Troma Entertainment

 

Warning: links are NSFW.

I simply don’t understand how I have never heard of Troma Entertainment before last week. I was in JBs and the DVD I had gone in to buy was cheaper than I thought it was going to be. So, instead of saving up my monies for a rainy day (or to pay rent), I perused the shelves for a bit of light entertainment. One title jumped out at me: Tales from the Crapper.  It was seven bucks, and the cover gave nothing away. But the blurb promised guts, gore, girls, and aliens. How could I say no?

 

To get a sense of this film and of, as I have read, the rest of the films produced and distributed by Troma, you must first start with Russ Meyer. Now, smush Russ Meyer with Trey Parker. Ok now we’re getting somewhere, but just for kicks, throw in a whole lot of fake blood. And then sprinkle Ron Jeremy over the top. Now you’ve got Lloyd Kaufman; Troma’s numero uno. Director come producer come financier come actor come screenwriter. The man is pretty much the be all and end all of these films.

I’m now going to make it my personal mission to hunt out and introduce people to more of these films.

Separated at birth

Has anyone else noticed that Lizzy Caplan looks an awful lot like Katy Perry?

                 

Which is which?

Angela Bloomfield

You know she was the reason you used to watch Shortie.

Stuntkid – “Girls Are Pretty” Series

Jason Levesque is the artist informally known as StuntKid. Apparently he started his illustrating career by copying the models out of playboy as a kid. I don’t actually know if that’s true or not, but it’s a nice story. I’d heard his name bandied about when I was at university, and recently when I came across some more of his illustrations I thought it was about time to find out a little more. Basically his signature style is to set up photo shoots with fetish models and does things like throw latex paint at them or tie them up in bandages and stick bunny ears on them. Then crafts beautiful pencil pictures from the images which he touches up with photoshop. The result is images which really should be quite dirty, but that somehow aren’t. Judge for yourself.

(All images from StuntKid’s Gallery)

Mad Men – Series Three FINALE

The final episode of series three of Mad Men screened here on Sunday night. I didn’t get to watch it unfortunately because I was out celebrating my birthday (yay!) instead. But I gather from the various summaries available online that it was quite the corker. Betty wants to finalise her divorce with Don, who is teaming up with Rodger, Coop, and Lane to set up a new agency with Pete. I imagine this whole business of the conspiring and the revenge seeking would have come across well on TV, but I can only imagine.

Good news is I hear Red (Joan) is probably going to be getting a bigger role over the next season. I’m pretty stoked about that. I’ve already done a post with pictures of the cast of Mad Men once before so I think I deserve to be let of easily with the picture posting this time around.

Welcome to the O.C. bitch.

I just bought season one of the OC on DVD. Years ago, I was obsessed with this show. And now I get to live through that pleasure all over again.

Tess Parker – True Blood

Yes, okay, I know. It took me a long time to get around to it but I finally have had the opportunity to sink my teeth into the first season of True Blood. In true HBO style, it really is television of the highest order with great episode hooks that are resolved before the opening credits of the following week. This is an interesting variation on the traditional ‘reminder flashbacks’ that usually serve as preludes to TV dramas, and it works incredibly well. Especially if you’re watching the episodes on DVD and you can’t remember where the fuck you’re up to. I’m not going to ramble on too much more about it, although I could. I’ll leave it for you to hunt out and watch and maybe if you’re lucky you’ll get me into a debate about civil rights and vampires and the nature of the subtext. But for the time being I feel like whacking up a picture of a minor character, Rosie, played by Tess Parker. Her character comes from a fundamental Christian background and, when she get’s bitten, she turns into this flaming petulant bitch. And the transformation makes for one of the highlights of the first season.

Think twice about her. She’s one of my ones to watch.

Coneheads (1993)

Comedy Central is playing funny nineties movies on Thursday nights. I didn’t know this until I stumbled on Coneheads tonight. The movie is pretty crap, but what makes it all the more watchable and perhaps even a little enjoyable, are the “before they were famous-es” and the cameo parts.

Listen:

Coneheads was developed from a Saturday Night Live sketch, so it features alot of SNL regulars and obviously attracted many other actors to minor roles. Get a load of these names:

Dan Akroyd, Jon Lovitz, Adam Sandler, Parker Posey, Ellen DeGeneres, Jason Alexander, Tom Arnold, Drew Carey, Eddie Griffen, Michael Richards, and that’s just who I can remember.

Nostalgia. Plain and true.

P!nk – Funhouse live in Australia

I can’t quite believe that this blog has managed to go on as long as it has without a post about Pink. Tonight, I rewatched my favourite christmas present of all of them. P!nk Live in Australia.

I saw Pink live when she came to Auckland as part of the I’m Not Dead tour. I bought a T-shirt. Honestly. And I still wear it too. I have a Pink calendar on my wall and I have most of her albums and DVDs.

Pink reminds us of what a concert experience should be life, acrobats, aerialists, an extensive band, dancers, improvisations, covers, costume changes, no lip synching, attitude, and adoring fans.

I watched it on loud. I even rewound the cover of Bohemian Rahpsody and almost fell off the back of the couch when I was dancing around to the Scaramouch part.

Bill Bryson – Shakespeare

I know, I know; yet another post about a book I read this summer. Well, I’m on a role. And I’ll make it quick, I promise.

I can’t imagine I would ever pick up a Shakespeare biography if it wasn’t written by Bill Bryson. The funny thing about him is that he has such a colourful vocabulary, and such a poetic, yet, strangely scientific manner about his writing that it makes you think that he would be the most amazing storyteller. And he is. On paper. To here him speak though, is another thing all together. The man is dry. Not a lot else I can say really. Dry in the way that an English professor might make a joke about the differences between object complements and direct objects.

Observe:

~My mother made me a neurotic.
~Great! If I buy her the wool, will she make me one,too?

Bada-bing!

How about this one:

~Call me a cab.
~Ok, you’re a cab.

Are you on the floor yet? Try to get yourself under control, or I won’t be responsible.

~Make me a milkshake.
~ZAP! You’re a milkshake.

Ok, I’m sorry, that went on longer than it had to. Flash back to 7th period on a Friday afternoon. They we’re always such long weeks.

I digress though. If you’re sort of into Shakespeare, or feel you want to be, at least Bill Bryson presents the information* in a nice way.

Oh, and there’s also an illustrated version available, if you’re that way inclined.

In case you’ve read through all that and still don’t know exactly what type of humour you’re in for, I have accompanied this post about Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare with a picture of him holding a globe. 

 

*There isn’t actually all that much information about William Shakespeare which means that a)the book is not very long, and b) most of it is based on conjecture. It’s like a choose you’re own ending! Now that’s got to be good.