“Twenty-Four By Thirty Six”: A Documentary On Movie Poster Art Needs Your Help

Published on November 29th, 2013 in: Art, Kickstarter Campaign, Movies, Underground/Cult |

By Less Lee Moore

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If you’re a member of the movie superfan community, you know that it’s not just the movies we love to obsess over, it’s everything associated with those movies, from quotes, to the name of the set designer, to the poster art. You’ve memorized the poster art (and variants) of your favorite movies. You know all too well that the Mondo limited edition screen prints of movie posters sell out almost immediately and that those lucky enough to acquire them often sell them for hugely inflated prices online. And you definitely know the names of the artists who’ve created these posters.

Now there’s a documentary called “Twenty-Four by Thirty-Six” that “explores the world of movie poster art, past and present; the artists who create it, companies that commission it, galleries that display it, and collectors and fans who hang it.” But in order for this doc to come to fruition, they need our help and they’ve launched a Kickstarter to do so.

“Twenty-Four by Thirty-Six” not only follows a couple of fantastic illustrators, but also profiles some well-known artists and personalities in the screenprinted poster community (like Tony Seininger, Gary Pullin, Jason Edmiston, Phantom City Creative, Kevin Tong, Tim Doyle, N.E., Paul Ainsworth, and many more), and talks to fans and collectors.

Besides knowing that you helped contribute to the completion of this documentary, what’s in it for you? There are lots of rewards, from having your name listed in the credits, to a digital download, T-shirts, DVDs, Blu-Rays, various versions of the film poster (including a glow-in-the-dark version), a signed John Alvin Alien poster, a private screening of the film at a BBQ with the director, and lots more.

The Kickstarter ends on December 21 and right now they haven’t reached their goal of $25,000. So check out “Twenty-Four by Thirty-Six” on Kickstarter and get to donating!

Waxing Nostalgic Connecting the Dots: The Smiths, “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore”

Published on November 27th, 2013 in: Music, Waxing Nostalgic |

By Jeffery X Martin

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The Eighties came down like a back alley pummeling. When you’re young and impressionable, looking desperately for things to believe in, you can get caught in a strange whirlpool. Music, movies, and books all swoop down in a tsunami of ideas and perspectives, some totally new, some reinforcing things you already thought. Sometimes, these things simply served to enhance emotions you didn’t know how to express properly, and you find yourself identifying with people and situations you’ve never actually encountered or experienced. There’s a strange ability you have as a teenager to cut through the pretense and the art and find the base emotion, and you inhale it, and it’s like a medicine. It plugs in and builds a bridge between synapses, neuron pathways, and it burns down like acid blood, to a sub-atomic level and you absorb it. It becomes you. You become it.

“Park the car by the side of the road. You should know time’s tide will smother you. And I will, too.”

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Music Review: An Evening With Neil Gaiman And Amanda Palmer

Published on November 27th, 2013 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |

By Jeffery X Martin

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“Happy loving couples make it look so easy/Happy loving couples always talk so kind.”
Joe Jackson, “Happy Loving Couples”

When Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer got together, it seemed to be the perfect pairing, a gentle collision of geek-o-spheres, the kind of thing the word “adorkable” was coined for. Witness the reserved writer and the flamboyant cabaret singer gliding around the world, about three feet off the ground, being fabulous and sweetening up Twitter with their frequent declarations of love for each other.

That’s cool, if you like shit like that.

Some people don’t like to see happy couples. I understand that. I used to be that way. But it takes a lot of work to be bitter all the time. I enjoy that dynamic now, that chemistry. It’s nice to be around people who enjoy being together, not taking caustic pot shots at each other and gleefully wishing for the other’s slow painful death.

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Music Review: Various Artists, It’s A Scream How Levine Does The Rhumba: The Latin-Jewish Musical Story 1940s-1980s

Published on November 26th, 2013 in: Culture Shock, Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, New Music Tuesday, Retrovirus, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

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Ruth Wallis

The Idelsohn Society For Musical Preservation has an important mission: to look at Jewish history and the Jewish experience through recorded sound. Their motto: History sounds different when you know where to start listening. With their two CD set It’s A Scream How Levine Does The Rhumba: The Latin-Jewish Musical Story 1940s-1980s, they have created an important document that explores the connection between Jewish and Latin music. With vast liner notes, essays, archival photos and ephemera, it is a fascinating compilation.

It’s A Scream How Levine Does The Rhumba is surprisingly varied despite its narrow scope. There are Latin artists doing Jewish songs and Jewish artists embracing Latin beats. There are novelty songs from the early 20th century, disco beats, straight-up funk, and blazing salsa tunes.

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Music Review: Patrick Cowely, School Daze

Published on November 25th, 2013 in: Current Faves, LGBTQ, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |

By Less Lee Moore

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As a big disco fan, I’m ashamed to admit that Sylvester is not a name I mention when discussing my favorite tunes of the genre. “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” and “Do You Wanna Funk” are two of Sylvester’s biggest hits and besides being fantastic tracks, have another thing in common. They were both composed and produced by Patrick Cowely.

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ICYMI: November 22, 2013

Published on November 22nd, 2013 in: ICYMI |

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New this week on Popshifter: It’s Brad Henderson Reviews Horror Movies Week with Jug Face, a new Fernando Di Leo collection, Shiver, and I Am ZoZo; Jeff takes a look at the sardonic humor of Steve Taylor and Chagall Guevara in a new installment of Waxing Nostalgic Connecting The Dots; and Less Lee explains why Passion is a straight-up giallo.

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DVD Review: Passion

Published on November 21st, 2013 in: Current Faves, DVD, DVD/Blu-Ray Reviews, Feminism, Movie Reviews, Movies, Reviews |

By Less Lee Moore

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Oh, Brian De Palma. You broke my heart but I keep coming back. First, it was Mission To Mars, one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen (and this from a diehard MST3K fan). Then it was the dreadful adaptation of James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia. Still, I was excited about Passion. Noomi Rapace and Rachel Adams in an erotic thriller with lesbian undertones? Who could resist? Not me.

The critics weren’t kind at Passion‘s TIFF premiere in 2012. But Noomi Rapace! Rachel McAdams! Erotic thriller! Plus a score from the great Pino Donaggio. My desire to see the film did not wane.

Well, I’ve now seen Passion. And I have a lot of thoughts, and most of them good. It’s vintage De Palma, that is for certain: heightened emotion masking flatness of emotion, weird artificiality bleeding through lush production design, over-the-top music, exquisite framing, and outlandish narrative. I haven’t seen Alain Corneau’s 2011 inspiration Crime d’amour, so I can’t speak to it, but I now understand why so many hated Passion. It’s not a straightforward movie; it’s a straight-up giallo. Forget Hitchcock. It’s all Italian. There’s even a police investigation, a hallmark of the genre.

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Waxing Nostalgic Connecting the Dots: Steve Taylor/Chagall Guevara

Published on November 20th, 2013 in: Music, Waxing Nostalgic |

By Jeffery X Martin

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It’s 1983. I’m in one of my phases of really trying to give Christianity an honest go. I’m in a high school auditorium with hundreds of other Christian youth, watching a band called Petra. I will eventually see this band three times. Petra knows all the tricks. Founder and guitarist Bob Hartman has all the pedals and a basic understanding of the hammer-on technique. Their singer has a four-octave range. He wears a shimmering jump suit. His hair is long and blonde. The amplifiers wobble slightly from the force of volume. Dry ice fog drifts across the stage. Lights blind the audience.

This sucks. It is like a Journey tribute band without the lovin’, touchin’, and squeezin’. The show ends with an altar call. The altar call ends with a reminder that the merch tables will be open for another half hour. Something smells wrong here.

+ + +

There’s an earnest desperation about mainstream Christian rock. Stylewise, it remains about ten years behind its secular counterpart. If it sounds like Train or Tal Bachman but it’s not, it’s probably a Christian rock song. It wants to be a viable alternative to secular rock. It wants to be uplifting and comforting. By doing so, it becomes bland and ineffective.

There was, however, this one guy . . .

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DVD Review: I Am ZoZo

Published on November 20th, 2013 in: Current Faves, DVD, DVD/Blu-Ray Reviews, Horror, Movie Reviews, Movies, Reviews |

By Brad Henderson

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The name ZoZo probably won’t ring a bell with normal folk, but if you know me, you should know I’m not normal. I’ve always been fascinated with stories about ZoZo and loved to read people’s testimonies of their encounters with this so-called demon. If you are clueless about who or what ZoZo is, you can find everything you need to know about him online. There is a small community that believes this is real and many have encountered this demon of sorts through the well-known Ouija board.

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DVD Review: Shiver

Published on November 19th, 2013 in: DVD, DVD/Blu-Ray Reviews, Horror, Movie Reviews, Movies, Reviews |

By Brad Henderson

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When the name Danielle Harris appears in a movie, millions of fanboys cry out in joy. However, Shiver is a film that will just make you cry. Shiver isn’t terrible and has a decent plot, but the film suffers from a lack of cleverness.

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