull. They are one of us.

Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson. Mad Max Rockatansky. Martin Riggs. Hamlet. Sir William Wallace. The American-Aussie. Cultural ICON. Screen Legend. Renowned Auteur. Hollywood Billionaire. Political Flip-Flop. Ultra-conservative. Spoken Liberal. Closet Republican. Struggling Alcoholic. Accused Anti-Semite. Presumed Feminist. Alleged Homophobe. Supposed Racist. Crazy Bastard. Raving Lunatic.

First off, I'm a fan.

That's right. I know and respect the man as an artist and nothing more. Plenty of ICONs have fallen from the heavens and crashed into the muck that is the American struggle. Many have said appalling things and jammed their foot right in over the silver spoon. There are many artists that entertain me that are complete utter douche-bags in their personal lives. Or so I imagine.

But to be honest, I believe that comes with the territory of the Arts. Genius is very seldom accompanied by kindness. It's strange. It's sometimes weird. Occasionally mad. Very often misunderstood. Can be outright offensive. People don't get it. It clashes with their reality. Once again the facade of who we want them to be vanishes and the tortured artist emerges. Unwanted.

There is a loneliness that comes with genius. Mastery of your craft requires a certain solitude. Look at the greats. I don't have to name names. A reclusive nature that is a catch-22 with the necessary riggers of the entertainment industry. These riggers? The demand of networking and the need of life adventure to relinquish you in moments of creative blockage. With this comes the struggle and torture. Forcing the loner to conform in order to do the thing he loves.

But this celebrity hides the true artist. It shrouds the lonely genius. Covers the real man. Conceals the madness. Mel Gibson as an artist is brilliant. His acting resume is one of the more impressive of the last 30 years. His directing filmography is sparse, but perfected. He is charismatic. He is entertaining. Several of his films I feel are true honest classics that will be heralded for years to come as some of the more entertaining works of this era.

Mad Max
Lethal Weapon
Braveheart
Ransom (guilty pleasure #1)
Conspiracy Theory
Payback (guilty pleasure #2)
The Patriot
We Were Soldiers
Signs

Ok, I realize Signs is a bit of a stretch but at the time I watched it worked. I was 18 and it was August. It was the last movie I went to see with friends before going to Morgantown for my freshman year at West Virginia University. I wouldn't see another good movie in the theater until Catch Me If You Can 5 months later.

Back to Mr. Gibson.

The controversy surrounding Mel Gibson is warranted. I get it. People are raising a stink. They're livid over his opinions. He's in a place of power, a place of influence, and he cannot have those opinions - is what these lynch mobs are screaming. He is feeling the reprecussions of his outright actions but I believe the man can say whatever he wants no matter who it offends. This sort of talk is everywhere. I don't condone it but it is everywhere. I've lived in 5 different states and they all have equal measures of racism and bigotry. It surges because people stoke it. Until it's forgotten it will always be present. It can't be forgotten so therefore it persists. So be it.

Witness the fall of Sir Gibson in a series of quotes.

1991 Spanish newspaper El Pais asked what he thought of gay people. He said:

"They take it up the ass."

Then looks at his own ass...

"This is only for taking a shit."

They would then ask Gibson if he was afraid the public would think he was gay because he was an actor. He replied:

"Do I sound like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them? What happens is when you're an actor, they stick that label on you."

Gibson later defended his comments on Good Morning America:

"[Those remarks were a response] to a direct question. If someone wants my opinion, I'll give it. What, am I supposed to lie to them?"

1995 Playboy interview, Gibson responded to protests over his comment with:

"I'll apologize when hell freezes over. They can fuck off."

In same interview, Gibson was asked why he was against women being priests. He responded:

"Men and women are just different. They're not equal. The same way that you and I are not equal... You might be more intelligent, or you might have a bigger dick. Whatever it is, nobody's equal. And men and women are not equal. I have tremendous respect for women. I love them. I don't know why they want to step down. Women in my family are the center of things. And good things emanate from them. The guys usually mess up... Women are just different. Their sensibilities are different."

Asked for an example...

"I had a female business partner once. Didn't work. She was a cunt. Feminists don't like me, and I don't like them. I don't get their point. I don't know why feminists have it out for me, but that's their problem, not mine."

July 28, 2006 Gibson was arrested. This is what he said to his arresting officer:

"Fucking Jews... Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Are you a Jew?"

During the arrest Gibson was accused of looking at a female sergeant and asking:

"What are you looking at, sugar tits?"

In 2009 interview, Jimmy Kimmel told Mel Gibson:

"In my opinion the word sugartits is the greatest new word in the decade."

July 2010 Gibson left a voicemail on his ex-girlfriend's answering machine, stating:

"You're an embarrassment to me. You look like a fucking pig in heat and if you get raped by a pack of niggers, it will be your fault. How dare you act like such a bitch when I have been so fucking nice. I am going to come and burn the fucking house down... but you will blow me first. Look what every part of you is... fucking fake... fucking fake. You are the most synthetic person... who the fuck are you? This is my last message. I might be the father. Well, fuck you. You psycho cunt. Because I don't care.

Wow. Ha Ha Ha. Amazingly offensive. This guy is pretty damn nuts. Off his rocker. He is so powerful no one can really touch him. Only a public backlash. Everything he said is ridiculously blunt and in your face. He says what he wants no matter how disgustingly wrong. God Bless America.

What makes it a bit different is his stature is so large in the social spectrum. He's a giant and he's talking like he's at your local redneck barbershop. People can't handle it. It drives them mad that someone with such a hateful, subversive outlook has a microphone to speak in and a spotlight to stand under.

I love it. It's refreshing to see celebrities crash and burn. It makes them normal. It shows that person for who they are. It shows that they were unwilling to bite their tongue for the cameras any longer. Their real personality just couldn't sit in the shadows of celebrity for one more second. Politically Correct vanishes from their minds and their publicist isn't there to wrangle them in. It just comes out...

Mel Gibson said what he wanted. Now he gets the wrath of the public. He'll continue to make award-winning films every so often and he'll continue to stamp the cinematic topography. Don't agree with his statements. Love his body of work. And at the end of the day there is nothing more truthful then a legend being brought down to earth.

REVIEW: Hot Tub Time Machine

2010-07-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hot Tub Time Machine. Entertaining. Funny. Good jokes. Good ending. Stupid humor. Ridiculous premise. Motley Crue music. 80s music, period. Hot actresses. Great comedic actors. John Cusack. A good mindless movie to take your mind off of everyday bullshit. Is it reshaping the comedy genre or films in general? No. Does that always matter? No. If you watched the trailer or saw any kind of publicity for this movie then there is absolutely no way you can go into it and expect anything other than what the title told you it would deliver: a hot tub time machine. How can you expect anything out of this? You can't. It's stupid. It's ridiculous.

The title alone. The film itself is a rare nugget of comedy that Hollywood shit's out about once, sometimes twice a year, if we're lucky. Think of this. John Cusack who is what I would consider a pretty good actor when it comes to picking entertaining films had to sit down in his house or wherever and look at this script - title page first - and read the four little words: HOT TUB TIME MACHINE. From there he had to read on. From there it had to hold his attention. If Cusack, and the rest of the talented comedians in this film read the ridiculous title page and it still kept them reading then it must have done something for them. There must have been something there. There is. An hour and a half of something that will keep you chuckling and keep your mind locked into the film. Sure, it's a basic clear cut comedy with no twists or turns and you can see things coming a mile away but sometimes I like that as long as it's fun. And it was. Fun.

rating: B

Idea Flush

2010-06-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Clogged up with ideas. Usually I'll sit down at the computer and just stare at it. No thoughts. Only stares. First instinct is to click on the Safari icon. Pop up the internet. The internet. The writer's great double-edged sword. Great for research. Great for sidetracks. One viewing of one website could take 4 hours. Or more. I've found that in order to unclog my creative quagmire I must force restrictions upon myself. Put a gag order on sites. That or pick up the pencil. Being prolific is a constant battle of will. Laziness is a thought away. Boredom over blockage one click away.

Do you know what it's like to try to write? To sit in a room alone with only a blank page to look at. Only your imagination to talk to. To create something from nothing. A complete coherent story from nothing. Everything you've ever raved about, watched, skimmed through, passed on, or simply didn't give a shit about was labored over for hours, weeks, months, even years by some poor soul who struggled to finish the first and last sentence. Think about that. Tell a good story that's worth mine and your time. Now tell one that's worth the world's. It's hard.

But in order to get these script done you must stretch your limits. Push your boundaries. Lay deadlines and abide.

I have 12 scripts that are all at some stage of a rough draft. All have pages written. From 4-5 pages up to 40-50 pages.

I have 20 solid screenplay ideas in my think tank. 20 that are waiting in the wings. 20 on deck ready to be brainstormed.

I have 7 scripts that are finished. Or what I like to call being "revised".

Okay enough writing about writing. It's time to actually sign out and get some real writing wrote. Have it written so I don't have to be writing. Finish the story to start a new story so my story can be a prolific story containing many stories. Understand the story? Time to finish these stories.

Ramble. Ramblings. Ramble On. (part 1)

2010-06-29T03:30:00.000-07:00

I feel like I'm at the bottom of a hole and I can barely see the light. The last shaft is nearly fading. So much pressing down on me. Pitching out lines but snagging nothing. Sinking and stretching for a lifesaver. Living a life I laid. Known struggle is reaped from my sow. I've had it easy. Lazy. Introverted. The lonely writer lifestyle. Move to Big Sur and live in a cabin. Never want to feel like this again. Not sure what to do. Wanna listen to music and write. Wanna watch fights and write. Hate work. Day jobs suck. Death before day jobs. I'm better than that. Laziness hinders my capabilities. Need to get my California ID. Why get it? May not be here in 2 months. Miss my fucking dog, man. Not sure how to get out of this hole. It's deep. So deep. A debt so deep. Can't wait to climb out. Can I? If I? Who? When? Where are the ladies? Not in this apartment, that's for sure. What a loser. What a fucking winner in hiding. Get out dude. Look outside and do this shit. Too many to write. Knock 'em dead. Knock 'em fucking dead. Ramble. Ramblings. Ramble on. Watching Curb Your Enthusiasm. Need a place to escape to. Love LA. Especially if I was working. I'm neglectful to my friends. I'm a negative dick. I know this. I try. You know this. Hate me. Leave me. Who cares. Mom and Dad are missed out here. Wish I could see them. People need to tend to their own lives rather than bitch and moan about others. Myself included. No more advice. No more pushing or prodding. You're on your own. Lone wolf. My self included. Easy money is never made. It's only spent. A rug and a bookshelf can really tie a room together. So can a good record spinning on a needle. Love hate love. Can you feel the love tonight? I can't really. Not for a few years anyway. 2006 exactly. Hollow. It's cool. From one to another. Easy riding through life like a damn outlaw. Minus six shooter and nasty disposition. Replace with dream and no self-confidence. This is easy. Should do this more. Ramble. Ramblings. Ramble On.

POETRY: Fuck Hindsight

2010-06-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

This life is hard.

I know that much.

Bad choices and debt.

And all that stuff.

Hindsight is useless.

Good girls gone by.

Destiny fleeting.

New York, I lied.

Bitter, ambitious.

Comfort and Cheers.

Summits and Peaks.

Gone with the years?

Useless, I'm stubborn.

A lazy man's scheme.

Broke and alone.

Chasing a dream.

by
C.E. Smith

WORDS: I Do Believe

2010-06-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

In my own way I'm a believer
In my own way right or wrong
I don't talk too much about it
It's something I keep working on
I don't have too much to build on
My faith has never been that strong

There's a man in that old building
He's a holy man, they say
He keeps talking about tomorrow
While I keep struggling with today
He preaches hell, fire and brimstone
And heaven seems so far away

I do believe in a higher power
One that loves us one and all
Not someone to solve our problems
Or to catch me when I fall
He gave us all a mind to think with
And to know what's right or wrong
He is that inner spirit
That keeps us strong

In my own way I'm a believer
But not in voices I can't hear
I believe in a loving father
One I never have to fear
That I should live life at it's fullest
Just as long as I am here

-- Waylon Jennings

RENAISSANCE (or): Diet, y'all !

2010-06-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

Enter fourth week of... okay, let me just stop. First, I hate the word diet. Not really on a diet, per se. I would call it a personal renaissance. For the first time in my life I'm treating my body like a temple. That's right. A mother-f'n temple.

FRESH VEGGIES & FRUIT
NO RED MEAT
ONLY WATER
NO FAST FOOD

Morning yoga has begun. Actually really like it so far. Hard, but working. Can't wait to see where this goes in the coming months. Running is gonna be the next addition to the renaissance.

YOGA
CARDIO
TONY HORTON

Also, no cable in the apartment at Hocheye's. Only a PS3. No games. Only films. Reading a lot lately as well to try and expand my vocabulary and writer base. If you don't read you can't write. Trying to read as much as I can. If by some chance you are reading this, suggest a good book!

FILM
LITERATURE
SURROUNDINGS

Writing is going incredibly. Goal: to be prolific. Some say writer, I say write. New scripts are coming together. Ideas are flowing for current projects. Old stories are reaching conclusions. Fresh stories creep behind my eyes every day. Six projects rolling toward completion. Chug-a-long.

WRITING
GOING
GREAT

So things are currently on track, minus a job. That's a HUGE minus. I have some promising prospects. Something will drop. I have faith. Gotta survive, right? Why worry when you know a time will come?

Anyhow, 4 weeks in.

Progress is good.

Get back at you in a month.

WORDS: Tomorrow's Dream

2010-06-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well I'm leaving tomorrow at daybreak
Catch the fastest train around nine
Yes I'm leaving the sorrow and heartache
Before it takes me away from my mind

Send me love and I may let you see me
Send me hopes that can spin in my head
But if you really want me to answer
I can only let you know when I'm dead

When sadness fills my days
It's time to turn away
And then tomorrow's dreams
Become reality to me

So realize I'm much better without you
You're not the one and only thing in my heart
I'll just go back to pretending I'm living
So this time I'm gonna have to depart

-- O. Osbourne, from Vol. 4

New Beverly Cinema Virgin

2010-06-20T03:40:00.000-07:00

Checked out the cinephile landmark, the New Beverly Cinema, on Beverly and La Brea. It's classic because it shows 35 mm double-features with midnight showings on the weekends. It's been running this format since 1978. $7 will get you in for two films. Usually two movies paired together by director, genre, or theme. On the midnight film, there is only one feature shown.

The midnight film was my first experience. "Play Misty For Me". Eastwood's directorial debut. Fittingly the film took place on the pacific coast between Big Sur and Monterey. Both of these coastal communities I visited on a road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway less than 3 weeks ago. Very cool seeing the same landscapes in 1971 on the silver screen.

TRAILER

The other interesting thing about the New Beverly is the owner. Quentin Tarantino bought the theater in early 2010 and has said that it will remain open as long as he's alive and rich. He lets the original owners continue to operate it, but gets to suggest selections for the screen from time to time. It was the theater he grew up watching double features in as a boy. The place that inspired him to become who he is.

It's funny, because it made me think of my childhood movie house, Kanawha Cinemas. It had a classic feel to it. Lit marquee out front, vast sprawling seats, a little beat down from age, but I saw big films here as a kid (at least big to me at the time):

The Big Lebowski, Jurassic Park, Scream, Dumb and Dumber, Home Alone, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Cliffhanger, Independence Day, Mission: Impossible, Toy Story 2, Twister, etc.

Sadly, it was tore down in my early teens. It was never replaced. Corporate movie chains plague the area now where I grew up. But I digress...

I will definitely be going back to the New Beverly. I may just become a regular.

Movies Coming Up I'm Checkin' Out @ New Beverly
Point Blank (1967)
The Outfit (1973)

The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)

Midnight Show
Meatballs Part II (1984)

See No Evil (1971)
The Don Is Dead (1973)

Midnight Show
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

Midnight Show
Modern Girls (1986)

and many more to come . . .

Don't do that to me! Comedy is real!

2010-06-16T02:57:00.002-07:00

Quote from the Living: Jack Handey

2010-06-15T02:46:00.000-07:00

"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes."

--- Jack Handey

WORDS: It's a Cold Night for Alligators

2010-04-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

It's a cold night for alligators
It's a cold night for dogs
The dogs choke on their barking
When they see alligator persons in the bog and fog

It's a cold night for alligators
When men turn into them in the night
It's a cold night for alligators
It's a cold night for their might

It's a cold night for alligators
Hiding behind the trees with moss
Forever hear the swamp birds screaming
Forever in loss

It's a cold night for alligators
In the blend
It's a cold night for alligators
A perfect monster has no end

- R. Erickson, from "It's a Cold Night for Alligators"

WORDS: Idiot Wind

2010-04-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

Someone’s got it in for me, they’re planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they’d cut it out but when they will I can only guess
They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me
I can’t help it if I’m lucky

People see me all the time and they just can’t remember how to act
Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts
Even you, yesterday you had to ask me where it was at
I couldn’t believe after all these years, you didn’t know me better than that
Sweet lady

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth
Blowing down the backroads headin’ south
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe

I ran into the fortune-teller, who said beware of lightning that might strike
I haven’t known peace and quiet for so long I can’t remember what it’s like
There’s a lone soldier on the cross, smoke pourin’ out of a boxcar door
You didn’t know it, you didn’t think it could be done, in the final end he won the wars
After losin’ every battle

I woke up on the roadside, daydreamin’ ’bout the way things sometimes are
Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head and are makin’ me see stars
You hurt the ones that I love best and cover up the truth with lies
One day you’ll be in the ditch, flies buzzin’ around your eyes
Blood on your saddle

Idiot wind, blowing through the flowers on your tomb
Blowing through the curtains in your room
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe

It was gravity which pulled us down and destiny which broke us apart
You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn’t enough to change my heart
Now everything’s a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped
What’s good is bad, what’s bad is good, you’ll find out when you reach the top
You’re on the bottom

I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways had finally made you blind
I can’t remember your face anymore, your mouth has changed, your eyes
don’t look into mine
The priest wore black on the seventh day and sat stone-faced while the
building burned
I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees, while the
springtime turned
Slowly into Autumn

Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe

I can’t feel you anymore, I can’t even touch the books you’ve read
Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishin’ I was somebody else instead
Down the highway, down the tracks, down the road to ecstasy
I followed you beneath the stars, hounded by your memory
And all your ragin’ glory

I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I’m finally free
I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me
You’ll never know the hurt I suffered nor the pain I rise above
And I’ll never know the same about you, your holiness or your kind of love
And it makes me feel so sorry

Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats
Blowing through the letters that we wrote
Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves
We’re idiots, babe
It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves

- B. Dylan, from "Blood on the Tracks"

Quote from the Living: Vince Gill

2010-03-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

"I am not struggling. What I do, is what I do."

--- Vince Gill

Words: Ghost Along The Mississippi

2010-02-26T00:57:00.000-08:00

In the morning, it takes me quite a while to clear my head
And as the day moves on, I find it hard to smile at something said
So I took control, priority number one, and that's me
Then I cut the dragon's head off, and put away my gun, so let it be
So let it be

I'm dying prematurely, I'm wasting my life for sure
I'm trying to kill what's wrong with me
A ghost along the Mississippi

I never thought before, a life could be so strange, but it is
And I guess my one a day, became ten or twelve or more, and more
But I've got a gift, it's something called my friends or love
With them and I combined, I'll beat an early end, it's been done before

No time of passing away, of losing just one more day
I'm trying to kill what's happening to me
A ghost along the Mississippi

Can't happen to me
Won't do it to me
Can't happen to me
Won't do it to me
Can't happen to me
Won't do it to me

Destroying what's got ahold of me
No more the ghost of Mississippi

- P.H. Anselmo, from "DOWN II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow"

THE GAWDAMN DIRTY OUTFIT

2010-02-25T01:45:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of being creative for creative sake, a band has formed in the valley of the 4-hour sun. Four separate artists of different crafts combining to puke up some semblance of comedy in the form of perfectly crafted ridiculous ditties. Not here to change the face of music or rewrite the course of musical history, the Gawdamn Dirty Outfit or GDO as their friends call them, is looking to create something raw, fun, and original.

No covers aloud.

Comedy music for the new decade. Like slinging mud against a wall and picking what sticks the poetic nonsense is created out of pure random abandon and barbecued to a tasty groove. All styles are represented. No musical genre is safe.

Check out:

http://thegawdamndirtyoutfit.bandcamp.com/

The debut full-length coming in March.

Close a door, Open a window

2010-01-17T19:09:00.000-08:00

2010 is the jumping off point for the rest of my life. Time to get busy and stick my hands in a lot of baskets. Close one chapter and step into the next. Business and growth over leisure and nostalgia.

A change in all areas of my life. Health, Art, and Self. I'm sick of me, and need a a complete overhaul of how I make it work. I'm finally realizing with years slipping by that life is short, and it's not worth it if you don't try to live up to your potential.

I'm closing in on my descent into the bowels of California. Hollywood. A place where all these stories and documents of make believe that I've accumulated over the 26 years of my life can be printed and reprinted and forced down the throats of agents, financiers, and studios alike. A place where I can at least see what I'm made of, talent wise.

Past work aside, 2010 is a year to be prolific. Martin Scorsese. Bob Dylan. Hunter S. Thompson. Geniuses that set the bar in their respective art forms, working feverishly everyday to do WHAT THEY LOVE. To touch greatness you have to sacrifice in the beginning. I'm a testament to that. I've got the sacrificing down pat, now it's time to be prolific.

Enough talking about it. It's time to be about it.

Quote from the Grave: Bill Hicks

2009-11-21T15:44:00.000-08:00

"Well you shot me, I'm back. Cancer in my nose, I'm back. Cancer in my ass, I'm back. Jesus Christ, what’s it gonna take, give us a clue. A syringe of AIDS shot in your jugular? I’ll do it. To rid the world of your fascist, stupid presence forever, you demon Ronald Wilson Reagan- six letters, six letters, six letters – Antichrist, devil dick smoking motherfucker. Excuse me, sorry-sorry. You oughta see me when I don’t smoke, whew, boy do I get tense."
BILL HICKS
Dec. 16, 1961 - Feb. 26, 1994

Moron Watch

2009-11-21T02:26:00.001-08:00

This idiot has almost four hundred thousand hits with this. Wow. Go ahead and waste 45 seconds of your life to a complete and absolute moron. Slight chuckle, followed by anger.

31 Days of Horror: PHANTASM (22)

2009-10-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

PHANTASM
1979
United States
88 minutes

Written & Directed by:
Don Coscarelli

Cinematography:
Don Coscarelli

Starring:
A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, & Angus Scrimm

In the mid-90s I cut my teeth on the films of USA Up All Night, TNT's Monstervision, and TBS's Dinner and a Movie. This is when their entire programming was 70s and 80s B-movies, sex comedies, and horror flicks. These are the nights that inspired a child. Many movies come to mind like the films of John Hughes, Motel Hell, or Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but the one movie that really floored me was Don Coscarelli's Phantasm.

"Now, remember: you don't aim a gun at a man unless you intend to shoot him. And, you don't shoot a man unless you intend to kill him. No warning shots. Hey, you listening to me? No warning shots. Warning shots are bullshit. You shoot to kill, or you don't shoot at all."

This movie seemed like it was from another planet. It didn't feel like other horror films of it's era. Something was off about it. The story was strange and completely out there. How did someone think this story up? It involved a mixed bag of elements from funeral homes, to murderous silver spheres, to speeding hearses, to hooded dwarf zombies. The movie is original to it's core.

THE PLOT
Two orphaned brothers find shocking revelations at the local funeral home. Mike, the youngest of the two, is horrified at the prospect of losing his older brother Jody who has inherited the guardian role. This deep fear causes Mike to follow Jody everywhere. Mike tails him to a funeral and begins to suspect the caretaker, known simply as the Tall Man, is more human than human. His suspicions are correct. The Tall Man is an evil grave robber from another dimension who shrinks and reanimates corpses into slaves with an array of weapons, most notably his flying silver spheres. Mike and Jody enlist the assistance of Reggie the ice cream man to battle the lord of the dead.Don Coscarelli is the genius behind this odd masterpiece. He was the one man band on this production having a hand in almost every major job from beginning to end. He wrote, directed, produced, photgraphed, and edited the film. It was a passion project of his that came to him in a dream. Coscarelli dreamt of being chased through long marble corridors by chrome spheres intent on drilling open his skull. Shortly after he would isolate himself inside a cabin in the mountains outside of Los Angeles. This would be his magnum opus, finishing the film with over a three hour cut. He edited it down and would implement the remaining footage in the following films. This usage of the hours worth of unused material really brought the sequels to life tying the entire story together all the way up until the last one Phantasm IV: Oblivion.Another key element to the film is the original score from Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave. A very eerie theme pulses throughout the flick giving goosebumps and chills. Amazing horror score, right up there with Angelo Badalamenti.

The TALL MAN:

"You play a good game boy, but the game is finished, now you die."

This film is so bizarre and mystifying that I really can't divulge any details of the story without giving away too much. It's a must watch for horror fans and people who respect unapologetic original pieces. Watch Phantasm, and follow the journey into it's sequels. Well worth the watch.

31 Days of Horror: THE TRIPPER (21)

2009-10-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

THE TRIPPER
2007
United States
97 minutes

Written & Directed by:
David Arquette

Starring:
Balthazar Getty & Lukas Haas

Cinematography:
Bobby Bukowski

Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper never knew when they were filming Last House on the Left and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre that thirty years later a film would be made by a B-level actor that would be a satirical homage to the two horror auteurs. When someone is raised on a certain type of film there is going to be an influence on their style. In this situation, the filmmaker dedicated an entire production to his passion.

David Arquette was a huge fan of 70s and 80s horror films before he accomplished a dream by winning a role in the film Scream. Wes Craven was at the helm of the film and would be working very closely with David. Over the course of the Scream Trilogy Arquette learned directing by watching one of the masters direct. After attending a Reggae party held outside Arquette envisioned a murderer coming out of the woods and killing all the hippies. This would inspire him to script The Tripper.THE PLOT
Traumatized by the abuse of her ex-boyfriend, Samantha travels in a van to the American Free Love Festival with her pothead friends. The rock 'n roll festival is a hippie's delight located deep in the northwest woods. The free love atmosphere is interrupted by a psychopathic serial-killer wearing a suit and a mask of Ronald Reagan using an ax to kill the dazed stoners.

It has an assortment of random actors. David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Balthazar Getty, Lukas Haas, Thomas Jane, Jaime King, Jason Mewes, and Paul Rubens. It also features George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan... in archival footage.It's a mindless horror film with laughs and gasps. Nudity, gore, stupid jokes, stilted acting, the whole nine. It's funny watching Ronald Reagan stalk and murder hippies. It's a fun time. Drop the ax and smell the patchouli.

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31 Days of Horror: MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (20)

2009-10-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
1986
United States
97 minutes

Written & Directed by:
Stephen King

Starring:
Emilio Estevez

Cinematography:
Armando Nannuzzi

Music by:
AC/DC

Ok, machines are operating on their own accord and they're pissed off. Humans don't stand a chance when every piece of man-made machinery turns on their very creators.

Stephen King directs his first and only horror film here with Emilio Estevez starring. AC/DC rocks out the film's music. A huge evil Green Goblin 18-wheeler terrorizes a truck stop. It's a campy 80s flick that you'll have a blast with. If you can't have a good time with this, maybe you shouldn't be watching movies. BILL (ESTEVEZ):

"It isn't the comet. It's a broom. Imagine you're a race of aliens, right? And, you're looking for a new place to live. Say you're looking for a planet like you and I looking for a new place to live. A new house. So here's Earth. Only it's like this big old house. And, it's kind of polluted, dirty, and smoky. Grease on the walls, soot in the chimney. So, they send in their interstellar housecleaners. Send in their broom. Sweep us all up. That's what this it is, it's a broom. Using our own machines to sweep us right off."

Horror icon George Romero would comment that the uncut footage of this film that was shown to him by King made him nauseated. The MPAA would have a field day with this cut and demand several huge FX to be removed from the theatrical version. One of those FX involved a Little League baseball player who falls in front of a steamroller and has his head popped like a grape.

Stephen King would later admit that he was "coked out of my mind" the entire time he was directing this feature and had no clue what he was doing. He remarked that he would love to direct again one day, this time sober. Rock on Mr. King!Another crazy little tidbit from the set is one of the accidents that occurred. Director of Photography Armando Nannuzzi was hurt when a radio-controlled lawnmower went out of control and struck a block of wood used to stabilize a camera. The mower shot out wood splinters into Nannuzzi's eye. As a result, he lost the eye. That's what I call life imitating art.

I had a blast with this movie as a kid, and it still holds up as a very entertaining midnight movie. You should check it out if you've never witnessed the camp that is M.O.. It's the master of horror, Stephen King, stepping into the world of the silver screen. Worth the price of admission.

31 Days of Horror: THE BLOB (19)

2009-10-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

THE BLOB
1958
United States
86 minutes

Directed by:
Irvin Yeaworth

Written by:
Kay Linaker & Theodore Simonson

Starring:
Steve McQueen

An enormous amorphous creature from outer space comes to Earth and begins to absorb everything it touches. As it absorbs things, it grows in mass becoming large enough to swallow cars... diners. Everyone and everything in this small Pennsylvania town is at risk of becoming a part of this moving goo known only as the Blob.

Steve McQueen is the teen that will try and stop it. Steve McQueen. The man. The myth. The legend. The man who brought us The Great Escape first starred in a classic horror film. The man that starred in such classics as The Getaway and Papillon top billed a film called The Blob. The guy who stole sex symbol Ali McGraw from her powerful movie producer husband, Robert Evans would rock this cult classic long before his talents were known.I'm only giving this next topic one sentence because that's all it deserves. Goddamn you Rob Zombie for planning ANOTHER remake of a classic that did it right the first time.

It's not scary, but it's fun. Not all great horror films are measured by the scares they create. That's definitely a plus, but I'm way too jaded with film to expect real scares anymore. This movie delivers. A great 50's drive-in movie that my dad raised me on. Great tongue in cheek 50s monster movie. I can dig it.

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31 Days of Horror: THE CHANGELING (18)

2009-10-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

THE CHANGELING
1980
United States
115 minutes

Directed by:
Peter Medak

Written by:
Russell Hunter & William Gray

Starring:
George C. Scott

"That house is not fit to live in. No one's been able to live in it. It doesn't want people."

Dead wife and daughter. New York composer-husband-father moves to Washington. A getaway. To cope. Writes and teaches music at his alma mater. House shops a manor in the countryside. Appreciates solitude. Buys it. Renovates it. Loses himself in his music. Nightmares creep into his conscious - the wreck that took his family. Odd sounds come from upstairs. Apparitions appear. The house's past is discovered. Quite possibly one of the most eerie haunted house movies you will ever watch. Great direction and an amazing performance from the great, George C. Scott. Your skin will crawl with the mood they set within the old Victorian-style mansion. A great seance scene punctuates the film's plot. Truly creepy.

No words. Just watch.

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31 Days of Horror: EATEN ALIVE (17)

2009-10-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

EATEN ALIVE
1977
United States
91 minutes

Directed by:
Tobe Hooper

Written by:
Kim Henkel & Mardi Rustam

Starring:
Neville Brand & Marilyn Burns

Tobe Hooper's follow up to The Texas Chains Saw Massacre. The owner of a hotel that sits over a swamp kills off his customers with his scythe and feeds them to his pet alligator. Filmed like a 40s Universal monster film in the regard that the entire swamp and hotel were built on a sound stage.

Quentin Tarantino lifted dialogue from the film that was spoken by Freddy Krueger himself, actor Robert Englund. The line was, "My name is Buck, and I like to fuck."

Producers proved to be a problem for Hooper during the entire shoot, causing him to actually leave principal photography three weeks before the shoot wrapped. One of the actors and the editor would go on to finish the film for Hooper.

The film is actually loosely based on the story of Joe Ball from Elmendorf, Texas. He is also known as Bluebeard from South Texas and the Alligator Man. During the Prohibition era he owned a bar with an alligator pit. Several murders of women ensued with no real proof being found.

Good 70s monster/slasher film. Sets a great atmosphere and scores with the sound stage set. We get to watch Robert Englund before he became Freddy and are treated to another performance from Marilyn Chambers. (the heroine from TCM)

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31 Days of Horror: DON'T LOOK NOW (16)

2009-10-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

DON'T LOOK NOW
1973
United Kingdom
110 minutes

Directed by:
Nicolas Roeg

Written by:
Allan Scott & Chris Bryant

Starring:
Julie Christie & Donald Sutherland

This is one of those treasures from the 70s that doesn't get that much attention from today's movie-going-public. Here, style and mood are king, none of the gore or masked killers that is sometimes attached to the genre. Some may say that this film falls within the Thriller realm, but the tones created by Roeg clearly makes this a psychological horror that only the decade it was born in could create. A hallucinatory nightmare with premonitions, second sight, and plenty of uneasy motifs reoccuring throughout the film.

"This one who's blind, she's the one that can see."

One of these motifs is the color red. Long before M. Night made A Sixth Sense, this film established the resonance of the color red. So much hinges on the color in this flick that the actual translation of the film's Italian title is "In Venice... a Shocking Red December".THE PLOT
After a sudden and tragic accident at home, Laura (Christie) and John Baxter (Sutherland) take a "working vacation" to Venice, Italy to cope with their loss while John restores an ancient church. While in Italy Laura befriends two women, one of whom is blind and claims to be psychic and in contact with the couple's dead daughter. From this point on the film is a twisting tale of premonition that spirals into a vortex of coincidences, recurring themes, and visions that all build to a terrifying climax.

Sex and ceremony, science and religion interweave in the film as pragmatic opiates for the suppression or propagation of deluded sentiments. When Sutherland finally indulges in sentiments, the chillingly grim message is: "Look where it gets him!"

Nicolas Roeg is an extremely talented director from the decade of excess. His films Walkabout, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Bad Timing all garner the same mastery and dreamlike creativity with every frame. His editing style is one of the brightest buttons on his vest of tricks. He uses the jump cutting well throughout Don't Look Now.One thing the film is known for is the love scene. Especially graphic for it's time, the scene does not look simulated or put-on in any kind of Hollywood way. It seems real. So real that it is said the two actors actually had sex during the filming. The nudity is uncompromising and is underscored with a scene of the couple dressing up for dinner with his typical jump-cut-editing. The scene was added when Roeg felt that without it there would be too many scenes of the couple arguing.

ACCOLADES:
- Ranked #8 on the British Film Institutes "Top 100 British films"
- Ranked #22 on Bravo's "100 Scariest Movie Moments"
- Ranked #18 on Time's "Top 100 films" list.

I don't want to give anything away by talking up any plot points because this is a film that must be watched late at night, alone, when one can fully get lost in the odd world of despair and loss that Roeg creates. It's a masterpiece of cinema. The unforgiving performances from the two leads are just two notches on a film legacy that both actors have crafted since the 60s.

Amazing film. A real terrifying mind fuck.

31 Days of Horror: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3, DREAM WARRIORS (15)

2009-10-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

NOES3: DREAM WARRIORS
1987
United States
96 minutes

Directed by:
Chuck Russell

Written by:
Frank Darabont & Wes Craven

Starring:
Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, & Robert Englund

"Welcome to prime time, bitch."

I just recently watched the trailer for the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street and after digesting that steaming pile of shit I feel the need to review the real Freddy Krueger. Besides the original from the series, my personal favorite is the third installment known as Dream Warriors. It has everything that makes a great horror sequel: the involvement of the original writer/director (even though Craven didn't direct this one), the involvement of the original actress, a phenomenal composer, talented actors (Patricia Arquette, Lawrence Fishburne, John Saxon, Craig Wasson), and a new spin on the old formula.

Craven didn't want the Nightmare franchise to have sequels. He was dead against it. Unfortunately for him the box office wouldn't let New Line Cinema keep the son of a hundred maniacs dead. So after suffering through the first sequel, Freddy's Revenge, Craven returned with a script. It was a good direction for where the story would go, but the studio went ahead and brought in Frank Darabont to touch up the script with the director Chuck Russell. You may know Frank Darabont from the two films he directed that made him a huge success in Hollywood: The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Craven wouldn't return to the series until Wes Craven's New Nightmare in 1994.

The cast is one of the best put together for an 80s horror sequel. Heather Langenkamp returns to reprise her role of "Nancy" from the original film. Unlike her first appearance as the character, she is trying to help a new group of Springwood kids who are being terrorized in their sleep. Also appearing is Patricia Arquette in her first feature role as well as Lawrence Fishburne who plays an orderly at the psychiatric ward. Another actor that rocks his shit in this film is Craig Wasson, the star of Brian De Palma's Body Double. And of course... Robert Englund. The ONLY Fred Krueger. You're great Jackie Earl Haley, but you ain't Englund.THE PLOT
Six years after the events of the first film, a new crop of kids are plagued with the red and green striped nightmares, only this time they're not in the suburbs. This time they're locked up at Westin Hills, the Springwood psychiatric hospital. With the help of a doctor (Wasson) and the lone survivor from the original massacre they look to take on the dream demon himself. But with the new sleeping pill Hypnocil being introduced into the hospitals policies it's gonna make it tougher on the teens to keep them eyelids open.

Dream Warriors has a great composer at the helm. Angelo Badalamenti scores the film giving it a true dream-like quality. He's a master of his craft creating mood like no other composer besides Ennio Morricone. Badalamenti is famous for being the key composer to most of David Lynch's films. This was actually only his second feature score after finishing the music for Blue Velvet. And if you can't dig on that, then maybe you'll like the band that lays a few songs down for the film, 80s cheese metal band Dokken. D-O-K-K-E-N.

DIALOGUE:

Nancy Thompson: He's strong; he's never been this strong.

Freddy Krueger: Yes... The souls of the children give me strength.

One of the great pieces of behind the scenes trivia for this film is the rivalry that was going on at the time between Wes Craven and the director of Evil Dead, Sam Raimi. After watching Craven's The Hills Have Eyes in 1977 and seeing the scene in which a torn Jaws poster was featured as set dressing, Raimi took that as Craven saying Hills was scarier than Jaws. As a playful poke Raimi would feature a torn Hills Have Eyes poster in the Evil Dead. Well, Craven couldn't just let him get away with that so he put a torn Evil Dead poster in the original Nightmare on Elm Street. Finally, with both Dream Warriors and Evil Dead II coming out in '87 there would have to be a final hurrah. During shooting of 3, the original Freddy glove from the first film was stolen and had to be replaced. The glove would resurface on another movie set... You guessed it, Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn. It can be seen hanging on the wall of the work shed, and of course Raimi threw in a torn Nightmare poster just for good measure.

This film has some of the best kills, the best one liners, and the best mood created in the series. Rivaled only by the original and followed closely by #4 Dream Master, this is Fred Krueger. Fuck all imitations. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors could be one of the best horror sequels of all-time.

31 Days of Horror: RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (14)

2009-10-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
1985
United States
91 minutes

Written & Directed by:
Dan O'Bannon

Story by:
John A. Russo

Starring:
Clu Gulager, Beverly Randolph, & Linnea Quigley

They're back from the grave and ready to party! One of the great 80s zombie films, it is a direct descendent of a horror masterpiece. The long, lost bastard child of Night of the Living Dead, sharing the original's moniker, "Living Dead". See back in '68 John Russo and George Romero co-wrote 'Night. Shortly after they would go their separate ways stylistically with Romero granted the freedom to create his own series of sequels beginning with Dawn of the Dead, while Russo would retain the rights to any titles using the term, Living Dead.

Russo would conjure up Return of the Living Dead with the idea of Tobe Hooper directing. Enter Dan O'Bannon: brought in to polish the script over. Coincidentally, Hooper would leave the project to direct another film penned by O'Bannon, the vampire-space film, Lifeforce. O'Bannon would take over director duties. Although this would be his first gig behind the camera he was a seasoned writer at this point crafting Dark Star, Dead & Buried, and the legendary Alien. He would also go on to write Total Recall.

Scream queen Linnea Quigley stars in this film, ninety-five percent of her screen time being completely nude. There is a dance sequence in a graveyard where she dances on top of a crypt full-frontal to SSQ's "Tonight (We'll Make Love Until We Die)" while other punks wave red flares and cheer her on. She is wearing thigh high leggings, that's it. She was a beautiful girl back then. In her Night of the Demons days. Her Nightmare on Elm Street 4 days. True to her roots, you can still see her popping up in random horror flicks today.THE PLOT
Inside the Uneeda medical supply warehouse there are corpses sealed inside of barrels in their basement. They were stored there by the US military, results of an accident that happened in the morgue of a Pittsburgh VA hospital. A gas was released called 245 Trioxin that made the bodies reanimate and crave brains. When two workers at the warehouse tamper with the barrels, they unleash the Trioxin into the atmosphere contaminating a nearby cemetery. Some punk kids partying in the graveyard get caught in the middle of a zombie shit storm.

A friend I was watching the film with caught onto the similarities between the look of the film's zombies with the artwork of the old EC Comics such as Tales from the Crypt. That's a dead on comparison. You can really tell they were influenced by Graham Ingels work with the the comic book company. Great FX replicate the look creating a stylized horror fused with comedic features. Very cool to look at.A great horror punk/psychobilly soundtrack pumps out of the speakers with bands like The Cramps, 45 Grave, SSQ, and The Damned. The music adds to the punk attitude of the horror-comedy. I wish I could find this soundtrack; that bitch would be on my iPod.

BRAINS! One of the funniest zombie films ever. Had to break it out after the recent jolt of undead back into mainstream culture. Funny, well done, one of the best endings, sort of like one long Tales from the Crypt episode. If you can't have fun with this flick, maybe you're a zombie.

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31 Days of Horror: FRIDAY THE 13th, THE FINAL CHAPTER (13)

2009-10-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY THE 13th: THE FINAL CHAPTER
1984
United States
90 minutes

Directed by:
Joseph Zito

Written by:
Barney Cohen

Starring:
Kimberly Beck, Corey Feldman, & Crispin Glover

Coming from the franchise that has produced ten sequels, a remake, comic books and novels, a video game, and a television series, The Final Chapter delivers what was supposed to be the real end of Jason. "Supposed" is the key word in that phrase. Still, twenty-five years later this film still entertains for fans of the slasher genre. Along with Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives, this segment of the series is one of my personal favorites.

It contains skinny dipping, spearguns, meat cleavers, corkscrews, vintage pornography, butcher knives, more naked girls, a hockey mask, Corey Feldman, and enough kills (13, of course) to satisfy the sadistic. Along with the young Feldman, Crispin Glover has a role in the film along with heroine of the movie, Kimberly Beck. The acting is what you would expect from an 80s slasher film, but it doesn't take away from the movie; it only adds.

Paramount planned this to be the actual "Final Friday", but with the success at the box office they just couldn't put the hockey mask in the grave. They would push out another sequel in a year's time touting a new killer. That film would be the worst in the series in my opinion. They would eventually return to form with Jason Lives by bringing back Feldman to resurrect Mr. Voorhees.Special FX maestro, Tom Savini lends his expertise to the film. It is said that he only took the film because he was intent on killing the monster he created in the first Friday film. Tom would once again team up with director Joseph Zito who he worked with on the slasher masterpiece, The Prowler. Both movies share the same tones.

It's Friday the 13th. Not a lot to talk about. You either love Jason films or not. I myself, love them. You've got the film they intended to kill Jason with, Tom Savini on FX, and Joseph Zito directing. I'm there. You should be too.

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31 Days of Horror: THE BURNING (12)

2009-10-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

THE BURNING
1981
United States
91 minutes

Directed by:
Tony Maylam

Written by:
Bob Weinstein & Brad Grey

Starring: Jason Alexander, Brian Backer, Leah Ayres & Holly Hunter

And the film company Miramax was born... Yes, The Burning was the first film to rear the new production company that would spearhead the 90s independent movement then go on to be bought out by Disney. Bob and Harvey Weinstein were concert promoters before they set out to write a script based on the summer camps of New York state. They would have the script finished a year before Friday the 13th was released dispelling the rumors that this film was created on the coattails of that film.

The film would also jump start several huge actors careers. Academy Award winning actress, Holly Hunter made her debut in a small part with very little dialogue. The other actor would be the man nominated for his performance in the famous television sitcom Seinfeld, who we all know as Jason Alexander. Accompanying these two budding talents is a youthful cast of newbies who's excitement comes right off the screen.

Horror icon Tom Savini lent his hand to the FX of the film, actually passing up the chance to helm the FX for Friday the 13th Part 2. Savini was hired late and was forced to create the killer's makeup in less than three days. He would create one of the greatest massacres ever depicted in a slasher film in The Burning. Hardcore fans know this scene well: the Raft Scene. Any descriptions would ruin it.In hindsight this script may seem like your stock, campfire killer film, but it isn't. The concept of the film, originally titled "The Cropsy Maniac", is based on a campfire story told throughout New Jersey and upstate New York. The original campfire story is still in circulation today.

Campfire Story:

"There used to be a camp not far from here, just across the lake. It was called Camp Blackfoot. No one goes there anymore. Everything burnt down. This camp had a caretaker, and his name was Cropsy. Now, this Cropsy was a drunkard... a sadist, and he got real pleasure out of hurting... scaring. And he had these garden shears. The kind with long, thin blades. He carried them all the time, wherever he went. One time, Cropsy really went after this kid from Brooklyn, followed him around night and day. He made this kid's life a living hell. But this time, he chose the wrong guy, 'cause the kid and some of his buddies had planned a little prank. Only problem was, the gag went wrong. The next thing anybody knows, Cropsy's trapped alive and burning in his bunk. They try to get him out, but the fire's so fierce, they can't reach him. All they can do is stand outside and listen to him cry out in agony. They say his smashed his way through the bunkroom door in just a mass of flames. And as he burned alive, he cried out, "I will return! I will have my revenge!" They never found his body, but he survived. He lives on whatever he can catch. Eats them raw, alive. No longer human. Right now, he's out there. Watching, waiting. Don't look; he'll see you. Don't move; he'll hear you. Don't breathe; you're dead!"

Great slasher film. From a decade that produced hundreds of slashers, this is one of a handful that still stand the test of time as an excellent horror film.

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31 Days of Horror: The Howling (11)

2009-10-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

THE HOWLING
1981
United States
91 minutes

Directed by:
Joe Dante

Written by:
John Sayles

Cinematography:
John Hora

Starring:
Dee Wallace-Stone

"Silver bullets or fire, that's the only way to get rid of the damn things. They're worse than cock-a-roaches."

Entertaining werewolf movies are few and far between. There is An American Werewolf in London and Silver Bullet, both exceptional wolf films from the 80s. I consider The Howling to be the third film to complete the holy trinity of werewolf cinema. They don't make 'em like this anymore.

Joe Dante, who went on to direct Gremlins is at the helm. After not being satisfied with the script, Dante hired a forerunner of independent cinema to rewrite the mediocre screenplay, Mr. John Sayles. Sayles had worked with the director when he wrote the script to Dante's film, Piranha. His simplistic writing style would bring life to the script and take the story to another level.

Starring in the film is a scream queen: Dee Wallace-Stone. She's the heroine in such films as Cujo, Critters, Popcorn, and the more recent piece of shit-on-toast, Rob Zombie's Halloween. Her most famous role though is probably that of the mother in Steven Speilberg's E.T..Rick Baker who blew audiences away with his FX on An American Werewolf in London, was first contracted to design the werewolf in The Howling. Before starting on the film he would pass it off to a protege in order to work with John Landis on London. The FX in both films would set standards for the next decade and still hold up as the best "wolf out" scenes in any werewolf film.

Art director Robert A. Burns had previously worked on the sets for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). In fact many of the grisly set dressings for this film were hold-overs from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre; most notably the corpse in the armchair seen in Walter Paisley's bookstore.

One of my favorite scenes from the film is the sex scene that takes place around a bonfire. During the intimate moment, the two people involved let their animal instincts take over if you know what I mean. Very epic. A favorite scene of mine from 80s horror.

Get your wolf on. Check out The Howling.

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31 Days of Horror: CREEP (10)

2009-10-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

CREEP
2004
United Kingdom
81 minutes

Written & Directed by:
Christopher Smith

Cinematography:
Danny Cohen

Starring:
Franka Potente

Inspired by the scene inside the London Underground from An American Werewolf in London, director Christopher Smith wanted to really utilize the massive subway system even more. Creep is a pleasant surprise amongst the gamut of horrible sequels and blasphemous remakes.

It's not revolutionary, nor does it change the cinematic landscape, but what it does do is entertain me for an hour and twenty minutes.

You've got a great lead in Franka Potente. The beautiful actress from Run Lola Run, Blow, and the Bourne films electrifies the screen. It's set in a unique location with a strange killer like out of a classic monster movie. And most importantly, it's executed with a horror fan's precision.

Titles that didn't make it:

"Runt", "Cellar Dweller", "Horunder", "Here Kitty Kitty", "One Track Mind" and "Piccadilly Nightmare".

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31 Days of Horror: ZOMBIELAND (9)

2009-10-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

ZOMBIELAND
2009
United States
81 minutes

Directed by:
Ruben Fleischer

Written by:
Paul Wernick & Rhett Reese

Starring:
Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, & Abigail Breslin

As I typically do, I waited a week after it was released to check out the new zombie flick, Zombieland. Some movies I do catch opening week, but sometimes I like to savor others until I can enjoy them in a nearly empty theater by myself. This was one of those. I won't give anything away since the movie is new, so this will be short, but the movie simply blew me away. It was an excellent example of the original horror out there that is capable of being made.

Hey Hollywood! Stop with the fucking remakes, man!!!

This movie is up there with the most entertaining movies of the year. I think this could be the best zombie film ever, or at least my favorite. I love the classic zombie flicks of Romero and Peter Jackson, but I don't think I've ever had this much fun with any other movie featuring the undead.

The film is very stylized with great use of slow motion and narration. The rules of Columbus' that reoccurs through the movie is a nice touch. You can tell the writers of the film were Tarantino fans. I've read interviews where they spoke about his influence in the writing process and you can clearly tell. The film is all about the "cool", featuring vignettes that literally jump off the screen with style.THE PLOT
Columbus is a college student trying to make his way from Texas back home to Ohio in a post-apocalyptic world infested by zombies. On his journey he runs into Tallahassee, a bad ass zombie slayer, who seems to thrive in the chaotic world of the undead. Tallahassee kills for fun, but still has time to enjoy the little things. His mission in Zombieland is to find the world's last twinkie. The two team up and run into a pair of con-artist sisters, Wichita and Little Rock, who give the duo what for. The sister's are on their way to an amusement park supposedly free of the brain-eating creatures.

A cool little device the writer's use is naming each character from the city they are from. No one speaks names because it keeps them from getting close to each other. They are all orphans of a previous world that no longer exists. Their only identities being the name of the burnt out cities they once hailed from.One of the best scenes is when the band of heroes make their way to Hollywood. They grab a map of the stars and crash the mansion of a legendary comedian. The scenes from this section of the movie is probably everybody's favorite part I imagine. How could it not be? I'm not gonna say the comedians name, but damn, this was pure genius.

I'm a huge fan of Shaun of the Dead, but I think this film did it better. It entertained me even more, and I didn't think another modern zombie film could do that. Edgar Wright did it perfectly with Shaun, but this one really takes the cake. The film is stunning to look at, hilarious, and has some really great gore as well. It's a road movie that takes us across the ravaged United States, showing the destruction of the legions of flesh eaters.

Zombieland is great. It's one of those movies, as a filmmaker, I wish I could've made. I wanted it to keep going, and I hope that somehow they come back and give at least 80 more minutes of zombie-goodness. Damn, this movie was so much fun.

31 Days of Horror: CHRISTINE (8)

2009-10-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

CHRISTINE
1983
United States
110 minutes

Directed by:
John Carpenter

Written by:
Bill Philips

Novel by:
Stephen King

Starring:
Keith Gordon & John Stockwell

Released two months after I was born, this film combines two of horrors greatest minds with horror auteur John Carpenter adapting a novel from the man, Stephen King. This is the second King adaptation we have reviewed on the Perverted Cabin with the other being De Palma's film version of Carrie. How can you go wrong with Carpenter and King? You can't. Add an evil 1958 Plymouth Fury that has a mind of it's own and you've got my ass firmly planted for two hours.

From the late 70s until the end of the 80s, Carpenter would churn out legendary horror films one after another. Christine is another classic crafted from the man. I like to consider this one of the best Stephen King adaptations. It focuses on the characters and the building tension created by this car. After the first death in the opening sequence, another death does not occur until an hour and two minutes into the film. It's not a bloody gore type film, but the film is a masterwork, with eerie shots and superb 80s acting.THE PLOT
Arnie Cunningham is your average high school nerd plagued by bullies, no sex life, and only one friend, Dennis, who will stick up for him. He's sick of it. He wants something more. Something to put his heart and soul into and forget about his adolescent trouble. When he discovers a 1958 Plymouth Fury rusting in the backyard of an old man's yard, Arnie wants to have it. He needs to have it. Arnie wants it, and evidently the car want him as well. As the car slowly comes together, Arnie starts to change, becoming a completely different person. He's obsessed over the car, or is it possessed by the car?

This is the best "killer car" movie ever made. Sure, there aren't a lot of them, but I really love this movie. Okay, Maximum Overdrive is pretty bad ass, but this is my favorite. There is something about the classy direction of Carpenter with the lifted dialogue from King's novel.

Some of my favorite scenes are involving the purchase of Christine and any of the following scenes involving the seller of the car. The old man has a perfect mix of menace and hillbilly comedy and his interaction with the two boys really set the tone for the rest of the film. These are the scenes that build the aura of Christine. Great scenes.

"Either you're dumber than you look, or you don't know your friend very well. He had the same look in his eye that my brother always had. Probably the only thing my brother ever loved in his whole rotten life was that car. No shitter ever came between him and Christine, if they did... watch out! He had a five-year-old daughter choke to death in her... he wouldn't get rid of her. He just rode around with the radio blaring, not a care in the world except for Christine. Only time I ever interfered with it was when Rita killed herself." - LeBay

Christine isn't possessed by a demon, it has a mind of it's own. From the moment it came off the line in Detroit, this car was evil. You can crash it, smash it, or set it on fire, but the car will keep coming. This car is unstoppable. Hell on wheels that will never let up. Cranking 50s rock 'n roll that seem to tell it's emotions with a sick, creepy sense of humor. Like the most twisted jealous girlfriend, Christine refuses to let anyone get close to it's owner. And in the end, if the car can't have the owner, then no one can.One funny thing involving life imitating art is a story involving Stephen King. In 1999, sixteen years after the book and film were released, King was nearly killed in a serious car crash. He would later go on to purchase the van that struck him and destroy it himself with a baseball bat. He would then send it to the junkyard to be completely done away with, just like the end of Christine.

I could go on and on about John Carpenter and Stephen King. The Perverted Cabin will feature more Carpenter, and maybe even a little more King, but nothing will be quite like Christine. The films may be just as good and entertaining, but this film stands on it's own and has no substitutes. I want to drive a 1958 Plymouth Fury. Red, white, and chrome. If I could own one, you know I'd name her Christine.

31 Days of Horror: BEHIND THE MASK, THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON (7)

2009-10-07T18:12:00.000-07:00

BEHIND THE MASK:
THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON
2006
United States
92 minutes

Written & Directed by:
Scott Glosserman

Cinematography:
Jaron Presant

Starring:
Nathan Baesel & Angela Goethals

Amongst the labyrinth of shitty straight-to-DVD horror movies, this film emerges as a gem that takes a worn out genre and turns it on it's head. Recommended by a friend, I was very skeptical of this film to begin with. It wasn't because the film didn't receive a national release in theaters, because many great films go unnoticed, but I always have a problem with new original horror that is distributed by Anchor Bay. Don't get me wrong, Anchor Bay releases some of the best classics in horror, but when it comes to straight-to-DVD flicks from the last decade, I start to doubt the quality. I was wrong on this one.

DIALOGUE:

"That boy is about to seek revenge over the town that murdered him. He knows this, he says, because he himself is the heir apparent to that throne of terror so long held by the likes of Voorhees, Myers and Krueger. This man's name is Leslie Vernon."

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is a love letter to all the 70s and 80s slasher films. Every shred of dialogue and every camera shot is a dedication to the classic slashers that came before it. The director, Scott Glosserman, is a fan of the genre. It shows. He decides to shoot the film documentary style then bounces back into cinematic moments that are well crafted horror cliches. He also splits the film into part comedy, part horror. The first two acts provide a comedy, much in the vein of the TV show, The Office. The second act turns serious, almost becoming an entirely different movie.

For an independent film they really create a classic horror look with the cinematography. The lighting in it, especially when the film turns more serious, is amazing considering the low budget. Shafts of light hang in the fog. High contrast and mixes of warm and cool color tones. The director of photography shows his skill throughout.THE PLOT
A documentary crew led by female journalist, Taylor Gentry, begin to document a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. It's a world where supernatural killers from famous slasher films are real. Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, etc. Leslie Vernon is trying to become the next slasher villain and assumes the identity of an old town legend about a boy who was drowned by angry townsfolk. Vernon though is just a simple, ordinary man who relies on conventional tactics rather than supernatural powers to kill his victims. He reveals the tricks of the trade to the film crew, discussing how the Krugers and Myers of the world really pulled these crimes off. Every inch of this film is a gift to fans of slasher films. Here is some of the examples that this film utilizes throughout the picture.

- A Lament Configuration puzzle box from Hellraiser can be seen in the background of an interview session

- Features a bar called, The Red Rabbit Pub, a reference to the matchbook found by Dr. Loomis in Halloween

- The three jump roping girls from A Nightmare on Elm Street can be seen in the background

- Leslie's real last name is Mancuso, the name of the producer of the Friday the 13th films as well as the last name of the actor Nick Mancuso who appears in the 1974 film, Black Christmas- Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger) stars as Doc Halloran, a character based on Dr. Loomis from Halloween

- Zelda Rubinstein from Poltergeist appears in the film

- Kane Hodder, who has played Jason in several Friday the 13th films, appears as a man living on Elm Street

- Characters are named after Jamie Lee Curtis, characters from The Last House on the Left, The Shining, and The Gore Gore Girls

- Leslie has a bottle of "Stay Awake" on his mantle, the same medicine from A Nightmare on Elm Street

- The Shining soundtrack can be heard in the background of a scene, as well as blocks spelling out "Red Rum" in another

I love this film because it's fun. The actors are having a good time and you can tell. It makes me laugh in the beginning and creeps me out in the end. All of the inside jokes and references make the film that much better if you love horror. The acting is very good for a film with such a modest budget, but still harbors some of the necessary flaws that any great horror acting does. Very enjoyable. Didn't expect much, and was pleasantly surprised.

31 Days of Horror: NEAR DARK (6)

2009-10-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

NEAR DARK
1987
United States
94 minutes

Directed by:
Kathryn Bigelow

Written by:
Kathryn Bigelow & Eric Red

Starring:
Adrian Pasdar, Lance Henriksen, & Bill Paxton

Y'know, the light that's leaving that star right now will take a billion years to get down here. You wanna know why you've never met a girl like me before? Because I'll still be here when the light from that star gets down here to earth.
- MAE

This is my favorite vampire film. My favorite. Many many movies have been made about the fanged creatures, but none have quite set the bar the way this one did. It's really almost the anti-vampire movie. The dialogue refuses to utter the word "vampire" once throughout the entire piece. The themes steer clear of the garlic and flying bat mythos that have populated so many hollywood fang-features. Near Dark though IS a vampire movie, and a damn good one.

Kathryn Bigelow is the director responsible for such classics as Point Break and the 2009 Oscar-hopeful masterpiece, The Hurt Locker. She steers this film with perfection bringing a truly original vampire story to celluloid. This was only her second feature, but it feels helmed by a seasoned auteur. Bigelow went into the writing of the film wanting to create a Western that broke the boundaries of the classic John Ford films with John Wayne. With no producers wanting a western film, she was advised to fuse it with another genre. So she did.

From Ms. Bigelow:

"We thought since we were reinventing vampires in a way, it would be a disservice to categorize them. And what are they really? Modern-day pirates or cowboys. Nocturnal creatures. They're people you pass on the street when you walk through dark alleys. The showdown, the shootout, the Midwest setting. We turned them into modern gunslingers traveling these deserted highways."

The film stars several huge names that each bring the good stuff throughout the story. Adrian Pasdar is Caleb Colton, the lead in the film. At the time he was virtually an unknown, but to many TV fans today they would recognize his work from the popular series Heroes. Lance Henriksen was coming straight off of Aliens when he took the role of Jesse Hooker, a vampire who fought for the South in the Civil War - predating Bill's storyline from the HBO show True Blood. And finally, Bill Paxton evens out the cast playing the psychotic vamp, Severen who hates a victim that doesn't shave.THE PLOT
Oklahoma. The 80s. After meeting a sexy drifter named Mae and being bitten on the neck by her, Caleb begins to feel the effects of the rising sun on his journey home from the long night. Before he can make it home Mae kidnaps him with a band of other vamps in a blacked out RV rigged up for daytime driving. Severen wants Caleb for breakfast but their leader Jesse wants to wait and see if the boy can learn to hunt humans and become a trusted partner in their eternal struggle for blood. Caleb isn't as reluctant to become a creature of the night.

Although not even recouping the budget in box office sales, Near Dark was hailed by most critics as a masterpiece in 80s horror with beautiful shots and great characters. The Washington Post would say "the intermixing of vampire legends, westerns, and biker movies has an end result that's both outrageous and poetic; it has extravagant, bloody thrills plus something else - something that comes close to genuine emotion." Jay Scott from Globe and Mail dubbed Bill Paxton as "the undead sex symbol" while Time magazine called the film "the all-time teenage vampire love story" - eat your heart out Twilight.

My favorite scene in the film is the bar scene when the band of vampires go to feed and test Caleb's desire to become one of the undead. It is one of those cinematic moments in film that cannot ever be recreated. I don't care how many horror remakes are being made, you can't recreate a scene like that. The people, the mood, the music. It all leads to an amazing climax that has true horror. I love this scene.The great dialogue tips it's hat to the past very frequently. From Jesse stating that he was once a confederate soldier to Severen asking Jesse if he "remembered that fire we started in Chicago" - a reference to the Chicago fire of 1871 that left over 100,000 people homeless. A fire who's cause still remains a mystery to this day. Very cool little references like this makes history buffs like me geek out.

It's stylish and beautiful with a great script. No cliches fit within it's framework and it truly sets the stage for the next 25 years of vampire films. Before Near Dark, there was the classic yet stilted Hollywood bastardization in Bela Lugosi's Dracula. Near Dark would change the way Hollywood made vamp-flicks.
The best vampire movie hands down.
Stunning.

31 Days of Horror: HOUSE (5)

2009-10-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

HOUSE
1986
United States
93 minutes

Directed by:
Steve Miner

Written by:
Ethan Wiley & Fred Dekker

Starring:
William Katt & George Wendt

What a great horror comedy. For me, House is right up there with Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn for being one of the funniest horror films that still provides legitimate scares. It takes the much treaded "haunted house" film and turns it on it's head with an original story line that is a testament to the story creator, Fred Dekker. Responsible for writing and directing such horror classics as Night of the Creeps and The Monster Squad, Dekker brings an inventive monster movie that will have you freaking out as well as hysterically laughing.

The intimate cast brings a seclusion to the story that makes you care more for the few people that we do follow. William Katt plays the lead role of Roger Cobb. Katt was just coming off failed television show Greatest American Hero where he played a super hero. Although television audiences would be familiar with his boob tube hysterics, the majority of the film community remembered Katt for his role in the previously reviewed horror classic, Carrie. The other great actor in the film is known for his timeless role of "Norm" on the hit TV show, Cheers. Here, George Wendt continues that great comedic timing in the role of Roger Cobb's next door neighbor, Harold Gorton.

THE PLOT
Roger Cobb is man with a hard life. He is a Vietnam veteran and struggling horror novelist who's son has recently went missing while visiting his aunt. His eternal search for his son destroys his marriage and causes Roger to move into his aunt's house once she suddenly dies of an apparent suicide. Strange apparitions and unexplained phenomena begin to plague his everyday life at the house. Roger quickly realizes that the house is alive with supernatural beings who seem intent on getting rid of him one way or the other. Roger won't go out that easy though.

Director Steve Miner brings a seasoned resume into the filming of House. The filmmaker had previously helmed Friday the 13th: Part 2 and Friday the 13th: 3D. He also would go on to direct the under appreciated, Warlock. His horror sensibility shines in the tension he builds and he proves his versatility with the occasional bursts of comedy. I'm sure this is a gem from his filmography that he is very proud of.The house in House is truly the main character of the piece. It's more than just your average haunted house film. The house is a dimensional doorway to your memories and nightmares: the real and imagined. There are monsters and creatures that lurk in it's walls. Grotesque beings disguise themselves as loved ones and play sick jokes on your mind. You can shoot them, chop them up into pieces and even bury them, but they will not stay dead because they were dead to begin with. These cryptic beings are just extensions, tendrils if you will, of the house that only come to life to terrorize you. This house is a predator that preys on your mind and knows your fear.

Great dialogue from House:

Harold: Hey, it's great to have a new neighbor. Woman lived here before you was nuts. Biggest bitch under the sun. Just a senile old hag really. Wouldn't be surprised if someone just got fed up and offed her. Know what I mean?

Roger: She was my aunt.

Harold: Heart of gold though. Just uh, a saint really. And uh such a beautiful woman, for her age.

A hidden gem that you sometimes have to dig for, House is an amazing little film that will meet all your expectations. If you love a good laugh with your goosebumps this is for you. One of the best haunted house comedies ever made, if not the best. Check out the House and stay for the night.

31 Days of Horror: RAVENOUS (4)

2009-10-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

Here at the Perverted Cabin we would like to let our readers know that we are not selecting what we consider to be the 31 greatest horror films of all time, nor are we ranking the films we are covering. We are simply highlighting unique, sometimes under-the-radar horror films that are either forgotten or not cherished by today's movie going public. Enjoy the rest of our 31 Days of Horror.

RAVENOUS
1999
United States
101 minutes

Directed by:
Antonia Bird

Written by:
Ted Griffin

Cinematographer:
Anthony B. Richmond

Starring:
Guy Pearce & Robert Carlyle

If you die first, I am definitely going to eat you, but the question is, if I die, what are you going to do? Bon appétit... Eat or die.

Set deep within the snowy terrain of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, Ravenous takes us back to the 1840's during the Mexican-American War. On the surface the film appears to be your basic period war film with a solid pulse of suspense driving the plot, but that is not entirely the case. First of all there is a very dark, dark, dark sense of humor to the film. And this thriller is so caked in grime, blood, and dirt you can barely see through to the horror, but it's there. Trapped behind the period costumes and the competent ensemble cast is a story filled with themes of cannibalism and flirtations with vampirism. A great modern horror film indeed.

THE PLOT
After being awarded a medal for a moment of heroism, Lieutenant Boyd (Pearce) is confronted by his commanding officer about his hidden cowardice during battle. From there he is banished to preside over Fort Spencer in the middle of nowhere - the Sierra Nevada mountain range. A stranger named Colqhoun (Carlyle) arrives with horror stories of his wagon train starving in the snowcapped mountains. A starvation that lead many members of the party to resort to cannibalism. So begins our story...

The ensemble cast is amazing with names like, Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, David Arquette, Neal McDonough and John Spencer. Carlyle is the man who truly shines in this portrait as the mysterious drifter who happens upon the secluded army outpost of Fort Spencer with a feverish hunger. Guy Pearce drives the film as the secret coward who is determined to redeem himself by providing Carlyle with a worthy adversary.

During the end fight between Carlyle and Pearce, which was created by the actors, the production continued to run out of fake blood because of the excessiveness of the scene. They worked the fight into an epic frenzy, using it to cap off the final act instead of the abrupt ending originally planned by the filmmaker.

Sometimes looked over for it's unbalanced sense of dark comedy and utter gore, this film is by far the best movie to utilize the Native American "Wendigo myth". This is the legend that if a man devours the flesh of his enemies, he can take their strength, but ultimately becomes a demon cursed by an insatiable craving for human flesh. I guess every culture has their own spin on the vampire myth. It is very well done in this film.

The locations are breathtaking and well photographed. The harsh contrast in the white snow and excessive red gore provides an unsettling clash on the celluloid. Lighting by lantern and fire pit give the night scenes a warmth that is absent in the cold day exteriors. The simple, minimalist story provides ample use of basic shots - nothing flashy - and gives the actors the chance to carry the film, and they do.

Also enhancing the film is the original score to the piece. It's unsettling and truly memorable the way the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre music grinds on your nerves. It builds tension when it is needed and amplifies the chaos when called for. The film's composers Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman deserve a handshake.

Colhoun's monologue:

We left in April. Six of us in all. Mr. MacCready and his wife, from Ireland. Mr. Janus, from Virginia, I believe. With his servant, Jones. Myself. And our guide. A military man, coincidently. A Col. Ives. He professed to know a new, shorter route through the Nevada's. Quite a route that was. Longer than the normal one. Impossible to travel. We worked very very hard. By the time of the first snowfall we were still one hundred miles from this place, that was November. Preceding though the snow was futile. We took shelter in a cave. Decided to wait until the storm had passed. The storm did not pass. The trails soon became impossible, and we had run out of food. We ate the Oxen. All the horses. Even my own dog. And that lasted us about a month. After that we turned to out belts, shoes, and roots we could dig up... but you know there's no real nourishment in those. We remained famished. The day that Jones died I was out collecting wood. He had expired from malnourishment. And when I returned, the others were cooking his legs for dinner. Would I have stopped it had I been there? I don't know. But I must say. When I stepped inside that cave... the smell of meat cooking... I thanked the lord! I thanked the lord!

A very entertaining film that not many people give credit to. It's fun, containing five elements that guaranteed a good film: high suspense, dark comedy, bloody gore, and great acting all within the confines of a period film.

Bloody as all hell, dirty and full of grit, that will leave you starving for more.

31 Days of Horror: CARRIE (3)

2009-10-03T20:44:00.000-07:00

Carrie
1976
United States
98 minutes

Directed by:
Brian De Palma

Written by:
Lawrence D. Cohen

Cinematography:
Mario Tosi

Starring:
Sissy Spacek & Piper Laurie

Sitting here, at 1 a.m. on my twenty-sixth birthday, I’m watching his adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie. It’s the first time I’ve watched it since my childhood, and I’m blown away by the sheer brilliance of shots and framework that De Palma has created.

I cannot compare the films of today to the films of that era. Both are necessary to the lifeline of cinema, bringing different movements to the genre. I can bitch and moan all day long about how today’s horror film will never stack up to the "golden age of horror" - the seventies and eighties - but, then that would fill this blog completely up.

Sissy Spacek is incredible in this film. She summons the unbridled rage of Carrie White directly from King's page. A role of a lifetime.
De Palma’s early muse, Nancy Allen, is always perfectly cast bringing her unique quirks to each character. She appears in her first of two De Palma films co-starring with John Travolta. Blow Out being the other. Without her, the film(s) wouldn’t be the same.
And don't let me forget P.J. Soles with her red cap and bibbed overalls. Three years later she would be cast in John Carpenter's Halloween.
The acting he draws from his actresses is amazing; classic in the cinematic sense.

The close ups and lighting of Carrie, please. The trick shots De Palma utilizes with the split-diopter are amazing along with his use of slow motion throughout. His split-screens are still ripped off today. It’s so sad, horror films don’t have the class in their lighting and framing that these films do; where they utilized the polished timelessness of 35 mm film and labored over storyboards.
De Palma’s 70’s films are sexy. There’s a real eroticism going on in these early thrillers, sometimes almost uncomfortable to watch, taboo. Dressed to Kill and Blow Out come to mind; shower scene in Dressed to Kill, holy shit. And the opening locker room shower shot in Carrie is one of the most beautiful shots in a horror film. Not in a creepy way. Not because the plethora of nude females, but because the combination of score and mood. He pushes his actresses to awkward moments of truth that many young directors would be too intimidated to even try. It’s humbling to watch a master in their prime when they're still daring limits and not bound by a formula.

Brian De Palma, I salute you.

Most people love you for Scarface, The Untouchables, and Carlito’s Way, and I really enjoy those films (Scarface is overrated), but I appreciate the De Palma for his relentless, edgy thrillers. The man known as the “Modern Master of Suspense”, adding the “modern” to the moniker given to the originator, Alfred Hitchcock. The list of quality suspense films put Mr. De Palma in the same league as Cronenberg, Carpenter, Craven for great modern horror/thriller filmmakers from this era.

Sisters, Phantom of Pardise, Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, and Body Double?

Wow. That’s a line of films.

You’re a master, De Palma. A genius, a good sir, and a man to shape a movement. Growing up on the images that you have crafted influenced my vision as a filmmaker.

Nightcap, the pencils down.

31 Days of Horror: TORSO (2)

2009-10-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

TORSO
1973
Italy
92 minutes

Written & Directed by: Sergio Martino

Cinematography: Giancarlo Ferrando

Starring:
Suzy Kendall & Tina Aumont

This Italian giallo could have been used as a general blueprint for the American slasher films of the late 70s and 80s. Utilizing formulaic themes of the genre, Torso perfects them with classic memorable motifs that are etched in your brain. From the Killer-angle POV shots to the glorification of beautiful naked women in their twenties to the use of the masked killer or the use of the survivor girl, Martino works in 1973 as if he took a time machine and versed himself in the The Prowlers and Halloweens of the future.

"Giallo" is a genre of film that emerged in the 60s and 70s from Italian directors that were veering their films into the realm of horror and psychological thrillers. They usually contain a literary whodunit aspect combined with elements from the modern slasher movement. By definition, giallo is Italian for "yellow", and originates from cheap paperback novels of similar material baring trademark yellow covers.

THE PLOT
When a spree of sexually charged stranglings rock a college campus in Italy, several friends affected by the murders plan a trip of refuge and emotional recovery to one of the girl's isolated country villa. They quickly find out that they haven't escaped the threat when each girl is targeted one by one. Suzy Kendall revisits the giallo three years after starring in the classic Dario Argento flick, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.

Some will argue the film relishes the exploitation of the female gender, but I believe it simply adds to the realism and sexual themes that are being discussed within the film's free-loving 60s college portrayal. Like the tag line of the film states,

"Enter... if you dare, the bizarre world of the psychosexual mind."

Some of the inventive scenes and locales used in this film are stunning. The stylistic shot choices harken back to the French New Wave and films of Fellini from the early 60s. This European sensibility clearly shines through in Sergio Martino's camera movement. And his management of frame work builds the suspense and shrouds the mystery like no other film I've watched from this era.

One scene in particular that stands out to me is a hippie party sequence with galloping bongo drums and a chugging acoustic guitar while girls dance naked, pot gets smoked, and orgies are strewn across the floor. One girl, high as a kite, is being felt up by two bumbling motorcycle idiots. After sobering up she snipes her joint on one of the guys torso and leaves. She flees through a foggy bog, barefoot, when she encounters the killer in a scene very reminiscent of something from the Friday the 13th franchise.

Truly a masterpiece of it's genre that will keep you guessing with it's endless supply of red herrings provided throughout the film. A classic.

31 Days of Horror: VIDEODROME (1)

2009-09-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

In the month of October, the Perverted Cabin will celebrate the horror film with "31 Days of Horror". Each day we will discuss a different film leading up to Halloween. Different filmmakers from various countries and decades will be featured along with cult classics and grindhouse affairs. And now...

VIDEODROME
1983
Canada
89 minutes

Written & Directed by: David Cronenberg

Cinematography:
Mark Irwin

Starring:
James Woods & Debbie Harry

"Long live the New Flesh", the final words spoken by our protagonist, Max Renn, played brilliantly by James Woods. What is the new flesh you ask? Well, like Hunter S. Thompson said, "Buy the ticket, take the ride." To give away what the "New Flesh" is would be to give away the absolute perfect weirdness that David Cronenberg has crafted. The story takes you on a journey of sickening twists through a world where violence is a sexual appetite and television can brainwash you into tumors.

THE PLOT
Max Renn is president of a small Toronto TV station who pirates satellite feeds of sleazy programming. His constant search for the strange desensitizes him to the everyday squalid affair. Max wants something more so he scours the world for erotic, violent transmissions. When he stumbles across the video feed for Videodrome he will wish he never went searching for something more. He becomes so obsessed and addicted to the perverted sexual acts depicted on the broadcast that he begins to change, effecting all of those around him.

Rick Baker brings the special FX of the film to a whole new level. Baker's centerpiece of the film is when the character Barry Convex is shot with a cancer gun. In the script, it was written that simple, "cancer gun." Rick Baker had to create the aftermath of the weapon himself conjuring an effect that is worth the viewing alone.

With brilliant lighting and mood from Mark Irwin, the man who has shaped light on other Cronenberg films, Fast Company, The Brood, Scanners, The Dead Zone, and The Fly. Irwin would light many horror films early on, along with Scream and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, but recently he has become a well respected director of photography in the comedy realm. Comedies he has lit: Dumb & Dumber, Kingpin, There's Something About Mary, 10 Things I Hate About You, Road Trip, American Pie 2, Old School, and Grandma's Boy.

Videodrome shows a young filmmaker budding into a master auteur. Cronenberg still has the maverick sense here even though this would be the sixth feature film in his career. He was well into his fascination and creation of "body horror" and this film pushed the new sub-genre into deeper waters that would be tread again with his coming classics, The Fly and Dead Ringers.
A quote from the film:

"I believe that the growth in my head-this head-this one right here. I think that it is not really a tumor... not an uncontrolled, undirected little bubbling pot of flesh... but that it is in fact a new organ... a new part of the brain."

Andy Warhol would go on to call it the "A Clockwork Orange of the 1980s". Bravo TV would rank it fourth on it's "30 Even Scarier Movie Moments". Total Film selected it for it's "23 Weirdest Films of All Time".

Odd and amazing. Something different than your normal film. A great watch and an extremely crazy trip from beginning to end.

Hank Williams III Show

2009-09-25T16:15:00.001-07:00

The Hank Williams III concert on June 19, 2009 in Huntington, WV. Great show. Got to meet Hank III, one cool country motherfucker. It was a drunken night, so I don't remember much, but I do know that it was well worth the cover. Certified bad ass.

Props to TLCastle for the video.

Enlightenment Exercise VI

2009-09-09T23:24:00.000-07:00

This makes soccer REALLY exciting.

Play From Your Fucking Heart

2009-09-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

Autumn Flicks

2009-09-07T23:00:00.000-07:00

The Fall. Autumn. For some it brings to mind the changing of the leaves. Others, football season. Some, Halloween. I on the other hand think of Oscar season. Cinema rolling out what they deem, award-worthy. From September clear up until Christmas, interesting, edgy films populate the opening night marquee. While most movie goers seek the explosions and popcorn fluff of the Summer blockbuster, I look forward to the films of the Fall.

So when it was announced Martin Scorsese's new film, 'Shutter Island' and the Benicio Del Toro-vehicle revamp of 'Wolfman' were being pushed back into 2010, I started to worry about the fourth quarter. At this point in 2009 'Inglourious Basterds' and 'Hurt Locker' stand out as my favorite films of 2009. Both deliver original stories, with great visual style, and incredible acting.

Now, since Marty has delayed Leo's red carpet walk for Shutter and we won't get to see Del Toro wolf out next to Anthony Hopkins until 2010, what is there to look forward to?
Here are 20 films that I think will save the Fall of 09.

1. The Road
Based off an incredible novel from Cormac McCarthy, starring Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, Guy Pierce, & Charlize Theron, and directed by John Hillcoat who crafted the black tooth gutter Western, 'The Proposition'. Enough said. Definite Oscar contender.

2. Bronson
The first feature length film for Copenhagen born director, Nicolas Winding Refn, since his epic drug trilogy, 'Pusher'. Visionary filmmaker taking the story behind bars and following a prisoner in solitary confinement, and his alter ego, Charles Bronson.

3. A Serious Man
Another twisted comedy from the Coen Brothers. Worth the ticket alone. No stars in the cast, instead no-name Jewish actors. Excited for this one. Reflections of 'Barton Fink' and 'Miller's Crossing' in tone...

4. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
John Krasinski, or "Jim" as people know him on the NBC hit show,"The Office", writes, directs, produces and stars in this Sundance breakout comedy.

5. Pirate Radio (The Boat That Rocked)
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Nick Frost, and Rhys Ifans in a Richard Curtis film about an illegal radio station on a ship in international waters during the 1960's.

6. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Wes Anderson adapting a Roald Dahl novel about a family of foxes going against the farmers trying to eradicate them all in stop-motion. I'm not even going to touch the list of actors lending their voices.

7. Black Dynamite
Blaxploitation flick that bitch-slapped the indie festival circuit with a strong right hand. Great trailer that oozes 70's sleaze.

8. Chelsea on the Rocks
Documentary from Abel Ferrara detailing the historical exploits and debauchery of the Chelsea Hotel in New York City.

9. Youth In Revolt
An odd little comedy starring Michael Cera, Zach Galifianakis, Steve Buscemi, and Ray Liotta.

10. La Horde
The French do the horror right nowadays. This film involves gangsters, the police, and of course, zombies. A very intense looking film from the country that brought us 'Inside' and 'High Tension'.

11. Gentlemen Broncos
12. Big Fan
13. The Men Who Stare At Goats
14. Zombieland
15. The Lovely Bones
16. Where The Whild Things Are
17. Ninja Assassin
18. Brothers
19. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
20. The Other man

Pig Roast

2009-09-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

To protect and serve...

Pic of my 6th Birthday

2009-08-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

Death by Fruit

2009-08-25T15:48:00.000-07:00

One day in the forest, 3 guys were hiking along a trail when all of a sudden, a huge pack of indians attacked them and knocked them out cold. When they woke up, they were at the chief of the tribe's throne.

The chief then said, "All of your lives may be spared if you can find ten of one fruit and bring them back to me."

So after a while the first man returned with 10 apples. The chief then ordered him to stick all ten of them up his ass without making any expression at all on his face. He had a little bit of trouble with the first one and started crying while trying to put the next one in. The chief motioned to a tribesmen, sending an arrow straight into the guy's chest, killing him.
Later, the next guy came in with 10 grapes. The chief soon ordered him to do the same as the first guy. After cramming in the 9th grape with a solemn face, the man burst out laughing for no apparent reason. The chief motions for another arrow, killing him as well.

Up in heaven the two guys meet, arrows still sticking out of their chests. The first guy asks the second, "Why did you start laughing? You only needed one more grape and you'd have gotten away!"

Still laughing, he answered, "I couldn't help it. I saw the third guy walking in with pineapples."

Enlightenment Exercise V

2009-08-22T22:38:00.000-07:00

You can take my heart, and maybe we can be together-gether...

Broke Beginnings

2009-08-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

I just recently got a normal job to fund my voyage across the country. Los Angeles bound. I'm pretty broke at the moment with mounting bills and a mountain of other strains on my brain. The great thing is, I have no one to worry about, but myself. Even though I have next to nothing to call my own at the moment besides material things, I feel like this is a fresh start that needed to happen. Cleansing the unnecessary habits that I have clung to because of the meaningless consequences. In a strange way it's exciting. I can now work my way out of nothing. Build toward California. Save it up. Plan for the takeover. Never stop writing. Continue the path. With the West on my mind, this monotonous nine-to-five grind seems all worth it.

Dead-flat-fucking-broke... NOTHING.

This is the way greatness begins...

R.I.P. John Hughes

2009-08-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, American film director, John Hughes, died of a heart attack while walking in Manhattan.

For me, John Hughes was a huge part of my childhood. I was born shortly before John Hughes would begin his directorial efforts and have always lived in a world that was somehow shaped by the culture of Hughes. His films were still fresh in the conscious of mainstream media and flooded cable's midnight movie programs like, USA's Up All Night and TBS' Dinner & a Movie throughout my youth.
His writing style was simple, but packed with wit. He captured the voice of the generation and bottled the Reagan-era like a visual time capsule. Of the many "auteurs" celebrated today, Mr. Hughes is often forgotten and labeled a mainstream filmmaker with no real style. I disagree with this sentiment. John Hughes WAS the sense of humor in 1980's cinema. If the film was not directly graced by his hand, the influence his brand of comedic writing washed over all the scripts being churned out of Hollywood.

He had an ear for pop songs and teenage banter. He was armed with a sharp tongue and a dirty mind. He was the Godfather of the infamous, "Brat Pack", making careers out of Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, and Anthony Michael Hall. Watching his films, I felt like I was seeing a community of connecting stories told over the course of his filmography. I wanted to travel to his fictitious Chicago suburb of Shermer, Illinois. I wanted to walk the streets of Shermer where the characters of The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, all lived.

God Bless you John Hughes. You shaped my childhood and definitely contributed to my passion of filmmaking and telling a good, simple story. Till the next time I turn on my DVD player and visit Shermer....

Films That Involved John Hughes

National Lampoon's Vacation
Sixteen Candles
The Breakfast Club
National Lampoon's European Vacation
Weird Science
Pretty in Pink
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Some Kind Of Wonderful
Planes, Trains, & Automobiles
The Great Outdoors
Uncle Buck
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Home Alone
Dutch
Beethoven
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Enlightenment Exercise IV

2009-08-05T22:09:00.000-07:00

Steven Seagal runs like a little girl.

Short and Stupid

2009-08-05T21:57:00.000-07:00

I have been writing on a script lately. Haven't posted on here in a while, but I will try to pick up some more frequent posts, even if it's a video or something short and stupid.

Here's something short and stupid.

UFC Swallows Another Company

2009-07-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Affliction MMA has folded it's involvement with promoting mixed martial arts fights. Affliction will now be brought on as an official clothing sponsor to the UFC. This news comes only days before their scheduled PPV event, Affliction: Trilogy.
Josh Barnett, #2 ranked Heavyweight in the world, is the main reason behind Affliction's demise. Barnett tested positive for steroids this week, leading Affliction to scramble for a replacement to fight the world's top heavyweight, FEDOR. This replacement was never found, and the big wigs behind the T-Shirt company decided to call it a day and go where they could earn the most dough: off the backs of UFC fighters.

This is a HUGE day in mixed martial arts.

Impressive Out Of Water Jump

2009-07-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

BJ PENN, in preparation for his UFC 101 title bout with Kenny Florian, shows off an impressive feet while lounging at the pool. Penn is 5'9" and weighs 155 lbs and is capable of jumping straight out of 3 feet of water.

KenFlo better be prepared...

Going to be a really epic lightweight battle.

Enlightenment Exercise III

2009-07-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

Why The Grip Got Fired.

Kill Yourself... seriously.

2009-07-14T02:24:00.000-07:00

Goodie Bag-Tag

2009-07-14T00:25:00.000-07:00

UFC 100 was pretty damn cool. Most of my predictions were spot on, go ahead and check the results. It's good to see this sport gaining some attention from the mainstream media outlets outside of the old "human cockfighting" bullshit. These fighters are athletes trained in a variety of intense combative disciplines. It's growing, non-believers. Before too long people will start to like it because it will be the "IN" thing to do. Losers.

Caught the new Michael Mann film, "PUBLIC ENEMIES". I was fully entertained the entire time, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I expected a little more from Mr. Mann. Something with the pacing, the modern music, and the camera choice did poke at me a bit.
At the house Dad put on "CADILLAC RECORDS". Now there was low expectations... and the film greatly surpassed those. It was a good movie. I enjoyed it.
Love music bio-pics, and one focusing on some of the legends of Chicago Blues definitely had my interest. Jeffrey Wright stole the movie as Muddy Waters.
Realization struck me today. There are very few new films that I am excited to see coming out of Hollywood. Sure, you have the great directors that I will always go to the cineplex for, i.e., Tarantino (INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS), Scorsese (SHUTTER ISLAND), etc., but other than the filmmakers I follow there is no movement in film right now. For the most part the stories are terrible, rehashed, popcorn duds with FX-heavy bubble gum, remakes, the same 'ol shit, predictable, and dull with absolutely no style or substance to them. They don't make me think, they make me vegetate. It's scary. More and more I find myself going to my collection for the classics, the old flicks that make your hair stand on end and give you those things called goosebumps. I dig through the indie scene and scavenge the foreign markets.

What happened to the golden era of film? Fuck man, what happened to the 60's and 70's sensibilities? The writing of the 50's? Or shit, the complete cheese and decadence of the 80's? Those eras were pushed by auteurs with style, dialogue with a bite compared to the watered down food for the masses that hypnotize viewers with it's glossy photography, jump-cut editing, and quantity over quality mentality. Thank god for my DVD collection.

iPod Shuffle:
David Vandervelde
Tapes 'N Tapes
The War On Drugs
Pink Mountaintops
Antony & The Johnsons
Muddy Waters
Devendra Banhart
The Clash
Japandroids
Fleetwood Mac

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies…if the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency...the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent that their fathers conquered.”
- Thomas Jefferson

"Like most of the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top. At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles - a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other - that kept me going."
- Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary

The Devil's Smoke

2009-07-10T18:49:00.000-07:00

Since the early 1900's Big Brother has been involved in the character assassination of the same plant that highly revered intellectual, our 3rd President, Thomas Jefferson, grew on the very grounds of Monticello. Don't believe the white wash. Research and experiment for yourself.

If this natural herb is considered a dangerous narcotic worthy of being deemed illegal, then EVERY drop of alcohol should fall under the jurisdiction of a new national prohibition.

Educate yourself. Don't buy into the conservative smear machine that has waged a century-long war of propaganda against the most valuable cash crop in America. Decriminalize the punishment, lower crime, pump life back into the economy...

... yeah. In a perfect world right?

Gay Snake

2009-07-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

"Let The Right One In" scored to Pink Mountaintop's "Vampire"

2009-07-08T12:35:00.000-07:00

Two independent examples of art meshed together to create one music video. Both modern classics in every sense of the word.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
Tomas Alfredson's romantic, coming-of-age vampire film is as cold as the country that produced it: Sweden. The snowy, night landscapes provide a prime location for the horrific tale of a 12-year old boy who falls for the neighborhood vampire.

OUTSIDE LOVE by the Pink Mountaintops
Steve McBean's third Pink Mountaintops album has been described as "ten songs of love and hate that read like a Danielle Steele romance novel." The album also has a cold feeling running through it's core; like depressing conversations at Christmas dinner.

WV Crook of the Week

2009-07-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

This pre-trial offender is a Gemini who likes to live by the old creed, "a rolling stone gathers no moss." His bouncy disposition makes him a champion of cocktail party chatter and lighthearted social encounters. This will make him a huge social butterfly behind the bars of South Central Regional Jail like when he used to serve coffee and scones to his brother's little children.