Saturday 22 February 2014

The Album Art of Dusan Markovic

 A little while back I posted the album cover to Claymore's  "Lament Of Victory" and mentioned how much I liked it.
 Just to refresh your memory, here it is again.


 Well, I was pleasantly surprised when the band's guitarist  Vlad Invictus left a comment - cheers mate - so I took the opportunity to ask who did the art.
 And the answer is: Serbian freelance artist Dusan Markovic.  

 Not only that, but he also did a couple of covers for promising female-fronted metal crew A Sound of Thunder. 


 He has a page on Deviantart and it's well worth a look.  http://dusanmarkovic.deviantart.com/gallery/ 
Perfectly suited for Metal bands, wouldn't you say?

More details on  Claymore can be found on their homepage: https://www.facebook.com/claymore.serbia/info

 They describe themselves as Epic Power Metal. I think posting one of their songs is appropriate at this point.
Honour to: claymore

And since I've mentioned A Sound Like Thunder, let's have one of theirs as well. It's a slightly gentle offering by their standards.
 Honour to: ASoundofThunderBand


Female fronted bands playing proper Heavy Metal = always something I'd happy to see. 

Anyway, that's it for now. 

See you next time. 

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Lady Wrestlers from the 1960s

 I've been scanning pics from a pair of 1960s Pro Wrestling magazines I acquired last week. (See my last two posts for details.) but in the process I couldn't help noticing something.
 The last decade or so, womens' wrestling has been nudged out of the magazines. PowerSlam might have a pinup every other month but you almost never see an article about, say A.J Lee.
 Even back in the days when I was reading the Apter mags (Inside Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Illustrated.) and their competitors (Wrestling Scene especially) you'd get a short piece every so often and that's it.
  I'm holding an edition of Ring Wrestling from 1964 right now. Let's see how many articles there are about the ladies.
 So far -  5. 11 pages in total. Not counting a frivolous comedy piece and something about a wrestling Tartar Princess.  
Hmm. Wonder why?

That goes some way towards explaining why I decided to hold back certain pics and post all the women's action  at the same time. Hope you like them.


 Ann Casey doesn't seem to like blondes much.  
The Fabulous Moolah gets pummeled by Joan Collins. 
Not the Joan Collins, although thinking about it, that would have been awesome. 

 Jean Bouchet smiles for the camera. seems like a nice girl. 
 And now she's putting the boot in.  Seems to be quite enthusiastic about it too. 
Jean gets roughed up by Princess Little Cloud. 

 A line up of lady wrestlers in seriously unflattering swimsuits. That said, Sheba Zenni has an elegant, exotic thing going on. Be right back. I'll see if I can find some more pics.
Nope. Bugger.
A quick look on WrestlingData.com reveals that she was only around for 15 matches or so.

Olga Martinez doesn't like blondes either. Let's take a moment to consider how strong this woman must be.

Fathia "Chi Chi" Djaileb. Empress Of The Black Dagger. Heading for American rings.

The article mentions that before becoming a wrestler she was a nurse for the Arab Nationalist Movement.
Not by choice either: "I was kidnapped by the movement when I was only 15 years old."
After trying her hand at basketball the young Algerian  began wrestling and went on to compete in the UK.
There's archive footage of that match on Youtube. Apologies for potato quality. 

At some point The Empress of the Black Dagger  began wrestling as Titi Paris, under which name she campaigned for women  to be allowed to wrestle in New York. She even had a role in 1980 wrestling flick "Below The Belt"  That's her helping battered heroine Rosa at the end of this clip. 
I think a little respect is in order. 

That's all folks.  

The Ring Wrestling October 1964

As promised, albeit later than planned, here's the second vintage wrestling mag I picked up t'other day and a selection of scans. 
 Compare and contrast with "Sports Entertainment" today. 
Old wrestling magazine tag team

Sunday 16 February 2014

Wrestling World February 1963

 The other day I was passing a charity shop when something made me back up and take another look in the window.  And that's where I found this:

 Bruno Sammartino Wrestling mag cover.

This is an American magazine from 1963 and it gives a fascinating glimpse into the way wrestling looked before Hulkamania. Before Sports Entertainment. Before The Rock. Before Divas. Before every fan in the world knew about how the business really worked.
  How about I share a few scans with you?

Friday 14 February 2014

Heavy Metal Cover Girls...And Guys

  In honour of Valentine's Day I thought I'd post a selection of covers where the ladies have brought along their Significant Others.

 Admittedly they all seem to be clutching weapons rather than roses and chocolates.

 Isn't it great when a couple have the same hobbies?

Aztra - Tierra Libre (Ecuador 2004)

Aztra album cover
Among their other accomplishments the Maya invented Bodybuilding and the microbikini.
Fact. 

Barsoom - Under The Moons Of Mars (Russia 2006)

John Carter Metal Album Cover
Staying faithful to the classics I see.

Claymore - Lament Of Victory (Serbia 2013)

I do like this one.
 A warrior king and his beautiful, fierce warrior-queen contemplate the future 
while his faithful...whatever that thing is...stands guard. 

Death Dealer - War Master (USA 2013)

Battle on Metal album cover.
He got through  6 personal assistants before it occurred to anybody that they might need armour too. 

Elders Of The Apocalypse - The Law Of Iron (USA 2011)

Cavegirl metal album cover.
Betcha she's wondering if she can nick a bit of his cloak to make herself a nice bra. 

Fans of 80s Fantasy flicks may recognise that pic.

Topless cavegirl

Gates Of Ishtar - The Dawn Of Flames (Sweden 1997)

Topless warrior woman
Anybody else notice that the perspective is all to cock on this one?
Stop looking at the boobs and look at the guy with the axe on the left hand side. 
See what I mean? 

Messiah's Kiss - Prayer For The Dying (Germany 2002)

What were you expecting to see here, exactly?
As a refreshing change, a couple that are managing to enjoy themselves without bloodshed. 
Don't try this position at home. You will do yourselves a mischief. 
Disregard if you do happen to have wings and exemption from the laws of gravity.

V/A - Metal Essentials (Year & country a bit of a mystery.)

Topless bloke with guitar and beer.
A brave attempt to create the most Metal album cover ever.
Muscular bloke - check (With wings so bonus points there)
Naked redhead - check
Beer - check
Motorbike - Check
Snake-Check
Skulls - Check
Flying V - Check 
I'm sure if they really tried they could have fitted a dragon or a tank in there somewhere. 
Better luck next time, lads.

Shadows Of Steel - Second Floor (Italy 2002)

Woman in gold mask.
At midnight she's going to get a bit of a shock.
She thinks he's going to take his mask off... 

Unleash The Archers - Demons Of The Astrowaste (Canada 2011)

"Stop showing off, you prat. You'll fall off and I'm not dragging your armour-wearing ass home."

That's all folks.

Wait..one last thing.

If you enjoyed this collection of album covers then take a look up at the top of the page.
There's a tab there for "Album covers"
Feel free to have a browse through my older posts.  

Wednesday 12 February 2014

The Metal Project: Mighty Metal Axe

 I am fairly certain there is nobody else on the internet doing this, namely working through Youtube to find Heavy Metal songs with "Metal" in the title. Want to know how many I've found so far?
Well, take a look at the tab at the top that says "The Metal Project Songlist".  I think you mkight be impressed.
 Without further ado, let's listen to some Heavy Metal, shall we?

Cobra - RockMetal (Peru 2011)

(Full throttle Traditional Metal)
Honour to: Nergal135

Abigail - Metal Evil Metal (Japan 2009)

(Starts with a surprisingly melodic intro before the band get bored and launch into the filthy punk-metal we've come to expect.)
Honour to: Nasin Rivera

Hellpike - Lucha Por el Metal (Colombia 2013)

(Heads-down and thrashing mad)
Honour to: headwar88

Aryon - Metally Insane (USA 1983)

(US HM with a frenzied guitarist.)
Honour to:  DescentOfMadness

Black Hawk - Mighty Metal Axe (Germany 2013)

(Teutonic and Anthemic Heavy Metal.)
Honour to: ambal72

Pirillo - Metalova Diagnoza (Czech Rep. 1987)

(Melodic Traditional Metal - Definitely a band that deserves more exposure)
Honour to: MetalheadTrue

Sweet Poison - Pedal To The Metal (USA 1984)

(Glam Metal - But you already worked that out already, didn't you?)
Honour to: dfpmglam

And finally:

Borzbom - Blaargh Metal Ist Krieg (?)

I'm fairly certain they're taking the piss but it can be hard to tell sometimes.
Honour to: HerraPorkkakoski

That's all folks.

Sunday 9 February 2014

DVD Review: Guns, Girls, Gambling (2012)

Starring:

Christian Slater  
(In an Elvis outfit, Albeit briefly)
Gary Oldman 
(In an Elvis Outfit)
Tony Cox 
(In an Elvis Outfit)
Anthony Brandon Wong 
(In an Elvis outfit)
Chris Kattan 
(In An Elvis Outfit. It all makes sense in context)
Powers Booth 
(In a white outfit like Boss Hogg used to wear. 
If you were around in the 70s you'll know who I'm talking about)
Jeff Fahey
(In a Cowboy outfit.)
Helena Mattson
(In the outfit from the DVD cover.
This may or may not have affected my decision to buy said DVD.
 Yes I am that shallow. )
Megan Park
(Who doesn't get to dress up at all. Poor thing.)

The DVD blurb: "When a priceless Apache War Mask is stolen from an Indian casino all hell breaks loose. A random stranger, John Smith, soon finds himself caught in the middle of the mayhem when he becomes the prime suspect. With a million dollar reward on offer for the safe return of the mask, the wrongly accused Smith begins dodging bullets from corrupt cops, assassins and a drop dead beautiful blonde - all determined to hunt him down and get their hands on the prize money."    

 No mention of Elvis impersonators, you'll notice. 
Given a) how important they are to the plot and b) the scientifically proven fact that Elvis impersonators make any film 16% better, this is probably a major flaw in the marketing.
 One of the Elvis impersonators is a Dwarf.   And nobody thought to mention this on the DVD cover? 
Think of all the potential sales lost because somebody didn't do their job properly. 

Ahem.

"Guns, Girls,Gambling" opens with a knackered Gary Oldman (Dressed as Elvis, obviously.) climbing aboard a bus in the Nevada desert. Then a gorgeous young woman steps on board, quotes some Edgar Allen Poe and opens up with a brace of pistols. 
   The story does that "start in the middle then skip back" trick, there's a knowing voice-over from Slater that brings in the Pocahontas story, a couple of running gags straight out of a screwball movie and at one point a character decides to deconstruct certain racial stereotypes while smacking our hero about. 

You think maybe this film is trying just a little too hard?

  Luckily they mostly get away with it. It's not the sort of movie that makes you ring up your mates and go "You need to see this." but it is more than entertaining enough for my liking.
  The storyline has multiple gun-toting nutters chasing our hero about, but thankfully you don't need a crib-sheet to keep track of  the teams. And the ending came as a genuine surprise to me. 
 Slater & co play their parts with a nod and a wink to the essential daftness, avoiding the temptation to get too wacky. Considering they are in a film with gun-toting Elvises, that can't have been easy.
 Action sequences - nothing too flashy or gory and none of them outstay their welcome.
I was  pleasantly surprised to find that the blonde from the cover (Yes, that is how she's credited. "The Blonde" ) is in it for more than one scene. Not always the case in this sort of film. 
 We never do find out why she's so big on Edgar Allen Poe. Makes a change from lame puns, I guess.

 So, to sum up. "Guns, Girls, Gambling" is maybe a bit too knowing for it's own good but if you can get past that, and you just want something none too taxing for a Saturday night, this should do the trick.   
 You may find that your enjoyment is enhanced by eating a big Doner Kebab at the same time. 
It's that kind of movie. 

 Time for some screenshots. 
 The King waits for a bus. 

A crazy woman gets on and starts spouting poetry.
I've had this happen to me. 
Funnily enough the mad person in question didn't look like this. 
They were older, fatter and female only in the loosest sense of the word .
Smelled like goat ass too.
I love UK public transport. 
Gary is understandably confused. 
John Smith getting an unfriendly reaction from Native Americans. Nobody is surprised by this. 
"Hi. I'm your compulsory female sidekick. I'm perky"
"That's nice...No offence but I think I'd rather have had the girl in the catsuit. She's got guns"
"By guns, you mean boobs, right?"
"No. I mean guns. Like this next guy's got."
 A midget Elvis packing heat.
I'm not even going to try and follow that. 

Here's the trailer. 

That's all folks. 

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Story: Birth

The other day fellow blogger NandiniDeka posted a challenge: Write a short story in 100 words or less.

Here's my go.

Birth

I’d always suspected that the baby wasn’t really mine.

Now I know I was right. I know I couldn't possibly be the father.  

Because when the time came, and my wife began screaming, it wasn‘t because of labour pains.

It was because the baby was chewing its way out. 
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