An Army of Artists

Actors, painters and Xeroxmen work to create Ralph Bakshi's classic - "Fire and Ice", featuring the original artwork of fantasy legend Frank Frazetta. Much of the work looks mind-numbingly tedious, the labor intensive process of pre-computer rotoscope animation.

The film still looks great after all these years, always providing some trippy jungle ruins or impossible alien landscapes to focus on when the storyline gets thin.

The DVD I got from Netflix included some funny extras, including a retrospective with the fellow who played Larn, the hero of the story. He reads excerpts from his diary at the time of the shoot, when he was young and ambitious.

Cheep Laffs with Ozzy

The Unexpected

Over the years I have seen quite a few opening acts and also headliners about which I had no previous knowledge, where I was there to see a specific band on the bill and really knew nothing about the others. The vast majority of these bands failed to sink a hook in me at all, even though they may have put on a good show and the music was solid enough. In fact, since my first live show in 1984 there have been exactly two bands that completely blew me away, both of which went on to win places in my Exalted Pantheon of Musical Greatness. Here are three tracks from each.

SUPLECS
This NOLA trio is equally at home in mind-splintering, half-speed damnation or in full-on, full-speed aural assault.









RAGING SPEEDHORN
I love the one-two punch of their roaring dual singers, the crazy mixed-meter looping riffs and the hardcore ethos.

Lazy Town Remix

Images from the Exodus/Kreator Show

I'd forgotten about this!

From "Can't Buy Me Love"

Kristin Wigg Rules