Back from the dead: Tony O'Neill presents ... A SALUTE TO VIDEO NASTIES (orig. 06/20/07)

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England was a tough place to grow up if you were a fan of cult movies in the 1980’s and 90’s. The scene was still reeling from the early 80’s “Video Nasties” scandal, a tabloid fueled frenzy in which the then ruling Conservative Party started banning movies, and toughening up the UK censorship body, The British Board Of Film Classification. Rather like a ministry of mental health in some shadowy Soviet state, the BBFC was an unelected body with power of life and death over filmmakers. Uncertified films were un-releasable and the guidelines were prone to the whims of individual censors. High profile films which remained illegal until the loosening up of these laws in the late 90’s included The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (allegedly because no film with the word “chainsaw” in it’s title could pass the BBFC) and “A Clockwork Orange”.

There were ways around the laws though. Pre-BBFC videos, on long gone labels like “VIPCO” and the original “PALACE VIDEO” still circulated, were copied many times and traded among fans, and sometimes showed up at markets and car boot sales (the UK equivalent of flea markets were people literally get together in car parks, open up the trunks of their cars and sell their old shit out of them). Finding an original X-certificate movie was like finding a lump of gold in the dirt for the true horror aficionado.

But what I am remembering, a honoring here is the network of film pirates who advertised covertly in the classified sections of specialist horror mags like THE DARK SIDE (still a going concern in the UK). The deal was that you would receive a list of available movies, rated by picture quality (some were 2nd or 3rd generation VHS dubs – this was pre-DVD remember – often from grainy Dutch or Spanish sources). It would be a mix of the ridiculous and the sublime, from campy 50’s movies that had simply fallen out of print, to stuff like SALO, which was never likely to gain a release in the UK under the current laws.

Here is a pretty random selection of 10 movies that should hopefully give you an impression of what I for one was watching in the 80’s and 90’s as an impressionable young boy. And as you can see, it didn’t do me any harm at all (cue demonic, horror movie laugh…)

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BLOOD FREAK is an ultra low budget B-movie from the early 70’s, supposedly funded by Christians to promote an anti-drug message. In the movie good-hearted drifter, who looks an awful lot like an Elvis Presley impersonator, takes a job at a turkey farm. He falls in with a bad crowd and starts to smoke marijuana. Soon he is hopelessly addicted to weed, and suffers cold turkey (no pun intended) when he cant get hold of any. Yes, the filmmakers seem to have gotten the effects of heroin and marijuana mixed up here. In a subplot, the turkey farm is using an experimental growth hormone to produce bigger, plumper turkeys. Our hero eats some of the chemically enhanced turkey while under the effects of marijuana and a horrifying transformation takes place. He becomes the BLOOD FREAK! A turkey headed monstrosity with a monkey on its back (not literally). The rest of the movie features the blood freak stalking local drug addicts, and drinking their blood to stave of the withdrawal sickness.

Ironically, this movie is only really watchable while under the influence of some pretty heavy intoxicants.



Trailer

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NIGHTMARE IN A DAMAGED BRAIN


NIGHTMARE IN A DAMAGED BRAIN is your pretty standard slasher fare. It is the story of George Tatum a paranoid schizophrenic who is released from the asylum and presumed cured. Walking around the porno shops and strip clubs of Time Square, he has sudden violent flashbacks to his childhood and embarks on a bloody rampage. George foams at the mouth, and calls for him mommy, before dismembering hookers in glorious Technicolor. This movie earned a huge degree of notoriety in the UK when one video storeowner got himself a 6-month prison sentence for selling an uncut copy! The special effects guy on this flick, Ed French, went on to work on Terminator 2. Tom Savani actually sued the film company to have his name removed from the credits. This is up there with the infamous 80’s flick MANIAC for relentless action, and bloody violence. And what is the childhood trauma that set George off? Well, he walks into his parent’s room while they are having a bondage session and… well… take a look at the trailer – IF – YOU – DARE!



Excerpt

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THE BEAST IN HEAT / SS HELL CAMP


THE BEAST IN HEAT took some tracking down. It was out for maybe 2 weeks in the UK before being pulled from the shelves. People were particularly offended by the glut of Italian made SS themes horror and sex movies coming out on the new VHS format. Others that caused controversy included SS EXPERIMENT CAMP; LOVE CAMP 69, and the infamous ILSA movies. THE BEAST IN HEAT went one further; by having the Nazi’s create a kind of troglodyte monster who raped the women prisoners to death, and in one stunning scene actually chewed the pubic hair straight off of one of its victims. Mix this in with some of the funniest lines, worst dubbing and shakiest sets in B-movie history and you have a classic, of sorts. Available in the US under the title: SS HELL CAMP.



Trailer

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The “godfather of gore” kicked off the whole genre in 1963 when he release BLOOD FEAST, the story of Egyptian caterer Fuad Ramses and his violent attempts to revive to cult of the goddess Shiva. It was the first time that tongue rippings, breast slicings and brain extractions were shown is such bloody detail on screen. He carved out a niche for himself, churning out dozens of titles with names like SHE DEVILS ON WHEELS, COLOR ME BLOOD RED, THE GORE GORE GIRLS and this minor classic THE GRUESOME TWOSOME. A psychotic man and his aging mother run a wig shop and motel. Only when young women check into the motel they just seem to… disappear. And boy, do those wigs look realistic…. The film originally ran less than an hour, so Lewis cleverly inserted a 10-minute static shot of 2 wigs, and dubbed over improvisational dialogue in one of the strangest, longest and just plain weirdest opening sequences ever.



Trailer
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ZOMBIE CREEPING FLESH / HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD


Ah zombies, my first true horror movie love. Through the bootleg networks I of course saw the classics, uncut – DAWN OF THE DEAD, DAY OF THE DEAD, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS… but this obscure Bruno Mattaei movie really left a mark on me. Set in Papa New Guinea, the trouble begins when a chemical plant accidentally releases a toxic cloud that causes the living to turn into cannibalistic zombies. We later learn that this is a plan to end world hunger – the 1st world nations want the poor to eat themselves (hey, don’t say it too loud. Bush might get ideas…) This film followed the DAWN OF THE DEAD formula so close that it even lifted the Goblin score from that movie, and virtually recreated the famous “army storms the housing projects” scene, although with little of Romero’s style or finesse. What gives the film its power is the stock footage that Mattaei liberally peppered the film with, giving it a surreal, disjointed tone. And a scene where a SWAT team member suddenly decides to down his weapons, dress up in women’s clothes, and dance around a zombie infested house (he gets eaten, surprise surprise) kind of defies belief.



Excerpts

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German director Jorg Buttgereit deserves a day all of his very own. His movies include the art house suicide epic DER TEODESKING, the beyond belief serial killing necrophile epic SCHRAMM, and his best-known movies NEKROMATIK 1 and 2. For those who don’t know, NEKROMATIK is Jorg's tribute to the world of necrophilia. Part one is about a guy who works cleaning up bodies on bloody autobahn pile-ups. He collects the body parts, and takes them home to his girlfriend. They keep them in jars, and use them for sex. When he manages to steal an entire corpse – a decaying, slimy looking thing - they have a threesome, which includes a gross eyeball-sucking scene. But when his girlfriend takes the corpse and leaves, our hero sinks into a dark pit of alcoholic despair. He can’t get hard for living girls any more. He winds up strangling a hooker in a graveyard while they have sex. He them does the decent thing, and kills himself. How? With a kitchen knife to the belly and with a huge hard on sticking out of his pants which cums great gouts of semen followed by a literal eruption of blood from his penis, which is the final image in the movie. In part 2 a female necrophile digs up our hero’s body, and keep his penis in the fridge wrapped in cling film. If anything, it has an even more visually arresting finale than the first movie…



Little look

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STREET TRASH was a glorious mess of a movie. The plot revolves around a gang of homeless people in some nameless, urban wasteland. A lot of the action takes place in a scrap yard, where a gang of hobos run by a burly psycho called Bronson hang out. A local liquor store finds a box of old booze called “Viper” and starts selling it to the street people for a dollar a bottle. Only when they drink this stuff they have the tendency to explode or – in the films key scene – melt. The film also features a necrophilia scene that is played for laughs, gang rape, Viet Nam flashbacks, a game of football played with a amputated penis, and a comedic subplot involving the mafia. It even ends with a musical number. The director, Jim Muro, made this film look a lot better than it should have, and later went on to work the stedicam for movies such as Terminator 2, The Doors, and Titanic.



Toilet scene

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LIQUID SKY is a kind of gender bending, Warhol inspired, post-punk, new wavy alien movie. That’s the best way I can put it. I have to say I had little clue of what was going on, but I found myself obsessed with it, and nearly wore the tape out re-watching it. Aliens lands on Manhattan’s lower east side, attracted to the high serotonin levels in the brains of heroin addicts after they shoot up. Somebody performs a mad electro song called “Me and My Rhythm Box” in one scene that I later covered in an early band of mine (“It never sleeps… it never shits… me and my rhythm box…”



Trailer

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Another slasher movie set in New York, this one helmed by the ever-reliable Lucio Fulci. It is as Italian as they get, with a twisting, bind bending plot, incredibly bloody violence against women (nipples are sliced, eyeballs gouged, and broken bottles inserted into vaginas) and a ludicrous villain who speaks in a weird Donald Duck voice which kills every supposedly scary scene dead, and succeeds in making the whole thing seem incredibly silly. I watched it again recently, and in the 10 years since I last saw it the gore seems to have aged badly – the whole thing is pretty hokey, and sounds a lot more horrendous when you write about it than when you see it.



A piece

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BRAIN DAMAGE was one of those movies that I held little expectation for, but which just blew me away. It comes from director Frank Hennenlotter (BASKET CASE, FRANKENHOOKER) and is the story of an alien parasite called Elmer, who attaches himself onto our hero, Brian. He starts to feed Brian an intense psychedelic drug that produces extreme euphoria but also causes painful withdrawal. And all that Elmer wants, in exchange for not withholding the drug is food. Unfortunately for Brian, Elmer’s favorite food is human brains… The film is shot beautifully, had a better script and special effects than most of its contemporaries, and had a knowing sense of humor. Unfortunately it is currently out of print. But all of Hennenlotter’s movies are pretty good, so if you haven’t seen any yet I’d urge you to reorder your Netflix queue….!



Trailer



Anyway that’s it… I hope I helped some people find their new favorite cult movie, or maybe it was just a trip down memory lane for the trash aficionado’s out there… enjoy!
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p.s. Hey. So, here is the first of, I think, three 'back from the dead' and/or 'rerun' posts that'll be appearing here now and then over the next couple of weeks, due either to the impairment of my blog-making abilities caused by my recent flu or to an impending travel day when I won't be able to do the p.s. This 'bftd' post is by the awesome writer Tony O'Neill, who seems to have completely disappeared from the online world of late. In fact, does anybody out there know what's up with Tony these days? I would sure like to know. Tony, if you're out there, thank you again for making this Day, and hugs. ** Un Cœur Blanc, Hi! You're back! Yeah, I'm very curious to see the Wong Kar-Wai. I hope it's a return to form. Bachelard, interesting. I was thinking of revisiting that book just the other day, strangely. Let me know how it sits when you read it. I can already tell that the rock gift is working its wonders. Fine day to you. ** Misanthrope, Hi. Friendship is a great thing. Yeah, it's real nice. Oh, spring Europe plans are actually possible? Awesome. With niece, cool, it would be nice to meet her. Try to come for the spring premiere of 'The Pyre', if you can maybe. Yep, your novel finishing: very good plan. Mine might be reopening to me maybe. Too early to tell, but maybe. ** Billy Lloyd, Hi, B. I know, Snape's death, really sad. I guess the spin-off films would have to be prequels, although 'death' seems like it can be a pretty relative term in the Potter world. Yes, please tell me about it. I won't get there before early February, that's for sure. I keep my eye on Japanese pop, or try to. I'm glad you tolerate Jedward. Coming from a UK person, that's relatively quite high praise for them. The lemon drizzle cake sounds ... sigh, yes. Happy Tuesday! ** Cobaltfram, I definitely liked 'Branded to Kill'. A bunch of sticky memories. I'd like to see it again. Some of it has been blurred out by passing time, but yeah. Oh, you know I'm totally fine with guys wanting to sleep with guys sometimes but not thinking the gay label fits them. The challenge there, and it is one, is to not just do a knock-off representation of that choice of his as being the result of the standardized explanations of repression or self-hatred. That's such a trope that you can just get lazy and rely on it, but it's obviously a complicated and personal thing in truth that has a lot in it to work with in terms of representing him as a character. I tried to work with that in 'MLT', and it was an interesting challenge. I've liked the George Saunders stories I've read okay, but I don't get what the big deal about him is, yet anyway. Never seen 'Downtown Abbey', no. It's not on one of the main channels here, so I doubt I will. I like Maggie what's-her-name. ** Bill, Hi! Oh, yeah, Paul C's book, holy shit! 2014 can't get here quickly enough. It would be really fantastic if you don't mind passing along any Butoh stuff you have. That would be hugely helpful. I'll wait to work on the post until you get home. Thanks a lot, Bill! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Oh, Michael Pitt's acting just does nothing much for me. It's pretty simple. Just a taste issue or whatever. Ha ha, wow, about Elfman. He did seem pretty tightly strung. I can imagine him exploding pretty easily. Yes, thank you for the email very much! Wow, Mark Rappaport, awesome! His eBook looks totally fascinating. I'm going to dig into it asap. Thank you a lot, David. It's strange: all the cool US artist people here in Paris who don't ever run into each other. Someone needs to organize a party for us to meet and hang out. ** Popzeus, Hey, man! What a great and rare and true pleasure to see you! I didn't know about that Koestenbaum book. Excellent. I loved his 'Harpo' book a lot. Happy New Year to you and to all of yours too. Oh, yeah, a bit of novel-related suffering, but I might have found the wheel and then put my hands back on it the other day maybe. Thanks for noticing. Yeah, wow, very sweet to see you. Come to Paris! ** Allesfliesst, Oh, man, hugs, sympathy, the whole shebang re: your illness onset. We sick guys and recently sick guys need to stick together. Plato, interesting illness soundtrack. Yes, now that you lay it out, I remember all my prof. friends saying that it's 90% about how you fit into their bureaucratical outlay and plans. I always look at school from a naive student's point of view, it's weird. Maybe approach the Rijksacademie? I've been visitor 'teaching' off and on at the Sandberg Institute, which is part of the Rijks-, and I've been really impressed with the school and students and the faculty I've dealt with there. Oh, right, there is a new Lypsite this year. There's a book I completely spaced out on. Yeah, that should be good. Take care and please feel tons better. ** xTx, Aw, thanks, bud. Dude, 'Billie' sold out in a fucking flash! I was going to tell everybody here to buy it and link then up and stuff, but it was already o.o.p. until February, right? Congrats! I can't wait to get my copy. It looks so pretty and so red in the photos. Thank you, little/big/little x! ** Steevee, Hi. When I was putting together that post, there was no release date on the Pynchon, and I tried to stick to books officially scheduled for 2013. Otherwise, yeah, it would have been there for sure. The Johnnie To film, yes, me too. I should check to see if there's a French release date. Great about 'The War'. Curious about Benning's bad rep. He's over here showing his films a lot, but maybe he and the French are more temperamentally suited? That jazz you're listening to sounds very refreshing. I'll try out the Smith and the Foat, thanks! 'Hors Satan' came out here ages ago. Unusually amazing buzz on the forthcoming Dumont film. Apparently, it's his most ambitious film so far. ** Oriol Rovira Grañen, Hi, there! Nice to see you, man. And thank you a lot for your films list. There's a few in there that I've never heard of before, so I'll be googling the shit out of them today. Yeah, thanks much! I hope you're doing really well! ** Cassandra Troyan, Hey! Welcome so very warmly to my blog! Really excited for both of your books, like, whoa! And I owe you an email that I'll write to you in a while. Big respect to you! ** Sypha, Hi. I know, our old pal Matthew Suss! How sweet! Dodie has a book coming out from Rebel Satori? Whoa, I missed the announcement on that one. Hunh, on the 'IJ' bailing. Well, you gave it the old college try, right? ** James, Not going to work, nice! I hope the freedom had lots fun imbedded in it. Jesus, BroCrush, what a horrible term. Promise me that you will never use that term again, thank you, ha ha. Yeah, it sounds like you're talking about a different kind of thing. Don't know about the Gondry, but I'm not such a fan of his stuff. Except his music videos. I like most of them. New Vollman? That totally evaded my knowledge too. Great! Uh, hm, having known DFW and only having seen Wiley Wiggins in movies, I don't see a resemblance there, no. How so? Long hair, long face? WW had a blog for a while. I used to read it sometimes, but it's been forever, so, yeah, I have no idea what he's up to either. A Bloody Mary sounds good. I like them. I've been known to slip in that direction on occasion. Happy post-Birthday! ** Heliotrope, Hi, Mark! You're back in civilization! I mean LA, not the blog. I don't know if this place qualifies as civilized. Sounds very awesome, all of it -- the way up parts and the minor downers inclusive. I don't think I ever personally met the Moreland brothers, but you know I'm a gigantic fan of Wall of Voodoo and saw them a lot. Actually, I curated an early gig by them at Beyond Baroque, so maybe I didn't meet them briefly, at least. What is the surviving Moreland doing these days other than djing? Why haven't Wall of Voodoo done a reunion? That's a gig I would actually rush to see. Anyway, hurrah to your desert-based wonderfulness, and much love to you, pal o' mine. ** Alana Noel Voth, Hey! Super sweet to see you! Yes, imagine my excitement when I came across that listing for your upcoming book! Heavy anticipation over here! Wringing, sweaty hands even. And with such a totally awesome press! So great! Oh, 'Kiddo', about the drawing? If so, that was such a great drawing! Did the kiddo win? Kiddo should so win. What an incredibly talented kiddo! Lots of love to you! ** Scunnard, Consider yourself signed up. Oh, thanks, man, for the Butoh tips/link. No, that's really helpful. Your influence will be all over whatever it is. All is well, I think. Is your all well as well? ** Tomkendall, Hi, Tom! Man, such excellent writing you put up on your blog. I was thoroughly blown away, man. Deep respect. I await the chance to have you on my 2014 list. You good? You sound good. ** 5STRINGS, I'm sort of the opposite. I only watch the actual TV parts, but I don't have much choice in the matter. And I like watching French people sit around a table and talk. It's weird to like that. You covered everything with spooge? Dude, you're so virile, and I'm not the least but surprised given your musical tastes. Crotch Rock forever! Thanks for your movie reviews. I'm still way-down to see 'Django'. Not sure if I'll see 'ZDT'. Maybe not. ** Thomas Moronic, Well, jeez, T, who gets the thanks? You. My eyes were just open. Yeah, if you get a release date, let me know. Do you have cover art and all that in place yet? Writing, great, that's the best thing you could be doing, duh. Well, from my avid reader's pov. The Xiu Xiu/Oxbow collab is most bizarre and highly anticipated, yes. Well, come over to Paris and see the Mike Kelley. It opens here in May, I think, and you could catch the premiere of 'The Pyre' in the same trip. Just saying, greedily. ** Ken Baumann, Ken! Thank you! And also for your correspondential -- that's not a word (?!) -- nudge on what my lodging needs. I'm psyching myself up. Love from me to you. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben! Yay all over the place about your firming Paris plans. And cool if Gayle comes too. I'd love to meet more 'YnY' heroes. ** Grant Scicluna, Hey. Yes, the spectatorship / engagement angle, right. That's an interesting and potentially very rich window right there. 'Cache', right, yes again, good one. Yeah, I love playing with the given or standard, accepted forms that immediately identify something as fiction or as non-fiction. At least in writing for the page, you can do a lot of expectation tweaking and gaming by using fiction's tropes to initially disguise non-fiction and vice versa, but working with that dichotomy with visual images -- the grainy documentary look vs. the obviously composed and savvy fiction look -- seems much trickier maybe, I don't know. Thanks for your anticipated films list. I didn't know of the Lee Daniels. I'll google that. And, well, more Bresson, what can I say to that? You are a wise man. Best day to you too! ** Lee, Hi, Lee! Tricks are all right. Not too tricky. Yours? New Veronica Falls, right, I spaced on that. Yeah, that should be ace. School feels sweet around you so far? Sweet, ha ha! I don't know that Stanislaw Lem piece, but it sure sounds cool. Enjoy your second day of school! ** Flit, Wowzer! That sounds, you know, fuckin' A! Me? Really, me? Me too? Where and when? Now? Wow, now? ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Thanks re: the weekend post. The Julie Ruin album, yes, for sure. Another instance of my spacing out. That 'certain novel' might come out in 2013? Did I know that? Holy whoa! Can't wait to share the announcement, don't you know. The new Grandieux: Here's what I know. He has made it in a very different way than he has worked before. He has been doing a series of performances / events / happenings in various locations. They've been works in and of themselves, and they've been filmed as well. For instance, the event that Anja Rottgerkamp from Gisele's and my work -- she's the main performer in 'The Pyre' -- starred in for him took place in the middle of a forest and lasted an entire night. She said it did not seem narrative, but apparently it's part of the film's pre-set trajectory. The performers were naked and covered with extravagant make-up. He has filmed events in museums, houses, nature, etc. He just finished the film version of the project, and I'm kicking myself that I'm missing the first screening next week. Gisele is having a meeting with him in a few weeks because he likes our work a lot and might be interested in working with us on the feature film that G. and I are hoping to make based on 'Jerk', so I should know more once they've met maybe. All I've heard about the Wong Kar-Wai is that it's more like the work he used to do with Christopher Doyle, which is hopeful news to me. Thanks for your listening list. I don't know a lot of that stuff, but I've noted everything, and I will hunt the stuff down straight away. Great! Thanks a lot, Jeff! ** Daniel Bailey, Hey! Thank you a lot for coming in here! I'm a big fan of your writing, as I guess is obvious, and, yeah, I'm very excited for your book. And thank you a lot for letting me know about the typing fuck up with '#ohso'. That was some bizarre cut-and-pasting mix-up, and I've corrected it. Yikes. Everyone, just so you know, I fucked up yesterday and attributed the forthcoming book '#ohso' to the wrong author. It's actually by the wonderful writer Mike Bushnell, and it is, as I said, something you should really watch out for. Yeah, a real pleasure to meet you and have you here, Daniel. Tons of respect to you and yours! ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris. Cool, thanks. A new Seidel is an exciting prospect. I didn't know the Complete Stories of Purdy was coming out. That's a total must and great news, hunh, wow. Thanks for the alert. I might watch the Grandieux doc tonight too. Or tomorrow night maybe by the time you see this. How was it? ** E., Hi, e.! Oh, I need to write to you. Probably today. I really, really liked the writing you shared with me a lot, is the short of it. I don't know that Chico Buarque book at all. Wow, I will definitely go look for it. Beauty, yum. Ha ha, yeah, I guess I'm a little crazy. It's weird because it doesn't feel crazy to do the blog this way, but when I have moments of objectivity, I think, Whoa, I'm crazy. But, no, I'm into it. I seem to be able to balance it out with an okay real life unless I'm crazy and my real life isn't actually okay after all, ha ha. I'd better not think about that one. Anyway, thank you, you're so nice. Oh, the buches: This one, this one, and this one, although the last one wasn't technically a buche. ** Rewritedept, Ugh, still sick, sorry, man. I hope the upturn starts today in earnest. Your decision to start releasing your stuff in '13 is plenty exciting. If anybody can dominate the world with mellowness, it has got to be you. ** Gabe Durham, Hey! Thank you a lot for being here, sir. Oh, yes, I will be reading your book for absolutely sure and with ... what that's saying ... oh, with bells on. What a weird saying. Thank you so kindly for saying nice things about my stuff. I just read about the Local Natives album while I was waking up this morning. Yeah, that does sound super promising. Again, thank you, and it's cool to meet you, so to speak. Respect galore to you, man. ** Patrickdewitt, Ha ha, okay, here's the scoop. First, no, I did not score info on the entrance to the Bastille tunnel. Chrystel, who seemed to be very sincere, said she doesn't know where the entrance is. In fact, workers just opened this new, previously forever closed off room here -- next to where they keep the trash cans -- and she said that she had been sure/hoping that there would be an entrance to the tunnel in there, but no. But she told me she knows for sure that there are four secret entrances to the tunnel, and that they're all located somewhere here in the main Recollets building. I am, as you can imagine, heavily intrigued, and in fact I am seriously weighing going to the Bibliotheque National or wherever to try to find really old blueprints of the building that could tell me where the secrets entrances are located. So, that's the story. Get over here and help me find them, man. ** Kyler, Hey! You've got to go for broke, man. You would have kicked yourself if you hadn't gone big at least to start with, and the hunt, as depressing as it is, ain't over yet, and, worst case scenario, the so-called small can be as big as the biggest of the big. I think I lost my metaphor or whatever there, but you know what I mean. Hemingway! I haven't read the big H in decades and decades, but, yeah, dude knew how to make sentences and dialog, that's for sure. ** Casey Hannan, Your thanks has now boomeranged back at you. Can you feel it? Your book is so imminent. Don't forget that I'm way down to do a post about it to help shine up its birth. If you're down with that idea, get in touch and give/lend me some stuff to make the post with. In any case, way excited. ** Unknown/Pascal, Loved the post so much, yeah, thank you, thank you. 'Jack the Cow' is so good, right? If Pollard is playing and giving pleasure somewhere in the world, the world is good. That's my philosophy. ** Paul Curran, Yes, 2014! At least there will be some pretty great warm-up acts in the meantime. You're going the early morning route. That's my angle, and I really like how it works when it works, so I'm very curious to hear how that impacts and shapes the mode. You've got luck in wish form coming from me at an intensity that is beyond your wildest dreams. Great, Paul! Exciting to hear that. Swell day to you. ** Marc Vallée, Hi, Marc! No, I haven't yet, unless Yury put the package somewhere and forgot to tell me, which is entirely possible. I'll ask him when he wakes up. It's his day off. Hopefully, they're here and safely in some pile of our stuff. I'll let you know. Thanks! ** Okay. Go back to Tony O'Neill's post now. It's as fresh today as it was way back in 2007. See for yourselves. See you tomorrow.