Lights Out

Christopher Hitchens

An Extraordinary Loss

I know it took me awhile to come in here and say something about Hitchens because I was completely stunned to learn of his death. Yes, I knew he'd been diagnosed with cancer and I knew he'd been burning the candle at both ends for far too long - but didn't he make a lovely light?

I got drunk with him a couple of times in New York. It was most pleasurable. No, we weren't friends, we happened to be in the same bar and being a loud mouth, I tossed in my two cents and we were off and running. Arguing politics with Hitchens is like beating your head against a brick wall. I'm damned good at it (ask Garmon and Linaweaver - my living room used to be like an unexpurgated edition of Cross Fire) but Chris was always better. Better than me, certainly - but better than almost all of them.

The great political minds of our time, whether we agree with them or not:

Buchanan is still out there teaching the people the basics of politics, even though they won't listen to him and only trot him out when they want to look smart. Vidal is (I believe) swimming around in the bottom of a bottle of fine whiskey and trying to figure out why he lived longer than his father. The other two are dead. Vidal might as well be - in the speaking circuit at any rate - as at this point he doesn't discourse on the subject, he rambles and rants and oft times is spouting rhetoric that would make even Buckley blush with embarrassment. Buchanan's brain is still sharp and he's as brilliant an analyst/strategist as we've ever had in this country. Do I agree with his personal politics? No. Do I pay attention when he speaks on the subject in general? Hell yes!

But Hitchens is gone. That extraordinary power, that spectacular prose... that poisoned pen is now silent. His passing is a great loss. A class act all the way down the line and through his very last interview. Rest in piece, Chris. You did damned fine work while you were with us. I thank you for that. And I'll remember. You have my word on it, mate.

—Jessie Lilley

Read Interviews With

Mondo Cult Editor-In-Chief, Jessie Lilley

AT

The Return of Vanessa Koman

by J. Neil Schulman

Vanessa Koman is an actress I've known since she was born, and her film career begins with a classic story.

Some background first.

Mondo Cult publisher and writer, Brad Linaweaver, is a long-time friend of filmmaker, Fred Olen Ray, going back to their Florida days in the 70's. In fact, Fred's first feature film was from a Brad Linaweaver screen story, 1978's cult classic, The Brain Leeches. Brad also appears as an actor in the role of Billy Johnson in that film, and -- as an homage -- director Joe Dante placed the title on a Florida theater marquee in his 1993 comedy set in Florida, Matinee, starring John Goodman.

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Light In The Attic Records / 2010

Jim Sullivan

U.F.O.

A lot of albums come with bizarre backstories about in-fighting, debauchery, drugs… even death. But this one's a real doozy.

Malibu club favorite and man-about-Hollywood (he even had a cameo in "Easy Rider") Jim Sullivan records U.F.O. in 1969 while backed by Phil Spector's legendary Wrecking Crew of top studio musicians. The album thwarts people's expectations of singer-songwriter folk-rock, and instead features sweeping orchestral arrangements and tunes too dark to jibe with the sunny Southern California vibe.

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Odeon / 2009

Sid!

By Those Who Really Knew Him

The life of Sid Vicious is not that difficult to sum up. It's the story of a street punk hanger-on who was invited into the Sex Pistols, even though he had no musical talent. It's the woeful tale of a wretch who probably murdered his girlfriend, but who died of a heroin overdose before he could go to trial. That's pretty much what the man who was born Simon John Beverley "accomplished" during his short 21 years on Earth, but in so doing he became a punk icon. Perhaps the most legendary of all time.

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Ib Came from Outer Space—The Sequel

Six Cult Films from The Sixties

by Ib Melchior

Reviewed by Brad Linaweaver

Bearmanor Media

This book was a long time coming. We've needed it for many reasons, not the least of which is setting the record straight. No one in Hollywood ever had to fight harder to get real science fiction in front of the cameras than Ib Melchior, who did everything in his film career except act (even though he began in showbiz as an actor on the stage).

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Kris Kristofferson

Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends:

The Publishing Demos

Light in the Attic Records / 2010

Legend has it that Kristofferson was as an aspiring songwriter working as a janitor at Columbia Records in Nashville before he published his first song. These demos are from that period: 1968-1972.

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Jimi Hendrix

Valleys of Neptune

Sony Legacy / 2010

Jimi Hendrix made three albums while he was alive, and has managed to release 40-plus more records since his death.

And now he's back, with over an hour of studio recordings from 1969 (with a few "finishing touches" from band members circa 1987).

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The Loons

Red Dissolving Rays of Light

Bomp! Records / 2010

San Diego's Loons deliver 11 heaping helpings of psychedeliciousness on this template for 21st century garage rock. This should appeal to the hardcore devotees of '60s nuggets as well as to all the kids who could give a shit about the Seeds and just want to rock.

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La Poliziotta s/t

Gianni Ferrio

GDM Music, distributed by Digitmovies Altenative Entertainment

Listening to the great Gianni Ferrio's score for the 1974 Italian romcom La Poliziotta is like sampling the '70s themselves—the orchestral parts that is. Mixing in equal parts Oliver Nelson, João Gilberto, Henry Mancini and Toots Thielemans, it forms a kind of JelloTM mold of musical motifs from the period, never offensive but never particularly flavorful either.

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John Prine

In Person & On Stage

Oh Boy Records / 2010

Various Artists

Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows:

Songs of John Prine

Prine's fans are already weighing in with complaints about the great songs omitted from the excellent new live album In Person and On Stage, such as "Sam Stone" and "Hello In There." But among the gems that did make the cut are "Angel From Montgomery," "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore," "In Spite of Ourselves," "The Late John Garfield Blues," and other fan favorites.

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T.A.M.I. Show

Collector's Edition

Shout Factory

If you're a believer in the popular adage "video killed the radio star," then you may be surprised to learn that the assassination was being plotted and almost carried out nearly two decades before the inception of MTV. The evidence isn't too hard to find, now that the 1964 concert film known as the T.A.M.I. Show has finally seen an official release.

Filmed at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and featuring an astonishing lineup that included the Beach Boys, James Brown, the Rolling Stones and a host of Motown and British Invasion acts, the Teenage Awards Music International show was an introduction to a grand plan that never came to fruition.

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Johnny Cash

American VI: Ain't No Grave

American Recordings/Lost Highway / 2010

The is the sixth in the Rick Rubin-produced "American Recordings" series. And while it sure ain't no party stomp, it's one hell of a record.

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Bettye Lavette

Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook

Anti Records / 2010

Zep. The Stones. The Who. Traffic. Beatles. Animals. Elton John. Moody Blues. All your old faves, whose careers were shaped by American R&B, provide the material for this album of covers by American singer Bettye Lavette.

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With Distribution Deal Set,

Blind Filmmaker Puts Finishing

Touches On Debut Feature

CAPE CORAL, FL: It's been a journey spanning nearly 5 years, cast and crew replacements, two hurricanes, four states and a suicide, but comic book writer-turned-director Joe Monks, with one distribution offer firmly in place, says the end is finally in sight...so to speak.

"We've had a zillion things go wrong," says Monks of his directorial debut, The Bunker. "Everything from reshoots to footage being ruined because someone clueless was standing next to our cameras with his cell phone on vibrate, to rescoring the entire film after receiving an offer for international distribution. I've had to dump a lot of dead weight along the way, but with the path finally clear, The Bunker should be out in 2011."

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