SO!

If you were to guess at what a guy who draws “dark” comics does on his weekends… it would probably look very similar to what I did this last weekend. Usually I spend my Saturdays and Sundays glaring at passersby and cursing the cats for not preparing my meals, but this time I (holy shit!) actually went out and lived the “horror person” stereotype.

SATURDAY! On Saturday the Gofflin and I ventured deep into the filthy heart of Hollywood to see two of my favorite goth ladies bring smiles to the faces of the terminally spooky. Which actually isn’t as difficult as it seems, but still, Melora Creager (of Rasputina renown) and Siouxsie Sioux (of “That woman cannot possibly be 50 years old” renown) rocked the ever-lovin’ socks off the Henry Ford theater, its assorted black clad protomass, and me this past weekend. Just an amazing, amazing show. But what really struck me was how different the two performances were, while still both coming under the heading of “goth.” Rasputina with their intensely cool “19th-century American prairie punk” look and snarky-but-swooping cello recital could not have been more different than Siouxsie’s slinky “goths in space” look and charging synth-spook-RAWK. Totally distict, but both absolutely beautiful. I couldn’t help but think of the “all goth shit is the same” people and how painfully, embarrassingly wrong they are. To be totally fair, though, (and apologies if I’ve said this before) I guess when you’re on the outside looking in, things do tend to blur a little bit. Like, for instance, if I really took the time to examine the romantic comedy genre, over time I’d probably be able to pick out all the subtle variations of plot and tone among the movies. Instead of seeing it all as one big undifferentiated pudding of McConaughey.

(Anyway, if you’re a Siouxsie fan, her new album is as big, HI-GAWF, and ridiculously catchy as her glory days with the Banshees, so buy it! And if you’re a Rasputina fan, well, YOU BETTER BE. And buy their exquisite new offering, as well.)

SUNDAY! On Sunday I went and saw George Romero’s new zombie movie, Diary of the Dead. Yeah, he’s got another one already! And… well, it isn’t his best by a long shot, but it was fun. Zombies are my bestest favorite, and no one knows zombies like Uncle George, so I couldn’t help but be entertained. I do love my zombies… And I know exactly why, too. “Barricaded in your house while mindless hordes of slobbering, violent bastards claw at the door trying to either destroy you or make you one of them” is… pretty much how any given introvert sees the real world at any given moment. It speaks to me. Similarly, I’m really strongly drawn to any scenario in which a person wanders around big, empty spaces that are normally filled to the rafters with humans. So of course, Dawn of the Dead is one of my all-time top-favorite films. Diary isn’t really up to Dawn standards, though, unfortunately. If I had to complain – and I don’t but here I go anyway, because it’s the internet – I’d say this time he had his patented “social observations and zombie mayhem” recipe mixed a bit too heavy on the former and too light on the latter. Every minor observation was explicitly spelled out, underlined 80 times, doused in 40 gallons of fluorescent marker and lit up with a flamethrower, every time. Sometimes that can be part of the fun, but, well, not this time…

Still, nobody destroys ghouls like George Romero, so even if you think you’ve seen every possible way to bloody up some shamblers, I guarantee you’ll find something fresh, new and intensely cool in this one. (Acid, kiddies, is a woefully underused item in the zombie genre.) And even if the commentary gets a little “Yeah, WE GET IT, George” at times, the points are still valid and fun to roll around the brain. So go put some money in the man’s pocket and see Diary of the Dead – if you, y’know, can find it. (The Nuart has it until the 21st.)

Cool poster, too.

SOME BUSINESS:

Little bit of business to attend to… If you tried signing up for the FORUM within the past 6 months or so and were never able to log in… um, try again. If you want. The problem was that I never really had the time to sift through all the thousands upon thousands of spambots in the user list (it was getting really, really bad in there), dig out all the real live humans and activate them. But hey, it had to be done, so I finally do-ed it. Sorry about the horrible delay. I actually recognized a few of the names from my LJ and Myspace accounts, which is sort of embarrassing…

Speaking of the forum, we recently put out the call for moderators, so if you’re interested (or just want to vote for someone else all democratic-like), swing right on over HERE.

AND FINALLY: “Good Guys Wear Black” is now en-YouTubed, for all your sharing and commenting needs. You know how it works:

Not sure why I did that… just thought it should be there, I guess.

Now back to cursing at cats!

-a