I hate a lot of you

I’m going to start berating people for being fucking stupid online. EXAMPLE It doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t like them. They just need to be told. No I don’t want to buy you or any of my friends. I don’t even care how much you cost. Grow up. No I don’t want to join the Mobsters either. I’m also not interested in Becoming a legend on myspace. Are you people for real? I’m very careful to be friends with people online who are of adult age and hopefully mature enough for me to tolerate. That means that all these people are at least chronologically speaking, adults. What gives here? I am only 9 years younger than the man who will be the next president of the United States and people I associate with want me to “buy them” online and “join their Mob.” I’m so confused as to which direction the world is moving sometimes.

Really?

So somehow the political discussion in this country has become focused on trying to find prominent religious leaders who DON'T say or do anything crazy. Really? Now think about this for a minute. Just the fact that someone would believe in God at all means that their intellectual abilities are in need of some question. To be a leader in this area it's pretty much a prerequisite that you say and do things that are ugly beyond reason at the very least. Jews believe that they are born different and thus better than non Jews, Christians are anti Semitic simply by virtue of identification. Muslims are sanctioned by God to commit violence toward people who don't agree with them (and women). They all think they can talk to God and pick and choose from his words as they see fit. They have the world convinced that if you disagree with their insane, convoluted set of rules dictated to them by an imaginary friend that you must be silenced. These people are all nuts and have no place in contemporary politics. How about everybody just leave this stuff off the table as not to make themselves look any worse than they already do? I mean, it's already clear that John McCain is a stupid, out of touch, GOP tool who has nothing new or valuable to bring to the country. He doesn't need any more help with his image. Those who like those qualities can vote for him and Barack Obama would do well to stay out of the muck.

Hilary Clinton is just a paranoid delusional has-been, that never really was. The only reason we know who she is, is because of her husband. Hooray for women’s lib!

DJ's suck

Real music production has nothing to do with turntables so if you use turntables to make a remix, that does not make you a PRODUCER. It makes you a DJ. Nothing more. This fact should be made obvious by the use of recordings which have obviously been PRODUCED by a real PRODUCER at some point in time prior to your shenanigans. Also, if you use nothing but sample loops and Reason, (fucking pathetic) you are not automatically a producer or even a musician. It is questionable weather or not you are worthy of basic human rights at that point. Really people, stop wasting the precious oxygen the rest of us deserve. This is probably more energy than this topic deserves but it just festers in my brain if I don't let it out.

I feel better now.

REPO! (the phantom of) the genetic opera (you dare not mock us)

Oh the pain of the genetic opera. It's so hard to know where to begin.

Let me just start by saying that the use of the word "opera" instead of "musical" is suspect. There really is a lot going on there in choosing that one word. Here in the US people place a lot of stock in "OPERA" as having a somewhat more classic and respected place in the arts than musicals. Even though opera is really just the Italian forefather of musicals. There isn't much of a definitional distinction between the two. It's a common tactic of those who feel the need to justify their own validity (such as the contemporary Goth community) to elevate ideas above others by simply arguing semantic points. "Opera is better than musicals therefore you are required to take us seriously" or "You dare not mock us" may as well be added to the already pretentious title.

OK, wound up on the use of one word is a very minor point so I shouldn't get hung up on it (too late, I know.) I'll move on.

The origin:
It came from a screenplay written by Darren Smith & Terrance Zdunich, two completely out of touch knobs who make some shit music that they somehow have hoodwinked people into regarding as listenable. I'll move on for now and get back to the music later. I watched a few youtube clips of the "MUSICAL" as it was originally performed. After determining that it was in fact real and not a joke, I'd have to say the placement of water boarding on the list of unacceptable tortures employed by our government has just moved down a notch. 20 seconds in I found myself feeling what it must have been like to be stuck in that theater not being able to leave. Interminable. "I'll tell you the location of the rebel base if you just let me sit in the lobby"

The director:
Darren Lynn Bousman. I really don't need to say much, a quick IMDB search will inform you on his broad and dynamic career directing and writing the SAW series of films. Needless to say I don't hold a lot of respect for the man. It's easy to see what's going on here. He has some kind of staying power with the SAW series, because of this the heads can't dismiss him outright. They really want to test his metal by throwing him a turd to see if he can make it float. A turd filled with pure 14th century Gothic lead. Will he be able to turn lead to gold, extract the gold and thus make the turd float? Only time will tell, and that (by the way) is a movie I'd like to see instead of this one.

The cast: (Fuck yeah i've been salivating to get to this one)
Some of you you may be aware that I do not hold a regular job. This fact may lead you to believe that I have enough time on my hands to adequately discuss how bad this cast is. Alas, not even I can afford such luxuries. Check them out for yourself!

• Alexa Vega as Shilo Wallace
• Paul Sorvino as Rotti Largo
• Shawnee Smith as Amber Sweet
• Bill Moseley as Luigi Largo
• Anthony Head as Nathan Wallace / Repo Man
• Sarah Brightman as Blind Mag
• Nivek Ogre as Pavi Largo

Lets just say that the people in this lineup who aren't completely wrong for this type of production are just simply wrong for most productions. Even Ogre can't escape the shit pileup. But really, you could tell he was done with the latest Skinny Puppy album and tour. Hang it up old man. It's only cool when you're strung out.

The plot:
Typical post apocalyptic gobbledygook. Completely unoriginal and contrived. Terrance and Darren need to grow up and realize we're all past this one dimensional pablum. Um, I think reality passed up this storyline in 1997 you asshat's. The plot centers around a company called GeneCo, gimme a break. Really? GeneCo?!?!? how long did that take to come up with? Terrance and Darren, could you please try harder? The 80's are on line 3 and they want their cliche's back.

The music:
It's crap. A bunch of gothic out of tune squaller and "creepy voices" blended with some not so gritty "edgy" guitar treatments (a la NIN, Powerman 5000 Rob Zombie.) YAY!!!! Not enough of this music exists already I'm so glad there will be more!

Oh fuck can I go on? Sure I can but I need to wrap this up.

I can't for the life of me figure out why anybody would think this movie needed to be made. I can only figure that the rising visibility of goth culture and the resurgence of musicals had to have a collision set by destiny. Bad taste and poor execution have never found such a home together as in this film.

All of that inspired by THE TRAILER.

Today I finished a holiday banner design for Drakes Erotica.
Shezam!

I love that I've just designed a non denominational holiday sign for a sex shop collecting children's toys for battered women. LA is a gas sometimes.

We support this government

UNBELIEVABLE
It's amazing to realize that without US support, the Saudi government would be challenged to change. This shit wouldn't happen. But our government gives money and political support to the monarchy in exchange for a military base. They also issue a free pass to keep the neighbors in check as we see fit. It's all passed off as "respecting other cultures." It's funny how lesser atrocities were recently used to justify wiping out Afghanistan and Iraq. I guess if its JUST women who are being subjugated then it's OK with our government. I'm not sorry to say that I'm perfectly fine with disrespecting a culture that could treat it's people so badly.

Taser Parties

I just saw a segment on CNN about "Taser parties". My first thought upon seeing the headline was brain dead frat guys getting blasted and tasing each other. Hopefully with fatal or near fatal results. I got excited. How sad I was to find that it was merely a Tupperware style party for self protection. Oh well. I can only hope some bright young college student gets the same idea and actually puts it into action.

Maybe I could start a web hoax a la Jenkem.

Amy Winehouse

Hhmmmm, where do I begin? oh I got it! Who fuckin cares?

B4 I wake

This is the final weekend to see B4 I Wake. I wrote the score and I did sound design for this ambitious theater production. Tickets are $10.00 and I would suggest getting on this ASAP because theater seating is limited. Here's what people are saying.

"Barry Rowell's surrealistic theatre piece is billed as a retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but the classic novel serves primarily as a springboard for a bizarre collage of sights and sounds. Director Ezra Buzzington and his design team have pulled out all stops to create a visually and aurally arresting spectacle, but the ultimate point remains fuzzy.

Rowell's premise is that the bloodsucking Count Dracula (unseen) has broken the neck of the imprisoned lunatic Renfield (Brad C. Light) - an incident from the novel. From there, Rowell attempts to imagine what might have flashed through Renfield's brain in the seconds before he died. Stoker characters come and go, including Mina (Grace Eboigbe), Jonathan (Ron Morehouse), Dr. Seward (Lisa Clifton), Van Helsing (Marz Richards), Lucy (Elizabeth Liang), and three sisters, played by Gabby Sanalitro, Julia Prud'homme, and a cross-dressing Joel Scher.

Monitors on the side walls display a wide range of strking video images, created by Donna Mathewson - for example, laboratory shots of a beating heart. Cinematographer Nickolas Rossi's periodic filmed sequences show a sea captain (Darrett Sanders) who shouts orders to a crew. The pertinence of these sequences is unclear. Drew Pluta's sound design, including rock music, enhances the creepy ambiance. The lively early scenes bring to mind the cheeky subversion that drives The Rocky Horror Show, but ...b4 I Wake quickly gets down to the business at hand : a stream-of-conciousness fantasy that's largely incaccessible. It's somewhat like Night of the Living Dead by way of James Joyce's Ulysses, an odd mix indeed."

Les Spindle

Backstage West

Read the review in BUZZINE

And from Flavorpill
B4 I Wake is for anyone who ever read Bram Stoker's Dracula and
thought the revered classic lacked a certain something. The dark and
mischievous minds at beloved Hollywood repertory company Theatre of
NOTE have figured out the problem: it wasn't weird enough. Also, it
needed music. Loud, sexy rock music. Writer Barry Rowell and director
Ezra Buzzington bring their collective experiences to bear in this
exuberantly macabre splicing of disparate genres. Think Phantom of the
Paradise crossed with Dark Shadows and maybe a little bit of The
Hunger. Best to bring some garlic, or at least someone to hold your
hand.