SID VICIOUS: THE REAL LIFE ZIGGY STARDUST

If anyone personified a rock star that falls from grace at the speed of light (1977-79) then look no further than the punk star Sid Vicious. He embodied everything a true rebel rock star should be. Tragic yes but the myth is enormous. David Bowie even based a whole album around a mythic fallen rock star, but Sid trully did live this doomed tale.

But forget about his untimly death and focus on what he brought to the table - excitment. With Sid you never knew what to expect, he was an agent provocataur and Mclaren saw this in him. He was a PR man's wet dream, he created sensationalism everywhere he went. And nowhere did he shine more brightly then when he was onstage. Underground filmmaker Fabrizio Federico who made a movie about Sid even said ''who cares that he wasnt the best bass player, punk wasnt about that, it was about chaos and showing the audience that anyone could do it, only difference was that Sid was born to be an icon, he was as good looking as James Dean, and the audience felt this too. They would push to be closer to Sid even though he wasnt the frontman, which is very rare, the only other person I can think had this effect was Ritchie James from the Manic Street Preachers. Sid would spit, jump, hit people with his bass, slash his chest, drip blood, verbally abuse the audience, and hit his bass strings with a fish. But most importantly he would connect with people.''

Early in the Pistols career Sid was quite tame onstage but he really came into his own skin during the Sex Pistols deranged 1978 USA tour of the South. During that tour Johnny Rotten had to work extra hard in order not to be overshadowed by Sid onstage. With ''I Need A Fix'' carved into his chest Sid really gave the Yanks a show with his outlaw antics. ''We're the best band in the fucking world!!!!'' he screams in Dallas, bonding with the punk groupies in the front, kissing them, taking drags off their smokes, and getting headbutted in the nose, creating a gurgling bloody mess, which created all those iconic photos of him covered in fresh blood. He was the personification of punk and while the audience celebrated him, Johnny Rotten envied his natural charisma. Sid made picking fights fun and ironic, ''Hey who just hit me in the head, it didnt hurt a bit so tough shit!.'' 

The Dallas gig was a blood bath and Sid played the audience like the devil would a fiddle, he looked great and created anarchy which was his real job, he was the enfant terrible who took the audience higher, ''this ones called Belsen! 1-2-3-4!!", even when he walks out during the encore for No Fun he flicks them the V sign, he simply loved not giving a fuck. At the end of the gig he almost comes to blows with his road manager Noel Monk because he wont let him bring his new groupie friends backstage, as the audience shouts at Noel ''leave him alone you bastard!".

After the gig a fan was wearing a leather bracelet, hand-crafted by a friend. Vicious told him he wanted it — and demanded he give it to him.   “I said, ‘I’ll trade you for yours.’ He had a dog collar on,” Kooda says. “He said, ‘I stole it from a dog. Ya can’t get much lower than that, can ya!’ I said, ‘Well, was the dog pregnant?’ For some reason, that set him off. So, he starts throwing punches at my face. I said, ‘Dude, this is Texas, you can die from screwin’ with people down here.’ ”

Then theres the gig at Randys Rodeo that has become one of the most legendary and dangerous punk gigs ever. As the band board the stage to the sounds of reggae coming out the PA system and crash into God Save The Queen you can feel it in the bootleg recording that theres serious tension in the air. In the film D.O.A you can see Sid losing his mind and pulling serial killer faces and shaking his head in spasms. He announces ''I want some pussy tonight'' as the audience screams, even goading the angry mob with ''you missed again you sucker!". As the rest of the band is audibly nervous this only makes Sid live up to his debauched reputation even more, ripping off his leather jacket and spitting at the photographers.

Search SO TOUGH: THE BOY BEHIND THE SID VICIOUS MYTH unflattering anecdotes about the Sex Pistols bassist that appear in the book is one in which, while going through heroin withdrawal, he simultaneously vomited and defecated on a groupie as she was performing oral sex on him.While stories like these are in no short supply, neither are fans like the barista, who continue to idolize Vicious — a junkie, accused murderer of his girlfriend, and by all accounts unable to play his instrument — nearly twenty-three years after he died of an overdose. The punk rock version of James Dean, Vicious solidified his fame by dying young (at age twenty-one), leaving behind memories of his notorious behavior and the mystery of girlfriend Nancy Spungen’s murder. Although he contributed little to punk music, Vicious remains its most famous name, and his cult has only grown thanks to T-shirts and posters bearing his likeness and slogans like “Don’t let them take you alive” and “Drugs Kill”, and especially the iconograph

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THE PUNK ROCK VERSION OF JAMES DEAN, VICIOUS SOLIDIFIED HIS FAME BY DYING YOUNG (AT AGE TWENTY-ONE), LEAVING BEHIND MEMORIES OF HIS NOTORIOUS BEHAVIOR AND THE MYSTERY OF GIRLFRIEND NANCY SPUNGEN’S MURDER. ALTHOUGH HE CONTRIBUTED LITTLE TO PUNK MUSIC, VICIOUS REMAINS ITS MOST FAMOUS NAME, AND HIS CULT HAS ONLY GROWN THANKS TO T-SHIRTS AND POSTERS BEARING HIS LIKENESS AND SLOGANS LIKE “DON’T LET THEM TAKE YOU ALIVE” AND “DRUGS KILL”, AND ESPECIALLY THE ICONOGRAPHIC 1986 

Search for:. The punk rock version of James Dean, Vicious solidified his fame by dying young (at age twenty-one), leaving behind memories of his notorious behavior and the mystery of girlfriend Nancy Spungen’s murder. Although he contributed little to punk music, Vicious remains its most famous name, and his cult has only grown thanks to T-shirts and posters bearing his likeness and slogans like “Don’t let them take you alive” and “Drugs Kill”, and especially the iconographic 1986 fil

With 300 Mexicans throwing full beer cans, plus a guy pulling a knife out on Sid, which is when he crashes his white Fender bass down into the audience coming close to killing someone, ''oh look Sid's guitar fell off''. Sid was so out of control during that gig, but he did warn them ''we dont want your free gifts you assholes!", he definitely yells at the audience more then Rotten, ''you can throw every fucking thing you've got we dont give a shit!". Even while getting pelted in the face he takes it like a champ ''hey the one who hit me with the beer can it hurt, but I dont care''. As the stage gets filled with pigs faces, cheeseburgers and God knows what Sid sneers his way through a shootout which the gig has now has become, "you cowboys are all faggots!" as he famously said.

As the 1978 USA tour progressed danger lurket at every turn, but Sid simply looked it straight in the eye. Whenever the band stopped on the highways for food cowboys would challenge them, Sid even cut his palm and let the blood run into his straks and egg breakfast and carried on eating as the red neck cowboy looked on in absolute horror. Needing heroin badly after a gig he got lost looking for a local dealers home address so the band had to abandon him to get to the next gig on time. He ended up vomiting and having a diarrhea attack on a transexuals chest after receiving oral. Pulled a fat spandexed groupie onto a bar and started having sex with her infront of papparazzi. Smashed his fist into the Kingfish backstage wall while wearing metal knuckle dusters, which still remains to this day. Famously exposed himself to a photographer before a gig in some revealing photos. Even at the bands hotel he got into an insane cold turkey fight with the bands security, proving to have super human strength while withdrawing from heroin addiction.

While Rotten was busy being a prima donna Sid even took up most of the bulk of the bands press interviews, appearing on the news talking about his childhood ''when I was 12 I was just a kid, when I was 13 to 15 I was a skin head, from 15 to 20 I've been a punk ''. Even during the bands only live radio interview on KSAN its Sid who provides the anarchy, ''Im illiterate I dont know what you're talking about'', telling the radio host ''I could go right in your mouth'', when the road crew yell them to keep doing the interview he says ''no one forces us into anything, we dont take orders'', putting on a funny rasta accent ''ask me a question I tell you no lie!! Everything you go twin twin/ shut your blood clot mami I cut you to ras''. He even gets philosophical ''rules are meant to be broken right, when there are no more rules and categorisations, when there are no niggars or whites, when theres no more punks, when theres no more dirt, when theres just people, thats is when things are gonna be ok''. Theres a moment when he prophecises his own death ''we'll probably be dead in two years me and him''. New songs are even discussed '' yes we've got one about South Africa about how the blacks are repressed so bad there, and like, thats not on and they're gonna rise up and they're gonna kill those people'' and ''we got one about God and its a real attack, and its played to the death march''. His own creed ''I dont think I just DO!". His dating life ''lets talk about sex I like American girls, Im talking about shoving it in!", then cutting off the DJ with a littany of ''blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, yap yap tap, belly ache belly ache....'' the interview ends with Sid asking to make a dedication to Dee Dee Ramone and then being surprised that Iggy Pop is still alive.

By the time the band arrived at Winterland in San Francisco it was like beating a dead horse, they had all fallen out exceot for Steve & Paul, the last gig was a shambles but Sid still gave it his all and you can actually hear him play bass and he sounds pretty good considering hes goose marching and pogoing all over the stage while the rest of the band looks miserable. But in the end as Freddie said ''nothing really matters'' the band went up in a blaze of glory, and getting maximum publicity, even being crowned Young Business Men Of The Year, and a large part of it was thanks to Sid's incredible gift of publicity, it came so naturally to him, he played the press like a maestro and took every opportunity to further stoke the gasoline fires that burned in his heart.

Black Sabbath's Dark Influence

Black Sabbath's very own name was inspired by a 1963 Boris Karloff horror classic by the Italian director Mario Bava which the band stumbled across one day, but the bands cinematic influence didnt stop there, to the point that if a filmmaker used their music on a soundtrack it would probably be the most badass horror film ever. Songs like 'Children From The Grave', 'Iron Man', 'The Wizard' have immense power to transport the listener to a dark realm that creates vivid and terrifying pictures in your minds eye.

The newest filmmaker to take his battered camcorder as he steps into another world is British born movie-maker Fabrizio Federico. He directs with such exuberance it seems as if he and the camera are bound together by a dark magic spell. 

Call it alchemy, the occult, mysticism - Not every filmmaker is prepared to bewitch the spirits into leading you artistically. 

Here are some examples of filmmaker's who did:

Lucifer Rising (1972)
Lilith (1964)
Pregnant (2016)
Attenberg (2010)
Last Chants For a Slow Dance (1977)
Gummo (1997) 
Performance (1970)
Rosemary's Baby (1966)
The Devils (1971)
The Witches (1966)
Starry Eyes (2014)
The First Power (1990)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

As a massive Black Sabbath fan Federico has based his movie 'Teddy Bears Live Forever' around songs lyrics from Sabbath's classic 'Paranoid' about a character losing their mind. The filmmakers life has been filled with drama, he moved to Italy when he was five years old after surviving a house fire, after which the gifted child soon took to painting and learning guitar at an early age. By the age of fifteen he had become a teen prodigy at guitar and art, in America he discovered underground cinema.

This talented and complex artist with a wicked sense of humour has become a symbol for DIY revolt. Driven and self taught Federico is a visual-maestro with a globe trotting streak, having already filmed in Spain, Cuba, Hungary, France, Poland, Germany, Bermuda and Morocco. All his works are self financed by banks that he conned instead of producers or film studios. 

The sounds of Black Sabbath have also influenced the soundtracks to his movies, even going to Aleister Crowleys home in Scotland and recording an album as MAO full of eerie guitar solo's and sounds.

His raw style includes the complete disposal of scripts, actors or any other cinema norm. His debut film Black Biscuit (2012) became notorious. Confrontations would erupt at the mere mention of the movie between film fans both rigid and spirited, young and old on internet film forums, or vitriolic reviews, even on radio and at public appearances. When his movie 'Pregnant' premiered in England a riot broke out when the film was turned off by the theatres manager.

By the time his next feature Pregnant (2015) was released his reputation for being a possessed talent created problems and controversy in rigid mainstream film institutions. During Pregnant's pre-production arson charge surfaced which coincided with his ill health and isolation around this time. By this time he had created a Ziggy Stardust alter-ego called Jett Hollywood (a filmmaker from Mars) who was responsible for the films The Evolution Of The Earth Angel and later Anarchy In The UK. Jett Hollywood committed cinema suicide.

In 2016 Federico ran the first Straight-Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival, which incorporated experimental filmmakers from across the world. His films have been called psychedelic, nightmarish and angelic, all executed with a Peter Pan sense of wonder. He has even been called ''the devils filmmaker''. His PINK8 film manifesto even caused his films to be banned from universities after it was discovered that film groups were screening his films on campus including his new film Loon (2017) which is about a folie a deux relationship.

THE EVIL OF MICHAEL MYERS

Just about every horror fan knows the story of Michael Myers. Lunatic, killed his older sister when he was six, sat silently in a mental institution until he was 21 and decided it was time to kill his little sister. However, as most slasher fans know, there’s no indication Laurie is his sister in the first film, nor that those are his motives. The franchise, including the sequel penned by John Carpenter, do the original film and Michael’s motives therein a great disservice by reducing him to an immortal simpleton who wants to kill his family. Michael Myers is more than that. He is a force of nature. He’s judgment incarnate. Cult filmmaker Fabrizio Federico thinks hes the ultimate reincarnation of evil, in a par with the devil.

Halloween, the original Halloween, isn’t about a lineage of evil, or psychic kids, or druid cults, or live streamed haunted houses or even Busta Rhymes. Halloween is about Michael Myers and, perhaps most importantly, the concepts of fear and responsibility. 

It’s about The Boogeyman, a specter of judgment and fear designed to scare children into behaving and punish those who don’t.  Slasher films, which Halloween is widely considered to have spurred to popularity, are notoriously conservative when it comes to sex, drugs, drinking, and any other form of fun a teenager might be having. However, I don’t think Halloween as a franchise approaches these issues in quite the same way. Yes, Michael Myers is killing teenagers who are drinking, smoking pot, and having sex, but I think these murders are primarily motivated by the fact that these teenagers are throwing off their responsibilities in a way that reminds Michael of his first victim, his older sister Judith.   

One of the most obvious qualities of Michael Myers that sets him apart from his slasher brethren is that he is a stalker. He is methodical and calculated. He observes, he judges, and only then does he act. He’s not bringing down terror and death on the children of those that wronged him or any other of the later slasher tropes. Michael Myers weighs his observations of his would-be victims on some unknowable scale, and once his decision has been made, he kills. 

Halloween (1978) opens with one of the most memorable sequences in horror film history. That infamous continuous Panaglide shot (not Stedicam as most folks think) exploring the Myers home forces us, unknowingly, into Michael’s point of view in the minutes before his first kill. It is Halloween 1963 and Michael Myers has been left in the care of his older sister Judith. Unfortunately, Michael has been mostly forgotten, Judith favoring hooking up with her boyfriend to babysitting her weird little brother that chose to be a clown for Halloween.    

The opening sequence starts with the camera gazing through the frosted glass door at a teenage girl and her boyfriend kissing. We then move past the living room window, where we see the continuation of our first on-screen instance of irresponsibility as well as his first victim, his own sister, shirking her babysitting duties to make out with her boyfriend. 

I think one very important insight on his sociopathy is this quote from Dr. Loomis: 

“I met him, fifteen years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding; and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes…the devil’s eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy’s eyes was purely and simply…evil.”   

That is after he picked up Michael after he stabbed his own sister to death! Yes. Mikey started very early. And the fact that he already had a depleted amount of empathy by that point is absolutely frightening. Michael just kills people without any remorse or reason to do so other than for the sake of it. And he can do it with the most stoic body-language and expressions imaginable. In fact, he doesn’t actually lack empathy. He’s completely incapable of such a concept. There are some very rare moments of emotion from him, but he always goes back to his normal, stoic, murderous self in no time. Both attempts to appeal to his humanity get through to them, but it doesn’t last as he simply kills the people who did it. And it’s that first part of the quote that particularly catches your attention when discussing his sociopathy. “No reason, no conscience, no understanding; and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong.”    

This is in line with the disorder to an absolute T. Sociopaths don’t even think twice about what’s right and wrong. They simply do what they do because they want to. And if anyone gets hurt because of it, too bad. It’s not their problem. Michael exemplifies this to the utmost degree by targeting innocent people for literally no reason at all.   

There are also signs of animal cruelty as well since he also kills dogs as well as humans. This is something that is seen in many actual examples of serial killers. They often kill and/or torture animals. And Michael does it remorselessly and unapologetically. He even eats one off-screen. There’s also his murder spree detailed in the expanded universe material. He is said to have killed an elementary school teacher and strung her up for the class to find. He also decapitated a beauty pageant winner. And he also gouged out a reporter’s eyes and replaced them with film reels. Afterwards, he goes on another random killing spree where he slices a child’s throat and kills people in some rather gruesome ways. Can you guess why he did all of this? If you’re guessing he did it for a reason, you’re dead wrong and you clearly haven’t been reading this profile up to this point.   

And while it isn’t obvious, he can be manipulative as well. While he doesn’t do it with words, he can strategically terrify people before trapping them. He is a hunter and he has to know his prey. He takes his time to torment Laurie by showing the bodies of his victims before attempting to kill her. With Lynda, he puts a bedsheet over his head and glasses on to make her think he’s her boyfriend just before brutally strangling her with a phone cord. There are also his attempts to mess with Loomis as he knows the man will stop at nothing to put him down. He will drive him to the brink of death by exhaustion and heart failure just to get back at him. While one could say this is revenge, it’s likely for the same (lack of a) reason he does anything other than eat, drink, and breath. There are signs of him being a sadist, though. Leaving the bodies in elaborate positions for people to find them have no real purpose other than to freak out anyone who may come across them. It’s a form of psychological torment. The same cannot definitively be said for his desire for killing. 

There is absolutely no reason for what he does. It’s not like he particularly wants to as far as we know, but he doesn’t feel remorse about it either.   While the Joker kills people simply for the sake of killing people because it amuses him, there is still a humanizing purpose behind it: amusement. Any person can understand wanting to be amused by something even if the method of amusement is despicable in your eyes. Michael doesn’t even have that much. And that makes him exponentially scarier. It’s not surprising that most people consider him to not even be a human being. Combined with the fact that he’s very difficult to kill, he doesn’t show any signs of being anything other than what Loomis perceives him to be: purely and simply evil. Out of all the characters I’ve profiled, he is definitely the worst of the worst. Even though his crimes may not hold a candle to many of the others, his utterly inhuman nature is what sets him apart.

Jim Morrison & The Power Of Crowd Control

On August 3rd 1968, while 'Hello I Love You' is 1# on the national charts The Doors are on the road, having just rocked The Singer Bowl in NYC, Morrison is at his career best, creating controled chaos, resulting in riots and gaining them front page national headlines. By this stage Jim was now a charismatic psychedelic preacher winding up his fans with his dark poetry, shamanic dancing and antagonistic experimental theatre. The Cleveland gig starts off very shambolically, Jim had been backstage with fans smoking joints and drinking whiskey so by the time Break On Through ramps up the audience it sounds like satanic sludge vamp. 

Filmmaker Fabrizio Federico has studied crowd control and is amazed by Morrison's tactics.  The band are on form keeping a nihilistic demented nightmare vibe going as Jim threatens the audience ''if you dont keep quiet and get real soft im gonna come down there and kill some people!". The shenanigans continue when he starts teasing them ''hey listen I wanna tell you the history of me. I dont know how I got here but here I am''. Jim was fascinated with crowd control ever since attending college, even devouring Crowds & Power' by Elias Canetti. He states on asking questions: "On the questioner the effect is a feeling of enhanced power. He enjoys this and consequentially asks more and more questions; every answer he receives is an act of submission. Personal freedom consists largely in having a defense against questions. The most blatant tyranny is the one which asks the most blatant questions." During the gig Jim asked the crowd ''hey what do you guys wanna hear?'' and also ''what are we gonna get? We're gonna get everything!" Jim once told his Florida classmate Chris Kallivokas, from his Collective Behavior class, "You've got to make them believe you're doing them a favor by being onstage. The more abusive you are, the more they love it."

Canetti also describes a crowd as being a single living organism ''Ideally, all are equal there; no distinctions count, not even sex. The man pressed against him is the same as himself. He feels him as he feels himself. Suddenly it is as though everything were happening in one and the same body. This is perhaps one of the reasons why a crowd seeks to close in on itself: it wants to rid each individual as completely as possible of the fear of being touched. The more fiercely people press together, the more certain they feel that they do not fear each other. This reversal of the fear of being touched belongs to the nature of crowds. The feeling of relief is most striking where the density of the crowd is the greatest.''

Jim talked to the audience as one, ''Get it real soft, you know what im talking about, feels real good, you got a real dirty mind doncha'' - "i want you to feel it deep inside.''

Two years before his death with The Doors coming for their first Florida concert, Chris Kallivokas left a message with his old friend's record company. He says Jim called him back, loving life. "The chicks we get, the money. . . . It's great." "So that crowd control works," Kallivokas teased, talking about theories that intrigued Jim in Collective Behavior class at FSU. He said Jim answered: "You've got to make them believe you're doing them a favor by being onstage. The more abusive you are, the more they love it."

Canetti goes on to classify crowds according to their prevailing emotions, exploring how these dynamics shape everything from political movements to religion to music concerts and how they shed light on the complexities and true meaning of power.

Canetti outlines the four key defining attributes found in varying degrees in any crowd: The crowd always wants to grow. 1) There are no natural boundaries to its growth. Where such boundaries have been artificially created — e.g. in all institutions which are used for the preservation of closed crowds — an eruption of the crowd is always possible and will, in fact, happen from time to time. There are no institutions which can be absolutely relied on to prevent the growth of the crowd once and for all. 2) Within the crowd there is equality. This is absolute and indisputable and never questioned by the crowd itself. It is of fundamental importance and one might even define a crowd as a state of absolute equality. A head is a head, an arm is an arm, and differences between individual heads and arms are irrelevant. It is for the sake of this equality that people become a crowd and they need to overlook anything which might detract from it. All demands for justice and all theories of equality ultimately derive their energy from the actual experience of equality familiar to anyone who has been part of a crowd. 3) The crowd loves density. It can never feel too dense. Nothing must stand between its parts or divide them; everything must be the crowd itself. The feeling of density is strongest in the moment of discharge. One day it may be possible to determine this density more accurately and even to measure it. 4) The crowd needs a direction. It is in movement and it moves towards a goal. The direction, which is common to all its members, strengthens the feeling of equality. A goal outside the individual members and common to all of them drives underground all the private differing goals which are fatal to the crowd as such. Direction is essential for the continuing existence of the crowd. Its constant fear of disintegration means that it will accept any goal. A crowd exists so long as it has an unattained goal.

“He was always like that, even from the beginning,” Doors guitarist Robby Krieger tells me today. “We just dealt with it. That was part of the reason that people wanted to see us, they wanted to see what would happen next. It was kinda crazy but we were not a band that just played the same set every night the same way. It was always different and Jim would always lead us somewhere that we didn’t go the night before. He just liked to f*** with people. He hated the fact that some of these bands would just play the same songs night after night the same way and all of us were from a jazz-influenced place, where you did improvisation. So every night the song was different, which kept it interesting.”

The Doors take the stage, and the delay further aggravates the impatient audience. As soon as the Doors appear, they are greeted with a thunderous assault of screaming fans, and segments of the crowd begin rushing the stage. A column of policemen are stationed at the front of the platform to curtail this onrush of people, while Morrison fiercely jostles his way through them to face the crowd. The chaos escalates continuously during the performance, with fights erupting throughout the hall. Morrison who usually sings with a very precise and articulate emphasis on the lyrics, and most of the time actually appears to be substantially more sober than the crowd, but in Cleveland he is blind drunk and stoned. Morrison spun around and ground the songs out half-heartedly, ad libbing, improvising, doing an ominous dance. Hysteria was building. Morrison shrieked, moaned, gyrated, and minced to the edge of the stage, hovering. Hands reached out and grabbed him and the cops had to pry them away. The camera crew ducked a piece of broken chair which came flying onto the stage. Morrison caught it and heaved it back into the crowd. The Doors were hardly visible from any angle because there were about twenty cops onstage." By the time the Doors begin to perform "When The Musics Over," the crowd is in an incredible uproar. Morrison vainly attempts to "sssshhhh" the audience and bum cigarettes ''anyone got a Marlboro? They're the best'', but there is no response and he begins the opening stanzas of the song, Morrison drifts into an expansive passage of poetry. With decidedly steady pacing, he advances through a series of poems, then teases the rowdy audience ''are you reeeeaaadddy???", until he unexpectedly screams, "We want the world & we want it NOW!!!".

On some nights Jim has the atmosphere of 'I'm going down and I'm taking you guys with me' but that did disguise his power to evoke an audience reaction wherever he played. He then starts asking the audience ''hey you guys what do you wanna hear? - one at a time!'' as the whole crowd screams out song titles. During the gig Morrison has a playful but genuine menace in his voice, especially while screaming 'Five To One' over its relentless proto-heavy metal riff. Sounding both threatening and sinister. ''Hey listen we travel from city to city, and we're from California so lets have some fun''. By the time the funky Soul Kitchen and the finale Light My Fire rolls around the audience is in a rapture of excitment. By the end of the Light My Fire solos are over Morrison is trying to quiet the audience down ''come on do it, be quiet!". And then just like that in a flash The Doors have left the building.

Freud said that a crowd demands “strength or even violence” of its leaders: “It wants to be ruled and oppressed and to fear its master”. Sigmund Freud stated that groups tend to have the characteristics of “weakness of intellectual ability,…lack of emotional restraint,...incapacity for moderation and delay, [and] the inclination to exceed every limit in the expression of emotion.” Freud went on to say that groups “show an unmistakable picture of a regression of mental activity to an earlier stage such as…children” 

How to deflect questions

1. Enlist the help of a friend - "oh come on you know they dont want to talk about that.''
2. Prepare a canned answer in advance - Let's say you're going into an interview and [you know they will] ask about your managerial experience and you don't have much," she says. "You can use their question as the topic of your answer or just a pivot point. Say, 'I'm so glad you asked! One of the reasons I'm looking for new opportunities is that I anticipate much growth opportunity for managing teams, and that's work I really enjoy and do well."
3. Use a bridge response to chance the subject - if you really don't care to discuss your views on healthcare with someone, talk about a headline-grabbing (and non-controversial) news story that's tangentially related. According to manuals your classic bridge phrases are going to be "I don't know about that, but here's something interesting…" and "I can't tell you that for sure, but here's something I do know…"
4. Restate & Re-frame the question - Here are your key phrases: "I think what you're really trying to ask me is…" and "I think what you're really trying to get at is…." For example, if Aunt Margaret asks when you're going to finally get promoted, you can respond with something like, "I think what you're really trying to ask me is how I'm enjoying this exciting time in my career," and go on from there.
5. Excuse your self - tell them you need to go to the restroom.
6. Be straight forward about feeling uncomfortable - "Be direct and then pivot,". It's always within your rights to respond to an unwanted question with something like, "It's kind of emotionally fraught, so I'd rather not talk about it. But I'd love to hear about your new [project/job/baby/house]!" See, that wasn't so hard!
7. Use humour - For example, an intrusive "How much money do you make?" can be waved off with a simple joke, like, "Not enough!" Most people will realize they've overstepped and change the subject.
8. Answer ambiguously - If someone asks why you haven't quit your miserable job yet to look for a new one, a simple "Who knows? I've still gotta pay the bills in the meantime!" will do. To, "When are you going to graduate?" respond with a vague, "I'm not sure, I guess we'll see!"
9. Offer advice instead of an answer - For example, if someone asks about your recent weight loss and you don't want to get into the gritty details, simply share a tip about your favorite trainer in town and offer to put the person in touch with them. Or, rather than answering an invasive question about your recent breakup, tell the group about a book recommendation that helped you heal after the separation.
10. Shame them - Do it in a joking way to keep things light. Something like, "Wow, you're quite the curious one, aren't you?" or "Whoa, I think that's a bit heavy for a party" will shut things down pretty quickly.
11. Deflect with a compliment - If someone comments on your weight loss or gain in a way that makes you uncomfortable, for example, you could compliment their own appearance. Or, if someone asks you the inevitable "When are you getting married?" or "When are you having kids?" you can change the subject by complimenting the asker's beautiful wedding a few years ago or saying something nice about their child's latest accomplishment. Distraction is key!
12. Ask a question of your own - If they ask about your relationship status, try something like, "Are you worried that I'm lonely?" To a question about your dissertation or job search, you can say, "Are you concerned about my financial status?"
13. Ask for advice - For example, if a married person asks you why you're not engaged to your partner yet, you can ask them for their tips on making a relationship work long-term. If someone asks you personal questions about your children or parenting, ask them for tips on how they raised their own kids effectively.
14. Turn the tables - If they ask about your relationship, evade the question by asking about theirs. If they ask about your frustrating boss at work, ask them how their own job is going.
15. Create a distraction - ''does anybody want dessert?'' or pop in a movie, or to start a game of football. Especially in a crowd, it's easy to pretend you didn't hear the asker's question and turn to another family member to start a new activity.
16. Address a related but safer topic - When you're asked about your finances, for example, shift into a story about how you recently started crafting a more effective budget. Instead of answering questions about why you were recently laid off, talk about your new job or how you're approaching your job hunt. Act as if you're addressing exactly what they asked, and the questioner will probably drop it.
17. Respond with a general answer - For example, if someone asks you about your personal political views around a controversial subject, talk about how frustrated you are with the political climate in general, or mention how great it would be if everyone could come together to have a productive dialogue. In particular, if you shift the tone from negative to positive, the nosy questioner will have to be the downer if they want to bring the conversation back to the original question.

1. Acknowledge the question without answering it.

(“That’s a good question, and I think we should consider the implications by looking at…” [avoiding an answer].)

2. Ignore the question completely.

However, this is a high-risk approach because the interviewer may repeat the question or reword it slightly to return to the subject. This tends to make the interviewee look evasive.

3. Question the question.

(a) Request clarification or further information about the question. This works as a delaying tactic in a short interview.
(b) Reflect the question back to the interviewer (“Why do you ask me that?”)

4. Attack the question,

on the basis of:
(a) The question fails to tackle the important issue.
(b) The question is based on a false assumption.
(c) The question is factually inaccurate.
(d) The question is too personal or objectionable.

5. Decline to answer.

Refuse to answer on the basis that it is not your area of responsibility. (“You will have to ask [name, or ‘someone else’] about that because I’m not involved at all in that part of the situation.”)

6. Give an incomplete answer.

(a) Partial answer.
(b) Start to answer but change the subject.
(c) Negative answer. You state what won’t happen instead of what will happen.

7. State or imply the question has already been answered.

(“I’m not going to go over old ground.”)

8. Defer to the will of others.

Refer to the will of constituents or shareholders etc and imply you are doing your duty by complying with their will. (“Shareholders have asked me to take a firm line on this issue.”)

PARANOID ALICE - ''We write the greatest songs and wear the best jeans.''

 

The rock band Paranoid Alice is preparing to go supernova with their huge songs celebrating stardom, black magic and tight jeans. The three-piece have declared that they have the best jeans in the music industry and that their music is so loud it creates an orgasm in the listeners pants.

''As soon as the Covid situation is over we'll go on the road and play everywhere, our last gig will be in Liverpool as a tribute to The Beatles who we have so much in common with.''

The band have their sights on Hollywood and also want to create the soundtrack for Avatar 2 stating that their music is the future of rock.

Stay tuned for their 1st gig of 2021 soon.

Top 20 Badass Blaxploitation Films, Can you dig it?

 

No other genre has been as fly as the 1970's bad ass Blaxploitation phenomenon. These movies had a special thrilling power to make you feel 10ft tall, with a mojo tooth, and wha-wha guitar licks gallore underground filmmaker Fabrizio Federico gives you the lowdown on his Top 20 favourite.

1) Dolemite (1975)

2) The Mack (1973)

3) Sweet Sweetbacks Badassss Song (1971)

4) Black Gunn (1972)

5) Superfly (1972)

6) Peety Wheatstraw (1977)

7) Trick Baby (1972)

8) Boss Nigger (1975)

9) The Education Of Sonny Carson (1974)

10) Coffy (1973)

11) Hit Man (1972)

12) Cooley High (1975)

13) Trouble Man (1972)

14) Black Gestapo (1975)

15) Foxy Brown (1974)

16) Black Shampoo (1976)

17) Willie Dynamite (1974)

18) Black Caesar (1973)

19) Three The Hard Way (1974)

20) Truck Turner (1974)

With its main years of production being between 1972 and 1975, blaxploitation cinema was a contradictory, confrontational and controversial beast that both smashed and reinforced stereotypes of ‘blackness’, reflected and exaggerated life on the streets and in the ghettos and, despite its crossover appeal with white audiences, alienated as many viewers, critics and activist groups as it attracted. 

Blaxploitation’s often regressive representation of African-American women and its numerous anti-hero pimps and pushers were elements that drew criticism from all corners. 

On the positive front, African-American music, fashions, celebrities, social issues and political viewpoints became regular sights and sounds on the big screen as a wave of movies capitalised on the unexpected box office success of these classics.