Ariel Anderssen VS The Moon
@ArielAnderssen
@RElegance
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VideoScope #111! and Libby Cudmore’s THE BIG REWIND!
#111! Unbelievable. It seems like only last Friday that The Phantom and the VS crew hit historic #100! VS is so much more to me than a cool mag I used to write for; it is nothing less than a staple of my life, eternal as the tide. Sure, I miss the days of visiting The Phantom and Managing Editor Ms Nag in fog-cloaked Ocean Grove on the Jersey shore, where multiple cats ruled the sidewalks, a sleepy town right down the street from Asbury Park and its formidable ghosts: the music, the Stone Pony; the broken boardwalk often seen on The Sopranos; a place where I made multiple pitches to The Phantom which included my short-lived column 21st Century Goth! and reviews of shit not easily available in North America. The Phantom let it roll, man—most of it, anyway. He hooked me up with interviewing Dario Argento, for fucks sake; he facilitated my sit-downs with the entire PHANTASM brigade (Don Coscarelli, Angus Scrimm, Reggie Bannister, Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury); and so much more, all of which I am forever grateful.
So here’s to VideoScope #111! We’re looking forward to #150.
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Libby Cudmore’s THE BIG REWIND
My Amazon review of this excellent novel:
Yearning, desire, heartache… and regret. These are the elements that drive every successful love song, and they are the forces that make THE BIG REWIND a wonderful novel. It’s a murder mystery, yes, as well as a carpet-bombing of pop-culture references—too many per paragraph, in this reviewer’s opinion—but the excellent Libby Cudmore gets a pass. This girl can write. Insightful, funny, and often poignant, THE BIG REWIND is a bulletproof concept album of a novel that will play smooth and seamless in every music lover’s literary jukebox.
Libby holds a music party every Saturday night on twitter! Tune in @LibbyCudmore!
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Remember
The Hiroshima Cenotaph, photo by Michael A. Stecker
The Children’s Memorial, designed by Kazuo Kikuchi
John Hersey’s Hiroshima
Upon publication, Albert Einstein ordered 1,000 copies.
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“Why the Long Face?” Well…
SO, everybody and their third cousin went absolutely bonkers today with FaceApp, a Russian app that allows narcissists everywhere (yes, guilty) to play endlessly with, well, their face. One can add glasses, beards, smiles, wild hair, tats, time-warps forward and backwards, blah blah blah, and it’s all very convincing, not to mention a little scary. See above. And everyone’s worried, “What will The Russians do with OUR FACES?” See below…
Call me obtuse (again, guilty), but I don’t see how this changes… anything. For nearly two decades our faces have been plastered across our beloved social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter—not to mention Big Brother’s cameras at every freaking intersection and stoplight— it’s all ripe for pillaging. Jesus Christ, our CATS are easy victims for identity theft! What the fuck are the Russians going to do with my face? Proof that Rasputin lives? Maybe. If I’m lucky!
It’s the ease of the deep fakery that’s frightening. The above image of 84 year-old Drax was convincingly realized with a click of a filter on my phone. With tech that’s easily available for free.
Yes, you may refer to me as Grampa. Because I am scared shitless.
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Hello, Beautiful
Photo by Greg Martin
Of course I remember the Moon Landing. I was four. I don’t recall the specifics, not the lift-off on July 16, nor Armstrong’s first steps four days later, but I certainly remember the event as a whole. My brother was home on leave from Vietnam with his best bud, Joe, and the two of them just camped out in front of the TV for days. Of course I made a perfect nuisance of myself: “Where are your guns? Where’s your helicopter? Why can’t we go to Mission Control and watch everything on the REALLY big screens?”
They’d tell me to outside and see if I could spot the astronauts on The Moon with my naked eyes, to which I would reply, Of course I could. And 50 years later, I’m still looking.
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Ragnar Returns
Digital, July 2019 by The Creep / Model: D
If they can bring back Jean-Luc Picard in his own series— then by all the Gods, bring back Ragnar Lothbrok! As portrayed by Travis Fimmel! In THE FUTURE!
Good Idea? (Your feedback will graded on a sliding scale.)
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Happy Bithday Amerika
Michael de Adder
Independence Day USA 2019
No, we can’t believe the news today.
Yes, we still can.
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My Solstice
Jubilation in England this morning. Glorious. Go kids go.
My solstice began before dawn with an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. (Some of the best eps are scattered across youtube.) Revisiting Homicide was unexpected and most welcome. Andre Braugher as Mighty Frank Pembleton always lifts the spirits.
Then to the doctors. It was nothing. A consultation. They strongly advised removing the third head, yuck yuck yes yes.
A walk to the water, a view of the Sub Base. Mah Stonhenge! Solstice proper in the northern hemisphere occurred at 12:54pm EST, and that’s what it looked like. Not a total drag, but still…
At home: phone calls, appointments, porn porn porn, forms completed, cards mailed… and I finally filled-in the white crack in the corner that was driving me fucking apeshit. Who’s the man.
Then the solstice took a surprising turn! The overlords of my village throw a monthly “festival” in their management offices / torture chambers and offer us starving mad blind peasants “treats” and “raffles” and “eyeballs.” I’d never attended. Tonight was my first. Well, Hell’s Bells. Mac n Cheese n Lobster. Yup. No, it did not look like the above photo. As a matter of fact the dish was served in a plastic martini glass. But it was unexpected and very nice.
The longest day of the year ended at 8:25pm EST. I was a little late. Fucking typical.
Thus begins the slow tick back into the darkness, heh heh heh! Ye have reached the peak, you mortal scum! The summit stretches no higher, winter is coming and nothing can stop it! Nothing! Not even your stupid lens flares!
It was an excellent day, and all who reside in the house of Drax are very grateful.
Happy Solstice.
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2018’s “DAS BOOT” SERIES…
… is shockingly excellent. Currently streaming on hulu. That is all. Carry on.
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HELLO BEAUTIFUL
Wishing you well from the bleak shores of Planet Drax. But there will come new tides.
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