We Are The Sprocket Holes vol. 516

 standout viewing for the chum-lubed canker pheasant that was December. 

(November)

ADRIENNE (2021, dir. Andy Ostroy)

literally could not stop crying throughout the run time. that actually never happens to me. 

BLACK BEAR (2020, dir. Lawrence Micheal Levine) 

another relationshit movie that makes me feel so good about doing so bad. 

THE CARD COUNTER (2021, dir. Paul Schrader)

thank you for your fan service. btw: fuck the Matrix Remarketed and Spoder-Meh: No One Cares. 

CRYPTOZOO (2021, dir. Dash Shaw)

when i was a kid, one of my most watched video tapes was this sort of motion children's book that compiled these stories about kids being left to their own devices. one had a girl who ate peanut butter and pickle sandwiches for breakfast, another culminated with a boy having a nightmare in a bathtub where he was perused by a cackling giant in an underground cave. this movie kind of remined me of them. 

 DEAD END DRIVE-IN (1986, dir. Brian Trenchard-Smith)

one of the most imaginative Ozploitation films of all time. 

KOLOBOS (1999, dir. Daniel Liatowitsch / David Todd Ocvirk)

late 90s Y2PreK aesthetics collide with giallo worship.

MY HEART CAN'T BEAT UNLESS YOU TELL IT TO (2020, dir. Jonathan Cuartes)

another entry in my much beloved not-a-vampire vampire cannon. 

SHATTER DEAD (1994, dir. Scooter McCrae)

Elevated SOV Horror. 

THE SHOW (2020, dir. Mitch Jenkins)

so much for "untranslatable". 

WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING (2021, dir. Sean King O'Grady) 

easily slides into my top ten viewing experiences for the year. so thirsty. so miserable. unlovingly lovable. captures the mood of this past year without coming off like its trying to tap into the "zeitgeist". could be applied to almost any time... and that's perhaps the problem? i don't know... i'm so fried from *gestures wildly with harsh stabbing motions* ALL. OF. THIS. that i can't really put the cavernous depths of my unceasing frustration and immobilizing loneliness into a coherently crafted piece of digital articulation. go back and watch all the film recommendations from the past year on this blog and you might find certain thematic patterns repeat on a less than sporadic basis. think i'll have another panic blackout about it. 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH vol HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

Alex Jones Claimed He Feared for His Life as Wife Attacked Him

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH vol. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

TrumpWorld Becomes Unglued Over Trump’s Praise of Vaccine and Booster Shots

We are the Sprocket Holes vol. 515

 

Naughty or Nice: The Ups and Downs of the ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ Franchise

#gorenoise vol. 131

 

Alleged cannibal believed eating victim’s remains would ‘cure his brain’

#truecrimepowerelectronics vol. 31

 

Arizona Man Charged with Sexual Assault After 6-Year-Old Victim Tests Positive for STD

Negation Aspiration vol. 316 / #gorenoise vol. 131

 

Golden-Tongued Mummies Might Have Talked With Ancient Gods

NERRRRRRRRRD! vol. 163

 

Wave of Mutilation Part 1: The Birth of Rebel Studios

We are the Sprocket Holes vol. 514

Taking a deep dive into the not-so-distant future where humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. This evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup. While some embrace the limitless potential of trans-humanism, others attempt to police it. Either way, ‘Accelerated Evolution Syndrome’ is spreading fast. Saul Tenser is a beloved performance artist who has embraced Accelerated Evolution Syndrome, sprouting new and unexpected organs in his body. Along with his partner Caprice, Tenser has turned the removal of these organs into a spectacle for his loyal followers to marvel at in real-time theatre. But with both the government and a strange subculture taking note, Tenser is forced to consider what would be his most shocking performance of all.

Kristen Stewart and David Cronenberg Tease ‘Crimes of the Future’: Set in a World with No Pain

AHHHHHHHH vol. HAHAHAHAHAHA

 Numerous members of the Leek family told the Dallas Observer that the woman, who reportedly abandoned her husband and children in Delaware last month to follow Trump-supporting QAnon leader Michael Brian Protzman to Dallas, has been quaffing a mixture containing chlorine dioxide—industrial bleach—which she apparently distributes among the group.

It is sold online under various names, including “Miracle Mineral Solution,” “Miracle Mineral Supplement,” “Master Mineral Solution,” and “Chlorine Dioxide Protocol.” Ingestion can lead to respiratory failure, potentially fatal abnormal heart rhythms, life-threateningly low blood pressure, acute liver failure, and the rapid destruction of red blood cells. Members of a Florida family hawking chlorine dioxide through their Genesis II Church of Health and Healing in Bradenton were arrested by federal agents in 2020. They reportedly earned more than $1 million from sales of their “miracle” elixir.

Dallas QAnon ‘Cult’ Is Now Drinking Terrifying Chemical Cocktail, Family Says

Negation Aspiration vol. 315

 

Giant millipedes as long as cars roamed northern England, fossil reveals

NERRRRRRRRRRRD! vol. 162

I try to think back to the 80s and 90s, to the things that excited a younger me, who was much more invested in movie series and comic books. I scan the shelves again. There’s no Ripley from Alien here, no Rachel or Leon from Blade Runner, no Clarence Boddicker from Robocop—all of which I’m sure exist. Reluctantly I grab a (Mad) Max Rockatansky figure as it feels like the next best thing, a tiny recreation of Tom Hardy stripped of all the identifying facial features that make him Tom Hardy. Plus it’s been discounted to just $10 from the usual $15, for some reason that the clerk is unsure of. It might just be that it was unpopular, he told me. I feel like my fan-based identity is being valued and ranked.

Comic book stores are complex places for me these days, I have to admit. I get a weird mix of nostalgia and dread when I walk into one. I spent a sizable chunk of my life growing up in the UK hanging out in them, pouring over top-shelf copies of Heavy Metal magazine, sci-fi artbooks, Love and Rockets comics, and the translated manga that was still such a rarity back then. Up until a couple of years ago I’d still pop in to any comic book store I passed to see what interesting indie published stuff they had. But increasingly it started to feel like that stuff was being pushed to the back of the store, to some ever shrinking dark corner, while valuable shelf space was taken up by the products from the big corporate franchises—Marvel, Star Wars, DC, Harry Potter. Very American stories about good and evil from very American corporations. Sure I could dismiss a lot of this feeling to being a grumpy old man—I’m well into my 40s now—but I see plenty of other men in their 40s in these stores, and they usually look far less grumpy than me. They look like they still belong. Instead I feel like I’m being crushed by an unstoppable wave of nerd imperialism, a steamrolling of pop culture by corporate franchises that want to reduce everything to product lines of episodic stories that never end, generic Lego playsets, and uniformly sized and packaged vinyl toys. 

Plus there was something else that pulled me out of my comic and movies obsession when I was a teenager. Fueled by early hip-hop and rave culture I became engrossed with music, and the comic stores I hung out in soon gave way to record stores. Buying and collecting vinyl became my new obsession, my new main source for spending the little money I had, and the new way of defining myself, of giving teenage me an identity. I was one of those record guys. A wannabee DJ. Over the following years I amassed a collection of a few thousand cassette tapes, CDs, and vinyl records. I still have most of them now, stored away in a friend’s attic back in the UK.

And it was then, just as I was leaving the store with my Mad Max Funko Pop! that it hit me, the most basic of connections I’d somehow failed to already make. Wait a minute. Vinyl records? Vinyl toys? Are they made from the same thing?

The Funko Pop! Is the Mascot of Nerd Imperialism That Will Outlive Us All

Everyone is a fan of something: How Funko Pops! became a physical manifestation of the internet.  

#truecrimepowerelectronics vol. 30

 One student, who is reportedly Jewish, was instructed to play the role of Adolf Hitler and told to pretend to commit suicide at the end of the lesson, according to a parent who spoke with the Post. Some students were given the role of genocidal Nazis digging graves for classmates. “This included the trains, dying in gas chambers, playing Hitler, and mass graves,” one parent told local station Fox 5 DC. 

School Librarian Reportedly Made Third Graders Re-Enact the Holocaust

The librarian reportedly said the Holocaust happened “because the Jews ruined Christmas.”

Awwwww Yeah vol. 245

 

Why Are People Tweeting That Nancy Reagan Was the 'Throat Goat?'

Awwwwww Yeah vol. 244

 

Jesus Piece’s Drummer Is Playing With Charli XCX On Saturday Night Live This Weekend

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 262

Workers at the tornado-ravaged Kentucky candle factory say they were told they’d be fired if they fled the facility as the killer twister closed in, according to a report Monday.

The Mayfield Consumer Products plant was later leveled by the catastrophic twister, which killed at least eight workers and left eight others still unaccounted for, NBC News reported.

“[Employees] had questioned if they could leave or go home,” worker McKayla Emery, 21, told the outlet. ” ‘If you leave, you’re more than likely to be fired.’ I heard that with my own ears.”

More than a dozen workers at the factory during the nightshift Friday pleaded to go home after emergency alarms warned of the coming twister, added another worker, Haley Conder.

She said managers told the crew, ” ‘You can’t leave. You have to stay here.’

“The situation was bad,” she said. “Everyone was uncomfortable.”

Some workers left before the storm regardless of the threats — but others stayed, employees told the outlet.

Then the factory was torn apart.

“I kid you not, I heard a loud noise, and the next thing I know, I was stuck under a cement wall,” Emery said. “I couldn’t move anything. I couldn’t push anything. I was stuck.”

Forklift driver Mark Saxton added, “That’s the thing. We should have been able to leave.

“The first warning came, and they just had us go in the hallway,” he said. “After the warning, they had us go back to work. They never offered us to go home.”

Within a few hours, the Mayfield plant was leveled — so hard-hit that Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said during a Monday briefing that it was “a Christmas miracle” that only eight workers had been confirmed dead.

But the company denied the claims.

“It’s absolutely untrue,” said Bob Ferguson to NBC. “We’ve had a policy in place since COVID began. Employees can leave any time they want to leave, and they can come back the next day.”

He added that bosses are trained in emergency drills following guidelines from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration and that “those protocols are in place and were followed.”

On Sunday, the girlfriend of a worker killed at an Illinois Amazon plant said her beau was told he could not leave that facility as the storm moved in, killing him and five other employees.

Workers at Kentucky plant: We were told we’d be fired if we left building during tornado

i don't think very much of most people, but i'm pretty sure even the most contemptibly useless of human life is worth more than the bottom line of a corporation that makes fucking SCENTED CANDLES. 

#gorenoise vol. 130

 Devon Nicholson, who is also known as “Hannibal” and “Blood Hunter,” has been banned from World Class Pro Wrestling after stabbing a referee in the head multiple times over the weekend.

The wrestler pinned Deltoro to the ground and straddled his back, then revealed a sharp object in his hand. After putting him in a choke hold, Nicholson used the object to stab and scratch the ref multiple times in the head.

Another wrestler ran in to pull Deltoro off the ref, who was then bleeding from multiple points on his head and left a pool of his own blood on the floor of the ring.

World Class Pro Wrestling bans ‘Hannibal’ after he violently stabbed referee in head over weekend

‘Haven’t Seen That Much Blood Since Fallujah’: Ref Mauled by Crazed Pro-Wrestler

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 261

 

Hollywood Is Trying To Turn the Fall of Afghanistan Into a Feel-Good Movie

#truecrimepowerelectronics vol. 28

 

Evan Rachel Wood claims Marilyn Manson threatened 'to f**k' her eight-year-old son and 'destroy' the families of his other alleged victims

Negation Aspiration vol. 314

 Content warning: The following post contains accusations of rape, sexual assault, suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, emotional abuse.

LINGUA IGNOTA 

Accuses 

DAUGHTERS 

Frontman 

ALEXIS 

MARSHALL 

Of Sexual Abuse, 

Rape & Driving 

Her To Attempt 

Suicide

Awwwwwww Yeah vol. 243

 

Chris Achilléos Passes Away, Aged 74

#truecrimepowerelectronics vol. 27 (and counting)

 

Disgraced Reality TV Star Josh Duggar Found Guilty of Child Porn

Negation Aspiration vol. 313

 

Tracking 

the Evolution 

of the 

Wendigo 

in Horror

#gorenoise vol. 129

 

Mom Helped Son Behead His Pregnant Sister Before He Posed for a Selfie, Police Say

NERRRRRRRRRRD! vol. 161

 

New Judge Dredd Comic Features Crossover With Sylvester Stallone & Karl Urban Movies

NERRRRRRRRRD! vol. 160

 

It’s a Comic Book, You Idiot!: A Thank You To Cartoonist Evan Dorkin

Negation Aspiration vol. 312

  The country’s medical review board has just given authorization for use of the Sarco Suicide Pod, which is a 3-D-printed portable coffin-like capsule with windows that can be transported to a tranquil place for a person’s final moments of life.

Switzerland Approves Assisted ‘Suicide Capsule’

#gorenoise vol. 128

 

New Jersey Woman Fatally Knifes 5-Month-Old, Cops Say

AHHHHHHHHH vol. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 Though they intended to “reclaim America,” members of Patriot Front had more than enough trouble reclaiming their own ride.

White Supremacists Stage Bizarro Rally in Downtown D.C., Find Themselves Stranded

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 260

 

Ron DeSantis Wants His Own State Militia

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 259

 Why all this attention when cable news barely matters to most Americans? The average audience commanded by Maddow and Cooper and Hannity and all the others slithering down your cable cord is so tiny you can almost get away with calling cable news a niche media. According to October numbers from TV Newser, the three major cable networks attract an average audience of only 4.2 million viewers during primetime, which is when viewing peaks. In a nation of 330 million, that’s just a little over 1 percent of the population. Meanwhile, the three nightly news broadcasts together can reliably pull in 21.5 million viewers a night. The cable numbers pale even more when you analyze individual networks ratings. Cuomo’s erstwhile channel, CNN, drew, according to TV Newser, an average of about 700,000 viewers during primetime in one October week, which is about equal in size to the population of El Paso. Or compare the cable news audience to that of country music (31 million listeners daily) or Netflix (74 million subscribers) to gain another perspective. If country music vanished in a rapture, you’d have to deal with some pretty ornery people. But if cable news disappeared tomorrow, who would notice?

Time to Pull the Plug on Cable News

Cable News reaches a tiny fraction of the country, so why does the rest of the media care so much about the stupid things it says?

We are the Sprocket Holes vol. 513

 

Interview: Abel Ferrara Talks Pandemic Film ZEROS AND ONES, Recalls Cult Classic MS .45

#gorenoise vol. 127

 Mystery initially shrouded Amy Carlson’s death after her decomposing corpse was found in a Colorado home, wrapped in a sleeping bag with glitter around her missing eyes.

Cause of Death Revealed for Mummified Colorado ‘Cult’ Leader Found Without Eyes

We Are The Sprocket Holes vol. 512

 Today, the unearned confidence of masculinity is enhanced by InfoWars-branded Super Male Vitality supplements. Numerous comedians tap into the Trumpian world of awkward media sensibilities, body horror, and crypto grifts for discomforting anti-comedy that’s occasionally as profound as it is hilarious. O’Malley, Heidecker, André, and more are pointing out aspects of the modern American male that most media ignores, blowing out their worlds and weaknesses to unstable heights while reminding you that their parodies aren’t as exaggerated as they seem. In many cases, the “real” version is only a YouTube recommendation away.

20 years later, comedy has finally caught up to Freddy Got Fingered

Awwwww Yeah vol. 242

no matter how mainstream porn watching, porn making, and porn culture have become (I remember “porn star” being a popular clothing label at least 20 years ago), actual porn performers are still effectively pariahs. They can be denied even the lowliest jobs, be summarily fired from others they’ve worked for years, be denied bank accounts, etc. Even working at Taco Bell has been deemed too good for someone who has dabbled in porn. It’s both shocking puritanical hypocrisy and also sort of emblematic of how we treat all “necessary workers.” We want to benefit from their labor (or maybe just jack off to it) without the pain of having to acknowledge their humanity.

Again, there’s an easy sob story there, but Red Rocket refuses to turn Mikey into an object of pity. He’s far too proud for that, for one thing, but also too squirrelly. Almost as soon as you acknowledge society’s cruel treatment of him you’re forced to reckon with your own feeling, that you probably wouldn’t want to live with this flakey motormouthed himbo either. Simon Rex rides that line perfectly, of being both lovable and insufferable, charming even as you know he’s trying to pick your pocket.

Sean Baker’s Unforgettable ‘Red Rocket’ Features Simon Rex In The Role Of His Life As An Ex-Porn Star Returning To His Small Town Home