As anyone that knows me will tell you, I love movies. All kinds of movies...horror, martial arts, film noir, blaxploitation, exploitation, splatter, gore, foreign.....I admit to being a film geek.
SO, just because I'm bored at work at the moment, I am going to discuss two of my favourite films ever.
VIDEODROME, directed by David Cronenberg, sets the standard in surreal, gore/science fiction paranoia. This movie has it all. Sadomasochistic snuff shit hypnotizes viewers into a "rubber reality" kind of hallucinogenic state, where paranoid fantasy blends with everyday reality. Looks a lot like MY world probably would if I allowed myself the dubious pleasures of drug use.
This movie is disturbing in a way that only vintage Cronenberg can be. Like a (slightly) more coherent "Eraserhead", this thing is best viewed at three a.m. by accident. Debbie Harry is a sensual goddess,and in this movie she really steams and sizzles as Nikki Brandt, the too-curious masochistic adventurer who tempts James Woods into a world of dominance and madness.
THE WORLD CHAMPIONS OF ROCK 'N ROLL
The greatest punk/rock band to ever walk the face of the Earth is North Carolina's ANTISEEN.
This is not subject to arguement.
ANTISEEN are not prissy, typical pussy-punk whiners. They are not emo. Not even close. They have nothing in common with "commercial" punk rock like Green Day, Rancid, etc., except maybe in Jeff Clayton's reverence for the Clash and Sex Pistols. Their sound is closer to Motorhead....Heavy, noisy, violent ROCK 'N ROLL with growling vocals. They write about shit that matters to some of us....like pro wrestling, horror films, guns, and the general fucked up state of humanity, although songs like "Spare Change" and "People Like You" won't win them any fans among the pc punk brigade.
But this has all been said before. I'm just throwing my two cents in because I can.
Antiseen, to me, is a very important and necessary band. It is loud, hard music for those of us who don't like our "punk" served up with puke-buckets of political drivel...and for whom speed/thrash/black/death metal doesn't always satisfy. It's for the scary working class. Those of us with brains and backbones and balls and who never saw fit to shelve our pleasures and obsessions just because we got older and had to enter the so-called "real world". Those of us who still have some common sense and practicality. I almost hate to call them this, but they are a REAL "alternative" to the shit that's foisted on music fans as being "dangerous" and "real".
Punkers can have their social cliques and causes. You'll find me holed up in my house with a stack of Antiseen cd's and some PBR, letting Jeff Clayton articulate the rage I often feel and living vicariously through his frequent blood drenched stage antics....Clayton is that true rarity, a so-called "punk" musician who actually has a set of balls. One look tells you he's not about backing down or compromising. One listen tells you this guy is for real.
There are few bands I would say I'm fanatical about, in my old age...Motorhead, Hellstomper, Cocknoose....a handful of others....but Antiseen are at the forefront of my fanaticism. They're probably one of about six bands I would actually punch someone for talking shit about. And, in my growing apathy toward the world in general, that's probably one of the biggest compliments I could give these guys.
By way of introduction, most of what I write probably won't strike a chord with too many. For the fearsome few who DO get and enjoy whatever I may choose to rant about, I hope you keep coming back and leave some feedback.
Just to clarify: I'm a misanthropic, yet life loving, former punk rock degenerate. I like Confederacy of Scum bands, horror films, beer, guns, porn, and good writers like Jim Goad, Harlan Ellison, and Jim Thompson. And not much else.
I am a fanatical martial arts practitioner (jeet kune do and modern arnis). I work two jobs to stay alive, spend whatever time I'm not working training, and still find time to live my weird lifestyle.
Most of what I write is probably intended as satire. Maybe.
Good evening.
This is my blog. I never thought I would join the cyber age quite so completely, but here I am.
I hope you'll find my ramblings at least entertaining. It's probably better if you have a dark sense of humour, or at least a healthy contempt for most of what is venerated by the herd. You've been warned.....
