p e n g u i n d e v i l

No, this isn’t a post about Mike Huckabee (enough of politics for the moment), instead it’s just some musings on music… I was into trying out some “new” stuff this week and what really jumped out at me was something that I’ve had for a number of years, which I got from a co-worker. I recall that I listened to it back then and liked it, but the few songs that I had got lost in the morass of music I have floating around here… The band is Anaal Nathrakh and while I only have a couple of songs, I’m going to have to get some more! The songs I have are all from the album “Codex Necro” and they are all really good, though I especially liked When Humanity is Cancer. The songs have elements of black metal, death metal, Ministry-style industrial and some great demonic and undead voices. Highly recommended.

Codex Necro

Then another high point, as I tend to like what Black Metal I can find from Central/South America, I gave a try to Columbia’s Inquisition (though sadly it seems that they may live in Washington now…). Great stuff! Creepy, evil and slow. I really like the laid back vocal style, it is sinister and evil, but more like evil talking than growling or screaming. A little odd, but nice. So far I would highly recommend “Invoking the Majestic Throne of Satan” and, especially, “Magnificent Glorification of Lucifer” which contains certainly the funnest song that I’ve heard today, Crush the Jewish Prophet! Really great vocals, listen to it here:

Invoking the Majestic Throne of Satan

Magnificent Glorification of Lucifer

On a less excellent note, I don’t normally listen to USBM and I have again been reminded why. I got some Kult ov Azazel and I’ve had mixed impressions. While they are American, they are from Florida, which seems to be the place to be from if you are going to be a good American metal band, and their music is pretty good (I especially like the album “Triumph of Fire”) but the vocals… I just can’t abide. Now don’t get me wrong they have some good growling, but their main vocals have that good ol’ USA “hardcore” style screaming… And I just can’t do it. It’s one of the “metal” things that really doesn’t interest me. So that’s too bad. I’ll try some more to see if it grows on me, but Anaal and Inquisition may be enough finds for one day.

While, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I have both giving’s and misgiving’s about both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton… And I’m in no place to vote for either in the primary anyway… I feel like either one of them could be quite good possibilities for President. Sure, in an ideal world, Gravel, Nader, Kucinich or (my favorite) Peter DeFazio would be front runners, as they have ideals far beyond anything realistic for a national politician, and far beyond anything felt by Clinton or Obama… But in terms of realistic candidates, it is shockingly great that the two front runners are beyond the pale of what is expected from a population living under this contrived umbrella of racial and sexual bias that one expects to permeate our national dialogue… But, aside from the vast amount of political experience held by Clinton (which I can handily see how it an be perceived as both a positive and negative aspect), I honestly don’t know how any woman, republicrat, independent or otherwise, could rightfully do anything but vote for Hillary Clinton. Yes, Obama is a man of high ideals and great charisma and could be a breath of fresh air and, quite possibly, help to break down the facade of lies that is the concept of “race”, and yes may drag us even quicker out of that facade of greed that is the Iraq situation… But he is yet another confident and persuasive male politician in a stream of a quarter of a millennium of American presidential candidates.

Hillary Clinton winning the presidential election would be (bar none, I think) the greatest event in the cause of equality for women since Sufferage and, in fact, would be the culmination of all of the great struggle that was Sufferage and the work leading up to it. For any woman to not vote for Hillary, regardless of ones personal feelings about her or ones political beliefs, would seem to me to be a denial of the suffering, discrimination and marginalization that has been forced upon women in American history, and of their relegation to the sidelines the history of national and social dialog.

What I also view harshly is that, while Hillary is ahead in the battle for the Democratic Nomination, the media are treating her as if she is behind and is struggling to catch up… It seems to me that to have a woman as the front-runner (by however a small margin) for the white house should be something to be applauded and honored by all women, instead of being treated as if she’s barely holding on. I mean, sure Obama is gaining on her but it is unfair (and sexist) for the media to be writing her off as if she’s a has-been when she is actually in the lead. Plus, she does stand for (at least currently) some very good things. She has been one of the most vocal proponents of health care reform and she does claim that she is for the withdrawal (I think she said “in 60 days” on 60 Minutes) of our Iraq Invasion forces. Neither one of these will ever be done to my satisfaction, but she does publicly support the right ideals.

A music scene where there are thousands and thousand of bands from scores of countries, no major labels involved and a fairly small fan-base who tend to share a distaste towards anything that gets too popular, leads to a deafening variety of music… Styles, bands, languages… There is so much going on in that genre that it’ almost too much. I think about it after spending too much time browsing around at last-fm. One thing that I like to do is look at the different Groups that one can join to see what bands the group members are listening to. What always strikes me is that I seem to come across three types of groups. The biggest one is where the band listened to by the most members in the last week is always “Radiohead”. This seems to be regardless of the attempted musical focus of the group. It just seems that everyone out there listens to Radiohead. But then there are the second group, sadly the common style for people interested in Vinyl collecting, where the top two bands listened to always seem to be Bob Dylan and The Beatles. I am always relieved to check out the Black Metal Groups where, when you go to their playlists, it seems that no one there listens to any of those bands. Frequently, there is such a wide range of bands listened to on those groups that I haven’t even heard of more than half of them. The whole notion of Pop music, especially national or international, seems so dull. I mean sure, there are bands that are good enough with a widely appealing sound who have worked hard enough to deserve widespread listening and recognition, but it seems like most music listener’s never seem to even look beyond top-40 or what their friends are listening to, and with the vast variety of music out there in the world, it just seems sad.

Since we’re on the subject of music, I happened to glimpse a bit of the Grammy’s tonight. Something that I haven’t done for many, many years. It seems very odd that they spend so little time actually televising the awards. It’s one crappy overblown “music” production after another. Then the occasional award being given to a bunch of dull music. And while I have to give props to Aretha Franklin, they needn’t have played her gospel piece, or they at least could have made it a bit shorter… But the whole concept is lost on me. I mean, what does it really mean to call one album “the best rock album of the year”? Is it the one that the people who voted listened to the most? The one that will have the most influence on future music? The one that had the most ground-breaking style? The most pleasant sounding one? The one with the songs that will get stuck in your head the most? The one that the most work went into? It’s all very strange.

Tonight we were suprised to recieve The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. I had long wanted to see this, being a fan of Tommy Lee Jones (though not always of his role selection), but I had forgot that I had queued it. Strangely enough, we just sat right down and watched it! I really liked it alot. Tommy is Pete, a cowboy about a Texas border town who befriends a Mexican cowboy looking for work. Of course, this fellow, Melquiades Estrada, meets with a sad fate and it is up to old Pete to try and make things right by giving him the burial that he would have wanted.

Of course, Pete’s way ends up getting him pursued by the sheriff and the border patrol. And there is all sorts of gun fire and bad tempers. It’s is a good film, a quiet film, so the pursuit isn’t one of those dumb Hollywood things with cars racing around and sirens blaring, instead it’s mainly horses riding through big scenery in Texas and Mexico. There is lots of scenery (Mexico, by the way, looks much nicer than Texas, and seems to be just a better place), though the dead still need tending to wherever they are.

There is some good casting: everyone does good here. Tommy has a great character, played in a very subtle, yet powerful fashion, and Dwight Yoakam as the local Sheriff is a scene stealer, and, of course, Barry Pepper is unpleasantly great as the Border Patrolman who gets dragged out on the journey that is bound to change his life..

I also started watching Heaven’s Gate. For years I have only known it as being one of the biggest flops ofall-time, but I hadn’t known anything else about. So naturally I thought I should give it a shot. My impressions from a partial viewing? Well, though they made a mis-step with the beginning (spending the first twenty minutes covering two speeches and a dance from a nineteenth century Harvard graduation celebration is not a way to get folks involved with what is going on), but I still don’t think it is all that bad a movie. It sure gets off to a slow start, but then Kris Kristofferson ends up out west, as a good guy in a county where the businessmen (led by Sam Waterson) have decided to put death warrants out on the local European immigrants who are farming the area. The hire a gang to carry out these warrants (lead by Christopher Walken) and bad things are in the air and Kris is there to try and stave it off. Sadly, I was to about the halfway mark here (about 2 hours in) and I’ve been waffling on finishing it. And I don’t think I will. But, if you are up for a slow, four hour movie serious “western”, give it a shot.

Feeling that Hitchcock feeling, we finally got around to watching Dial M for Murder. I’m always surprised at how many Hitchcock films I have yet to see, and though I think I’d seen some of this on TV when I was young, it was a welcome experience to watch the movie. A great story of infidelity, a well set-up murder and plans gone wrong, quite wrong. Ray Milland is perfectly gentlemanly as Mr Wendice, who “enlists” the help of an old college classmate (played by Anthony Dawson of Dr. No) to murder his two-timing wife, Grace Kelly, who is both wealthy and who also had the misfortune to receive a letter from her lover. A lover who end up finding even more ways to make himself into a nuisance for Mr Wendice. When the plan goes wrong, Mr Wendice must use his wits to cover up his nefarious plot… Will he overlook anything or will his failed plot be successful beyond his wildest dreams? And what does Chief Inspector Hubbard really believe? The plot is quite clever and everyone is quite charmingly decent. The film does start off pretty slowly, but then it really picks up and becomes a great thriller with a great dramatic feeling. As the playwright, Frederick Knott, wrote the screenplay, so it still feels much like a play, with a small cast and taking place almost entirely in the two rooms of the Wendice’s apartment.

On the other hand, maybe if you see a marquee (ok, a dvd box) listing Ed Gein, Michael Berryman and Kane Hodder, you might think that for whatever its weaknesses, the viewing will be worth the hour and a half. Well, in the case of Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield, you’d be wrong. Sorely wrong. This movie is terrible! The dull and bumbling story follows some dull, bumbling young sheriff deputy as he wanders around feeling concerned about missing people, and telling his wife and girlfriend to be careful. On top of that, the movie is supposed to be in the 1950’s, but all they do to instill that feeling is to use period cars, the clothes are all wrong (the police uniforms are closer in style to CHiPS than to the Andy Griffith Show), the most unconvincing period setup… It’s bad. The acting is terrible, and the plot is filled his historical inaccuracies. But worst of all, Hodder’s portrayal of Gein seems to have no similarity (except for biographical details) with Gein. He’s a lumbering, blood spattered grump who creeps everyone out. Movies “based on” Ed Gein are a dime a dozen and of varying degrees of similarity to his story (putting Anthony Perkins into the house of the 1974 Chainsaw would probably be the most accurate version), but if you actually give the character the same name and time and place as the real guy, you kind of need to represent that person somewhat accurately, or it just looks like you don’t know what you’re doing.

Yep, it’s been quiet around here. We’ve been going through sick spells and haven’t even been watching much for movies, but a while back, we did watch one of my old standbys. After finally getting something more watchable than the VHS copy I’ve had for the last 18 years, it was time to have my hundredth or so (probably more) take of one of the best music documentaries out there, Decline of Western Civilization: The Metal Years. I know, yes, it is all about the Sunset Strip Glam Scene of the late 80’s which, well, sucks by any standard, now or then. But the interviews are great and that is where it really gets fun!

what the? dude…

There are plenty of live “performances” of the sunset strip bands and interviews with the band members and with rather lame “metalheads” and scenesters, but Spheeris mixes in some great interview scenes with “metal” musicians who actually had some success. The contrast between the “once young and arrogant, now old and wise” and the “still young and arrogant” is a lot of fun. These young bands (especially the terrifying London, Odin and Lizzie Borden) are so lame that it’s almost unbelievable (well, Faster Pussycat are fine, if you are into that GnR thing and, back in the day, I actually ended up buying an album by the lamely named Seduce, based on the song they play here, “Crash Landing”), the endless interviews of these guys saying “oh, I’m going to be rich and famous, there’s no question” are quite entertaining (and some time in the last few years, I did see one of these guys on TV… dressed in a towel… on Cops). The best bits are with Ozzy, Lemmy, Joe Perry and (especially) Chris Holmes, they are standout’s and Ozzy and Holmes are, really, unforgettable… All their tales of ups and downs and debauchery are a kick. If you can stand the terrible fashions and hair-don’ts of this late 80’s scene (and most of the music is pretty weak), it’s a lot of fun.

an early Osborne’s preview

ok, so there are some real metal fans here…

man. “drink like a beast” is more like it…

Then when the movie is winding down… Megadeth appear and play “In my Darkest Hour”, and it’s not really fair. After watching these guys dressed like tacky valley girls strut around for an hour bragging about how great they are, Megadeth suddenly seem like the best band in the world. They have attitudes and music that just plain blow away everything you’ve just sat through.

On a much different note, thanks to F-dog and family, we actually got to head out on our own, with no little Elinor in tow. We opted to go to a movie theater and watch a movie, since it had been a long time since we’d be able to do something like that. Of course, that led to the standard, difference of opinion as to what to go to, but I agreed to go to Atonement, which I wasn’t looking forward to. What I was looking forward to was trying out the St Johns Theater. I am very glad that you can go to a nice, old movie theater and see current movies, it is so much better than going to those gosh-awful multiplex/chain nightmares. Anyway, so it was nice to go there (even if we did show up for the showing before they serve beer), but what was also quite nice was the movie. I must say that I really liked Atonement. A great and touching story, beautifully shot, epic in scene and scope, well-acted and a very, very nicely made production. Atonement is the story of a little lie told by a little girl and the effects it has on the lives around her as the years progress, and how the effects come back home to haunt her. It has rich people, poor people, war, prison, death and all that good stuff, all very well done… It is sad and tragic and just great. I thought that the scenes around the evacuation at Dunkirk were really top-notch.

As I keep reminding myself, the 70’s was the best era of American films, and it was ripe with good police dramas. I watched another of these great classics, again one that I probably hadn’t seen since watching it on TV as a kid, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. It’s got a lot going for it: Robert Shaw, Walter Matthau, a great title, and a theme song during the opening credits that is a superb dramatic little number!

Like a lot of these movies, Pelham is more drama than action, but such good drama. On a busy day in Manhattan, a group of machine gun wielding men hijack a 6 train between 28th and 23rd and hold the passengers hostage. They seem to be a generally ruthless bunch of fellows, with the always impeccable Robert Shaw as Mister Blue, the leader, and Hector Elizondo as the tempestuous mafia dropout, Mister Gray, who is looking for any excuse to let loose. The drama (mainly taking place in the train car and the Transit Authority office), gets high as deadlines loom, people lose their patience and some of the police are of the “shoot first” mentality. Shaw never once loses his cool as he bargains with Walter “I’m trying to keep people safe” Matthau as he tries to keep his cool against the pressure applied by Dick “I’m just trying to run a train” O’Neill at the next desk who wants nothing but to get his trains running again.

It’s just a great 70’s drama, Shaw and Matthau, while they seem an odd pairing as opponents are both very good and the clash in their acting styles works pretty well to show a sharp difference in the minds of the characters, the “real life” 1970’s production values really make this movie work and, again, bring it a feeling of genuineness that is lacking in today’s Hollywood fare and, of course, it has more of that great macho dialog! Great fun.

I finally watched 1946’s The Postman Always Rings Twice is another timeless American story… One thing that never changes is that you know that if you mix a 20-something hottie and her “putzy and well-meaning” 50-something husband in with a 30-something tough guy wanderer… Well there is going to be some trouble! And in The Postman Always Rings Twice, oh, there is trouble a plenty! A classic film noir with plotting, lying, theft, murder, lust, betrayals and back-stabbings, everyone is out for themselves and it doesn’t turn out well for any of them! When John Garfield wanders up to the roadside cafe that Lana Turner has with her husband, passions and greed quickly warp the surface of their reality. It’s great watching them do everything that they shouldn’t and keep getting themselves back in trouble, right when it seems that they’ve maybe pulled clear. Everybody pays in this one.

What do you get if you sick an overly large clan of vampires against a defenseless town with no hope of assistance or escape? Well, if it takes place in the cold, in a town that is dark for a month straight, you get 30 Days of Night. Though the way the movie flows it seems more like three days of night, which is probably all that our heroes would be able to survive in a situation like this anyway.

So maybe it’s a little light on the likeliness, but I thought that 30 Days of Night had a fun looking preview so I’d tried once before, but it just seemed too bad to get more than 10 minutes into. Last night though, wanting something brainless and filled with bloody action, I finally made it through. The story of Barrow, Alaska during the month that the sun spends below the horizon. This year, strange things start happening after the people that can’t take it leave and the few remaining folks prepare for a cold dark month. Dogs being killed, vandalism, and then when a creepy drifter with strange yellow teeth, a rather forward bad manner and a hillbilly drawl shows up and gets arrested… You have to start wondering, especially when all the power goes off and he gives them the old “here they are, you’re all dead” speech.

The young sheriff and his ex-girlfriend decide to protect a ragtag band of townspeople, hiding out while the rest of the town is slaughtered, hoping to avoid the baddies for a month(?!). This is their tale of attempted survival. It’s pretty standard fare for modern horror movies. A hackneyed script, nice environment (that is, if you like horror movies in the dark and frozen) and, in fact, in one scene the overhead shots of the town bear a striking resemblance to the original Postal video game… Hmm… Postal?

postalize me

Their chances seem unlikely as they are up against a philosophy spouting Bolshevik-era vampire leading a group of goths with all the great vampire powers of leaping tall buildings, gross yellow teeth, viciousness to people’s necks and a great resistance to gunfire. Lord knows where these people have come from, but they aren’t planning on leaving anything behind here. There are some good bits: I like the baddies alright (and while their lines are as hokey as the townsfolk, at least they’re a bit philosophical), there are also heads blowing up, death by heavy machinery, bear traps, folks being cut in two, folks being driven over, and lots of gross and bloody fanged maws. So while it wasn’t particularly good (and wasn’t scary at all) it was certainly watchable, and fun to watch… The baddies are nearly indestructible but then an odd twist occurs and we come to the last couple of scenes. The sudden switch from “everyone is doomed” to a highly unlikley “feel good” ending, leaves a lame taste in my mouth.

We also watched Muriel’s Wedding. A charming and quirky little story of a girl realizing that something (everything) is missing from her life so she steals some money and runs off to the big city to find her future. She is obsessed with getting married (not even finding the right person, just getting married) and all of her missteps are very charming. If you like this sort of thing, it’s a fun little movie.

No, I’m not going to start reviewing Hank Williams, Jr albums… Instead, I watched another Herschell Gordon Lewis film, 2000 Maniacs! It’s another fun classic, intended in a more humorous vein then the previous years Blood Feast, but still a clever film and a truly classic and American take on Brigadoon! I admit that I don’t know where they came up with 2,000 of them, but this classic Friedman/Lewis feature does have enough good old boy fun for for a whole town!

Due to some road-sign shenanigans, two cars of Yankees get sidetracked into the southern town of Pleasant Valley, and lucky for them! Good things are brewing in Pleasant Valley, see they are having a Centennial and they need some guests of honor to make it right, Yankee guests of honor, for their celebration and bbq…

They do receive a grand welcome, complete with friendly southerners, a welcoming mayor, badly stereotyped hicks, an awesome and terribly catchy theme song by “Chuck Scott and the Pleasant Valley Boys” and lots and lots of flag waving (Confederate flag waving, that is), but there is more in store for these strangers. What these Yankees guests don’t realize is that this isn’t the centennial of the towns founding… something terrible happened here a hundred years back, in April 1865.

Once the guests get settled in, they begin to lose each other amidst the festivities, and who can blame them, with all the new ladies and gents to meet, a rock drop contest, a barrel roll (like no other!) and a big BBQ, who could resist taking advantage of this good old time southern hospitality. Of course, in this case, it’s about the last hospitality that these poor fool Yankees will know, because a hundred years back, Pleasant Valley was destroyed by Union soldiers! And, in a fury of good-natured yet foul-deeded vengeance, some terrible and fun tricks are in store for these poor Yankees! But all may not be lost, for William Kerwin (from Blood Feast) has luckily hitched a ride to help them out! This fun little film has some great and crazy gore scenes, more great dialogue and all sorts of fun characters!

And then, what do you get if you spend a year with cameras trained on the Golden Gate bridge? Seemingly you get unpleasant footage of two dozen people jumping to their deaths. You also get, The Bridge. An un-narrated documentary filled with nothing but film of the bridge, of people on the bridge and film of people jumping off the bridge! There are also interviews with their loved ones and an interview with one of those, oh so rare survivors (something like 2% survive the jump). Watching people wander around on the bridge and then jump is, to say the least, a bit unnerving, or disturbing, and while I didn’t find the film to be as controversial or disgusting or whatever critics say, I felt like it certainly did inspire some internal feelings around the subject of watching people die, intentionally die. Even though these people selected a very public location for this final event of theirs, I couldn’t help but feel intrusive, as if it is something that shouldn’t be witnessed. I also could have done without witnessing the “they’re in a better place” stuff. I know that people tell themselves that to feel better, but to me it really weakens the seriousness of what is going on here. But the movie is quite interesting to watch, if you are up for it… And there are some really nice shots of the bridge and its locale.

Since we were on the subject, we tried to watch American Psycho 2. Man… It certainly takes some notions from American Psycho: references to Pat Bateman, narration, premeditated killings… But it loses everything there. The terrible screenplay is dull and boring from beginning to end, one of those that is so predictable that you don’t even need to predict it, it’s just blatantly set up right off the bat like “these people are going to be killed by this person”. Sadly, the person in question is no Christian bale, instead it is the actress who plays the lame girl on “That 70’s show”, who really isn’t too convincing here, playing a college behavioral sciences student who is killing all the other “top” students in her class to ensure that she gets to be the teachers assistant next semester. Why is she so intent, so um, ruthless? Because when she was a pre-teen, she went to Pat Bateman’s apartment with her babysitter where Pat tied them up and killed her babysitter, luckily, the girl got lose and killed Pat. Yes, you heard me, the American Psycho gets offed by a 12 year old! Once it gets past that silly beginning, it lacks all of the “possible social message” of American Psycho, it lacks all of the mystery as to what is really happening, and the narration in this comes across more just like boring narration, rather than the involving internal dialogue of the first movie. It’s also possibly the first movie about a serial killer that has absolutely zero gore scenes.

Basically American Psycho 2 is just a lame after-school special about a serial killer that invoked the AP name to attempt to get some cred which, as I like to point out, causes its “credibility of mediocrity” to sink even lower then it normally would be. It has a twist at the end (yeah..) that would seem a little more twisty if it wasn’t so blatently set-up. This movie has absolutely nothing to recommended it. It’s dull, uninteresting, not violent, meaningless and not even shot in an enticing fashion. It would have the one saving grace of casting Bill Shatner as the Professor, but he is totally wasted in this lame film.