Hey folks, I’m not dead. Now that’s out of the way, on to the main event. I’m quite the fan of Henry Rollins, anything he’s in I’ll watch, any interview that’s out there I’ll look into – I really dig on him. I’ve seen his spoken word twice before, once in my native state of New Hampshire and once in the neighboring Massachusetts. After looking on his site to see if he’s going to be stopping around the area in the near future I saw two shows posted for his Frequent Flyer Tour that are within somewhat close proximity — Sommerville, MA on March 17th and Portland, ME on the 18th. Hadn’t seen him in Maine yet, time to change that. And although the show hasn’t happened yet I will most likely enjoy it but regardless this will make him the second artist to have seen three times, once in each state (the other being masked metal band from Ohio, Mushroomhead.) Being a fan of him, like being a fan of anything, I have questions and I would love the chance to sit down with him for about four days and ask all my nerdy questions until blood rockets out my nose. However due to time constraints that unfortunately could not happen, but Henry was very gracious enough to answer my questions via email. Enjoy, folks.

Image from artvoice.com

SKETCH: Those who are big fans of your spoken word will notice that the tone of it has become drastically different. You started out reading poetry on stage that was quite serious, then you just went up there and did spoken word with a serious tone, now its a balance of comedy and that dash of reality. Like the first hour and a half will be mostly comedic stories then the last half hour will be something very down to Earth and something that kinda snaps you into reality to make you realize there are still big problems afoot. Was this change a conscious choice or did it just happen that way?

HENRY: I just do the show. I am not sure of how the thing has changed over the years. I am not really working on the form of the thing as much as I am just out there doing it and I guess it changes over the years.

SKETCH: You’ve mentioned in many interviews that you don’t consider yourself to be an actor despite the 35+ movies you have under your belt. But has there ever been an acting gig you’ve taken where you’ve looked at the film and thought you did a good job?

HENRY: I thought I did pretty good on the Sons Of Anarchy show I was in last year. Most of the time I don’t watch any film I am in.

SKETCH: Additionally with your film credits and knowledge of film have you considered or attempt to write a script or make a movie of your own?

HENRY: Never. I respect that kind of talent but don’t have any of it. It’s never been something that interests me.

SKETCH: Your show in IFC “The Henry Rollins Show” which many people, including myself, dug quite a bit, hasn’t had any new episodes since 2007. What’s that status of the show and when can we look forward to Seasons 2 & 3 coming to DVD?

HENRY: We shot the two seasons of it and then IFC dropped the show. It’s their money so they have the say. I guess they didn’t like the show. I thought we did good work. The 2nd season is on DVD in Australia and I believe they are on download on i-Tunes.

SKETCH: Those who look you up will know that you are quite passionate about the West Memphis Three, and that there is an album that was released which features you and many different artists doing Black Flag songs to benefit their defense. First, how are things developing on this front? Second, how did getting these artists come together?

HENRY: The case moves slowly through the system that will hopefully resolve in new hearing. Things move very slowly though. Meanwhile, those men sit in prison. We had a couple of people to help us get all the singers. I didn’t have many phone numbers to reach these people, so we got some help. Once we asked these people, most of them came aboard very quickly. They were very generous with their time.

SKETCH: Has there been any music, new or old, that you’ve been listening to a lot lately?

HENRY: I have been listening to a lot of old music from what’s called The Nurse With Wound List. It’s a list online of very out there albums. Many of them are very rare and hard to find. Someone gave me about 15 gigabytes of music from the list recently, so I have been checking that out for days now. Today, I listened to a band from the list called Moving Gelatine Plates. Pretty cool.

SKETCH: Lately many audiences have been complaining, on small and large scales, about the way that studios are running their companies (constant remakes, sequels and adaptations; good shows canceled while “reality” TV is all that’s left.) Similar complaints have been made about mom and pop shops going out of business and malls and large retail chains left standing, yet the reality is the American consumer is choosing to go the chains and malls so they are at fault. Do you think that the status of the entertainment industry is in a similar vein, that it’s the audiences who are not really wanting it? Or do you think studios and record labels condescend the intelligence of the audience thus lowering the standards of new material or not putting it out at all?

HENRY: The people are going to the malls because the merchandise is cheaper there. They buy from Amazon.com because it is cheaper to do so. That’s how it is. It’s very hard on those smaller outlets that can’t buy in the vast bulk that these other places do and they can’t get the extended lines of credit, either. I think the audience wants it but they are low on cash and have found that they can often get things for free online. I know a guy who heists films from the internet, I don’t know how he does it but he always has films on his i-Pod that are still in theaters. I think it’s a combination of things, what I listed as well as other factors. It’s too bad that it could make it bad for so many hard working artists. The studios have underappreciated the intelligence of their audiences for years. Hence the success of shows that are sharp, those in the industry who have figured out that there are millions of people who want some more intense and thoughtful fare have been very successful.

SKETCH: On your online store you had a video promoting/explaining the contents of “Fanatic Vol. 3” while standing in a room where your music collection is housed, and you probably need to pause the video in order to properly gaze in awe at the two walls you see of CDs there are stacked from the floor to the ceiling. With such a collection like this, the idea of organizing it makes me both curious and scared. But how the hell do you organize that thing and have you needed to expand the room/store elsewhere to squeeze in a few discs?

HENRY: That’s the old room, actually. The room you saw held 24 feet of shelving about ten rows high. The new room has 64 feet of CD shelves, 12 rows high. There’s a different part of the room for vinyl and other media. It’s all genre/alphabetical. There’s several feet built in for expansion for all the media. A lot of work went into the room to get it all built to spec.

LINKS
Official Site
IMDb page
Wiki on The West Memphis Three
The Henry Rollins Show: Season One

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DISCLAIMER: Not an advertisement for a child’s self tattoo kit. Sorry if there has been any misunderstanding.

Good evening kids, I come to you not as a young adult but as an old bastard. This previous Friday, the 10th of April, I have finally turned 21 years of age. Furthermore, and I survived. It went alright, had dinner with the family (prime rib and breaded scallops FTSLMFAJW = For The Samuel L. “Motherfuckin’ Action” Jackson Win. Gonna try and get that one out there,) went out drinking with a former coworker who has dreamed of getting me so drunk I’m yelling that the front door is locked while I stand in the living room shirtless. Alas this time was failed. Anyways, the next day I woke (sans hangover) and went along with the second phase of my birthday plans – to get a tattoo of my own design.

Now unlike many of my peers who get tattoos of stupid things for stupid reasons (“I got a star on my shoulder.” Why? “I like stars.” So do masochistic boxers.) I believe if the tattoo is meaningful and artistic it is warranted. I’m not hazing those who get them for the fuck of it but those that do, regardless of how cool it is, I can’t give you that much respect for getting it. Moving on, recently amidst my constant listening and dissection of the band Tool and A Perfect Circle I looked into chakras. Those who do not know what they are I will briefly tell you what they are. In the Hindu religion they believe there are seven chakras, seven points on the human body that run along the spinal chord that are “believed to be a center of activity that receives, assimilates, and expresses life force energy.” Each one harnesses a different energy and the symbols for these are represented by a circle with different numbers of petals (the base chakra starting with four and the crown chakra ending with 1000.) The biggest reference of chakras in Tool’s music is the transformation sequence in the music video for “Parabola” (view here,) where the character X has his chakras opened up to include the Ajna chakra, the third eye. And the biggest reference to that specific chakra would be obviously the track “Third Eye” off the album “Ænima”, which is a tribute to comedian Bill Hicks (who I am also a fan of.) After looking into chakras I became very fascinated with them and could consider to be a person who believes in their use. Because I found about them through Tool I figured it would be appropriate to not only get the Ajna chakra as a tattoo but design it as a tribute to the band as well as A Perfect Circle (in honesty, their incorporation was an aesthetic choice but I still appreciate them as much.) Like many great designs I just started doodling random shit at work, specifically eyes similar to that of the eye from Alex Grey’s painting “Net of Being” which was used as the cover to the album “10,000 Days” (view here.) Then it all tumbled together through the power of my imagination to develop into the design below.

Click here for a diagram of what the elements are

After getting it to how I wanted I felt a tremendous sense of pride in myself as an artist. I then went to a tattoo shop recommended to me by a friend, Hobo’s located in downtown Portsmouth, NH. I got a quote on it and two weeks later, the day after my birthday (the 11th) I manned up and went in with my design to get it placed on my inner left forearm. I couldn’t put it on my head where the chakra is actually located since I’d prefer not to look like a madman and I didn’t want to put it on the back of my neck because I want to see this (plus taking care of it would’ve been a pain.) Now I knew it was gonna hurt (“Really? A needle going 4000 mph into your flesh hurt? Fuck off,) but it wasn’t that bad. What kept me going through the pain (apart from clenching my first tight and locking my jaw) was the thought that eventually the pain is gonna stop and that when it’s all done it’s gonna look awesome. Which did help, even when the blood exited my pores like someone putting a paper towel on a soda spill. But after it was done it looked awesome. Granted it still has some healing to do but regardless I’m glad I got it and can understand why people are addicted to getting them. It’s the rush of trying to hold back the pain to somewhere in the back of your mind. Here are some photos I took on my webcam of my tattoo presently, I’ll take more once it’s done healing.

Side story of irony, after just leaving the tattoo shop I headed to Market Square and bumped into my friend who I didn’t get to see on my birthday. And at the same time I was fortunate enough to catch a show they were watching — four fundamentalist Christians dressed as Romans with one of them dressed as Jesus Christ carrying a large cross. Figured just got a tattoo of a Hindi-related tattoo, glad it’s covered otherwise I’d be a target. But one of the funniest things about the guy dressed as Jesus was the fact that A) he was white, B) his hair was short, and C) the cross he was dragging looked like it was made of either balsa wood or that crappy cardboard stuff you used to make a diorama of Mexico in third grade, even better it was on wheels. When I see my beaten and bloodied Jesus, I want him dragging half of a California Redwood on his back. How many people are you gonna convert if your Jesus is being a total pussy?

LINKS
Chakra Wiki entry
Ajna Wiki entry
Lateralus CD on Amazon
10,000 Days CD on Amazon
Alex Grey – Official site

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Almost every movie this year has been a remake, a sequel, or an adaptation from a novel or comic book. Many like me find this to be a sad sight in the realm of films which is why many say that Hollywood hast lost it’s originality. In reality I think the reason why studios don’t put out fresh content is simply because it’s too much of a gamble to them. Putting out something already familiar is a lot easier than something new because they already know there is an audience so it’s guaranteed at least a few bucks whereas if you put something brand new out it’s hit or miss, and they’re afraid to take that risk which runs contrary to the whole point of making films where regardless of what the project is it’s gonna be a risk. And unfortunately this business practice affects not only mainstream cinema but also independent. The standards for indie films have greatly changed in the last ten years. It used to be if you had decent content and acting from people you’ve never heard of you could shoot it on a camcorder and several years later make a box office flop with Ben Affleck. Now if it’s not done on a professional-grade camera with someone familiar you’ll be lucky if it even gets past the submissions board because of originality and also the cost of things. Another part of why they choose not to gamble is because everything costs more to make it, not so much as it is the production itself but the people involved have raised their price. Many people involved on screen live so lavishly and for seemingly no legit reason. I believe I’m starting to digress. What follows are several examples that prove my point as well as the other concept. These are are many upcoming sequels, remakes and adaptations that have been announced or are in some form of production.

The Karate Kid – ANNOUNCED
For those out of the loop, it has been announced that an attempt will be made to remake the classic ’84 movie about a boy named Daniel being mentored by an elder Asian man named Mr. Myiagi who protects him from a group of bullies who later challenge Daniel to a karate tournament. On paper, horrible idea. Firstly, the reason why it’s called a classic is because it is a fantastic movie, which means you don’t fuck with it by remaking it (or doing a shitty mock-up with Chuck Norris.) Second, Pat Morita who played the iconic Mr. Myiagi tragically is no longer with us so the idea of replacing him is downright daffy. But if you thought it couldn’t get worse it does. Will Smith is producing it… for his son as the role of Daniel. At this time I’ll wait until you wipe the blood away and get stitched up from slamming your head into your desk. When I found out that he was behind this masquerade I was furious as you might know given my previous tear into Mr. ID4. Sony has thankfully said no to the idea, not of the remake as a whole but to Smith’s son as the lead. Comforting, but not entirely. And then last night/this morning I read this which made me want to punch everyone in the fucking throat. If you’re too mad and fearful to read, Smith’s son wants to take out the famous crane kick that happens at the very end of the movie during the karate tournament due to young Jaden wanting to “use some moves that he has seen playing video games on his Xbox.” (Momentary breakdown — FUCK YOU!!!) Luckily Will has some sense and is convincing him to nix the idea, but better yet how about can the project period so the suicide rate doesn’t explode?

Short Circuit – ANNOUNCED
In ’86 Number Five came alive with Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenberg. Now in 2010 Number Five will be raped and left for dead as it will be one of the many thousands of remakes set to come out. I consider this movie to be a part of my childhood even though it came out two years before I was born, but regardless it’s one of many movies I hold close to me and is considered a classic to many people and as I previously stated you don’t fuck with classics. Dimension Films has bought the rights to remake the movie with the original writers. Regardless, NO! Because the way films are made now-a-days Johnny Five will be this super-sleek CG robot with more weapons than the Terminator and little to no heart as it had in the original since the men with money really write the script. Not to mention but I don’t think Sheedy, Guttenberg or Fisher Stevens wanna revisit something that was fine to begin with. I’ll only see it if I can get a little remote controlled Johnny Five from “Short Circuit 2.”

I Am Legend Sequel/Prequel and Hancock 2 – ANNOUNCED
If you thought Will Smith could ruin only one movie, wrong again. Now I’ll say that I really dug “I Am Legend”, I thought it was a fantastic movie with really badly done CG monsters. “Hancock”, tolerable but nothing all that great about it. Probably a movie that we could’ve done without. Are either one good enough to warrant another movie? I think not. Both of these have been announced and confirmed by Will Smith. As I said I dug “I Am Legend” but there really isn’t anymore story to tell, it’s source story by Richard Matheson didn’t feature a prequel or sequel story so just leave it at that. According to an article (found here) the story for the prequel basically shows the last days before Dr. Neville becomes the last human on Earth, showing a convoy between Washington DC to Manhattan which are the last two major cities to fall. Unless Michael Bay directs this, the whole purpose of making this won’t make sense. “Legend” is fine by itself, leave it alone. Ironically this movie is a take on both “Omega Man” and “The Last Man On Earth” which also only had the one movie and no continuations. As for “Hancock”, again no real purpose for a sequel other than beating a dead horse for money.

Monopoly, Ouija Board — ANNOUNCED
Two projects, two vastly different directors, one big confusing mess. It’s been announced that the two popular board games are to be turned into feature-length films. “Monopoly” is looking for Ridley Scott (best known for movies like “Blade Runner”, “American Gangster”, “Black Hawk Down” and many more) to helm the director’s chair for this while “Ouija Board” is in talks with Michael Bay. I think that the only reason Ridley was asked was because he’s known for making long movies that are good, which could be interesting since the game generally goes on like a hostage situation — there’s lots of money involved, everyone’s pissed off and ready to kill and at eventually someone goes to jail. There’s only one movie I can think of where this kinda thing was pulled off and that was “Clue”, but there was already a story in place for the game so it was easy to do. Monopoly isn’t a game, it’s a stress test. If anything it won’t be a movie based on the board game but just something that carries the same name. And Michael Bay’s “Ouija Board”? What could possibly generate a story? Steve Buscemi sells some college kids a Ouija board that makes things explode every six seconds? Firstly, no. Secondly, no. That’s not even really a board game, just a popular thing for goth kids in the ’80s. The problem with these board games being turned into movies is because the games themselves don’t have a plot behind them, it’s just like “Tetris” there’s no story there the purpose of it existing is simply to just have fun (except with Monopoly.)

Ghostbusters III – ANNOUNCED
Now this is another movie series that I’ve loved since I was a kid and for the longest time I was hoping to see them come to the screen for the first time (for me anyways, I was too young to see it in the theaters. First one I wasn’t born yet and the second I was only a year old.) However I’m like many fans who have already composed the third movie in my head so my expectations are kinda high. But the moment they said that they would be teaming up again for a video game that doesn’t suck my jaw went through the floor. With it’s release from now Atari on the rise for the closest thing to a sequel wheels are in motion to possibly bring back the crew for one more round or bring in a new team of Ghostbusters. A couple years ago I might’ve been in favor of it but would’ve needed further convincing since it’s been in talks for the last decade and I just think that it’s been way too long for this to go down. Then it was announced that Judd Apatow (director of “The 40 Year-Old Virgin” and producer of “Superbad” and the cinematic of Seth Rogen) would possibly be producing this with two writers from the American version of “The Office” writing the script. Now I have nothing against Apatow or “The Office” crew but that’s just bad written all over. But since the first two movies and the upcoming video game were written by Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman it can be trusted whereas in someone else’s hands you can’t help but be skeptical. Then they announced that Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd and Romany Malco (all who starred in “The 40 Year-Old Virgin”) were being considered for the next installment. Again, I have nothing against any of these guys I respect and dig their work but that’s a horrible fucking idea. Even Rogen said that his name attached sounds bad. If the original writing team works on it then I’ll be more behind it, until then it’s up in the air.

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Good morning, shoppers. As usual December has rolled around which of course gives us the lovely sentimental holiday known as Christmas. And as we all know one of the many traditions that is a part of the spirit of Christmas that isn’t mass consumerism is movies. The kind that are sweet, loving, caring. the kind of movies that give you hope, that warm tingly feeling in your stomach like hot cocoa after playing in the snow. What the fuck are you doing reading this then? Although I’m not entirely off on that last part, the movie I’m about to review can leave a tiny warm feeling in your stomach, the catch is it’ll be a bullet hole. For those unaware, last Friday on December 5 the sequel (kinda) to the 2004 movie “The Punisher” was released. “Punisher: War Zone” I had been looking forward to for quite sometime since I saw the trailer. I saw the first one with Thomas Jane and enjoyed it (didn’t wow me but as a movie it was good.) When I heard that Jane and the director had bailed out I became skeptical as to who would take over. Came to find out it was Lexi Alexander and thought it was a brilliant pick after seeing her previous movie “Green Street Hooligans“. Then when I found out Ray Stevenson, an Irish actor I’d never heard of, was going to take over the role of Frank Castle and discovered that he looked JUST LIKE him I was rooting for it full steam.

The film takes place in New York City, where arguably many criminal minds reside. Castle has already made his presence as The Punisher well known to those in the criminal underworld who fear and members of the judicial system who envy him. It kicks off with Castle in his safe house watching a news broadcast about an infamous aging mob boss skating on serious charges due to a missing witness. Immediately vengeance is exacted by The Punisher on the mob family with the exception of the boss’ nephew, Billy Russoti (played by Dominic West) who escapes his wrath momentarily. The Punisher later follows him to a recycling plant which serves as a front to the crime family, which is being monitored by the FBI. A war begins inside the plant causing Russoti to fall into a pit of glass bottles which are waiting to be broken down by large grinders… to only be activated by Castle. Not killing him but only horribly disfiguring him turning him into his arch nemesis Jigsaw. In the midst of the lead-based melee Castle kills and undercover FBI agent in the line of duty. Which in comes his family featuring wife Angela Donatelli (Julie Benz) and daughter Grace (Stephanie Janusauskas) that in quick succession become a priority for Jigsaw when a large amount of money comes up missing from the family fund, making their safety a number one priority for Castle after accidentally murdering Donatelli. With the assistance of his friend Microchip (played by Wayne Knight, more commonly known as Newman. Yes, Newman is The Punisher’s friend) they go out to protect the Donatelli’s and take down Jigsaw with an arsenal behind them and in front of them.

One of the things I loved about Stevenson as The Punisher was the fact that he embodied the comic book version of Frank Castle from the looks down to his demeanor, whereas Tom Jane who was Frank Castle if he were a stiffly bitch-like overactor (“You mean Tobey Maquire? The gay monk that shoots webs?”). My issue with Jane was he did an okay job playing The Punisher, but he wasn’t being The Punisher. The Punisher is a man who shows no mercy, no restraint, and is a true soldier when it comes to the war on crime. And in a war nobody, especially the enemy, comes out clean or generally in one piece. In this version of the war the enemies of hundreds turn into thousands from the blood-curdling violence. To say that there are a few head removals in this movie is to say that flowers grow from the ground. All the moments of violence you wished were in the previous one, it all got thrown into this wagon, set on fire and launched from a catapult. Another noteworthy item about this movie is the fact that they were more true to the origins of The Punisher. The Tom Jane version he was an FBI agent who was involved in the killing of a money launderer during a sting operation, thus him and his family (all members of his family, not just his wife and son) was killed for retaliation. Bullshit. How The Punisher came to be in the comics was how it was mentioned in the movie, his family (mother, son and DAUGHTER) witness a gangland execution while on a picnic and are killed shortly after. Also he was an FBI agent with Special Forces training as Tom Jane, appropriately Stevenson was a military instructor as he originally was which is more prominent in the character archetype that is The Punisher.

As for Lexi Alexander’s take at The Punisher I truly enjoyed and wasn’t disappointed in the least. Clearly she referenced the comics for the storyline and it’s look, which is very dark contrast and also quite colorful at the same time. Kinda had a very nostalgic, ’80s feel from the way it was shot and also from a lot of the production design. They also included some references in some of the backgrounds as well, the one that stands out the most is there’s a big shootout that takes place at the end in a place called the Bradstreet Hotel, which is a reference to Tim Bradstreet (EXAMPLES) who did the cover art for the comics for quite a long time. And according to an article that there were many instances of The Punisher skull in the background, sometimes just as a fluke (article.) Comic book fan or not I highly recommend seeing this if you’re looking for a good ol’ fashion movie with a lot of violence in it. Until next time, keep making shit.

=Sketch/Ed

Amazon Links
Punisher Vol. 1: Welcome Back, Frank
Punisher MAX Vol. 1: In The Beginning
Punisher: War Zone Official Soundtrack (featuring Slipknot, Seether, and Rob Zombie)
Punisher “Well Suited” Shirt (a black shirt with his new armor)

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Good evening, it’s your friendly neighborhood cyst Sketch here bringing you an article for your Internet Arts & Leisure feed. Today we bring you a review on “Sex In The City: The Movie”… sorry, wrong drugs. Now that we’ve changed substances a proper review is in order. Last night the one man band Trent Reznor stopped into Manchester, NH with co-conspirators Robin Finck, Alessandro Cortini, Josh Freese and Justin Meldal-Johnsen to assemble the band Nine Inch Nails. They stopped in Manch-vegas as part of the second leg of their Lights In The Sky Tour Over North America. I arrived at 6PM, half an hour before they opened the doors. In that time I got moist from the weather, exchanged words with some of the other patrons and watched planes fly over closer than they should’ve. About five minutes prior to them opening the doors one of the security guards got everyone’s attention to inform us of some of the rules — no smoking, no food or drink from outside, no knives, no chains etc. When he mentioned the knives and chains I was looking around for the people with chains seeing who was gonna get screwed for entry. Behind me was a guy wearing Tripp NYC pants which had a chain on them, which couldn’t be removed. To which he ironically responded by saying, “I would get it off but I left my knife at home.” So I got in, bought a shirt for $35 because I’m daffy and wanted some schwag. Now before I get to reviewing Nine Inch Nails’ performance I must mention the opening act.

As it can be shown from my previous entry reviewing the Rock & Shock Festival with Mushroomhead and Gwar, I have a predisposition for disliking opening acts. I believe that many of them are hired deliberately because they suck and make the headliners infinitely greater. This opener was no different. The band was called Health and came out of Los Angeles. I felt their name was ironic since after their set was over I WANTED TO KILL MYSELF! To save you the trouble I’ll let you know what you’re in store for with this group. Imagine three skinny Hot Topic Emo kids screeching on Fender guitars and stomping on distortion pedals while singing like a seven-year old girl in one microphone and screaming into another microphone; while the drummer, who looks like Chino Moreno of Deftones (IMAGE) if he was built like a brick shit-house and had a pony tail, actually plays his instrument. To say that I wanted to slit my wrists after hearing their “music” would be both an offense to my wrists and the blade I would’ve used. They were nothing more than a garage band that was trying to rip off Nine Inch Nails and Muse and any other industrial band you can think. Now I’ve never been to a Nine Inch Nails show before but from my understanding the opening acts are mostly noise bands, that’s all they were minus the band part. Trent Reznor should get his $20 back. But one thing I noticed is that the “singer” had two microphones – one mounted on a mic stand where he let us hear his girly voice and a pink microphone from the ’50s which he screamed into. And it occurred to me that one of the microphones was auto-tuned, either to make him sound very girly or like he has testosterone in his system. I’m thinking the first one since at one point toward the end of their “set” the “bassist”/(long haired douche who pounded a drum stick on a single electronic drum pad that was never heard through the speakers and danced around on stage like a ballerina) went up to the mic stand and screamed like a little girl. Now me being a somewhat rational man at this point hysterically laughed like the dozen others around me. During the encore Trent said to the crowd, “Buy their album, take mine for free.”

Now on to the main event. House lights get killed and the ambient “999,999″ gets cued up which leads into them playing “1,000,000″ off their new album “The Slip” (which can be officially downloaded for free and purchased here.) They then proceeded to do two more songs off the new album, “Letting You” and the single “Discipline”, both which were a powerhouse on the audience. One thing I learned about the show is that it is oddly one of the more tamer shows I’ve been to, though the concerts I’ve been to have been straight-up metal bands and have a very aggressive tone to them. With NIИ it carries many tones to it, start off aggressive then become very serene and then back to aggressive. Also Trent doesn’t really interact with the audience like many front men do. Then again I’m sure that’d just be one more thing in the arsenal he’d have to deal with due to the intricacy of the show. But as much as it lacked in band/crowd interaction the theatricality of the show is definitely worth seeing even if you don’t know of Nine Inch Nails or their music or even if you don’t like it, the visuals are amazing.

First of all, in order to truly take in the visuals you are best to be toward the back of the crowd, maybe even sit in the bleachers (as much of a cop out as it is.) I neglected to remember this so my dosage was a bit low. The highlight of their visuals is three large LED mesh curtains (one at the rear, one in the middle and one in the front of the stage) that go up and down for each song to accentuate it. For instance their song “Vessel” (a song with almost no practical instruments involved except guitar), the five men stand in front of the forward curtain which flashes distortions of red to the beat of the song (EXAMPLE, best viewed in high quality.) When they did instrumental tracks off “Ghosts” they stood in front of the middle screen which was dropped and contained a desert, while the front screen was elevated so to show the grey clouds sifting through black above the amber dunes. (“Word?” Word.) The sight of it was truly beautiful, but would’ve been better if people hadn’t have used this time to talk among themselves since there were no lyrics being sung. To those who attended and did the aforementioned crime, fuck you. (5 GHOSTS I) And the screens don’t just serve as pre-rendered images to highlight the narrative of the songs since they are fully interactive. The stage has sensors strategically placed so at any time Trent can manipulate the screen. For instance during “Only” the front curtain is dropped and projects TV noise and when he passes the sensor he can open up a hole in the static (YIKES.) Truely gorgeous use of technology. During their performance of “The Greater Good” off “Year Zero” they projected on the front curtain what looked like a blue microscopic organism reacting to the music. However it got really amped up when an embossed blown up version of Trent singing was pulled up. As I said, it was an interactive show which used sensors and other pieces of technology to make it what it is. When it made that turn I froze in awe. (To freeze in awe at your computer, LOOK HERE.)

“Survivalism” was probably one of their more pulsating songs due to it being a rather ferocious track. And the screen in the back projected rather comical images. For those who have never seen the video, it is a constant camera motion going to various security feeds watching the band perform and an apartment building with the tenants either being submissive to the totalitarian government or committing crimes against it (homosexuality, graffiti, and other things against the good Christian country that it is in this alternative reality.) One monitor housed the Bureau of Morality censoring something, one of a camera on Trent, two of a camera on the audience, and three others with prerecorded footage (most likely) featuring a couple having sex in the bathroom, a man walking down a stairwell and I believe the inside of a bathroom stall. Never a dull moment in the three hours that Nine Inch Nails was on stage. From “1,000,000″ to “In This Twilight” it was a proverbial narcotic the whole place was taking in. They closed their set with their classic single “Head Like A Hole” then dropped the front curtain which held the NIИ logo for a good minute or two with droning ambiance over the PA. I knew the show wasn’t over but the suspense for the encore was grinding over me and the rest of the patrons. After a while they raise the screen and kill the picture. On the middle screen was three rows of white boxes. The drummer, Josh Freese, came out from behind the curtain and interacted with it by turning some of the squares all red to start up “Echoplex”. They went on to do “God Given”, “Hurt” of course was a must, and finally closing with “In This Twilight” which was truly beautiful. For those unacquainted with the song it has a heavy tone to it but Trent melodically singing it making it rather eerie and surreal. On the back screen they projected a metropolis with a large factory in the background emitting smoke from two giant stacks. Across the city bombs were going off showing an attack from either terrorists or members of the resistance, couldn’t be known. At the end of the song a white hot flash of light came from the factory and panned up until “the sky is filled with light.” My first show with Nine Inch Nails and hopefully not my last. That’s all I got for this round. See you on the other side, folks.

Oh, and to close out this piece I’ve enclosed another video. This didn’t happen at the show I was at but I figured it’d be interesting to see regardless. Enjoy.

=Sketch/Ed

“Something’s Gonna Get Broken”

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I sit here now in shock and awe. My cynicism has stopped dead in it’s tracks. I have never felt more beside myself, more proud to be an American, and more full of hope than I’ve been in the last several years. The fist I’d blast into the air has become an open hand. I’ll be honest, as much as I wanted President Elect Obama to win I didn’t think it would happen due to America’s knack for self-destruction and inadequacy. For eight years we’ve been used to failure and incompetence. But now I have hope, I have faith that our future isn’t the bleak totalitarian war zone that we’ve imagined because we have become maladjusted to a watered down version of that. After hearing the words of our new President I believed. I believed that he truly believed the things he was saying, that for once I saw a man who wasn’t overwhelmingly calloused with lies and motives. I believe all hope is not lost. This will be a Fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.

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Good evening children, I come to you yet again blathering however it’s not complete nonsense, this one actually has some thought behind it that doesn’t involve tearing out the asshole of a pop culture icon (since most of the opening acts nobody knows.) A couple weeks ago I contacted Sir Jeffery Nothing from the masked Ohio metal band Mushroomhead for two purposes — for him to take a small part in my short film, and to do an interview promoting their new DVD Mushroomhead, Vol. 2
due out October 28th. And instead of saying “Ew, no, queer. Hurry up, the wife’s coming home soon,” he said that he would take part. The interview was a concept that came later, I figured since the segment for the film wouldn’t take very long (recorded two shots collectively spanning just under 10 minutes) why not a little bump for something they got coming out. Plus I have my system all worked out where this time I can actually interview him on camera and publish the footage. I had interviewed him about a year and half before at their show in Portland, Maine but I couldn’t extract the footage from the DVD where I burned it. Now I can do it but damn it takes a long time.

So I truck out an hour and a half away from home for day two of the Rock & Shock Festival, a three day event that compiles two things that work together beautifully — balls to the wall metal and pure unadulterated violence. The headlining acts for the second day were Mushroomhead (who got second billing, they were on before the main act) and Gwar. However before they took stage I realized something, opening acts are kinda like sex — in that you start out dry jerking, then next time you do it with lube, then you cum, then head, go through a couple skanks just to grease the wheels further and then finally you’re in a broom closet with Heidi Klum or Margaret Cho because you’ve had about six scotches and can barely operate without causing harm to yourself. The first band was a complete scream band, basically taking heavy double-bass drums and doing a shitty Dr. Claw impersonation to it. Second band was a bit better, still in the vein of screaming surpassing actual music all while the vocalist had a very Vince Neil/Nikki Sixx rip-off kinda hair-do. Let this be a lesson to you kids, an aggressive voice isn’t the focal point when it comes to metal music. Any 14 year-old girl with a vocal box can make that guttural sound no problem, but those who can balance between that and singing, more respect to them than anything.

Skip a band or two later a band called Kingdom of Sorrow takes over which is more or less a super-group featuring a bassist who did a tour with Black Label Society, a guitarist from Type O Negative, and I believe the vocalist from Hatebreed with two other guys. In comparison to the acts before Mushroomhead and Gwar these guys were actually good since they did balance the music well, the vocals were mostly screams but they were coherent and had a range in sounds. Also one thing I tip my hat to about them was the fact that the vocalist had showmanship, interacted with the crowd whereas the prior acts were like, “Fuck it, we only get 30 minutes and you probably won’t remember our names after because we didn’t actually say it.” Now the band that went on before Mushroomhead and after Kingdom of Sorrow, I gotta tell you, FUCKING SUCKED!! Imagine if you will a skinny Hot Topic kid with gauges, skin tight clothing over his skeleton-like body, and nose length hair dancing like a constipated gorilla while screaming high pitched sounds that would make a bat want to slit it’s wings open and attempt to fly through the air with the wind gliding into the wound so as to nose dive into a vat of salt, all of which is considered a blessing than to rather listen to one of Suicide Silence’s “songs.” (Damn, that was verbose.) I had never heard them before then and I don’t intended to listen to them ever again unless I’m getting a full frontal lobotomy without anesthesia, in which case I’ll blast that shit that way it numbs my brain right up. To those of you who liked Suicide Silence, please consult an abortionist immediately for your future hell spawn just to cover yourself.

Half hour after the sonic rapists leave the stage Mushroomhead takes a hold of The Palladium, which from where I was premium. For those who have never been to The Palladium, let me give you a lay of the land. Imagine the store from Empire Records if it was slightly more broken down, featured a bar and was retrofitted as a theater. So it has a very interesting design which given the event seems both juxtaposed and also disturbingly appropriate. If it were being filmed for a DVD I’d almost think that David Fincher was making it since it has quite the similar tones to it’s lighting and architecture. Prior to Mushroomhead taking the stage I went to see them across the street at the DCU center where the other half of the Rock & Shock event took place, with many booths with lovely schwag such as bootleg DVDs (there wasn’t a single DVD that didn’t look like a bootleg), shirts, patches (I picked up a Stark Industries patch, one for S.H.I.E.L.D. and one for Blue Sun which is featured in the realm of Firefly and Serenity), and anything your heart could desire. They were there at 7:00 to do a signing for fans, and hearing about it I jumped right into line and managed to make it back to the venue with time to spare. For things to get autographed I brought a poster I made almost a year or two ago which has the members of the band rotoscoped and they all loved it. One of the singers, Waylon, virtually froze upon seeing it he liked it. If it weren’t for the contacts he was wearing I would’ve thought his eyes went white naturally. Got a couple pictures from the signing, some schwag then cut back to two and half hours later they take charge of the stage.

This is the third time I’ve seen Mushroomhead perform live, first in late October of ’06 at Mark’s Show Place near Manchester, NH, then in February ’07 at The Station in Portland, ME. Both really small venues and both purely great shows. As I told Jeff in our first interview in Portland, they’re a band who can make a closet-sized place like The Station (which it very much was) and make it seem as if the crowd was never-ending. This time it was almost the opposite, while the venue was considerably larger than the previous two it actually felt a whole lot smaller. Maybe due to the mass chaos and six foot males gently gliding near my head toward the stage. Starting off with a heavy hitter “12 Hundred” the audience is immediately whipped into a frenzy as the band creates fire and sweat while they play. Shortly before Jeffery Nothing’s part kicks in he arrives on stage with a new type of make-up that is a hybrid of his long-going outfit known as The Butcher with this Butcher-Devil-Heath Ledger Joker type of deal. And it looked gorgeous. Periodically throughout the show I would watch Jeff virtually transform himself into the character he was on stage, as if he was channeling the presence of Ledger’s Joker through him. As I said, it was pure serenity. And with the benefits of a larger venue come little games like stage diving and moshing, both which took place from the crowd and members of the band. They did a couple songs I’ve never heard them play live such as “Xeroxed”  and their cover of “When Doves Cry” by Prince. Closing out with “Solitaire Unraveling” the show was an overall powerhouse as expected. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see Gwar (probably good because from my understanding everyone in the crowd got spewed with movie blood and fake semen. Yummy.) After I got out me and my co-conspirator Some Guy Named Al trekked over to the bus area, interviewed Jeff and filmed his segment for my short film. The events that unfolded from the interview follow in the video below. The events from the film will come later. Enjoy, and until next time, I’m Sketch E Whiteface reminding you to control the overpopulation, kick a skater in the balls.

=Sketch/Ed

Mushroomhead signing at the DCU Center

Mushroomhead autographing my self-made poster. They loved it.

Screen capture from my interview with Jeffery Nothing. There are several moments like this. Not sure what we were looking at.

Jeffery Nothing in a promo pic for the upcoming short "This Side Up: Omerganite."

PART I
PART II

MISC LINKS

• Mushroomhead, Vol. 2
• Mushroomhead Official Site
• No Wear Clothes
• Mushroomhead MySpace
• Jeffery Nothing MySpace
• Filthy Figures MySpace
• This Side Up Entertainment MySpace

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If someone reliable could tell me when in the future films would become solely based on finances it’d certainly save me the hassle of looking up articles on the Internet. If someone told me it would be next week I wouldn’t be shocked in the least since in it’s current state it’s just about at the point where it’s not about telling a story but a good way to rope in a few thousand people and scam them out of $10 because Will Smith pretends to act (I’ll get into that in just a moment.) As an up and coming independent film maker I have many issues of how things are dealt with in Hollyweird. To rattle of several quick ones — planning sequels months prior to the film’s release (it’s a half-cocked gesture mostly from the studios and regardless of how good you think it is or how profitable you believe it will become you must keep in mind the judgment of the public will have the real say), the MPAA and their rating system and advertising standards, 20th Century Fox (I’ll get into them later as well), studios pushing for PG-13 ratings for a wider audience (I don’t care what educational background you have but to try and make “Punisher: War Zone” PG-13 because “The Dark Knight” conveniently was and made a shit-ton of money doesn’t make it just. How can you make a man’s head exploding soft-core?), and painful “actors”. Let’s break it down, kids.

In case you haven’t noticed that for the last several years 20th Century Fox has prowled on modern celluloid like a drunk man in a bar or a 13 year-old white kid from Iowa who thinks he’s black, they think showing their cock will win affection. Wrong. Lately they’ve really been pouring gas on themselves. The bigger stunt recently is their lawsuit against Warner Bros. over upcoming comic book movie “Watchmen”. The studio claimed that Warner Bros. didn’t hold the rights to make the Alan Moore graphic novel or at least distribute the picture, never minding the fact that Warner Bros. owns DC Comics/Vertigo for which the graphic novel resides on.  So now they are currently in a legal battle to do either one of two things — make it so that Fox is the distributor (which can only mean they will ghastly edit the movie into a mind-numbing 90-minute feature that contains only the parts where there is fighting and shit blowing up with no intellectual transition) or to completely wipe the movie’s release date off the calendar completely, never releasing it. Though luckily given that the justice system moves about as fast as tree sap downhill in the winter the trial may not actually begin until January of 2009, a mere two months before it’s slated release date. Given that Fox has a tendency to shoot their wad like they know what they’re doing chances are (this is at least wishful thinking) the case will rule in Warner Bros.’s favor.

Another valid point that Fox has no idea what they are doing to tell a story visually is going around the creators to have it your way. This is unprofessional and also a dick move. One instance stated in the following article is on the upcoming “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” which tells the tale of how Wolverine came to be (Weapon X program, scrapes with Sabertooth, etc.) and needless to say a very dark tale which requires seemingly dark environments.  One such environment was changed without the director’s knowledge. What called for something “dark, dinghy and somber” was changed to something less depressing with lighter colors and cleaner textures. Now if in the correct fashion this can work in favor but unless you’re doing some “One Hour Photo”/”American Psycho” clean-looking thriller then you are a pussy of a film maker. Changing a set’s design to something more cheery (a colorful euphemism) is almost a denial of reality itself, thinking it can’t be this dark and disgusting when in truth it can be because it fucking is! You can’t cover a bald Kevin Spacey in Laffy Taffy and believe he just killed Brad Pitt’s girlfriend (if you can, please lower your dosage.)

Changing lanes here — YOU CAN’T PUT WILL SMITH IN EVERYTHING! Okay, chances are I’m blaspheming here but you know what I have to say this, why should I really give a shit about a movie because Will Smith is in it? Because conveniently 98% of the movies he’s done have raked in billions?  Will Smith isn’t that fantastic an actor. His barometer for character ranges from a good guy who says “fuck” a lot to a good guy who doesn’t say “fuck” at all. Occasionally he’ll mix it up and have the good guy be a bit of a dick or an arrogant douche but for the love of God just knock it off. It doesn’t matter how fantastic he seems you can’t cast him as “The Karate Kid” or Captain America, it’s wrong on every level imaginable to the sane. If I could ever afford his salary for a movie I’d have him play a serial killer who hardly speaks just to break the mold, and when he does speak it’s in a strange language. To help illustrate my point, whenever I see a movie that has Will Smith in it I know it’s Will Smith, I can’t believe he’s anyone else. I can believe Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Trent Reznik, I can believe Josh Hartnett as Slevin Kelevra and The Salesman, but you throw Will Smith into a role I’m gonna know it’s him regardless. Captain Hillard, Muhammad Ali, Jesus Christ, I’ll only think, “Oh, hey, Will Smith.” You may think I’m daft for uttering or even thinking such a thing but I’ve heard a similar tear about Christopher Walken and look at his fucking acting skills. (Inside joke: 111th biopic on Andy Warhol starring Chris Walken.)

A couple other mini-rants. If you’ve never been to Massachusetts or talked to someone from there for more than 20 minutes then it’s news to you that often people from their have a habit of shooting their mouth off. Mark Wahlberg is from Massachusetts, so for him saying that Max Payne could take down Batman in hand-to-hand combat makes sense coming from him but is ghastly offensive to the point where if I saw him in a pub I would shatter the closest bottle near me and jab it into his eye socket. First of all the two characters are miles apart, Payne wants revenge for his wife’s death while Bruce Wayne/Batman wants justice for them and others. And also dropping the obvious factor to play in, he’s fucking Batman. Imagine if you will a man standing before an expert martial artist who is performing a series of moves for intimidation and Joe Guy takes him down by jabbing him in the throat. And in the interview where he made this claim he mentioned it was strictly in the matter of fisticuffs, not the box office which shows even more delusion since if you’ve seen any previews for “Max Payne” you’d know that Fox has ruined another video game on the big screen. Well kids I’m putting out the ashes for now. My next piece will detail the new releases of Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” and Nine Inch Nails’ “The Slip”, and how the two contrast each other. See you on the other side, keep it sketchy.

=Sketch/Ed

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Evening children, welcome to Clippings & Scribblings, a news entry with editorials. I’m Sketch E. Whiteface, and I’m an alcoholic… err, close enough.
In the musical metallurgy realm, if not already aware, the masked nine-piece band Slipknot is back and with full force with a new album dubbed “All Hope Is Gone” coming out this Tuesday. The band started performing for the first time in nearly two years in July on the Rockstar Mayhem Festival tour with Disturbed, Dragonforce and Mastodon. I attended the show in Mansfield, MA and breathed chaos from the energy exhumed, it was pure gold. If you’ve been keeping track of the tour or the band you would know that Slipknot’s DJ, Sid “0″ Wilson, had injured himself during on of the shows. In the body of their set he jumped off one of the raised platforms and broke both his ankles. Whereas some would put off the rest of the tour they marched on through and Sid was confined to a wheelchair until healed properly. They’ve gone through much worse injuries (especially Wilson), such as concussions, severe burns, lacerations and other often life-threatening bumps. However recently they’ve acquire a rather large set-back, an issued statement from the band apologized for the fact they will have to cut their appearances at the Reading & Leeds Festival in England and their European tour due to drummer Joey “1″ Jordison broke his ankle. Apart from canceling of a tour they subsequently had to cancel several appearances in light of the incident.
In other unfortunate news for entertainers canceling things, the highly anticipated “Ghostbusters” video game expected to be released this October is CANCELED. I’ll give you a few moments to finish crying and throwing your computer chair out the window. Activision was due to be the distributor behind the cult classic based game but dropped it and several other titles.  While franchise games such as “Crash Bandicoot” and “Spyro” where sold to Activision by Vivendi Games the interactive sequel to an iconic film series was left in the dust. However all hope is not gone for this game for the developers are searching for someone to release it and have assured fans that it will be released. Now on the commentary for this: are you fucking kidding me? You pass up something that’s existed for 25 years to something that’s been around only 10 aimed solely at kids? And keep in mind, the “Ghostbusters” game features the original cast and was penned by Reitman, Aykroyd and Ramis. This is more or less the sequel everyone’s been hoping for and courtesy of schmucks with calculators it’s left out in the desert with a canteen and a compass.
And now for more theoretical blabberings. Last weekend the nerd orgasm known as “The Dark Knight” was taken over at the box office by Ben Stiller comedy “Tropic Thunder“. However as it lowered to the number two spot it also arised to the number two spot at the all-time box office having earned $475 million dollars passing “Star Wars: A New Hope” and settling just under “Titanic” which holds the record at $600 million (for some reason.) Currently on IMDb.com the Christopher Nolan directed comic-book movie is holding it’s place at #3 on the top 250 highest rated movies, and also broke the record for being #1 after only two days of it’s release. Since the weekend prior it made it’s box office jump by a good $40 million and this fan has a strong belief that it will knock the boat over. I plan to toss another seven bucks into the pot this weekend and I strongly encourage you to do the same. One more hill to get over, people. Come on.

=Sketch/Ed

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I believe that long shots in action movies are one of the biggest “fuck you”s to Hollywood. I recently rented “Death Sentence” which stars Kevin Bacon and is directed by James Wan (of “Saw” fame, not the shitty sequels.) For those unexposed to the movie, the story takes place around a white-collar family man Nick Hume (Bacon) whose son is murdered during a gang initiation then after retaliation is targeted by the gang. In the middle of the film there’s a scene where Bacon is being chased by the gang through a parking garage and it is all in one continuous shot, and even better it’s one take (no cuts, no CG blending, nada.)

I consider “cinematographer” to be under my film repertoire and whenever I can see a shot like this I can’t help but tip my hat to the director and crew behind it since it shows they really busted their balls and want it to feel real. Side by side, the sequence at the end of “Children of Men” where Clive Owen is going after Chiwetel Ejiofor and the baby, and the sequence in “Bad Boys II” where Marcus and Mike are speeding down the highway going after Haitians, “Children of Men” wins hands down. Granted the two sequences are different beasts but I’ll explain why. It’s a lot simpler to put a camera on a tripod and film two seconds of an explosion then to have a handheld shot spanning over five hundred feet with squibs (artificial gunshots) and explosions and other things that goes for five minutes and covers every possible vantage point. Reason why I give more props to the long shots is because that takes a lot of timing, coordination, and collaboration in order to pull it off right so that the end result leaves the viewer believes he just saw a .50 caliber rip through six people.

But to get into the specifics of the “Death Sentence” shot I’ll explain the effort. It starts out with Bacon entering a parking garage and moving up floor by floor to the top where his car is while the gang targeting him is pursuing him. Now on paper you might think one camera operator follows around him but you’d be wrong. Instead of having one man rock a Steadicam and go only inside the garage it is passed around like an Olympic torch. It starts with one man in the hallway then he passes it on to a man on the next level near a gap between two levels (where Bacon is climbing through), to a man sitting on a crane/platform (so the view is now outside the parking garage by a good few feet) which lowers down to the first level where the gang is. The man then passes it off to another operator who goes in closer to the gang, backs onto another elevated platform to go up two floors to where Bacon is running and after that it’s all on that guy. My explanation sucks a bit, I’ll admit, but if you watch the clip you’ll get it.

TOP FIVE LONG TAKES

1. . “Children of Men” – Theo’s pursuit of Luke and the baby. (Clip)
2. “Panic Room” – Dubbed as “The Big Shot”, a floor by floor survey of the house’s three floors as its being broken into. (Clip)
3. “Touch of Evil” – The opening shot going from the rooftop looking down on a parking lot, to past the US/Mexican border several blocks away. This was in the late ’50s. (Clip)
4. “Children of Men” – Where Theo and everyone in the car is attacked.
5. “Rope” – A Hitchcock movie, the whole thing is one continuous shot. Done in the late ’40s (Buy the fucking thing)

The whole purpose of the long shots is to show the viewer that no matter where, what and when the setting is there is a reality that lies in the film. It is more cerebral than your typical quick cut from here to here to here to here and only a second has gone by. That’s my time for now. In an unrelated note I’ve enclosed a picture that can only be described as EPIC (a term heavily being overused now but fuck it.) Picture courtesy of my coworker Timmay.

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