http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php Copyright 2013, Zane Grant Zane Grant en-US SPHPBLOG 0.5.1 http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php?entry=entry130116-204606
People are hired by loved ones to play the parts of the recently deceased and go insane. An amalgamation of bizarre scene-work and a deteriorating story of... deterioration.

2. COMPLIANCE.
One of the most uncomfortable films I've ever seen. Ann Dowd plays it so simple that she makes this impossible true story believable.

3. IN DARKNESS.

A Polish sewer worker looks to make money helping Jews hide in the sewer during the Holocaust. It's pure terror and kind of sweet.

4. KILL LIST.

A lot of my friends hated this film. Maybe it was hyped to death. I hadn't heard anything about it before it dropped. The first act drags on forever but once it kicks in... a pervert gets his arm broken by a swinging hammer. Ech!

5. JOHN DIES AT THE END.

long live the new weird.
]]> http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php?entry=entry130116-204606 Zane Grant Thu, 17 Jan 2013 03:46:06 GMT http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/comments.php?y=13&m=01&entry=entry130116-204606 http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php?entry=entry130102-115707

CHELSEA WOLFE. "Unknown Rooms: acoustic songs." She stole our hearts with her Burzum cover. Now she's at it with violins.

MAJOR LAZER. 'Get Free.'


NEUROSIS. "Honor Found in Decay". Description: If you're disappointed we don't have a music video just light a candle in the dark and stare into the heart of the flame until you see your soul consumed in the flames.



GSYBE. "Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!". Takes you back to the turn of the century. Was this really made in 2012? An enjoyable conspiracy.


ILSA. "Intoxicantations". Just keeps getting better. They ascended through drug use though, so the next album will be recorded in hell.


EARTH. "Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II". This is only a one year time machine. It was recorded in 2011 with part I. If you drive through the desert into a factory outlet mall while listening to this, you will see god.


SWANS. "The Seer". Sinks up perfectly with Return to Oz.


RICHARD SKELTON - "Verse of Birds".


KE$HA.'Die Young'. Finally a movement from decadence to nihilism. (The unedited version has Ke$ha hitting 'the someone you came there with' in the face with a hammer.) 27 million views of occult semiotics over road warrior costume designs.



CHRISTINA VANTZOU - No.1
I hope she starts scoring narrative films. Until then, we can look into the Eye of Agamotto.



]]> http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php?entry=entry130102-115707 Zane Grant Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:57:07 GMT http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/comments.php?y=13&m=01&entry=entry130102-115707 http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php?entry=entry121206-221526

For example:
'The Mysterious Arrival of an Unusual Letter'

It had been a long day at work and a long ride back to the small apartment where I lived. When I got there I flicked on the light and saw on the table an envelope with my name on it. Where was the clock? Where was the calendar? The handwriting was my father's, but he had been dead for forty years. As one might, I began to think that maybe, just maybe, he was alive, living a secret life somewhere nearby. How else to explain the envelope? To steady myself, I sat down, opened it, and pulled out the letter. "Dear Son" was the way it began. "Dear Son" and then nothing.


Anne Carson translates. It's all Greek before that though.


Violence and beauty. Gold embroidered toilet paper. Plastic surgery disasters. Starts out with witches. It's non-fiction folks. By the man who brought you Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wild Man and other crack head anthropologies.


This is still good. And economical. Each of these collections are like a million pages, so just buy one, stab your neighbor and go to prison and you'll have colors to look at while time passes. It's an allegory for life.


This guy. When I was cleaning out my dad's house I found his book 'True Stories' (1986) under a dresser. This book is nothing like that. It's like being talked at categorically about music and humans. recommended for people who like being talked at.


This comic reminds me of 'The Stars my Destination' but with far fewer humanoids, just one, mostly. Giannis Milonogiannis has a great scratchy style that I've admired for some time. Brandon Graham is a space monster and has a dream translator to write this while he sleeps. It's really weird in the best possible way.


There is a zombie story in this. I wonder if it was required by the publisher. He made it fun though. a romance even. The best story in here is the first one though. It's about this technology that allows for outsourcing emotions to India though. Like, you can get someone else to experience a funeral or a breakup through your body though. It's about the guy who takes on those emotions and the economy of that. I got it from the library, so I can't name the story. It's the first one though. I would have called it 'the globalization catastrophe'. I'm a writer too, so it's probably called something like that.


This one. I liked. Every morning when I wake up, I can't remember the story I read from it when I was going to bed. May be cursed. A woman sleeps with her brain damaged ex-husband. A man is haunted by a family he abandoned (figuratively). short stories. Do you read books any more?


Poetry sells... but who's reviewing. Like Megadeth, get it... I read about this in the Times. It was hyped to death, like maybe the reviewer was trying to get invited to the Glueck mansion. I stumbled upon a copy at a used bookstore in Hollywood. Whereas someone clearly took the time to steal and resell it (It had never been read and was $10), I took a chance. And now, I'd pay full price. "Why did Christ die?"



My mom gave me this. A joy to behold by an eccentric Master.

"Robert Sheckley was an eccentric master of the American short story, and his tales, whether set in dystopic city­scapes, ultramodern advertising agencies, or aboard spaceships lighting out for hostile planets, are among the most startlingly original of the twentieth century. Today, as the new worlds, alternate universes, and synthetic pleasures Sheckley foretold become our reality, his vision begins to look less absurdist and more prophetic. This retrospective selection, chosen by Jonathan Lethem and Alex Abramovich, brings together the best of Sheckley’s deadpan farces, proving once again that he belongs beside such mordant critics of contemporary mores as Bruce Jay Friedman, Terry Southern, and Thomas Pynchon."]]> http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php?entry=entry121206-221526 Zane Grant Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:15:26 GMT http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/comments.php?y=12&m=12&entry=entry121206-221526 http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php?entry=entry121021-221747

We discussed all the big stars. I suggested Toby Keith should play Ant Man, nevermind that he's not an actor and I was thinking of Keith Sweat, who would be great at it.

Comic Book Club 10/16/12

]]> http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php?entry=entry121021-221747 Zane Grant Mon, 22 Oct 2012 04:17:47 GMT http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/comments.php?y=12&m=10&entry=entry121021-221747 http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php?entry=entry121015-143455

I'll be on Comic Book Club in NY to talk about Let's Play God October 16th at 7pm at Fontana's. If you are in the city, please stop by: Comic Book Club event]]> http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php?entry=entry121015-143455 Zane Grant Mon, 15 Oct 2012 20:34:55 GMT http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/comments.php?y=12&m=10&entry=entry121015-143455 http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php?entry=entry120912-192324
Here's a picture of me mastering props as prop master on 'Root of the Problem.' Got to see the final edit the other night and was quite pleased.]]> http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/index.php?entry=entry120912-192324 Zane Grant Thu, 13 Sep 2012 01:23:24 GMT http://zanegrant.org/zngrnt/sphpblog_0511/comments.php?y=12&m=09&entry=entry120912-192324