Fiery Heaven ;D

Hey, This is Alex here, with my new blog   Jealous much? Just thought I’d say: “Welcome to NeoClassica1″ The home to everything that is deemed as cool, by the cool guy himself… And no, I don’t mean The Stig off of Top Gear even as cool as he is… Lol

This is a true story. I heard it on the news in Fayetteville last weekend after the Razorback game.

Last Sunday was “Bring your pet day” at Springdale’s Detengase y Escuche Church. There were two scheduled animal blessings, 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. The Esteban Culebra family of Johnson showed up with their 20-foot, 206-pound African rock python named Monty.

For the blessing, the Culebras had awakened Monty from his annual summer estivation and he was in a cranky mood. When the water splashed on Monty’s head, the snake, now fully agitated, grabbed a penguin and swallowed him whole.

Monty then escaped the church and was last seen heading down an embankment toward Lake Fayetteville. Authorities advise against trying to capture the snake and ask that you call the local police department if the snake is sighted.

Many people don’t know that the name of my holding company in Bangkok is:

Razorback Company Ltd.

As such I had some Razorback stickers made up an stuck to the outer and inner doors. I never forget where I am from!

Follow us on Twitter!

Razorback Logo on the inner door of Razorback Company Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand

Ci sono babbei che pur essendo babbei alla fine ti stan simpatici: Razorback è uno di questi.

No amico, non sei temibile... Fai venire fame.

Nome: Razorback

Vero nome: Bufford Hollis

Genesi e storia del personaggio: Nell’Uomo Ragno Ed. Corno numero 247 del 1979 (originariamente su Spectacular Spider-Man 12 del 1977),  Bufford era un  redneck , un camionista di Texarkana, Arkansas. Un giorno tra una fermata da Hooters e una rissa sbronzo di Coors scopre che la sua bionda sorellina Bobby Sue è stata plagiata ed è entrata a far parte di una sinistra setta religiosa: la Legione della Luce, guidata dal Seminatore d’Odio. Questo lo fa incazzare più di quando alla radio gli troncano un pezzo degli Allman Brothers con la reclàme.

Il fratellone allora, facendo ricorso alle sue incredibili doti di meccanica (?!), si leva Wrangler & flanella e si crea un costume che consta di: una tutina verde, guanti e stivali gialli, una fibiona – fin qui ce li ha anche il Dr. Octopus - e  -ta daan!- una enorme testa di cinghiale in grado di sprigionare scariche elettriche… Dopodichè allestisce un camion truccato che chiamerà Big Pig (sic) e si lancia alla ventura per salvare la sua sorellina adorata assieme a Spidey e Flash Thompson. Forte eh?

Aspetto: Un tizio molto grosso, con in testa un trofeo di caccia da trattoria in Maremma e che parla come un bifolco.

Superpoteri: Razorback ha il potere mutante di saper guidare intuitivamente qualsiasi veicolo. In più è molto forte ed ha la pregiatissima testa di cinghiale che gli permette di caricare e elettrificare i suoi avvversari.

La fine: Razorback è ancora vivo, dopo molti anni di oblio è riapparso durante Secret Invasion dapprima come un infiltrato alieno Skrull e poi in persona per combattere l’invasione. Credo faccia delle apparizioni come animatore alle sagre del cinghiale.

I really enjoyed making this t-shirt and tutu for a friend at work.  He went to Arkansas and has it plastered all over his office.  Very poofy tutu and matching wand goes perfect with the appliqued razorback t-shirt.  I appliqued the read and hand painted the white and black.  I am always up for a challenge.  If you want something new and original or and tried and true stand by…let me know.  The tutu and wand are $25.  The t-shirt is $10. 

Czwarta edycja Off Festivalu w Mysłowicach zaliczona. Frekwencyjnie było chyba najsłabiej, ale organizacyjnie – coraz lepiej. Najlepsze koncerty miały miejsce już w piątek (Monotonix, Fucked Up), a sobota (mimo sporego rozczarowania z powodu The National, który bardzo lubię) upłynęła głównie pod znakiem spotkań towarzyskich. Żałuję, że nie udało mi się zobaczyć Marka Kozelka i Miłości. Może kiedyś.

Zgodnie z wcześniejszą zapowiedzią tym razem zapraszam w podróż do kraju tysiąca jezior. Olewamy fabryki komórek, siwego brodacza z krzywą laską i kierujemy się prosto do tamtejszych lasów, by poznać nowe oblicze fińskiej ekstremy. A ta, kompletnie ignorując wypociny spod znaku Nightwish i Stratovarious, rozwinęła się aż miło. Dziedzictwo Beherit wciąż jest żywe, ale do głosu dochodzi też fascynacja psychodelią z lat 60. i 70. Pamiętając dobrze, że Finlandia wydała na świat nie tylko takie potęgi jak Impaled Nazarene, Clandestine Blaze, Unholy, Skepticism i Reverend Bizarre, bierzemy pod lupę tamtejsze nowe wynalazki spod znaku black i doom metalu. Zaczynamy klasycznie, od jednego z głównych graczy amerykańskiej wytwórni Razorback.

Hooded Menace – “Fulfill The Curse”

Trzeba się trochę wysilić, żeby dostać ten album w wersji CD (przez litość nie wspominam nawet o mega limitowanym winylu), ale naprawdę warto. Boss Hooded Menace, Lasse (znany również jako Leper Messiah), to maniak oldschoolowego metalu i klasycznych horrorów, a swoje pasje realizuje właśnie za pośrednictwem doom/deathmetalowego Hooded Menace i grind/deathmetalowego wymiotu Vacant Coffin. Oba projekty nagrywają dla posiadającej bardzo ciekawy katalog amerykańskiej wytwórni Razorback Records (w ubiegłym roku wydała m.in. świetny krążek “Witchtanic Hellucinations” Acid Witch), przy czym do mnie bardziej trafia właśnie Hooded Menace. Przede wszystkim za sprawą rewelacyjnej, przywodzącej na myśl moją młodość muzyki, ale też świetnej, choć niezbyt oryginalnej oprawy graficzno-tekstowej. Pamiętacie pierwsze płyty Amorphis? Nieodżałowany Winter? Debiut Cathedral? To najlepsze drogowskazy na pierwszym etapie naszej wycieczki. Bez klawiszy, żeńskich wokali i jęczenia o tym, że nic nie boli tak jak życie. W zamian dostajemy mocne riffy, chwytliwe melodie i potężnego niedźwiedzia na wokalu. Wszystko to oczywiście podane w mrocznym, fińskim doommetalowym sosie, jakiego brakowało muzyce ekstremalnej od ładnych paru lat. “Heavy, primitive and obscure” jak ktoś już to ładnie ujął. Nie tylko dla maniaków horrorów klasy B.

Oranssi Pazuzu – “Muukalainen Puhuu”

Śmieszna nazwa zespolu i głupi tytuł płyty? Dla Polaków na pewno. Pozytyw jest taki, że w Finlandii i tak będzie nam wygodniej rozmawiać po angielsku, a podstawowe słowa (vodka!) niewiele się różnią od naszych. Za to okładka i logo pełnometrażowego debiutu Pomarańczowego Pazuzu pierwsza klasa, podobnie jak muzyka. Ta ostatnia to ni mniej, ni więcej, tylko wypadkowa leśnego black metalu z eksperymentalnym rockiem spod znaku Faust, Can, ale przede wszystkim wczesnego Pink Floyd. Jeżeli znajdzie się ktoś, kogo dziwi ta fascynacja Finów kraut i space rockiem, ten powinien jak najszybciej nadrobić zaległości z dyskografii Kingston Wall. W przypadku Oranssi Pazuzu określenie “space” jest zresztą jak najbardziej na miejscu, nie tylko z racji okładki. Już od otwierającego album “Korppi” (czytaj: “Kruk”), byli muzycy Kuolleet Intiaanit (ponoć dobry zespół, grający eksperymentalnego rocka) próbują nas wystrzelić na orbitę. Mnie dość szybko udało się porzucić okowy ziemskiej grawitacji i to bez pomocy zakazanych specyfików. Prawdziwa jazda zaczyna się jednak w połowie krążka, mniej więcej na wysokości  “Dub for a Memory of a Dead Whore (of Babylon)”. Dub? Owszem, na dodatek przywodzący na myśl niektóre projekty Billa Laswella.

Spiderpact – “Goatspeed Into Magenta Vacuum”

Ta krótka EP-ka to taka uwspółcześniona i mniej ekstremalna wersja “La Masquerade Infernale” Arcturus przefiltrowana przez potężne dawki LSD i wywrócona na lewą stronę prawej strony. Bez pseudofilozoficznego zadęcia, za to ze sporą dozą humoru. Nie pozbawiona jednak minusów – największym mankamentem tego materiału jest słabe brzmienie. Całość została zapewne nagrana przy wykorzystaniu domowego peceta i kradzionych programów, a sesja odbyła się w oparach mocnej, fińskiej wodki. Kuleją zwłaszcza sample automatu perkusyjnego, no i bzyczące od czasu do czasu gitary. Choć słychać, że to dopiero początek przygody Spiderpact z metalową awangardą, szaleństwo i muzyczna wyobraźnia dają o sobie znać na każdym kroku. Bardzo na miejscu będzie w tym wypadku przywołanie nazwy Waltari – dowodzony przez Juho Goatspeeda Spiderpact w podobnym stylu miesza konwencje i frywolnie żongluje motywami z pozornie różnych bajek. Jednak to nie wirtuozeria czyni “Goatspeed Into Magenta Vacuum” EP-ką wartą przesłuchania. Nie jest to też zasługą sampli z Crowleya, nawiązań do “Takiego Tanga” Budki Suflera, ani jednego z najlepszych tytułów po tej stronie dźwiękowej ekstremy (“My Goat is Bigger than Yours!!” Widzieliście kiedyś coś takiego?). To przede wszystkim fascynacja Ved Buens Ende i Voivod. No i poczucie humoru, którego coraz bardziej brakuje muzyce metalowej, tutaj jeszcze przemieszane przez narkotyczne wizje nie do końca zrównoważonego pana Goatspeeda.

You can read the first part of this post here or just freely browse the blog.

I have nothing better to post, been busy with finishing the Captin N12 Issue 1 dialogues/script and I was not able to sketch last week and unfortunately this week so what better lousy way to compensate by posting old fart art/sketches that I did way back 10 or so friggin years ago, pathetic me. I rarely do fan art then than now so most of what I found from my old boxes were some character studies or profile of what I (and the Zerulean, which will be part 3 of this post) happen to cook up with in me brain,  lots of ideas then on having my own superhero team or a really cool character or two then and maybe, just maybe I will resurrect and get to finish one of them now that me and the boys have our own do-it-yourself comic book house the Super Debil Robot Comics which I profusely advertise in my recent post nowadays. Image Comics was so popular then and it is evident in my sketches. Here we go:

Some YoungBlood influenced characters don’t ya thunk?! (Badrock ?)

This one I called the Emissary and I was hooked up with some Wild C.A.T.s storyline then, I forgot already.

This hear is Razorback (he is also in this previous blog post here), a pretty nifty combo of Cyber Force’s RipClaw and WildCat’s Warblade. I overly thinking of resurrecting him now.

I really thought Marc Silvestri’s Ascension character was cool and David Finch’s art rocks and still is so I made one me self which greatly influenced a comic book one shot 6 pager story that I did which the lineart work that I did was lost for all eternity en route hand carried by a friend of mine to be submitted to a Popcorn-esque comic book magazine here in Cebu then. Angels and demons have a special place in my heart also.

Another angel and demon piece, not inked, only pencilled this one and don’t have the heart to ink it for I was afraid I’d ruined it. This is the only piece that I thought I made a decent looking babe, and a demon babe for that matter and sideways and hugging the dude, and…ah, nevermind.

Here was my not so many attempts at doing sequentials with the Razorback character. Just a fight scene with no real concrete backgrounds hehhehehe. Lousy. I am still not comfy with doing a sequential now. Must muster up the courage soonest as possible or Motex will kick my arse.

That’s it then for part deux, f.y.i. I only scanned the most decent one that I could find, others was next to nada. Next post will be the collab we did back then when we were still in college with good old friend Zerulean.

Matt Carrick – Examiner.com

If there’s anything this world needs right now, it’s a movie about a giant killer pig. In 1987 Australia gave us Razorback, and just two years ago we saw the low-budget, straight-to-DVD Hogzilla But now, after one look at the trailer it’s clear that both will be entirely trumped by the Korean film Chaw.

The Koreans have been on a roll recently with such quality films as The Host and anything made by Chan-wook Park including the upcoming vampire flick Thirst. There’s no way Chaw will be half as good as any of these, but with interest growing in the country as a source of cheap film imports, it only makes sense that we’ll start to see a string of bad movies riding on the coattails of the other films’ success.

The trailer’s in Korean, but seeing as the film appears to be cobbled together from monster movie tropes from Jaws to Jurassic Park to the American remake of Godzilla, you should have no problem following the action in the trailer. Of course you could also make the argument that this is a movie about a giant freaking pig that eats people, and therefore who cares what anyone’s saying anyway?

There’s no release date for the film (even in South Korea it’s just listed as 2009) but there’s no way that Chaw will get any theatrical release in the US anyway. This will be a film to Netflix or pick up (preferably used) on the cheap and then watch at 2AM with your friends. Plus, if the dubbing is as bad as we all expect it to be, well that’s just icing on the cake.

Tocar metal neoclasico no es cualquier mamada. Los arpegios y la velocidad requerida hacen que cualquiera desista a los pocos intentos (yo no puedo hacer ni una simple escala a una velocidad decente, asi que ni pendejo intento una escala neoclasica).

Con ustedes, Gentaro Satomura y su chingonsisima colección de guitarras Dean…ah, y por supuesto su increible talento. Rock On!

Y recuerden, no es la neta del planeta, pero es la neta del Ixtepan. Turtle Power!

It was 1976, and Marvel had decided that two Spider-Man books (Amazing and Marvel Team-Up) weren’t enough anymore.  Thus the Specatcular Spider-Man was born, without much of a sense for why it needed to exist.  This sort of market saturation was new to Marvel at the time, DC had published two Superman and Batman books since the 40’s (not counting their team-up books), so I suppose it’s actually sort of surprising that Marvel took this long to try it.  Apparently it worked for them since Web of Spider-Man launched a few years later.

Anyway, the book itself isn’t bad, it just lacks its own identity.  The closest it comes to that is by having the White Tiger brought in as a supporting character.  In its first year the book has 5 different writers (Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo & Chris Claremont) and nearly every issue refers back to the flagship Spidey comic in some way.  Eventually Bill Mantlo becomes the regular writer, and he begins to tell some very odd stories:

 Arkansas trucker turned hero Razorback helps Spidey battle obscure Adam Warlcok enemy Man-Beast, who in turn is disguised as the Hate Monger (replaces Hitler in the role).  

Frank Miller draws a rematch between the Masked Marauder, Spidey and Daredevil (the original took place in 1966).

Spidey and Moon Knight team up to battle the horrible French stereotype, Cyclone

The undead, clone of the Jackal (who was in turn a clone), Carrion first appears

And then there’s the Hypno Hustler.

Now I actually have a lot of fondness for the Mantlo Spidey, although his stories were never perfect.  He has a thing for creating some very high concept characters (Cloak & Dagger, the Answer, reimagining Silvermane as a cyborg) that sound great, but who no one has ever been able to write successfully.  That all starts here, probably with Carrion and his power to fly because the Earth will not let him touch it.

I also have to give a brief shout out to the art here.  The great majority of this book is drawn by Sal Buscema at his best.  Buscema is the artist who first introduced me to the character, during the later J.M. Dematteis run.  He tends not to get much attention, mostly having a rep for simply being prolific at Marvel.  But he draws some of Spidey’s best battles, really having a knack for capturing the villains in particular.  His Vulture is the definitive take on the character to my mind, and his Morbius and Hate Monger issues in the collection are particular high points.

It’s waiting outside and it can sense your fear. No nightmare will prepare you for it!

Continuando o festival da bicharada, vamos agora deliciar-nos com um javali. E acreditem que deste até os famosos gauleses marchavam na frente deste bicho. Sendo uma produção de baixo orçamento, Razorback conta as aventuras de um javali que tomou as mesmas hormonas que os nossos amigos bodybuilders. Este bichinho tem o tamanho de um rinoceronte e pelos vistos, não andou na escola de condução já que não pára por nada nem por ninguém. Rodado na íntegra na terra dos cangurus, Razorback narra a história de um caçador de javalis que ao ver o seu neto ser morto pelo bicho, dedica-se de corpo e alma a caçar o mesmo. Entretanto uma locutora de televisão dos States decide fazer uma reportagem sobre as atrocidades cometidas pelos caçadores de cangurus e javalis na Austrália. Eis que a nossa repórter vai ter uma pega de caras com o bicho. Desesperado o namorado da mesma, decide descobrir o que realmente aconteceu a sua alma gémea e após alguns momentos de tensão, eis que o confronto final se realiza numa fábrica de comida enlatada para animais. Sem sombra de dúvida um filme a ver pelos apaixonados do género e a evitar pela liga protectora dos animais (derivado a que são os humanos que sofrem nas filmagens). Do grande realizador, que nos proporcionou Highlander, Russell Mulcahy e com as participações de Gregory Harrison, Arkie Whiteley, Bill Kerr, Chris Haywood, David Argue e Judy Morris.

Vale a pena deixar de ver a bola e a caneca da cerveja a aquecer para ver isto

Yesterday, April 17, my boss offered 5 free tickets to Jack Daniel’s World Music Tour Philippines. It was held in NBC Tent in The Fort. Initially, I don’ t want to go but upon hearing that Razorback, Urbandub and Taken by Cars will perform, I said yes.

I joined five of my colleagues at the office. We were there before 8pm, because it was stated in the ticket that it will start by that time. In the entrance of the NBC Tent, the receptionist said that they will start entertaining audience in 15 minutes.

So we hopped on at The Fort area to eat dinner. We ate at Pasto, with pizza, pasta and some beer to gulp down the calories. We spent around 45 minutes of our time there due to non-stop social talk. Someone never runs out of stories during meal, and it was heightened by the fact that the topic revolves around summer getaways, hobbies on our wish lists, and the like.

After dinner, we entered the place. Not much audience so far.

The venue is really cold. It contradicts the hot and humid weather outside. Or maybe they did this on purpose so that the audience will buy lots of Jack Daniel’s in the makeshift bar at both sides of the tent. And we feel the cold; we gave in to JD.

The show started by 9pm. Bands performed three to four songs each. I got the chance to watch Taken by Cars performed live at this event. I had their songs on my iPod.

The main act is Cynthia Alexander and Nyko Maka + Playgrounds. They will represent the Philippines in the Jack Daniels Global Music Tour in Singapore. Too bad, I wasn’t able to see Urbandub and  Razorback. They performed after Cynthia’s set, but we have to go home around 12mn because one of our friend has to catch a flight the following day.

But it was an awesome night. Lots of Hooters girls imported by Jack Daniels from their bar in Mall of Asia.

This week No. 12 Arkansas swept a series against the No.1 team in the country Arizona State. It was a great series for Stephen Richards, Arkansas’ closer.  It won’t be much longer until the Razorbacks are No. 1!