SCI-FI MONSTER-PIECES INVADE DOWNTOWN CONCORD, NH!

hell hath no fury like a 50 foot woman scorned !

The 1950s saw a transition in the movie industry, with the rise of television changing the way studios would exhibit their films. The western genre had moved itself to the weekly small screen, and the rise of the drive in theater helped shape the future of what we would call the B-Movie or genre film. The science fiction and horror genres were a perfect mix of straight forward plots and creative and  shocking special effects, and were perfect fit for the drive-in theater experience. They often exploited the fears of the atomic age and the paranoia of the Cold War. They were bold both in delivery and advertising.

This was an era that was incredibly prolific and so popular that many tv stations would start running these movies late at night, creating what would become the midnight movie format. The Vampira Show (1954-55), starring Maila Nurmi as the titular host, became a cult classic and would inspire countless other programs in the following decades. Notably Elvira, and for New England natives remember this one?

I thought you would!

April 18th Concord, NH’s very own Red River Theatres is offering their own slice of midnight madness with a blast from the past showcasing a tremendous sampling of these very films with the 4 hour Sci-Fi Monster-Pieces Film Festival! 

For a mere $20 dollars you get food, films and fun and you get to see these movies on the big screen the way they were intended to be seen. So relive your childhood, or experience some of the cult classics for the first time!

You also get to choose the films you want to see, with multiple screens showcasing the below..

ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1958 version)

CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN

THE CRAWLING EYE

THE MAN FROM PLANET X

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE

KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS (Campy 70s classic with Bill Shatner. Need I say more?)

PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES

THE MYSTERIANS (From Toho studios, home of Godzilla)

And yes I made the above poster, full disclosure!

The Bill Murray Party and Art Spectacle

This February 28th I will be part of, in spirit not body,  The Bill Murray Party and Art Spectacle.  The event will take place at the Syrup Loft in Los Angeles, CA at 8pm.

This extravaganza will honor the legendary comedic genius that is Bill Murray. In addition to a plethora of Murray inspired art, there will be live music by Story of the Running Wolf, Magnastic.and Lester T. Raww’s Graveside Quartet.

The whole shabang is brought to you by Ezra and Julia Croft Entertainment Productions, who realy know how to throw a party. They also will have a documentary film crew chronicling the whole affair. so this is one for the ages people.

I’ve been a fan of Bill Murray’s work since I was a wee lad of 6 or 7, when I first saw the comedy classic that is Caddyshack. Caddyshack was also written by Murray’s brother Brian and of course co-starred SNL alum Chevy Chase and the late great Rodney Dangerfield. His cameo portrayal of groundskeeper Carl Spackler is an improvised gem that would set the standard for the rest of Murray’s career. This one scene in particular would inpsire my artistic entry, “The Total Consciousness of Carl Spackler”. 

oh and some Kenny Loggins for good measure,because KENNY LOGGINS.

Small Stuff 8: It’s Happening….Again

I’m a tad late on this but I’ve got some artwork in this years Small Stuff 8 group show at the Bear and Bird Boutique and Gallery. I was privileged to be part of Small Stuff 4 back in 2010, so it was awesome to be invited back this year.

So what’s this Small Stuff all about? Well all the artwork is 8X10 or less and this is a cash and carry exhibit. You buy it, they wrap it up and you bring it home. As well, the price range in this exhibit is very user friendly. If you’re looking to buy art for the first time, well here’s your chance. There is literally something for everyone.

The opening was today, but the show runs until January 16, 2015. Which means there will be plenty of chances to scoop a masterpiece. If you’re not in Florida? Go to www.bearandbird.com and you can purchase any piece (that hasn’t sold already) and have it shipped directly to you.

Here’s the show’s flickr stream for some quick browsing. And here’s what i submitted!

Agent Cooper and Sherriff Truman get minty fresh.

Rust and Marty do lunch.

Do you like my owl?

The Walken Situation

On November 28th I will partake in  The Walken Situation: An All Christopher Walken Art Exhibition, created by Ezra Croft. The event will be held at The Public Works SF, in San Francisco naturally.  The exhibition will focus on the the famed Oscar Winning actor, whose career has spanned multiple decades and ranged from serious drama to lowbrow comedy. He’s also one the greatest host of SNL in the history of the show.  I mean how’s this for a highlight reel?

 

I drew inspiration for my illustration from the 1990 film The King of New York, which features Walken as Frank White, an ice cold kingpin of crime. Directed by Abel Ferrara, it c0 -starred the likes of Larry Fishburne,Giancarlo Esposito (Gus Fring!), Wesley Snipes,David Caruso and Steve Buscemi. Most notable is the fine performance of Walken, who could have easily been out of his element but brings a very palpable sense of menace. King of New York  is  forgotten gem that predates films like New Jack City and the wave of early 90s urban gangster genre. Also there’s this.

 

“More human than human” is our motto….

 

My illustration of one of my favorite movies of all time, 1982’s Blade Runner. Directed by Ridley Scott and featuring Harrison Ford,Sean Young and an iconic performance by Rutger Hauer as replicant Roy Batty.

Most importantly the film was adapted from legendary science fiction author Philip K. Dick‘s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?(1968).  Dick died shortly before the premiere of the film but was able to see his visions brought to life in what is considered a seminal science fiction film. This would be the first of many adaptations of his work but in my opinion the best.

It also features a fantastic soundtrack by  Vangelis.

“Retro-spection”

No matter how old you are the tendency to look back on the past will present itself.

Sometimes it’s a pleasant stroll down memory lane, triggered by the weather or a song on the radio. Sometimes it’s a traumatic experience that unearths long buried emotions attached to distant events. It’s always there though, the past that is. It’s both clearly defined hindsight and fuzzy details all wrapped into one.

As I finished this particular illustration I couldn’t help notice my own body of work. Looking back over the last 5 years worth of marks on paper my subjects are commonly existing somewhere in the distant past and the suggested future. Maybe it’s the hardest thing to do sometimes, to live in the moment. Maybe creating these images and the time spent doing so are the most pure and clear moments I can experience.

Or maybe I want to be a time traveller and I’m just waiting until that moment finally arrives, untethered by memory and retrospection.

…..but first some Les Baxter!

 

 

William Shatner Beat Night 2014

It’s that time of the year again!

Since 2009, Brian and Tara Sullivan have organized the annual William Shatner Beat Night in downtown Portsmouth, NH. Here’s the lowdown on the event from their website:

“William Shatner Beat Night is a spoken word performance event where every piece must be performed while doing a William Shatner impression. Many of the pieces are original works, while others are existing words on a page and given to a Shatner interpretation.

The event is scheduled on or close to William Shatner’s birthday (March 22), which is also International Talk Like Shatner Day.

It is also fun as hell. Don’t take our word for it though. Check it out for yourself or ask one of your cooler friends about it.”

Most importantly all proceeds benefit the Seacoast Family Food Pantry, so if you are anywhere near the seacoast of New Hampshire March 23rd, please join us.

The event will held at the Book and Bar, 40 Pleasant St 8PM!

The Master of Suspense…

One of the benefits of being an 80s child was the emergence of the cable industry. MTV was a fresh phenomenon  that was bringing attention to music in ways never imagined. Most of Generation X will most certainly remember the debut of the Nickelodeon channel  in 1981, which has remained to this day one of the most popular and influential children’s cable stations of the last 30 years.  Viacom owned both channels at the time and decided tap into the Boomer generation and their children, myself included, and introduced Nick at Nite on July 1, 1985. It was a novel idea that debuted just 7 months after VH1. No coincidence for sure.

Besides just filling the gap between kid’s programming, Nick at Night offered the chance to re-air classic television shows from the 50s and 60s primarily to a whole new generation, all on one channel. Not that you couldn’t view these shows anywhere else, but I  don’t think they were ever presented it as well as on Nick at Nite. I was 11 years old, and ready and willing to indulge in these time capsules on the small screen. Then one hot muggy summer night, with the over sized electric fans humming, I was introduced to an anthology series that would open up literary and cinematic worlds for me decades since my first viewing. That show would be none other than Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

I was well on my way at 11 to being an avid reader of mystery,suspense,horror and the supernatural. I consistently devoured what I could get my hands on at the time, or at least what I was able to process at that age. Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-62) was a revelation. Spanning 268 episodes, the program was a showcase for some of the best actors and actresses of the 1950s, and featured scripts from the likes of Ray Bradbury,Robert Bloch,Charles Beaumont, and Dorothy L. Sayers among a long list of others. Until September of 1962 it represented some of the best of what the television medium could offer, and along with Rod serling’s The Twilight Zone, it remains at the very peak of all anthology series. It would be hard pressed to find a better blueprint for 30 minutes of masterfully crafted storytelling.

Hitchcock was already 3 decades into his career as a film director. He first established himself as Britain’s finest and then after his migration to the US in 1939, he would become one of the world’s greatest director of genre filmmaking. In his peak decades of the 40s and 50s, he would create an amazing body of cinematic work that includes such favorites at Dial M for Murder,Suspicion, North by Northwest, Rear Window, Vertigo and of course his most infamous work, Psycho. For myself, Alfred Hitchcock Presents was the gateway to incredible array of actors, actresses, writers and directors themselves who either were influenced by Hitchcock himself or who were influences on him in his formative years. It was also a master class in mystery and suspense.

Hitchcock was himself a very complex figure, and certainly through many of his films explored some of this thematically, but that’s a whole other post I suspose. You can pretty much catch any of the episodes on Youtube or Netflix, or on local TV is you’re lucky. If you’re a fan of mystery,suspense,horror,the supernatural, comedy or some combination of any the previous, then you can’t go wrong with the body of work of Sir Alfred Hitchcock.

New Poster for the Xtreme Friday Night Film Series

As the title above advertises, here is the my latest poster for Red River Theatres Xtreme Friday Night Film series. I think this is number 7 so far. This time the line up is the dark British comedy Sightseers on July 26, then Berberian Sound Studio (which I’m really looking forward too) on August 2. Red River is showcasing some of the best genre films from around the world, films that you would have a very hard time seeing on an actual movie screen north of Boston.  Truly a place run by movie lovers for movie lovers. Every Friday at 10pm and just a mere 9 bucks.

Return of the Xtreme Friday Night Film Series 2013

I’m real late on this one but here’s my latest poster for Red River Theatres Xtreme Friday Night Film Series. If you missed out on these titles have no fear, there’s more to come soon. And another poster with it!