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community | following your bliss | wuxia | Jacki Chan | Yuen Wo Ping | Journey to the West | V | Being Human | J. Michael Straczynski | Short Circuit | Champions Online | Hulu | Chuck | Legend of the Seeker Cara | Witchcraft Trials | J.R.R. Tolkien |Shark Attacked | Venus In Furs | and Community Comments on Fandom Today.

Community and Belonging

• Being a part of something special makes you special (via dashPunk)
• Groups in Project: Shadow

Wuxia

• Jackie Chan heads all-star ‘Shaolin’ epic (via Kung Fu Cinema)
• Some Stills from Journey to the West (via Wu-Jing)
• Yuen Wo Ping to Direct Garnet on the Golden Sand in Summer 2010? (via Wu-Jing)
• Netflix

Looking Ahead

• V Poster (via Project: Shadow)
• Syfy plans an American version of Being Human (via SCI FI Wire)
• J. Michael Straczynski Penning Video Game Adaptation Shattered Union, Still on Paul Greengrass Project (via /Film)
• Paul Blart: Mall Cop Director to Helm Short Circuit Remake (via /Film)
• Audible

The Best, The Worst, and The Odd

• Best
  • Champions Online Free This Weekend (via GayGamer)
  • Relax: Hulu to Stick With Free Ad-Supported Content (via /Film)
  • NBC Adds Six Episodes of “Chuck” (via Slice of SciFi)
• Worst
  • Cara Promo Picture Legend of the Seeker (via Project: Shadow)
• The Odd
  • 1390 – First trial for witchcraft in Paris  (via wikipedia)
  • J.R.R. Tolkien earns $50 million a year while still dead (via SCI FI Wire)
  • Great White Shark bitten nearly in half by an even BIGGER monster (via Mail Online)
• Comments
  • A reply to yesterday’s song Christian Death – Venus in Furs (via Project: Shadow)
  • a reply to yesterday’s song Velvet Underground – venus in furs (via Project: Shadow)

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• P:SI #332 “Whedon’s Dollhouse and OMG JMS” (0)

Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way is developing a gothic reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood. David Leslie Johnson, Frank Daabont’s former assistant and screenwriter of the recently cult horror film Orphan, has been to pen the script (/Film).

Mixed feelings swirl around me as I take in the news.  I have seen:

• a noir Little Red Riding Hood
• dark fantasy Little Red Riding Hood
• surreal Little Red Riding Hood
• comedy Little Red Riding Hood

The idea of a Gothic one makes me giggle.  If they do this, the theme song should be Glass House by Christian Death.

My biggest concern is that Leonardo DiCaprio is involved.  I am not a fan of his or his companies work, but I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

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The Fan Spectrum | Watchmen Length | Green Lantern | Rumor Stomp | Casting Call:  Conan and Thor | The Hulu / Boxee Situation | Science Behind Dollhouse | Futurama Hopes | Doctor Who Casting | Torchwood Comics | Christian Death Returns | and Community Comments Today on the Project: Shadow Informant.

Culture

• The Fan Spectrum (dashPunk)
• Community Comment on Literature of Change (via dashPunk)

Movie

• Watchmen will come in long, extra-long and really extra long (via SCI FI Wire)
• Green Lantern movie moving forward, writer says (via SCI FI Wire)
• The Wachowski Brothers NOT Offered Superman Reboot (via /Film)
• Brett Ratner Says Conan Star Should Be An Unknown (via /Film)
• Casting Call For Thor Reveals More Than That The Lead Is Open (via /Film)

TV / Series

• Decabled: Hulu forced off Boxee (dashPunk)
• The Science Behind Dollhouse (dashPunk)
• Praise the Robot Devil, Futurama may return to TV (dashPunk)
• Doctor Who Casting News (via BBC)
• Two ‘Torchwood’ comics debut (via AfterElton)

Music

• Christian Death’s Back Catalog returns from the dead! (dashPunk)

Webcomic

• Looking For Group

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• Speculative Fiction Today #421 “Trippy Groovy On My Bongo Man” (0)
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Dark tidings about the masters of death rock and goth rock Christian Death:

Season of Mist has announced plans to re-release most of CHRISTIAN DEATH’s back catalog in remastered versions with bonus tracks. The first to receive the reissue treatment is the band’s sophomore album, “Catastrophe Ballet”, originally released in 1984 (BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

Catastrophe Ballet is one of their best albums.  The Drowning, Sleepwalk, and The Glass House are some of the the classic tracks.

I suppose this means I have to buy these albums again.  Over the years, so many “previously unreleased” tracks have been released, and they have all been great.

Please don’t confuse Rozz Williams’ Christian Death with the successive band fronted by Valor Kand.  Rozz was a brilliant poet/musician, and Valor… is not.

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Ning update | Prop 8 | giant Salmon | Forbidden Planet | Graysons | The Last Airbender | Dollhouse | 5 Songs that Save | Sleepwalk | Romeo’s Distress | figurative Theatre | SEGA Mega Drive | and Square-Enix writers Today on the Project: Shadow Informant.

Culture

• Tonight’s release is live! (via Ning Blog)
• Prop 8 Broke Our Hearts (Secret Dot)
• Giant Salmon Photo (via Cryptomundo)

Movie

• Straczynski Clarifies Forbidden Planet (dashPunk)
• M. Night Shyamalan Reveals Plans for The Last Airbender (via SuperheroFlix)

TV / Series

• CW Scraps Pre-Robin Graysons (via Sci Fi Wire)
• Dollhouse Friday Debut Set (via Sci Fi Wire)

Music

• 5 Songs that Saved My Life (Secret Dot)
• Rozz Williams & Gitane Demone – Sleepwalk (dashPunk)
• Christian Death – Romeo’s Distress [Live Tv Performance] (dashPunk)
• Rozz Williams – Figurative Theater [Live 1994 Arapho Paris] (dashPunk)

Game

• SEGA Mega Drive Goes HD (via GayGamer)
• Attention Aspiring Writers: Square-Enix Wants Your Fan Fiction (via GayGamer)

Webcomic

• Girl Genius (Friday, November 07, 2008)

Subscribe

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In 1963, my favorite singer/songwriter was born.  His voice of was delicate and filled with power.  I discovered his music at a very fragile point in my life, when I wasn’t sure if life was worth living or not.

He sang with such defiant fervor, mocking those who try to hold us down.  He taught me to laugh in the face of despair, and to stand strong where ever I was.

Rozz was found hanging in his apartment on April Fools day in 1998.

His music lives on.  From the work he did with Christian Death, Shadow Project, Premature Ejaculation, Daucus Karota, Heltir, EXP, and never forget his solo work, Rozz’ music library is epic in scope and covers nearly every emotion and aspect of life imaginable.

Anytime I feel down or alone, I turn on some Rozz and all my cares and concerns melt away.

Happy Birthday Rozz.  You will never be forgotten.

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I was rummaging through Last.fm, looking through my charts, constantly amazed at the little things I tend to learn about myself from seeing the hard numbers on the tracks and artists I actually listen to most.

I have to wonder what people that don’t know me might think when they see the songs I listen to most:

Tied for First

• Christian Death – Venus in Furs
• Christian Death – Romeo’s Distress
• Roadrunner United – Enemy Of The State (Joey Jordison Sessions)

Venus in Furs, a Velvet Underground song masterfully covered by Christian Death featuring Rozz Williams, based on an 1870 novella of the same name by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. The song celebrates sadomasochism, bondage, and submission. I always found Lou Reed’s original to be a bit frightening, but when Rozz’ velveteen vocals wrap around the words, they have a strange, sweet allure.

Maybe the song reflects my curiosity about the darker side of human psychology, but I cannot help but wonder if people interpret my love for the song as a refection of my inner Severin (the submissive) or Wanda (the dominate). O what might people think.

Romeo’s Distress, by Christian Death, as swipe against white supremacists who walk around as wolves in Christian clothes. I have always loved this song for its sharp tongued wit and sarcastic humor. In fact, when I used to go clubbing, the DJs would play this song every time I entered.

But if you didn’t know the words, or didn’t listen to the song it would look like a follow up in Venus in Furs- Juliet in Furs. The song couldn’t be further from that.

Enemy of the State, by Roadrunner United, one of the best albums to ever come out, attested to by the fact that this one off album is my third most listened to artist. Honestly, I have no idea what this song is about. Peter Steele sings in the “native language of Vinland,” which is an emotion filled gibberish punctuated ever now and again by words I think I can make out. This vivid soundscape transports me away into a fanciful dream world of melodic beauty.

Following Venus in Furs and Romeo’s Distress, this would appear to add to the composite image of an anarchist… from the person who craves order and logic in life.

Tied for Fourth

• Christian Death – Haloes
• Slipknot – Before I Forget

Haloes, by Christian Death is a great song about the frustration we feel waiting on the angels to come to our aid. With lines like, “Breathing in silence awaiting the Angels | Don’t you sometimes feel like breaking the haloes,” I can feel the frustration, but this only adds to the iconoclastic image…

Before I Forget, by Slipknot, what is their to say:

I am a world before I am a man

I was a creature before I could stand

I will remember before I forget

BEFORE I FORGET THAT!

Tied for Sixth

• Roadrunner United – The End
• Roadrunner United – In the Fire
• Party Ben – Never Feel Good
• State Radio – Right Me Up

The End, by Roadrunner United is a song about natural/manmade disasters taking the life from a city. Does that sound familiar? This is a powerful track.

In the Fire, by Roadrunner United, King Diamond song about the witch trials exhibiting his classic humor.

Never Feel Good, bastard pop by Party Ben mashing up Never There by Cake and Feel Good Inc by The Gorillaz. It is a fun song, but the titles adds to the ominous vibe created by the earlier tunes.

Right Me Up, by State Radio is an inspirational song about a guy name Manny, who is stuck in a wheel chair doing his own thing. The song exemplifies to me the fighting spirit to survive, but Right Me Up sounds like an anarchist song doesn’t it.

Tenth

Troublesome ‘96, by 2pac… alright, there is no defending this one. I give up.

I just wonder what strangers and readers think when they see these tracks and other on my profile. Do they assume that I am a deviant, or do any of them realize that I am just a guy who learned how to blow off steam and find my catharsis through music?

Even more, I wonder what assumptions I have made about people because I misinterpreted their taste. I need to make sure I am more open minded.

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The air of mystery and the art of the dark romance have left the world. The grotesque has replaced horror, and the beauty of supernatural horror is rarely seen any more. Gone are the old masters, and few if any have risen up to walk in the footsteps of giants.

Watching the haunting beauty of Cecil B. DeMille’s Seven Deadly Sins set to the music of Christian Death reminds me of what could be. The simplicity of these images, made in the days before computer generated effects makes me wonder what could be made now with the ubiquitous camcorders and digital video.

It only takes a bit of imagination to use the simple tools that surround us to make great art… but who is striving to make a film that that captures the power of the image to transport us away into world that are beyond belief? Who is making movies that do more than just entertain or self-aggrandize?

Anyone can make a movie these days, and a lot of people are. YouTube is flooded with them, but like everything in our world these days, they are made for the moment and not to outlast their initial viewing.

I don’t believe that just anyone can create a classic. It takes talent and genius. I do believe that another classic will never be made unless the creators take upon themselves the task of making something that will outlive them. Unless we strive for excellence, we will never achieve it.

Our culture celebrated mediocrity. It is important to make sure that everyone feels important and significant, because every life is precious, but it is vital that recognize and promote genius and talent when we see it. We each need to strive for excellence in everything that we do. Then and only then will we each come truly alive, and share that life with the world.

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