A PERSONAL POST: MY BLACK HOUND OF VENGEANCE

 



If depression is a black dog ambling in your footsteps full of your scent then Anxiety is a Black Hound of Vengeance full of unpredictability. Compliant and well trained one moment the next a vicious attack dog set upon you by your own hidden enemy, whose grip is hard to release. He comes in the shape of the crippling panic attack: a ravenous beast with gluttonous needs. That hound has returned: with full force. The beast turns each day into a lottery of symptoms.

 

Powerful physical side effects that turn the legs and bowels to jelly, are fuelled by his presence: sometimes he is shooed off tail between legs and sometimes he stays for hours scenting blood. I will expel the hound. If I could dispatch him with one fatal strike from a metaphorical broadsword like the barbarian hero above I surely would, but he is more than flesh and bone. He is more pervasive but he is beatable.

 

The hound's nemesis is normality and as I see people going about their daily lives unencumbered by dread and fear, the normality of day to day life is something I crave right now, and it is something that will and must return. 

 

I empathise with other sufferers at these times and recognise that expressing the feeling is important both for writer and potential reader. The cheery disposition that I hope punctuates most of my outpourings will eventually return: this I both hope for and know.

 

 

THE YANCY STREET GANG

If ever there were a group of ne'er do wells with a mission statement of pricking the pomposity of the superhero community it is the Yancy Street Gang. Primarily picking on the ever lovin' blue eyed Thing and the rest of the Fantastic Four they've popped up elsewhere to have a go at others from the cape and cowl brigade of New York. The motley crew has featured members Ben Grimm (the Thing), Nick Fury and colourfully named characters such as Two fisted Tommy Boyd, Dictionary Dawson, Little Larry Lee,Lugwrench Lubowski,Smooth Manny Merengues, Rhythm Ruiz, Hopper Hertnecky and Slugger Sokernowski.

The Yancy Street Gang are the Dead end Kids of the Comic Book world and their various exploits always added a light touch to the adventures of the FF.

But when all is said and done they are a pretty heroic gang who don't take kindly to anyone else picking on their targets.

THR33 FROM THE PAST

The Green Manalishi (with the two prong crown)

Fleetwood Mac

Voodoo Chile

Jimi Hendrix

Riders on the storm

The Doors

Three records that I was exposed to as a child by my older sister, at the time I thought them a bit weird but I certainly grew to love them. I had just got Disney's The Aristocats soundtrack as my first vinyl purchase, which admittedly is not the trendiest of first records bought but come to think of it actually had a couple of cracking Jazz tinged tunes on it

Everybody wants to be a cat

Aristocats Original soundtrack

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MY HIT LIST: 2013 IN MOVIES (SO FAR)

 

2013 so far has been quite good for less, shall we say, mainstream movies. The majority of releases have been of the Buster Blocking variety but, based on my cinema going thus far in 2013, the independent and lower budget scene

has produced some enjoyable fare.

Here's my favourite five of the bunch that I've been to see. 

 

A great piece about childhood and family, Eloise Laurence is superb as the child juggling with her feelings and morals.

A movie that is like a great HBO series condensed into 140 minutes with a number of great performances. It is a movie that you think is taking you in one direction only to take a detour into more complex territory.

Yes McConaughey really has resurrected his career, off the back of last year's excellent Killer Joe he plays Southern enigma perfectly in this film that many have called a cross between Huckleberry Finn and The Go-Between. This movie creates a dream like state and has a great deal of heart.

 Chan-wook Park's promising US debut is a slow burn Hitchcockian journey. Shades of Shadow Of A Doubt  tinge this Gothic family drama.
 



A old school style movie star vehicle. Flight uses Denzel Washington's star power to tell a story of addiction and responsibility. Kelly Reilly is particularly good as the junkie that Washington tries to make his codependent. A message movie with a crash sequence of pure exhilaration, masterfully directed by Robert Zemeckis. 

CURIOSITY CORNER: THE LOOTERS

 

The Looters

Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Ray Winstone, Paul Simonon

 

What do you get if you put together the Sex Pistols Guitarist and Drummer, the Clash's Bassist and Ray Winstone? The Looters as featured in the movie Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains.

 

 

Diane Lane, Laura Dern and Marin Kanter play the eponymous female punk band in this Canadian oddity from 1982 but it's the Looters who steal the show. The Looters are pretty much The Profesionals which was a project that Jones & Cook took on the road and recorded with.

 

 

 

The Looters-Join the Professionals

 

 

The Professionals-Just another dream

 



MY FAR SIDE FAVOURITES

 

 There I was having a bit of a tidy up and I stumbled upon some collections of Gary Larson's superb Far Side. Needless to say I got rather distracted and spent most of the afternoon perusing them. Larson's work defies description, but in single panel form he gives a unique perspective on life.

Sadly he retired on January 1st 1995, only stepping back behind the easel for a 2003 cover of The New Yorker Magazine, but left behind works that are enjoyable, funny and distinct. Here is a selection of my very favourites.

 

 

 

"You know those little Snow Globes that you shake up? I always thought my brain was sort of like that. You know, where you just give it a shake and watch what comes out and shake it again. It's like that."-Gary Larson

all images copyright Gary Larson





STRANGE CONFRONTATIONS

Tina Turner v Mad Max / Grace Jones v James Bond

Pop stars have egos, as all performers do, but sometimes those egos lead them to believe they can multi-task and enter the acting fray. Some can and have but others have found themselves in strange roles. The lure of playing opposite iconic characters proving too strong for common sense to prevail. Then there are the downright 'seemed a good idea at the time' parts that leave one asking if money really is that strong an antidote to reasoned decision making. Here are a few incongruous face offs, with the eighties being a particularly fruitful era.

Liberace v Batman
Of course the sixties Batman TV show was all about high camp, even so Liberace as a villain is pushing that particular envelope.

Kelly Rowland v Freddie Kruger
Ex member of Destiny's Child in face off with Horror icon,the inevitable question: why?

Debbie Gibson & Tiffany v Mega Python & Gatoroid
Eighties Pap Pop icons game for a laugh in 
this monster mash

Vanilla Ice v Small Town America
Rebel without a pause button gets 
down with the kids, only not.

Sting v God
I'm not one of those with any axe to grind with Sting but even by his dubious thespian standards this is a stretch

 Boy George v Rednecks

George himself is the first to admit that he was in a drug induced daze throughout the shoot of this not so classic episode of the A-Team. Excruciating? you betcha

Spice Girls v British Cinema

What can one say about this movie? The Holy Grail of bad British cinema...forget that, it's the Holy Grail of bad cinema full stop. Inexcusably awful, these preposterous popsters almost set back the cause of the dramatic arts in the UK with this 30 second sketch spread wafer thin into feature length purgatory.

David Bowie v Berlin

Not sure what Bowie's gigolo was up to in this debacle but he was surrounded by good actors who can take no pride in their contribution. Looking back, Bowie is the first to admit it was an unmitigated disaster.



SINISTER DEGREES OF KEVIN BACON

 





Kevin Bacon currently appears in a number of his movie guises in the EE mobile phone advert. We get to see A Few Good Men Bacon, Apollo 13 Bacon, Friday 13th Bacon, Footloose Bacon and hear Hollow Man Bacon discuss the merits of mobile phones in a lighthearted cinephile friendly campaign. This got me to thinking about what an advert would be like if it replaced these Bacons

with the following Bacons:

 

Sleepers Bacon

The Woodsman Bacon

JFK Bacon

Flatliners Bacon

X-Men:First Class Bacon