Christmas Time & Joyful Graves

A Salute to Endings and Beginnings

That it will be me to rebirth in death

To summon mysteries forshook by faith

To shake the rattle from our renewed breath

To bid farewell to the unwaking wraith;

This Word I follow from almighty high

Passed down from storm and cloud to Holy page

From tongue to tongue witnessed from the black sky

Retold with equal parts of joy and rage;

Until one day tomorrow reached our door

And yesterday became a Christmas tree

And Christmas gifts were shared by rich not poor

And Christmas lights shone on the shopping spree;

He rose again to share his Holy Cause:

The coming of the one true Santa Claus.

 

Carol Lay: Art from Under the Skin

A Servante of Darkness Pick of the Month

I've liked underground comics my whole life, so it's no wonder I've come to know the artwork of Carol Lay. If my aged memory serves (and it doesn't), I first discovered the comic art of Carol Lay in "Weirdo" (1981-1993), Robert Crumb's comic book answer to "RAW Magazine", which he considered "highbrow". Lay's "weird" artwork became a staple of her style, but it evolved as she tackled contemporary topics, especially modern women in a traditional world of romance and rituals seen through an askew point of view. Naturally,

after "Weirdo", she created "Good Girls" 1-6 (1987-1991), published by Fantagraphics and Rip-Off Press.

Since then, Lay has drawn for DC, Bongo Comics (The Simpsons Comic Book), Kitchen Sink Press, Last Gasp, and other traditional and underground venues as well. "Murderville" is one of my current favorites.

To learn more about Carol Lay, visit her website here or go to Amazon for a selection of books and Kindle editions now available. You can also find Carol on Facebook here. 

 

Nightwish 
Endless Forms Most Beautiful (2015) CD

Reviewed by Anthony Servante

Click here to purchase.

Floor Jansen

Review:
The music writing talents of Tuomas Holopainen are conducive to the voice his writes for. With Tarja Turunen he found a niche that Symphonic Rock bands have been trying to emulate since Nightwish's first CD. But the combination of grandiose music melding Rock instruments with orchestral arrangements, clever and imaginative lyrics (Tuomas's strongest suit) and Tarja's vocals were no match for the emulators. With each new CD, Nightwish's sound evolved into a perfect hybrid of Rock, Goth, Opera, Classical, and Heavy Metal. Tuomas could switch gears for maximum speed or cruising along oceanside, and Nightwish was the perfect vehicle for his drive to keep the hybrid growing. The addition of Marco Hietala to the band only lent more credence to Tuomas's genius as the gravel-voiced vocalist from Tarot (Marco's former band) matched perfectly with Tarja's operatic range as evident in their near perfect CD ONCE.

Tarja Turunen

But with Tarja's departure from the band, which we won't get into here, the search was on for another singer. Fans all over the world recommended singers from the emulator bands whose vocalists resembled Tarja in operatic range; however, Tuomas went with Annette Olsen, whose vocal range was more suited for a Hard Rock band than a Symphonic Rock band. But not with Tuomas writing songs for her. Their first CD together was Dark Passion Play (2007), which showed a harder Rock sound edging out the classical leanings. Imaginaerum  (2010), Nightwish's second CD with Annette, found the perfect blend to send Tuomas's hybrid of music soaring again. Then Annette left the band, which we won't get into here.

Floor Jansen, from After Forever, one of those emulator bands, took over Anette's touring duties on vocals as Nightwish continued with their concert touring for Imaginaerum. Of course, Nightwish was still looking for a new vocalist, but Jansen turned into such a crowd favorite that Tuomas invited her to join the band. Now, After Forever is no slouch band; they gave Nightwish a run for their money in the song-writing and vocals department, so Nightwish fans were eager to hear what the new Nightwish CD would sound like with Floor. Well, that CD is now out and it is called Endless Forms Most Beautiful (2015). Well, Tuomas seems a bit confused about whom he is writing for. Floor has that Tarja range, but not the Hard Rock edge of Annette, so the new CD seems to be trying to sound new but it is a rehash of the Tarja-esque sound of Once with leftover themes from Imaginaerum.

Anette Olson

I mean, hell, Nightwish could write Country music and I'd eat it up, so the new CD is a stunning selection of songs that will have you singing along with the best of the Nightwish oeuvre. If only they didn't sound so familiar. The hybrid has stalled. Tuomas doesn't seem to know how to write for Floor's vocal range, as he seems to be avoiding writing Tarja-esque songs for a Tarja-esque voice and yet continues to write Olsen-esque songs for a non-Olsen-esque style. Floor is up for the challenge. She brings the professionalism she showed with her former band and the grandiose range, but the Hard Rock has softened.

The true test will come Friday when I see the latest incarnation of Nightwish live performing songs from the new CD (comprises half the show). Of course, the band will be playing classics from the songlist that have proved popular with fans when Floor made them her own, especially on Ghost Love Score which she turned from Grandiose to Gothic. And the next test will, of course, be on the next CD. Will Tuomas get his songwriting back on track and move the band forward with the new singer ready for music made strictly for her? We'll have to wait and see, but I'll be there to pick up a copy. Even if it's a Country album

 

Shadowboxer by Trent Zelazny

reviewed by Anthony Servante

Click here to purchase.

Trent Zelazny

Summary:
Once a happy family man, Kealan now spends his days walking aimlessly and crashing in his friend's spare room. It never seems to matter how much he walks, because his shadow is always there. When he meets younger Valerie, an inquisitive and sensitive soul, a few rays of light begin to penetrate his dark curtains. But what about her jealous ex? How is it that some things inevitably tie together? And where does one's shadow lead to?

Introduction:
I critique stories, not authors, but because I cannot distinguish the shadow from the source, it is difficult not to see Trent as the hero of his own story. I must forget that this book is evidence of the author's struggle to fight his way out of Hell. I must forget that the story is "therapy" to deal with the burns and scars of his emergence from that Infernal. For emerge he did. Trent has woven a hero who is a shadow of himself. And as tempted as I am to find the author in his work, I'll avert my gaze from the light and concentrate on the shadow, on the book at hand.


The Critique:
Shadowboxer is the story of Kealan, a man who has lost his family and now stays at this friend's home as he struggles to regain his footing on the solid ground of life. Trent uses the metaphor of "shadow" and "dreams" to exemplify Kealan's tragic past. "Light" represents life and hope, but for Kealan, stepping out of the shadow is not rife with joy and triumph; it is a blinding light that registers the stark nakedness of life's dangers, both emotionally and physically.

Initially, we meet Kealan as he steps out of a bad dream. Trent writes, "He was still in the darkness of his bedroom, but out the window misty dimness was shifting to a vaporous, shimmering glow... He couldn't get used to it, and knew he probably never would" (pg. 1). Kealan turns away from the "light" and returns to the darkness by covering himself with his blanket. But he makes a decision to get up and face the day, a decision that will change his troubles, though not necessarily for the better.

Later, we see that Kealan spends his days on lengthy strolls, still immersed in the gloom of his dark past: "The shadow within the shadow swirled and disappeared and Kealan was still walking. His shadow was still there" (pg. 20). Although he has literally stepped into the light of morning, he is still symbolically trailed by the gloom of his tragedy. He can't escape this "haze" asleep or awake.

Here would be a good time to discuss "shadowboxing" and its use as a metaphor for Kealan's fall and rise from his tragedy. This term refers to a style of training in boxing where the fighter pretends to spar with a partner in an effort to prepare his muscles for a real fight. As such, Kealan is the fighter who spars with his depression (as represented by the shadows and other dark hazes) to prepare for a return to fighting the real battle of day-to-day living. He first fights the dark dreams that recycle the memory of that tragic accident which took his family by waking up early and going for walks ("Whether he was awake or asleep, the contents of his mind did not seem to be wakeful thoughts. Surrealism painted in a dreamlike perplexity" [pg. 36]). Then he boxes with his guilt about overstaying his welcome at his friend Nash's home by drinking his guilt away ("In the chaotic commotion swimming throughout the bar, little else existed other than Kealan and the glass and bottle before him" [pg. 27]). But it isn't until he meets Valerie Jones that Kealan Dovovan realizes that he's in for a real fight.

That fight comes in the form of Valerie's ex-boyfriend, a jealous brute, Jeffrey, who stalks both Kealan and his ex. This intruder is Kealan's welcome to that real fight I mentioned earlier, and we see how Trent Zelazny describes this initial encounter with reality: "The whole damn world is like a fucking cat with a mouse, letting you loose and then pouncing on you again, then again and again" (pg. 66). Here Trent echoes Kealan's earlier meetings with the dreaded black cat, that symbol of bad things to come.

As Kealan faces the fight for the semblance of a normal life, relationship, and routine, he must also face the haunting tragedy that crystallizes in the stark light of day. It is a two-sided battle that he must win if he is to move forward and learn to live with the past, for normalcy is worth fighting for when someone like Valerie represents that hopeful future. Kealan must learn the hard way that "There's no refuge from memory and remorse" (pg. 85). But at what cost comes that bright future?

Shadowboxer is a well-paced story of mounting tension and ultimately hope and survival. We cheer on Kealan to get his life back on track, and as we do so, we also cheer on Trent, whose work here is evidence that his life is aimed in a positive direction. Keep the Noir flowing.

 

Horror and Irony: 

A Lecture on Anomalous Structures

We are here to consider the nature of Horror, with a capital H, as that used in stories and movies, and such, for the word is so tossed around by the horror loving community that one must merely assume that we are all talking about the same thing. We are clear somewhat on the “feeling” of horror, that is, fear brought about by monsters both natural and supernatural, real and imagined. Ed Gein, for instance, was a real life monster who not only killed his victims but made furniture out of their skin and skulls. Frankenstein is an imagined monster made up of human body parts reassembled into a humanly shape, and reanimated, a living dead creature that scared the villagers and the readers as well.

Ed Gein & Leatherface (non-fiction vs. fiction)

But are examples of Horror? Why? What makes them so? Can we rely on subjective opinions to determine what Horror is? Nowadays, "critics" tend to examine horror by which metaphor is represents: It's a metaphor for trauma, for child abuse, for spousal abuse, for PTSD, etc. But what of the exceptions? Not everyone would agree that metaphorical readings are critiques. Subjectivity has no universality, that is, one opinion cannot be used as a tool to measure all opinions. Consider Gomez Addams’s reaction to horror, Gomez who lived the macabre life with his family. Horror to the Addams is fun, not scary. Allow me to explain. 

Horror, like Irony, can only be understood (some may say, “appreciated”) by a fraction of readers and movie-goers, our population to be addressed solely for this paper. Thus, we should first examine the possible reactions to Irony, and second, the components that make these reactions happen. And then apply our examinations to Horror.

Consider three friends in a bar observing a very heavy man walk in. One man notes ironically, Look who’s here: Skinny. The second man laughs; the third man says, You need glasses. That man’s not skinny. He’s clearly fat. Yes, the man just arrived is heavy (fat), and the first man used irony to call the man “fat” by using the word “skinny”. The second man heard “fat” through the use of “skinny”. The third man does not hear the irony because what he sees (a fat man) contradicts what he hears (a skinny man). But the second man

hears the contradiction (simultaneously hearing fat/skinny) and it tickles his brain into a laugh response. If a skinny man walked into the bar, and the first man said, Look who’s here: Skinny, the second and third man would have acknowledged the observation as true, and no response needed, with the exception of an agreeable nod. The responses to the irony are dualistic: Laughter versus incredulity.

What, then, are the components that constitute Irony? Well, for starters, two elements that contradict each other, but together create a whole new concept. Sigmund Freud, in “Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious”, Freud categorized one type of joke as “tendentious”, that is, an aggressive verbal use that carried a hidden bias that often targeted certain types of person. In our example above, “skinny” hides “fat”, the target, but does not hide its tendention: that the man arriving at the bar is, in fact, fat. He uses the word “skinny” to call the man “fat”, which elicits laughter to the listener who can hear the intent. To simply call the fat man fat has no hidden agenda (litotes aside). Thus what we have here is our new concept, a conglomeration of opposing ideas that produce a third form, an anomaly of sorts: neither one nor the other but a third form, the ironic construct.

Now, what does this have to do with Horror? you ask. Well, Horror works in the same vein: It contains two opposing elements that, when balanced together, create a whole new form, the horror construct. This anomaly contains both elements from the Grotesque and Beauty in equal measure. Here we get our first two “big” words that have so many meanings that you’d wonder which one I mean for our topic at hand. Thus, I’ll reduce the rich history of both these words to two simple terms: Repulsive and Appealing. In this way we can easily follow the example for Horror.

We start with our three people again at the bar. First person says, Dracula is the scariest movie. The second person shivers and responds, That vampire is the scariest. The third person says, Vampires aren’t real, so how can they be scary? (We will take “suspension of disbelief” as a given at this point). What elicits chills in the second person evokes incredulity in the third person. For the first and second person, there is no question about vampires, or that Dracula is the scariest, but for the third person, vampires are a moot matter and therefore not subject to any response, be it faith or fear. Therefore, the third person can be discounted from further argument as his response is a non-response. The question now can focus on the fear response, (which in the case of Irony was the laughter response).

What makes a vampire scary, and in the second person’s response, “the scariest” of all? To answer that, we must first discuss the elements that create our anomaly, those features that can place it under the umbrella of Horror: Repulsive and Appealing, the grotesque and beautiful side of the coin. (Reminder: the two sides of Irony were Truth and False, which when mixed created ironic intention). On one side, we have an undead creature who feeds on human blood; on the other side, we have a suave and well-dressed gentleman who attracts beautiful women. When the sides are combined, we have Dracula. He (or It) is neither creature or gentleman alone, but both at the same time. Separately, neither elicits true Horror, for the bloodsucker evokes fear, while the gentile gent appeals to our sensibilities, but together, in equal measure, a response of Horror can be achieved. There are vampire movies where the undead creature is mostly monster without any appealing allure (say, 30 Days of Night) or mostly allure without the fear inducing element of monstrosity (Twilight). To achieve pure Horror, the balance between alluring appeal and frightening repulsiveness must be equal when combined. We are drawn to and fear Dracula for that reason. That is what make him (It) scary.


In this sense, our definition of Horror is a tool best used for the critique of horror (with a small “h”) books and movies. With such a tool, we can gage the balance of elements that produce good Horror, keeping an eye out for those imbalances that give us gore for the sake of gore, or supernatural romance without fear. I mean, it’s all good, right? Monsters, gore, zombies, cosmic dread, et al. But true Horror fans should always strive for perfectly proportioned Horror books and movies. As Critics, then, we have something to measure the rest of the genre against, right? Right?! 

While there are those who would rather discuss the meaning of the book or movie, I feel we should take a step back away from metaphor and theme to first see objectively the movie or book for what it is in and of itself before even assigning a label of Horror. Is the structure balanced between Grotesques and Beauty, or does it lean one way or the the other? As critics, we must measure the elements, not just deconstruct them, in order to determine where on the scale of Horror the work falls. If it qualifies as Horror, then we can proceed to inspect our subjective opinions. And not the reverse. 

 

The Zombies, '60s Rock Music Icons,

Inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Twenty years after first becoming eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and four nominations later (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019), The Zombies finally were inducted along with Roxy Music, The Cure, Def Leopard, Radiohead, and Stevie Nicks. The 1960s band featuring Rod Argent on keyboard, Colin Blunstone on vocals, Paul Atkinson on guitar, Chris White on bass, and Hugh Grundy on drums were honored alongside the current line up of Tom Toomey on guitar, Steve Rodford drums, and Soren Koch bass.

Their hit songs "She's Not There", "Tell Her No", and "Time of the Season" were being played on radio stations in the UK and the USA, but the band were unaware of their success and contemplating breaking up the group. But once the band discovered their popularity, they toured and put out a second album, "Odessey and Oracle" (1968). In 2015, The Zombies toured with former and current members to play their second LP in its entirety, a first for the band. Recently, they've just wrapped up a tour opening for Arcade Fire, whose members are big fans of the 60s band.

The Blog congratulates The Zombies on reaching this milestone in their career. Tom Toomey sent me these photos from that memorable night. I am most glad to share them with you readers and music fans alike.

The Zombies, members past and present on stage

Colin Blunstone & Tom Toomey

Tom with Rod Argent

Hugh Grundy (original drummer) and Tom

Chris White, original bassist with Tom

Cindy Da Silva Rocks Management and Tom

Chris Tuthill Rocks Management and Tom

Tom with Helen Atkinson,

representing the late Paul Atkinson

Paul Atkinson, (1946-2004)

Cory and Pam from Rocks Management

Bonus Clip


Tom Toomey also shared this video clip (see link below) from Rocks Management administrator Chris Tuthill.* In it, you can see Rock and Rock Hall of Fame Induction celebration on a cruise line with Norman Greenbaum singing a karaoke version of "Spirit in the Sky". Check out his back-up band.


https://www.facebook.com/chris.tuthill.10/videos/10157165874783453/

*"My surreal life is now complete. Not did I only meet Norman Greenbaum, but I got to hear him sing “Spirit In The Sky” karaoke on a Caribbean cruise ship. The chorus includes The Zombies’ own Tom Toomey, Linda Bassick of Mellow Yellow, and 2 of Pink Floyd’s background singers!" Chris Tuthill

 

The Poor Boy with No Cell Phone

The little poor boy attends his first concert

Ready with matches in pocket

His parents can't afford to buy him a cell phone

His father tells him of the good old days

When fans lit matches, not cell phones

And a beautiful glow filled the arena

When their favorite song played

Or a sad and famous song from the radio

Just like the one the band plays the opening notes to

And the audience cheers and claps

And hold up their lit up cell phones

And sway to the music and sing along

The little boy lights a match

And lifts the flickering flame as high as he can

But the fire burns his gentle fingers

He drops the match to the wooden floor

The small venue crowded with fans

Are obllivious to the small fire growing

They think it part of the show

But the little boy knows the danger and runs out

Unaware that the wooden venue burst into flame

Shouts and screams in the distant fade away

The boy catches a bus home

He sits by a window

And watches the glow of the flames

Crown the sky like a halo

Just like his father described.