Excerpts from Electric Degeneration, Degenerate Press' semi-weekly e-zine, free and ad-free. A full episode contains sections for music reviews, upcoming events, blasphemy, classifieds, and anything else we feel like saying. If you'd like to subscribe just contact us.
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4/1/2006
I’ve been packing and running errands and checking things off
my To Do list and, coincidentally, putting off the ezine over and over until all
else had been taken care of.
“The newspapers! Sir they are the most villainous – licentious – abominable –
infernal – Not that I ever read them – no – I make it a rule never to look into
a newspaper.”
Philip Henry Sheridan, from The Critic
If you know me, or have read Degenerate Press efforts for any period of time,
you know I have more than a few hobbies – metal sculpting, geeky gaming, car
remodeling, eating all the pork I can get my teeth on, drinking all the rum and
whiskey I can before liver failure, consuming massive quantities of porn – it’s
a wonder I get around to Degenerate Press at all.
As you’ve read, lately I’ve been whoring myself out to print publications for
money.
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A54810
Sure, it pains me to pare down my sometimes verbose ramblings to the bare bones,
which are further whittled away to fit into the miniscule word counts given me
by the Editors on Mount Olympus.
But it pays.
This new effort has forced me to reevaluate my use of time. There’s just not
enough time in the week to do everything I WANT to do, much less everything I
want to do in addition to everything I have to do to keep a roof under my head
and my belly full of pork!
Something has to go, and that something is Degenerate Press. Fuck it, y’all
ain’t payin’ and the T-bird needs a new pair o’ seats. Professional journalism
has me by the gas tank.
So I’m headed to NYC this weekend with other journalists, degenerates, slackers
and hangers-on. When I get back I’ll be searching for other print outlets with
even the most feeble pay per word ‘cause even a little per word is better than
nothing.
So here’s the last Electric Degeneration. Wish it were spectacular, going out
with a roar rather than a whimper. But if I had time to roar this week, I’d have
time to keep whimpering along.
Meh. At least the Prophesy section is thick and meaty this week.
See you in the funny pages!
FILM FLAM
Last week I saw V for Vendetta, another graphic novel turned movie. This one
takes place in London in the not-too-distant future. It’s a tale of revenge and
rebellion against a government gone a bit mad with power. I’m not sure Americans
are ready to deal with images of people in orange prison garb being tortured for
information about their accused fellow terrorists, intermingled with a plot to
blow up a massive building by these terrorists, when it’s the terrorists who are
the heroes. Frankly, mainstream America doesn’t seem to like art that actually
makes them think, particularly about important, difficult topics. Vendetta
tries, perhaps a bit too hard and heavy-handedly, to do just that. Natalie
Portman does a fair job portraying the innocent bystander caught up in the plots
– both the terrorist’s and government’s. The visuals aren’t bad either. It’s no
Sin City, but it beats the hell out of Fantastic Four.
A while back I caught a sneak preview of the film Lucky Number Sleven. No,
that’s not a typo, it’s one of those clever titles that’s supposed to catch your
eye. The film has some obviously Tarantino-influenced style but lacks his
consistently comical handling of characters and events. It also shares some of
Tarantino’s too-clever dialogue in moments, sometimes straying into stinky
cheese noir. These are distractions to what could’ve been a nice, dark study of
violence and vengeance. Instead, it’s a bit uneven in places, but it’s still
interesting to see Josh Hartnett start off with his usual cute boy persona
gradually turn into something entirely different. Bruce Willis doesn’t bring
much to the film, but Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman make fun, contrasting
villains. If you don’t mind a fair amount of graphic violence and a few naked
breasts, you might like the twists and turns in this flick. Director Paul
McGuigan was in the theater afterwards, taking questions from the audience.
McGuigan pointed out that the scenes take place mostly indoors in the same
couple of apartments, thus his gratuitous use of gaudy wallpaper to liven things
up a bit.
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