GQ and Klaus Kinski on Werner Herzog.

 

GQ has a short but cool profile of filmmaker, Werner Herzog. Herzog has recently finished a 3-D film about the oldest known paintings in Chauvet cave.
I read an interview with Klaus Kinski yesterday. It was from an old Fangoria magazine. I mean no disrespect, but we all know Kinski was pretty crazy. Anyway, here is what he said about Herzog:

Fangoria: One of your latest films, Fitzcarraldo is already something of a legend...
Kinski: Yeah, they made a legend out of it. It's strange to see how a legend grows.
Fangoria: How did this one grow?
Kinski: Werner Herzog invents his own legends to make himself look interesting. He was writing down notes the entire time he was shooting the film. He had a notebook with him, always. It took him longer to write his ledger than it did to film the movie. Every three minutes, he'd be off scribbling. He was printing tinier than the print you find in the Bible. Brave! You can print smaller than the Bible.
He would send these letters back to newspapers in Germany, like some explorer describing the conquest of the North Pole. "This morning, Kinski tempts me.... but I resist! I cannot give up!" That sort of shit. "I have the feeling that Kinski is terrified of being filmed!"
Of course I was terrified of being filmed! The cameraman didn't know anything about lighting and half the crew didn't understand the movie.

AND LATER

Fangoria: Did Herzog's behavior strike you as being particularly odd?
Kinski: No. Herzog's always been like that. He did some strange things when we were filming Aguirre 12 years ago. He wanted us to do suicidal things. But he didn't count on me. I wouldn't get trapped like the others.
We were supposed to go down the jungle rapids in a raft. The local natives were saying "You'll die! You can't do that!" Herzog dismissed them. He was in a motorboat. I was on the damned raft with over 40 pounds of armor on. If I had fallen into the water, I wouldn't have been able to swim. The raft ran into a tree. We were in water up to our waists. I started cutting my armor off. Herzog told me to stop. To keep it on. I yelled back "F*ck you!" He didn't care about me. He filmed the entire scene with me cursing at him and cutting off my armor. Later, he played that one scene in Germany before the movie opened. He was already creating legends years ago. Me? I think a movie, if it's good, will create its own legend once it opens.
Fangoria: Do you dislike Herzog?
Kinski: No. He's a highly talented guy. He does very good movies and he's not the sort of person who always talks in bullshit. He does many, many things right. But he's also sick. Obsessed. He wants to make history, not movies. Anyone who wants to make history is stupid.

Hahahh.
Kinski really got me thinking about Herzog as a storyteller vs. a filmmaker.
Herzog's film My Best Fiend, about his relationship with Kinski is a must-see for fans of either man. Herzog really lays into Kinski, in parts of the film. It is nice to hear a little from the other side, in the Fangoria interview. I'm sure the truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle.

When I read the first paragraph of the GQ piece, thinking of Kinski's quote, I had to laugh to myself:
"The daring German filmmaker Werner Herzog once walked a thousand miles to propose to a woman. He once plotted to firebomb his leading man's house and once ate his own shoe to square a bet. He once got shot in the stomach during a TV interview, then insisted on finishing. And despite it all, his latest adventure—a 3-D documentary about cave paintings—still sounds batshit crazy."

AND LATER
"The myth of his movies was compounded by the myth of Herzog himself; over time he became almost as famous for the stories of what happened during the making of his movies as for the movies themselves, particularly the two he made in the Peruvian Amazon, Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo. Fitzcarraldo took several years to complete and was beset by obstacles, and its on-screen story—the tale of an ambitious delusional man with a crazy dream to carry a ship from one river to another over a jungle-covered mountain—seemed to also become the story of its making. (Characteristically, Herzog decided that the best way to film a ship being moved over a mountain deep in the rain forest was to actually move a ship over a mountain deep in the rain forest, and film it.) From such stories, and from the intense and obsessive man Herzog seemed to be in the interviews he would give back then, the perception grew that he might genuinely be crazy."

(photo by Erinc Salor)

Charly Manson attacks cops.

 

AAA luchador, Charly Manson was arrested on April 24, 2011 for attacking two police officers.
The attack involved Manson and his friend, Adrian López Reyes, who was shot in the foot by one of the officers.

The charges are serious. Manson was denied bail and faces up to fifteen years in prison.
One officer is still in the hospital with a fractured skull. The second officer ended up with a broken nose and a serious neck injury.

(photo by Daniela Herrerías. Click on her name and check out her incredible lucha libre photos.)

Daily poster: Curucu, Beast of the Amazon.

Curucu, Beast of the Amazon.
Poster courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.
Great trailer.

Tuning Nest.

 

The Degenerate Art Ensemble has a show up at the Frye Art Museum. The show runs until June 19, 2011.

My 'ol buddy 'ol pal, Nik Weisend, has occupied one room of the museum with hanging pieces, that look like the forgotten hives of mythical creatures. The colors are natural and the shapes almost congruous, but different enough to demand your eyeballs. I imagine them smelling like musty, acidic, old comic books and that they are strong as a whole but wispy and weak at the edges. The protector of the pieces is unseen but its shadow can be seen on the wall, still, wating to ambush you.
Choral music whispers from each of the nests. The sound design is by Kunz.

The Stranger wrote:
"In another room at the Frye hangs the Tuning Nest, an eerie forest of eight brown pods that look like the dangling heads of ligneous aliens and emit low, entrancing tones. The pods (made from thousands of feet of paper and gallons of glue and beeswax, and tinted with persimmon tannin, rust, and pine soot) are wired to a broken trunk in the middle of the room (vertical, but with a raggedy gap in its middle) that is wired to a box full of electronics."
Get your body there ASAP.

(photographs by Bruce Tom.)

Pogo's Living Island.

Last weekd, Pogo released this wonderful H.R. Puffnstuf remix, Living Island.

Pogo's Alice, released a few years ago, is out-and-out perfection. He has had some fantastic pieces along the way, but I can't listen to much of his work over and over, like I can with Alice. Living Island breaks the streak. I can loop this piece.

Top ten Spaghetti Westerns.

I've been meaning to do this post for a long time.
So, you've seen Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy (Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly) maybe you've even managed to sit through Leone's epic, Once Upon a Time in the West. Now you're wondering, WHAT'S NEXT? This list is for you.
This is my list, take it with a huge grain (baseball sized) of salt. I don't think any spaghetti western fan will agree with my choices and that's fine.
At the last minute I added a film. NOW it is......
MY TOP ELEVEN NON-LEONE SPAGHETTI WESTERNS

11. KILL THEM ALL AND COME BACK ALONE
Ammazzali tutti e torna solo (Italy, Spain 1968 / Director: Enzo G. Castellari)
I think of this as the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen of the old west. It's one of the rare "team" spaghetti westerns. Chuck Conors leads a group of specialists. An acrobat, a demolitions expert, a strongman, knife expert, etc. They are hired by a confederate general to sneak into a union held mine and steal a million dollars in coins that is hidden there. There are double crosses (just look at the title) and more double crosses. Some claustrophobic-ally wonderful underwater scenes. Light torture. High adventure. A fun film. And it has Frank Wolff which is always a plus in my book.
Here's the German trailer

10. IN A COLT'S SHADOW
All'ombra di una colt (Italy, Spain 1965 / Director: Giovanni Grimaldi)
An early SW. Plays like a traditional American western but with the kick assery of a SW. Duke and Steve are two gun fighters. Steve wants to marry Duke's daughter but Duke will MURDER Steve if he does. I know it's crazy but it plays out really well. If you've got an old curmudgeon who hates SW's, play this and don't tell them it's from Italy, hee hee. Alex Cox recommended this film to me and I'm recommending it to you. Stop screwing around and find it.
Here's the Italian trailer

9. BLACK JACK
Black Jack (Italy 1968 / Director: Gianfranco Baldanello)
Another Alex Cox recommendation. Black Jack is brutal and, at parts, insane. Black Jack is a respected community member who lives a double life as the leader of a bank robbing gang. When the gang wants a higher percentage of the loot, Black Jack takes it all and retreats to an abandoned town hideout he shares with his sister and brother-in-law. The gang catches up with him when his Native American "friend" rats on him. The gang rapes and scalps his sister and they cripple Black Jack.
This film is BLEAK and the organ music doesn't help liven the mood. The film does move along though, it is not a slow picture.
So, Black Jack enacts his revenge in horrible-like fashion on his old partners. In the end Black Jack is worse than anyone he has murdered and he knows it.
Such a great film. Robert Woods plays Black Jack and I think it is his best role by far.
I can't find a trailer and this film can be pretty tough to find.

8. JOHNNY HAMLET (AKA That Dirty Story of the West)
Quella sporca storia nel west (Italy 1968 / Director: Enzo G. Castellari)
YES, this film is based on Shakespeare's Hamlet. Johnny returns from the Civil War to find that his father is dead and his mother has married his uncle. You know the story.
Andrea Giordana is fine as Johnny Hamilton, manic, suspicious, fake tanned, on the edge.
He has one friend left, Horace. Gilbert Roland, the only actual Mexican actor in SW's, is fantastic in the role. He's one of my favorites. Old yet cool, suave yet ready for a fist fight at any time.
The story is tense like a horror film. We know the character shouldn't go skinny dipping alone at midnight in the lake where a gaggle of other teens have been butchered. We know the story here. When will Johnny figure it out?
Don't watch the 80-minute version. You will be confused, cold, and lost. The film is 95-minutes, find this version or bust.
This Italian trailer starts off pretty bad, but kicks in after a bit.

7. FACE TO FACE
 Faccia a faccia (Italy, Spain 1967 / Director: Sergio Sollima)
Dont' you just want to hang out with Gian Maria Volonte and maybe just conduct some cuddling with him? He's so cool. He's a professor heading out to the west for his health. He meets some bandit revolutionaries and soon finds himself as the leader of the gang. Tomas Milian starts as the leader of the gang and soon softens to the plight of his people as Volonte ascends up the ranks. Great story, great concept. Sounds a bit far fetched with the characters essentially trading places, but it works.
Camerawork is beautiful. The best of the socio-politcal SW's. This is one of the SW standards. I don't feel that I need to defend it so much.
This trailer must have been edited by the same person who made the Johnny Hamlet trailer. It's a horrible representation of the film.

6. DEATH RIDES A HORSE
Da uomo a uomo (Italy 1967 / Director: Giulio Petroni)
Spaghetti western god, Lee Van Cleef, is double crossed by his band of outlaws and he is forced to spend 15 years in prison. The same night he is double crossed, his gang murders a young boy's family. In the fifteen years, the boy trains relentlessly to be a gunfighter.
Van Cleef gets out of prison and meets the boy (now a man) and they form a delicate partnership based on revenge.
Death Rides a Horse is a tense film. The plot gets a bit confusing, but hold on. Morricone's score will tumble you along to a satisfying ending that would be copied again and again in motion pictures. The film has a lot in common with another SW great, Day of Anger, but I much prefer Death Rides a Horse.
This is a western for your dad (well, for my dad.) No politics, no comedy, just a straight cowboy movie.
One more note, there are a lot of crappy versions of this film. Don't go and buy a $2.99 version and expect to be happy.
"When you've waited fifteen years to find a man. It's a shame you can only kill him once." Great trailer below.

5. CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES
 Une corde, un colt (France, Italy 1969 / Director: Robert Hossein)
French actor, Robert Hossein directed this film. With a screenplay co-written by Dario Argento and help with directing from Sergio Leone (who actually directed the dinner scene; you can't miss it.) this film is hard to beat.
Maria's husband is killed by the Rogers family. She rides out to an abandoned town to find Manuel, an old gunfighter friend (played by director, Hossein) and ask him to revenge her husband's death. He does so.
The film is quiet and beautiful. Manuel hardly says a word and is goofy looking. Seriously, it took me a while to get used to this goofy looking guy trying to act tough, but I managed to escape into the story and imagine the character as goofy looking and REALLY tough.
Maria is so jaw droppingly beautiful, it hurts. "They killed Ben."
It's a lonely film. Everyone, even the Rogers family members, are alone. It can be a bit slow, but that is perfect. When Manuel puts on his glove, look out, someone will die.
Italian trailer below.

4. DJANGO
Django (Italy, Spain 1966 / Director: Sergio Corbucci)
One of the true classics of the genre. Franco Nero is Django, the ex-union soldier, dragging a coffin behind him, forever alone.
Django comes to a town in the midst of a messy race war. Django murders his way to clarity. There is a vague personal vendetta he harbors. He takes care of that business as well, through acts of murder. It's a simple western. It's a textbook perfect western. Django spawned over thirty "unofficial" sequels.
Franco Nero is cocky but able to back it up. I feel like the more I say, the more I tarnish this film. Just go see it.
It's also one of the few SW's released on blu-ray. I watched it with Matt and you could see Franco Nero's pores and the sheer beauty that is Ringo (one of my favorite SW regulars, José Terrón, plays Ringo)
Great Django trailer below.

3. THE GREAT SILENCE
Il grande silenzio (Italy, France 1968 / Director: Sergio Corbucci)
One of the SW heavies. Bleak, cruel and full of depressing irony. Leone had his dry, dusty towns. Django had it's mud soaked city. The Great Silence is buried in blankets of white snow. This isn't a light fluffy snow either, it's ten wool blankets on a three year old, heavy and suffocating. It traps the characters.
A group of bounty hunters, led by Klaus Kinski, kill a man. The man's wife asks Silence, a mute (his throat was slit as a child by bounty hunters after his Pa) gunfighter with a sweet Mauser pistol, to avenge her husband's death by killing the bounty hunters. He goes for it!
There is a wonderful sub-plot with a group of Mormons. They were kicked out of the town, and have taken to hijacking travelers in the forest, just to get something to eat.
Frank Wolff plays a useless sheriff, sick of all the killing.
The Great Silence has one of the best endings in cinema history.
A clean print of this film is available on DVD and if you haven't heard about it, don't read up on it. Just watch it! It's available at Netflix, put it in your quueueueueu right now.
English trailer below.

2. AND GOD SAID TO CAIN
 E Dio disse a Caino... (Italy, West Germany 1969 / Director: Antonio Margheriti)
I know, I know, you SW purists are shaking your heads at this one. It's a guilty pleasure for me. I will admit that it is not a classic SW but I could watch this film over and over.
The story has Gary Hamilton (Klaus Kinski) get out of prison for a crime he was framed for. The man who framed him, Acombar, is now living in his house, with his ex. Hamilton rides into town just as a storm is brewing. He kills Acombar's army and eventually gets to the villain himself. It's a simple story.
Some call this a "gothic spaghetti western." I do not disagree. The entire film takes place over one day and one night. The day scenes are bright and sweaty. The night scenes are stark and noirish. The camera is constantly dollying, giving the film a frenetic feeling. Hamilton is also constantly on the move. He grew up in the town and seems to be the only one (except for one Native American that Hamilton kills) that knows about the old Indian tunnels beneath the town. This gives him boogeyman or Batman like control over Acombar's army. He's free to kill a few mercenaries and disappear into the darkness. Very cool.
Klaus Kinski is at his most subdued and controlled in the role. The energy in the film comes from his actions and not from Kinski himself, which is rare. This is Kinski's genius. He knows when the character needs to be cool. Gary Hamilton also looks like a sort of superhero in that the entire story takes place in about 24 hours so he is only wearing one outfit. A red, long sleeved shirt with a peacoat and wide brimmed hat. He also primarily uses a rifle instead of a pistol. Hamilton is not a gunfighter. He is a man out for revenge.
Now, the real issue is which version of the film should you view? The French release is high quality and has the correct aspect ratio. Unfortunately, there is no English audio track.
Franco Cleef (the premiere spaghetti western reconstructionist, cleaning up unreleased SW's and releasing them on DVD) has an English version which has the sides of the film cut off. However, the Franco Cleef version has an additional 1.5 minutes that the French version does not. This is not throw away footage either. The scene is the full explanation for Hamilton's revenge plot. Important stuff. The Franco Cleef version also looks warmer and less contrasty than the French version.
Now, a company called CultCine has taken the Franco Cleef English track and married it to the French version. They cut out the minute and a half.
I have all three and am such a nerd, I made my own ultimate version combining the best of all three. But, if I were you, I would track down the Franco Cleef version.
One other funny note is that the same script had actually been used for a film called A Stranger in Paso Bravo. That version sucks.
Here's the German trailer.

1. THE BIG GUNDOWN
 La Resa dei conti (Italy, Spain 1966 / Director: Sergio Sollima)
Mix a dash of politcs, a tiny tiny smidgen of ironic comedy (very tiny), a teaspoon of race relation issues, a pinch of religious issues, a gallon of straight cowboy and you get the utter brilliance of The Big Gundown. This film rivals the best of Leone. It is the masterpiece all SW fans know about and few other students of film have heard of. There is no official release.
Lee van Cleef is Corbett, a kick ass bounty hunter. He is sent after Cuchillo, a Mexican peasant, for the rape and murder of a young girl. The chase takes them through Texas and into Mexico. That's it. The story is seemingly that simple.
Corbett is a pretty straight ahead character. With eyes like a vulture, he sees everything. He is a tough guy, but is also clever, suspicious and thoughtful.
Tomas Milian plays Cuchillo. I believe this is Milian at his very best. He is placating, simple-minded, wimpy as a mouse, basically, a poor common Mexican peasant, on the outside. He plays to the racist expectations of him. But inside and within his comfort zone, he is dashing, sly, clever, and resourceful. My wife is from Mexico and she says that she misses this type of personality. Crooks and slimeballs are like this in the U.S., but in Mexico, the clever fox is the hero. Cuchillo is the clever fox.
Corbett gets involved with a railroad baron who promises him a great political career. This sub-plot unfolds slowly and before you know it, has taken over as the main storyline of the film.
Ennio Morricone hits another one out of the park with an excellent score. If you are feeling down, just listen to the opening theme:
"Run to the end of the world 'til you find a place
where they never never never
No never no they'll never lock you in.
Never, no never, no never let them win."
I don't like to write spoilers, but I have to here. It's the first scene so don't worry too much.
A group of outlaws arrive at a campsite. They are there to meet a man they've never met.
They have just outrun Corbett, the well known bounty hunter, and are fairly proud of that.
They approach the stranger tending to the camp fire.
As he reveals that he is not the man they are supposed to meet, the body of a corpse, strung up to a tree is seen in the background. Who is the man at the fire, then?
He is Corbett
and they are FUCKED.
Director, Sergio Sollima fills the movie with clever little catches like this that will have you nodding in excitement. There is a fabulous scene where Cuchillo, the child rapist, has befriended a group of traveling Mormons. When Corbett arrives, the old Mormon gentleman says, why yes, he knows Cuchillo, he is down at the river with a little girl. This scene alone is a roller coaster ride of "oh shit!" moments.
Sollima also directed a follow up to The Big Gundown called, Run Man Run. Milian is back as Cuchillo but Lee van Cleef is out. The story is a bit more political, but Run Man Run is also an excellent SW.
Franco Cleef made his reputation, reconstructing this film. My understanding is that he used six different sources. His version is superb. Look on eBay for it. I have read posts and rumors that there are other, cleaner versions, but I haven't seen them. I'm happy with the Franco Cleef version. One thing to note, is that small parts of the film were never dubbed in English, so those parts have subtitles.
Make this a life goal for you. Track down this film.
Here's the trailer.



I swiped the pics for this post from the most excellent, amazing, and downright wonderful Spaghetti Western Database. If you watch these films and find that, yes, you are indeed a spaghetti western fan, here are the films that almost made my list: A Bullet for the General, The Ruthless Four, Sabata, The Mercenary, and Companeros. These are all fine films as well.
Also, a shout out to Alex Cox. If you want to learn more about spaghetti western films, pick up Alex's most excellent book, 10,000 Ways to Die. It may change your life.

Daily poster: Night of the Lepus.

 Night of the Lepus.
Have a great Easter weekend, if you're into that sort of thing.
And be sure to watch your back for KILLER BUNNIES!


Poster courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

Myserious black fungus coating town.

 The Scottish village of Tullibody, Clackmannanshire are fighting a war against a a black, slimy, fungus which has taken over.

Some are blaming the nearby whisky warehouse, run by Diageo, for creating fumes which lay down the black ooze. I, for one, belive this to be the work of Shub-Niggurath, The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. 

From the Daily Record:
"The (Scotch Whisky) Association says the slime is also found in areas with no whisky industry, and Diageo say research found 'no direct link' between whisky fumes and the fungus."

The residents are slowly being coated. The black fungus does not wash off easily. It needs to be scraped off.

It blocks the light from house and automobile windows. The local government can't keep up with cleaning street signs.

I tell you, a meteorite must have landed nearby, like in H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space. Expect pandemonium and madness to follow.

(from Arbroath)

The Shunned House up for sale.

The home in Providence, Rhode Island which was featured in H.P. Lovecraft's story The Shunned House is up for sale.

The 1764 home sits on 1/3 of an acre at 135 Benefit Street, and is listed at $925,000. No mention of creatures in the basement. Actually, I don't see that there is a basement.

(via Whitechapel via The Lovecraftsman.)

 

White army man throws rubber chicken.

Nowhere Limited just released a white version of Frank Kozik's 17" army man.

This edition of Big Army Man is limited to 50 pieces and is $200.

The soldier comes with two, interchangeable, right hands, one holding a grenade and one holding a rubber chicken.

If you're interested, click here NOW, it will sell out.

A stunning talk on empathy.

Completely floored me.

 

Doube Punch does the Max Toy Company.

Max Toy Company is travelling the land to celebrate their fifth anniversary. After a stop in Harajuku, the show is slapping down in San Francisco for a day.

Get your booty to the Double Punch Gallery this Saturday, April 23rd, 7pm-11pm. Most of the artwork has the company's Captain Maxx and Lady Maxx as the subject matter. There will be original art, exclusive toys, and "tons of food and beverages."

Here's more information on the show.

Daniel Goffin's Eyezon painting popped my eyeballs. Sort of a traditional Japanese print Fantastic Four Jack Kirby looking painting. I love it.

El Santo y el vampiro y el sexo.

Mexican luchador and screen legend, El Santo, starred in 50 films between 1958 and 1982 (he had cameos in two additional films.)

The lobby cards for many El Santo films would have you believe they were true horror films. But don't be frightened, El Santo's films were all vanilla and fun. He made family films with lots of lucha libre action thrown in. El Santo didn't use weapons, didn't smoke, rarely drank, and never swore or lied. He was the ultimate family oriented superhero. El Santo is an icon in Mexico and I would argue, the world.

In 1968 El Santo's first color film was released in Mexico, Santo en el tesoro de Drácula. El Santo, also a scientist in this film, invents a time tunnel and sends a female volunteer back to the 19th century. El Santo and companions watch on a time television of sorts as the woman meets Cout Alucard, who reveals himself to be DRACULA. He bites the woman and El Santo saves her from the stake by bringing her back to the present time. Dracula gets resurrected in the present time and El Santo not only wants his sweet ass treasure, but must send Dracula back to the grave, PERMANENTLY! Sounds wholesome enough.

Well, in Europe, and perhaps the U.S., a version of the film was released for adult audiences. The film was titled, El vampiro y el sexo. Dracula's she-vampires were naked. El Santo does not interact with the nudie cuties, but their presence was a bit too much for Mexico at that time and completely flew in the mask of El Santo's wholesome image.

The nudie version of the film was quickly shuffled out of theaters and disappeared. For years it has been argued whether this film even existed. People claimed to have seen the film only to buckle under questioning. It was a big confusing mess. The fact that the internet can sometimes bring out the liar in some people as well as major distrust in others, never helped. For years fans said that the images of a titty biting Dracula and the lobby cards were a mistake. It was another film. I remember a lot of crazy rumors floating in the early 2000's.

UP UNTIL A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO. It was reported that the producer of the film's grand-niece had discovered the film in dusty film cans. Last month the film was, at last, set to premiere in Mexico. Director, Guillermo del Toro had arranged a selection of vampire films to show at the Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara.

Out of nowhere, a silver masked protector of morality swooped in. El Hijo del Santo (The Son of El Santo, also a world famous luchador) had the showing stopped. 

El Hijo del Santo wrote a letter to record.com (a Mexican sports magazine and website) demanding that the film not be shown. He said that his interest was not monetary but that the nudie scenes had been added without his father's consent:

"My father told his then partner, he had every right to film with their cameras what they wanted, and even make another movie, but the name El Santo and his performance and image could not be used under any circumstances . It was then that, subject to the arguments of my father, Calderon shot some scenes with Aldo Monti (Dracula) and actresses Gina Moret, Jessica Rivano, Sonia Aguilar, among others, who played the vampires in transparent gauze, showing the naked upper body and titled "The Vampire and Sex ', but never filmed another version where my father intervened."

El Hijo del Santo went on to write that he had no problem with the festival displaying the nudie scenes, but not in the context of an El Santo film. El Santo films are for families and not for adults.
It's a frustrating case. I guess finding out that Pee Wee Herman masturbated in public nudie theaters may have damaged some kids' mental state, but I don't think seeing Dracula bite a big titty is going to hurt El Santo's image. Besides, El Santo kicks his ass for it. HA.

Perhaps I'm being greedy. I really want to see the film and I don't care about the impressionable kids of the world. I doubt kids today are even watching El Santo films from the 1960's, are they?

Daily poster: Ninja the Protector.

Ninja the Protector.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

 

Daily poster: Conquest.

Conquest.

I love this movie, despite it being a bit slow and having that Fulci nylons over the lens, fog machine on full blast look.

I mean a laser shooting bow, a naked Destro-looking sorceress, fur covered nunchucks, this film has it all. The gore is also Fulci-rrific.

Find it.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

Whisky: The Islay Edition.

Snapeye sent over this truly EPIC trailer for WHISKY: the Islay edition.

"Islay, The Queen of the Hebrides.
Lavish harbor of scotch.Here reside eight of the most renowned distilleries of the world,
with inspiring names such as
Ardbeg, Lagavulin, Laphroig, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, and Kilchoman.
Discover what makes them so unique, what makes this isle a capital of Scotch.
Discover the secrets, the history, the tradition.
Discover whisky. The Islay Edition."

 

Casa De Mi Padre.

Casa De Mi Padre. "He is amigo to all living things."

Will Ferrell must be the busiest man in Hollywood. The number of projects he comes out with is so very wonderful. I had never heard of this project until the preview was posted on Twitch yesterday.

 

Holographic runway models.

A while back Nyteschade posted a video of holographic singers tearing it up. Six of these runway models are real. The rest are holograms. I would imagine that the models who do no explode when they run into each other are the real ones, but I'm not sure.

The audio is horrible on this video, you may want to turn it WAY down.

Daily poster: Shakma.

Shakma.

Iceland Bob posted the trailer at Whitechapel and I couldn't stop laughing with nervous horror.Shakma's screaming sets my neck hairs on end. Shakma is also starring the two-time recipient of the National Association of Theater Owners Star of the Year award, so you KNOW it's got quality.

Death by Shakma; probably one of the worst ways to die.

 

Norm.

The AV Club has a really funny and cuss infused interview with Norm MacDonald. He's about to have a stand-up television special and a new series.

He has an interesting and original way of looking at acting, comedy, and stand-up. Crisp and refreshing.

Norm MacDonald: "I tried really hard on Weekend Update to do something that I considered original, which was, I tried to cut all cleverness out of the joke. I’ve always been very averse to innuendo, especially sexual. I find it cowardly or something. Like on Will & Grace, my mother will laugh at it, then I’m like, “You know what that joke’s about, right? Like, that one guy fucked that guy in the ass.” And then she’s aghast, and I’m like, “That’s what he just said when he talked about the tunnel! So why didn’t he just say it?” It always maddens me that people can laugh at sexual innuendo, then you say what it really means, and they’re like “Ah! I can’t hear that!” So on Update, the only real original thing was trying to take away the cleverness of the punchline and make it as blunt as possible. And then I tried to make the punchline as close to the setup as I could. And I thought that was the perfect thing. If I could make the setup and the punchline identical to each other, I would create a different kind of joke."

Poster of powers.

What a rad idea for an X-Mas present!

Pop Chart Lab has created this thoroughful poster of super powers.

It's only $20 if you order before April 15th ($25 after that), limited to 500 copies, signed by somebody, and totally sweet.

P.S. Did you know that the words "superhero" and "super hero" are trademarked jointly by Marvel and DC. Crazy that.

Orson Welles terrorizes Jim Henson and Frank Oz.

I'm sorry, I can't remember who sent this link to me.

Daily poster: The Hills Have Eyes.

The Hills Have Eyes.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

 

Writers and Kitties.

Writers and Kitties. No explanation needed.

The pic above is Edward Gorey and his pussies.

Big Trouble in Little China tribute show.

If you find yourself in Sacramento before May 7th, be sure to swing your body by Dragatomi for their Big Trouble in Little China tribute art show.

Jay222 curated the show and the artists showing are:

Dave Correia, Patrick Francisco, Alex Pardee, Jay222, Task One, Leecifer, Josh Taylor, Ritzy Periwinkle, Downtimer, Lil Japan, Robert Bowen, Le Merde, Dezeinswell, Skinner, Chris Lee, Brad Isdrab, Dan Fleres, Lucien Shapiro, Nart, Chris DeLeon, Alex Voltz, J*RYU, Mikie Graham, Mark Nagata, Nebulon 5, John "Spanky" Stokes, Danny Miller, Erick Scarecrow and Wayshak.

Dragatomi
2317 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95816

These photo's are from Jay222's site.

This pic is from Le Merde's blog. I love how he mixed Big Trouble in Little China with They Live!

Daily poster: The Manster.

The Manster. (The Split is an alternate title.)

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

 

Lego Architecture.

Wow, I had not heard of this series. How cool.

Lego is making sets of famous architecture.The latest piece is Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House.

I remember trying to make a White House for a Lego contest. The bricks in the late 70's weren't quite so detailed. It ended up looking like an 8-bit white house with square pillars in front. HA.

Little girl joins the dark side.

Surviving the Santa Cruz Secret Film Festival.

Well, the secret is out.

Nyteschayde and I went to the sixth annual Santa Cruz Secret Film Festival last night/today and it was packed. We arrived just at midnight with a line to the end of the block, and were told that there were only 12 tickets left. The Del Mar Theatre was FULL. We got the couch style two-seater in the center very back, just where we wanted to be, which was rather lucky. I brought snacks, he bought popcorn and drinks.

The quirks of the festival are that it runs from midnight until noon with only ten minute breaks between films. Also, patrons have no idea what films they will be seeing. I ruined that last quirk for myself.

The gentleman who runs the festival is named Scott. I met him through email when I posted here about the film Rubber and asked why Magnolia Pictures was advertising an opening for the film in Santa Cruz while the Del Mar's website said no such thing. After some prodding, he broke the "secret" and told me that Rubber would be at this year's festival. Damn, I always ruin surprises for myself. I did get to meet Scott at the show and we chatted a bit. Nice fellow.

• Super - What a great film to start the fest. It was funny and super brutal. I felt like it was a Kick Ass for the 30-somethings. Less flash and style but much more heart (sorry that sounds so lame to say but it's true) and grounding. I don't watch The Office but the main actor was just awesome. Ellen Page lit up the screen in every scene she was in. Her character was just so damn excited abut everything, a very fresh "uncool" character. Lloyd Kaufman was in it briefly. William Katt from The Greatest American Hero was also briefly in it.
• The Legend of Beaver Dam - A twelve minute short. A seventies slasher, campfire song, comdey, musical. Super funny. Try to find this film.
• Hesher - I had never heard of this film. Confusing and scattered but very good. The dude from Super is the dad. The guy from Inception who had the zero g fight also the kid from 3rd Rock From the Sun, you know the guy, played the title character. Hesher drops into this kids life and fucks it up but acts as a sort of an eye opener, enjoy what you have kind of guy. The more I'm thinking about the film, the more I'm liking it. The guy who plays the undertaker has one of my favorite minor roles of all time in Wild at Heart, cool to see him. Natalie Portman is in it as a middle class, work-a-day chick. This bugged the hell out of me. She is now Hollywood royalty and has been an actor since she was a little kid. To think she related to her character at all is a HUGE stretch. Just really bugged me seeing a princess act like one of us commoners for a paycheck.
• I Saw the Devil - A goretacular revenge flick from Korea. Serial killer murders a chick. Her boyfriend gets revenge in an unusually long and drawn out, cat and mouse fashion. An alternate, less disturbing film, played in an upstairs theater, for those that could not handle the "intesity." It started twenty minutes into this one. After ten minutes, some people were literally running for the door.
  The cast of characters is super strange in this film. The world primarily consists of police, women, and serial killers.
  The pallette is beautiful and a touch over saturated which made the whole film sort of jump out at you.
  The film upstairs was Win Win.
• Rubber - So, a film about a psychic tire waging war on mankind is a great idea. Who can argue with that? But adding a layer of jackasses on a hill watching the film as it happens, knowing it's a film, but being in our film just threw the whole thing off. It was needlessly surreal and the basic premise would have been enough. If the director would have forgotten flash and gone with subtlety, he could have made a film like Gerry, one of my favorites. Disappointed. The poster is so kick ass, though. 
• Stake Land - I tried to hate this film. Honestly, I tried. A second rate post-apocoloyptic vampire movie. A boy (everyone keeps calling him a boy, but he looked twenty-something to me) and a guy travel the land killing vampires and steering clear of cannibals and religious nutcases. My early notes say, "No one here to like." But by the end I actually did start caring. The film is super duper Hollywood with not a new thing in it, but it does it's job pretty well. I was liking it. UNTIL the fuckers straight out broke their own vampire rules and committed an unforgivable foul in my book. If you've seen every other post-apoc film, and are looking for something to watch, check it out.
• The Troll Hunter - From Norway. Everyone will compare this to The Blair Witch Project. A group of students are shooting some footage on bears and catch up with a government sanctioned troll hunter. Now, you will probably chuckle at the site of a troll at first, it's just funny, but they are so well done and so cool, you may fall in like with this film, as I did. The earnestness and professionalism of the troll hunter is perfect without being to much like all the other surly old experts in every Hollywood film. This guy is likeable, serious but friendly, and above all, interesting. The students are not annoying at all. There may be a little too much down time, but it was hard to tell as it was around 10am when we watched this. I loved it.

There was a raffle with some pretty cool DVD's, posters, t-shirts, and midnight movie tickets. I didn't win anything but managed to scrounge up a Rubber poster, a 13 Assassins poster, and the poster pictured above.

It was a great time. Scott and the good people of the Del Mar put on a fabulous show and I would guess that 75-80% of the movie goers were still there when we were let loose at 12:30 this afternoon.

I will definitely be there next year. But now I am amped after walking home. Think I'll watch some old Italian Hercules movies.







Man, this trailer for The Troll Hunter does not do it justice. You should really try to see it in the theater.
On the topic of small screens not cutting it, here's David Lynch:

Daily poster: Rabid.

Rabid.

The image in this poster scared the hell out of me for years. Now, I share it with you, so that you to can lie away nights soaked with fear.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

 

Shooting while pepper sprayed.

We done here?

 

(via 9GAG)

Daily poster: Enter the Dragon.

Enter the Dragon.

This one is for Mr. Tyler.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

 

New D*Face mural.

D*Face is opening a new show this weekend at the Corey Helford Gallery, so, he slapped this mural on one of the gallery walls. It's a cool Lichtenstein/Pettibon mash-up.

For more pics of the mural click upon HERE.