// Category Archive for: Retrovirus

Nobody Takes Me Seriously, Anyway: Split Enz

By Less Lee Moore

[This piece was originally published in Smack Dab Fanzine #5, April 1996. With the exception of typos I may have corrected, all of the original text and formatting remain the same. I have also scanned the original artwork.—Ed.]

The first pop star I had a crush on was Barry Manilow. Looks aside, I was dazzled by his rhinestone-studded costumes and silly medleys. I cherished my monthly fan club letters for years until I turned on MTV in 1981. Then I discovered New Wave and the weirdest, most endearing brothers next to Jeff and Steve McDonald. Neil and Tim Finn from Split Enz.
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Teach Yourself Stevie Riks: Q & A

By Hanna

Wikipedia calls Stevie Riks a “British comedian and musical impressionist,” but that hardly does him justice. Since he seems to believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I’ve put together a short guide to Stevie Riks fandom.
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Top Five Slang Expressions From My Youth

By Christian Lipski

Rad © Tiffany Ross (aka Syke)

1. Rad: OK, right off the bat you can pinpoint the general area and time I grew up. I went to high school in California during the early-to-mid-80s. Yes, we all said “rad,” but in Northern California no one had a Valley accent, despite the word deriving from surfer lingo. For you youngsters, “rad” is short for “radical” and connotes excellence or a positive reaction. Example: “Dude, Back To The Future was a rad movie!”

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Halloween Horror Favorite: Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining

By Emily Carney

“Some places are like people: some shine and some don’t.”

True confession: I have never read Stephen King’s The Shining.
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Look Who’s Growling, Too: Our Deep, Abiding Love of Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby

By John Lane and Less Lee Moore

Hands-down, Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby is one of our favorite horror movies of all time. We love it as much for what it doesn’t do as for what it does do. It seems that there’s a storm cloud of creepiness that settled upon this movie before, during, and after which makes it all the more fascinating. Like a lot of other things from the late sixties, it is a sinister relic from a haunted time. So here are our reasons why Rosemary’s Baby—behind and in front of the camera—is one of the most enduring, complex horror films ever committed to celluloid.

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Acid Leaves No Trace: Ten Morbid Melodies from Garbo’s Daughter

By Kristin Messina, Mandy Mullins, and Jaime Sparrowhawk

This issue, the lovely ladies from Garbo’s Daughter share their favorite songs about death, including car crashes, motorbike crashes, violent beatings, and getting poisoned!
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The Dawn Of The Living Dead: I Walked With A Zombie

By Chelsea Spear

The year was 1942, and the producer/director team of Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur were riding high. Cat People, the first feature released through Lewton’s B-horror division at RKO, had saved the studio from bankruptcy and was on its way to becoming a cornerstone of contemporary horror. Before they’d finished counting the receipts, RKO studio heads gave the pair their next assignment.
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Don’t Hate the Cannibal, Hate the Game: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

By Jesse Roth

Looking back on my movie-viewing history, I can think of few films that have really bothered me. Most of the time, unless an animal dies or there is excessive torture, I won’t even flinch. Murder and cruelty can pass before my eyes and be acknowledged the same way as a car chase or moment of truly exceptional dialogue between two characters: interesting, but certainly nothing that impacts me on a deep, emotional level.
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Out Of My Shell: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Me

By Megashaun

I was in the sixth grade, eleven years old, and I didn’t understand why I wasn’t cool. I only knew I wasn’t. I liked Ninja Turtles and Batman in a time when everyone else in my class was into MC Hammer, Technotronic, and Public Enemy. I didn’t own any albums. I didn’t try chasing the girls. One of my classmates—a boy—asked me which girl I liked and I said I didn’t like any (which was a lie; I didn’t want that secret getting out and risk being made fun of for it) and he asked me if I was gay.
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Bringin’ the Crazy: John Cale in the 1970s

By Emily Carney

John Cale’s musical career has encompassed many genres—rock and classical notwithstanding—and at present time he still shows no sign of letting up. He also notably produced many other artists’ albums; it’s impossible to imagine Nico’s The Marble Index and Patti Smith’s Horses without his dark sonic influence. Cale’s own 1970s solo albums—particularly his Island Records trilogy of Fear, Slow Dazzle, and Helen of Troy—have also dated remarkably well.
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