Cult Classies

:Hello baby.

: Shut up! It’s “Daddy”, you shit head! Where’s my bourbon!?

Blue velvet is the comfort and safety of illusion. As industrialization destroys the Mother, creatures like Frank sprout in man, and physical dominance in sex is the only reality of connection.

I saw this movie as a kid. Frank was too familiar, too similar to my own father, and he scared the shit out of me. He still does.

The first in my Cult Classies series featuring iconic movies that shaped/warped my identity. Created on a weekend romantic getaway with my partner along the peaceful Cali cost, this is from Goodfellas, a movie I saw far too young, and my first Scorsese film. The unwinding of control and stability between these two, brought on by the polarization of their identities as spouses, drug dealers, mobsters and humans, comes to a head in this scene as Henry Hill awakens to find his wife straddling him with a gun in his face and no escape for either.

“Goonies Never Say Die” I saw this movie so many times when I was a kid, living in a war zone of poverty and drugs, surviving on government cheese and whatever hand-outs the church had that day, constantly facing the threat, and sometimes reality, of homelessness. Just like the Goonies were doomed to before they intervened in their own fate. The fantastical adventure pirate treasure-hunting was a lot of fun. But the sleepy town of Arcada, with their large home full of family and friends, that was the true treasure for my sister and me. These kids were vibrant and real and so much like us. I imagined, as many my age did, I’m sure, spending afternoons hanging out with my fellow Goonies. Being innocent, playful, accepting. So often, so casually with one another, that an adventure chasing imaginary treasure to stop the massive engine of capitalism that threatened to claim their home would seem like a logical course of action. One that never seemed to happen in my world.

This is my Rifle, This is my Gun” I grew.up watching Stanley Kubrick before I even knew who Stanley Kubrick was. This included Full Metal Jacket. I was a kid when I saw this movie and this scene is burned into my soul. I didn’t understand any of what was happening. What I did understand was this feeling of empathy I had for “Gomer Pyle”. His father figure, screaming in his face, degrading him in a relentless, mechanical way void of humanity, was too familiar. After his friends betray him, he realizes he’s alone, in a “world of shit.” It pushes him over the edge, into a hopeless place of ultimate fatalistic, absolute violence. It was a warning for me. I realized that I wasn’t in “basic training,” I was being forced to submit to the power-hungry patriarchy. And I would not be a victim to its nihilism like Leonard, even if it meant being alone with a bunch of assholes surrounding me with their rocks in their socks ready to beat back my resistance at every turn. Full Metal Jacket, 1987 Stanley Kubrick Private “Pyle”.

Someday Vladislav the Poker will get that transformation down.

Fashion is pain, and no nobody wears a curse likWhat We Do In The Shadows: Lazlo's Curse e Laszlo Cravensworth.

There’s no dance like the seductive dance of Deacon Brucke.What We Do In The Shadows: Deacon Brucke

From the classic What We Do In The Shadows, the OG ladies man, Viago Von Dorna Schmarten Scheden Heimburg!

Nobody can resist the charm of Colin Robinson and his endless….never ending ….z…zzzzzzzzzz………….