Life Doesn't Slow Down: A Petri Dish Update

Pardon me for not posting anything new here in a spell. I haven't been idle, by any measure.

Much of my non-day-job time's been parced out between a couple of enterprises. One of them is Bizarro Movie Nights at the Aster Coffee Lounge in scenic Ballard, Washington, in which I put my Doctorate of Schlockology to the test by presenting strange cinema of various stripes on the grandeur of a big(gish) projection screen. Yours Truly delivers patter so snappy you can scat sing to it (when I'm not ceding hosting duties to the eminent El Serpiente de Oro); audiences laugh and stare goggle-eyed at pinheaded giants, cackling Indonesian witches, and Satan-fighting holiday icons; and everyone can partake of fine coffees, teas, beers and wines in one of Ballard's coziest locales! Go to the Bizarro Blog for details. Next one's on May 1, and we're featuring a night of vice and sin, Depression-era style--Don't miss it!

I've also been pouring a lot of spare time into writing for the Seattle Concerts Examiner and The SunBreak.com. I haven't exactly been getting wealthy on either, but people are reading them, and if I may say so, the quality's been pretty damn good..

You can visit my Concerts Examiner page here (and I get paid by hits, so come back, read, and re-read often!). As for the SunBreak, the whole kit and caboodle can be accessed here. You'll find interviews with everyone from Hollywood legends to rock stars to film noir experts to reviews of B-movie schlock, but here are a couple of my personal faves.

Interview with Exene Cervenka of X: I took a bunch of pictures, and will try to post them here soon, along with the unedited version of the interview.

Interview with Trouble in Mind director Alan Rudolph (linked on Movie City News, thanks Vince Keenan!)

Interview with Indie Film Icon/Blaxploitation Pioneer Melvin Van Peebles

Interview with Film Noir God Eddie Muller

Preview of Frank Henenlotter's Bad Behavior (hey! Thats yours truly hobnobbing with the Basket Case director! And he even gave Bizarro Movie Night a ringing endorsement!).


Swear to Pete, I'll be a'scribblin' here again soon. Thanks for dropping by: Sorry to be such a stranger. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Re-Issued Audio Yummies: Easybeats, ELO, and Divinyls

Image
Work's been clubbing me upside the head so thoroughly that I haven't been imbibing in much pop culture anything lately. Put bluntly, I ain't had the time...With one exception. Unlike most sane working stiffs who actually use their lunch breaks to, you know, relax and eat lunch, I hit the pavement and walk my metaphoric arse off during that precious half-hour. Headphones rest on my noggin, connected to an ancient Discman as I get a lungful of fresh air and an earful of music, old and new. Here's what's been getting the blood pumping (and the feet moving) of late--old stuff division. The Easybeats' biggest claim to fame may have been their international hit, 'Friday on My Mind' (covered by David Bowie on his covers LP, Pin Ups ), but Varese Sarabande's compilation CD The Very Best of the Easybeats proves that classic tune was no fluke. With all due respect to the Bee Gees , the Easys really were Australia's closest equivalent to the Beatles, a Br
Read more

An Interview with Joe Dallesandro

Image
( I wrote this interview for Seattlest.com , and it is reprinted on the Petri Dish with their kind permission. ) For a minute, it looks like the perfect photo opportunity. Joe Dallesandro—former bodyguard at Andy Warhol’s fabled Factory, star of several key Warhol-sponsored cult films in the sixties and seventies, and accidental avatar of the Sexual Revolution—stands outside the W Hotel in downtown Seattle, his back to me. He cuts an almost dangerous-looking figure. Clad head to foot in black, his compact body sits atop slightly bowed legs in an almost pugilistic stance as he smokes his cigarette. A soul-patched, dark-haired kid stops to bum a smoke, and both figures huddle, almost silhouetted thanks to the overreaching shadow cast by the hotel building, as vaporous off-white ribbons of smoke curl above their heads. But then Dallesandro begins to turn, and I don’t want to come off like some stalker before a formal introduction, so I retreat back into the hotel lobby. The sublime noir
Read more

Character Actor Heaven: Hollywood Collectors Show, Feb 2005

Image
Hollywood Collectors' Show, February 18/19, 2005 Character actors are the building blocks of cinematic life. And like a lot of important foundations (architectural or otherwise), they get little credit from the outside world for their contributions. Fortunately, there's the bi-monthly Hollywood Collectors' Show , where fans of all stripes can show these hard-working but underappreciated fixtures of film and TV some serious love, and even get some love back. Expect to make a bit of an investment for that love. Daily admission is $15 ($25 for a two-day pass), and all of the celebrities in attendance charge for their autographs (more on that later). But for a real film (or TV) nut, a Hollywood Collector's Show is absolute manna from heaven, and totally worth the extra change. Imagine a Star Trek convention stripped to its absolute essentials--ample celebrity guests and heaps of cool merchandise--and you get the idea. My wife and I saved our pennies for several months and
Read more