Afrodisiac, A Graphic Novel By Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca

By Danny R. Phillips

Graphic novels are a guilty pleasure to which I have only recently returned. I have always been an avid reader as well as a lover of art, but when I turned 35, I started to think my comic book years were behind me. Then I re-read Watchmen and V for Vendetta and remembered the comic greatness that I had let gather dust in the back of my memories.

Thanks to my returning jones for the graphic novel, I discovered Afrodisiac, a book based around a Shaft-meets-Superman character straight out of the blaxplotation genre of the 1970s. I mean, this cat would make Dolemite and Superfly look like Wayne Brady. With his stable of white “bitches” working the streets for him, his magic pimp cane, his Cadillac, and his tingling Spider Sense-like street smarts, he is both the protector of his city and its sweet, sweet daddy.
(more…)

Nine, A Soundtrack Review

By Danny R. Phillips

I’m not much for musicals. People walking down the street, spontaneously breaking into song. . . it’s all very hokey and unrealistic to me. Generally, I think it’s a stupid genre. . . wait, does Walk The Line count as a musical? If so, I liked that one. Anyway, soundtrack albums to musicals are often more painful than the actual film, but there is something about the soundtrack of Nine that makes me let my guard down and dial down the hate just a bit.
(more…)

Best Of 2009: By Danny R. Phillips

These are my favorite albums in no discernible order.
(more…)

Halloween 2, Written/Directed By Rob Zombie

By Danny R. Phillips

I am a fan of the horror genre, everything from Lon Chaney’s silent classic Phantom of The Opera to slasher gems like the first A Nightmare on Elm Street. Of all the on-screen killing machines director John Carpenter has created, the wordless, soulless Michael Myers is my all-time favorite. The first Halloween movie from 1978 is without question a classic of style, suspense, violence, and good writing. It stands in a class with George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, House of Wax (the Vincent Price original, not the Paris Hilton piece of shit), Evil Dead, and Bride of Frankenstein.
(more…)

Warped Tour in Kansas City: I’m Too Old For This Shit

By Danny R. Phillips

Prior to August 4th, it had been eleven years since I had last joined the tattooed masses as an attendee of The Vans’ Warped Tour. I was younger then in both body and mind. Standing on the boiling pavement this year watching the crowd pass me like a pierced, dyed, rainbow bedazzled tsunami, I saw two distinct classes, scratch that, generations, go by.

One was an older, punk-appreciating culture with fading tattoos and greying hair that grew up on Bad Religion, The Descendents, Fugazi, Bad Brains, The Zero Boys, and the Circle Jerks (I, obviously fall into group A) and the other was the day glo “skittle core kids” who worship The Devil Wears Prada and Attack! Attack! like they were the Dead Milkmen or The Ramones.

Dragging myself between five stages and countless bands, it dawned on me (and my trusty photographer) that at 15, the Vans’ Warped Tour was experiencing a midlife crisis of sorts and was, in fact, no longer the festival of years gone by. It is clear that I am a dinosaur stuck in a tar pit named Hot Topic. Like Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon flicks, “I am too old for this shit!”
(more…)

Conway Twitty, Lost In The Feeling

By Danny R. Phillips

Growing up in a family of country music fanatics I have always been quite aware of the legendary status surrounding one Mr. Conway Twitty. His classic country “slow jams” have been favorites of cover bands, drunken karaoke singers, and honky tonk jukeboxes from Lubbock, Texas to Osaka, Japan.
(more…)

We’re All Watching The Watchmen

By Danny R. Phillips

Many times when a book is foolishly adapted for the big screen, the story becomes changed, warped, rearranged, and in the process, the fans of the original work leave the theater saying to themselves, “What was that?!?” Luckily, for director Zach Snyder, the film version of the so-called “greatest graphic novel of all time” is not one of those times.
(more…)

Otis Redding, Respect Live 1967 DVD

By Danny R. Phillips

Let’s be frank. Soul music of late has well, lost its soul. Sure, there is some talent out there. The NeYos of the world can dance, but would be lost without the new wonder known as AutoTune; Chris Brown has “allegedly” beat his girlfriend Rihanna; Justin Timberlake can sing and dance some but his connection with N’Sync will forever take away his soul card; Amy Winehouse is a great talent that will lose/has lost it all to crack; and R. Kelly spends too much time in handcuffs and at home making movies.
(more…)

Popshifter‘s Best Of Lists

Pete Best

Most publications give you their “Best Of” and “Top Ten” lists in their December issues. But what about giving props to of all the great things you embraced in the penultimate month of the year?

That’s why Popshifter has decided to provide you with our favorites now, so that you can add them to your list of “Things To Check Out In 2009.”

In addition to the lists our staff compiled, we’ve also posted the lists from some very special guest contributors.

Enjoy!
(more…)

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.”
(more…)