5 years ago this weekend, FROZEN world premiered at the Sundance Film festival in Park City, UT.  It is hard to believe just how fast time has flown since then. Sundance 2010 still remains one of the best moments of my career and watching just how well FROZEN was received is still one of my greatest personal triumphs. It was such a joy to hear people in the audience (most of whom still didn’t know what I looked like back then as HOLLISTON had not yet happened) say “Three people in a chair? This will never work.” right in front of me… and then watch so many of those same people become exhausted, emotionally devastated, sweaty lumps in their seats over the next 94 minutes. And I truly owe it all to my fantastic crew and my three fearless actors who never quit on me no matter how many times I may have broken them with what I put them through. Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore, and Kevin Zegers are still three of my biggest heroes and the movie never would have worked without them. While early reviews show signs that next month’s DIGGING UP THE MARROW is going to give FROZEN a critical run for its money, FROZEN is still my best reviewed movie to date in the mainstream press worldwide. (HATCHET 2, released only 7 months later that very same year, is a close second as far as positive mainstream reviews go.)  The more time that passes the more I hear from people who ski or snowboard how they heard complete strangers talking about the movie while waiting in line for the lift at various ski mountains. Even more specifically, the conversations often include someone fearfully saying that they don’t want anyone in their group to mention FROZEN when they are on the lift.  The MacGyver’s of the world continue to debate “what they would do” and so many interviews I do (for completely different projects) wind up with the interviewer wanting to tell me their own ‘stuck on a ski lift’ story. And let’s not forget the absolute comedy of the now infamous review that slammed the film for the “fact” that the actors were “so obviously on a green screen and not really in the elements” and because “the wolves were poorly computer generated.” My actors (both human and canine) would still beg to differ with that critic. I love all of it. In the end, this simple yet insane idea struck a big chord and five years later I can only look back and wonder what we were thinking putting ourselves through such a brutal shoot. (“It’s just three people in a chair, how hard can it be?”)

Here are some rare behind the scenes photos, many of which you have likely never seen before…

Emma Bell was the very first person to audition.  She set the bar so high that no one else who came in after her could even compare.

Kevin Zegers almost lost this gorgeous face to “Shadow”, one of the scarier wolves used in the film.  In the scene where the wolves surround “Dan”, you’ll see a black wolf walk right up to Kevin and start to sniff his hat.  If we left even one more frame in that shot you would have seen the trainers come running in to take “Shadow” away.  Though the other wolves all ignored Kevin while we shot that scene, “Shadow” really wanted to know where Kevin got that hat and if it came in “Wolf” size.

No.  They weren’t in a studio against a fucking green screen.

Emma bravely makes her way down the mountain.

Production Designer Bryan McBrien created a small ski lift set in the mountain’s parking lot where we could safely wire the performers in for stunts and vertically move the chair up and down for the make-up team to apply certain make-up effects.  So why not shoot the whole movie like this?  Why make everyone go up the real mountain?  Well, had we shot the whole movie this way I would have been completely limited in my available shots and angles.  The film would have had no scope whatsoever and the camera would have seen the lodge and the parking lot had I shot any other angles than the ones that we specifically designed this set for.  You can see the amazing forced-perspective set that Bryan built in Adam Barnick’s 90 minute “making of” special features on the Blu-Ray or DVD.  Still the best bonus features I’ve ever seen on an indie release, ever.

Some last minute direction before shooting.  You’ll notice the yellow safety harness I am wearing.  That’s because Will Barratt and I were the ones operating the two 35mm cameras for all of the scenes where the chair lift was actually moving.  (All of the scenes where the chair was stuck were shot using a 50′ Panavision techno crane that was operated safely from the ground.) The grip department built a rig that allowed Will and I to hang in front of the actor’s chair but no one in the camera department felt safe shooting that way.  I bravely said I would just shoot it myself… and then almost pee’d myself once I was up there.  When I was looking through the lens I was OK because it didn’t seem real.  But when I’d take my face away from the glass to change a lens or speak to the actors…I was terrified.  Will was way more brave than I was.

The rig/bucket that Will and I hung in to shoot the scenes where the chair was moving.

“Maverick” was so beautiful that it was a challenge to do as Sled Reynolds (our trainer) said and NOT try and pet him or make eye contact with him.  As an animal lover it was hell for me to follow instructions and obey the rules. But…

…thankfully Sled allowed me my chance on the last day of shooting with the wolves.

Even though Shawn had safety pads in his jacket and even though this was a wolf/shepherd hybrid (not one of the pure bred wolves), it was still a scary day of filming.  Especially for Ashmore.

Emma Bell truly gave me everything she had.  I adore her.

Shawn still has marks from the safety harness he had to wear to do these stunts.  The pain you see on his face in the movie is very, very real.  The wide shots of “Lynch’s” climb across the cables were performed up on the actual mountain by stunt man Chester Tripp, but we filmed Shawn’s close-up angles in the parking lot’s forced perspective set.

The real heroes of FROZEN.  Together we conquered a mountain.

Somehow we did it.  Thankfully I have a crew/family that just hasn’t figured out how to say “no” to me yet. Without them I could never accomplish a goddamn thing. So as Sundance 2015 begins this weekend, I say “Happy birthday FROZEN!”

And stay off the slopes, you guys.  Skiing kills.

-AG

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…!”

Last week we launched our 16th annual ArieScope Halloween short film, “Happy Halloween”.  Starring our friends Shawn Ashmore (FROZEN, THE FOLLOWING, X-MEN) and Brea Grant (HEROES, DEXTER) and featuring the fantastic debut of Sam Barratt (Will’s youngest son), “Happy Halloween” was our biggest opening day for a Halloween short film in all 16 years of doing them.  Yes, even bigger than “Jack Chop” which took about a week to catch on and blow up into the viral hit that it eventually became- although “Happy Halloween” will never come close to “Jack Chop’s” popularity being that it’s a serious piece.  (Serious shorts aren’t exactly the “Oh my God, I need to forward this to all of my friends, family, and co-workers right away” kind of shorts.)  Moments after we launched the short our site was crashed by all of the people trying to view it.  It came back on-line just a little while later only to be crashed again.  And again.  And again.  All day long.  Even better… reactions have been phenomenally positive and we have yet to receive a single complaint over the fact that we chose to go “serious” with the concept this year instead of the usual irreverent and silly concepts that our audience has come to expect from us each year.  We try our best to never repeat ourselves with the Halloween shorts and to always surprise the fans in one way or another (down to the fact that we never reveal any information about them or say who will be in them until the moment they are released), thus no “Jack Chop 2”.  “Jack Chop” was (to quote “Nicolo” himself) “one… and ya fahkin done, kid.”  Of course the “Nicolo” character has lived on as a re-occurring character in HOLLISTON, as a quick cameo in 2010’s Halloween short “Just Take One”, and he’ll be back again in something else one day, promise.  After “Jack Chop” became a big hit it was not easy to follow it up the next year as we knew that no matter what we did it would never stand a chance at hitting as big.  So we went for “cute” instead of “hilarity” when we did “Just Take One” in 2010.  But that’s how these shorts work.  Given how fortunate we are to always be so busy with our various “real” projects (films, the TV show, etc- not to mention our actual lives) and how hard it is to gather up so many members of our family all on the same night when they are each also incredibly busy… why do we still do it at all?  I thought you’d never hypothetically ask…

Brea Grant and Shawn Ashmore run lines together before filming.

In 1998, Will Barratt and I made a short film called “Columbus Day Weekend” where Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers stalked the same camp site and the two slasher icons ultimately fell in love with each other.  At the time, we were both working at Time Warner Cable in Boston, MA making low budget local commercials and therefore we had access to their production equipment, a perk we would ultimately abuse to the fullest extent just a year later when we made our first feature film COFFEE & DONUTS with the same “borrowed” BetaSP camera and basic lights.  “Columbus Day Weekend” was something we made to show at my annual Halloween dinner party and it was never intended to be shown publicly anywhere else or become our calling card and do anything for our careers.  (We would have tried much harder if that was the case!)  We figured we’d show it at my party for a laugh and that would be it.  But it changed so many things for us, starting with the fact that in order to properly mimic the opening credits of a FRIDAY THE 13TH film we needed a production company name.  We quickly came up with the name “ArieScope” because we’re both Aries and “scope” sounded “film-ish” to us… plus we needed something on the spot right then and there if we were to screen the short at that night’s party.  (So by “quickly came up with it” I literally mean that we came up with the word in less than a minute.  After all, it was just gonna be used one time, right?)  We altered a Dodge ram logo from a commercial we were currently working on at work (Allen Mello Dodge in Nashua, NH), slapped it on the front of the short, and figured that would be the end of that.

Our original logo.  Sorry Dodge!

16 years, 9 feature films (so far), 2 seasons of a TV show (so far) and 60+ short films (so far) later… the rest is history and the name “ArieScope” has not only stuck but also now means something to so many genre fans around the world.  “Columbus Day Weekend” wound up being passed around all over and even though it was incredibly amateur and silly (really, it’s not very good at all), it eventually garnered the attention of folks at a major Hollywood talent agency and not too long after that I had packed my bags and was driving 3,000 miles away from home to chase the impossible dream of becoming a professional filmmaker… and that’s where the struggle really began.  Keep in mind that this was long before streaming video on the internet so “Columbus Day Weekend” was being dubbed over and over again on VHS and this was also at a time when not every single person and their mother was making short films with fairly decent quality equipment.  These days if “Columbus Day” was to be made and passed around it would be laughed at (for the wrong reasons) and probably would have been more of an embarrassment than an achievement.  But that’s also exactly why we don’t hide it from our fan base and why we keep EVERYTHING up on this website for all to see.

The first official ArieScope office in Hollywood, CA – 2005.  The journey has been full of hard times and beat downs.

It would be a fair argument to say that we should only keep our best work on this website now that we have the careers we are so fortunate to have doing this stuff professionally.  A sane industry professional might say that we should hide the early amateur stuff or any of the “just for fun” projects that maybe didn’t work out all that well in the end.  But given the massive amount of aspiring and up and coming filmmakers that have begun to look to us for inspiration over the years, we think that it’s encouraging and helpful to show our scars and let everyone see just how it all started and how we’ve continued to hone our craft over the years.  Every artist has a beginning and as nice as it would be to make people believe that the very first thing you did worked out perfectly or that everything you attempt to make turns out great… well, that’s just not true for anyone.  So we keep all of it on this site for the world to see, both the successes and the failures.  With “Columbus Day Weekend” especially, it’s fun for HATCHET fans to see things like the genesis of the “belt sander kill” which we would eventually get just right about a decade later when “Victor Crowley” sanded “Jenna’s” face off in the trilogy’s first entry.  Over the year’s we’ve had plenty of hits and plenty of misses with these short film projects, so we figure why not show and celebrate all of it?  From the more popular shorts like “Fairy Tale Police”, “Saber”, “Jack Chop”, “The Tiffany Problem”, “The Tivo”, and “Driving Lessons”… to the big misses (in my opinion) like “Steven’s Room”, “Trick Or Treat”, “Sexy Nightmare Slayers”, and yes, “Columbus Day Weekend” (depending on how you look at it) they’re all here for you to see.  And we’re proud of ALL of them for the simple reason that they are all part of our journey from wide-eyed ambitious dreamers making low budget cable commercials to the guys who somehow have managed to make a living in entertainment.  This website holds our entire story and we’re proud of it.  In an age where indie filmmakers boast how they made a feature film for a micro budget, we often remind ourselves that COFFEE & DONUTS was a feature film made for a mere $400, shot on BetaSP, and edited tape to tape back in the summer of ’99 when it wasn’t so common for everyone with access to a camera to make an actual movie.  C&D launched our careers and after 13 years of “development hell” and “almost’s” eventually became what is now known as the TV show HOLLISTON.  Where there is a will there is a way and if two assholes from Boston can do it, so can you.  Don’t believe me?  Just watch this cable commercial I did for Castle Creek Miniature Golf in Salem, MA back in 1998 by clicking here.

I’d like to think I’ve come a long way.  At least I’d like to hope I’ve come a long way.

16 years later… what a long, strange trip it’s been.  Thanks for joining us and for making it all possible.  “Happy Birthday” to us and “Happy Halloween” to you!  Here’s to whatever happens next…

 The day we hung the sign outside of our studio.

-AG

DIGGING UP THE MARROW variant poster #1 of 4, made exclusively for the world premiere at Film 4 FrightFest in London.  

This past weekend DIGGING UP THE MARROW unearthed in London at Film 4 FrightFest, a festival that I have not only attended and premiered 8 of my films at to date but also a festival that I have declared to be my absolute favorite genre film festival on the planet again and again (and again).  It was an absolutely spectacular premiere and one of my favorite film premieres that I’ve had in my career so far, despite my decision to keep it an intimate affair- which I will explain the reasoning for in a bit.  But before I get to the triumph that was this past weekend, I want to point out just what MARROW’s premiere was coming on the heels of…

I know that so many of you who read this blog also listen to my podcast THE MOVIE CRYPT religiously, so by now you likely know just what a colossal machete in the heart and personally devastating year 2014 has been for me so far and why I have not done any appearances, conventions, or festivals.  For those still catching up or who perhaps don’t listen to every single episode of the podcast, Lynch and I opened Episode 65 (the E.T. commentary) with me spilling some of the details on just what kind of personal heartbreak this year has had in store for me so far- and I want to take a moment to say “thank you” again to everyone who heard it or who heard about it for honoring my request to not ask me about it or comment about it further as it is more appreciated than you can possibly understand.  The gist of it all is that for many months earlier this year I was reeling after being divorced by my wife and in a very bad state though I did my best to keep a brave face on publicly wherever and whenever I had to do so.  As explained in the podcast, keeping the whole thing private for so long helped make it so that there was no unnecessary outside pain and suffering added to it by strangers who can’t resist the urge to make it their business and also so that by the time it became public knowledge it would be “old news”, something not worth people taking the effort to gossip about, and something I was already emerging on the other side of.   So I hid myself away and save for a couple of wonderful friends who took care of me through the worst of it, I did everything I could to avoid facing the rest of the world.  But as life always has a cruel way of doing, I lost one of my closest friends right at the moment when it felt like things couldn’t possibly get any worse and on March 23rd Dave Brockie suddenly passed away.  While I was able to somewhat secretly go through the pain of the divorce by myself for the first half of the year, with Dave being such an iconic public figure and a main cast member of HOLLISTON, there was no way to not step up and acknowledge it, accept it, and deal with it.  As fate would have it, there was an in-store signing that the HOLLISTON cast had already committed to doing here in LA on April 8th many months prior to Dave’s passing.  The date of the event unfortunately fell mere days after we lost our friend, but as fans of the show had traveled from very far away to be there we had to “go on with the show” despite the fact that we were still mourning and in shock.  We had watched Dave go through this same kind of thing himself when GWAR lost guitarist Cory Smoot in 2011 but had to continue on with their tour anyway.  It was awful to have to watch the band carry on without being able to deal with their loss properly, but that’s show business unfortunately.  While canceling on the HOLLISTON fans who live in LA would have been completely understood and accepted by them, canceling our scheduled appearance on the ones who had already paid so much money on flights to travel from all over just to see us at a signing wasn’t an option and therefore we went through with it.  Thankfully we have the greatest and most sincere fans that exist, so we were ultimately glad that we did the appearance as the outpouring of love and support that we received that night truly helped us through it in many ways.

The “Oderus Urungus” costume at Dave Brockie’s memorial in Virginia, August 15th. 

Two weeks ago I spoke at Dave’s public memorial in Richmond, VA and delivered my eulogy before the thousands of fans who pilgrimaged from all over the world to pay their final respects.  It was a beautiful service complete with a viking-style send off where the “Oderus Urungus” costume was burned on a boat in the lake and once the weekend was over it felt like a bandage had finally been put over that massive gaping wound.  Images from the weekend are everywhere on-line and my eulogy can be seen here in this video that someone in the crowd shot on their phone.  It starts around 14:40 in the video and while the person shooting it sadly had to change their battery right at the most memorable part (where I had the entire audience turn to acknowledge their “metal family” standing beside them and a few thousand metal heads all held hands together- something I’ll never forget the sight of)- the majority of my speech is all there.  Giving that eulogy was one of the most difficult but most inspiring moments of my life so far.  If you watch the whole thing, you’ll see just what a hard time I was having getting the words out as I’m usually a bit better at public speaking.  I do this stuff quite often.  It’s part of this career and normally I actually enjoy doing it as it’s “entertainment”.  But while I was pacing the backstage area before going on, it dawned on me that this time was like no other as I was about to speak before a crowd as myself as opposed to playing the part of “Adam Green the filmmaker” or “Adam Green the actor” or “Adam Green the comedian”.  Randy Blythe (LAMB OF GOD’s singer who was speaking right before me) put me at ease when he put his arm around me and said “that’s exactly why you’re here.”  He reminded me that no one was expecting a “show” and that they were there to hear what I, the real person who knew and loved Dave, had to say.  That it was OK to fumble through the words and say “um” a thousand times or to have to keep stopping to compose myself. And when I heard him introduce me and say “Dave was on a TV show called HOLLISTON” and the entire place began cheering… I realized that I was among family and suddenly the words I had prepared weren’t all that important.   The fans gathered there didn’t care if I cried, if my voice trembled, if I got overwhelmed, if I stuttered and got confused, or if I sang out of key because I was trying so hard to not break down.  And as you’ll hear if you watch the clip… the fans carried me through the entire thing.  They cheered me on when they could see I was losing it, they let their voices be heard when they appreciated something I said, and they sang for me when it was becoming clear that I was struggling to find the notes.  I say it all the time how much I love the fans… but just in case I haven’t said it enough… I LOVE THE FANS.  I got through this difficult moment of saying goodbye to Dave publicly because I was surrounded by truly wonderful, passionate, and caring real people.  I’m so grateful for the hearts of everyone who was there at Haddad’s Lake that day and I’ll never forget that feeling as long as I live.  In fact, for the first time in so very long… I started dreaming about HOLLISTON again and contemplating another season with excitement instead of resentment, sadness, or fear of what it will be like to stand on set in front of a closet door that won’t open again.   For those still wondering and waiting… the team behind HOLLISTON is now talking much more seriously not just about how to return to HOLLISTON, but more specifically… when.  I’m writing again and, well, we’ll see what happens from here.  Hopefully 2015 sees “Adam”, “Joe”, “Laura”, “Corri”, and “Lance” back together again…

The best image I’ve found on-line of the burning boat.  An amazing send-off.

A mere 72 hours after the memorial I was on a plane to London for the world premiere of DIGGING UP THE MARROW.  It was a bittersweet journey to London as it was hard to go celebrate the very first official screening of the film coming off of such a tragic and heartbreaking 8 or 9 months.  Of course at that point if I had the choice I would have rather stayed home with my pets/family and wallowed in depression on the couch, but as cruel as life can be at time… it also has a way of giving you what you need, whether you can clearly see it that way at the time or not.  As you’ve noticed, we’ve been handling DIGGING UP THE MARROW very delicately and quite differently than how we usually handle a film.  From calling it “an art documentary” for the 4 years that we were working on it just to stay under the radar (by now you’ve probably figured out that it’s not so much of an actual documentary as it is a fantastical story that uses the documentary format as a launching point), to not releasing a trailer publicly (yet), to not releasing stills and other images or clips from the film… we’ve kept it all very close to our vest(s).  You can read one of my previous blogs about it or hear more about all of that on various episodes of THE MOVIE CRYPT, but FrightFest felt like the perfect venue to officially unveil the finished film for the first time.

The Vue Cinema in Leicester Square, London – home of FrightFest 2014.

In discussing the placement of the film within the festival line-up with the festival heads (Alan Jones, Ian Ratttray, Paul McEvoy, and Greg Day) we opted to only have the film play once on the “Discovery Screen” at a prime time (Saturday evening) as opposed to having it play 3 separate times on the 3 “Main Screens”.  It was a bold choice to head into a festival world premiere with only one smaller screening available for the audience to attend and without making any specific information or footage of the actual film available to anyone beforehand- but it turned out to be the absolute right decision.  The reaction was way beyond what we had hoped for and even better, we’ve managed to keep this little shroud of mystery around the film going for at least a little bit longer.  So far, fans and critics who attended have honored my request to not spoil the film itself within their glowing praise for it on-line and while I know that there are folks in the press who are frustrated by the fact that we have not created any screener copies for anyone, thankfully many turned up to watch the film properly- on the big screen and with a real audience.  Now that we’ve begun the process of closing on our distribution plans, of course there will eventually be a trailer and other materials made public as there is no getting around that.  Will seeing that stuff spoil a little of whatever magic we hopefully created?  Probably.  But you can’t release a film without those things and expect general audiences to want to see it.  As I said to the cinema on Saturday night, all of us involved with DIGGING UP THE MARROW feel like sometimes there can be too much information made available about a film before it is ever screened and we wanted to try and deliver a unique experience, free of self-imposed expectations, spoilers, and preconceived notions.  It was overwhelming to see the cinema sell-out with fans who were there not because of hype, a trailer, or clips they saw on-line beforehand… but simply because they were happy to go into a movie absolutely cold with no idea about what they were going to see and because (at this point in our track record of films) they trusted that we would deliver the goods.  I’m so incredibly grateful for that trust and while I can’t promise that every single fan will always love every single thing I create equally when I do so many different types of things… I can promise that I will never abuse that trust.  We’ve earned it over the past 16 years since Will Barratt and I first started ArieScope Pictures and all of us who work on these crazy projects cherish that trust deeply.  It was easily one of the best responses I’ve ever had to a film premiere at FrightFest and the audience response during the film and afterwords was just terrific.  So what’s the deal?  Normally isn’t the goal to try and plaster the internet with your trailer, reviews, and hype everywhere you can?  Are we crazy for purposely choosing to only screen the film once at a festival knowing that so many would not be able to get in to see it?  Are we keeping details too under wraps?  I don’t know.  Maybe?  But in full transparency and honesty, as much as we may be “making it up as we go”, it has of course been a calculated choice to handle it all this way.  This is a very different movie and one that I never would have been able to get financed or produced right out of the gate in my career for a number of reasons.   Even though the movie may feature so much “reality”, in the end it still is a “fantasy.”  We just tried something different this time and approached the project very experimentally right down to the fact that it is inspired by art.  While you may often see movies that are “based on a true story” or based on a novel, it isn’t every day you see a movie that says “inspired by the art of Alex Pardee” in the credits.  We won’t be able to keep this vagueness going forever as eventually someone who sees it will take it upon themselves to spoil that for everyone, but the fact that we’ve been able to keep MARROW somewhat of a mystery for so long is really, really great.  For now at least- what we’re doing seems to be appreciated and it’s been great fun to do it this way.

FrightFest program 2014.

So when can YOU see it?  Well, even though last weekend was the very first time we ever screened the film publicly and normally I’d be saying “it’s still going to be awhile before we know about any of that stuff”, I can tell you that we are in the truly rare and extremely fortunate position of having already accepted an offer for US distribution and that other countries around the world should hopefully not be too far behind in terms of figuring out who we will be going with.  I got on the plane back to Los Angeles hearing that the screening had been a huge success and landed to news that we had closed on the USA and that it was from one of the places circling the film who we knew would really, really “get it”.  More info on who will be putting our film out soon.  We can’t say anything until after they do, so for now we’re just happy to know that we’ll be working with them on this and patiently waiting to hear and share more details.

I’ve made an incredible summer for myself, despite being drowned in ashes and coming off of so much heartbreak and pain.  I found my spirit again through applying myself creatively in work, through the solace of an amazing circle of friends and family, through the love and support of my fans, and through the music that I love.  From seeing GUNS N ROSES play in Las Vegas in June, to seeing DANGEROUS TOYS play in San Antonio in July, to seeing AEROSMITH & SLASH play in Los Angeles in July and in Las Vegas in August, to the big upcoming end of summer finale of seeing my personal “holy grail band” TWISTED SISTER play in New York City next weekend… everything’s gonna be alright.  Plus, it’s impossible to forget just how loved and appreciated you actually are when you come home from a trip to this…

Arwen was about to ship herself off to London she missed me so much.

It’s been one hell of a difficult year so far to say the least, but I’m still here, I’m still alive, and I’m doing fine.  It sounds so cliche but it is true that it’s always darkest before the dawn and like the end of AEROSMITH’s “Get A Grip” record proclaimed… “Remember, the light at the end of the tunnel may be you.”  It really is true.  Don’t give up… go on.

Indeed.

-AG

Last week, Alex Pardee and I revealed the first image ever from DIGGING UP THE MARROW when we simultaneously tweeted out the below picture with only the words “The Marrow Is Real”.  A very subtle tease of course, but as we’re still a ways away from being able to share any release plans we gotta hold back for now.  In case you missed it, here’s the very vague still photo that we revealed.  What is in the photo exactly?  Guess you’ll have to wait and see!  It was announced this morning that the world premiere of the film will be happening this August in London as part of FRIGHT FEST… so UK fans, grab your shovels and get ready.  Watch the Film 4 Fright Fest website here for ticketing details.

“The Marrow Is Real.”

Seeing as how it’s way too early to spill any more details on DIGGING UP THE MARROW’s release, I’ll get to the point of this blog which is actually not career related and is something I’m writing just for the fun of it for a change.  When your career is also your hobby it’s easy to lose track of the many other things in life that bring you joy.  Especially in this career that is almost always a 24/7 marathon.  Music has always been an exceptionally important component in my life.  I’ve been to anywhere between 300 and 400 concerts, followed some of my favorite bands for well over 30 shows each now, and at one point long ago I was even the singer for a serious band called HADDONFIELD.  And by “serious” I mean we played shows weekly, got paid to do so, and for a fleeting moment it even looked like it could have possibly become an actual career.  So when I get the occasional day or two off for myself like this, I tend to spend it going through my records and just being happy to do so.  I think vinyl still sounds better than any other format save for the band playing in front of you live.  I know that vinyl became kind of “hipster-esque” for a few years but for those of us who have always listened to records and will forever continue to do so, we can’t let that passing fad phase us or turn us off from it.  Much like the “it’s so cool to be a Geek” bandwagon phase that is thankfully on its last legs, you gotta let the tourists have their moment and just wait for them to move on to the next “in” thing that comes along.  It can be annoying when suddenly a whole new group of people claim to love something you’ve loved for your whole life, of course- but you have to remember that it takes nothing away from you personally.  (Well, except when Metallica’s “Black album” hit big and all of a sudden I couldn’t get good seats to shows because half the audience was there just to hear “Enter Sandman” and “Nothing Else Matters” and somehow had better seats than me, even if they were won from a radio station contest.  Those years were frustrating for sure.)  In fact, I’ve spent hours of my life trying to get people into the things I like.  So the way I see it, if someone suddenly wants to be the world’s biggest fan of something I really am the world’s biggest fan of, great.  Enjoy your brief stay and I’ll still be here to wave the flag when you’ve moved on to the next thing.

While I briefly considered writing a blog about the 10 RECORDS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE… too many of those are obvious albums that most everyone owns or at least knows extremely well, so where would the the joy be in that?  Instead I thought it would be more fun to dig just slightly deeper and share 10 of my favorite records that may not be so obvious even though many of them are from very well known bands.  Of course my hard rock and metal brethren will likely be very familiar with all of the below, but this is geared more towards those that are not necessarily diehard music fans or who are young enough to have missed these gems entirely and maybe only know these band’s bigger hits.  Who knows?  Maybe you’ll seek one or two of these records out for yourself and find a new favorite of your own?  To clarify, this is not a list of my ultimate Top 10 Favorite Records of all time… just 10 favorites from my own personal record collection that maybe aren’t all that well known but that I think are worth your time checking out.  To help make it easier to narrow down, I only picked albums from my record collection.  If I don’t have it on vinyl it couldn’t be in the running.  An honorable mention to all 25 TWISTED SISTER records in my collection including singles, bootlegs, re-issues, re-masters, etc.  By now you likely know of my serendipitous connection and life-long friendship with Dee Snider and his family and that TWISTED SISTER is far more than just a band to me, so while there were plenty of  “lesser known” TWISTED records on that one shelf alone, I opted to just say “they win” for this blog post and leave it at that.

And this is most definitely one of those times when I’m glad that this blog doesn’t have a comments section as I’m sure there are gonna be some passionate reactions and “WTF?!” exclamations to a few of these picks, but hey… my blog, my record collection, my choices!  Enjoy!

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1.) SKID ROW “Slave To The Grind” 1991

In 1989 SKID ROW’s debut self-titled album was an instant hit selling over 5 million records almost overnight.  Songs like “Youth Gone Wild”, “I Remember You”, and “18 & Life” monopolized MTV and were on the radio constantly.  I was 14 years old when I got that tape (I wouldn’t re-purchase it on both CD and vinyl until a few years later) and I played the shit out of it. But it was 1991’s “Slave To The Grind” where SKID ROW showed that they were so much more than just another glam rock band and let their metal side truly start to show.  While “Slave To The Grind” debuted at #1 and boasted successful singles like “Monkey Business” and “Wasted Time”, the record showcased a much heavier band than what many glam rockers probably expected.  For me personally, by the time I was 16 I was more into thrash and speed metal and slightly less into the fun glam rock I had been raised on, so this record came at the perfect time.  I wasn’t looking for another “I Remember You” by that point, so songs like “Livin’ On A Chain Gang”, “The Threat”, “Quicksand Jesus”, and the title track “Slave To The Grind” were a hugely welcome surprise.  Sebastian Bach’s voice is nothing less than godly and even tracks that could be incorrectly considered power ballads like “In A Darkened Room” and “Wasted Time” put the other bands of their era to shame.  I remember being so excited to get the version of the album that had “Get The Fuck Out” on it (the song was replaced by “Begger’s Day” after the initial run) but as nasty as the lyrics were and as much as my 16 year old self loved any song with the word “Fuck” used in it that many times… I have to admit that “Begger’s Day” is actually the better song.  I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that “Slave To The Grind” just might be one of the greatest sophomore efforts ever recorded by a band.  So if all you know of the Skids is “I Remember You” and “18 & Life”… give this record a spin and think again.  Now that I’ve actually lived through some shit, some of the songs hit unbelievably harder than they did 2 decades ago.

“You said, you’d never let me down, but the horse stampedes and rages in the name of desperation. Is it all just wasted time? Can you look at yourself when you think of what you left behind? Is it all just wasted time? Can you live with yourself when you think of what you’ve left behind?  I never thought you’d let it get this far, boy…”

2.) WHITE TRASH “White Trash” 1991

Not just because I wanted to add a “happy” record or two to this overwhelmingly dark list but because this record truly is fucking awesome and has been in constant rotation for me since it came out.  In full disclosure, I actually like their sophomore record “Si O Si, Que?” even more but I have never been able to find it on vinyl so it couldn’t qualify for this list.  WHITE TRASH had a video for the single “Apple Pie” (Side A, Track 1) that some of you may remember MTV playing constantly for about 11 days back in ’91.  (To my younger readers, MTV actually stands for “Music Television” and they used to play nothing but music videos, I swear.) Their song “The Crawl” (Side B, Track 1) was also the theme song for MTV’s “THE JON STEWART SHOW” way back from before the world realized that Jon Stewart is actually wicked smart and stuff.  WHITE TRASH’s blend of funk, soul, and rock is an audio party for your soul and you’d have to be the biggest sour dick in the world to not smile huge while listening to it.  In fact, I almost feel like I should have listed this album last just in case any of you actually listen to all of these records in the order I’ve listed them and wind up in a week long depression because of it.  While “Apple Pie” may be the only song that these guys were barely known for, it’s the deeper cuts like “Party Line”, “Lil’ Nancy”, and “Buzz!” that best showed off this band’s unique style and it’s the (sorta) self-titled “Po’ White Trash” that is the true hit off of this record in my opinion.  Try it out some time and lighten up your day.

“Don’t you know I’m so bad right now, Po’ white trash, Motherfucka who d’ya think you are?, Po’white trash, Said I got to know, baby got to show, Po’ white trash, Mmm you smell so fuckin’ good, honey, Po’ white trash…”

3.) MEGADETH “So Far, So Good… So What!” 1988

It always pains me when music historians or even members of MEGADETH themselves dismiss this record as one of their weaker efforts.  Is it as seminal an album to the thrash movement or for the band’s legacy as 1986’s “Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?” or 1990’s “Rust In Peace”?  No.  But goddamn do I love it so.  While songs like “Set The World Afire” and “Mary Jane” have remained two of my most favorite MEGADETH songs since I first ever heard them, it’s “In My Darkest Hour” (Side B, Track 2) that I have found myself leaning on like an old friend at several of life’s lowest moments.  This song is scarily the most angry, sad, and heart broken suicide anthem ever recorded in my opinion. In fact, the song is so powerful and directly to the point that I actually considered not even pointing it out as I fear that somewhere out there a severely depressed and unfortunately impressionable young boy or girl will discover it because of me and interpret it completely the wrong way.  There’s always that one unstable person who doesn’t understand that a song is to be taken as an outpouring of emotion and an expression to be connected with rather than literal lyrics to be used for creating bad ideas in their own heads.  Much like the warnings that come on alcohol labels, “In My Darkest Hour” is to be used and listened to responsibly.  We’ve all been there, we’ve all had love completely crush our souls, and we’ve all felt indescribable despair and anger.  Thankfully there are albums and songs like this that I have been able to bang my head to, thrash out to, and sing/scream along with until the dark clouds would pass.  Because after all… the dark clouds always do pass.  Since I was only 13 years old this record has helped me get through some pretty heartbroken times.  Maybe someday it will help you, too.

“Time has a way of taking time, loneliness is not only felt by fools.  Alone I call to ease the pain, yearning to be held by you, alone so alone I’m lost, consumed by the pain… the pain, the pain, the pain… Won’t you hold me again?  You just laughed – ha, ha, bitch.  My whole life is work built on the past, but the time has come when all things shall pass, this good thing passed away.”

4.) LOVE/HATE “Blackout In The Red Room” 1991

It’s almost criminal that LOVE/HATE’s debut record “Blackout in the Red Room” didn’t come out until the Sunset Strip era’s of glam rock was already on its last legs as this band was poised to be huge and was by far one of the best of their kind.  Way more (let’s say) GUNS N ROSES than (let’s say) POSION, I don’t even feel comfortable lumping them in with glam rock and would prefer to just call them a “rock band”, but they were marketed by Columbia as a hair metal band and that’s how they’ll always be remembered, like it or not.   I was fortunate enough to see LOVE/HATE a number of times when they reunited in 2007 and did shows periodically in the LA area for 6 years before officially disbanding once again in 2013.  (Even sadder, they kinda broke up with each other publicly on Facebook which was disheartening to watch happen, but that’s the world we live in now.)  While singer Jizzy Pearl possessed an Axl Rose vocal style and elicited the stage presence and swagger of a reincarnated Jim Morrison and though guitarist Jon Love was so massively talented that he singlehandedly made the band sound as if they had 3 guitar players on the stage at all times, it was LOVE/HATE’s bass player and main song writer Skid who was always the one to watch.  Save for perhaps Flea, I’ve never seen a bass player command an audience with such unbridled energy and glorious weirdness.  In fact, every time I was fortunate enough to get the chance to see LOVE/HATE play, I always made sure to get to the venue early and stake out the area in front of the far left side of the stage just so that I could have the best possible view of Skid who was indeed “the show”.   Skid even painted the artwork for the band’s album covers.  But this isn’t a dissertation on LOVE/HATE (believe me I could write a short novel about the merits of this astoundingly amazing group who often holds the ever rotating #5 position in my top 5 of all time alongside mainstays AEROSMITH, METALLICA, TWISTED SISTER, and GUNS N ROSES), it’s just supposed to be some words about their debut album “Blackout In The Red Room.”  While I easily could have put their second record “Wasted In America” on this list instead of “Blackout” (they’re completely equal to me), I chose to go with the first record simply because I’ve owned it for 2 years longer.  I first got this album on cassette tape (as was the way back then), but upon buying my very first CD player I opted to re-purchase “Blackout In The Red Room” as my first ever CD rather than buying something new.  That’s how much I love this album.  While every song on it is a hit for me, “She’s An Angel”, “Mary Jane”, and “Straightjacket” (the first three tracks on Side B) are my go-to’s whenever introducing someone new to LOVE/HATE.  It’s raw, silly, dark, fun, dirty, dangerous and everything else you would hope for in a rock album.  Whatever you do, don’t opt for their “Greatest & Latest” compilation that’s available on iTunes if you want to seek this band out.  The songs on that release seem to have all been re-recorded many, many years later (something we’re sadly seeing many older bands do these days in order to reclaim their work back from their original record label) and they’re just not the same.  Get the original records.  I promise that if you’re a hard rock fan you’ll love it instantly.  Happy listening and …green buds inside you.

“Mommy takes the strings off your bass so you won’t hang yourself, Could things be so bad when you’re loving life with everything you have…”

5.) ALICE IN CHAINS “Jar of Flies” 1994

ALICE IN CHAINS is a household band name to any music fan, and while I’ll never argue over the sheer greatness of records like “Dirt” or “Facelift” and the more radio friendly singles that they offered, for me this band has always been defined by their second acoustic driven EP “Jar of Flies” which is just perfect from start to finish.  I’m often surprised how many people never actually bought it as they didn’t consider it an official album being that it was only an “EP” and because it was acoustic based and therefore not really ALICE IN CHAINS in their opinion.  Sacrilege!  I remember sitting in my college dorm room and listening to it on headphones for the first time and being swept away within the first few chords of the haunting opening track “Rotten Apple”, teary eyed upon hearing the sadness of the second track “Nutshell”, soaring high over the beautiful third track “I Stay Away” and out of my own body by the time the sixth track “Don’t Follow” concluded.  (And no, I wasn’t on drugs.)  You can only imagine my excitement when I finally got my hands on the double vinyl record of “Jar of Flies” and “Sap” (their first acoustic based EP) just last year.  For me, this record is kind of like a stripped down and modernized “Dark Side Of The Moon” for ALICE IN CHAINS. If you don’t already own it, shame on you.  If you do but have just never heard it on vinyl… get it and hear it again for the first time.  There is more soul in this collection of songs than most of the 90’s alternative/grunge movement put together and this record really is ALICE IN CHAINS (and the late Layne Staley, especially) at their peak.  Pay attention to the gorgeous harmonies between Staley and guitarist Jerry Cantrell who sing together like a modern day Simon and Garfunkel.

“Yeah it’s fine, We’ll walk down the line, Leave our rain, A cold trade for warm sunshine, You my friend, I will defend, And if we change well I’ll love you anyway…”

6.) DANGEROUS TOYS “Dangerous Toys” 1989

I originally bought this album on cassette tape simply off of the amazing artwork on the album cover created by artist Tommy Pons.  Terrifying clown?  Sign me up immediately.  My local record store (Strawberries) even had this really cool Jack-in-the-box display holding the cassette tape at the check-out counter.  I went back in numerous times to ask if they would sell it to me but they claimed that very few of them were made, that they were not for sale, and that employees at each store had already claimed them long before they were ever displayed.  I was always on the look out for that display- my own personal “holy grail of DANGEROUS TOYS stuff” – and decades went by with no luck.  Then, right after filming Season 1 of HOLLISTON, one of our camera operators on the show (Brian Sowell) emailed me an eBay link for the coveted Jack-in-the-box display!  I jumped on the very rare and very expensive item and I’m happy to say it is now proudly collecting precious dust on its very own shelf of my record collection.  I’ve had an (almost) lifelong love affair with DANGEROUS TOYS ever since I first heard their debut album.  They were my first concert (Boston’s Orpheum Theater playing with TORA TORA and LA GUNS – November 17, 1989) and in 1999 when they released the live album “Vitamins and Crash Helmets Tour” you can’t even imagine how floored I was to discover that the exact show that I saw was the one they chose to use for the album.  How cool is that??  To own your first concert experience ever on an officially released CD?!  What were the chances?  Just over a month ago TOYS’ lead singer Jason McMaster started following me on Twitter and yes, I was kinda star struck and bragging to my friends who sadly just couldn’t understand my excitement as they didn’t know the band.  (Their loss!)  I actually love this band so much that I’m flying in to San Antonio, TX for just a matter of hours in order to see an upcoming reunion show later this month.  Who knows, maybe there will be TOYS fans from even further away than Los Angeles flying to Texas just to see the show and then flying home again first thing the next morning, but I’d wage a healthy bet that I’m alone in my musical pilgrimage.  Getting to the point, DANGEROUS TOYS debut album has been a mainstay on my turn table for my entire adult life so far.  Their Texas southern flare, their often times hilarious lyrics, McMaster’s wailing and powerful voice, the shredding dueling lead guitars… hell they even have a song called “Scared” (Side A, Track 2) that’s dedicated to ALICE COOPER.  What’s for an 80’s teenage horror and metal fan not to love about this record?  They had two sorta hits with the album’s openers “Teas’n Pleas’n” and “Scared” plus a deeper cut called “Sport’n A Woody” which kicked off Side B and gained some fame among metal fans because… well because it’s a song about having an erection.  That’s “cock-rock” in its most literal sense, no?  In 8th grade some friends and I did a DANGEROUS TOYS lip sync performance to “Take Me Drunk” as part of my school’s talent show and I offended a lot of parents when I reached into my pants and gyrated a bit more sexually than a 13 year old should have been gyrating with his hand down his pants in a school talent show.  Little did I know then that this event was a sign of things to come for me and I’d eventually wind up getting crucified by a much more powerful group of parents (known as the MPAA) for the first two HATCHET films.  Hey, simulate masturbation by grabbing hold of your thirteen-year-old junk in front of the entire school or put a scene in a movie where a girl gets her face belt sanded off and all of a sudden everyone hates you.  What gives, man?  Anyway, this record is great fun and great music no matter what anyone else may try and tell you.  Horror fans probably know TOYS’ song “Demon Bell” from Wes Craven’s SHOCKER soundtrack (see my #7 record choice below).  If this record hooks you I implore you to pick up the rest of their albums, too.  There’s a song called “Angel N U” on their sophomore record “Hellacious Acres” that is this band at their musical best, but start with the original record.

“Momma’s lace and whisky on the top shelf, Somehow they got caught up in my dream, Monsters on my right and cobwebs on my left, Scary man standin’ right in front of me, Hey man I think I like being scared and I wish you all were there…”

7.) SHOCKER “The Music” 1989

Wes Craven’s SHOCKER boasted one of the greatest heavy metal soundtracks of all time.  Here’s a “shocker” for you… I only saw the movie opening day because there was a DANGEROUS TOYS song in it.  The soundtrack had been released earlier than the movie itself and when I saw the list of bands on it (all contributing new songs) I knew this movie was destined to be one of my favorites.  I’m happy to say that it still is to this very day.  Think I’m kidding?  Throw on the movie one day and listen to the full-length fan commentary track that Joe Lynch and I did for it on The Movie Crypt podcast here.  SHOCKER’s soundtrack had songs from DANGEROUS TOYS, ALICE COOPER, MEGADETH (covering ALICE COOPER), IGGY POP, and a “created for the movie soundtrack band” called THE DUDES OF WRATH featuring Paul Stanley (KISS), Tommy Lee (MOTLEY CRUE), Rudy Sarzo (WHITESNAKE), Michael Anthony (VAN HALEN), Vivian Campbell (DEF LEPPARD) and Desmond Child (the guy that wrote every song that was ever a hit for almost every band – seriously, look him up sometime) aptly titled “Shocker”.  The soundtrack also contains great tracks from lesser known bands like BONFIRE and SARAYA who’s song “Timeless Love” is essentially the theme of the movie as Craven used the melody often throughout the film itself.  The ALICE COOPER / MITCH PILEGGI (“Horace Pinker”) rap/rock duet called “Shockdance” is simultaneously both the highlight and the lowest moment of the soundtrack, which is all the more reason to love it.  Whether you’re a fan of the movie or not, one spin of this record and hopefully you’ll see/hear what so many of us who were teenagers at the time of its release love about it.

“I was born without a soul inside so I’m gonna tear out your heart and try it on for size, You gotta have a soul to get to go to hell, that’s where I wanna go to ring the demon bell…”

8.) TOOL “Aenima” 1996

I know, I know.  How could this album even remotely be considered for this list when it’s easily one of TOOL’s best known and most popular releases?  “Real deep cut, Green.”  But hear me out first. This list is about records and not CDs, MP3’s, or what have you… and listening to “Aenima” on vinyl is like hearing a whole different album and (screw it, I’m gonna be overdramatic and say it) an otherworldly experience of the most grandiose proportions.  I’ve always agreed with the philosophy that there are genres of music… and then there is TOOL.  More passive music fans likely know the album’s singles like “Stinkfist”, “Eulogy”, and “Forty Six & 2” but it’s the record’s title track “Aenima” that is the most powerful and terrifying for me personally.   When I first got this record I was still living in Boston and had not yet moved to Los Angeles so Maynard’s lyrics skewering LA and a very large sector of its citizens didn’t really hit home like they so very much do today.  In the song he literally wishes for a final earthquake to flush it all away and what is so scary to me on a personal level now having lived here for 14 years is that even though I fear “the big one” ever hitting… deep down I can’t help but see Maynard’s point.  Seeing TOOL play live here in LA and singing along to “Aenima” you can’t help but be emotionally conflicted and that to me is something quite rare in music.  I could go on and on about this record but as it’s already so popular there isn’t much I can offer that you don’t already know except to say that no matter how well you may think you know this album, once you hear it on vinyl you’ll appreciate every sound on it even more.  The record itself is not all that easy to find and it can be on the expensive side if you do track it down, but if you’re a collector and a fan I’m telling you it’s worth it.  The mastering is just perfect and the fact that the two records in the set come pressed on bright orange vinyl with no track listing (in typical TOOL fashion) makes it fun to listen to as you almost have to listen to the whole thing each time since there is no simple way to find the track you’re looking for at a glance.  Oh, and if you’ve never seen the YouTube video of the young music students covering “Forty Six & 2”, well, prepare to have your minds blown here just like over 6 million others have to date.

“Fuck L Ron Hubbard and fuck all his clones, Fuck all these gun-toting hip gangster wannabes.  (Learn to swim.)  Fuck retro anything, Fuck your tattoos. Fuck all you junkies and fuck your short memories.  (Learn to swim.)  Fuck smiley glad-hands with hidden agendas,  Fuck these dysfunctional insecure actresses.  ‘Cause I’m praying for rain, I’m praying for tidal waves.  I wanna see the ground give way.  I wanna watch it all go down.  Mom, please flush it all away.  I wanna watch it go right in and down.  I wanna watch it go right in.  Watch you flush it all away…”

9.) AEROSMITH “Honkin On Bobo” 2004

Yet another household name band, but an album that sadly isn’t as popular with the masses as it deserves to be.  Containing 11 covers of mostly 1960’s blues and jazz bands and only 1 new original song (“The Grind” Side B, Track 2), “Honkin’ On Bobo” is the band’s tribute to many of the artists and styles that inspired them.  And it absolutely rules.  I’ve seen AEROSMITH 32 times (with shows #33 and #34 coming up in just a few weeks) which puts them just above METALLICA to win the title of “band I’ve seen the most”.  My cats (who turn 11 years old this month) are named “Tyler” and “Perry” and if you listen to The Movie Crypt podcast than you’ve likely heard about the life changing afternoon I spent with Steven Tyler this past April when he put things into much clearer perspective for me with the simple word “congratulations” and taught me how all levels of success contain the same exact struggles and copious amounts of bullshit… “So it’s all alright, man.  It’s aaaaall-right.” There is no greater or more unique voice in rock n roll, period.  (Think I’m exaggerating and just fan-boying out?  Watch this and then try and tell me that Steven Tyler isn’t the greatest of all time.)  “The bad boys from Boston” seem to have made a deal with the devil himself as even pushing 200 years old (or whatever age they’re at these days) they only get better and better live, something no other band with a 40+ year career can boast with any sort of truth. To call me a “fan” would be a vast understatement and I drop everything and arrange my life around their tour schedules as I fear the day that they bid farewell to the stage for good.  “Honkin’ On Bobo” contains the spectacles (yeah, that’s right, I just called some of these songs spectacles) “Never Loved A Girl” (Side A, Track 5) and “Eyesight To The Blind” (Side A, Track 3) that leave you feeling like nothing less than a standing ovation is in order when they are finished.  You won’t find any Top 10 hits or power ballads on this record, just a pure celebration of the rock, the blues, and the jazz that inspired “America’s Greatest Rock N Roll Band”.  Buy this record.  Buy all of them.  And do yourself a favor and see them live.  God forbid they hang up their instruments anytime soon, you’ll regret it forever if you don’t attend the Church of Tyler at least once in your lifetime.

“I was hangin’ with the Devil when we made a pact, I’m drinkin’ welfare whiskey smokin’ food stamp crack.  It was one part sour, two parts sweet, three parts strong and four parts weak.
I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than to be crowded on a velvet cushion…”

10.) GUNS N’ ROSES “Chinese Democracy” 2008

Aaaand this is where I lose about 80% of you which is why I figured I’d put it last.  I have very few friends who I can even say the words “chinese democracy” to without them getting angry at me and going off on the usual tirade that “GUNS N ROSES is not GUNS N ROSES anymore but just Axl and a cover band”.  Well, maybe it’s the “fan for life” gene in me (when I commit to something I commit) but I like everything that each member of the original GNR has gone on to do since the original line-up so tragically imploded in the early 90’s.  I’m a huge Slash fan, a Duff fan, an Izzy fan, I saw Adler’s Appetite play many years ago and enjoyed the hell out of them, I loved Velvet Revolver, and yes… I am and always have been an Axl Rose fan, too.  I’ve read the same books, read the same interviews, and heard the same stories and rumors you have.  I’ve seen the Youtube videos of his not-so-finer moments getting pissed off on stage… but truth be told, I don’t know him personally and I’m not interested in any of that.  I’m talking about a record.  The music.  As over-produced as “Chinese Democracy” may sound at times, the songs themselves and the musicianship is incredible in my opinion.  Perhaps you never knew or cared, but one of Axl’s single biggest influences as an artist is Elton John.  Maybe I’ll lose the other 20% of you with this statement (especially in a blog hailing bands like DANGEROUS TOYS and MEGADETH), but yes, I too love Elton John’s music.  Tracks like “Street of Dreams” (my favorite song on the record, Side A, Track 4), “Madagascar” (Side D, Track 1), and “This I Love” (Side D, Track 2) exude Elton John and this record sounds and feels like the record that Axl always wanted to make.  Is “Chinese Democracy” another “Appetite For Destruction”?  Of course not.  But that kind of lightning in a bottle will never happen again and I don’t believe that Axl ever intended for this record to be the next “Appetite”.  In fact, it always struck me as his evolution into a new phase.  (Even if it took like 40 years and 15 million dollars to get there.)  This record was a whole new thing for Axl and he just so happens to control the rights to the band name, so deal with it.  If it helps, create your own album cover and call it “Axl Rose” instead and then give it another chance under new pretenses.  Some of the bands I most respect have evolved and changed up their musical direction over the years (MINISTRY, METALLICA, etc) and for me personally, I like that a lot even if at first I don’t always love the latest risk they may be taking.  I don’t need the same album over and over again.  I already have the other one, so give me something different with the next.  For me “Chinese Democracy” is a great album.  Having seen the “new” GUNS N ROSES twice now I can also say that they are phenomenal live.  The show I saw in June in Las Vegas was the best of all of the times I’ve seen “GNR” perform since 1991.  A 3 hour long set featuring everything you could possibly want to hear, old and new, played with note for note perfection.  Axl’s voice was better than I had ever heard it before and best of all… he looked happy.  Really genuinely happy.  And me?  I really like seeing Axl happy.  It can’t be easy being him or dealing with being under the microscope that comes with being a rock star of that magnitude. I applaud “Chinese Democracy” for being a new step (albeit a long step to finally take) and I listen to it often.  Of course I’d love to see a reunion with the original band as much as the next guy as that’s the GUNS N ROSES I grew up with.  But give the current line-up(s) credit where credit is due.  They had nothing to do with the break up of the original line-up and at this point some of them have actually been in “GNR” longer than the founding members were.  So like I said at the beginning, take it or leave it.  But I hope you give this record a fair chance and take it for the great album it is as opposed to the old album you hoped it would be again.

“What this means to me is more than I know you believe.  What I thought of you now has cost more than it should for me.  What I thought was true before were lies I couldn’t see.  What I thought was beautiful is only memories…”

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So there you go.  10 records from my collection to consider adding to your own.  Writing this blog entry was a fun and much needed break so I hope you enjoyed at least some of it as much as I did.  Stay tuned for news about DIGGING UP THE MARROW’s release and of course… the future of HOLLISTON.  The more time that goes by, the more the family begins to heal over the loss of our brother Dave Brockie.  I’ve got a movie to go make at the moment, but just know… we’re starting to pick ourselves up and we’re starting to… you know… talk.  Your patience means the world, so don’t stop believing that we will return to the stage again.  And I mean that most sincerely.

Until next time, “You’ve been great, we’ve been… a wicked long blog about the most random records ever!  GOODNIGHT!”

-AG

ODERUS: “Tell me something personal about me that only a true friend would know.”             ADAM: “Um.  You… you smell like a bag of dicks.” – HOLLISTON S2, EP 9.

Sunday night March 23rd, 11pm.  I was at the ArieScope office watching a movie with my friend Robert Pendergraft (make-up effects artist from just about everything I’ve ever done) when I noticed that I had several missed calls from Laura Ortiz on my phone.  I remember thinking “I’ll just call her back tomorrow morning” but there was also a part of my gut that thought “Uh-oh.”  In this day and age when someone actually calls late at night, rather than sending a text or an email, it usually tends to be bad news.  Then again, my friends all know how much trouble I have sleeping and therefore it’s not really that odd to call me at all hours of the night as chances are about 100% good that I’ll be awake and working anyway.  Then a text from Laura came through: “Is it true?”  For some reason this actually made me feel slightly better and even a bit amused.  With all of the recent rumors I’ve seen on-line about the next season of HOLLISTON (everything from fans claiming to have been told by FEARnet representatives at their local horror convention that “Season 3 is green-lit and coming soon”… to rumors that Season 3 was already filming and that I was trying to keep it a secret from the public until production was totally finished- none of which is true by the way) I figured it was something related to the show in one way or another.  Or perhaps it was some other silly gossip about my next film which I have signed onto but not yet announced publicly yet?  Maybe even a bullshit rumor that I had split up with my wife or that I was having an affair with some hot young actress?  Perhaps it was the same old fan gossip that my co-star Corri English and I were together romantically in real life?  I even thought “Ooh, maybe it’s a rumor that I’m dead!  Wouldn’t that be a funny one!”  Whatever it was, it couldn’t possibly be anything important or anything that Laura didn’t already know the real answer to.  She must have just been calling to laugh about it with me.  But after a few minutes my curiosity was just too much and I realized that I was not going to be able to concentrate on the movie until I found out what Laura was calling for.  I paused the movie and called her back.  “Sorry, Robert.  This will only take a quick second.”

In that “quick second” life suddenly changed.  Turns out that a Virginia based website called Style Weekly had broken the news that our beloved friend and HOLLISTON co-star Dave Brockie (known to millions all over the world as “Oderus Urungus”, iconic lead singer of the pioneering heavy metal band GWAR) had passed away.  The defense mechanism known as “disbelief” kicked right in.  “It can’t be true, Laura.  He just called me this morning.  It’s a hoax or just a stupid rumor.”  But what was most unsettling was that Dave’s life-long friend (oddly enough also named Adam Green) had posted underneath the comments on Facebook confirming the news.  “It’s true.  He’s gone.”  This couldn’t be a hoax.  Even Dave with his incredibly morbid sense of humor wouldn’t do this as a joke.  Especially not with GWAR’s guitarist Cory Smoot (“Flattus Maximus”) passing away just 2 years ago.  Death was something to be joked about on GWAR’s stage only, not in Dave’s real life.  Something was wrong.  Something was incredibly wicked fucking wrong.

I called Joe Lynch and within 30 minutes both Joe and Laura were here with me at the ArieScope office sitting around the table (the table where the cast first reads and rehearses each new episode of HOLLISTON) frantically searching the internet for news and calling everyone we could think of that might know what was going on.  If Corri English still lived in LA you can bet that she would have been here within minutes, too.  It was close to 3am New York time so I just texted her saying “Please call me as soon as you wake up.  Don’t look at the internet.”  Denial was in full effect and we must have come up with at least 15 different scenarios for why this news was not true, why it was a mistake, or why it was a joke.  Around 1am Dave’s touring manager called me back and confirmed the worst.  Our brother Dave Brockie was gone.  “Oderus Urungus” had left the building for the final time and returned to his home planet of Scumdoggia.  Nothing would ever be the same.

L to R: Joe Lynch, Laura Ortiz, Me, Corri English, Dave Brockie – Entertainment Weekly 2012

It’s important to note that I don’t use the word “brother” lightly.  It’s not a term thrown around like those guys who annoyingly call everyone “bro” in conversation or who refer to you as “brother” affectionately in emails and texts.  This cast is truly a family that reaches far beyond just performing together.  Many artists (both in front of and behind the camera) form strong bonds through working together creatively, but very few carry that very same bond into their real lives when the cameras are put away and the sets are dismantled and locked away in storage.  To put it into perspective, if I ever needed an organ transplant my castmates would undoubtedly be on the front line saying “here, just take mine”.

Having confirmation of the terrible news, I shot off a few emails and texts to HOLLISTON’s producers and of course, to our other brother in the cast Dee Snider.  It was going to be a bad morning for a lot of people when they woke up.  I still can’t even imagine what Dave’s bandmates are going through.  Brad, Mike, Todd, Brent and the Slave Pit crew, some of whom have loyally been a part of GWAR for three decades now.  Not to mention the millions of Bohabs (GWAR fans) worldwide who are all hearing the news this week, the staff at Metal Blade records, GWAR’s management… all wonderful people that I have gotten to know since first officially casting Dave in HOLLISTON back in 2010.  Dave’s incredible personality, insane art, and enormous beating heart touched millions of people and I am certainly not the only one to have had such a special connection to him.  It has been incredible to watch not only the metal music world but the entire entertainment world acknowledge this enormous loss and hear so many people come forward with such respectful and sincere words about who Dave really was and what he meant for our entertainment culture as a whole.  There are many “one of a kind” people out there, but there was and only ever will be one Dave Brockie.

 Beavis and Butthead weep.

At the time of this writing there is still no cause of death known.  Of course it only took about 48 hours before on-line reports about Dave’s death began using the phrase “possibly drug related” even though the toxicology report could take 6 weeks or more to actually come back… and I can’t tell you how much that angers me to read.  I wasn’t there with him.  I can’t tell you anything that isn’t already in the press and no, I don’t have some kind of inside information that I’m holding back.  All I can do is speak to Dave’s character.  I spent an enormous amount of time with him.  Not only working on HOLLISTON but also backstage at GWAR concerts, sitting him with him on the tour bus, in hotels where we were appearing to promote HOLLISTON… and countless hours, hours, and hours on the phone.  Dave was an early riser and he would call me extremely early in the morning on a regular basis just to talk.  He knew that chances were good that if he called me at 7am his time (4am my time)… I’d already be awake and around to talk.  He also called from the road to check in constantly, not so much to tell me about how he was doing but to see how I was doing.  Though I’ve known Dave on a fan-level for 25 years, in the 4+ years that I have been incredibly close with Dave on a personal level, never once did I see him use or even speak of hard drugs.  I encourage everyone to listen to Dave’s appearance on THE MOVIE CRYPT podcast last summer at San Diego Comic-Con where we spoke about his life and career.  You can listen to it here.  In this interview he was incredibly honest and candid about everything, including his stance on drugs.  It’s probably the most comprehensive and revealing showcase available in terms of who Dave really was and what his personal journey was like.  By the end of that two hour podcast you’ll feel like you really knew him, too.  I know that it’s difficult to believe that the lead singer of the world’s most outrageous heavy metal band was not a hardcore drug user, but he was not.  I can’t tell you what the medical examiner’s report will say, but I can tell you that my friend Dave Brockie did not live his life like some rock star cliche.  Out of all of the possible reasons for Dave’s death that have crossed my mourning mind these past few days, a drug overdose is absolutely not one of them.  That was one of the most beautiful things about Dave Brockie.  He didn’t need mind-altering substances to be crazier than you.  He just was.

Dave Brockie / “Oderus Urungus” … 1963 – 2014

This past August Dave turned 50.  While we sat in an IHOP together eating incredibly and unhealthy greasy food he excitedly boasted about his recent comprehensive physical exam and how his health was absolutely perfect  – the irony of which is of course not lost on me.  Dave may have dressed up like a giant space alien, he may have written and performed heavy metal music, he may have sprayed down his audience with all kinds of over the top fake blood in concert, he may have had long hair (sometimes) and tattoos, he may have made incredibly funny and offensive satirical jokes when in the “Oderus Urungus” character… but beneath all of that was a brilliant mind, a true artist, a terrific musician, a walking encyclopedia of history knowledge, a die-hard Redskins fan, a novelist, a painter, a poet, a comedian, a storyteller, a lover of cinema, a business man, a generous soul, an inspiration, an entertainer to millions, a cultural icon, and a loyal friend.

My first GWAR album.

When I was fourteen years old I got my first summer job working as a bag boy at a Cape Cod supermarket.  I was already a full-blown metal head by that point having started out on bands like Twisted Sister, KISS, Alice Cooper, Guns N Roses, and anything glam metal.  I had just started to include thrash metal like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax in my regular listening diet.  Sometimes I’d bag groceries behind a cashier named Eric who was an older and musically wiser individual.  Upon mentioning to him how much I loved Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” record he simply replied, “No, dude.  GWAR.  Listen to GWAR.  They’ll change your life.”  He let me borrow his cassette tape of GWAR’s “Hell-o” and well… he was right.  It changed my life.  Only I couldn’t have possibly conceived then just how much GWAR would indeed change my life in the long run.  I spent my next paycheck on GWAR’s more recent record “Scumdogs Of The Universe” and I was enamored. I couldn’t believe there was a heavy metal band that dressed up like giant alien monsters and who sang the absolutely most offensive and hilarious songs I had ever heard.  (Hey, when you’re a 14 year old boy nothing impresses you more musically than a song like “The Salaminizer” where the singer says the word “fuck” about 8,000 times in just only 3 minutes and 35 seconds.)  I was obsessed with GWAR and as soon as I got back to school that Fall I introduced my friends in Vigilante (my high school band that was about as good as the name sounds) to GWAR and we quickly learned how to play “Sick Of You”.  It was the very first song we learned how to cover.  Yes, all three magical chords of it.  I tried the best any 14 year old boy could to model my singing voice after Oderus’ voice since we had a similar range and over the next two decades (starting once I was old enough to go) I made it a priority to always see GWAR perform whenever they came through whatever city I was living in or at least a city that was within a few hours drive.

I could go on and on about my experiences seeing GWAR concerts, my favorite songs from each album, and what a huge fan I have always been of Dave’s and of the band’s, but there are thousands and thousands of fans just like me saying and feeling the same way right now.  What I’d rather offer up is just how much GWAR helped shape my sense of humor and my ability to laugh at everything from popular culture figures to political leaders and just how influential Dave’s wit was to becoming an even more accepting and tolerant human being.  While an outsider who never “got” GWAR might view the band as offensive or even outright blasphemous, us Bohabs always appreciated the next level humor, the social statements, and the outrageous creativity that GWAR exuded.   One of the most genius things about Dave/”Oderus” was that he could literally say anything and get away with it.  Whether it was calling-out a public figure on their own bullshit or simply purposely saying the most ridiculous thing possible for no other reason than to push people’s buttons… what was someone going to do?  Argue with a rubber alien?  You kind of just had to laugh with him or risk looking like a complete fool.

Dave accomplished so much in his fifty years on this planet.  Forget about GWAR’s many successes as both a band and as worldwide cultural icons for 30 years (how many other bands can say that?), but Dave’s unique mind and artistic skills were truly transcendent.  Whether he was writing about football for a sports outlet, acting as an “intergalactic reporter” for FOX News (the ultimate irony if you knew him), painting some of the most unique art out there, publishing an epic horror novel steeped in historical events (WHARGOUL), or acting in a TV sitcom… he was so much more than just a guy who portrayed a foul mouth talking alien that fronted an incredible heavy metal band.  Just try and compare him to another human being, living or dead.  You can’t.  It’s also important to note that when Dave passed away he was at a point in his career where everything was firing at full blast.  GWAR had just finished touring Australia and Japan mere days before he passed away.  GWAR’s latest album “Battle Maximus” was easily one of the band’s best records ever.  HOLLISTON Season 2 was just about to come out on Blu-Ray and he was building legions of new fans every day.  He was completely happy with where he was at in life and he had so many new ideas and projects he was excited to start on.  He didn’t have to go through the painful process of becoming irrelevant, having the world stop appreciating his art, or having to get a dreaded day job working day in and day out simply to make a living but not out of passion.  We should all be so lucky.

“Oderus” gives me life advice.  From Season 1 of HOLLISTON.

HOLLISTON was a life-long dream project of mine.  To date, I love it more than any other project I’ve ever created.  There’s enough information out there as to how the show came to fruition (and how obscenely long it took me to actually get it made) but ever since the concept of my character having an imaginary alien best friend who lived in his closet and served as a guardian angel of sorts came into the picture… Dave/”Oderus” was who I dreamed of in the role.  When I found myself backstage at House of Blues pitching him the concept of HOLLISTON it took less than 3 seconds for him to say “I’m in.”  Not “how much money are you offering?”  Not “well, you’ll have to talk to my management first.”  Not even “I’ll need to see a script first.”  Sure it helped that he had already seen my movies, but Dave (like any true artist) was about doing what he was excited about doing and what he was passionate about.  GWAR is the perfect example.  If you think the guys in GWAR spent the past 30 years rolling in money and throwing away millions on fancy cars and mansions in the Hollywood Hills… think again.  They were a working class band who always did things on their terms and because they loved doing it.  If you could only see how humble they all actually are.  Underneath those larger than life costumes are 5 regular guys who travel from city to city together cramped into one bus and playing their asses off night after night.  And this is no average traveling band, mind you.  The amount of work that goes into a GWAR concert is like nothing you can imagine.  The “slaves” who handle everything from the behind the scenes mechanics to playing characters in the show itself had me in awe the first time I watched a full concert from backstage.  Bob Gorman in particular who has been with the band for the run of their career (and who GWAR fans would know as the “skateboarder” who meets “Sleazy P. Martini” at the start of their grammy award winning movie PHALLUS IN WONDERLAND) not only works harder and faster than anything I’ve ever seen, but he even had to pick up Joe Lynch (who is easily twice his size) at the end of a show and feed him to the band’s on-stage “meat grinder” simply because Dave asked him to.  I couldn’t lift up Joe over my shoulder and carry him across the stage, and even I am a bigger guy than Bob.  These guys are simply incredible and they have never done it for any kind of fortune and glory other than having the opportunity to do their thing.  So with that mentality, of course Dave agreed to play my imaginary alien friend on HOLLISTON and thus began an amazing real-life friendship where the lines between Dave being my guardian angel on the show and my guardian angel of sorts in real life quickly became blurred.

Backstage at House of Blues – November 5, 2011

If the 14 year old me could only have known what Eric the supermarket cashier meant when he handed me that cassette tape and said “This will change your life.”  My life has been blessed like that and I never, ever forget it or take it for granted.  And I don’t just mean that I’ve somehow found myself becoming genuine friends with many of the artists that I grew up idolizing.  It’s that people like Dave Brockie and the countless other “celebrities” that I created impossible expectations for in my childhood head have all not just lived up to those expectations but surpassed them in every way.  As Dave says on the podcast that I posted earlier in this blog, he attributes all of that to my own personality and my ability to invest in and put together such amazing groups of people that are willing to drink my creative Kool Aid and believe not only in me and my various passion projects, but also in each other.  Maybe that’s true.  Maybe I’ve just been lucky.  It’s very hard for me to tell being this close to all of it.  But Dave truly, truly loved every single person he worked with on HOLLISTON.  Not just the cast who he worked with most closely, but every crew member who was there each day working hard to make the show happen against incredibly hard odds.  He was always polite.  He was always in a good mood.  He was always gracious to be there and thankful for the opportunity.  Most of all, he never failed to let everyone know just how much he loved them and how much he enjoyed every moment he had with them.  And I think that’s one of the greatest successes of Dave Brockie’s life.  That even leaving us suddenly and without a chance to say goodbye… everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) in his life knows how much he loved and appreciated them.  We could all only be so lucky to have nothing left unsaid when it’s our time to go.  If there’s a lesson to be learned, it’s not just to remember to tell the people you care about that you love them… but to do it every moment that you get the chance.  I never got a single voice mail from Dave where he didn’t sign off with “I love you.”  For most men like myself, there’s just something uncomfortable in doing that.  You kind of feel stupid or embarrassed to say “I love you” to someone else save for your parents, your wife, or you children if you are lucky enough to have children.  Then again, Dave spent his entire life half-naked on stage’s worldwide wearing a thong with his ass hanging out.  Nothing… and I mean NOTHING… was ever going to embarrass Dave Brockie.  And he was a better man because of that.

Rock and Shock – Worcester, MA – 2011

Lynch and I will be doing a podcast episode dedicated to Dave soon.  We’re just waiting until we are a little bit better prepared for it.  Fans who listen to THE MOVIE CRYPT religiously will notice in some of the upcoming episodes that we dance around it a bit and force ourselves to focus on the guest at hand.  I know that there are people waiting to hear words from each of us in the HOLLISTON cast and as a fan myself I understand it completely.  Whenever an artist I admired has passed on, I am always anxious to hear from the other artists around him or her.  Somehow it helps.  So I didn’t want to wait another day to post something about what Dave meant to me, and a written blog was the best way to get it out without stammering on and on through a wide array of emotions.  I am grateful to say that I’m just not very experienced with grief like this and a lot of what I am personally feeling is completely new to me.  I’ll find myself overcome with tears one minute, laughing the next, and then angry a minute later.  I have spent a lot of time these past few days talking to Dave on the various HOLLISTON posters hanging on the walls here at ArieScope, which I suppose in the grand scheme of things isn’t that much weirder than the show itself where he lives in my closet and only I can see him.  Only this is real life.  I am anxiously awaiting the point in the grieving process where I can celebrate his life rather than wallow in tears because he is gone or stand before his image and yell at him for leaving when we still had so much to do together.  Fans of the show are starting to ask what my plan is for potential future seasons of HOLLISTON and how I’ll creatively handle the situation.  All I can say is that the show’s future is the least of my priorities at this very moment.  Would Dave have wanted the show to go on?  Of course.  He’d kick my ass if I had the opportunity to make more seasons of the show and walked away because he is gone.  For now though, I can’t even think about it.  What I can say is that the fans have absolutely overwhelmed all of us with their unimaginable outpouring of support and love.  There are more letters, messages, and comments than I can possibly read.  But I am reading all of them.  I’ve found great strength in witnessing the sheer magnitude of how much Dave meant to people and I can’t stress enough just how much everyone in the world of HOLLISTON appreciates and loves you all.

HOLLISTON fan art.

I wish I could end this eulogy blog or whatever it is with a proper goodbye to my friend Dave.  But I suppose I don’t really know how to do that just yet.  Instead I’ll offer my total and unwavering condolences, my heart, and my prayers to everyone else who is grieving right now.  To the HOLLISTON cast and crew, I hope you celebrate the times you had with Dave and all of the incredible laughter and positive energy he brought into our lives,  To my friends in GWAR, your loss is insurmountable and we all grieve with you.  I wish you all tremendous strength in the coming days, weeks, months, and years and I know without a doubt that whatever you each do next as artists will be something I love.  But to the fans of HOLLISTON, of GWAR, of everything Dave Brockie… my heart goes out to you the most.  For all of the love and admiration you had for Dave/”Oderus” so few of you actually got the chance to meet him in person or to spend the kind of precious time knowing him and creating with him that the rest of us were blessed with.  For that I am truly sorry.  But as you grieve, remember that without YOU there would have been no “Dave Brockie the entertainer”.  You gave him the opportunity to live the life he lived through your loyalty, support, and appreciation.  You weren’t just a huge part of Dave’s life… you made Dave’s life the amazing life that it was.  Never forget that.

In closing, I leave you with the last voice mail that Dave left for me.  Some might say that it’s an odd choice to share such a personal thing so publicly, but I have been listening to this voice mail over and over and over again since Sunday night and I think that it so perfectly encapsulates everything I have said above and who he really was.  A sweet, loving, wonderful, and passionate man.  He didn’t just change my life, he made my life better.

By the way… I love you too, Dave Brockie.

-AG

UPDATED 3/7/14: HOLLISTON Dave Brockie Tribute Video

HOLLISTON Dave Brockie Tribute from ArieScope Pictures on Vimeo.

On April 8th HOLLISTON Season 2 finally comes home to Blu-Ray.  Hopefully by now you’ve pre-ordered your copy from us directly but if you haven’t already done so… just click here.  While all Season 2 Blu-Rays ordered from ArieScope.com come with both my autograph and Joe Lynch’s autograph on the cover, only pre-ordered copies will come with a third surprise cast member’s autograph on the cover as well.  It likely goes without saying, but when you buy stuff from us you support all of us and our projects directly… so THANK YOU for buying your copy here.

OK, so why is Season 2 only being released on Blu-Ray and not also on DVD?  First of all, don’t shoot the messenger!  If I had $10 for every angry tweet or other social networking message I’ve gotten about this matter, Season 3 would already have been financed and shot.  Seriously, it’s not my fault nor is it the fault of anyone else associated with making HOLLISTON itself.  If it were up to us, of course DVD would also be an option for you to purchase, but unfortunately it isn’t up to us.  So that you can hopefully understand their reasoning, Image Entertainment (HOLLISTON’s distributor) made this decision based on a few key factors.  The most obvious factor being that DVD is going the way of VHS extinction now that Blu-ray players are so affordable and common (most all modern gaming systems even come with a Blu-Ray player built in) and now that so many people have big screen high definition TV’s.  If you’ve ever watched a DVD on a big screen TV and compared it to what watching a Blu-Ray looks like, then you know just how awful a DVD actually looks all blown up and stretched out since DVD resolution is so much lower than that of Blu-Ray.  According to a representative from Image, the Season 1 Blu-Ray far out sold the DVD which is another major factor in their decision making.  But most importantly is that Season 2 contains well over 340 minutes of content.  (That’s about 4 feature films for those keeping track.)  While a Blu-Ray disc is big enough to fit all of that content on one disc, a DVD release would likely take 3 if not 4 discs and therefore more extensive packaging… thus making it remarkably more expensive not only to produce but also more expensive for you to actually buy.  So as unpopular as their decision may be for those still holding on to their old DVD players, VCRs, and cassette tapes… times are changing and there’s nothing we can personally do about it.  Of course Season 2 is already available to purchase quite cheaply on Amazon streaming, on XBOX, and on iTunes (where you can get the full un-cut Christmas Special as well) for those who are still anti-Blu-Ray.  So no matter what, there is a way to buy and watch the show legally.  Still want to gripe to someone about the lack of a DVD release?  Image Entertainment has a Facebook page here.  But be nice!  Remember that without Image supporting HOLLISTON from day one, the show very well may never have been made in the first place.

But now for the fun part!  The coveted special features on the Season 2 Blu-Ray release!  Though I usually like to wait until I’ve got the disc in my own hands and after I have watched it through myself before declaring what exactly will be on it, Image has not yet sent me a check disc to view.  So if any of the below winds up not being on the Blu-Ray, don’t blame me.  However, Image assures me that the below information is accurate and that they have included everything that we created and delivered to them.  So here goes…

Not only does the Blu-Ray include all ten episodes from Season 2 and the un-cut full version of “The Christmas Special” (it was cut down by 5 minutes for television) but also over 70 minutes of special features!  Bonus content includes: THE MAKING OF SEASON 2 (A behind the scenes piece that covers the making of Season 2 overall), BECOMING LANCE ROCKETT (A piece detailing Dee Snider’s incredible make-up and wardrobe in Season 2), THE SEASON 2 HOLLYWOOD PREMIERE (See what you missed from the red carpet and after party), THE BLOOPERS (Yeah, sometimes we fuck up and we know you love to laugh at our mistakes just as much as we do! You’ll even get to see the raunchy joke that I was supposed to perform at the end of Episode 9 “Kevin’s Wedding” where I instead completely choked by not being able to stop laughing…), ELEVEN DELETED AND ALTERNATE SCENES (See what didn’t make the final cut and find out why as I give an on-camera introduction and explanation for each set of clips before they begin), “LOVE IT DOWN YOUR THROAT” MUSIC VIDEO (See the entire music video for Lance Rockett and DYVER DOWN’s first ‘original Van Halen cover song’), “CAN YOU HEAR ME” MUSIC VIDEO (Corri English’s band BROKEDOWN CADILLAC was kind enough to give us their official music video for “Can You Hear Me” which Corri performed on stage during the ‘Farm Festival’ in the Season 2 finale), “THE ROAD BEHIND” FULL PERFORMANCE (See my entire performance from the opening of Episode 7 “Blobby” where I fully embarrassed myself in front of my dolls- I mean, action figures), HOLLISTON “LIVE AT ROCK AND SHOCK” (The very first full 30 minute live performance/table read that the cast ever did at a convention.  It’s an original script that I wrote specifically for the event and the performance includes surprise celebrity guest stars), and finally… COMMENTARY TRACKS on 10 of the 11 included episodes featuring myself, Joe Lynch, Laura Ortiz, and Sean Becker (who directed many of the episodes this past season).  The only episode we skipped doing a commentary track for was Episode 7 “Blobby” simply because we could only fit 10 commentaries on the Blu-Ray.  Since 80% of that episode is animated it was the likely choice to skip.  Don’t fear though, any good stories we had about that episode were discussed in the other commentary tracks.

It is important to point out that we personally created all of this content and gave it to Image Entertainment for free.  Why did we do that?  Because we LOVE YOU for spending your hard earned cash on supporting our show and we want to give you everything that we possibly can and make your purchase special with content that you will only be able to see if you buy the Blu-Ray.  The truth is that we know just how many fans of the show choose to watch HOLLISTON as cheaply as possible, whether that be only watching it when it airs on television, downloading it on streaming sites like Amazon, XBOX, and iTunes, or when the show eventually hits places like Hulu or Netflix (no release dates for those two outlets set yet, sorry).  Sadly, far too many “fans” also steal our show on illegal torrent sites which is a big reason why there is still no announcement of a third season.  A show like HOLLISTON is not cheap to make given its high production quality and all of those incredible guest stars that you love to see.  But unlike the major network or high-end cable network shows you watch, HOLLISTON is an independent production made on an extremely modest budget with our collective hearts, blood, sweat, and tears.  No one involved is getting rich off of this show.  In fact, many people involved (like myself) often put a lot of their salary back into the show in order to bring you more episodes and in order to keep the quality as high as possible. That’s why HOLLISTON can be so original and not quite like any other sit-com out there.  We wouldn’t be able to do half of the stuff that we do if we didn’t have such complete creative control.  By making the series independently we were able to make a sit-com that blends outrageous humor, heartfelt drama, tear-jerking emotion, gory horror, heavy metal icons, and all of those genre stars that you had never before gotten to see perform comedically in a traditional sit-com.  Until HOLLISTON, network sit-coms just didn’t seem to cater to us – the horror fans, the “outcasts”, the struggling artists, the “geeks”, or the “metal heads”.  They underestimated us and it truly seemed as though they felt that if you were in the demographic that liked horror than you wouldn’t possibly also like to laugh, to cry, or to see yourselves represented in a format that was simply never made for people like you or I.  In my opinion, we were most always shown in a condescending way by the sit-coms that would portray us through pedestrian heightened stereotypes or as minor characters and supporting sight-gags.  But if anyone out there knows what it’s like to struggle to chase a dream, to repeatedly have doors slammed in our ambition’s faces, to be broke as shit, and to suffer real relationship heartbreaks… it’s us.  That’s why more so than any other genre, we are our very own culture.  Thankfully places like FEARnet and Image rolled the dice, believed in us, believed in YOU, and pre-licensed HOLLISTON so that we could put together the budget needed to make the show correctly.   But while the show may be considered a success based on the audience reactions, critical reviews, and incredibly passionate fan base… if the series doesn’t recoup its budget or show some sort of profit for those outlets, it simply will not continue.  The cards are against us as FEARnet is still a very small network that not everyone can watch and when the show hits places like iTunes and Blu-Ray there is no marketing or advertising in place to support it.  (You’ll notice that HOLLISTON doesn’t even have the pull or financial support to be listed in “new releases” but instead just kind of shows up in the “H” section randomly one day.)  It has all been up to the cast, the crew, and the fans to let the world know about it.  And man… that ain’t easy.  But as Han Solo said, “Never tell me the odds.”  We can continue on if you help us.  Support the show and buy the Blu-Ray or buy a season pass on iTunes.  Tell everyone you know about it and make noise on-line about it.  Know someone who is illegally stealing it from us on-line?  Punch them in the dick.  Help us make a third season happen and help us get enough episodes made so that the show can finally start being distributed in other countries, too.  “Adam”, “Joe”, “Laura”, “Corri”, “Oderus”, “Lance” and “Axl The Cat” need your help if they’re to keep the lights on in the apartment at “13 Francine Street”, if they’re to keep “Mass Cable Network” in business, and if they’re to keep that generic beer flowing at “Casey’s Crossing”.  Buy the Blu-Ray… keep HOLLISTON going.

A blog with more details on where we are at with future seasons of HOLLISTON and news about my upcoming film projects is coming when I can.  Promise.  It’s already been an amazing and crazy year so far (just wait ’til you read about my afternoon with the great Steven Tyler!) but it’s only just getting started.  In the meantime, hopefully you are listening to THE MOVIE CRYPT podcast and keeping up with all of the stories and everything that’s been happening on a weekly basis.  For HOLLISTON fans, Corri English will be our guest next week (airing on iTunes and GeekNation.com starting Monday March 17th) and we’ll be speaking at length about where we are at with a third season- so don’t miss that episode!

In the meantime, I continue to thank and love you all.  Enjoy the Season 2 Blu-Ray and for those in Los Angeles, a bunch of us from the show will be appearing at Dark Delicacies bookstore in Burbank on the night the Blu-Ray comes out (April 8th).  Check out the “NEWS” section of this website for the details.

“In Market Basket we shop.”

-AG

This is unusual for a blog posting, but after sharing the below email with a few close friends and family I was encouraged to publish it for others to read.  So why not?  What follows below is an email that I sent Rileah earlier this morning.  Enjoy….

My Dear Wife-  

As you requested of me, I got up at 4am and called Ralph’s on Ventura and asked for Hugo in the meat department (like you asked me to do) in an effort to order the 8-10 pound “Round Roast” that you are serving for our family and friends on Christmas Day. 

As it turns out, Hugo actually doesn’t get in to work each day until after 5am.  But hey, no problem. I was up anyway and the dishes in the dishwasher weren’t gonna put themselves away, am I right?  I had great fun staying awake for that extra hour that I didn’t need to be awake.

I finally reached Hugo around 5:15am after several failed attempts. I told him that I wanted to order an 8-10 pound “Round Roast” (just like your text asked me to) and he responded by telling me “No man, you mean Rib Roast.”  

I insisted that “No, I do indeed mean Round Roast and that is why I am asking for Round Roast and not Rib Roast- since Rib Roast is in fact NOT what I would like to order.”  Hugo kept saying that “You don’t need to order Rib Roast- we have tons of it and its on sale.”  

Though I appreciated the money saving inside tip about the sale on “Rib Roast”, I reminded Hugo again that “It is not Rib Roast that I am interested in purchasing and dining on this Christmas- but actually Round Roast.”  He retorted again with-  “You don’t mean Round Roast.  You mean RIB Roast.”

I confided in Hugo that I would never even consider giving him inaccurate information as to the type of roast that I was looking to purchase.  I was calling at this ungodly hour because I was told that he was the “Roast Ninja” of Los Angeles and “the guy who can make a roast happen.”   I told him that I very much meant “ROUND” Roast and that I was not lying to him about it nor was I playing a “roast joke” on him as I would never do that to anyone, friend or stranger.  Roasts are not something to be fucked about with.  “I very much only want ROUND Roast.”  

Hugo got kinda huffy and said that they don’t carry “RUMP” Roast at Ralph’s this time of year.  Woah!  Hold the phone!  “RUMP Roast?”  The mere introduction of “Rump Roast” to this meat equation threw me off guard in a number of ways as that specific selection of beef had not been brought up at any point in our transaction thus far… and to be completely honest, the word “Rump Roast” makes me giggle.  Hugo even gave me another free and unsolicited little bonus tip when he informed me that “RUMP Roast” is in fact what most restaurants use for “Roast Beef” during this time of the year.  Though I appreciated being let in on this industry meat secret and promised to keep it on the down low, as you know, I have never ordered the “Roast Beef” at a restaurant in my life and therefore this information was of little to no interest of mine.  I always opt for a “New York Steak” or “Filet Mignon” unless said restaurant has a children’s menu that I can order Chicken Parm, Chicken Fingers, or a Grilled Cheese sandwich from.  Which oddly reminds me, we need eggs if you go shopping today.

Did I mention that I put away all of the dishes at 4am?

Anyway, I corrected Hugo yet again.  “Oh Hugo, my friend. It appears that you may not be hearing me correctly. I asked for neither a “Rib” nor a “Rump Roast” but in fact a “Round Roast.” I spelled the word “R-O-U-N-D” to him. “Round roast. Round Roast. ROUND ROAST.” 

He informed me again that what I really wanted to order was in fact “Rib Roast”. 

I asked Hugo if he is married. He didn’t actually answer the question either way but he at least alluded to the fact that he understands what marriage means. I told him that my wife VERY specifically instructed me to wake up at 4am and order an 8-10 pound “Round Roast” from him personally.  I asked him if he understood the repercussions of me not pulling through with my end of this given assignment. He answered that he did indeed understand.  I thought that we were on the same page, but then he proceeded to ask me if I would like for him to set aside a “Rib Roast” for you to come in and look at when you wake up later today. 

I told him that I was saddened by this.  Whereas it seemed as though Hugo and I were making progress with this beef transaction and even sharing personal information about our lives and the meat business, we now seemed to be digressing once again. We had come all that way but just like *that* – Hugo was back on the “Rib Roast” and essentially back at square one yet again.  He was once again suggesting that I wanted a roast that I did not wish to order.  It had already been established throughout perpetuity that I was not interested in “Rib Roast” whatsoever. I told Hugo that I actually hate “Rib Roast” and that I would fight one and punch it in the dick if I saw one. I told him that I am allergic to Ribs.  I told him to not even bring up the words “Rib Roast” again as I had been molested by a “Rib Roast” when I was 6 and the memories are still just too painful to handle. “But you know what, Hugo?  I sure really would love a “ROUND Roast” if you could help me out this Christmas.  Please?”

Hugo put me on hold for 5 minutes.  There wasn’t even music to enjoy in the silence.  I would have used this time to put away the dishes but I had already done that at 4am.  Did I mention that?  I can’t remember.

When Hugo came back on the line he said that a shipment of “Top Round” is coming in today and that YOU should call him or come in around 11 to figure it out so that he can get it ready for you by Tuesday.  I was overjoyed!  Not only had he shared another meat secret (dishing out when exactly the new meat would be arriving at Ralph’s) but he had finally heard me and understood what it was that I was trying to acquire.  I thanked him profusely for his hard work, his dedication to beef, and his amazing deductive skills.  I even awarded him the “Christmas Grand Prize.”  I was too exhausted to come up with an actual name for said prize however, so instead I just told Hugo that he had indeed “won Christmas.”   He was very pleased.

I thought we had finally completed our transaction but then he added that he wants you to call him when you awaken because he is convinced that you want a “RIB Roast” and that you told me the wrong thing. “She didn’t mean Round Roast.  She meant Rib Roast.”  

Apparently Hugo knows you better than I do. Are you sleeping with him?! What does Hugo have that I don’t have??  I can’t believe I lost my wife to the meat guy.  Although then again… he IS the meat guy, so perhaps I should have seen this coming.  I would bet they call it “Alice & Sam Syndrome” in the business but I didn’t want to press my luck by inquiring about even more of the meat trade secrets.  But this begs the more important question… what does Hugo have that I don’t have?  Where did I go wrong?  I confronted him straight up and demanded to know how long this extramarital relationship had been going on between the two of you.

Hugo hung up on me.

ROUND – RIB – RUMP – ROAST – Fuck this shit.  We’re having turkey.

Love,

Your Husband

Back in September I posted a blog that contained 20 “behind the scenes” photos from the making of SPIRAL which quickly became one of the most popular blogs I’ve posted this year.  In keeping with the idea of sharing exclusive behind the scenes images from my own personal collection that you can’t see anywhere other then here (and with winter almost upon us)… below are some of the storyboards from my 2010 survival thriller FROZEN, a film which is not only my favorite of all of the feature films I have made so far but also my most personal.  From the characters being named after my actual friends to the stories from my real life being told on screen like “how Lynch met Dan in the first grade” or “the douchebag named Dean in the college cafeteria”… my own life is poured into every frame of FROZEN.  Even Parker’s show stopping monologue about her fear of her dog at home starving to death after she is dead (one of the scenes fans write about most in their letters to me and one of several moments in the film that caused some audience members to have to take a break in the lobby during screenings)… that’s my own worst nightmare committed to film and something I’ve thought about on every publicity tour when my plane inevitably hits turbulence and I start to worry about what would become of my pets/children at home.  (Since getting married in 2010 it is something I have had to worry about less now that I know Rileah would be there to take care of everything at home if the unthinkable ever happened.)  The extraordinary challenge of telling a compelling and frightening story with such a minimal number of characters and in such a contained and simplistic yet complex scenario was one that my crew and I accepted whole heartedly.  Not only were the conditions grueling for everyone due to my psychotic insistence that we shoot the entire movie practically with the cast suspended 50 feet above ground on the side of a mountain in Utah in the dead of winter (no sound stage, no green screen, no comfort), but the limitations set forth by the story itself were massive.  There were no costume changes, no location changes, no new characters coming and going, no crazy action sequences, and no giant explosions to rely on to help propel the story forward or keep the audience riveted in suspense or excitement.  The tension and emotional levity was all going to live or die based on everyone’s commitment and talent and there were very few violent or gory moments to fall back on.  There wasn’t a single moment of FROZEN that could be phoned in without risking unraveling the entire film.  Even the most gruesome moments (like Dan’s demise at the hungry mouths of the wolves) were designed in the script to show as little as possible and let the performances, sound design, score, camera work, and the audience’s own imaginations shoulder the weight of the experience.  On the DVD / BLU-RAY deleted scenes you can watch an extremely gory version of Dan’s death scene that I shot “just to have it”… and included as a special bonus feature to illustrate exactly why I didn’t include those gory images in the film and why the scene is so much more effective without them.  I personally took great pride when a critic would blast the scene for being “ultra graphic” as it meant that we had succeeded in ways very few films can.  Like the editor of Creative Screenwriting Magazine who was so offended by what HE IMAGINED he saw that he wrote an entire editorial spoiling the film beat for beat in the hopes that he could persuade some from seeing it and even went as far as calling FROZEN “Hollywood torture porn”.  All because of what he imagined in his own head.  Creative screenwriting, indeed.

FROZEN’s UK Theatrical Poster.

While HATCHET may have spawned a franchise, FROZEN is still what many (including myself) consider to be my most successful film to date.  Worldwide the film was a financial hit and it continues to sell and to play on cable in regular rotation even four years after it’s limited 100 screen theatrical release.  Here in America, FROZEN even dethroned HATCHET as Anchor Bay’s most successful original genre film in their extensive catalogue.  Legendary critic Rex Reed of the NY Observer was quoted as “chewing his own pencil in half while watching it because he was so paralyzed with fear” while other notable critics compared the film to Spielberg’s JAWS and to Hitchcock’s LIFEBOAT.  The moments I’ll remember the most, however, are when grown men feinted and/or threw up in the theater during FROZEN’s Sundance premiere screenings.  For a film to elicit that kind of reaction with only a few drops of blood and extremely restrained scenes of violence or gore… well, we were all very proud.  (As sick as that may sound.)  However, for all of the film’s success I have to hand it to my cast and crew who matched my passion and who so fearlessly put themselves in extremely uncomfortable and dangerous situations all for the desire of entertaining someone for 90 minutes.  I’m blessed to have gotten to work with such dedicated and talented people as without them, FROZEN would still merely be just an idea in my head. Sometimes people forget that a film’s director is merely the leader of the vision, but it’s the crew that actually makes the movie you watch.

Fearless: Shawn Ashmore, Emma Bell, and Kevin Zegers.

Perhaps you saw the film in theaters when it was released in February 2010 or perhaps you have since caught it on cable, Netflix, iTunes, VOD or other streaming platform… but for those who own the Blu-Ray or DVD, FROZEN comes packed with one of the most compelling and informative behind the scenes set of documentaries and commentary tracks that I have ever seen packaged with a film, whether it be a giant studio film or an independent film.  Filmmaker Adam Barnick approached  the task of documenting the making of FROZEN as if he were making his own feature-length documentary film rather than going through the motions of simply securing typical “behind the scenes” sound bytes and interviews.  He was literally a fly on the snowy wall, capturing every moment and every story in a way that lets you feel exactly what it was like to be part of the film.  In an age where special bonus features are scaling back further and further due to the decline of DVD and BLU-RAY sales, I can’t recommend watching the special features for FROZEN enough.  And while you’re at it, you should also check out Adam Barnick’s amazing behind the scenes documentaries for our 2009 disturbing thriller GRACE (written and directed by Paul Solet) as they are also exceptionally informative and extremely well crafted.  But since every story of the making of FROZEN is so vividly detailed on the DVD and BLU-RAY features, I’ll refrain from delving into them here.  Typed words in a blog could never match the justice that Barnick did.

Also, for those who really want to know more about the film, for those who are also interested in screenwriting, or for those who are merely fans/collectors… ArieScope has recently made my screenplay for FROZEN available for purchase in the “BUY STUFF” section of this website. Just click here.

The storyboards you’ll see below were drawn during pre-production in 2009 by Zoe Frasure, an extremely talented artist that I had the good fortune of first working with back in 2004 while prepping the production of HATCHET.  Normally I only storyboard a film’s action moments or extravagant effects sequences in order to help get all of the various individuals who bring those memorable cinematic moments to life on the same page and knowing exactly how I plan to shoot an especially challenging sequence.  Stunt coordinators, animal trainers, and make-up effects artists in particular can do their jobs so much more effectively if they can already see exactly what the individual camera shots, camera moves, and angles are intended to be in the final edited sequence.  While some filmmakers literally storyboard their entire films from beginning to end, I personally have never felt the need to storyboard anything beyond action, stunts, animals, or effects.  Part of that comes from my 15 year working relationship with cinematographer Will Barratt whom, at this point, I have such a comprehensive shorthand and visual connection with that there is no need to have illustrations to explain my plan and our pre-production discussions are always enough.  With experience also comes the confidence in being able to explain exactly what I want clearly and without guess work on the day of production.  However, another reason I purposely didn’t storyboard more scenes with FROZEN was because one of the films that I studied the most in preparation for filming was Spielberg’s JAWS, a production that purposely didn’t meticulously plan out every single shot of the character’s dialogue in an effort to discover and film the performances in the most organic way possible.  When you’re talking about a film where so much of it comes down to three actors sitting in a chair and carrying the film on their performances (or in the case of JAWS, three actors stuck on an extremely contained boat) I wanted the camera to capture the moments as they happened and commit them to film as honestly as possible.  It was crucial to pick my moments selectively, not only when the camera would do those enormous sweeping shots showcasing the height and claustrophobia, but also when the camera would go in tight on an actor’s face and when it would remain at a more comfortable distance- thus making the audience feel like they were also on the freezing and isolated chair lift with the characters.  For instance, when Lynch and Parker have their big blow-out fight after Dan’s death, I always knew that I would be shooting the scene in French Overs- a style that keeps the camera behind the shoulders of each character in a scene rather than in front of or directly beside them.  It provided a more voyeuristic point of view which (in the case of FROZEN) subliminally made the audience feel even more uncomfortable watching actors Shawn Ashmore and Emma Bell share such an emotionally heightened and tragic moment.

FROZEN was an incredible opportunity for me as a filmmaker.  The production was so rich with stories and contained such a wonderful cast of fearless characters behind the scenes who each brought everything they had to the table.  I’ll never be able to put into words just how indebted I am to my cast and crew, though my closing remarks on set before calling “wrap” on the last night of shooting (documented fully in Barnick’s behind the scenes documentary on the DVD and BLU-RAY release) come as close as I will ever come since they were impromptu and caught in the actual moment.  I’ll always remember staring back at that mountain before climbing into the van back to my condo on that sub-zero winter morning and that feeling of “We beat you.”  It is truly a joy to share some of Zoe Frasure’s storyboards with you all for the first time anywhere and give just a little more insight into just how much work went into the pre-production of this film.  I hope you enjoy looking through them.  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who will be celebrating the holiday this month.  Be thankful that you’ve never found yourself stranded on a chair lift in the dead of winter… at least not yet.

-AG

Dan’s jump…

Lynch’s first climb and the first wolf…

Lynch’s second climb and the wolves circling Dan…

Parker wakes up to find her hand stuck…

Lynch’s final climb and fight…