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Jay Allen Sanford

Jay Allen Sanford is a Reader contributor. See staff page for published articles.

Queen of the Damned

It's never a good sign when the deleted scenes and DVD commentary are more enjoyable than the stand-alone film, but Queen of the Damned surprised me. It's got a lot of flaws - but it's not at all a horrible movie. It messed with and compressed/redid the Anne Rice novels so much that few people seem to like it - but I think if you go into without expecting it to be Anne Rice's Lestat, but rather a story loosely "inspired by" her books, it's a decent little goth movie. Particularly the fully-realized music (and accompanying music videos, seen only in flashes during the movie but included on the DVD in their entirety), by guys from Korn, Static X and even Marilyn Manson (who has one great album, Mechanical Animals, his Ziggy Stardust glam tribute/ripoff). The whole vampire-goes-high-tech subtheme is intriguing, especially Lestat calling out his fellow vampires on the giant Times Square diamondvision screen ("Come out, come ouit, wherever you are"), and Lestat laying down inside a huge satellite dish and absorbing the entire world as it streams digitally and directly to his brain. Some of the director's alterations from the two Rice novels the movie is based on (Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned) are actually improvements - such as keeping Lestat's debut concert to a one-time affair, thus explaining why the other vamps never went after him at other concerts (a vexing plothole in the Lestat novel). Also, having the big concert outdoors in the desert in a Burning Man-style gathering is FAR better than Rice's dinky little indoor concert hall melee - the ensuing onstage battles need to be matched by the epic size and scope of the event locale, so the movie version is much more dynamic, and really more correct and apropos than in the novel. Stuart Townsend as Lestat deserves particular praise. While no Tom Cruise, he's a lot better than you'd expect, and certainly believable as a rock star. As surprisingly dynamic as Cruise was in Interview/Vampire, there's no WAY he could have done the rock star turn without making everyone laugh while remembering the tightie whitey dance from Risky Business!
— November 9, 2009 5:21 a.m.

Fade to Black

A cinema devotee murders via movie scene recreations - rarely has Hollywood portrayed its own audience as potential serial killers who emulate what they see onscreen. The surprise here is that the killer's inspiration isn't always horror movies, but rather gangster flicks and even Hopalong Cassidy westerns, genres whose inherent violence is often overlooked, or at least under acknowledged. Dennis Christopher - lauded for his geeky role in Breaking Away - found perhaps his greatest role as movie buff Eric Binford, a shy pasty-faced loner and mama’s boy who works on the outskirts of the movie biz and patterns every aspect of his life after the films he adores. When bullies drive him over the edge (one played by young Mickey Rourke!), he retreats into a dream world that allows him to act out his revenge fantasies, at first seeking only to frighten. However, when his first scare tactics result in homicide (his boss has a heart attack, a bully running away from him accidentally impales himself on a fence), Binford takes it to the next lethal step --- Film buffs will love all the winking references to classic cinema, and the Marilyn Monroe look-a-like lead actress does one of the most convincing impersonations ever. The finale on the roof of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood echoes several specific movies, in particular James Cagney's White Heat (with snippets of Cagney actually edited into the action), but it manages to be unnervingly unique in its own right, mainly because we've come to sympathize and even care for Eric Binford. I eagerly await a proper DVD release of this 1980 cult classic!
— November 1, 2009 1:40 a.m.

Episode I: The Combs Wars

Seth did offer to provide a quote, but I felt his commentary on Happy Ron's video was more than sufficient, since it was given moments after Seth witnessed the first public rendition of the song - "I'm not the best writer in the world, and they're obviously not the best musicians in the world." Eds cut Seth's quote from the Blurt, probably for space, so I tacked on as a website comment. I didn't write the phrase "contributing editor," someone at the Reader office edited that in, but it seems to me an accurate description. He's an editor, he contributes - it wasn't capped like an official job title. Also cut from my article draft was the bit I posted about Deez finding fault with the Reader as well - all in all, I wrote a well-balanced and impartial report, as opposed to the schoolyard namecalling frequently seen in CityBeat. Sorry I was off by a day on the CityBeat issue date - however, I feel confident the Blurt demonstrates Seth's good natured attitude about the song, given the accompanying photo of him posing with Deez and Damigo after they performed it. (Thanks to photog Kathryn Giddens) I didn't need to press the word count by repeating the obvious --- RE Facebook, I didn't even know there was a way to discern who denies Facebook friend requests. I'm fairly new to that site, but it's amusing that Seth thinks that I'd notice, that I'd care, and/or that I'd retaliate with ink brush in hand. The Overheard tip was simply too good NOT to draw === As for the way I drew Seth, "I'm not the best artist in the world..."
— October 28, 2009 3:51 p.m.

Episode I: The Combs Wars

Combs was actually a "guest bartender" at U-31 on the night that Deez and Damigo performed "Seth Combs." A video posted on YouTube (shot by Happy Ron Hill) includes Combs' response to the performance: "I'm not the best writer in the world, and they're obviously not the best musicians in the world." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCYD2LHcRbo In the past, the Reader has also earned the ire of songwriter Deez. “You guys ran the worst photo of me in existence, from when I had to get a root canal…I had an abscess and, my face was so swollen, I looked like I had Down Syndrome.”
— October 28, 2009 12:37 p.m.

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