Exclusio Cum Infamia (Redux)
Tom Gabriel Fischer clears the air on his departure from Celtic Frost.
Monthly Archive for July, 2009
The Ramones: Johnny, Joey & Dee Dee are prominently featured in MasterCard’s new “Legends” campaign running nationwide now through Aug. 31st, 2009. The campaign includes a new :30 Priceless® TV spot that features classic scenes of pop culture icons in jeans – from Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando to The Ramones. The voiceover questions whether they might look better in different styles, but fittingly concludes ‘The perfect pair of jeans: Priceless’.
The Ramones footage was taken from the legendary “Its Alive” concert filmed on New Years Eve 1977. Although not seen in the TV spot, Tommy Ramone is indeed on drums behind Johnny, Joey & Dee Dee on the frontline.
‘Alien’ Prequel Takes Off.
Ridley Scott attached to return as director
The following images are of a erotic nature – so if you are easily offended (well, you shouldn’t be reading Dogmatic) DO NOT proceed past this point. For the rest of you, please don your X-Ray specs now.
Two decades after the world’s worst nuclear disaster, photographer Paul Fusco has put together an incredibly disturbing and moving photo gallery of the victims of the Chernobyl catastrophe. The following photo essay is a vast emotional drain but it is something that everyone should see.
There was more conatmination released at Chernobyl than there was at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings. The Chernobyl accident released a total amount of Caesium equivalent to 200 times the contamination at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Around 70% of the fallout settled in Belarus where more than 3,500 settlements, including 27 towns and more than 2 million people were contaminated.
And if that wasn’t gut-wrenching enough, the Pixel Press website: ‘Nuclear Nightmares’, has a stunning series of photographs by Robert Knoth with reporting by Antoinette De Jong. The photo-essay documents the ongoing human impact of Chernobyl on those who survived, their children, and the extended communities around them.
Several years ago, I had the extreme pleasure of sitting front row and center at a Diamanda Galas concert at Melbourne’s Art Centre. It was one of the most amazing gigs I have ever been to. With her new album now out ‘Guilty, Guilty, Guilty’ – Diamanda is getting some cool media attention. See below for an awesome interview via out.com and stay tuned to Dogmatic for a full review of her new album…
Though considered by some to be in the service of Satan himself, Diamanda Galas tirelessly wages a chilling musical war on behalf of the forgotten, the voiceless, and the doomed.
Diamanda Galas has been called ‘the Bride of Satan’, ‘the Diva of Disease’, and ‘a cross between Elvira and Morticia Adams’ – and that’s just by music journalists. The classically trained pianist with a three and a half octave range – the staggering use of which regularly inspires comparisons to Greek opera singer Maria Callas – is known for her controversial (to say the least) opinions and her you’ve-got-to-see-them-to-believe-them concerts featuring an arresting combination of performance art, political protest, and punk bravado.
Galas is perhaps most widely recognized for The Plague Mass, which she performed covered in cow’s blood at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City in 1990. Considered by many to be her masterwork, the Plague Mass is drawn from excerpts of her trilogy of albums collectively entitled The Masque of the Red Death begun by Galas in the early ’80s at the dawning of the AIDS epidemic. The piece serves as a scathing indictment of both the Roman Catholic Church and society at large for ignoring and condemning those suffering from or killed by AIDS – including her brother and many of her close friends.
Never one to mince words, Galas is infamous for her biting, often shocking commentary on politics, culture, and art and her interview with Out.com certainly does not disappoint. She phoned from Spain – where her current European tour had just landed – to talk about her new live cover album of homicidal love songs, why she thinks Elton John is a ‘horrible little midget corpse’, and the similarities between Britney Spears’ voice and radioactive worms.
Strange how this Internet thing works sometimes. Many, many years ago – when the Earth was still young and the ‘net was non existent, I was friends with a dear, dear fellow who opened my eyes and my mind to many things wide and afar.
As time escaped from us all, we lost contact but I always remembered him for the true friend that he was and of the many good times we shared.
So through the monstrosity known as Facebook, we have re-established contact and Mick the Wiz (as we all knew him then) is back in my life and now, will be an integral part of Dogmatic.
It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you all – Mick the Wiz.
Over to you Mickey!
In the misty morning, on the edge of time, I once made mountains shake with laughter as I played.
A boundless god was I, strutting from world to world. No childish mischief ever left unmade.
With furrowed brow and clutching hands, I clawed at lore satanic never told.
And watched in horror mixed with glee the devilish consequences unfold.
No repentence mine nor self-respect as wilfully I stared into the abyss.
Casting dice with Satan, my soul’s tipping point a target hard to miss.
Yet, ‘ere false starts and false gods, an earthly angel barred my way.
Despite failing sight and Samson’s loss, shreds of sanity and dignity were saved.
Now, old and frayed, my mind restored, yet scarred from battles past.
I regale all with tales of old, and laugh and drink at follies passed.
My tales of minstrels iron-forged shall be from years of yore.
Cessation now; head out of arse, ‘ere I become a bore.
(BTW, I’m the bald one on the left – the other one’s Jeff from Carcass)
I have a magnificent book in my collection based on the works of Joel-Peter Witkin. You’d be hard pressed to find a more macarbre and sinister collection of photography anywhere. His work is disturbing, sometime sickening, always… always twisted.
As a child, Witkin witnessed a horrific car accident that would influence his work later on in life.
It happened on a Sunday when my mother was escorting my twin brother and me down the steps of the tenement where we lived. We were going to church. While walking down the hallway to the entrance of the building, we heard an incredible crash mixed with screaming and cries for help. The accident involved three cars, all with families in them. Somehow, in the confusion, I was no longer holding my mother’s hand. At the place where I stood at the curb, I could see something rolling from one of the overturned cars. It stopped at the curb where I stood. It was the head of a little girl. I bent down to touch the face, to speak to it – but before I could touch it someone carried me away.
His work often deals with such themes as death, corpses (or pieces of them), and various outsiders such as dwarfs, transsexuals, hermaphrodites, and physically deformed people. His complex tableaux often recall religious episodes or famous classical paintings. Because of the transgressive nature of the contents of his pictures, his works have been labeled exploitative and have sometimes shocked public opinion. His art was often marginalized because of this challenging aspect.
Check out more of his work here.
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Rick is turning himself into a zombie. So far, more than 24 hours of tattoos – costing over 4,075 Canadian – have got him halfway there and made him a minor celebrity on the internet, where people can’t decide if he’s a body modification visionary or mentally ill sicko.
Bizarre caught up with Rick for an exclusive interview and photoshoot to see what life is like when you’re transforming yourself into the living dead.
Check it all out right about here…
If you’re anything like me, at the end of Season 1/start of S2, you’d have been disappointed that the corpse inside Bellefleur’s car wasn’t Sookie bloody Stackhouse. The end.
I’m Penny B. Dreadful, and you’ve been shit.
No, I’m only kidding… today.
…Ok and now for the spoilerriffic disclaimer – if you haven’t started watching True Blood, haven’t seen all the way to the end of Season 1, or haven’t started Season 2 DO NOT READ ON! You’ve been warned…
Yes indeed, the stiffened, rigor mortis-fused corpse was that of Miss Jeanette; the con-artist, drug store employee who “exorcised” Tara and her Jesus-alco mum, Lettie Mae. Now, here’s my first gripe: Tara is shocked to the core at the discovery that the corpse was once Miss Jeanette and, for fear of her mother finding out and relapsing (Tara’s mum seems to have been earnestly cured of her psychotic alcoholism), is very reluctant to tell the police that she in fact knew Miss Jeanette. But all it takes is a few friendly words from her beady-eyed best friend and, contrary to the moments leading up, she goes with the police without a second thought. But, whatever. Maryann, that sultry brunette will make it all better for Tara…
Poor love; Lafayette the flamboyant, prostituting, drug-dealing, short-order cook has been kidnapped and held captive by the vampire-sheriff and Fangtasia owner, Eric Northman, in a dark, dank basement, with a few other humans; including one of the rednecks who was involved with burning three vamps in the previous season. Eric feeds off and kills the redneck, spraying his precious hair (which is covered in ‘foils’, in the middle of being dyed) and Lafayette with blood. Amusingly, Eric is concerned that his hair’s dye-job has been ruined; a nice touch considering that he’s a fairly unoriginal, if not boringly cliched, broody vampire that we’ve all seen done to death, in S01.
Sam hires a clumsy, new waitress named Daphne, who incidentally reminds me a bit of Sookie – I think there’s something in that – and understandably becomes skittish of Maryann’s presence, if his flashback is anything to go by… It’s revealed that Maryann is something Other (though I wouldn’t have a clue what), and poor Fido only finds and freaks out, during cherry-popping-coitus with her.
Now, I’ve had a feeling right from the start that Maryann’s a little, shall we say, dodgy? It seems that the good looking women in True Blood end up either being Something Preternatural, or killer-fodder. (Yeah, you read my mind… “if only Paquin was good looking, not psychic and not the protagonist”……. ) Clearly, Sam’s K9 instincts are bang on about this woman-thing, and clearly, she’s trouble for anyone who lets her in. Let’s just hope that Tara keeps that hard head of hers, screwed securely on her shoulders. Speaking of Tara, just briefly, I’m not sure what to make of the charming Eggs (person, not noun, don’t blame me). One thing’s certain though, the fact that he’s one of Maryann’s can only lead to complications for Tara.
Jason Stackhouse as you may recall from S01, went to jail and found God. Specifically, The Fellowship of the Sun, “God hates fangs” church found him. His naiveté and heartfelt desire to be with God set him in good stead with Steve and Sarah Newlin; the church’s sickeningly square leaders who in turn, invite Jason to join their leadership camp in Texas, where he will have an opportunity to really learn how to hate vamps in God’s name.
The Newlins are, as I said, sickeningly square – and their plot (if my writer’s hat is on correctly) can only go one way; verrrrry dark..
Vampire Bill and Sookie’s relationship becomes a little strained as Jessica, Bill’s vamprogeny (yeah, I made that word up) hits a kind of undead puberty, with angsty teenage tantrums and moods to boot. Add to this Sookie’s discovery that Bill was involved in her nasty, sexually abusive Uncle Bartlett’s death and you’ve almost got dramatic tension between Buffy and Angel!! – Er, I mean man-jaw and tin man. Oh don’t worry, they have some unnecessarily overexposed, gratuitous make-up sex (this vamp doesn’t lose his soul!!) and all is fine again in Sunnydale. I mean, Bon Temps…
This time I mean it; I’m Penny B. Dreadful, and you’ve been shit. Ciao.
I love photographing every aspect of Melbourne and documenting every nook and cranny of this wonderful vibrant and visual city. But the true heart of Melbourne, her true spirit lies in her alleys and side-streets. Here are a few of my fave shots from the past couple of months…
Born Of Black Wind Fire And Steel more info here
That One Last Ride more info here
The Babes Of Caledonian Lane more info here
The Essence Of Melbourne more info here
![[True] Blood From A Stone?](http://www.dogmaticblog.com/images/tv/sookie.jpg)
Let me get started by saying this: I can’t stand Anna Paquin. Yep, her beady little eyes and her tomb-stone, gap-toothed mouth make my eyes water and my mouth purse as if I’m eating a very sour lemon and deliberately squeezing its juice into my eyes.
Looks aside, despite the fact that she won an Oscar as a little girl for that Piano film (which incidentally, I never watched), and most recently a Golden Globe for her Sookie (apt name – because she is a bloody ’sook’*) Stackhouse; this kiwi ain’t got nothin’ that ‘does’ it for me, acting-wise.
*(For the international, non-Aussie readers, the word ’sook’, according to wiktionary.org, means “A moaner, complainer, or person refusing to see the mirth in a joke made at their expense; A sulk or complaint; (Scottish) To suck”)
We all know she was only cast in the X-Men films because she’s got a hard little body that looks acceptable in a catsuit – and let’s face it, when looking at “talent” like her or Megan ‘club thumb’ Fox (actually, don’t even get me started on her), apparently that counts for everything, and excuses any lack of actual craft.
So. From day one, I (the only viewer of True Blood that counts in my world) had to work very, very hard to find one, ONE redeeming quality that would make me sympathise (or even gods forbid, side with) the True Blood protagonist, behind Paquin’s faux-innocent, infuriatingly coquettish, absent, wooden man-jawed face.
But I’m here to review True Blood Season 2, and they say that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, so I’m going to retreat back to my bat-cave and be quiet now…
-PBD
The drums are beating louder and louder – and it is getting closer and closer to October for the scheduled release of Spike Jonze’s adaption of ‘Where The Wild Things Are’.
Wow!
Over the weekend, Apple released the third and new trailer, as well as an amazing little featurette featuring some behind the scenes footage as well as author Maurice Sendak.
Anticipation is certainly growing and yours truly needs to get his much planned ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ tattoo-sleeve before the film’s release!
Check it all out in glorious HD over at Apple, visit the official Wild Things site and do make sure you check out Spike’s blog.
Wild!
