Interview - Martin Smith

I'm going to try something a little different and hopefully I can keep this going as a feature, the plan is to try and get an interview with people whose work I'm into. I'll try and get an insight into why they do what they do and also what kind of stuff they're into themselves.


Without further ado, here's my first interview! Ladies and gentlemen Mr. Martin Smith

Mr.Martin Smith and his best ever pic!

First of all, for those unfamiliar with your work, tell us a little about yourself.

I'm Martin, a Welsh small press comic creator of superhuman size and strength! I write and self-publish horror comics under the Attackosaur banner, selling them at various UK conventions and through my website, the snappily titled Attackosaur.com. My hobbies include labouring away at a film degree at Aberystwyth University.

Why Attackosaur Comics?

In an effort to appear more professional than I actually am - more like a company and less like a guy with £60 worth of software and a box of comics under his bed - I thought I should use some kind of logo. Marvel have one. I needed more things that they have. With dinosaurs being my one true love and the only thing I'm any kop at drawing (not that much kop, mind), I settled on Attackosaur. It's a dinosaur, but he attacks things. Instead of dino-ing things. Naturally.

How and why did you get into the comic book industry?

Sadly, I don't think I'm in it. I'm super excited to be part of the UK small press industry though, if industry is the right word. I got into making comics through film. For years, I'd spend every waking hour writing film scripts. Eventually, I realised that I was always having to scale my ideas back for financial or taste reasons ("There's no way I can get an actor to do that on camera!"). Then, I think I saw the movie adaptation of American Splendor and realised that all comics aren't just made by huge companies sitting on scripts for years at a time. Having been into them ever since reading From Hell as a teenager, I figured comics would solve all of the problems I'd had with the restrictions of screenwriting. Of course, it's completely different from screenwriting in almost every way, but by the time I understood that I was well into it and enjoying it as its own medium. 

What was your first book and how do you feel about it now with hindsight?

It was a slow-burning horror set during the Blitz called Paralysis. I find it impossibly clunky in places now - the story hits some of the right notes, but in really clumsy ways that would need much more room than I gave them - but I'm still proud of it. I still think it's a fun story, though it must've been a nightmare for the artist to draw all that talking and brooding. I was going for an old-fashioned Vincent Price kinda vibe and I think that still comes through. Just seeing the comic in print was magic, to be honest. I damn near did a little wee when I first saw someone else's drawing of a character I thought up.

Over the course of your other releases how do you feel your skill as a writer has developed?

My old scripts make me cringe a little, which is a good sign! The Arvon Foundation were amazing and gave me a grant to be able to attend a week-long comics workshop with Bryan Talbot (Grandville, Luther Arkwright) and Hannah Berry (Britten & Brulightly) which was invaluable, smashing home the insane amount of thought that needs to go into every detail of every panel. After devouring as many writing books as is humanly possible (anything by David Mamet or Scott McCloud is absolute gold), I'm much more confident with story structure. Still wonky on other things, mind! I'm currently digging into retro comics (e.g. Simon & Kirby) for inspiration. 

What are you working on right now?

I'm working with a top-notch artist named Nicolas Giacondino on a new exorcism-based comic called Devil Executioner. I'm lettering the pages for that as they come in. Not having a huge distribution machine or the brilliant marketing skills of a Stan Lee, I have to work in one-shots. Developing a series is a bit more than I can afford or handle at the moment. That said, I love one-shots. There's something satisfying about finishing a script and moving onto completely different material. All of them being self-contained gives me a handy leg-up with the sales aspect as well. It's much easier to convince someone to take a chance on a single comic.

So do you think you may create a series later on down the road or are you happy to keep producing one shots?

If I come up with a cool enough idea I'll be back on it in a flash for another one-shot. Quite happy to leave it at one if that doesn't happen, mind. A series is expensive stuff when you can't draw! (Though I'm trying to learn, so fingers crossed.

Anything in the pipeline after you finish Devil Executioner?

I'm hammering away at a couple of horrors. The first is a dirty little thing set in Wales - I'm trying to do a little for Wales of what Tobe Hooper did for Texas - and the other is a historical murder mystery set after the fall of the Knights Templar in the 14th Century. There might even be a sword-fight in that one!

You mentioned earlier that you're from Wales, and you've said you're working on something set in Wales. Do you think that being Welsh and in Wales helps or hinders you in any way or do you even think it has any influence on your work?

It's a bit of a hindrance in that I'm pretty far away from most of the conventions and comic shops that I could otherwise pester into stocking one of my comics. As far as stopping me breaking in or anything like that, I don't think it matters that much. Alan Moore is a comics god and he's from Northampton. I can think of only one thing from Northampton, and it's him. As for how much it influences my work, I couldn't really say. It makes me want to write stories about Wales though, especially considering how invisible the country is in popular media. I wish that made Welsh stuff exotic in some way, but I don't reckon it does. The Scots and the Irish are always stealing our non-English thunder!

One of the features of your work, and in particular A Rope Around Your Broken Neck, is the depth of the research that seems to go into each book. Is the research a part of writing that you enjoy?

Love it! I tend to choose an idea to develop depending on how interesting the research is going to be. I sometimes get carried away and do more than is really necessary, but it always leads to new ideas and the sort of perspective you can't really get from anywhere other than real life accounts. If my knowledge of a subject completely comes from films and comics I've read about it, I feel like whatever I produce will be kind of false and removed from reality by an extra layer. If I write a story about a secret agent and don't go beyond watching Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible, I'm basing my story on a fictional account of reality and not reality itself. I've let someone else decide for me which are the most interesting parts of the job. I'd be writing a comic about spy movies rather than spies, if that makes sense.

Do you find that the story is easier to write once you get into the research or do you find it sometimes means you can't go in directions you were thinking about?

It's easier when you find great little details you can use and when, as with Paralysis, the situation lends itself to the character's mood and the atmosphere, but it can totally mess with your plans. A Rope Around Your Broken Neck completely changed. The original pitch was 'The Fugitive during the Great Plague of London.' Harrison Ford was going to have the plague and this doctor would chase him down in his creepy outfit. There was a big sword-fight at the end and everything! The research, though, was brutal. The Great Plague by Stephen Porter is one of the most horrific things I've ever read. What seemed like a fascinating subject at first, a fun backdrop for an action comic, was of course in reality one of the most tragic things to ever happen to the country. Reading account after account of slow, agonising death with weekly death tolls in their thousands stopped me from ever being able to write something as trivial as an action story in that setting. It's easy to gloss over it because it's not in recent memory, but think of having a half dozen 9/11s every week. I didn't feel comfortable using something like that as a backdrop. If that's in a story, for me, that is the story. I'd still like to rip off The Fugitive at some point, mind. I'll just have to set it somewhere nice. 

What do you hope to achieve in the future?

It'd be lovely to be paid to write full time, but I'm perfectly happy to keep knocking out self-published comics until I am but a useless husk of a man. 

Right then seeing as the point of me setting up the site was to try and put people on to the stuff I enjoy and to be positive about the all the great art that's out there right now, I've decided that I'll try and get the people I interview to give a few recommendations for stuff to check out and an insight into their favourite films/books/music.

From a creative stand point who influences you and why/how?

Kazuo Koike, definitely. The massive amount of research that seems to have gone into Lone Wolf and Cub is insane. It feels like you could read them as history books alone even if they didn't have those brilliant, mostly stand-alone stories. The amount of drama he can wangle out of the smallest details is astonishing. The other big one, I'd say, is the crime author Jim Thompson. The way he bends what could've been a run-of-the-mill genre piece like The Getaway into a deeply personal, massively disturbing story is blinding. He takes a bog-standard plot like "A couple of bank robbers escape from the law after a heist goes wrong" and when you put it down it feels like he's smashed you in the face with a shovel.

Aside from comics what other things are you into?

Oh, um. All sorts of horror films, video games, dragging my sorry near-corpse through music festivals, and that kind of thing.

Have you read any good books lately?

The Green River Killer. Brilliant serial killer story written by the son of the lead investigator on the real life case. With his personal connection to the investigator, it kind of reads like a serial killer version of Maus.

Just to put you on the spot, could you please name your three favourite books of all time?

All time favourite 3 books: I'll just go with comics. Top 3 novels would probably be all Jim Thompson ones anyway! Lone Wolf and Cub (Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima) for the reasons I mentioned earlier. The artwork is stunning as well. Preacher (Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon) for its absolute insanity. I re-read the whole lot like once a year and it just gets better. Road to Perdition (Max Allan Collins, Richard Piers Rayner) has to get a spot too. Lone Wolf and Cub meets The Untouchables. What's not to love? The comic has a great deal more crazy John Woo-style gunplay than the film (which was also brilliant) and the pen and ink style artwork rocks my socks. I love that kinda look. Eddie Campbell's ace at that.

What's the best film you've seen lately?

Indie Game: The Movie is a brilliant indie documentary about the creators of Fez and Super Meat Boy. It's not technical at all. It deals with the pitfalls of creating art, that kind of thing. I can't help but feel for Phil Fish when he's standing around at a convention looking terrified as people walk past his game. I gave them $5 on Kickstarter. Best $5 I ever spent!

Top three favourite films?

Jurassic Park is my all-time favourite anything by a country mile. Perfect cast, perfect score, ground-breaking effects that still look amazing, and all the dinosaurs you can eat. The scene where Sam Neill sees his first live dinosaur still gives me chills. The bit where the T-Rex looks through the jeep window still makes me do a little wee. I'm a big fan of westerns, but none of them have messed me up quite as much as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Casey Affleck's performance is seriously heart-breaking and the whole thing looks just stunning and the score by Nick Cave and (the other) Warren Ellis is... Well, I'm running out of different ways to call this film brilliant! The film I watch more than absolutely any other - not including a huge Fight Club phase I had ten years back - is a documentary called American Movie. I must've seen this thing about 50 times. It's about a guy who lives in the middle of nowhere trying to raise enough money to make his dream film. It's so funny that the first time I caught it on TV I assumed it was a Spinal Tap for film-makers. The main guy is a fascinating dude and something of a cautionary tale for anyone making their own stuff.

What are you listening to at the moment?

I'm absolutely useless at keeping up with new music, I'm afraid. DJ Format's latest album, mentioned in this fine establishment, is one of the best things I've heard in ages. Definitely go get that baby. Um. I'm loving a band (or just a man, I'm not sure) called College at the moment. They/he did that song from the super amazingly brilliant film Drive. Everything else I've heard is mostly instrumental stuff, but it's got a great 80s dancey vibe. One more. I won't lie. I'm listening to Justin Timberlake a lot. The man's pretty brilliant. Decent actor too!

If you could make the people reading this check out three musicians, who would you recommend?

I'm not very good at describing why I like music and I still haven't come up with any more words for 'brilliant', so I'll make this bit quick. Rough top 3 off the top of my head would have to include Nine Inch Nails, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and Joy Division.

Finally (in the interest of plugging your stuff) why should people check your stuff out?

Like Lloyd Kaufman, I don't have anyone to tell me off for writing stupid stuff. There's always the very real chance that it might get a bit too silly or a bit too personal. You don't tend to have that problem with Marvel stuff, brilliant as some of it is. This applies to the whole small press industry (I'm desperately trying not to use the word 'scene'). It's a great reason to try any self-financed, for-the-love-of-the-game comic books. If you can get to a convention, the place will be full of great comics trying things you'd rarely see come out of the big two. I once bought a Judge Reinhold mini-biography which came with a badge and a word search! I'm going to leave it to my grandkids! (If I don't have any, I'll leave it to someone else's.)

That's that and hopefully you all enjoyed the interview. Once again you should all go and spend a few pennies over at attackosaur.com and support Martin.

Thanks for reading!

Mechagodzeala

Long Live The Kane

Just wanted to post this video from Vlad TV of the genius that is Big Daddy Kane speaking about the Beastie Boys.

Laters

MechagodZeala

Ain't No Clowns In This Posse

Apologies that I've gone quiet on here again but between work and the Summer League (a local football league I warm the bench in) I haven't had a lot of time to be active on here, I aim to rectify that this week.

This post is about the superb Mister Jason album Mister Jason presents: Frankensteez. Now prior to a few months ago my knowledge of Mister Jason began and ended with him being a producer on the MF Doom/MF Grimm collab track Doomsday. Honestly that's all I knew the dude for, I'm pretty late to the table on this one but better late than never. I noticed on Twitter that one of my favourite bands, Fingathing (review coming soon), linked to the Mister Jason song 'Mister Jason Has A Posse' so I checked it out. Four and a half minutes later I was picking up the pieces of my newly blown mind. This is the best Posse cut hip hop has ever heard! There are 26 rappers on this track!!! 26!!! I'll say it one more time...26!!! Each rapper spits four lines for their assigned letter of the alphabet over Mister's Jason's thumping drums and on point stabs. Now I'm not going to name every rapper on the track but there are names both familiar and new including Akrobatik, Edo G, Slaine, YZ, Thristin' Howl III, and Dizzy Dustin of Ugly Duckling. It also features a rapper named Riacha La Pasta, more on that soon. Now this posse cut is absolutely unreal and I don't think I'll be able to do it real justice so just check out the following video (please note that the video is every bit as tremendous as the track).

The album as a whole is every bit as head-turning as the ridiculous 26 rapper, can't stop saying that, posse cut previously mentioned. There are some big tracks on here and some real left-field tracks that are outside what you would normally expect on a hip hop album.

After a brief intro the album's first full track is Monster On The Rise. On vocals is I believe, could be wrong, a guy named K-No Supreme. He's not a rapper I've heard before but his smooth, laid-back tone fits nicely over a great beat that sounds like it should be pumping out of the stereo of a low-rider as it cruises through an Egyptian market. It's a great opener with a real catchy hook to it and some great turntable work from Mister Jason.

Another track that features K-No Supreme, again I could be wrong, is the simply brilliant 'The Medical World'. The vocals are a little more aggressive on this one and the beats a little less in your face. The drums are still pretty raw but we get some predatory sounding strings and some soft keys at the start which give way to the drums and what sounds to me like a 16 bit character jumping. The thing about this track that really got me involved though was the sample that runs through this song. He's sampling Joy Division's Transmission! On a hip hop album!!! Massive points to Mister Jason there, he's not happy with giving you a 26 rapper posse track, nah he wants to give the world a brilliant Joy Division sampling hip hop track. Unreal.

Another of my favourite tracks on the album is 'Renegades' featuring Riacha La Pasta and Eric Jalbert. The track is a great blend of futuristic space bleeps and old school horns. The drums drive along nicely and the bass is so bouncy it wouldn't sound out of place on a Jurassic 5 album. I'm hoping that at some point I'll be able to track down an instrumental copy of this album and in particular this track. Now Riacha La Pasta that features on this song and the previously mentioned posse cut is a bit of an interesting one for me. I've hit the internets to try and find out a little more about this rapper and I'm not finding anything! I've seen on one site that he is part of a hip hop group called Falsehood but all I could find attached to that was a Myspace page with a handful of cool songs that seemed to be linked to Mister Jason. That's all I've found. To me Riacha sounds like he might actually be one of my favourite rappers ever, Cool Calm Pete (formerly of Babbletron). I could be wrong on this one because as I say I can't find any info on it but that sounds exactly like the Cool Calm one. If it isn't him then at least we've got someone who sounds just like him so we have something to listen to while we continue to wait forever for a follow up to Cool Calm Pete's Lost (a truly phenomenal album). If anyone reading this can shed a little light on this for me it'd be much appreciated.

There is so much variety on this album that it would take me all day to go through the 17 tracks I haven't babbled about but rest assured there is plenty more there for you to enjoy from the flute heavy, Nabo Rawk featuring 'Monolith' to the funk dripped 'Black Angel'. This is a truly great album and I'd recommend it to all. It can be a little hard to get hold of here in Wales (I haven't found a physical copy) but it is available on iTunes for a mere £7.99 so go and support someone that's trying to take the genre to different places. You owe it to yourself to grab a copy of that posse cut alone.

****EDIT****
I've been reliably informed by Mister Jason that you can grab a copy here http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/results.asp?searchby=Artist&keywords=frankensteez
It's always better to be able to hold that shit in your hands.

I'm so glad I found this album as aside from being one of the best albums I've heard this year it's also put me on to some new stuff like Mister Jason's former group with Nabo Rawk, Porn Theatre Ushers (fingers crossed Wen hooks me up with the albums for my birthday on Thursday) and rappers like Reks or K-No Supreme who I'd never heard of before but will be trying to get music by.

Please check it out, you'll be better for it.

Laters

MechagodZeala

Adam Yauch/MCA 1964-2012

He had a beard like a billy goat

So a couple of hours ago I checked my Facebook timeline and saw a post that read "Oh, maaaaan. MCA!", my heart sank. I saw another that read "Can't believe MCA is dead!!! Horrible news! rip", my heart sank further. A news search later and those posts are confirmed. Adam Yauch, founding member of The Beastie Boys, has passed away at the depressingly young age of 47.

As anyone who has read this page before, or as those reading for the first time are about to discover, I'm not a guy who is going to write a series of beautiful words that perfectly describe what an absolute giant of music MCA was. All I can do is talk as a fan, as someone who's life was changed as a result of what Nathaniel Hornblower and his bandmates did, as someone who is gutted by the thought of a world in which a guy like MCA is taken far too soon.

I first got into The Beastie Boys at around 10/11 years old. My older sister had a few friends round and one of them was blasting some pretty weird stuff from the tape deck. I remember that Brass Monkey was what caught my ear and that was it for me, I didn't know what the hell these guys were on about but it sounded brilliant and it wasn't like anything I'd ever heard before. After a bit of pleading I managed to convince my sister's friend to let me keep hold of the tape, to be honest I think it was given to me as a way to get rid of me, a really effective way of getting rid of me. Over the next few weeks I never stopped flipping that tape. It was the first time in my life that I'd got that involved with music, I wanted to know everything about what this music was, where it came from, and who the hell was responsible. Unfortunately I didn't have the internets back then, hardly anyone did, I also live in a small village in North Wales which doesn't exactly have it's finger on the pulse. All I had to go on was the tape, it wasn't even a proper tape though, it was recorded and had Beastie Boys scribbled on the side in biro. I knew nothing about them but the fact that they were responsible for amazing songs like She's Crafty, Posse in Effect, Fight for Your Right, and what became my favourite song for the next year or so, Slow and Low. I'm sure the following statement is true for so many people but Beastie Boys were the first group I ever cared about.

Fast forward a year or two and I'm in Our Price in Chester, I'm rifling through the CD's and I see a Beastie Boy's album. At this point I'm still rocking the tape, I did until I was 17, so to find some new Beastie Boys music made for quite a day. After a tad more scanning I found another album, I pestered Mum a little and soon enough was the proud owner of two new albums: Paul's Boutique and Ill Communication.

As soon as I got home I popped Paul's Boutique in the player, sat back, and had my first listen.When To All The Girls played I was a tad confused. It didn't sound like the Brass Monkey guys, maybe the name on my tape was wrong? Then Shake Your Rump kicked in!!! I had the right album, and I had a favourite group. Shake Your Rump is to this day probably my favourite Beastie's song and back then it knocked the socks off the thirteen year old me. The rest of the album did not disappoint either and there is a damn good reason that it is held in such high regard and considered a game changer in Hip Hop. Songs like Egg Man, Looking Down The Barrel Of a Gun, and Shadrach are just huge. The whole album is as amazing to the 27 year old me as it was to the 13 year old North Walian experiencing it for the first time,  I'm listening to it as I write this post and it's unreal just how dope it is.  It was a couple of weeks before I ever got round to Ill Communication. 

Now I could go through every Beastie album and talk about what it meant to me and how tremendous their work is but unless you've been living under a rock, you know this already. I haven't even mentioned songs like Intergalactic, Ch-Check It Out, Sure Shot, and the countless other go to songs everyone loves. From that cadged tape that hooked me, to Paul's Boutique which shaped my musical tastes so much, to To The 5 Boroughs (which is probably my favourite of their albums), to the Sounds of Science double disc (probably the only album my brother and I have ever both loved), all the way to the proving they still had it recent album Hot Sauce Commitee, The Beastie's have proven time and time again that they are straight up geniuses when it comes to the art of Hip Hop and their music has been a part of my and my generation's life.

I've seen musician's pass over the year's and I've never fully understood the reaction of so many people when the artists they look up to so much die. I mean I was saddened when Michael Jackson died but these things happen. I've always found it hard to understand how people can be so upset to lose someone they never knew. With the news of MCA's passing I understand fully. I can honestly say that had my girl not been sitting next to me when I found out this news I probably would have cried. I sure as hell felt like it but it seemed ridiculous to break down in front of someone over a guy I never had the pleasure of knowing. I guess music plays such an important part in our life and it soundtracks the highs and lows of every moment of it so it's natural to feel a connection to those responsible for the music we love. As a Beastie Boys fan, so much of my life is soundtracked by this group, I hear certain songs and it takes me back to periods in my life that mean something to me and it's crushing to know that one of them has been taken from the planet so early.

At the time of writing I don't know the cause of death. I know MCA had recently had cancer but by all accounts before the last album he'd beaten that which is why this was so unexpected.Maybe it wasn't beaten but whatever the reason a simple fact remains that between the music and the directing (he did a lot of the videos and directed the brilliant Awesome! I Shot That) we've lost a true creative force today and we lost him way too soon. I want to say thank you for all the great things I have enjoyed as a result of Adam Yauch and his fellow Beastie's, your work will always be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading

Mechagodzeala

Let's Get This Done

This is just a quick plea to request that you please follow this link :

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adultrappers/adult-rappers


DJ paWL formerly of the brilliant group Hangar 18, is making a film about rappers and what it's like actually being a rap artist in present day hip hop. From the looks of things it's going to give an insight into the side of the business we don't see, actually showing what it's like to work as a rapper like how we work in whatever our day jobs are. A more detailed explanation can be found at the end of that link up there.

Please check it out and help get this documentary made. For those of you unfamiliar with Kickstarter I'll give you a brief explanation, essentially the projects on this site need funding and they need it from you! The cool thing about this is that you are rewarded for your contribution, with better rewards the more you chip in. On this project for example there are numerous rewards for getting involved:
$1 gets you a personal thank you email from The Director.
$5 gets you a thanks in the credits! That's not bad for your name on a movie.
$100 will actually get you in the movie! I'm gutted I don't live in America as I would be all over this one.
There are loads of other rewards for you depending on the amount you want to donate so I'll let you check the link to see what you can get.

The other cool thing about this is that the money will not be deducted from your account until the closing date of  the project and only if the target is met. If the full amount is not collected then you won't be out of pocket, if the goal is met then the money is taken and you get whatever shiny reward you were after and also the satisfaction of helping someone get their business done. Head on over to the site and give what you can, it would be a crying shame to see this project fizzle out. Please give even if it's just a dollar (that's 61p for us Brits, which is good value for a pleasant email from a member of one of my favourite rap groups, it is for me anyways).

If you could check it out I'd really appreciate it and if you can spare some coin then I'm sure the folks involved in the project would appreciate it too. If you would like to, check out the Twitter feed of DJ paWL on @Pawlmadethis and you can keep up to date with the progress of the project.

Thanks for reading

Mechagodzeala

Cool Guy, Cool Car, Cool Jacket

El Drive

If the title of this post and the Spanish poster up there weren't enough of a hint I'll be using this post to talk about Drive. Ryan Gosling stars as a stuntman/mechanic/cool as fuck getaway driver in this stylish thriller from Nicolas Winding Refn. I'm gonna get this right off my chest, this film made me wish I was Ryan Gosling. It's one of those films that oozes cool and the main character, Driver, is one of the baddest motherfunkers to ever grace a screen. Driver is a perfect mix of bad-ass traits, he doesn't seem to waste a single letter let alone word, he drives a 1973 Chevy Malibu (alright, I googled that), he looks like Ryan Gosling, and he dresses like only someone in a movie can. That jacket is straight gangster, a quilted white satin number complete with hardcore scorpion on the back. The moment I saw that jacket I wanted one, unfortunately I don't look like Ryan Gosling and I'm not in this film so there is no way I could ever get away with wearing one. To anybody else who really wants this jacket, the same applies to you! Don't believe me? Ask these dudes...

Somebody please tell them what they look like

That's what I meant when I said only a movie character could get away with rocking that jacket.You have to look like a movie star to wear movie star clothes so don't bother. It'd be a challenge to rock that jacket even before you went and put a yellow scorpion on the back, whilst I'm on the subject of the scorpion I'm going to go a little fancy and chat some nonsense as to why it might be on his back, other than the brilliant aesthetic. Towards the end of the film Gosling's character references the fable of The Scorpion and The Frog. To anyone that is unfamiliar with that story I'll give a brief outline, basically a Scorpion wants to get across a river so he asks The Frog for a lift. The Frog says no because the scorpion will sting him, The Scorpion denies this and says that if he did then he'd drown and they'd both die. The Frog says alright and off they go, half way across The Scorpion stings The Frog. The Frog is all like 'Mate! Why'd you go and do that?'. To which The Scorpion replies 'I'm a Scorpion, I sting things. Do something.' Essentially the fable is trying to say that sometimes behaviour is irrepressible regardless of the consequence. This is certainly something that can be applied to Ryan Gosling's character as at times he doesn't seem to give a damn for the consequences of his actions and in researching this post I saw there are a few people who have picked up on this and made the Scorpion link. Personally though, I think he's more like the Frog in this story. I might be completely wrong on this but hear me out. Firstly on a straight up match, The Frog is giving The Scorpion a lift, he's the driver of the fable. The Frog (Gosling) agrees, naively, to enter the destructive world of The Scorpion (Criminals) leading to bad times for all involved. I think the most important thing that gives it away the Gosling is The Frog is that the Scorpion is on the back of his jacket just like The Scorpion on The Frog's back. In a film that is so precise and well thought out I can't accept that the back of his jacket isn't a well thought out representation of his character's situation.

Got my poor attempt at sounding like I understand films out of the way now so we'll get back to the proper stuff. The soundtrack!!! What a soundtrack!!! As amazingly cool and seemingly effortless as the rest of the film, the music is absolutely electric and well worth picking up. You know something is good when it starts getting used in shit adverts for mobile phones or ripped off by betting shops (Lonely Boy by Black Keys is a recent unrelated victim). The below song is a prime example of how brilliant the score is, it's also now being used in a mobile phone advert.

Now that's a song. It's also responsible for making me look like a dick. A few days after I saw the film I got the soundtrack. I'd also just got a new car, not a '73 Chevy Malibu but a Seat Ibiza. I was driving to work the next morning in my new car and I had my music on shuffle, it was a nice day and I had my fancy new electric windows down. Just as I pulled up to a set of traffic lights next to a middle aged woman on her own commute to work, the song embedded above started playing. I've just seen Drive and had been ranting to everyone about how cool that shit is and now here I was, driving, to that song that Gosling drives to, in my new car. I'll be honest in that moment I'm thinking to myself "I probably look exactly like Ryan Gosling right now". Out the corner of my eye I notice the woman I'm stopped next to is staring at me, probably because of the music that is blasting out of the car. She's staring and I think to myself "Even she is recognising how Ryan Gosling-like I am right now", so I gave her a nod, one of those slow motion smug nods, a nod that said "Yes woman! You are right, this dude right here is exactly like that Ryan Gosling you've seen on your tellybox". The lights then changed and I sped off at the speed of light to the NCP car park 200 yards up the road, feeling like I was one cool motherfunker. Once I'd got my early bird parking ticket and parked in the roomy spaces at the back I had time to reflect on what had just transpired. I realised that I figured I looked like this...

Gosling on set

but I was actually looking something like this...

Me in a Belgian hotel not in a car

For anyone unable to tell us apart, Gosling is the cool one wearing sunglasses and gloves and I'm the overweight, bad beard sporting, ladies sunglasses wearing idiot. This incident and the guys at the top of the post wearing their Drive jackets are probably the only flaw I can find with this movie. It's so cool and such a brilliant movie that it makes idiots like me think that we could possibly be that cool if we did something a bit like the character I'm raving about. I can't be and the movie has given me false hope, to be fair though that is probably more of a flaw with me rather than the film.

I don't want to go into too much detail about the film because you really need to check it out if you haven't already. It's a ridiculously great film, that doesn't give a damn about back story or letting characters explain everything that's going on. The camera shows you everything you need to see to understand what is happening without wasting precious words, a key example is the scene where Gosling gets angry with a woman. Rather than getting all shouty and venting, we are made aware of his rising anger by the fact his fist is tightening as the scene goes on, the crackle of the leather gloves explains what dialogue normally does. Martin, the guy behind Attackosaur (previous blog), has explained to me that this film is exactly how David Mamet explains films should be made. If that's what Mamet says then I'm on board, hopefully I can rob the book from Mart at some point and I'll do a little edit and add to this point.

The supporting cast are all superb Carey Mulligan as the love interest is superb and there does seem to be a nice chemistry between her and Driver, just touching on my point from the previous paragraph, it is worth noting how little these two characters actually talk to each other in the film. Ron Perlman is cracking as the unpredictable criminal Nino, as is Albert Brooks as his more composed but no less dangerous partner in crime Bernie. There's also a great turn from Malcolm In The Middle's dad (Bryan Cranston) as Driver's boss and friend.

Superb film and well worth a look if you have a spare evening, just know going in that you will never be able to pull off that jacket or drive that way.

Later

Ruined My Life is not exactly Ronseal

Points for epic photos

I've been absent for a while as my laptop is a horrendous peace of junk and I've been busy/lazy. This one will be short as I'll be talking about DZ Deathrays ridiculously brilliant Ruined My Life-EP. Now I first stumbled across this band on a couple of 'one to watch 2012' lists dotted around on this here internets. When I skim those lists I generally check out the bands with great names, shallow and very rarely effective but I'm a sucker for a good name. Now if you are going to name yourself after a bad-ass piece of equipment an evil genius may use to melt a face or ten, then you better be backing that up with some bad-ass music that some evil genius could use to melt a face or ten. Long story short these brilliant Aussie bastards do that and then some.

I've tried to find out a little bit about this band to give you some background but to be honest there isn't a great deal out there, at least not on the first few pages of a Google search anyways. What info I can find is that DZ Deathrays comprise of two gents, a drummer named Simon Ridley, and a guitarist by the name of Shane Parsons. They hail from Brisbane, Australia and are signed to I Oh You records (home of interesting punk band Bleeding Knees Club).

I believe this short six track EP is a taster for a an album due out this year so obviously it remains to be seen what they can do over a full length release, that said I thinks it's a pretty good bet that any album that's on the horizon is going to be pretty raw.

Ruined My Life kicks off with 'Blue Blood' which could easily be a Death From Above 1979 track, seriously, if someone had played me this track and told me it was a new track from DFA 1979 then you'd be reading about how awesome the new Death From Above stuff was. Like all the songs on this EP, it's a pretty aggressive track and I can imagine it's a an absolute riot at a live show. The next two songs 'Licking Knives' and 'Yeah' carry on in a similar way and are no less rockingly awesome. The songs are a natural progression from the opener and work more as a collective than they possibly do as individual songs, kind of how the first few Raveonettes albums worked. Next up is 'The Mess Up' which is a massive track that words won't quite do justice to. You might as well just pop your ear-holes around the embedded video below.

This song needs to be played on your stereo with the bass turned all the way up, unfortunately I can't found a link to your stereo so tinny youtube will have to suffice. I have nearly destroyed my steering wheel so many times because of this song! If any of you see my driving and it appears like I'm yelling at myself and smacking my steering wheel please do not call any white jacketed men to take me away, it's a safe bet that this song is blaring out.

'Teeth' follows on and that's another song that gets me pumped to the point of looking like an absolute end. Again if you see me driving around apparently having a seizure, don't panic, I've just got to this track and I'm getting my awkward rock on. 'Gebbie Street' finishes the EP off and is a bit funkier than the other tracks, and the guitar a little less distorted. It has a nice mixture of the screaming and singing that Shane Parsons seems so adept at.

All in all this is 20 minutes of some truly great music and you should run along and pick it up now. It's available on that there iTunes for £3.49 so go get it. Once the album drops I have a suspicion that these guys might just blow up, so go buy it before iTunes realise they could charge more if they wanted.

I'm out

Mechagodzeala

Sesame Seedy Fun

Seeing as I've been a bit busy this past week and haven't had much of a chance to post on here I thought I'd write about one of the reasons I've been quiet. On Wednesday of last week I took Wen to see the musical Avenue Q at Rhyl Pavillion. I'd been aware that it was showing in Rhyl but to be honest I wasn't really willing to pay £20ish, as luck would have it one of my new co-workers was able to hook me up with a two for one deal (more on that soon) so suddenly £20ish seemed reasonable.

For people who aren't familiar with Avenue Q, it's essentially Sesame Street with swearing and f*cking within the frame of musical theatre. Now I'm not a theatre goer and there isn't many occassions where I am interested in going to a show but I'll be damned if I'm gonna miss out on two for one puppet sex.

The basic story is of a university graduate named Princeton who moves to New York, we follow him as he rents his first apartment, has his first relationship, first job, and tries to find his purpose in life. His apartment happens to be on Avenue Q and this is where the straightforward sounding plot gets a little mental. Avenue Q is Sesame Street for sexual fiends, former child actors, the poverty-stricken, and closet homosexuals. Through Princeton's exploits we get to meet all the characters living on Avenue Q and see what ridiculous things they get up to, I'll take this opportunity to introduce the rest the characters. There is the previously mentioned Princeton (puppet), Kate Monster (puppet love interest and kindergarten teacher), there is Rod (puppet and closet gay) and Nicky (puppet and scruffy flatmate of Rod), Brian (human and wannabe comedian) and his oriental girlfriend Christmas Eve (human and qualified therapist), Trekkie Monster (puppet and letchy recluse), Gary Coleman (human and washed up TV star turned caretaker), The Bad Idea Bears (puppets and troublemakers), and there is the no explanation needed Lucy The Slut (puppet).

During the course of the show all of the characters deal with their own issues and try to find their way in life, usually by way of a song. Whilst the show is laugh out loud funny in places and of course seeing how the  blend of puppets and humans works, the real reason for tipping up the admission fee is the songs. They are incredibly catchy and wildly funny, essentially they are twisted songs that get stuck in your head in the same way Disney songs do. You'll have to get a feel for the songs from their titles: 'It Sucks To Be Me', 'If You Were Gay', 'The Internet Is For Porn', and 'You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You're Makin' Love)'. As you can gather from the titles there is some pretty adult themes in these songs but they still have that catchy child-like quality to them, as seen below.

Now the people in that video aren't the actors in the production I went to but to be honest they aren't any different either. The performance that's touring the UK at the moment stars, what the programme informs me, a host of theatre luminaries who have done the occasional stint in TV shows like Doctors. I'll be honest when I read that in the programme it didn't inspire confidence but to be fair they all have bills to pay and I imagine it's hard to get a break in the industry. Any doubts I had about the pedigree of the cast were quickly dispelled by a series of great performances and even better singing voices, the lady singing for Lucy The Slut and Kate Monster in particular was incredible in her ability to change her singing voice and still sound brilliant. The cast were extremely enthusiastic and were putting in plenty of effort which showed in their work and that was the only negative I have for the show. Now I'm not saying it was a bad thing that they were trying so hard, that's awesome, it did make me uncomfortable though. You see, those two for one tickets I mentioned, those were being given out because the show wasn't selling. Now that isn't their fault but when a cast is giving their all to all of seventy people it can be a little awkward. There are a couple of occasions in which the cast work the stage and go to the sides to make sure the whole audience gets involved,, thing is there wasn't anybody there and all I could think about during those moments was how soul destroying that must be. That being said I'd much rather that went about things professionally than perform half-hearted for the empty room.

Normally I would encourage folks to check this out, and if you do get a chance you totally should, unfortunately though I've wrote this post three days after it has finished playing in Rhyl! If it does tour again or if you happen to be for a little traveling I would highly recommend catching this show. It's a unique experience and those involved deserve far bigger crowds than the Rhyl shows gave them.

Puppets + swearing + (Disney songs - children) + puppet sex = A top night in Rhyl.

Laters

Mechagodzeala

(my phone won't let me post my Mecha picture so you can have this Johnny Explaino instead)

Ou est le Jean Claude?

He's right here, rocking it!

This post is dedicated to one of the best films of the last few years, and before any smart-ass asks, NO! No I haven't used the wrong picture for this post. The film I'm talking about does in fact star Jean Claude Van Damme and he is playing... Jean Claude Van Damme!

We're talking about the appropriately titled JCVD, brilliantly directed by the unknown Mabrouk El Mechri. Jean Claude plays an exaggerated version of himself, an out of work, out of money, has-been action star going through the motions and in the midst of a custody battle for his daughter. Whilst visiting his native Belgium he pops to the local post office to pick up some cash. Unfortunately for Monsieur Van Damme he walks into an armed robbery and is soon taken hostage. In the ensuing stand-off with police both the media and the police assume that it's Van Damme that's actually responsible for the robbery because why wouldn't he be? He needs the cash so why the hell wouldn't he? What unravels is a character driven movie that is funny, heart-warming, and intensely personal.

The year this film came out was the year everyone was campaigning for Mickey Rourke to get an Oscar, which ultimately he didn't, for his role in The Wrestler. Now Mickey Rourke did get a nomination and it's for that reason that I can only assume that nobody at The Academy was sent a copy of this film because Jean Claude Van Damme, at the very least, deserved a nomination for this performance. Now I know they'll be some of you out there assuming I've actually lost my damn mind. Am I really saying that Jean Claude Van Damme, star of Bloodsport, deserved Oscar recognition? This guy right here...

...That guy right there! I kid you not, his performance is a masterclass in laying yourself at the mercy of the camera. Van Damme did exactly what Mickey Rourke did in The Wrestler and he did that shit better! The only reason he didn't get the recognition he deserved is that people don't forget that this is a chap who has spent most of his film career doing things like punching out snakes as above. Jean Claude has a lot of baggage. I like most people of a similar age to me grew up on Van Dammage, I used to eat up the ridiculousness of those films. Van Damme would be some kind of bad-ass maverick, he beat up a ruck of people, he got the girls (usually followed by a flash of his bum), and he did the splits.They were good times, apart from his insistence on showing his arse, but they were also a long time ago. In recent years The Muscles from Brussels has made a slew of straight to DVD, made in Romania, pieces of shit that have tried hard to recapture the glory days and failed miserably. It's probably fair to be wary of Van Damme but you'd be horribly unfair to yourself if you didn't take a chance on this film.

I should probably point out that this film is mainly French, they do speak a bit of English but for the most part Jean Claude is rocking his native tongue. I think this helps him to pull off a very natural performance and obviously it get rid of the stumbling over English words that have often popped up in his films. The film is full of dark comedy and some real laugh out loud moments, try and watch the cigarette scene without cracking up, you won't do it. The real stand out moment of the film though has to be the five minute monologue Jean Claude delivers straight at the camera. For five minutes Jean Claude puts all his cards on the table and shows the torment he feels inside. Now I can honestly say that this is possibly the greatest monologue I have ever seen and while we're being honest about things, I'll admit that I damn near cried during this scene. All six or seven times I've seen it! For those five minutes alone Van Damme deserved an Oscar nomination or at the very least the respect of film fans everywhere. I can't rate this film highly enough and I would recommend picking it up if you get the chance (I have a copy going spare since I got the Blu Ray if anyone is interested?). If I haven't swung you with this post and you're not tempted by this film then please listen to Mr Nicolas Cage.                      

Cheers for reading

Mechagodzeala

Attack The Blog

Unfortunately Martin is the one on the right.

I want to use this little blog to encourage folks to check out the site Attackosaur.com

The site is dedicated to the Troma-esque whimsies of the dude pictured above. Mart is a comic book writer, publisher, film-maker, student, and all around good guy (it hurts to type that). 

Mart and I became friends through a mutual love of films and music and a burning desire to actually make our own film. One day on the way back to mine to watch a couple of films, we were having our usual whining session about whatever film we didn't like at the time when we decided that we were being idiots. I mean how could we have the audacity to constantly rip apart other people's work without at least attempting to contribute to the art form? Don't get me wrong, it's okay to criticise the work of others but I was one of those clowns that thought it was okay to constantly talk about the things I didn't like! If your going to criticise others then what the hell, you might as well try and solve the problem you're complaining about. So we figured we'd make the kind of film we'd like to see made.

Making films is hard. It's really quite hard, especially hard if you are a bell-end of a teenager who thinks that zombies should cover any other shortcomings your film may have, if one of those shortcomings is the script you can consider a robo-zombie (yeah we actually wrote that). Needless to say our first attempts were less than stellar but we found something that was a great bit of fun to do and for the last ten years we've made a few short films and lots of incomplete nonsense. Whilst we still haven't made anything I think we can really be proud of, I think over the last couple of films there is a definite improvement and maybe in another ten years we'll have made something worthwhile. Mart is currently down in Aberystwyth learning all about film-making and if you're intrigued you can check out the films he's making now as well as a few of the things we've made over the years. Just check out the films section of his site, it features gems like the one below.

The other thing Mart is peddling on that there site is his comics. Now it's worth noting that Mart is completely self-published and funds everything to do with these comics, credit where it's due, the dude is getting his stuff out there. There are four comics that can and should be purchased on his site. His first was Paralysis, which has quite an old school pulpy feel to it and set amongst a Nazi attack on London. Whilst short it serves as a good introduction to the kind of story that Mart seems to delight in telling and features some of the detailed research that permeates most of his work, be it comics or scripts. If you're interested in Cowboys, Indians, and Zombies (a decade on but to be fair this is a far better effort than our first script) then The Mutilated Dead is probably for you. I must say that this is a stylish looking comic. The art-work is so unique it's worth checking for that alone. I'm sure Mart won't mind me saying so but the art-work does detract somewhat from the story, it is hard to get the plot from the controlled messy style of the drawings. That said there is cowboys, Indians, zombies, and a ruck of blood. Good times. Mart's third release is certainly his most accomplished, A Rope Around Your Broken Neck tells the story of a persecuted Jesuit priest locked in The Tower of London during the Great Plague. Again the artwork in this one is stunning (handled by R.Ricardo and N.Brondo) but the most impressive thing is the slow burning, human story at the centre of it. Once again Martin shows just how well researched his stuff can be, the plague doctor being a prime example of how that research pays off. A Rope... is typical of the kind of gems that can be found in the indie comic scene, although you do have to do a fair bit of digging. You can also purchase the fun as hell Attackosaur: Robot Dinosaur Police Force which is drawn by Martin Ian Smith himself and tells the tale of a Robotic Dinosaur Police Squad with the brains of some of the finest police officers to have ever walked the earth and it tells that story on Mars. No more words are needed on that one.

I urge you all to head on over to his site by clicking the link at the top of this post and spending a couple of pounds to support an independent guy trying to get a break. Just think, if he ever makes it you can always brag that you were in at the ground floor.

Until the next blog.

Peace, Unity, and Power

MechagodZeala