so i’m laying on my bed…
listening to the rain pour and die
just to pour again
actually wishing for an insomnia attack
yes i actually call them that
it’s just like asthma
you never really know when it’s gonna hit
i wish it would hit now
i feel like being so creative
but my eye’s are giving me a deadline of about an hour
so here are some thoughts for the early sunday morning:

obscure thoughts are the best kind of thoughts
because you can say them out loud, and still
no one will know what you’re thinking about

i’m having way too many jekyll and hyde fights with myself lately.
it feels so much easier to slip away
but i can’t find it in me to let go completely

rain streaming down my window
my cat’s purring
my dog’s snoring
i could listen to these all at once forever
and die happy

insomnia has a tendency to become a choice rather than an illness
at least for me
at least for now

clarity is a rarity
and i can’t find it after i sleep
i only reach it when i’m awake

and now i say goodnight moon
goodnight stars
goodnight love
wherever you are
falling asleep to the brilliance that is Chaplin
hoping that tomorrow will keep me relaxed

smile
though your heart is breaking
smile
even though it’s aching
when there are clouds in the sky
you’ll get by
if you smile
through your tears and sorrow
smile
and maybe tomorrow
the sun will shine through
for you
if you just
smile

Well, if you’re back, Sean, I suppose I should post more then once every 10 days or so. So your NANO novel involved transexual dragons? Interesting. I’ll have to read it one of these days.

I’m agreed about Christmas. Everyone acts like perfect, Norman Rockwell people for a few days, then goes back to screaming at each other for the rest of the year. And of course, Christmas and birthdays are the only time people are supposed to give gifts to each other, or even be nice to each other[1].

There isn’t any real honesty in it. It’s all a facade. Which is why I thought this song from the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde musical would be appropriate.

[1] “And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, one girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.” – Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Warning: this is the non-thinking, gut reaction part of me. I’m frustrated and hurt. I want “Subject B” to like me. He doesn’t.

What more can I say? I’m diappointed.  I just wanted to let you know my life isn’t bubble-wrapped. This is where correct thinking (Mr. Hyde) meets real life (Dr. Jekyll), and just like in the book, the conflict isn’t for a pansy. Dr. Jekyll brutally murdered my dreams of happiness, and now Mr. Hyde must deal with the fall out.

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” I Cor. 10:13

It’s a good thing that God’s plan remains bigger than my limited understanding. I will hope in God.

“Jesus Christ is a name, not a swear word.”

This fat-stacked headline was red-lettered boldly on the back of the semi that I cannot help but assume was trying to introduce me to the aforementioned Christ Himself in person, by way of steamrolling my puny convertible to smithereens as I was being forced onto the California Freeway last week.

Perhaps the publicly reproachful driver felt, as he muttered words of encouragement to himself, foiled in his efforts to separate my soul from my body, that perhaps I was a pro-choice supporter, and he could feel sure that another in The Crusade might tag me later – and I’d plummet downward, instead.

“Jesus! That was close!” I said to my beautiful assistant, Lacey, my passenger.

Although the driver could not hear – he was, by then, far ahead of me, blowing the doors off California’s law against truckers driving faster than 55 mph – it DID give me some satisfaction to say it.

The trucker DOES make a point, however, that I’ll wager he himself is too ignorant to know he’s making.

Words – particularly names – have enormous power.

Take my own. You might as well. There are an awful lot of Elizabeths out there.

So many, in fact, Elizabeth Stone wrote a Lives column in the New York Times Magazine about an online gathering of Elizabeths in May, 1999 – an article which obviously caught my eye – and I, obviously not being shy, wrote the New York Times to tell them, and they, obviously tickled by my response, even published it.*

[READ THE LETTER AT THE END OF THIS POST.]

(So: on my tombstone, or in my obituary, someone PLEASE mention that I was at least ONE time published in The Grey Lady?** Thank you. Much obliged.)

To carry on:

Unlike the many Liz, Lizzie, Bess, Libby, Bitsy, Bette, Betsy (the Elizabeth who birthed me is one), Belle, Beth, Bettina, Eliza, Lisa, Liza, Tibby, and the list goes on ad infinitum, I myself prefer: “Elizabeth,” the anglicized form of the original Hebrew name “Elisheva,” meaning “my G-d is an oath.”

What “my G-d is an oath” means, though, I’m not sure.

People, when I introduce myself, nearly always try to be kind of smooth, and say: “So… do you go by ‘Elizabeth,’ or…” Then they trail off, sort of expecting me to fill in one of the above nicknames.

(Sometimes, though, they just insert the horrid “Liz.” Which is not horrid, of course, on some people. Just horrid on ME.)

Which means I have to jump in quickly with: “Yes, ‘Elizabeth.’ It’s a few more syllables, but I’m worth it.”

(Actually? My good friends, and even my oldest daughter, call me “Tish,” a nickname I got dubbed with by someone whom I love with all my heart – but that’s another story.)

I’d often heard rumors that medics, in efforts to revive someone, will call their name, but I’d dismissed it until I’d reluctantly found myself headed to the Emergency Room with yet ANOTHER concussion (I’ve been told that if I were a pro athlete, I’d be forced into retirement.)

Promptly, and to the extreme embarrassment of everyone – except, of course, me – I dropped like a stone, right at the nurses’ check-in station, galvanizing everyone into action.

Although I recall little of the actual dive downward, I DO remember two things:

A sharp pain in my chest where a cruel nurse helpfully twisted my skin sharply to revive me – which, although it certainly focused my attention, even THAT didn’t pull me out of the fog I was in – until I heard the nurse ask one of my kids: “What’s her name?”

Naturally, in standard kid-fashion, I heard the kids go: “What?”

As if the nurse has asked instead:

“What is the cosine derivative of x minus the square root of pi?”

“Her NAME,” the nurse asked again. “What is her NAME?”

“Oh,” they said. “Elizabeth.”

In their defense, I think they had to stop for a moment and remember my name isn’t actually MOM.

When the nurse started barking “Elizabeth! Elizabeth!” in that demanding sort of way, it really DID pull me back. Sort of the same way your own grownups do when you’re a kid and you get the call from your bed: “Get up! The bus will be here any minute.”

Calling my name brought me back from Neverland in the oddest sort of way that confirmed the rumor: it turned out to be a sort of Dr. Jekyll experiment on my own self that left me with a “Dang! It’s TRUE!” feeling, wondering what ELSE I’d heard that might ALSO be true.

Jesus Christ! There’s a whole world of weirdness out there to discover!

Hopefully, though, I won’t have to get concussed or run over to find them all out.

# # #

* Where Everybody Knew My Name

Published: Sunday, May 30, 1999

Elizabeth Stone’s Lives column (May 9) on the on-line gathering of Elizabeths reflected perfectly the trend for small groups to coalesce on the Internet based on hobbies, interests or random commonalities like names. The Internet, vast as it is, seems to spark a small-town quilting-bee longing in many users.

Of course, there was another reason Stone’s column caught my attention. I’m also an Elizabeth. Maybe I’ll send her an E-mail.

Elizabeth Bushey
Middletown, N.Y.

** “The Grey Lady” is the nickname journalists have for the prestigious, much-revered New York Times.

You know me – I’m a crusader for the truth. I aim in this blog for absolute accuracy 54% of the time – that’s more than half. So when I discover that I have inadvertantly made a mistake it upsets me. Not a huge amount, admittedly, but a bit. Enough to write this entry, put it that way.

See, I was questioned on my sources for the entry ‘Joseph Manton’s Huge Bottom’ (http://londonparticulars.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/joseph-mantons-huge-bottom/) in which I recounted the tale of how the gunsmith Joseph Manton encountered a highwayman while crossing Hounslow Heath. To briefly recount, Manton damned the highwayman for his insolence, as Manton’s own firm of gunsmiths had manufactured the highwayman’s gun. The highwayman, slick as you like, complimented Manton for his craftsmanship but complained that the gun was a rip-off. Therefore, he robbed Manton of precisely the price of the pistol and no more. A couple of days ago, I found this comment on the entry:

Tom, just out of curiosity – where did you get this story from? I haven’t seen it in any of my books where Joe Manton is mentioned.

“No problem,” I thought, “I’ll just have a look in my own library and… well, God be damned.” I couldn’t for the life of me remember where I’d read that tale. I eventually tracked it down to one of those “Did You Know?” kind of books. You know, the ones that don’t have a bibliography. Anyway, they must have got it from somewhere, but damned if I can find it. So, for now, let’s say this one is apocryphal. Unless anyone knows any better.

Actually, I should have been more careful – I’ve dismissed other “facts” with less evidence. For instance, there’s a tale that gets forwarded to me in my capacity as a chap known to be a fan of London and steam-powered things. This tale goes that the people of East London were appalled by the sight of the first steam locomotive of the London and Greenwich Railway. The solution devised by the Board of Directors was to build a new locomotive that was shaped like a ship, because there are lots of those in East London anyway. I have not, however, found any mention of this in books about the London and Greenwich Railway. Even the ones with a full stocklist. It seems rather unlikely, and in any case, this would do nothing to disguise the train’s load, nor would it reduce the greater nuisances of noise and sparks. The closest I’ve been able to find was mention of a ship used by Arctic explorer John Franklin called the Erebus, which was converted to steam power using parts from a locomotive of the London and Greenwich Railway. So you see, I do have some integrity.

EDIT: A previous version of this entry was even worse.

Funk-rap-hardcore-metal-afro: misturas marcam os estilos das duas bandas

Conheça o som no MySpace das bandas: Freak Brotherz e Dancing Demons.

The impossible happened. For months, I successfully turned myself into a character I came to know as Mr. Hyde many many times. There were no noticeable side effects of this potion… until now. Today I woke up, greeted the new day and then realized that I quite literally was not myself. Looking down, I realized that the arm I saw was not my own. At first, I failed to realize the significance of this. Then, it hit me.

I went to bed as myself, Dr. Henry Jekyll. When I woke up to the new day, I was in the body of Mr. Edward Hyde. There was no need for me to swallow the potion. I already was what for months I had had to drink a potion to be. The change was automatic and this immediately made me panic.

“At the sight that met my eyes, my blood was changed into something exquisitely thin and icy. Yes, I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde” (Stevenson 92).

We enjoyed our dinner. The conversations had were flitty and delightful. We skimmed over countless topics and picked a bone or two before moving onto the next one. I had not realized just how much we had all drifted away since I became preoccupied with something else until the party tonight. But, that’s not all.

A friend of mine (possibly the dearest of all) by the name of Utterson has become increasingly concerned with my welfare recently. He has reason to be alarmed, I know, but I could not help but feel anger rushing to my temples. I am quite sure I hid my frustration and anger successfully, but even so, it may have been detected. Utterson is a sharp man and I have always respected him. He interrogated me on a sore subject: my “friend” Mr. Hyde. I could not tell him the truth, so this is what I said:

“My good Utterson, this is very good of you; this is downright good of you, and I cannot find words to thank you in. I believe you fully; I would trust you before any man alive-ay, before myself, if I could make the choice; but indeed it isn’t what you fancy; it is not so bad as that; and just to put your good heart at rest, I will tell you one thing: the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde. I give you my hand upon that; and I thank you again and again; and I want to add one little word, Utterson, that I’m sure you’ll take in good part: this is a private matter, and I beg of you to let it sleep” (Stevenson 26).

I was touched by his concern, truly I was, and he did not appear taken aback in the least, which I was pleased to see. I was determined to put my foot down – in a nice way – and I believe that I did just that. Someday I will tell him about Mr. Hyde.

After quite some time of staying distant from old friends of mine, I have decided that I need to give them some time. I am almost certain that they are growing wary and suspicious of my disappearances though they probably do not feel that they are inclined to ask what I have been up to in recent weeks and months. I am throwing a dinner party in hopes that any suspicions will diminish and not be brought to my attention in the future.

The planned cuisine and table design?

Poole has been given specific directions to orchestrate all of the maids not working tonight and arrange for the table to be decorated accordingly. In the end, it will look like this (even in this modern world, I like to stay traditional):

I am having my main chef prepare a menu that will ensure my dear friends I am still the same old Dr. Harry Jekyll they’ve known nearly all their lives. It will be served a la Russe, for we should fancy to discuss matters without being interrupted, I am sure.

• First Course: Raw oysters
• Second Course: A choice of either Vermicelli or Turtle Soup
• Third Course: Venison
• Fourth Course: Salad with crusty bread and butter
• Dessert: Bon bons

After dessert, I am encouraging the men to gather in the parlour for tea or coffee. I am trying my best to put forth a false front to fool my dear friends. We shall see how tonight goes.

Ah, the mad scientist.  Where would horror be without Dr. Frankenstein, Jekyll, Sardonicus, and the countless other souls who pushed the bounds of science into God’s domain, only to perish for their efforts?  Of course, there aren’t any real mad scientists out there… are there?

Well, Tesla’s neighbors might have argued.  Besides his somewhat fanciful claims that he could split the Earth with a few well timed explosions, his experiments in broadcast power resulted in massive Tesla coils, hundreds of feet tall, that drew down lightning on the land around them.  Of course, then he told his backer that he was planning on offering electricity to the world for free.  Yeah, guess how quickly those checks stopped being signed.

And, of course, one could easily list Oppenheimer and the other men behind the Manhattan Project as mad scientists, albeit rather more successful ones.  Oppenheimer even had the necessary flair for the dramatic.  “I am become Death, destroyer of worlds,” anyone?

Even the fictional mad scientists aren’t necessarily that out there, in the long run.  Dr. Jekyll’s mysterious salts and ethers that warped the physical form and drove men mad?  Well, what would you say cocaine and other exotic drugs are?  It seems the good doctor accidentally may have created one of the first designer drugs.  And even Baron Doctor Victor von Frankenstein, who raised the dead, seems to have had a real-life counterpart.

But, of course, there aren’t any real mad scientists around today.  Tesla and the like… they were from an era when science was expanding so rapidly that anything seemed possible.  These days, we’ve got a better grasp on things.

And then you hear about DARPA, and their efforts to make cyborg insects, and maybe it’s not so far-fetched after all.  The mad scientists just have the government signing their checks now.

Mad science.  Is it really a bad thing?  Is there a boundary beyond which man wasn’t meant to explore?  That’s one of the hardest questions, and one that’s inspired an entire field of study (scientific ethics).  Some people have very strong opinions that scientists go too far, too fast – people like Mary Shelley and Michael Crichton.  Other people think that science isn’t going far enough fast enough, that it’s being held back unfairly by people’s fears.  What’s the answer?  Really, it’s rather hard to find one.  The only answer everybody seems to agree on is that if something goes wrong, you can blame the scientists.

Is it any wonder that some of them go a little mad?

Speaking of returning unholy, cobbled together bits of the dead and buried to animate mockeries of life, take a look at http://darklylit.wordpress.com, or search for DarklyLit on iTunes and take a listen.  It’s a new podcast I’m working on, where I’ll be doing free readings of public domain dark fiction, and discussing it on alternate weeks.  I’ve got the permission of Nox Arcana to use their music on the podcast (go listen to them now – www.noxarcana.com – they’re great), and I hope to help bring some of the classics back to the public eye.  This week, I pretty well just introduce the podcast.  If you’d rather wait until I’m in the thick of things, then tune in next week for my reading of The Tell-Tale Heart.

Just in time for Halloween.

I haven’t even started planning what I’m going to do for Halloween.  I still have a wig and costume (pirate) from last year that cost me a whopping $140 and after attending 2 very boring parties, I swore never to spend that much on a costume again.

I did come in 4th place, though and I won a ugly green mug, that I hide in the back of my cupboard because I can’t stand looking at it.

I’m saving it as a Christmas gift for someone I don’t really like.

Hopefully they never read this blog.

If your in the mood to do some Christmas shopping and are looking for some best seller books then  do your shopping on Amazon Best Sellers List.

1LIVE
Donnerstag, 22. Oktober 2009
23 Uhr

Londons Straßen liegen in Dunkelheit und Nebel: Willkommener Schutz für den gewissenlosen und grausamen Mann, der Kinder und Frauen quält, Männer betrügt und mordet. Mr. Hyde heißt das Monster. Und immer wieder führen seine Spuren zum Haus des angesehenen Arztes Dr. Jekyll.

Dessen Freunde sind schon seit längerem alarmiert: Der Arzt experimentiert mit alchimistischen Formeln und hat den Rahmen der “Heilkunde” längst verlassen. Niemand weiß, was genau er sucht. Bis die Verbindung zum Mörder Hyde auch die Polizei auf den Plan ruft.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) verbrannte den ersten Entwurf zu dieser Erzählung, nachdem seine Frau sich über fehlende “Moral” beklagt hatte. Die Endfassung wurde zum größten Publikumserfolg des Autors und wurde mehrfach verfilmt und als Musical aufgeführt.

©WDR

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)

 

 

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a 1971 UK film based on the short story Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film was made by British studio Hammer Film Productions and was their second adaptation of the story after their 1960 film The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll.

Cast:

Ralph Bates as Dr. Jekyll

Martine Beswick as Sister Hyde

Gerald Sim as Professor Robertson   

Buy this title on DVD

Tagline: The sexual transformation of a man into a woman will actually take place before your very eyes!

Trivia:

• Husband and wife Ralph Bates and Virginia Wetherell first met as they prepared to shoot the scene in which Bates as Dr. Jekyll kills the prostitute played by Wetherell.
• Caroline Munro was offered the part of Sister Hyde but refused because it required some nudity.
• The BBFC requested cuts to remove the inter-cutting of a murder and a rabbit gutting, and to edit a bedroom murder and the stabbing of Professor Robertson. The bedroom murder was shortened though Hammer re-edited the stabbing of the doctor to comprise flash shots of earlier killings. Despite initial BBFC objections the film was then passed, and all later releases feature this same edited print.

27 x 40 Movie Poster

Martine Beswick

1LiVE
Donnerstag, 15. Oktober 2009
23 Uhr

Londons Straßen liegen in Dunkelheit und Nebel: Willkommener Schutz für den gewissenlosen und grausamen Mann, der Kinder und Frauen quält, Männer betrügt und mordet. Mr. Hyde heißt das Monster. Und immer wieder führen seine Spuren zum Haus des angesehenen Arztes Dr. Jekyll.

Dessen Freunde sind schon seit längerem alarmiert: Der Arzt experimentiert mit alchimistischen Formeln und hat den Rahmen der “Heilkunde” längst verlassen. Niemand weiß, was genau er sucht. Bis die Verbindung zum Mörder Hyde auch die Polizei auf den Plan ruft.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) verbrannte den ersten Entwurf zu dieser Erzählung, nachdem seine Frau sich über fehlende “Moral” beklagt hatte. Die Endfassung wurde zum größten Publikumserfolg des Autors und wurde mehrfach verfilmt und als Musical aufgeführt.

Teil 2: Donnerstag, 22. Oktober 2009, 23 Uhr

One of my favourite works of Victorian fiction – possibly my favourite, in fact – is Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It’s a story that everyone knows. Jekyll invents this potion, drinks it, becomes Mr Hyde and generally makes a nuisance of himself. Jekyll tops himself at the end.

Except it’s not quite like that in the book. In the book, Jekyll turning into Hyde is actually a twist at the end. The reader, in theory, has no idea that Hyde and Jekyll are the same man until, a few pages from the end, Hyde meets with Jekyll’s friend Dr Lanyon and transforms in front of him. Until that point, Hyde is this awful man who appears to be blackmailing Jekyll into doing his bidding. It must be the most spoilered ending in history – if people know one thing about the story, it’s that Hyde is Jekyll.

In a documentary broadcast a couple of years ago, the author Ian Rankin identified Jekyll’s house. He suggests that it was, in fact, based on the pioneering surgeon Joseph Hunter’s house in Leicester Square.

Site of Joseph Hunter's house (front)

The house was a typical property such as might be owned by a well-to-do London gent. However, Hunter also owned the house behind, which backed on to what is now Charing Cross Road, but then was a much narrower, more crowded street. Between the two he built his dissecting rooms, receiving corpses through the rear property. Rankin’s argument was that this house represented the double life of Jekyll – respectable Jekyll uses the front door, vile Hyde uses the back.

In the book, Stevenson isn’t hugely specific about where the house is. It is described as having been purchased “from the heirs of a celebrated surgeon” and located on “some square.” The street where Mr Hyde is first sighted, and the property into which he enters, is simply described as “a by street in a busy corner of London.” Hyde’s address is given in no greater detail than “in Soho.”

Rear entrance.

Soho’s borders are a little uncertain, and before the Tube was there to tell us which part of London we were in, they were even more so. One could, I suppose, call Leicester Square part of Soho. Rankin’s theory would seem to make sense, but at the same time I don’t think Stevenson really intended his fog-bound version of the West End to be too specific.

Whether you go with Rankin’s suggestion or not, the West End is a pretty appropriate setting for the story. For as long as the West End has been there, it’s led a dual existence. For the most part, it’s been a wealthy place, but with little sinful pockets dotted around. Soho, Covent Garden and Haymarket have traditionally been the worst fleshpots of the West End, although the latter two are now rather upmarket for that sort of thing. Jekyll is a single gent, and it’s not too unreasonable to assume that “the ghost of some old sin” that Mr Utterson believes to be the reason for Hyde’s “blackmail” may have come from trips into the back streets of Soho.

Of course, there are lots of interpretations of what Hyde represents. The story is one of a number of Victorian tales that use Gothic supernatural elements to darkly hint that actually, maybe Victorian England wasn’t all crinoline and Sunday prayers. Dracula and The Picture of Dorian Gray are two others that spring to mind. Of course, if you really  want to see the seamy side of Victorian society in the late 19th century, you can do little better than the anonymously-written and eye-blisteringly pornographic My Secret Life, a supposedly autobiographical account of a gentleman’s sexual adventures in Victorian England. It’s disputed as to what extent the work is genuine autobiography, but fiction or reality, it does at least show that actually, sex wasn’t invented some time around 1963.

Basically, what I’m saying is that what underground texts like My Secret Life could say explicitly, mainstream authors could only hint at. A lot of critics have suggested that Hyde represents repressed sexuality, or even repressed homosexuality – there are no women in Jekyll’s social circle. Ian Rankin even goes so far as to suggest that Sir Danvers Carew’s fatal meeting with Hyde reads like “a pick-up gone horribly wrong,” representing the fears of the by-necessity-closeted gay community of the day.

One can also read the potion as a representation of addiction. Jekyll initially requires the potion to turn into Hyde, but then requires it to stop himself from being Hyde. In other words, at first he takes the drug to feel good, then he needs it just to feel normal.

I should probably end this entry soon, as it’s past my bedtime and I’m not making much sense any more. So anyway, in conclusion, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde = messed-up Victorians.

Victorian London is the scene of one of the most horrific tales of the nineteenth century, one which explores the dual nature of man. By suggestion from wolfemann, we go back to the beginning and trace the history of the two fellows. Tell me your two sides on Twitter @HalloweenHaunt, on Facebook, and HalloweenHaunt.wordpress.com.

More on the book and history of Jekyll/Hyde on Wikipedia.com.

An intellectual essay by Vladimir Nabokov.

Read the whole book.

Music:

“Awkward Meeting” and “Interloper” by Kevin McLeod are available at Incompetech.com.

A bit of “Psy Dreaming” by Combat Caveman (from GarageBand.com)

“The Mad Scientist” by David Chochoi (from Soundclick.com)

“Segundas Clássicas do Jekyll” apresenta as bandas MORGAN LE FEMME e LARANJA FREAK

* Data: 21/09/2009 (segunda-feira)
* Horário: 22h
* Local: Dr. Jekyll (Travessa do Carmo, 76 – Porto Alegre/RS)
* Ingressos: R$ 12,00 no local

Mais informações: (51) 9318.7169 c/ Juliano Fraga

Divulgação deste evento na Internet:

• Portal Whiplash!

• Portal ObaOba

• Last.FM

• Portal do Rock Gaúcho

• Revista NOIZE

• Rádio Ipanema (agenda do site)

• Jornal O Polvo

Imperdível.

Original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Poster

This classic horror novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson will be revamped starring 50 Cent and Forest Whitaker. The two featured black actors will give the film a modern undertaking. Hopefully, Director Abel Ferrara will successfully bring out the Mr. Hyde in Mr. Jackson that can subsequently be felt by the younger generation.

The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde classic illustrates the duality of human nature, the fight between good and evil which we canvass within ourselves. Dr. Jekyll (Forest Whitaker) sparingly takes a potion that allows him to unleash his inner evil alter-ego Mr. Hyde (Curtis Jackson). This potion represents freedom; the freedom and opportunity you would take to do all your evil deeds, if there was no way to be judged, ridiculed, and incarcerated by society.

Mr. Hyde is you.

-Steven C. Hall

Larry Carroll – MTV.com

‘Working beside him is a great honor,’ the MC says of starring alongside Forest Whitaker.

It’s one of the most bizarre — and secretive — projects in the worlds of hip-hop and Hollywood. Ever since it was first announced, it has raised more questions than answers. But now, 50 Cent is finally ready to talk about his monstrous turn in a modern-day “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” film.

“That one’s coming up soon,” Fif told us this week, excited about the first horror film of his young acting career, which he starts shooting at this end of the summer opposite a recent Oscar winner. “It’s me and Forest Whitaker. I actually just spoke to his agent yesterday.”

Since the project made headlines in May, 50 has remained tight-lipped about the remake of Robert Louis Stevenson’s timeless tale of an affable doctor battling the evil within himself. In the classic setup, the doctor invents a potion that fully unveils his inner beast — only to create a battle between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for their common body.

“Ah, so you assuming?” the chart-topper laughed when I told him that Internet buzz suspects that he’ll be portraying the monster. “I don’t know, you know?”

After a bit of coaxing, however, he admitted his role for the first time. “Yeah, I’m supposed to play Hyde.”

“It’s gonna be intense,” he said excitedly. And although his appearance will be transformed with makeup and hair so he can play a deadlier version of Whitaker’s mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll, 50 Cent said that they’re just now getting around to discussing his look with accomplished filmmaker Abel Ferrara. “He’s an excellent director, so his creative ideas will definitely be an injective into what it’s actually gonna turn out to be.”

“Are you familiar with Abel Ferrara? ‘Bad Lieutenant’?” 50 Cent said of one of his favorite movies, a controversial 1992 flick starring Harvey Keitel and currently being remade with Nicolas Cage. “It was amazing. So, then you understand that the director we chose for this ['Jekyll'] project is the kind of guy that has an eye for real cutting-edge, really in-your-face material.”

50 Cent also confirmed that his “Jekyll” will update Stevenson’s tale to take place in modern times. “When you say ‘Jekyll and Hyde,’ it’s been made a couple of times,” explained the actor, who can be seen with Val Kilmer in the New Orleans cop drama “Streets of Blood” when it hits DVD later this month. “And [it's been told] from different perspectives, with different directors trying to capture it. But this is gonna feel great. It’s modern, with new talent in it. Forest Whitaker is amazing, and working beside him is a great honor.” 

Amazon Specials!

Segunda-feira dia 13 de julho é o dia mundial do Rock. Vão ser várias as festas e comemorações espalhadas pela cidade. Vou deixar aqui a dica de uma dessas festas, Show do Raio Choque e Nunca mais Brigitte no Dr. Jekyll.