Another Hollywood crush (not quite): GEMMA ATERTON

Here's a nice little beauty which I wouldn't have thought would have garnered my interest but her acting chops actually outshined her quite obvious physical beauty! Gemma Aterton most probably gathered the most attention as a one-shot Bond girl in one of those Daniel Craig Bond films (more on those at a later date, don't ge me started right here and now!) or as the main love interest in the video game film adaptation of Price Of Persia, but to me she'll always be Grettel, from that Witch Hunters flick alongside Jeremy Renner. Yeah, you may know that film since it was quite a monumental flop on all sides (critics and viewers), but I found myself having fun during the film, and sometimes, fun is pretty much all you need. I mean look at The Meg, for example: it is totally stupid by all accounts, and simply can not be taken seriouosly, but it was campy fun nonetheless. Anyway, Gemma's quite a catch and I thought I would just showcase her here on this post because, well... It's my blog after all, and I am basically allowing myself to do whatever the (BLEEP) I want!

THEY LIVE: The video game!

Anyone who knows me knows I am a John Carpenter fan, and yes, that also means I am quite the fan of his 1988 outing "They Live", which has been getting more and more exposure over the last couple of years due to it's rather relevant and relevatory nature in today's post Y2K consumer society. Now I am not one of those who claim that "They Live" was about denouncing a specific creed or belief, but I do believe that the basic underlying theme of the film does represent quite adequately our roles as "cattle" to the less than 1% who control the world through corporations-governments-media.

Anyway a while ago I found this fake video game image someone made which mocks up the "Double Dragon" game from the 80s arcades into "They Live" with Nada and Frank, against the "elite" that only they can see. I thought it was quite well made and even though it has been online for quite some time, I thought I would re-share here on my blog, for kicks' sake. Below is a short clip from the film, the street preacher's mologue which pretty much sums up part of my philosophy ...




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great album covers: Paul Schütze ‎– New Maps Of Hell

I haven't done one of these in a while and thought it appropriate after all the weirdness happening on this blog of late. Nothing much to say except that if you familiar with Paul Schütze's music in the early-mid 90s, this album is not very different; offering more of his thickly-layered improvised multi-intruments grooves and textures. However the opening track (the 2-minute intro, if you will) seems to be in perfect sync with the cover design, another one of those "thematics" from the then Extreme label. They too released a lot of interesting music as well as very interesting covers which all followed a format, but "New Maps Of Hell" easily ranks up there amongst some of my favorites.

yet another Hollywood crush: April Bowlby

In this little sniplet of a post I am self-imposing strictly as a personnal service to my own self (and so you are in effect but a voyeur to stumble upon this post and gawk at your own risk!), I am showcasing actress April Bowlby who has been terribly represented in most of Hollywood but came to my attention a while ago when I learned she was cast to play Rita Farr in the live-action version of my all-time favorite comic book, DOOM PATROL. Here are a few pictures of her as Rita Farr...

As I write this one, I saw the infamous TITANS episode called "Doom Patrol" in which a Young teen "BEast Boy" and another teen girl end up in the mansion where The Chief Niles Caulder and the rest of the Doom Patrol (Cliff Steele, Larry Trainor and Rita Farr) are residing. In terms of introducing the characters, it was very enjoyable due to the fact that I have been a die-core fan of the Doom Patrol since the Grant Morrison era (and yes, I even enjoyed the Rachel Pollack era, but after that, the DP just returned to being another generic super hero team), and the characters were fun to watch being fleshed out. I was not impressed by the teen Titans themselves though, as they came off as typical millenials and somewhat generic and forgettable.

My only real beef in what the series appears to be (I haven't watched any épisodes yet) is that Rita Farr and Crazy Jane don't appear in the same "timeline"; Rita Farr was one of the original characters, a very glam 50s movie actress who was written off the team many years ago, and Crazy Jane is a very late 80s product straight out of Morrison's Madness. Also the inclusion of "Cyborg" and other Young folks which have Nothing to do with the Doom Patrol was an obvious marketing ploy to attract the target/young audience. Even the casting of Crazy Jane seems to be of a 16 year old girl, instead of the "defective" woman whe was in the original comics. Still, seeing April as Rita is a good choice, Cliff voiced by Brendan Fraser quite apt, and Negative Man (Larry Trainor) by Matt Bomer is also a fun one. And of course, Timothy Dalton as The Chief, well... that's nailing it right! Oh and Alan Tudik as Mr Nobody? That should be fun!

P.S.: I came up with the title for the band The Impromptu Theater Noise Project's 1-minute piece "The Brain In Jar", a non-subtle direct homage to a specific Grant Morrison comic book issue of the Doom Patrol:

In case you did not see it: The Return Of The Impromptu Theater Noise Project!

Yes, as the title suggests, the second full length album from the mayhem noise improvised quatuor The Impromptu Theater Noise Project is out now, and you can Stream it for free by following the link below. It's not an easy listen, but it is quite quirky, tongue-in-cheek, both sinister as well as self-aware. It,s just plain good fun for people who enjoy noise! Check it out, if you haven't done already:


https://wrk69.bandcamp.com/album/return-of-the-impromptu-theater-noise-project

There's more stuff from the project available out there, such as three stand-alone tracks, but you will have to do a bit of searching by your own self for those ones!

Happy birthday to me!

I almost forgot but it's my birthday today! Only a couple before I turn REALLY REALLY old (the 50 one!) and then, well... I will be officially old indeed!

More on Fritz (the Beto character)

Well I was trying to find a better way to give myself an excuse to showcase more of Fritz (the Gilbert "Beto" Hernandez character) but I couoldn't do so without either arousing suspicion or just getting stuff not quite friendly for the format of this blog. So I decided instead of just doing this:

A cast of characters from both Jamie and Beto's universes, in a raw black and white version

Luba, Petra, and Fritz identified and singled out

There was a time when I could easily identify at least three quarters of the characters printed above (and these are but a very small portion of the characters the Hernandez brothers created!) but it has been so long that I have forgotten most of them! Sorry about that! Anyway, as I said, just more excuses to showcase the delights of Petra and Fritzi!