“I’m here to tell you why the new Limp Bizkit album is so important. That’s because CD’s like this one spare you from all the chart-topping, teeny-bopping, disposable happy horseshit that brings up the bile from the back of my neck. I have no time or tolerance for those shitty whack acts like that. I wouldn’t piss on their CD’s to put out a fire.”
If you’re fortunate enough to own the Significant Other album by Limp Bizkit, you know about this gem of a rant at the end the CD by Matt Pinfield. In his words, we need some rock and we need something that has balls. Now, just imagine for a minute if you were an author and somebody gave you the kind of praise that Matt Pinfield gave to Limp Bizkit. Wouldn’t you like to be known as an author who spares people from disposable happy horseshit? I’d jump at the opportunity in a heartbeat.
But that can’t always happen. After all, authors aren’t known for being as aggressive as heavy metal bands when it comes to their craft. Let’s take Stephen King for instance. Everybody knows how brutal he can be when he puts his mind to it. He’s even brutal in his criticism of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. But you have to admit that Stephen King’s aggression and Fred Durst’s aggression are two very different things. Authors have a quiet rage that settles down once pen is put to paper. Musicians and singers? They just scream it out until they’re mentally and physically exhausted.
When it comes to my writing, I will admit to being just as laidback and mellow as any other author. Yes, I can get down and dirty with the best of them, but there’s a reason why I’m not on stage right now strumming the hell out of an electric guitar. Aside from the obvious reason that I can’t play guitar, I don’t have the kind of aggression it takes to be in a metal band. I hardly even like it when I go to a concert and some rowdy asshole is yelling in the most obnoxious tone possible.
However, if you’re a literary critic and you feel like giving my e-books Matt Pinfield-style praise, I wouldn’t be against it. In fact, I would be grinning for the rest of my life. Deus Shadowheart and Dr. Scott Cain already have reputations of being literary badasses, even when their new home (Fireball Nightmare) is still under construction. If Deus heard that he spared people from disposable happy horseshit even during his most emotional moments, he would scream like the heavy metal freak he was meant to be.
Readers and heavy metal fans are two different groups of people. And yet, I represent both sides of the fence. I just might…you know…bring them together! Actually, no, I won’t. Alice Cooper, Max Cavalera, and Rex Brown have already done that with their published memoirs. Phil Anselmo will do it too once his book comes out in 2015. I’m not much of a fearless leader, but if Phil Anselmo and Max Cavalera bring me to the promised land, I will follow them every step of the way. Same thing goes for Fred Durst and Matt Pinfield.
***INTERNET DIALOGUE OF THE DAY***
JAY HOWARD: Now come on, own up. Who really wrote “Sitka the Nose Biter”?
ME: I did, Jay-Pie.
JAY HOWARD: No blood and gore, explosions, or shootings? Not even poison? What happened to you while I was gone?!
Seeing the movie “Barbara” at the Grand Cinema in Tacoma gave me the inspiration to talk about this next topic: the literary genre. While “Barbara” wasn’t a book, it could just as easily fall under this category. The purpose of the literary genre is to educate before it entertains. It’s the reason why you’ll see books like “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Green Grass, Running Water” on college campuses rather than things like “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games”. Literary genre stories don’t have to be fast-paced, they don’t even have to be fun to read. But then again, people don’t go to college or high school to have fun. They go there to become educated citizens so that they can get a good job and keep it for a long, long time. That’s all well and good, up until the point where the teachers penalize you for writing genre fiction, which isn’t always known for artsy-fartsy bullshit. Encouraging students to write literary novels isn’t anywhere near true to what goes on in the real world. There’s a whole sprawl of authors who became successful doing things like fantasy, sci-fi, transgression, and horror stories. They’re so successful that I don’t even have to name them because you already know who they are. But just for the sake of argument, their names are Suzanne Collins, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and as much as I hate to admit it, Stephanie Meyer. You don’t always have to win a Pulitzer Prize in order to be a good author. If at least one person likes your work, congratulations, you’re a good author. If multiple people like your work, you’re popular to those people as well. A Pulitzer Prize isn’t a requirement for being well-fed. So why then would teachers encourage their students to write things worthy of such a feat such as literary fiction and nonfiction? If you’re wondering why I need to ask this question, it’s because I’m still peeved about a C I got in one of my multiple-genre writing classes. It’s amazing how I can remember the worst times of my life, but the best ones are so distant that I might as well have Alzheimer’s. In any event, don’t expect “Red Blood, White Knuckles, Blue Heart” to win any Pulitzer Prizes anytime soon. I choose entertainment over education. If you happen to be educated by the lessons taught in genre fiction, then good for you. If you actually had fun reading it, you have a lot more of my respect. Send your money to the United Necromancer College Fund. Because genres are terrible things to waste.
***TELEVISION DIALOGUE OF THE DAY***
DEEKS: Eric, I need you to run a license plate number. S as in Slayer, M as in Metallica, A as in Anthrax, 5-2-3 and P as in…parsnip.
ERIC: Wait a minute, your lettering system is based off of heavy metal bands and all you could give me was a root vegetable?
DEEKS: Sorry, I drew a blank.
ERIC: Pantera! Hello!
DEEKS: Cowboys From Hell. What was I thinking?
-NCIS: Los Angeles-
I hate to break it to you, Tea-Baggers, but Sarah Palin didn’t actually write “Going Rogue”. She can barely write talking points on her hand. She did what every other celebrity has done when they wanted to put out a book: she hired a ghostwriter. As much as I hate to admit it, there are pro-wrestlers out there as well who’ve used ghostwriters as well from Lesnar to Jericho. Unless the celebrity is already an established author like Tobias Wolff or Sarah Vowell, you can be pretty sure some ghostwriter out there wrote the damn book without being touted or paid very well. It’s the curse of being a ghostwriter, but it’s like my sister-in-law Susan says: “You have to start somewhere.” But if all of this celebrity-endorsed work is really a product of qualified writers, then why do bookworms toss them aside like they’re beneath the works of Stephen King and Suzanne Collins? I’ll tell you why: because the ghostwriters dictate a style in which their boss speaks. If you read a celebrity memoir and it suddenly sounded like a Pulitzer magnet, there’s something seriously wrong here. Do you honestly believe that Snooki is capable of talking like a literature student? I hope to God you don’t. Truth is, we don’t buy celebrity memoirs because they’re intelligently written. We buy them because we want to get intimate with the private lives of the person we’re reading about. I will say this: celebrity books dictate a very quick pace because they don’t overdo heavy descriptive language. The descriptions found in these books will most likely be a pop culture reference of some kind. Take for instance “Undisputed” by Chris Jericho. There’s a scene where he’s playing a Fozzy gig and he slides off the stage in what appears to be a goofy accident. You want to know what he compared it to? The toboggan scene from Christmas Vacation. Remember that scene? I do, but that doesn’t mean everybody else does. Not everybody has seen that movie before. But that’s okay, because celebrities can get away with pop culture references. Why is that? Because they’re famous and people will buy their books whether the writing is good or not. If you have no fame, don’t even try for a pop culture reference. It won’t work. People who don’t listen to Nightwish won’t know what you’re talking about if you all of the sudden compare the beauty of your girlfriend to that of Tarja Turunen. Celebrities can get away with pretty much anything they want. They’re famous, they’re rich, and people will love them no matter what. That’s not to say that celebrity memoirs can’t be entertaining. On the contrary, “Undisputed” was VERY entertaining. Just don’t expect to see these books in a college classroom. Ever.
***WRESTLING DIALOGUE OF THE DAY***
DANIEL BRYAN: I feel naked without the tag team titles!
KANE: That’s because you’re not wearing a shirt. Or pants.
It’s very tempting to laugh at a full-grown adult reading anything by RL Stine, considering that he’s been dubbed “the Stephen King of children’s fiction”. The operative word in that tout is of course “children’s”. But when you actually take “Nightmare Hour” off the shelf and start tooling through it, you begin to think to yourself, “This is children’s fiction? Really?” While it is true that there are no swear words or sexual situations, this anthology isn’t short on disturbing moments. How would you like to have a horde of fuzzy brown spiders crawling up and down your arm…and eventually underneath your skin? Or if you don’t have a heart attack just yet, picture your head being on the end of a pumpkin vine for some sick farmer’s enjoyment. Still keeping your distance from that bottle of Xanax? Try picturing having your foot chopped off after being mistaken for a kid with diabetes. These moments mark some of the scariest in the entire book. I would dare say that these stories are a complete 180 from what I’ve read in the Goosebumps series during my middle school days. Goosebumps is merely TV-Y7-rated material. Always has been and continues to be when the TV version is being syndicated on The Hub. Would you like to take a guess as to where on the TV rating spectrum Nightmare Hour lies? I’d say somewhere between TV-PG and TV-14. Of course, the stories in Nightmare Hour that managed to make it on TV don’t agree with this philosophy. It could be because translations to television aren’t always faithful to the book. I haven’t seen these syndicated episodes, but after seeing the nasty shit that happened in the book, it’s definitely on my bucket list. Hell, I just may kick the bucket while watching an episode of an RL Stine TV show due to having a massive heart attack that even faithful McDonald’s customers never experience. If you’re an adult and reading this book, don’t be ashamed. It’s okay to be frightened and disturbed, but being ashamed is definitely out of the question. Boogedy-boogedy-boo!
***TELEVISION QUOTE OF THE DAY***
“I hope that when your head is separated from your shoulders, it’s treated with a little more respect than what you’ve shown our victim.”
-Ducky from “NCIS”-
If Stephen King considers you to be a great horror writer, take that honor with pride. Bentley Little was skillful enough as an author to receive such an honor. And why wouldn’t he? His anthology of short stories known as “The Collection” is just one example of how dark and screwed up of a place his mind is. No matter which one of the stories you’re reading, you’re always guaranteed extra time trying to clean yourself off in the shower. Absolutely nothing is off limits to Mr. Little when it comes to plot devices, be it child molestation, chainsaw slashings, degenerate crazies, religious sacrifices, or, one of my all time favorites, a bunch of zombies dressing up in Revolutionary War outfits and scaring the crap out of a guy named Mike Franks. That last item comes from a story called “The Washingtonians”, where George Washington is revealed to be a cannibalistic psychopath whose cherry tree story turns out to be him raping small children and hence, taking their cherries. If it sounds over-the-top and somewhat giggly, it’s because it is. If you really want to know what the hell goes on in Bentley Little’s mind, by all means, go to his home in Arizona and ask him…that is, if you can find him. Mr. Little made himself a tad bit difficult to locate. You know who else was hard to locate? Ted Kaczynski also known as the Unibomer. The Unibomber loved to live in the woods and build his destructive devices. And Bentley Little? Well, he loves to live in seclusion and build destructive stories that’ll have you swallowing Xanax like candy. And Bentley has the shaggy beard to prove it. If you’re not already creeped out by this somewhat hyperbolic comparison, then don’t let me stop you from buying a copy of “The Collection”. But I must advise you: if the thought of Mr. Little being compared to Ted Kaczynski in terms of physical image gives you a nervous and cold stomach, you probably won’t make it passed the first page of the book, where religious whackos nailing people and animals to crosses will be the first thing that haunts your mind like a schizophrenic voice. Who knows? Maybe once you get passed the first chapter, you’ll need someone to turn the pages for you since your arms will be trapped in a straightjacket! Just saying!
***DOMESTIC QUOTE OF THE DAY***
“Garrison, quit laughing like a crazy person!”
-My niece Reina-
Somewhere in the 2000’s, this world became obsessed with the creature horror genre. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, if it was a hideous creature, you, the author, could do anything you wanted with it. What’s noteworthy about this particular 2000’s deadline is that after the Twilight series was published, there was an entire sprawl of authors who decided that putting terrifying creatures in romantic situations was an automatic goldmine. Scott Snyder and Stephen King could have taken that route with “American Vampire”. But guess what? They didn’t! In the “American Vampire” graphic novel, the two authors’ main character, Skinner Sweet, despite his last name is the antithesis of everything sparkly and fruity about the creature horror genre. Skinner Sweet is a savage. A monster. A wild west barbarian. He thinks that murder is more fun than a barrel of monkeys. He’d probably murder those too if he thought it would give him the adrenaline rush from hell. And I know what everybody reading a piece of vampire fiction is thinking. They’re thinking that if the sun comes out, the vampire in question is going to burst into flames and become nothing more than a desert of ashes. Right? Wrong, pacho! Being out in burning hot sunlight only makes Skinner Sweet stronger. Strong enough to make his favorite hobby of relentless murder a practical form of genocide. But don’t go thinking that Skinner is all about blood and guts. He actually helps a woman fight off a bunch of backstabbing coworkers. Granted, she too becomes a bloodthirsty neck nibbler, but you know what they say: a little bit goes a long way. After reading this literal “Bloodbath & Beyond” tale from front to back, I started to have slightly more respect for Stephen King as a novelist. His concepts are violently fucked up and look very cathartic on the pages of a graphic novel. I still have a hard time dragging my tired eyes along the quicksand path of his traditional novel pages. But if he decides to put out more comic books with the assistance of Scott Snyder, you’re damn right I’m going to snatch them off the shelves of my local Barnes & Noble.
***LYRICS OF THE DAY***
“I’ll slap you so fucking hard it’ll feel like you kissed a freight train!”
-Five Finger Death Punch singing “War Is the Answer”-
