// Category Archive for: Underground/Cult

William S. Burroughs, A Man Within: Interview With Filmmaker Yony Leyser

Interviewed by Kaye Telle

“Back in 2005, when I was 21 years old, I got my hands on a nice video camera and decided to make a documentary about William S. Burroughs. When I started making a documentary about William S. Burroughs, I had no idea it would turn into THE documentary about him.”
—Filmmaker Yony Leyser

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Cinema Wasteland Movie And Memorabilia Expo 2009: Cleveland

By Julie Finley

Cinema Wasteland Movie And Memorabilia Expo is a bi-annual film convention that typically takes place during April and October in the Cleveland, Ohio Metro area. It’s put on by Cinema Wasteland, a mail order video service. The event started in 2000 as a response to the banality of most film conventions and trade shows. The idea was to combine the more interesting elements of this niche circuit, which would be: film screenings (mainly horror, indie, B-movie, or newer and older cult films); industry “special guests” (typically actors and crew from various films); and vendors selling films and memorabilia. It also has a masquerade element to it (as in, costumes are definitely encouraged). The idea was to be more engaging than just table after table of people selling crap.
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Sync Diary: Music, Movies, Madness!

By John Lane

Dark Side of the Rainbow (also known as Dark Side of Oz or The Wizard of Floyd) refers to the pairing of the 1973 Pink Floyd music album The Dark Side of the Moon with the visual portion of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. This produces moments where the film and the album appear to correspond with each other.
—“Dark Side of the Rainbow,” Wikipedia

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The Sick Brick: Eric Weber’s Lego Art

Interviewed by Less Lee Moore

Eric Weber is an incredibly interesting and inspirational person. He’s a cult movie junkie, horror film fanatic, Divine devotée, and luckily for us, he writes about these things for Popshifter.

He’s also a visual artist who includes sketching, painting, and photography in his repertoire.

When he’s not following one of his many artistic and creative pursuits, he reenacts scenes from some of his favorite films in Lego form and photographs them.

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My Life in Fishnets: A Personal Rocky Horror Story

By Christian Lipski

It’s amazing to look back and really see how much of my life was dedicated to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I’m sure it’s the same for people who were really into sports or D&D or any other life-consuming hobby. At the time, though, it was just Rocky, and that was it. It was just what I did.
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From Maniac to Mother: Remembering Divine

By Eric Weber

Twenty-one years ago, on March 7, 1988, legendary comic performer Divine (a.k.a. Harris Glenn Milstead) passed away in his sleep from heart failure. It was on the eve of his debut performance on FOX television’s popular show, Married. . . with Children. Divine was at an exciting moment in his career as he was receiving terrific reviews for his dual role in the recently released Hairspray. At last he was getting the one thing he had always dreamt about: acceptance from his peers as a legitimate actor and performer. He was finally shedding the “drag queen” stigma and beginning to be appreciated and acknowledged as a true talent instead of a “transvestite” or freak. Sadly, and like so many other unique and talented performers, his life was cut short much too soon.
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The Gonzo Tapes: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

By Lisa Haviland

“For me, it was the first time I’d ever even heard an artillery shell fired and when they come in and hit, it’s a, ah, unnerving experience. . . When you’re out in a jeep that continually backfires and boils over and stops by the side of the road in the midst of voluntary convoys and hoards of refugees, yeah, you tend to think that maybe the world is about to come to an end.”

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Rest In Peace: Rudy Ray Moore

By Jemiah Jefferson

It was with great sadness that I read about the passing of Rudy Ray Moore, one of the most influential, offensive, brilliant cultural voices of the 20th century. I don’t believe that I exaggerate when I say that. His uniquely out-there perspectives, voice, and performance can be heard imitated and sampled in countless examples from hip-hop and Tarantino; his films are classics of the “completely ridiculous, hilarious, independent cult curiosity” genre. The term “blaxploitation” is a catch-all for movies and culture with a lot of black people acting the fool, shooting folks, acting violent and crazy, dressing loudly, pimping, revenging; the films of Rudy Ray Moore transcend and encapsulate everything about them, but in a way that no one else dares to do. I’ve got a special place in my heart for RRM, if for nothing else than because he is the centerpiece of one of the few films that I just couldn’t get through on the first try. That film was Dolemite.
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A “Very” Exclusive interview with Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

By Danny R. Phillips

Authors’ Note: This piece of fiction is based on a dream I had and is a product of my twisted imagination. Feel free to email me with thoughts relating to this or any of my other work but please, do not state the obvious. I know Hunter Thompson is dead and therefore he is extremely difficult to reach for comment.

On February 20, 2005 the great Doctor of Gonzo journalism, Hunter Stockton Thompson spent the day with his son Juan and his grandson Willie, and after giving Juan some cherished family heirlooms, Hunter put a .44 Magnum to his 67 year-old-head and well, let’s say “checked out of the hotel.”
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Must-See-TV: The Eighties

By Kaye Telle

Say what you will about the eighties, but the explosion of music videos and competition with new cable stations made for some good television. Growing up in the midwest (pre-alternative rock) one felt completely isolated if they didn’t take a Journey to the river Styx on the R.E.O. Speedwagon. Looking back I can only chuckle at my gumption in pointlessly arguing the merits of Devo’s cover of “Satisfaction.” But alone with the TV after school, there were these crazy kids in California who understood. I can remember looking at the clock while snapping my watermelon Bubble Yum during school, ticking down the minutes until I could go home and watch my compatriots on MV3. Late at night and into the early morning hours on weekends, strange short films and more music beamed over the wires via a show on the USA Network called Night Flight. And I thought: I am not alone. An awful lot of cool things happened in that decade—and many of them happened on the boob tube.
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