B-Side of Life

  Star is a short story by japanese writer Yukio Mishima originally published in 1960 and the english version in 2019. A powerful and engaging analysis of fame and the anxieties and insecurities that may come along with it. The story centers around Rikio "Richie" Mizuno, a young movie star that is frequently typecasted as a hardened yakuza in crime films. Despite the fame and the adulation of thousands of female fans, Rikio feels disillusioned with the film industry and even his own fame. Mishima manages to weave a tale with mastery that constanly switches from Rikio, the rich and famous young star and the characters he plays in movies.  This story was overshadowed by other Mishima's works but it retains the ground in a beautiful and exquisite meditation about existence and death from one of Japan's most influential and charismatic authors of the postwar era. Hypnotic and mesmerizing in its own right, it's an interesting read from this writer whose life was as tri...

  The debut album by Black Midi's frontman Geordie Greep is as ambitious as it is engaging and very adventurous in its approach to blend genres and disrupt conventions.  Much of this album was recorded in Brazil while Greep was on tour and the spontaneity is present as well as some tropicalia elements. The lyrics do contain some crude humor at times but reflect the loneliness of the characters and narrators of each song. According to Geordie Greep himself:   “I wanted to make as many bizarre, grotesque love songs as possible,”  and it is a very affirmative work in the dealings of passion and how it can be corny and charming at the same time.  A grandiose album in its mix of influences and genres that do not sound pretentious or boring and indeed create beautiful musical vignettes with stories that are both deep and funny. 

  The eight album by The Cure released in 1989 stands as one of the band's most dark, profound and melancholic works. Lauded as one of or even the best album by the band and immortalized in popular culture  in the episode 12 of season 1 of South Park when Robert Smith saves the town and Kyle yells at him from a distance "Disintegration is the best album ever!" It is a very powerful album from beginning to finish and it contains the band's somewhat bittersweet vibes, in which there is existential dread but also a hopeful glimpse into the future as brief as it may be.  A beautiful and unique album that will stand for eternity. 

  This is the third and latest volume from Vinegar Syndrome's collection Home Grown Horrors, and it brings some recovered treasures, such as Hauntedween,Deadly Love, and Revenge.  Hauntedween was shot in 1989 but was only released in 1991, basically taking 23 days to shoot and two years for the official release.Directed by Doug Robertson with a very low-budget that did not stop the movie from being throughly entertaining and tantalizing. This movie according to the extras in the bluray was a work of deep commitment, integrity and hard work from all those involved as it was Doug Robertson's passion project.  It all started one Halloween night when a little girl visiting the Burber family's House of Horrors is killed by the little boy of the family, Eddie. After the crime, Eddie's mother takes him away to live in a secluded cabin. Twenty years later, a fraternity is in need of some money and decides to hold a fundraiser in the Burber's house, unaware that Eddie may h...