Lord of all fever and plague

Last week I was pretty sick. I had the time to do a few constructive things while enjoying the convenience of actually being able to call into work. It is a luxury I have not been able to exploit for many years due to lack of decent income and hatred of doctors that distribute thy holy work excuse. Now I come to a crossroad where my job is not the be all/end all definition of my existence and I can afford the time off (and a doctor visit). The sickness held me a victim to my own delusions and opened the door to bizarre synchronicities. Being a fan and follower of Discordianism I have eaten this strange situationism up with the proverbial spoon (mmmm.... wordy). Without being too specific, during by beloved call in days I was able to get into contact with a few old friends through strange circumstances and events.

I have ended up listening to a lot of Broadcast, David Cross comedy and discovering Mr. Show. All very productive and enlightening. I also had the opportunity to read 4 trade paper backs of the comic series Y: The Last Man about an interesting young man who discovers himself to be the last living male mammal on the planet along with his monkey Ampersand. The art and the story are magnificent and highly creative. I must read more!

Also, I have forgotten to mention The Fountain. I read the graphic novel a few weeks ago out of anticipation for the new Darren Aronofsky film. The book is very nice, yet I almost found it to be rushed. I was able to devour it in two sittings. It follows the parallel story of three characters searching for the fountain of youth in the name of love during 3 different time periods: past, present and future. After seeing the trailer and reading the book I am very excited for this movie to come out. Darren worked very hard to manifest this story in all of its mediums.

new horror

I have found myself making a lot of posts lately on other blogs about the watered down nature of new horror. I really haven't focused on this with my own blog. This is really a shame because I have a lot to say on the matter.

First, there is the the remake issue. At first I saw this as a harmless novelty. I found no harm in young directors reinterpreting classic horror movies. I thought maybe they would bring more attention to the classics. Unfortunately, the trend continued. It continued to such a level that it became overwhelming. Now, almost every week I hear about a new remake project coming into light. I suppose I wouldn't have a problem with this if the remakes were good, and, unlike my desire of bringing the classics into the light, ended up pushing the original films into the shadows. I hate turning on my television and seeing movies listed like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead only to find out they are exclusively showing the new remake. Since these new movies have been released I have yet to see the originals on cable. Not that they were frequently played prior to the remakes, it is still horrible to get your expectations up only to find these sub-par movies playing regularly. That is only a minor inconvenience for me though, because I have the movies I want on DVD if the craving gets to overwhelming. The problem really is that the younger audience who has not seen the originals are being exposed to these new movies without being given the opportunity to see the original movie with the same ease. I have problems with all of the remakes I have seen so far, but my most hated has to be the Texas Chainsaw remake. I have really tried to forget this remake... but really, it was so bad. Every good element of the original movie was neglected in favor of doing a character profile of uninteresting young actors in a pseudo-gore film. The original movie was able to achieve cinematic perfection that sent chills down your spine without the use of gratuitous gore. Don't get me wrong, I love gore, but when you have to rely on it to make your film interesting, you are in serious trouble. That goes double if your movie is a remake. I hate to say it, but I think Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses ended up accidentally being a better remake of Texas Chainsaw than this movie ever could have been. You can see that Rob at least has love and passion for the genre.

Now I would like to discuss this new wave of reality torture films. I have to say when I first saw the trailer for Saw my mouth hit the ground. I thought, wow, an uncompromising horror film that is full of new original terror techniques. I was very excited. Tammy and I went to see it on Halloween and we were filled with anticipation. As the movie went on I was gradually becoming more and more disappointed with the lame ass acting that was continuously coming from every corner. The pain and originality of every scene was becoming over shadowed by the discomfort of the acting. Danny Glover's overacting alone was enough to make this movie a bad joke. Then there was Hostel. I thought that maybe since Quentin Tarantino was producing it, the movie may have some value. How wrong I was. For a while I thought I had mistakenly ended up in a theater showing a new National Lampoon's movie, but patience brought me to some gore. At this point it was too little, too late. These horrible uninteresting characters should have all died early in the movie to save us all some grief. And a hint to the writter/director, if you want to make a revenge film at least let us care about the character who is getting their retribution. After seeing movies like those of the Guinea Pig series and August Underground, films like Saw and Hostel are like watching Girls Gone Wild when there is free porn everywhere. It is just a half ass approach that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I am truly embarrassed to have contributed to their box office gross.

Hollywood wants to know why the box office is doing so bad. They want to blame downloading and piracy for the low attendance, but in essence the movies they are producing are lacking style, form and originality in favor of the hot new actors, bastardized remakes and endless pop culture references to try to play on the audiences sense of nostalgia. Don't revisit the past - create a new better future. There are good horror films out there that aren't getting the distribution they deserve. High Tension, now that was nice. While not the most original movie I have seen, it had the feel and essence of a true horror movie. I don't want to give a lot about this movie away because I really think it is worth watching for any horror fan, but it plays on formula and taboos just enough not to sicken the viewer with over saturation. Another good horror film that I have seen recently is Night Watch. Hopefully this movie will end up getting a wider theatrical release then High Tension, but I doubt it. The studios only want to spread crap on the screens. Night Watch is a nice fresh look at the fantasy horror genre focusing on the classic battle between good vs. evil, while adding a nice humanistic spin to the story. Both movies have, in my opinion, good solid acting. Maybe it is because I have not been over saturated with the presence of these actors in film and other forms of media. That is enough of my rant for now. I always have more to say about the subject because I love horror. I just hate seeing the genre being treated so badly.

technorati tags: horror

Recently I saw a really good trailer for Silent Hill. From what I have seen it looks like it will capture the tone and story of the video game really well (hopefully more so than Resident Evil). If only Sonic Youth was doing the score. I remember the first Silent Hill game being loaded with strange references to the band... Speaking of music I found a really cool project while exploring iTunes last night. The name is Dabrye and it is some of the nicest glitch/trip-hop music I have heard in a while. Well, that isn't true, I hear a lot of good new music frequently, but I still highly recommend checking out their stuff at iTunes anyway. It is very rhythmic and hypnotic.

The Mirrormask of Vendetta

Tonight Tammy and I watched the long awaited MirrorMask. Living in an evil place like we do we have been unable to see this movie until now. We had promises from a local theatre and even a "scheduled" Theatrical Release Date from this local establishment, but it never showed. This independent theatre had a good history with showing quality films and giving regular midnight showings, but ended up neglecting two good recent opportunities. They also didn't show Thumbsucker which has me worried they have neglected to renew a contract with Sony Pictures Classic.
Nevertheless, this movie has been well worth waiting for. It is the story of a protagonist named Helena, who works in a Circus with her family, to journey through her images and dreams to find the enigmatic MirrorMask. I found the story to be a fantastic parable reflecting the journey through self identity and handling crisis. The trials and tribulations of the journey are very identifiable being a long time fan of the creative work of both writer Neil Gaiman and Director/designer Dave McKean. The film was an odyssey to the land of myths and images presented by two of the most prominent, innovative storytellers of the modern comic era. I feel that it would be safe to say that if you were ever a fan of the Sandman comic series from Vertigo or any of the works of Neil Gaiman you would definitely, or at the very least appreciate, if not absolutely love, MirrorMask. I find it difficult to find anything wrong with this modern masterpiece aside from the smallest detail. While a small detail, like the score could destroy other movies, somehow MirrorMask stands above this problem. While I do not hate said score, and some will probably disagree, I feel that the horns and freeform jazz influence was a bit to much for an already overwhelming visual feast. I think there are two options that were not achieved with the score as it was. First, it could have been minimized to bring a greater focus onto the images and story at hand (not to mention the very strong voice and effect tracks that were magnificent). By minimized I just mean removing the horns. The second option would be to bring the story together with an orgasmic, symbiotic score that blends the visual exploration with a reality distorting analysis into sonic ecstasy... unfortunately, anything that awe-inspiring was sorely lacking. In the movies defense, this is only my opinion and other may disagree, finding the music to fit the movie like a well tailored glove. Believe me when I say that the score does not hurt the viewing pleasure of this movie enough to neglect seeing it. Now, I have to say it leaves a great deal of expectations from the Vertigo story V for Vendetta. While MirrorMask is not directly related to Vertigo comics, it's creators have a long standing history with the D.C. owned company. After showing how disastrous a Vertigo story can be when translated to film by a big by a major studio with Constantine, MirrorMask shows that sometimes good work, by intelligent artists can still slip through the cracks. It is unfair to base expectations of a major studio blockbuster on a limited release like MirrorMask, especially when there wasn't a preconceived story that is already familiar to the viewers. Still, my hope is there, and I have given the segue to discuss what may now be my favorite graphic novel since Arkham Asylum (illustrated by the great Dave McKean). Though it was written in the 1980's V for Vendetta is a timeless comic series that explores a world where everyone is watched and controlled by an evil Big Brother like entity, until it is challenged by a masked renegade that has his own agenda. Another high recommendation, but I am in fear of how it translates to the screen.

Do not attempt to adjust your computer screen...

Do not attempt to adjust your computer screen...
Just a really cool site I found. More to come soon...

An Idiot's Guide to Dreaming

An Idiot's Guide to Dreaming
This is just an amazing site. I am surprised I never ran across it in my Coil searches on the net.

just a little try

Wow! I am blogging from my browser in Flock. This new browser looks really cool, and it has a blog command built right in to the toolbar. Once the blog pop-up screen appears you have most of the same options you do from the post blog section on Blogger's website. I don't know how it works with other blogging online tools, but it detected Blogger and my settings very quickly. It also has the add favorites command built into the location bar along with the new universal feed sign for rss, atom and more. I personally prefer this set up over Safari's because it is more visually striking and more practical for my comfort. Also the Goggle search feature from Safari has been improved as well. The search in Flock has Yahoo, Google, Amazon.com, Ebay, Technorati, Wikipedia, and wink already built, but it also allows you add from a large list of other engines. I not done much surfing with Flock yet, but so far I am really impressed with the features. I am finding new ones constantly and really loving them. I am writing this on my laptop, but I can't wait to use this browser with a good mouse.

Coil Interview

I was just going through some of my magazines the other day and ran across a Coil interview in bOINGbOING. I really used to love the magazine. The website is a good replacement since the print version went away. I contacted Mark Frauenfelder regarding reprinting the interview on my blog the other day, and he informed me the interviewer Jessica Wing had passed away last year. He has given permission to reprint the article, and I would like to thank him and offer my condolences for the loss of a good friend.

Lappy

It has been a while since the last post. I was really busy last week with a lot of closing shifts at work and the purchase of an iBook. The iBook was a mutual Anniversary gift between Tammy and myself. We had to get acquainted with OS 10.4.4 which was fun and cool. I hope to get Tiger installed on my old iMac soon, but they network fine for now so I am not to worried. I got a case for the laptop today, as well as a new wireless G router from D-Link. I had a tough time installing it because I couldn't get to the web address to configure the user data. It is working well now, so the trouble is worth it. The iMacs haven't seen much improvement because they are 802.11b, but the laptop with 802.11g is much faster on the net now. Though this post is still on my desktop I am sure I will be doing a lot of posting from the iBook in the future. I love the concept of being able to post from anywhere.

postcards

I just wanted to take time to put up the postcards Sleazy sent me with the ANS prints. I really like the postcard from Berlin. I just now got to hear a sample of "The Threshold Houseboy Choir" material and it is very impressive. I am going to try to order the compilation his work appeared on this week.

new mini podcast

I have just put together another sample of my Informational Terrorism Transmissions material. Most of it is old work from Isolationist Soundscapes, but the last two tracks are relativly new. The last track is a re-worked version of my first sound design incorporating the Schumann Resonance.

time is not on my side

Today was a good day! I got a package in the mail from Sleazy from Coil. In the package were prints from the ANS boxed set and a few interesting signed postcards. I have to go to work early today so I have not had a chance to scan anything in yet, but I will be posting images of what I got. I still have not had an opportunity to review any of the material I have received within the past few months, but hopefully I will have some time to do it this week.

Us

Here is a nifty little American Gothic-esqe photo of us from a couple of years ago. I just wanted to post it for our anniverary... I thought it might be nice :)

time trials

Today is mine and Tammy's 8th Anniversary. Being married to her has been the greatest thing ever. I never get tired of spending each and every available waking hour with her. She is my best friend, and has always been unbelievably supportive through my crazy mood swings and freak outs. We are hoping to get a new laptop this weekend for each other as a mutual present. I am so excited. We can make music anywhere! I call this post time trials because I have spent the last week working on my typing. It has been fun and I am progressing nicely. I have been unable to spend anytime with my web design or music this week because any free moment I have had I have been using typing tutors to help increase my speed. I'll be up to 60 wpm in no time.

Those with ears to hear, let them hear!

Okay, so Congress decide not to make Christmas merry and continue the Patriot Act for a few more months. I guess that means it is time to start writing to Congress. Instead of focusing on the bad I should probably focus on the good. Christmas was very rewarding this year. I was happy with just about everything I got, with some crazy/confusing exceptions, this year. Thankfully, it was mostly media, yet I was very happy with most of the non-media gifts. Tammy and I both got a lot of over due cookware. It felt good to throw away all the scratched up Wal-Mart cookware we had taking up space and burning our food. I finally have a copy of Scarface to call my own so I don't have to watch the crappy TV edited version. I also got Spinal Tap which falls into the same TV edit category. I have so many new cool things it would take forever to play, watch, read, and then give reviews of all of them so I will just do them as time allows me to. On a special non-gift note I did get the new Tool DVD's for Schism and Parabola from Amazon the other day. I have yet to listen to the Lustmord remixes on the DVD's or listen to the commentaries, but I have watched the videos. While I am thrilled to have these two music videos I have longed to see again for so long, I have to say I am disappointed they are not mixed in 5.1 or 6.1 surround sound. After the DVD boxed set they released before I would expect any following DVD's to at least have 5.1 sound, but they do not. The videos are still gorgeous and like I said before, I am still very happy to have them. I guess it is time to go and indulge...

the wicker man

I have a strange love hate relationship with the USPS and UPS. These companies, being the most common sources of deliveries for mine and most other peoples packages, have a tendency to let me down quite often. I love to receive packages. It is like having Christmas year round when I receive something nice I have ordered for myself or Tammy. The problem is my mail carrier has been known to some rather negligent things with our packages if we are not home. We have found packages propped up against the door and our mailbox, which is actually one of the most considerate acts this particular carrier has performed. Stranger things happen when we are home. I have waited all day for packages, tracking them on the internet while also watching TV or something else near the front door, only to discover "delivery attempted" on the USPS web site. I look outside... all the mailbox flags are down. I check my mailbox... junk mail. No attempted delivery slip. I check my door... no slip. I was downstairs all day and I did not hear a single knock or ring on the doorbell. I go the post office and they ask to see my slip and I tell them I do not have one. I have to explain that I tracked the package on the net and could not find a slip for attempted delivery. They search and end up finding said packages. On a couple of instances they talk to me about the carrier telling me this happens with her all the time. Over time I have come to realize what happens. While lying in bed I have been awakened by a cars relentless honking outside my window only to look outside and see the carrier driving away from my apartment. I throw some clothes on quickly and run downstairs and out my door to chase the vehicle down the street. When she stops she hand me a package. I am so sleepy and groggy (and barefooted) that a just yank the package out of her hand and run back home instead of yelling at her as I would love to do. I cannot believe a carrier will sit in a car and honk a horn instead of knocking on a door or ringing a bell. I suppose that is why I missed my other packages. Instead of listening for a doorbell or a knock on my door I should have been listening for a car horn to honk in my large residential community. And that is just USPS.
There is also the ever elusive UPS delivery people. One night Tammy came home at two cases of Jolt in a cardboard box sitting outside our door soaked in the rain. She tells the story better, but needless to say there was cardboard and packing styrofoam all over the driveway and road. It is funny, which ever shift I work UPS makes sure to deliver (or attempt) my packages on the other shift. I thought when I went to night shift recently that I would be able to eliminate missing a lot of my packages. Unfortunately, UPS has decide to start delivering my packages after 5pm. I used to break my neck at work to try to be home by 1pm, the time I usually missed my packages, only to find an attempted delivery slip saying they had been there at 12:30pm. I know this all sounds bitter and exaggerated, but I have missed two packages this week. I have a collection of UPS delivery slips and no present to give my wife for Christmas. I wrote little messages on the slips and put them back on the door. They were nice polite messages asking to leave the packages with neighbors, but alas, the messages were ignored and accompanied by new slips with lovely messages like "Final attempt". Enough of the rant, I need to get ready to go to my in-laws house for Christmas, but I have many great Christmas Eve stories to relay from last night that I will get to later.

Hark, Hark, Harkened he.

Fighting sickness... hearing news of firings at work... The Christmas season, what a great time of year! I have to say one of the greatest things I have heard over the past few days is the failure to extend the Patriot Act. The House is going to try to get it passed by December 31st (when it expires), but Congress seems to be standing firmly against it. Please Congress, make our holiday season bright. Bring back Civil Liberties. In the mean time I have music to make, CD covers to design, a website to build, and oh, look at the time.... off to work I go.

Motoring

Endlessly frustrating... Bad work week, still haven't got my copy of Ape of Naples from Coil, having a hard time with CSS, waiting for ordered Christmas gifts from an unreliable postal carrier... uhh! On the positive side I have figured out how to host my website and my mp3s for easy linking with my .mac account. So now I can put up my first little podcast on this blog and continue to podcast using blogger. That is good. I will be so happy when the next few weeks are over. This week we are bombarded with large Christmas and graduation parties at work. Next week is Christmas and I really dread all the transporting of gifts and adjusting schedules and all that nonsense. I hate to be such a Scrooge, but I am just very frustrated at the moment. Hopefully, I will find some time in the next week to get some more stuff done. I am working on some more Informational Terrorism Transmissions promo material, but it is a long, hard journey.

Achingly Antagonistic

As my vacation slowly begins to dissolve into light melancholy dread I cannot seem to find any inspiration. Laziness is my guide and it's moving me steadily backwards. I have had days to write on here and to create sounds and images, but I cannot decide what to do. I feel blank and apathetic. Maybe it is the Christmas shopping... Maybe it is the exhaustion that comes from work. I just can't put my finger on it. I have been rejected this week by a couple little record companies, but I haven't really applied myself. First, I was considered to noisy and percussion heavy. I understand. My first release, Isolationist Soundscapes, is noisy, irritating, and primitively percussive. I do understand how that could be seen as to much for a mainly dark ambient company. What I do not like is being denied a chance by a dark noise company that did not even listen to my material. I sent a nice polite e-mail asking what format they would like a submission sent as. They asked what the music sounded like and I told them. They denied me without even listening. Am I trying to be denied? Is this a sign to myself to self publish? I am beginning to think so. I could easily put together a nice little press kit based on my 11 years of work and send it out to a multitude of diverse indy labels, but I haven't. I am thinking that my true intentions are out of reach and to demanding for most companies to deal with. I am wanting a very limited special art edition release of Isolationist Soundscapes. It is a primitive catalog of a very difficult time in my life. I feel to move forward I am almost obligated to release this album. I think my newer work would be more marketable and would fall into a category that would be less risky for a 'dark ambient' label to release, but without Soundscapes being out there (at least a little) I just can't progress. I think there is to much of me in it. I am thinking of just hand making and pressing an art edition and then just sending out my second release as a demo. If I do make a little record company I think I will just use my blog name. It would be nice and simple. I have been learning html so I could make my own little nifty website and everything. All that is really left to do is to get back to work and make it happen. I have pressing contacts I can use so I can make a fairly inexpensive art release. The only question now is how elaborate does one make an 11 year old work in progress? Next post: Informational Terrorism Transmissions vs. Intangible Spectrum

Over the past few days I haven't had much of a chance to post. I have discovered a wonderful band, though. Broadcast is one of the best sounding bands I have heard in a while. Creepy yet soothing.
I found an old CD of music Tammy and I made using MTV Music Generator. I loaded it into my computer and was pretty happy with what I heard. It was made from a tape that had almost no treble levels so when it was transferred to CD it sounded like dance music that was buried underground. When I loaded it in Live it took on a whole new life. I can already see the bass is going to be absurdly sub-sonic, but I was surprised to see that I could pull out a little treble from it with the right tweaking. I am going to be on vacation next week so hopefully I will be able to work with the material. I also hope to develop a podcast or two. I just need to learn a good way to broadcast it with Blogger.
I have also found a lot of photographs and Xerox manipulations that I created during the inception of Informational Terrorism Transmissions. The project was initially supposed to be a vast multimedia project based on music and a magazine. I released one issue (that really sucked) and gathered a second issue together, but most of the second, better, issue has become displaced. I had a finalized version that I ended up giving to a friend that moved to Europe, but unfortunately was stupid enough not to have a finished backup. It was to much for a budding young writer to handle. A 100 page magazine is a lot to deal with when you are doing it by yourself with little to no income. Hmm... Maybe if I can dig up... Well, really, who wants to read a 10 year old Namanax interview? Well someone might like the Brighter Death Now material. Time to start digging.