THE MAFU CAGE AT PORTLAND'S HISTORIC LAURELHURST THEATER!

December is my ol' lady's birthday month, and we're celebrating this badass broad with a one-night-only screening of our favorite "psychological thriller" about hysterical women…who kill!!!!

The Mafu Cage (1978) is one of the most beautiful, perplexing and genuinely disturbing films of a truly perplexing decade of bold independent cinema. Maverick director Karen Arthur weaves “a terrifying love story” of two sisters entwined in an increasingly depraved relationship within the crumbling isolation of their deceased anthropologist father’s mansion. Ellen, a successful astronomer with aspirations beyond her family’s own dark constellation, played by Academy Award winner Lee Grant (Shampoo, The Swarm, In The Heat of the Night), struggles to shield her beloved sister Cissy, a damaged introvert with extreme daddy issues, played to the bloodcurdling hilt by the inimitable Carol Kane (Dog Day Afternoon, When a Stanger Calls, Scrooged), from the infringing outside world as they descend inexorably into a black hole of madness, mayhem and murder. Brilliantly filmed by acclaimed cinematographer John Bailey (Cat People, The Big Chill, Groundhog Day), and boasting dazzling set and costume design, The Mafu Cage is a perilous delight for the senses that simply must be experienced on the big screen to be believed.

Advance tickets on sale now at the Laurelhurst Theater box office. Come get crazy with us. And by "crazy" we really do mean deeply disturbed and very uncomfortable. There will be cake.

December 20, 2017

Laurelhurst Theater

9pm

Release me from your wire, dagger moon.

Fred Cole

August 28, 1948 – November 9, 2017

GROSS ANATOMY (part 21)

Happy Halloween, boils and ghouls! Your costume looks horrific, so I have a real nasty GROSS ANATOMY treat for you today! The timing for this one couldn't be better since Decibel Magazine just included Chris Reifert of Autopsy in their Top 10 Drummer Vocalist list published yesterday. I don't need a magazine to tell me things I've known for a few decades myself, but it sure is cool to see an underground hero like Reifert formally recognized in this way. Congrats, Chris! When Autopsy recently asked me to do the cover for their 2017 EP Puncturing the Grotesque, they had some truly sickening ideas for illustrating the lyrical themes of their latest nightmare vision of mankind's descent into total self-loathing depravity and brutality. Here's how it went...

I started with pencil and worked at it until a loose narrative scene took shape on the illustration board. The guys wanted a blood orgy featuring post-apocalyptic mutant corpses at war. Not quite traditional zombies, not quite human cannibals. Something other. Once I had a fittingly ghastly composition worked out I jumped in with my trusty ballpoint pens!

Early on while we were discussing ideas and song titles, I envisioned nauseating primary colors even before I had a firm grasp on what the imagery would eventually become. That's rather unusual for me, because I generally prefer the rich grey tones that I've established some infamy for over the years in my staunch refusal to "progress" toward color. But this one definitely called for color. And color is what I gave it...

Come on in, the water's great! Most of what you see here is watercolor and ballpoint pen, but the skull in the background is color pencil with a splattering of watercolor spewed all over it for sloppy good measure. In hindsight, this is my chromatic vomit-soaked FUCK YOU to modern "death metal" bands that use moody chiaroscuro filtered images of trees on their albums. That sorta junk is usually code for boring riffs. This is DEATH METAL, not a fuckin' car commercial!!!!!

Once the drawing/painting was done, I wasted no time handing this beast off to my partner in design crime A.K. Wilson who adjusted the colors ever so slightly for print perfection, and dropped the classic Autopsy logo up top and Chris Reifert's unmistakable handwritten album title along the bottom. If you think this drawing is a crude distasteful caveman cartoon now, you should've seen what it looked like before Wilson had her way with it! Hahaha. Puncturing the Grotesque is due out on December 15th from the always reliable Peaceville Records. You know what to do. Now get out there and carve a pumpkin (or whatever you can get your hands on) and eat some candy (or whatever you can get your mouth on)! Happy Halloween. Until next time...

"...get sicker!!!!"

THE FIERCE GHOST EXITS

Cinema club Ghana style with Day of the Dead. Long live George A. Romero!

Photo by Rosie Struve.

Photo by Rosie Struve.

Photo by Rosie Struve.

Ensorcelling the Minotaur.

Cinema club Ghana style with The Exterminator on the day death triumphed over Martin "Slayed Necro" Ain. An irreplaceable and invaluable voice of the underground has fallen silent. R.I.P.   

20 year old Henry Loux provided our most precious show review!

Cinema club Ghana style with Mausoleum.

United Forces!

For those about to rot...we salute you! The gates have now closed and the fierce ghost has slithered back into the ether. THANK YOU to everyone who came out and supported this beautiful exhibition. It has been a whirlwind week and, to be perfectly honest, we were overwhelmed by the love Portland showed us for this one. Very special thanks to Brian and Heidi Chankin of Deadly Prey Gallery (Chicago) for sharing their amazing collection, Ami and Sandee Lawless of Burning Spirits Yoga (Portland) for inviting us into their Cobra Lounge, and the extended Wyrd War family for standing by my side until the very end. If you missed it, you done fucked up because most of the paintings sold and are now scattered into private homes and collections, never to be seen again. You can read a 90% accurate review by the Willamette Week here. We already have plans for a 2018 exhibit featuring all new material, and I promise it will remain on display for more than one week next time. Happy Halloween!