We Are the Sproket Holes vol. 2

Movies I've seen in the last 2 months and the ratings;

The Nomi Song - 8.5/10. Documentary on Klaus Nomi. lots of amazing performance footage. He really was one of the most uniquely talented individuals of all time. i liked that they spent most of the time on the music/performance aspect, and they kept the whole "he's a damn weirdo" and "he could fucking belt it out" pretty balanced.

Sleepaway Camp - 7.5/10. very dated and silly, but still a blast to watch. not nearly as gory/mean spirited as some of the slashers of the day, but makes up for that with one of the strangest plot twists (that Neil Jordan lifted for the Crying Game) and that final image of the protagonist with her jaw agape is still haunting.

The Departed - 7.5/10. extremely disappointing. it was great to see Nicholson in a role with some meat to it, but the huwhatatwist-fest at the end was smacking its own lips in the face of its stupidity and directionlessness. It wasn't terrible, but when you consider that this film gave Scorcesse his first Oscar win and NOT Raging Bull, it's just baffling to me.

Mr. Frost - 2/10. nonsensical "psychological thriller" starring Jeff Goldblum as the titular character, a serial killer who believes he is the devil. looks like a soap opera and stinks like one too. fucking atrocious.

Transformers - 7.5/10. already wrote the review. Megatron kicked some ass. Starscream needed more screen time...maybe they could've taken some away from that annoying Pseudo-Soundwave Gremlincon and given that to Starscream. hopefully the next one will have Starscream in all his insubordinate cunt glory...and Unicron would be an amazing visual as well.

Nightmare Detective - 9.5/10. brilliant film from Shinya Tsukamoto ( Tetsuo: the Iron Man). sort of an Existentialist's take on Nightmare on Elm Street.

the Notorious Bettie Page - 7/10. Gretchen Mol is gorgeous and lovable in this, but the rest of the cast just felt like props.

Thank You For Smoking - 7.5/10. Falls apart completely in the third act. otherwise it was a fun subversive film with an impeccable cast. Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, J.K. Simmons, Robert Duvall, Sam Elliot, Rob Lowe, William H. Macy and David Koechner were all pretty excellent. can't wait to see Eckhart play Harvey Dent in the Dark Knight.

Rubber's Lover - 7/10. fucked up Japanese cyber-punk nightmare film. some strong visuals and cool F/X sequences.

the Keeper - 5/10. Transient Exotic Dancer (Asia Argento) is held captive in the basement of frighteningly religious cop/children's puppet show host (yeah) Dennis Hopper. this is the movie that Black Snake Moan and Captivity ripped off, but those films i'm sure are a million times better than this piece of shit. two great talents completely wasted with a bonehead script and visionless cinematography that looks like a bland Sci-Fi channel original movie. the film makers rely too much on Argento's inate sexiness and Hopper inate insanity to properly create characters for them to work with (or for the audience to care about). but it was Asia and i could watch her in almost anything....almost.

Higher Learning - raped in the ass with a rat-feces-envenomed screwdriver/10. puerile exploitive humorless irony-deficient trash that can only be taken seriously by the most simple of "revolutionaries" and whiny white-guilt cunts. there are so many embarrassingly awful moments that how a film of this ineptitude was made/attracted a list of "name" actors, let alone granted a wide release by a major studio is beyond all reasonable comprehension. Tyra Banks screaming "WHYYYYYYY????" after she's been shot in howl so calculated it would make Nancy Kerigan blush, as well as the Legion-of-Doom-Level Super Villianly of the Aryan Brotherhoods, rank among those moments.

Vital - 9/10. yet another masterwork from Shinya Tsukamoto. one of the most heart breaking, beautiful films i have ever witnessed.

Mermaid in a Manhole - 8/10. a surprisingly touching piece of macabre from the infamous Guinea Pig series. a really twisted gore film mixed with fairy tale elements.

He Never Dies - 7.5/10. satire of suicide. another from the Guinea Pig series. funny little piece of mayhem.

The Untold Story - 10/10. hands down the most misanthropic, unapologetically brutal film ever made. must be seen to be believed.

Stuart Saves his Family - 6/10. Love the SNL bit. the movie? not so much. i did like that it was kind of dark and mean spirited, but i wish they would've taken it further.

the Devil and Daniel Johnston - 10/10. Hypnotic, Beautiful, Psychotic, Romantic, Unpretentious...everything Johnston's music has always been. a truly astounding piece of work. the music and the story an all the interviews and footage were eye opening. it may be the single most inspiring film i have ever seen. an incredible insight into a very complicated man.

Rocky Balboa - 6.5/10. i like the cold somberness of the first act. immediately looses steam when the fight talk starts up. the fight itself was weak, and had no drama or real conflict. Antagonist Mason "the Line" Dixon (nice to see Stallone hasn't lost his penchant for stupid-ass names) is the weakest of all Balboa's opponents. he has none of the Ali-Meets-Billy-Dee-Williams charismatic arrogance of Carl Weathers' Apollo Creed, nor the evil pro-wrestler attitude of Mr.T's Clubber Lang, nor is he the Icy Meta-Human that was Dolph Lundgren's Ivan Drago. Balboa may be a better film than the other sequels, but it suffers from lack of a real opposition, same way Rocky V suffered. at least the other ones were fun, chewing on their own melodrama, vomiting in a blender, hitting "liquefy", than injecting the solution into our veins. this film was just a bland character study capped off with an anti-climatic pseudo-symbolic fist-fight.

I Dunno, Just a Thought vol. 11

the rules of "it's over" have never been properly outlined. psoriasis leaves its calcium-deposit equivalent in a white-scab...an accumulation of dried gel flakes sheathed over the bumps in my head. i don't feel like sleeping. i don't deserve it. i've done nothing to be deemed worthy of such a reward. i ate hot dogs, listened to industrial music, and screamed for twenty straight minutes. everyone else worked. everyone else earned a wage. i'll let them have my 8 hours. you're the only ones who speak the truth to me and you don't even know it. you've got obligations...people who depend on you...i've got Kathy Acker and Boredoms heading for my mailbox. i've got Isabella Soprano and Cytherea waiting up for me, eager to simulate a "good boy" grin before my spilled fuck. i've got Klaus Nomi at 6 am. Pam and Jim at 9 pm. than i can sleep 'till Monday.

I Dunno... Just a Thought.

Tired of Haulin' Oats! vol. 2

cds; Boredoms - Pop Tatari Deathpile - Ne Plus Ultra Deathspell Omega - Fas Fields of the Nephilim - Revelations Gorerotted - Only Tools and Corpses Integrity - Seasons in the Size of Days Optimum Wound Profile - Silver or Lead Stormcrow - Enslaved in Darkness Sutcliffe Jugend - This is the Truth Wovenhand - Consider the Birds books; Memories, Dreams, and Reflections by C.G. Jung The Selected Writings of Kathy Acker

Imaginary Guest List

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Retributional Sodomy's Imaginary Guest List. This is where i talk to myself about my favorite things, in a vein attempt to salvage any sense of intellect or sanity or joy that i may have left.

Favorite Songs of the Past Year;

so far;

Oxbow - Down a Stair Backward
Pig Destroyer - Jupiter's Eye
Bjork - Earth Intruders
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Helpless Corpse Enactment

Favorite Older Songs at the Moment

Integrity - Lundgren/Crucifixion
Joanna Newsom - Emily
Depeche Mode - Walking in My Shoes
Fields of the Nephilim - Chord of Souls
Death Cab for Cutie - Tiny Vessels
Thoughts of Ionesco - Learning an Enemy
YDI - Violently Raped
Soft Cell - Say Hello Wave Goodbye

Favorite New Band

this is a tough call. so many "new" bands i hear turn out to have been around for quite sometime. i'll do my best and say it's a tie;

- Nadir : my band the Communion played w/ them back in April. some of the most savage fast grindcore i've heard in a long ass time. sort of like Discordance Axis when they were a little more Johou and a little less Jon Chang is a Pretentious Dingbat it's a shame to many "grinders" are preoccupied with riding a medicore wooden dildo than with actually checking out bands that play from the gut, but whatever. some people like pizza and some people are retarded.

- Portal : Best Death Metal band on the planet right now. twisted, demented, and DARK. the music of Immolation coupled with the bleak showmanship of Caroliner.

Favorite Song Ever

"November" by Tom Waits. everything i adore about that man is in this one perfect song. it's sad and gloomy and poetically isolating without sacrificing the whimsical circustry. the lyrics are above and beyond my favorite Waits words; "My Hair Slicked Back with Carrion Shellac" maybe one of my all-time favorite lines in any song.

Best Recent Concert

Made out of Babies/Rwake @ Club Midway. hanging out with Rwake frontman C.T. was fun times. one of the jolliest dudes i've ever encountered. awesome band as well. Made out of Babies broke my heart in as forgivable a fashion as the first girl i ever fell in love with. devastating, heavy, and no trace of the sillyness you would think a band of that nature would posses. they were just tragic and lovable.

Last Great Film I Saw

Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective.

Last Great Book I Read

High Life by Matthew Stokoe

Favorite Piece of Musical Equipment

Piano. probably because i don't use it, nor am i surrounded by people who use it. but lately i have been picturing myself playing the piano.

Favorite Record Shop

Generation Records in Manhattan. I almost never walk out of there empty handed. The used section is a godsend and the staff is always really cool. they also have a gorgeous pair of cats that just chill in the store.

Best Purchase of the Past Year

Accused - Martha Splatterhead. great find at a reasonable price.

Best Thing I Did This Year

Hugged my future wife.

Favorite Venue

rapidly becoming Club Midway. a year ago i would've said ABC No Rio, but they're starting to run themselves into the ground, at least as far as my interest in their shows is concerned. it's turning into a vapid smell-your-own-fart collective of converted preachers and preached converts. but i digress...

Favorite TV Show

the Whitest Kids U' Know.

NP: Integrity - Seasons in the Size of Days

article on Dwid Hellion.

We are the Sprocket Holes vol.1

Transformers (2007)
directed by Michael Bay

Transformers is a scathing indictment of Western Civilization's priorities. The film suggests that our materialism-based values and near-fetishistic dependence on industrialized militaristic authority will be our downfall, that we will find ourselves at a point where our weapons, cars, and even toys will themselves fight to death for our affection and our fate, oblivious to the casualties that will be an inevitable result in their grandiose crossfire.

Transformers displays a left-leaning slant when presenting the audience with it's view of the U.S. Military Complex and American Police Forces, by making the Decepticons (the antagonists of the piece) either military vehicles (Blackout is a large helicopter, Starscream a fighter jet, etc) or, as in the case of the character of Barricade, a cop car. In the world of this film, Authority is not to be trusted. Authority seeks to devour and overthrow, lulling them into a false sense of security before letting them choke to death on the illusions to which they have conjointly abetted, though the humans are joined in the dillusion more out of an apparent, almost naive dependence on "security" than in the iron-fisted malevolence displayed by Decepticon leader Megatron (voice courtesy of Matrix villain Hugo Weaving) and his demonic squadron.

Transformers says that we are foolish to trust the Police and the Military, suggesting that all we can believe in are the objects of our wide-eyed hedonism; namely fancy cars. The protagonists are the Autobots, who morph into slick, modern automobiles (Jazz, voiced by Family Matters star Darius McCray, transforms into a Pontiac Solstice, for instance) that when coupled with an breathtaking angenieux like co-star Megan Fox, become the masturbatory incarnate of adolescent male fantasia. simply put; all we can ever really depend on in this life is our own imagination, that reality is a soul-crushing lie....a deception, if you will, and the only real truth lies in feverishly blending the nostalgia of a 6 year olds action-figure afternoons with the tumultuous satisfaction of a moody teenager's wet-dreams.

Transformers dares to assault the status quo, however secretly. it appears to be a harmless summer blockbuster; 1/2 car commercial 1/2 toy commercial, but much like the title characters, there truly is more than meets the eye. Under the plastic veneer there is a deeper theme; destruction is only exceptable as a way to preserve harmony. entropy is the only real order we as a society will ever have. without conflict, we cannot have resolution.

So despite some leftist leanings, by the end of the film all Transformers really has done is reinforce the status quo it assumes itself to be against. The film in the end is in favor of war and materialism. Transformers in fact salutes such things as triumphs of the human race. That the best is not in us, but represented by what we own and our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for people who hate us or ideas in which we don't believe. That in actuality...WE are the Robots in Disguise.

More Than Meets the Eye indeed.

I Dunno, Just a Thought Vol. 10

NP: Radiohead - Airbag

ego bruises easily. the only true protection from the inevitable barbs of the world is to thicken skin.

consider yourself lucky that's the dawn of hardcore is over. you would've been stomped into a light brown mud puddle, rippling with even the most gentle gust of wind. they would hate you forever.

The Articles of Faith.
the Minor Threats.
the Black Flags.
the Voids.
even the Whipping Boys.

you'd be a lot more than crying. you would have no internet to hide behind...no cybertronian mask... disguised as a robot in disguise.

no message board irony.
no messenger bag futures.
no Williamsburg condescension.

just the feeling of weightlessness as your in even more over your head.

open your mouth and shut the fuck up.

i dunno.... just a thought.