I LOVE HALLOWEEN as you all know. So I drew some things and set aside a day to do them, October 28th-
smog monster!
Thing Dog!
IT IS BATS
a series of reviews, two each day, of horror movies.
1: half the people are crazed and trying to kill the other half of the people, panic and mass casualties, violent infection, etc – yes, it’s 2020-2021 thank you, continue
2: infected people trying to get in and infect people who are quarantined, aggressive mental illness -yes, yes
3: your neighbors are all worse than you ever knew
-yes. yes
4: cops eating each other
-please do go on
5: oh no several days how will you ever survive with only ramen
6: so you’re warned to have plenty of food and water, yet you don’t immediately fill up the bathtub at least, or the sinks. and you don’t go into the zombie neighbor’s abandoned apartment to see if there’s food
7: too much tech, not enough walkie talkies. I doubt.
8: I get it, people expect the end of the world to be like, a switch flipped, but no. this shit draaaags forever
9: the golf club is reminiscent of funny games. maybe an intentional nod to his change in mental state
10: slapstick!
11: finally, foraging.
12: the Mormons are at the door
13: we have skipped two weeks, without water or food?
14: and finally the lights out- wouldn’t that go before the running water?
15: oh the melodrama. don’t be a moron, but this magical dude has been alive a month without water
16: Kim Yu-bin is keeping track of her shit. I bet he gets her killed. nice waterworld callback with watering the plant.
17: of course he’s that stupid, he’s the protagonist and you’re a competent woman in a movie. how else would it justify you endangering yourself for him?
18: oh, wait. he HAS water? from where?
19: finally the tech is worth a damn. and she’s feeding him, which is ok because yes helping each other matters but
20: ok yes the tech is nice, good point, this is a scene from hackers vs zombies. slapstick is fine. zombie big mad. give me back my hand you bastards
21: Jun-u. I had been ignoring his name the entire movie. This is a bad habit of mine with zombie stuff.
22: finally some decent fuckin plot movement. there’s kids, in a good movie he’d have to kill one. instead, a treasure trove of all the survival gear. it’s handy when someone else did the preparation FOR you. I mean damn
23: oooh she’s only alive to help HIM. what a fucking surprise
24: reminds me of the pandemic “share a window” website crossed with a gentle, normal mukbang (not a weird fetish feeder one)
25: the zombies are going hooome. the zombies are going hooooooome
26: ok yes sounds scary, looked scary but it seems like there’s only five of them at her door
27: she’s skilled. of course. melee fighter. I like that this isn’t the dumb-ass slow zombies, nor the superhuman ones. just regular people.
28: another pile up!
29: don’t drink koolaid from strangers, but spam? NO NOT THAT EITHER. of course there will be cannibals in this that aren’t sick, that’s another nice callback (the road) (dead alive). I’m still holding out hope a kid zombie gets killed, although it’s unlikely at this point.
30: holy fuckin generational-divide-monologue for the ages
31: oh damn a gunshot in South Korea.
32: look, Kim, I wasn’t given any backstory for you, but I really want you to outlive “regular dumb guy”. the suicide subplot is going nowhere and we both know it
33: it’s never a good look to be fighting zombie hordes on the stairs. I don’t know why, it just isn’t good. just stay in the damn apartment. please.
34: regular Joe, you are doing the right thing by staying behind, keep that up.
35: FUCK THIS SHITTY APARTMENT
36: finally, machine guns. sorry, I’m American. I’ve been waiting for an hour and a half for logic to set in
37: where are they even going? she’s cooler than him, why isn’t she getting messages? so I guess his Instagram saved her? is that a subversiveon of what I’ve been complaining about? I think it is.
7/10 excellent slapstick, callbacks, just enough humor without ruining the narrative. subversive ending in that he’s only in the movie for the sake of saving her life, and neither died. points deducted for lack of depth to the woman in the film, too much depth for the guy, and for showing us a lack of water then changing that enough to keep someone alive for 20 days. (also, he didn’t even fill up the sink, the hell)
this movie is about squatting, a lifestyle I’m too familiar with. let’s see how close to the mark it gets. oh, and zombie infection stuff. that too.
1: the supe is always the strangest thing in any building in NYC. always. this isn’t a narrator. this is realism.
2: when will rich kids learn that poverty isn’t an aesthetic? when will something that poor people authentically live through, be safe from commodification and the thievery of the privileged? where does class/cultural appropriation end? why are people using their yacht money on a tiny fuckin house? find out on the next episode of generation x, when we discuss the occup-
wait no- this is just a zombie flick. sorry about that
3: I know she’s saying other shit on the phone but all I hear is “the rain was such a blessing”
4: montage is always good with good music over it. going anywhere in the city is basically a montage in reality
5: cigarettes cost 14 bucks in New York holy fuckin shit I’m old
6: ominous: “what could be worse than where you are now”, teens having sex, neon lighting, drainpipe footage, “what difference is a day gonna make”, “I won’t make the same mistake like I did in Vladivostok”
7: this bondage shit on the third floor is giving me a real, serious flashback to a job I did briefly which paid incredibly well. every time these characters show up I have a flashback, every time I watch this.
8: every character in this movie is someone I’ve met. every fuckin one. even cookie. I hate that and love it at the same time. I don’t know if you’ve ever lived in bad beat city but this is accuracy.
9: the glitch hallucination is wonderful. don’t show me people’s bad dreams, though. it’s a waste of film. especially someone’s dream who doesn’t know that squats don’t get the garbage picked up. at least he was gentle about her tourist status. (yes, that was fucking gentle. she’s visiting, but they LIVE there. he’ll show you the life of the mind)
10: the colors in this movie reminds me of Mermaid in a Manhole, an amazing movie itself- this is a compliment
11: yes punk means you puke and say “did you SEE that” yes it does
12: the way sickness spreads in close, unmaintained quarters is accurate too. these old buildings were originally tenements and were notorious for being built in a way that contributed to outbreaks of diseases. ny poverty history
13: the glitch used as stand-in for visual mirage is again amazing and continues to be throughout
14: that walk up all the stairs after a day at work to complain about the horror of everyday life, with a back crack and sore feet.
15: the cops are also accurate
16: the plot takes a nice strong left turn here, and it’s perfection. since the development of the plot cookie was leading us to doesn’t matter to the people in this building, it’s better to truncate it. and then we can get to business.
17: yes. if you die in a squat, you’re getting rolled in a carpet and left blocks away. you’ve got to. nobody’s gonna kill you but nobody’s going to be on the street over your ass either.
18: guitar axe skyline lightning. that may be a summary of the whole movie.
19: absolutely pitch perfect “you ruined new york city” rant for the ages
20: if the building wasn’t shit, this would be a nice Shining callback
21: FAWKKING
22: this movie just will not let you have any expected outcome. it’s brilliant.
23: I’ve lived in a brownstone that had a cellar which connected to every building on the block and beyond. that was in Philly, but the construction of this landscape is perfect.
24: FUCK THIS SHITTY APARTMENT
full disclosure- I own this DVD and have watched it a lot. it’s one of my favorite movies, structurally and visually, and I think it’s one of the best horror movies made this decade. 9/10
They’ll all be loaded for sale by tomorrow.
12×16″ to 24×36″. They’re good quality, thick toothed, acid free paper.
Order by Dec 6 to get them in time for holidays.
no. 10 – Tokyo
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for Ken Shimura
(20 February 1950 – 29 March 2020)
“I never feared getting an infection myself,” he said, because he knows “how infection control should be done.” But aboard the Diamond Princess, “I was so scared of getting COVID-19.”
“The cruise ship was completely inadequate in terms of the infection control.”
-Kentaro Iwata, who has dealt with infectious outbreaks, including Ebola, cholera and SARS, for more than 20 years.
“I’m choosing not to do it.” -donald trump, on masks
paintings 1-6, a virtual gallery visit. second installment of videos soon.
all originals are for sale at this link. all prints are here.
Prices go up after the 18th. Thanks you for all the support this year so far, I hope to add a few massive paintings to this list before the year ends. Large-scale prints will be available at some time in December. If there’s a book, it will have to be next year.
xox
Two are spoken for.
All the local galleries are full of artists that they were showing last year, my kickstarter to get full scale prints made did not get funded (really bad timing). I’ll eventually be releasing a small art book containing all of these, I hope. I had wanted to show them as a group but I do not think I’ll be able to do that. so,
here are the originals I’ll be selling. There will be a second post with purchase links on the day, and you’ll be able to message me to purchase as well. Full sized prints will eventually be available but I don’t have a date for that.
all are watercolor paintings. charging by size and scope…
We’ve seen so much real-world horror this year that it’s hard to top it. But in the spirit of all previous Halloween lists, I’m going to go ahead with this anyway.
In no particular order, the 13 movies you should be watching this week.
The rest of the movies aren’t listed in order of best/worst, just as I remember them. Themes listed and my short thoughts, and a 1-10 scale for my personal enjoyment. There’s been a lot of shitty horror made since my previous lists (see here, here and here) (and a list of horror passing various analytical tests, HERE)
A series of works in watercolor and oil. This is the first section in this series, addressing the current pandemic and its effects worldwide.
Each painting was complete before being named for an affected place and dedicated to a person.
no. 1 – Milan
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for Dr. Marcelo Natali
1963-3/25/20
“We certainly weren’t prepared to face such a situation. Especially those of our generation, that of the post-antibiotic era, who grew up thinking that a pill against the disease was enough.”
no. 2 – Northwestern United States
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for Dr. Stephen M. Schwartz
(January 1, 1942 – March 17, 2020)
“There is no way to summarize a person as complex as Steve, but I’ll say this: I have never met a person with a finer mind, a greater passion for ideas, or who had a greater love for science,” Dr. Chuck Murry
“This beer virus I call it — they call it a coronavirus, I call it a beer virus — how do you like that?” Rep. Don Young
no. 3 – Iran
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for Dr. Shirin Rouhani
(unknown- 3/19/20)
“She treated patients at Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran while receiving IV therapy, because there were not enough doctors. Hospitals are faced with a lack of protective gear including medical gowns, N95 masks, gloves, and disinfectants.” -Javad Tavakoli
” Tell medècin sans frontiers that we do not need hospitals established by foreigners”. -Health Minister, Alireza Vahhabzadeh.
no. 4 – Rikers Island, New York
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated to Michael Tyson, 53
“Incredible anxiety and fear. You cannot implement effective social distancing in a room that sleeps forty men. You cannot implement effective social distancing when those forty men are using two or three sinks and one of them may be broken. You cannot implement effective social distancing when the staff interacts with all of them and has to touch all of them in the course of a day.
They know that better than I know that. So when I was talking to them, I was sort of feebly saying, “We want to try to encourage people to be even more diligent about hand-washing, etc., etc.” They were, like, “O.K., we don’t have our own cleaning supplies.” They can’t wipe down their own surfaces. They have to wait for someone to come in and do that for them.”
“The largest category of people in city jails are those awaiting trial — people who have not been charged but not convicted. In the ordinary course of events, getting someone in this position out of jail requires an application made in court before a judge.”
-Dr. Bedard
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that the state had found a way to counteract price gouging on hand sanitizer amid the COVID-19 outbreak: by deploying cheap prison labor. Incarcerated people will be producing the disinfectant… “This is a superior product to products now on the market,” Cuomo said in a briefing, adding that the state’s sanitizer has a “very nice floral bouquet” that includes hints of lilac, tulip, and hydrangea.
no. 5 – Los Angeles, Mercy
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for Francisco Garcia
“There’s a very limited supply, it’s a scary situation. Just going to work, driving to work, you’re worried you’re going to get something. It’s changing by the hour and by the day.” S. Beltran, ER nurse .
“This week the State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials.” -Mike Pompeo, Feb 7 2020
no. 6 – Wuhan
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for
Dr. Li Wenliang
(1986-2/7/2020)
“I think there should be more than one voice in a healthy society, and I don’t approve of using public power for excessive interference.” -Dr. Li Wenliang
“Now, the Democrats are politicising the coronavirus… this is their new hoax.” -Donald Trump
“Trump has botched the response to coronavirus pandemic…classifying deliberations makes it harder for health experts in government without security clearances to be in key meetings. This is unprecedented, unnecessary, and damages our ability to respond to the pandemic.”
-Gregg Gonsalves, a Yale epidemiologist
“You, Dr. Li Wenliang, have been making false comments on the Internet, and will sign a letter of admonishment.”
-Police from the Wuhan Public Security Bureau, Jan 3 2020
no. 7 – Madrid
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for Dr. Isabel Munoz
( 1961 -3/24/2020)
“Her only obsession was not to infect anybody.” -Jesus Munoz
“Even if we all get sick, I’d rather die than kill the country.” -Glenn Beck
no. 8 – Johannesburg
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for Simon
(unknown)
“They put us here and now we are close to one another. This is why we will be vulnerable to catching Corona. Our government has failed us,” Simon, homeless man moved by police to stadium from the street.
“The lockdown has caused problems, but it is a necessary thing that South Africa had to do,” -Maider Mavi, Mozambique Health Ministry. “Anyone showing symptoms who goes to a state hospital will have their COVID-19 test for free.”
“The goal here is to keep Covid out of this community,” says Sasha Lalla, a leader at COSUP, a city-supported substance abuse program.
“I think then we will be seeing a situation where people with compromised immune systems are not just at risk of Covid-19, they are at risk of death. We have a responsibility to keep our most vulnerable safe,” he said. “One case here, it would be like wildfire.”
no. 9 – New York City
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for Father Antonio Checo
May 6, 1952-April 1, 2020
“Words cannot describe the sadness and hurt as well as the frustrations that this pandemic has brought about to our daily lives here and across the city…Effective today, all Episcopal churches have been ordered closed until May 17, 2020…we as your clergy are still accessible via phone as your pastors in these times. And since we cannot gather as a community until May, we want to begin to periodically send you the weekly bible readings as that you can use for private prayer worship.
…take an hour each day to pray these prayers remembering those who have died because of this pandemic, as well as those who are sick and those “essential” workers on the frontlines who ensure we as citizens have access to life sustaining resources for day to day living. We ask for the blessing of peace and hope to you all, and that all are safe in this time of uncertainty and anxiety.”
Rev. Antonio Checo and Rev. Jason Moskal, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
“We brought in 13 machines that basically kill every virus in the place, and uh, if somebody walks through the door it’s like, it kills everything on them. If they sneeze, it shoots it down at like 100 mph. It’ll neutralize it in split seconds. We have the most sterile building in, I don’t know, all of America.”
-Rodney Howard-Browne, River Tampa Bay Megachurch
no. 10 – Tokyo
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for Ken Shimura
(20 February 1950 – 29 March 2020)
“I never feared getting an infection myself,” he said, because he knows “how infection control should be done.” But aboard the Diamond Princess, “I was so scared of getting COVID-19.”
“The cruise ship was completely inadequate in terms of the infection control.”
-Kentaro Iwata, who has dealt with infectious outbreaks, including Ebola, cholera and SARS, for more than 20 years.
“I’m choosing not to do it.” -donald trump, on masks
no. 11 – The Bronx
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for
Rakkhon Kim, a member of Branch 36 in New York City
1970-March 25,2020
“It is not an exaggeration to say that our men and women in the Postal Service, who were already performing one of the most important jobs in America, are now literally putting their own lives on the line to deliver the food, medicine, and essential supplies that hundreds of millions of Americans depend on every single day during this pandemic.”
-Senator Bernard Sanders
“It’s been losing billions of dollars a year for many, many years… this is the new one, I’m now the demise of the Postal Service. I’ll tell you who’s the demise of the Postal Service, are these internet companies that give their stuff to the Postal Service…They drop everything in the post office and they say, ‘You deliver it.’ “
-president Donald Trump
no. 12 – Washington, DC
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for
Rabbi Romi Cohn
Holocaust survivor
March 10, 1929-March 24, 2020
“The crisis caused by the coronavirus may be the time to consider a universal basic wage.”
-Pope Francis
“God will shield us from all harm and sickness. We are not afraid. We are called by God to stand against the Antichrist creeping into America’s borders.”
-Tony Spell3
no. 13 – Atlanta
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for
Rushia Johnson Stephens
music teacher
1954-2020
“Given our population density, high rate of asthma, and various underlying health conditions found within our city’s populations, I am issuing a Stay at Home Order for Atlantans.”
-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms
“adding a public option to Obamacare is the best way to lower costs and cover everyone. 160 million people like their private insurance.”
-Joe Biden
no. 14 – Lansing
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for
Lisa Ewald
nurse
1966-2020
“COVID-19 has impacted the lives of so many citizens throughout the state of Michigan, and even more pronounced in the city of Detroit, as we are the fastest growing city nationally with casualties related to this deadly disease.”
-Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo
“LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”
-Donald Trump
no. 15 – Paris
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for
Dr. John F. Murray
pulmonologist
June 8, 1927 – March 24, 2020
“In all his dealings in the ICU, John treated every person with respect and held them to high standards, whether it was the intern just starting in the ICU or the fellow who was a much more senior trainee, or the nurses or the therapists. Everybody had something to offer and was treated as a member of this team.”
-Courtney Broaddus
“You have to do what’s best for your business.”
-Wayne Hoffman
no. 17 (final, butcher’s bill)- New Orleans, LA, USA
(quarantine paintings, 2020)
watercolor, oil, gesso on arches paper, 18×24″
dedicated for Ronald Lewis
7/17/1951-3/20/2020
“Right here in the Ninth Ward was where our people chased the American dream.”
~ Ronald Lewis
“The federal government rose to the challenge and this is a great success story and I think that that’s really what needs to be told.”
~Jared Kutchner
the first series were all 18×24″
these are larger, 22×30″. looser.
more emotional.
I had a difficult time working on the first series, with a lot of stops and starts. I’ve added the last few to that post.
series two: updated as I go.
“Busting the Line, Nebraska”
22×30″, watercolor
“Audience Participation, London”
22×30″, watercolor
Houston has its Time
22×30″, watercolor
Calling in the Forces, Sunflowers
22×30″ watercolor
Skating in New York City
watercolor, 22×30″
The world is in a flux, a liminal moment.
These are times when creating anything is difficult for me. I feel that collective unease, hope, fear, pain, anticipation. And I have all those feelings. It can get overwhelming.
I’ve never been good at actually starving- in times when I’m suffering, broke, afraid, it’s harder for me to do any work at all, let alone anything I feel is any good. Hard times make hard art, for me.
Yet here I am, trying.
I’ve applied for every grant I can find and not gotten one. No SBA, or anything. I did get a stimulus check- that’s about what I earn a week, and I’m still paying off bills related to being a cancer caregiver for a year (I was off work up until last fall). It didn’t stretch far. I guess we’ll see if that stuff changes for me. Regardless, these won’t be for sale for a little while. I’ll probably do a print run. I’ll try to show them. I don’t know what gallery will have them though.
Lucky me, I’ll not be homeless, unless illness strikes us again. I’m in fear of that.
I’m in fear. I’ll admit it. I don’t understand how anyone can not be, on some level. Whether admitted or not- I can feel your fear all around. The aggression in the air, the sadness, and the fear underlying it.
I feel it, you feel it, everyone is feeling it. Some will lie- but fear isn’t weakness. You’ve got to just feel it. Let it be there. Don’t panic, of course- or panic in controlled ways, I guess. But be cautious. Fear is how our natural bodies tell us there is danger, and listening to our intuition and being cautious isn’t a bad thing. Living despite fear, the name for that is bravery. You are brave.
I feel also a great protective kindness. Most people, MOST people, want to help each other. We all want to be helpful, useful, good to each other. We are not only afraid for ourselves. Those who don’t care are a minority-loud, but small. Fuck em.
This is the most reassuring thing I know, right now. I’m holding to it. I hope you can too.
My friend Lucy F. R. has really great taste in movies.
I don’t say that lightly. You all know (if you’ve been reading me a while) how fussy I am about horror/weirdshit and how many movies I’ve watched. It’s my actual hobby, unrelated to anything else I do, purely for enjoyment. It’s hard for me to find people to talk about movies with, really- my uncle, who first introduced me to horror movies, and weird cinema, and one or two friends. So I’m really happy to have a conversation here about movies with someone.
Sal doesn’t take any shit from no man. (Beyond the Valley of the Ultravixens)
(R: me, L:them)
R: you’re on a grimy southern/grind horror kick right now. But what genre do you like best? What feeling are you after?
LFR: Horror is my favorite genre, I just get very into specific branches. I always want to end up saying to myself “this is a GOOD movie”.
R: What’s the best of the batch you’ve been into recently?
LFR:The Dunwich Horror (the 70’s one), Ghost Galleon, House By The Cemetery, Werewolves On Wheels, and Tourist Trap.
R: Tell me about Werewolves on Wheels. I just watched Dog Soldiers again, and I’ve been on a werewolf kick.
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