'THE KREEP' DESKTOP WALLPAPER FREE HERE!

Writer/producer R. O’Donnell, known in Chicago for having created and produced the professional theatre company New Age Vaudeville, the New Variety cabaret, and the R. Rated Fox Chicago TV show, is about to unleash his syndicated Gothic character, The Kreep in a series of columns, books, podcasts, and merchandise published/produced by Static Multimedia.

Partnering with Static Multimedia (a devision of Static Networx), R. O’Donnell’s The Kreep a.k.a Brazillia R. Kreep–a Gothic poet, writer, and illustrator–will start appearing in regular syndication on Static Multimedia http://Staticmultimedia.com under the title Brain Waves. The first series will be reviews of classic horror on DVD such as MGM’s Midnight Movies Witchfinder General, starring Vincent Price.

“The Kreep has already made a lot of new media appearances,” says creator O’Donnell, “The Kreep’s on MYspace (http://Myspace.com/bakreep,) The Kreep’s on twitter, (http://twitter.com/thekreep,) and The Kreep’s on blogs such as got2write (http://got2write.wordpress.com,) and now The Kreep’s on Ezine Static Multimedia (http://StaticMultimedia.com) and I couldn’t be more thrilled for the interest in the guy.”

Brazillia R. Kreep a.k.a The Kreep is a forlorn Gothic poet and illustrator living in Kreepsville. The Kreep lives in an old Victorian mansion near lake Scares.

*Logo above designed by underground street artist Dull1

*Contact@r-productions.com


> Downloadable The Kreep Desktop Wallpapers here:

BARBARA HASHIMOTO: JUNK MAIL STILL WHITE TRASH

Barbara Hashimoto: Junk Mail exhibit having a six-month run care of The Chicago Arts District, has opened its gallery doors to the public, 2003 S. Halsted Street, Chicago. The exhibit, which explores how Junk Mail intrudes on our daily life, is also open during the traditional 2nd Friday Gallery Walk that has made the Art District of East Pilsen famous to locals and tourists alike.

The public is invited to see the Junk Mail Landscapes (guest artists Michael Kozien will also present a suite of video and sound junk mail explorations), and “White Trash: Available”. Sit in front of the mounds of hand shredded junk mail and be taped making “true” Junk Mail Confessions. This is your chance to make something useful out of over a year’s worth of hand-shredded paper by fine artist Barbara Hashimoto. “Advertisers need to be more conscious of people’s right to quality of life,” says Hashimoto from a packed gallery opening this past Friday, “Junk mail is an intrusion into that right.”

Other special events throughout the year include Junk Mail Landscapes, Junk Mail Interiors, and Junk Mail Christmas where trees will be decorated using hand shredded Holiday Catalogues and other Holiday related Junk mail.

JUNK MAIL FACTS: 100 million trees are cut down to produce junk mail annually. The majority of junk mail is produced from natural forests. In 2006, Americans received 77 billion pieces of junk mail. In 2006, more than 15 million trees were cut down to produce the 1.8 billion pounds of undeliverable junk mail. (That’s above and beyond what was delivered.) 44% of the junk mail received goes unopened into the landfill.

Born in New Jersey and educated at Yale, Hashimoto’s work has been exhibited throughout Japan, The U.S. and The Middle East and is in more than 250 public and private collections including The Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American Art, The Museum of Arts and Design (New York) and The National Museum of Women in the Arts.

> Barbara Hashimoto Website

THE ELECTRIC MIKE BRENNAN

By: R. O'Donnell

From a community sketchbook to T-shirts to a "must have graphic novel," the deep dark secrets of a successful comic book revealed.

Virginia is a student with a nifty dog dupped Blammo, and an invisible scalawag gremlin named Oogleeoog. She also has amazing electrical superpowers and can release bursts of electricity from her body at will. Welcome to Eisner-nominated Mike Brennan's graphic novel Electric Girl-a comic book for, well, just about everybody.

From a modest community sketchbook to popular Blammo T-shirts to an Eisner-award nom, the deep dark secrets of Mike Brennan's all ages comic book Electric Girl revealed.


Okay, so in the Beginning, before Electric Girl, there was Blammo! How'd that come about?

Mike Brennan: Blammo was created "almost accidentally" by me and a friend. I started a drawing in a community sketchbook that we kept in the house that we were renting. It was of something that may have possibly resembled something between a dog's head and a box. I got sidetracked by something going on in the house and never finished the sketch. Later that night, my roommate came upon the sketch and finished it. And it became Blammo---our imaginary house dog.

After a couple of years, I started using Blammo as my mascot on my illustration work. I also created t-shirts every now and again that featured a Blammo drawing. Everyone that I gave them to seemed to love them (or they were being nice to me), so I felt I was on to something... Blammo eventually became one of the core cast members of a comic strip I created (that was never picked up by the syndicates), then made the cut to Electric Girl #1.

So after Blammo hit the page you create a gremlin-type character named Oogleeoog? Where'd he come from?

I created Oogleeoog for that comic strip that I submitted for syndication. Oog was the x-factor that I felt the strip needed to keep it interesting and offbeat. He was much the same character as he is in Electric Girl, except that he had pointy tips on his head.

Now you've got Blammo the dog, Oogleeoog the gremlin dude, and later you add a high-school girl named Virginia to the brood and zap! Electric Girl ensues. Tell us more?

Well, Virginia was one of the 8 characters that I had created for this comic strip. After I finished the strip, I started getting into some of the independent/small press comics at the time. The "cartoony" and non-traditional storylines of a lot of these comics gave me the idea that I could try this.

I decided to use Virginia, Oogleeoog and Blammo in a comic book. But I felt that there was a dynamic missing from the previous comic strip. I originally added the "electric girl" theme as a bridge to the super-hero comics I read since I was a kid. The EG theme started off as a crutch for me to use as I had hoped to create some sort of super hero parody...but after writing and drawing a couple of stories (that were never published), I realized that I didn't have the desire to pursue the parody aspect.

So I thought, "Why should these electrical powers automatically make her a super hero?" That's when I decided that she wouldn't be one. But, I liked the name "Electric Girl" and the idea that this girl had these powers...and here we are!

Virginia has super electric powers and talks with an invisible creature? Not so ordinary a life. Why the fantasy to tell her story?

I didn't have the confidence to create stories that focused on just an ordinary teenage girl. I wanted to create some offbeat, mildly crazy stories. A teenage girl WITH electric powers, her dog and her invisible gremlin friend gave me more toys to play with. As all of the elements fell into place accidentally, I felt that it created an interesting premise that had a lot of potential.

Then comes the accolades for Electric Girl like being named to the "Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults 2002" list by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), and most recently being dubbed a "must have graphic novel" by the Library Journal. What's that like?

Well...of course it feels nice to be appreciated! It helps me rationalize all the hours it took to create the books. But seriously, I'm grateful for the appreciation that the librarians have for the EG books. It lets me know that I'm doing something right.

Any Blammo tee-shirts left? If not, how about a 2nd printing? C'mon!

I just came across several of them in my garage a couple of weeks ago and shipped some off to Brave New World in Newhall, CA for Free Comic Book Day. So if you happened to have been in that area, you may have been the lucky recipient of one.

I'm hoping to produce a set of Blammo, Electric Girl, and Oogleeoog t-shirts some time this year. They're fun to do, but they're difficult to sell at a profit. I have this bad habit of giving them away...

So what's next?

I've spent the better part of the year marketing the latest EG book, Electric Girl Volume 3. But, I didn't let that stop me from focusing on the future. I've been working with a friend in LA on drafts of several ideas that I think would make excellent graphic novels. As soon as one of them becomes something more concrete, I'll let everyone know. In the meantime, I also have this stash of funny stories of this certain yellow dog that I want to draw...

Who are your favorites in the biz?

Not to sound cliché, but I don't necessarily have any favorite artist or writers that I follow regularly. Having a three-year-old kid will do that to you---not nearly as much time for reading as I used to have! But I try to visit any of the local shops whenever I can and grab whatever looks interesting to me.

I just picked up the first volume of the Akira series that Dark Horse published some time ago and thought it was great. I'm going to get the rest as I get the chance. I recently got hold of some old Milt Caniff "Steve Canyon" collections---I'm amazed at how consistently well the man could draw. I always pick up anything that Mike Mignola draws...I was looking through the Making of Atlantis book some time ago and was reminded how wonderfully stylized his drawings are.

I'm a Marvel zombie at heart, but stopped regularly reading the comic books years ago. It became too much of an effort to stay with the ever-changing characterizations and reboots of my favorite characters. However, I got hooked on the Ultimates and pick up the latest issue whenever I find one.

Final thoughts on the current state of graphic novels?

Not really... I think they will eventually be the only print outlet for comics, but I wouldn't be so bold as to declare if that would be a good thing or not!

WRITER/ACTOR R. O’DONNELL DELIVERS JUNK MAIL STORIES

WRITER/ACTOR/COMEDIAN RICHARD O'DONNELL, has been invited to perform his one-man show entitled Junk Mail Stories for the extended Barbara Hashimoto: Junk Mail exhibit, 2003 S. Halsted Street, Chicago, every Saturday in November. The 45 minute show will examine in a humorous and serious light how junk mail effects our everyday lives. “It’s something Barbara and I discussed over a year ago,” says O’Donnell, also known as “R.” to his friends and colleagues, “Since Barbara’s Junk Mail exhibit was awarded another six months by the Art District of Chicago, It was just time to unite for a common cause.”

Other special events throughout the year include Junk Mail Landscapes, Junk Mail Interiors, and Junk Mail Christmas where trees will be decorated using hand shredded Holiday Catalogues and other Holiday related Junk mail.

More recently, Barbara Hashimoto: Junk Mail exhibit, will re-open its gallery doors for a reception from 6-10 PM this Friday, July 11 at 2003 S. Halsted Street, Chicago, where the exhibit grows bigger everyday. The reception will be held during the traditional 2nd Friday Gallery Walk that has made the Art District of East Pilsen famous to locals and tourists alike.

JUNK MAIL FACTS: 100 million trees are cut down to produce junk mail annually. The majority of junk mail is produced from natural forests. In 2006, Americans received 77 billion pieces of junk mail. In 2006, more than 15 million trees were cut down to produce the 1.8 billion pounds of undeliverable junk mail. (That’s above and beyond what was delivered.) 44% of the junk mail received goes unopened into the landfill.

Richard O’Donnell co-wrote the award-winning off-Broadway musical One & One, Radio City Music Hall’s A Manhattan Showboat, and co-founded the New Age Vaudeville theatre company, the New Variety cabaret, and the R. Rated television show.

Born in New Jersey and educated at Yale, Hashimoto’s work has been exhibited throughout Japan, The U.S. and The Middle East and is in more than 250 public and private collections including The Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American Art, The Museum of Arts and Design (New York) and The National Museum of Women in the Arts.


> Wikipedia: Richard O’Donnell

“WITCHFINDER GENERAL” VINCENT PRICE CLASSIC GORE

by
Brazillia R. Kreep
a.k.a THE KREEP

Good evening kings and queens of crimson goo. Tonight’s rusty vault slowly creeks open to reveal a Vincent Price immortal classic from MGM’s Midnight Movies series, a deliciously bloody tale that is a poor man’s The Crucible of sorts: Witchfinder General.

Aptly directed by Michael Reeves. (Who died an agonizing death only a year later from an accidental barbiturate overdose-and that in itself is creepy too.) This British-made drama, originally billed as Edgar Allen Poe’s The Conqueror Worm, is a truly gory affair. Vincent Price plays the malicious Matthew Hopkins, a witch hunter that is more sinful than all the poor souls he brutally tortures combined. This is a nasty psychopath that hires an even nastier psychopathic sidekick to torture and mutilate the innocent while he’s off looking for more. Before the final credits role, enough blood has splashed across the screen, enough women have screamed their bloody guts out, and enough skin has be ripped, pinched, and stabbed, that I don’t advise having the steak tartar afterwards. Really. I’m quite serious about this. This is hard to watch sometimes or just your thing if you like stopping to look at road kill . Thank goodness the blood is bright orange or more people would loose their lunches instead of laughing their heads off. Lots of Fun extras too! Well worth the bucks my frightfully fine fiends.

Special Features including Witchfinder General: Michael Reeves’ Horror Classic doc and audio commentary with Co-producer and actor Ian Ogilvy.

What Price Fame?

When Vincent Price came out to play
All the children ran away
They’d scream and dream such awful things
Like long-fanged snakes and hornet stings
For Mr. Price was wicked see
T’bring such woes so eerily
Yet when he finally bid adieu
All the children did boo-hoo
they loved the thrills n’ chills he laid
And prayed he would come back someday

BEWARE THE SHRUBBERY - "THE RUINS" SLITHERS ONTO DVD

by
R. O'DONNELL

Alrighty then, The Ruins, according to IMDb (and they never lie) won a Golden Trailer award nomination for best horror poster. That’s right, best horror poster. Okay. There it is then. They almost won. So, go out and find the poster if you can (allposters.com) and tape that puppy to your bedroom wall and quickly turn off the lights. Then, in the moonlight or with some candles flickering in the distance for effect, simply stare at it until it you scream your bloody head off. That’s about as scary as this picture ever gets. I mean, c’mon, guys, it’s about these pissed-off Mayan vines in Mexico that whisper a horror movie soundtrack right outta Children of the Corn and can giggle all cartoony and can even imitate your voice or the ring-tone on your cell phone–this is really scary stuff.

Written by Scott B. Smith (and he also penned the book I never heard of) The Ruins has some damned good acting in it. No, really. I’m being serious now. Mostly from the two sexy lead gals though: Jena Malone (remember her from Contact, playing the young Jodie Foster role? Now she’s all grown up and my-oh-my so cute) and Laura Ramsey (Lords of Dogtown) blonde bombshell with some muscle she can really pour it on. They both deliver the goods with their ample amount of beauty, brains, and brawn, plus the ability to cry and go insane with terror and snot dripping out their noses quite believably. Did I tell you that these monster vines with red flowers also love to dive into your cuts and suck the blood right out of you like long green stringy leaches-yum. And the guys aren’t too bad either, the best performance handed-in by Jonathan Tucker (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake), they just die too easily–no dramatic monologues about I could’ve been a rock star or my mother told me not come. Shame ‘cause they could’ve handled it and the plot needed some spice.

When the horror, the horror, the horror slithers around our heroes’ feet it can get kind of tense. Until you realize once again that they’re just plants. Plants, like from Munchkin land in Oz. A vine with what looks like plastic leaves t’boot. It’s hard to imagine any real danger except a truly bad case of poison ivy–yikes. And if your indulging in any illegal herbal refreshment the whole damn movie is going to turn into a giggle fest, of course. Which may not be a bad thing, I guess. Better than a total dud. Also, there’s some pretty wicked gore here and when Tucker’s character plays MD (he’s in medical school so he has everyone search for aspirin–please don’t ask) and starts lopping limbs off with a kitchen knife. And we’re not talking about the shrubbery.

But the problem is that the repulsion needed for a truly horrifying experience just isn’t enough. And there’s this whole other subplot with a tribe of Mayans trying to keep the deadly vines quarantined by killing anyone and anything in sight. Actually, the scariest part of the whole movie was the lead Mayan played convincingly by actor Sergio Calderon–he was scary as hell. Freaked the b’jesus outta me. Oh, and the thought they dumped as much money as they did into this horror shrubbery nightmare, that gave me willies for days.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you that this was the UNRATED version, way too intense for moviegoers. So, um, move away from the houseplants before you slip the DVD in. You’ve been warned.

DVD EXTRAS are pretty cool if you dug the film, like (I’m quoting the box) never-before-seen-alternate ending. Never before seen? Of course it hasn’t ‘cause it ended up on the cutting room floor. There’s an equally exciting original theatrical ending–huh? And director Carter Smith and editor Jeff Betancourt commentary that takes itself maybe a bit too seriously for deadly weeds gone amuck.

THE KILLING OF JOHN LENNON

by
R. O'DONNELL


KRISHA FAIRCHILD, ROBERT KIRK, GUNTHER STERN, JONAS BALL
DIRECTED BY
ANDREW PIDDINGTON

The Killing of John Lennon. This was hard to watch for about a second or two. I’m a big fan of John Lennon ( I remember John Lennon) and I even lived behind the castle Dakota, in The Park West, 73nd and Central Park West for 8 years. I met the legend and his Ono weeks before the killing. Like most people, I walked into his world, not the other way around. But this astounding film by Andrew Peddington set my mind at ease early on. It told me that this picture wasn’t going to be a slasher-stinky-beer-stained-carpet-in-the-trailer kinda romp, but a film that answers, for all of us… why? Why would you kill John Lennon? What the f#@k for? Are you that bored, that slam-dunk stupid, that whack-o that you pick on an immortal rock star? Mr. Beatles himself. Give peace a chance? Imagine? I’m-naked-in-the-bed with my sweetie, and the press don’t get it… That guy? Doesn’t make any sense, never has, never will. But. But. The “why” has finally and uniquely been answered. Am I gushing?

Yeah–well–you bet. Just like I did with Silence of the Lambs–that film carved itself into the skull of American pop culture while giving us Sir Tony, Ms. Jody, and Ted “it-puts-the-lotion-in-the-basket” Levine. Demme took us all hostage, forcing us into tight, really dark, dank places we’ve never seen or been to before. The Killing of John Lennon dropped me right there too, right inside Chapman’s inner sanctum. They used his diaries and court transcripts to piece it all together’s why. Glued the shattered egg that fell from hell, and landed on the upper West side to boil the bloody yoke of hate and disapproval. And because of the true-to-life leisurely pacing, the tension clings to you, like Hitchcock’s show the audience the ticking bomb theory: there it is, under the seat and ticking away. Only the audience knows it’s there. What do you do? You squirm. And squirm some more. That’s the experience. Squirming through a real live horror show. You know it’s true. We all know what happens. In this, everyone did their jobs: everybody! This is ensemble front and back, folks, and virtually flawless. It doesn’t begin or end like you think it would. It takes you right where you want to go. (Even though you’ll most likely have second thoughts once you get there.) Especially after hanging out with the ultimate loser, sitting on a dirty sofa while a sweaty Chapman tells you what he’s going to do–everything is credible.

The secondary cast is so casual, so fine-tuned that you keep forgetting it’s only celluloid. You’re casually walking “inside-the-mind-of” an infamous assassin, as if you’re actually hanging out with him. About to ask him why, man, why’d you do it? Which makes it extra disturbing when you’re standing right alongside him as he bags the elephant: a celebrity so big, so pop-f@#king right-on, that the whole world gasps. Insane. Yes he was. In my mind I think he was skipping tra-la through the rat-infested alleys of his mind. Poor schmoe though. A real nobody, a truly wounded animal, a coward needing our forgiveness, according to Yoko (which is why I always dug her the most). This all comes across in fine detail here. And one scene near the conclusion of the film, totally unexpected, and all Exorcist, had me tossing in my bed long after I pushed the eject button.