Saturday, June 22, 2024
Friday, June 21, 2024
RAVENWOOD, STEPSON OF MYSTERY, VOL 5, PRESENTED BY AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS
Frederick C. Davis' cunning, occult sleuth, Ravenwood, returns for a fifth volume in Airship 27's revival series.
For the latest Ravenwood, Stepson of Mystery, there are three fables included: Dexter Fabi's novella, Dervish in the Night and two short stories, Carson Demmons' "The Past Repeats Itself, but There is More than One Past" and from yours truly, "A Devil by Any Other Name." The volume's moody cover artwork is by Adam Shaw and the captivating interiors by Sam Salas.
Ravenwood's transcendental wonderment should appeal to not only pulp-fiction fanatics, but to those who enjoy Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The X-Files, The Medium, The Mentalist, The Psychic Detective and The Psychic Investigators. At every turn, there's a new, bizarre twist waiting to be uncovered.
Order Ravenwood, Stepson of Mystery, Vol 5 at
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1953589774/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Thursday, June 20, 2024
SO LONG, DONALD SUTHERLAND
You were always there in our lives, whether on the big or small screen, sometimes silly, sometimes serious, but in each instance, at the top of your game.
As such, you made every one of the following extra special: Don't Look Now; The Puppet Masters; Outbreak; Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Dr. Terrors House of Horrors; Castle of the Living Dead (aka Crypt of Horror); Bear Island; Eye of the Needle; The Dirty Dozen; Kelly's Heroes; Space Cowboys; A War Story; M*A*S*H; The Eagle Has Landed; Klute; Steelyard Blues; F.T.A.; 1900; Revolution; Cold Mountain; JFK; Bethune: Making of a Hero; Federico Fellini's Casanova; Witness to Yesterday; National Lampoon's Animal House; The First Great Train Robbery; Ordinary People; Backdraft; Six Degrees of Separation; John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent; Disclosure; The Italian Job 2003; Pride and Prejudice 2005; Fool's Gold; Fierce People; Baltic Storm; Dirty Sexy Money; Reign Over Me; The Hunger Games franchise; Kate Bush's steampunking video, "Cloudbursting," and with your son, Keifer, Forsaken, Max Dugan Returns and A Time to Kill.
Though I have many favorites among your queue, my top pick is that of Matthew Bennell, the California health inspector in Phil Kauffman's 1978 update of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, where you inserted the best of your everyman nuances, enough to make the movie's final scene one of cinema's most memorable.
Without discourse, you were one of the remaining greats, Mr. Sutherland, an artist of diverse views and astonishing talent, with an unforgettable body of work that acts as a pinnacle for all who strive to emote.
I saw The Bikeriders
The Bikeriders, based on the cultural report/photobook by Danny Lyon, chronicles an imprint of the nomadic exploits of the real-life Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle Club in the 1960s. Scripted and directed by Jeff (Midnight Special) Nichols, the culled concept should appeal to fans of Sons of Anarchy and such significant entries as The Wild One (in its own right a catalyst for Mad Max), The Loveless, Easy Rider, Knightriders, Hell Ride, Hell's Bells, The Wild Angels, Hell's Angels on Wheels, Angels Die Hard, The Losers, The Born Losers and other fine, "psychotronic" submissions that have gained fame through the drive-in circuit, VHS rentals and 1970s, UHF airings.
The Bikeriders also captures aspects of Hunter Thompson's new-journalistic Hell's Angels, as well as Jack Kerouac's inviting On the Road, creating an insouciant, though often unpredictable, counterculture climate.
In the case of Nichols' movie, the primary stars/characters are Jody Comer's Kathy, the sojourn's sincere reminiscer (who blends a gentle, Midwest twang, shaped by her Martin Scorsese and Jean Shepherd stylings); Austin Butler's Benny, Kathy's James Dean-ish spouse, who's on the hotheaded path of self-discovery; and Tom Hardy's Johnny, the cordial and pragmatic, Marlon Brando-ish Vandals leader.
Michael Shannon, Norman Reedus, Boyd Holbrook, Emory Coleman, Karl Glusman, Beau Knapp, Damon Herriman, David Myers Gregory, Happy Anderson, Toby Wallace and Mike Faist (as the interviewer) help flavor the story, as they delineate biker perspectives. All the same, the main trio serves the story its proper pulse, as the three demonstrate their courage to live off the grid. (Their philosophy is enhanced by Adam Stone's earthy imagery, David Wingo's reeved score and the movie's interjected tunes, queued in the manner of Goodfellas and Casino.) However, when amoral outsiders rattle the autonomous flow (building in dangerous phases over a decade), the Vandals' foundation begins to change for the worse, as the organization becomes one of hardened mobsters.
Though Kathy's voice offers a nice, female touch, The Bikeriders is a thorough throwback to old-time, virile promulgation. To its benefit, it never once forgets its salt-of-the-earth, tough-guy roots, which seep in spades from Johnny and Benny, who enact the power of paternal command and the frustrations associated with brotherly demands. The Bikeriders, therefore, evades boohoo sensibilities, even when it does get introspective, exposing the ideologies that mold those ballsy enough to totter on the cutting, pugnacious edge.
This unapologetic format (and the eminent direction/writing that assists it) keeps the depicted lifestyle as engrossing as any Middle Earth or Cimmerian escapade, with individuals and events bouncing off one another with mission-spurred coolness. In other words, these feral folks are meant to be admired and will be because The Bikeriders is unpretentious and character-geared from start to finish.
It should be, above all, noted that because The Bikeriders goes against today's all-inclusive trend is another of its strengths, and it's a strength comparable to The Wild One (a neo-western at heart), which in turn forged the biker-flick genre with its unobliging and unruly creed. That the genre has come full circle with Nichols' hearty slice-of-life is inspiring. The Bikeriders, like The Wild One, could (should) jump-start imitators, and if so, some will be crude to a fault in their attempts, but if they press the pedal of masculinity across cinematic lines, that's all the matters. Shameless, freedom-loving machismo is what our modern culture needs, even if the "cultivated" conformists quiver at the prospect.
RAVENWOOD & AIRSHIP 27 = 300TH RELEASE!
Ron Fortier, publisher of Airship 27 Productions, has just announced that Ravenwood, Stepson of Mystery, Vol 5, will be the company's 300th, New Pulp release.
The Ravenwood edition will include works by Dexter Fabi, Carson Demmons and yours truly, Michael Housel. The volume's mystical artwork is by the dynamic duo, Sam Salas and Adam Shaw.
Ravenwood, Stepson of Mystery #5 is reaching print, so revisit Bizarrechats for an official christening.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
ALMARK THAOLEN'S NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1984/MGM): AN ORWELL HOMAGE
The astounding Almark Thaolen shared with me a blast from his past: a 2013, tribute album to Michael Radford's cinematic interpretation of George Orwell's prognostic novel, Nineteen-Eighty Four/1984.
Almark combines all the right ingredients to make this four-part masterpiece click, including actual dialogue from the movie (pasted and rolled like a William S. Burrough's cut-up), sandwiched and smashed with rocketbombed reverberations and ample, ambient brackets. To all delicate and cautious ears, the album will epitomize Orwell's threat to the ingenious, subliminal tee!
The album builds an air of fear (as it should), but there's still a soothing shuffling to it all, where pain becomes pleasure and fiction, fact. It's a propagandized process that represents Winston and Julia's resistance and collapse, and as one listens, such comes to prophesize one's own.
Part 1: "Hate the Enemies" creates a startling, wake-up call, invoking the feel of being caught and dragged off for every thoughtcrime. It's also a track in which Almark gets devilish delight unspooling his interlocking, industrial gloom, as the selection slithers and crawls to perpetuate Orwell's dualities. What's up is down, but only for the moment. Today's friend may be tomorrow's foe.
Part 2: "Big Brother is Watching" is pure, looping paranoia. The eye is upon one, staring without acquittal in a circle of infinite rote. In this instance, Almark creates a doublethinking mood that darts the listener from proletarian station to imprisoned disgrace, without any hope to appease, let alone any chance to breathe.
Part 3: "The war continues" sows the Ministry of Truth's lies. War is over, even as it begins. Who is the antagonist? Is it you, me, him, her ... or maybe, just maybe, treacherous Emmanuel Goldstein, transmitting from some densely populated area of Eurasia, Eastasia or even Oceania? Of course, it's impossible to know, and so the radio-controlled tremors become faintly bird-chirped, persuading one to settle down and just go with the hypocritical flow.
Part 4: "The bleak existence of Totalitarian thought and deed" is the album's most hypnotic, brainwashed sample: a candy that's so sour that it tastes sweet. It's Winston's piteous hymn after he's been sequestered to Rm 101 and broken by the rats ... a numbing, machine-punched refrain of obedience, set in an unlocked cell where one shouts to the world an unconditional love for Big Brother.
Almark's tribute thrives on the same, plaintive level as Dominic Muldowney's soundtrack, the Eurythmics accompanying impressions of such, David Bowie's titular single and the Alan Parson Band's cloaked Eye in the Sky. It crashes down upon one's mind with a proclamation that requests reenactment. After all, when reminded of the loss of freedom, one warning (one listen) isn't enough.
Listen (and comply) at
https://synthoelectro.bandcamp.com/album/the-nineteen-eighty-four-show-1222013?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1EF90oAbkbGSBzmcH1udld1-GwUBj7FgkeVKpwY0Q4sqGZywNklN6E7U0_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw
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