Long time since...

I really have little to say although it has been a long time since I posted. I just finished reading Thunderstruck by Erik Larson. He's the guy who wrote Devil in the White City which I will read soon. I am quite intrigued by H.H.Holmes (even making him the mascot of my old band Stateline Motel) and have read alot - including a short biography. So I'm excited to read this new book as well although I'm sure it will be a repeat of the things I already know. My fascination for Holmes (and yes he took the moniker from Sherlock because he thought he was as smart as the fictional character) replaced my previous fascination with Sweeny Todd which waned slightly before the film came out.

I have read so many books since I last posted I can't even conjure them up in my mind right now. Notably I read Starvation Heights: A True Story of Murder and Malice in the Woods of the Pacific Northwest. It was a riveting and unnerving story of two sisters who go to a "doctor" for her starvation cure technique but then they are robbed and starved to death by the woman. I found it most interesting that the "doctor" was from Minneapolis, where I now live. After this book I read Into the Wild which coincedentally happened to also be about starvation. Boy am I hungry.

Among the letdowns I have read was Joe Hill's (Stephen Kings son) 20th century ghosts - It started out strong and the first few stories are GREAT but then it takes a sharp turn and falls flat. I also tried The Colorado Kid by Stephen King = snore. Then Rogue Scholar which heralded interesting subject matter, but was written like a cross between court proceedings and a dry school text book so it was laboreous to get through.

I found a great story I had never read by Jim Thompson called "Case of the Catalogue Clue" in a book called A Scream in the Dark: and other true crime stories (originally released as Murder Plus). It was great, but the book - even the reprint - seems very hard to find online. I found it at Barnes and Noble in the cheap section!!!
So to wrap up this rant - I've been reading alot more than watching films because of Violet. (I don't yet want to expose her to too much for fear of her having nightmares). BUT I did watch the ENTIRE series of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA much to the shagrin of Stacy and everyone else I have confessed this too :) - p.s. it was GREAT!

My band REIGNING KNIVES is kicking ass. We just played two outdoor shows (on the same street just blocks from eachother! :) They went off well and I really like our tunes and my bandmates. More on that later though.

Fuck! When I was a teenager I was a PUNK. A BLOODY PUNKROCKER! I went to hundreds of shows and moshed (or slamdanced as we used to call it then), from start to finish. I had a mohawk...I wore spikes...a Bullet Belt...sewed my pants tight onto myself. I saw some of the best/worst bands of my generation on a two foot high stage in the basement of the Nordic Hall in Sioux Falls, SD. Small town scenes were the tightest and surprisingly we had the best bands come through. I remember listening to MINOR THREAT with my cousin/best friend Shawn blasting from my overstressed, treble drenched speakers of my Dodge Omni and thinking "Even when I'm old I'll be listening to this shit!". I remember wondering what happened to people that would make them gravitate away from loud, angsty, exciting music and want (actually WANT) to listen to sappy Lawrence Welk type bullshit or classic rock piss and dribble that plays endless loops on squaking, product hawking radio stations or portentous "intellectual" j-j-jazz. Well brothers and sisters I am now thirty-two and although I can say that I still listen to punk I have mellowed to the point of finding myself sitting in a bourgeois jazz joint listening to my friend and ex band-mate's free jazz/experimental combo. WHATTHEHELLHAPPENEDTOME? I miss the ENERGY the raw PASSION of PUNK. Yeah I know my buddy digs what he's doin'. I know that he feels smooth and cool jamming to some stinky mid-tempo trumpet lead bleeps and bloops...but FUCK. I felt like a shmuck. All these pseudo-hip, secret pot smoking, designer glasses wearing assholes who are walking the knifes edge to middle age bobbing their heads thinking "I totally get this, man. I am really cool. I can't wait to pass the bar and then fuck that chick at reception". YUCK! MAN! SHIT! I'm not one of these people...but then I'm not an angst ridden teenager who is content with a band that has thirty songs all in the same key and using three (if you lucky) chords. WHERE AM I AT? My home life is AMAZING my wife and daughter are so seriously cool and fun and I wouldn't trade them for the world. It's not that I'm unhappy with my life...just the current soundtrack!!!!!

New art 1/20/09

This week I achieved a feat to be envied by all the lonely zit faced nerds in basements everywhere...I watched the entire 9 seasons (202 episodes) and two movies, in order from start to finish, of the fantastic X-FILES. This has been a ridiculous goal of mine since I was a wee-tot, o.k., more like a teen-tot.
I have never enjoyed a series as much or launched myself so fully into its mythology. My wife and I have watched
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER,
ANGEL,
FIREFLY,
HARSH REALM*,
JERICHO*,
TAKEN*,
THE LOST ROOM,
DRESDEN,
POINT PLEASANT,
PETE & PETE,
FREAKS AND GEEKS,
SEX IN THE CITY**,
MY SO CALLED LIFE**,
RENO 911,
and SIX FEET UNDER in order as well.
We have also kept up with BONES, DEXTER and CSI. (BOW TO US LAMEOIDS, FOR WE ARE THE CHOSEN ONES). I am now working on a series from 1967 called THE INVADERS. This is a fantastic pre-X-files mythos of an Alien plot to wipe out humanity so they can inhabit the earth. I highly recommend it!!


*only I have watched these
**only my wife has watched these

More Comedy thoughts...

I am in my early thirties and was raised on Video, like so many my age. Before my generation I think the idea of watching films more than once was not as prevalent. Like reading a book most people saw a movie once and that was it. With the advent of the wonderous VCR, however, movies could be viewed again and again and again....(much like my copy of BEETLEJUICE which I wore out).
All of this rambling is just to set up that I have seen TONS of older (mostly 70's-80's) comedies. They seemed to be my parents favorite. I was raised with JOHN CANDY, BILL MURRAY, GENE WILDER, TERI GARR, STEVE MARTIN, BERNADETTE PETERS, JOHN BELUSHI, etc. etc. etc.
and that style of comedic film is my favorite, but now with a new generation beginning to make films a new style is emerging. Comedies now are MUCH different then they were back then. This is the age of SUPERBAD and the offensive, irreverent, "stand up" style comedies with little plot/character and ALOT of jokes.
I am not saying that this is bad...I find alot of these films very funny, but I get nostalgic for the old style.
SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO here are a couple more fun lists...

My TOP 5 old style comedies:
1. FLETCH
2. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
3. ANIMAL HOUSE
4. FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH
5. BLUES BROTHERS
- honorable mention goes to NEIGHBORS

MY TOP 5 new style comedies
1. SUPER TROOPERS
2. HALF BAKED
3. GRANDMAS BOY
4. HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE
5. POSTAL

Japanese mod

YOU WANNA KNOW ME? WATCH THIS VIDEO.

TOP 10 Favorite Comedies

1. SUPER TROOPERS
2. FLETCH
3. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
4. BILL & TEDS BOGUS JOURNEY
5. BIG LEBOWSKI
6. PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE
7. BRAIN CANDY
8. HALF BAKED
9. MALLRATS
10. SO I MARRIED AN AX MURDERER

- AND HONORABLE MENTIONS GO TO...

JOHNNY SUEDE, MY BLUE HEAVEN, CHEECH AND CHONG: THE CORSICAN BROTHERS

Hopelessly devoted...

I know I've mentioned it before...that I love my wife and to the avid reader (ha ha) I'm sure you are like "Oh man, another schmalzy, mushy rant". But hell, why not I say. It is rare that one finds someone that just fills in all the gaps and makes everything feel whole.
I've had alot of girlfriends in the past, nearly all were really great chicks, but none of them made me feel like Stacy does. There was just always something missing.
Our first date was to a museum and it was one of the funnest times I ever had. Stacy has a degree in art so she explained all sorts of things to me from symbolism to history of the pieces. It was really magical. I remember looking at her and thinking she was the most beautiful thing in the gallery and feeling like I didn't want to be with anyone else.

BEATNIK (n.)

Beatnik (n.) -- sarcastic term for a beat. Derived by Herb Caen in 1958 as a combination of Beat and Sputnik

Dig it man, I ain't no clyde, I wear my cogs at night and always dig a wild wail coming from my box from early black to early bright. But damn, dad, I never really did dig the fore-runners of the whole scene see. I've read Ginsberg, Burroughs and Kerouac but they never really did it for me. I did however really like Neal Cassady's "First Third" that book blew my motor man. The real beats though were the ones who never got that label but lived exciting and wrote exciting. I prefer things more interesting than Kerouac talkin' 'bout putting a hole in the ground and...um...putting his....you know...becoming "one" with nature. Of course Bukowski always raised my brows. He was a damn dirty ape, but great to read. It's like tapping into the deepest darkest parts of yourself without actually having to have the psychological residue of committing the atrocities he did.

I do have to say that I consider Jim Thompson the first REAL Beat. Sure he's my favorite writer, but damn he lived an exciting life. Starting in high school he became a bellboy during prohibition helping rum runners and dodging house dicks. He drank so much and didn't sleep that at one point he walked into his house, paused, fell down and blood rushed from his mouth. From that point on he had the DTs, traveled on trains, hopped trains, worked trains, stayed in derelect hotel rooms, took odd jobs, dealt with odd people and created the BEST Goddamn Pulp ever written. He was BEAT man!

Sadly however, I think that the whole beatnik thang is totally male-centric and what little work of the beat women I've read didn't do it for me. I find that the rebel yell of ladies came later with Patty Smith, Lydia Lunch, and Exene Cervenka who pioneered what I would consider BEAT PUNK.

SO WHY ALL THIS BLAH BLAH BLAH about BEAT...ONLY because I wanted to tell you to watch ROGER CORMAN'S "BUCKET of BLOOD". It's a sarcastic horror/comedy about a busboy who works at a beatnik coffeeshop. He longs to become an artist and showcase his art in the shop. He soon discovers that murdering people and covering them with plaster is the HIPPEST thing he can do to become a REAL GONE CAT and crash the IN CROWD. My favorite part of the film is when the upper escelon beatnik fellow with a beard wears a tuxedo with burkenstock sandals. hahahaha. I LOVE ROGER CORMAN!