Top 10 lists April 2006

Top 10 lists for March 2006

Spins

Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark
Bathory - Blood Fire Death
Bathory - Hammerheart
Rolling Stones - The London Years Singles Collection
Fairground Attraction - The First of a million kisses
Hafler Trio - 7 Hours Sleep
Edward Artemiev - Film music for Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris, Stalker and Mirror
M.O.D. - USA for MOD
Amon Tobin - Chaos Theory
Amon Tobin - Out from out where

Movies (by Director)

The Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Rublev - Andrei Tarkovsky
The Steamroller and the violin - Andrei Tarkovsky
Ivanovo Detstvo - Andrei Tarkovsky
Ubijtsi - Andrei Tarkovsky
TheBattleship Potemkin - Sergei M. Eisenstein
Alexander Nevsky - Sergei M. Eisenstein
Woman in the Dunes - Hiroshi Teshigahara
Brokeback Mountain - Ang Lee
The Wanderers - Philip Kaufman

Stagefright: Aquarius

I just stumbled across a Japanese version of a film called "STAGEFRIGHT" a few days ago by popular Italian director, Michele Soavi. The Japanese title is "AQUARIUS". My decision to buy it was purely based on the cover image which shows a posterized owl head, and the main picture is a stage full of corpses with this dude in the middle wearing a big owl head. I thought it looked pretty cheesy, but I was morbidly curious and it was only 100 yen anyway.

It's actually not as bad as it looks. I didn't expect much to begin with, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's a pretty good stylish piece of 80's Italian slasher film. It kinda drags for the first half before all the killing starts, but gets better in the second half. Towards the end it gets pretty creepy and tense. The acting is far from awesome, it's actually pretty bad but that was pretty much the standard for 80's movies slasher movies of this type anyhow. All this aside, it's still worth watching at least once. The music is pretty much your standard 80's Goblin rip-off, with heavy synth, drum machine, phased guitar, etc...

There isn't much of a plot to this, and you never really get too close to the characters. The director is a complete ass, another guy is an over-the-top gay stereotype with a lisp, the other actors are pretty much just faceless victims.

Anyway the basic plot is that a killer wearing a big owl mask goes apeshit at a light-night rehearsal for a musical. How did he get the owl mask? OK, well, the killer is a guy who happened to break out of an insane asylum the same night and he goes to the rehearsal and kills the gay guy, hides his body, then steals his costume, including the owl head.

All the actors become trapped in the building when the key is lost, and the only person who knows where it is has been murdered. The reason she has the only key is because the director is a major hard-ass and makes them work all night by locking them in the building.

For the first 40 minutes or so, the characters pretty much just stand around and talk or complain about nothing in particular, or rehearse their shitty musical. But once Mr. Owlhead comes into the picture, it doesn't take long for him to polish everyone off. The murder scenes are pretty well done, with the FX being pretty mediocre: pick-axe through the mouth, stabbing, chainsawing, drill impalation, an axe decapitation and a chick gets ripped in half.

One of the best scenes involves a stabbing during a rehearsal of the play. The killer (the guy who escapes from the mental institution) is mistaken for the gay actor in the play, and proceeds to stab the victim in front of everyone. It cuts between shots of the killer attacking her and close-ups of each of the witnesses faces, showing their confusion and horror.

The other memorable and somewhat famous scene of the killer hanging around on the stage with his victims is pretty creepy. It ends with him sitting down and stroking a cat, with his victims lying all over the stage, and a fan blowing feathers around the stage with music playing in the background. It has little meaning, but it's still pretty awesome.

Anyway, check it out. It should also be noted that this director worked with Dario Argento on a few of his films, so I think he got his "basic training" from Argento.

Quote of the day

Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of Jalapenos. What you do today might burn your ass tomorrow.
(unknown, taken from the Melvins book)

By the way, check out Melvins site, there's no information, no news, just silly mindfuck games. It's pure lunacy...
http://www.melvins.com

Allan Holdsworth

I'm sure many guitarists and musicians know his name, but how many actually know his music and have recognized his genius? His amazing and unique superhuman speed and techniques are widely respected and acknowledged by important guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen, Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, just to name a few. But why isn't he a household name, like some of the above musicians?

I DO admit, it took me a long time to truly appreciate his music. His music is not for anyone who isn't willing to spend the time listening to it. What sets him apart from most players is his SENSE and that's really difficult to analyze.

A lot of guitar players only like the songs that he's NOT using the Synthaxe on. I was one of those people, but I've finally gotten past the cold sound and the cheesiness of it and I've learned to appreciate the MUSIC itself...

Other things about his SENSE. He sometimes just ends a song on a dime, in the middle of a blistering solo. He'll put the sound of a toilet flushing followed by a guy yelling in the background "HEY!!!, HEY!!!!!!, what're you guys playing? ......... Jazz?! ....... is that what you call that?!" at the end of a song. He sometimes has guest vocalists singing bizarre kind of science fiction lyrics in really angular stylings.

He is so fucking fast and precise, he makes even Steve Vai look embarrassing, and when you watch him, he's no even breaking a sweat. His hands look like they're barely moving. You're asking yourself, "Where the hell are all these fucking notes coming from?" But it's not just speed for the sake of being fast. His techniques are flawless and every note is carefully calculated and in perfect balance, complimenting the song, not burying it meaningless notes, which many shredders do.

His design sense is pretty strange, to say the least I guess, depending on your tastes in design. Take a look at any of his cover designs, you could say that many of them are pretty cheesy, but somehow they work and they also fit the music.

I was only a casual Allan Holdsworth listener a few years ago, but now I am a huge fan. My only complaint is that he doesn't release an album very often. He's rarely released any live recordings until recent years, probably because of his perfectionist nature.

Anyway I recommend the best place to start is with "I.O.U" which is widely regarded as his best album. Next I'd dive into "Wardenclyffe Tower", the short but sweet "Road Games" or the fairly recent "Sixteen Men of Tain", all masterpieces. Then I'd approach his more synth-heavy albums like "Atavachron" "Sand" and "Flat Tire".

Check out his homepage for info, discography, interviews and more here.

Portfolio Addition

Just added another image of a flyer I designed to the portfolio section. Check it out. I may add a 3rd photo page soon. Also going to start working on a new video as soon as I get some decent footage ro work with. Cheers...

Stupid Animal Desktops for Kelly Churko (and anyone else who finds them amusing)

New Brunswick Slang 5

UP-OVERHEAD \'up-oh-vur-'hed\ n - The attic in a house or barn (the loft). Note that these structures are often connected in the typical regional style:

EX.1: "I'm goan up-overhead t' look fer my porno mags."
EX.2: "I hid the weed up oerhead so the pigs can't find it.

Website: Minor Update

Just added another poster in the portfolio section, it's the 2nd in a series of posters I'm doing for myself as a promotion tool. I hope to have enough money to print a few of these sometime. I'm also working on a few T-Shirt designs that I AM going to print in limited numbers, so I'll keep you posted on it.

Walk The Line

Hollywood misses the mark once again on this embarrassing watered down sub-standard documentary about country legend Johnny Cash. This is one of the worst scripts in Hollywood history and it sure doesn't paint a very genuine picture of June and Johnny. The movie covers so little of his life and seems to focus on only the negative aspects, like his alcoholism and drug addiction and we get next to nothing about his history before he started his recording career.

Joaquin Phoenix is absolutely terrible who has NO redeeming qualities about him. Somehow he manages to suck all the engaging essence and charisma out of Johnny and what we are left with is quite a morbid portrayal of his life. The only good thing about this movie is Reese Witherspoon's imitation of June Carter, which at times is almost spot-on. I usually hate her, but it seems she actually tried to act this time around.

This movie is a huge disservice to the Man in Black. Johnny is most definitely rolling over in his grave. This movie is obviously a poor attempt to cash in on the memories of two legendary performers who are still in the minds of the people who really care. Hollywood DOES NOT care about anything except making MONEY.

After I watched this film, I had to listen to a Johnny Cash CD just to wipe my memory clean of ever having seen this film. I can't believe how many glowing reviews of this movie I have read, people praising it up and down. Man, people have become so conditioned that I don't think they know what's good and what's not good, they just let the media dictate their choices.

I think this may be the last time I ever watch a new film that Hollywood produces. Nuff said.

Osaka's Homeless

I was in and around Tennoji, Nishinari and the Kamagasaki areas a few weeks ago and took these shots of the homeless people. I didn't want to get too close, because many of them don't like having their picture taken, especially by a gaijin. Let me say this. Anyone who thinks their life is miserable because they don't have enough money to buy a new i-Pod or Louis Vitton bag should be FORCED to spend a few days or a week in one of those areas living like the homeless people do. We have so much, yet we still whine about wanting more, me included.

About one third of Japan's estimated 25,000 homeless people (and that's a very rough estimate in my opinion) are based in Osaka. Recently, in January this year, nearly all the homeless people were evicted from Osaka Castle Park, but mind you, not without a stand-off with the police at Utsubo Park. (Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4661152.stm).

About 2 years before that, the homeless were kicked out of Tennoji Park because some people living in that area complained about how much "noise" they were making. Seems funny that in the exact same area, next to the park, there is a zoo, which is most definitely more noisy than a few homeless people minding their own business. I used to enjoy going to Tennoji Park all the time, all the drunks would be set up during the daytime playing Shogi (similar to chess) and singing Karaoke and having fun. To my knowledge, they never bothered anyone at night. Now it's dead there and everything is fenced off so to deter the homeless from returning.

I guess now, a lot of them seem to be living along the Sakuragawa river, Nishinari ku, around Shinimamiya station and other scattered areas, like under train bridges, overpasses, etc.

This problem is largely ignored by the government, the city and the public. The solution always seems to be to kick 'em out. That's not providing any solutions or help for these people at all. That's the same thing as hiring an exterminator to eliminate a pest problem. Eventually, they'll come back, small in numbers in the beginning, but gradually increasing. You just can't move them around forever, their numbers have steadily increased in the last decade, and it will continue to increase.

The city's other solution to the homeless problem is sending them to "self-support" centres where they can pick up a day's work for less than minimum wage doing shit jobs. Actually, the social services which Osaka provides to homeless people are among the best in Japan – but that doesn't automatically mean they are good. In my opinion, it's only making a small difference.

It's interesting because some homeless people I've seen have some pretty nice set-ups and they look pretty happy, happier than the average salaryman I see walking by, who usually looks completely desperate, irritated and empty. I've heard that some homeless used to have "normal" jobs but chose to become homeless because they were just fed up with the rigid uniformity of the Japanese system. And you know what, I don't blame them.

Anyway, if you want to read more, check out these links. My writing is not so good, so maybe these links will help you get a clearer picture:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4661152.stm
http://www.cosmicbuddha.com/adam/archives/001836.html
http://www.lookat.ch/index.php/imagecatalogue/image/list/55
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/7076/japan.html
http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/tell_story.1474.html