Television has taught me many things. It is truly the great educator.
“Dear TV,
“Thank you for teaching me that I can kill a vampire by staking it through the heart or decapitating it, but that garlic and crosses will only scare it off or burn it, not kill it.
“I am a better person for knowing that if you put a bunch of good-looking women in a mansion with a complete dork of a guy, and roses are up for grabs, the gals will turn on each other to win the heart (and long stem) of the dude.
“Thank you for teaching me what the fashion future will look like. Without you, I never would have guessed that we would all be wearing turtle-neck jumpsuits in various primary colours, while exploring the universe in our space-ships.
“And because of you, TV, I know that people who live in the country all know each other and are frequently and unfortunately related to one another.”
Consider this:
Affable Sam Drucker, who kept Petticoat Junction’s Betty Jo, Bobbie Jo and Billie Jo in supplies, also helped out the gang from Green Acres, since both shows were set in the imaginary Hooterville.
When Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies was shown a picture of Petticoat Junction matriarch Kate Bradley, she was astonished at just how like Jed’s cousin Pearl Bodine Kate was (funny that, since they were both played by Bea Benaderet).
Meanwhile, fans of Green Acres could also run into characters Nute Kiley and Floyd Smoot at any given time down at the Junction. Those Hooterville hussies.
And most importantly, Betty Jo, Bobbie Jo and Billie Jo’s dog, imaginatively called Dog, later showed up elsewhere on TV as the one and only Benji.
My point, and I do have one (respect, Ellen DeGeneres), is this: where did all the early-60s down-home country shows go? It’s like they were all so interconnected that when one went, the others followed. Or maybe there was some kind of secret conspiracy to get rid of all reference to rural America in the 60s. Hooterville closed in upon itself and we were left alone in the oh-so-mod suburban landscapes of late 60s and early 70s sitcoms.
Not that I’m complaining about the city shows: Get Smart, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie and their friends pretty much brought me up (pardon, Mum and Dad). But sometimes, you just want to escape to where the grass is greener and the air is sweeter. Know what I mean?
And how pretty were those girls! When I was 13, my family moved to the country, and I so longed to have shiny, nut-brown hair, 10-inch eyelashes, and beautiful gingham dresses cinched in at the waist … or endless, tanned legs in torn-off denim shorts. Those shows just made the country so darned good-looking. I tried, but sadly, around my neighbourhood, flannelette shirts, skinny black jeans and ugg boots were de rigeur. And since it was the 80s, you could also find a ‘rat’s tail’ dangling from the back of every second boy’s head. Oh man.
So I needed Petticoat Junction and the ‘Jo’s’ to help me feel good about my exile from the metropolis. They made me think the country was sweet, and pure, and healthy, but a little bit naughty, and that if I hung around in gingham for long enough I’d meet a deep-voiced, gorgeous cattle-drover who’d make it all worthwhile.
But the Hooterville Cannonball train rolls no longer. Maxwell and Ninety-nine boogying ‘undercover’ on some psychedelic dance-floor may be all well and good, but it just rubs the faces of all those poor country gals like teenaged me in the fun they’re NOT having.
Now most of my friends know me as ‘research gal’. If something makes me curious, I’ll tend to dive head-first into it until I find the answers. So I googled Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies, and guess what I found? It WAS a conspiracy! They ditched all the cornball hicks on purpose. Those bastards.
The story goes that by the late 60s, CBS found it was lagging in certain demographics and wanted a more “hip, urban” lineup to attract younger viewers. So OUT went Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies, Hee Haw and Mayberry RFD and by 1970, it was bye bye Petticoat Junction too. And 20 years later, when we ran out of reruns, CRACK went my heart and hopes of marrying a good-looking farmer.
All I have left now is the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies spinning in my head, the ghost of better viewing times, though it has morphed into the ‘naughty’ version we used to sing in primary school:
Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed, Then one day he was shootin’ at some food, And up through the ground popped a Granny in the nude.
Donna, Jason, the all new Atom, and Bob the Monitor get into a bruhaha with the residents of the Palmerverse, before seeing eye to eye. Finding out that they were only protecting the good Dr. Palmer himself, the warriors point the Challengers of the Unknown to a microverse beyond the Palmerverse.
Jimmy Olsen makes waves in Metropolis under the nom de plume, Mr. Action, even if Lois Lane shows a healthy lack of respect for his heroics.
Mary Marvel finds herself adrift in open waters, seeking the mentoring help of the mystical Zatanna - maybe not the best choice of role models considering the recent troubles the magician just got through. The meeting between the two will have to wait for another issue, however, as the two heroines never get together in this issue.
Next up we check in on Holly Robinson and Harleen Quinzel in the Athenian Women's shelter in Metropolis. It seems that the mission is only interested in single ladies and those with rugrats in tow need not apply. That doesn't exactly play well with Holly and we get more on her next issue.
Switching up a lot from previous issues, we next move all the way to Apokolips - the home of Darkseid and many other evil New Gods. It appears the master monarch is building an army of Parademons. He also shows a bit of a soft side to one of his many concubines, but quickly goes back to dastardly villain mode and aces her with his Omega Beams!
Also watching the parade of Parademons is a lowly, unidentified New God, who all clues point to being none other than Forager a/k/a The Bug!
For those counting, Countdown now has at least two characters building armies - Darkseid and Monarch. Plus, if the Monitors have more of Forerunner's people as their personal slaves, that might be one more. And don't forget Sinestro's Fear Corps! (check out recent issues of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps for more on the Sinestro Corps War!)
Finally, Week 40 checks in on our two favorite fugitives - Piper and the Trickster! Freshly deposited in Gotham, the two go to the only hood they think will help them in the Bat's city, the Penguin. Man, those two are really not that bright . . .
The issue closes with even more bad luck for the rogue Rogues - Oracle clues the brand new Question (a/k/a Renee Montoya) onto their entry into Gotham. That can't be good.
ISSUE 39: DO NOT PASS GO
After 12 weeks of what many fans have called a book treading water, this week's Countdown seems to have finally hit it's stride. We here at Rundown HQ admit that there is still something to be desired in the scripting and artwork behind the book, but two major developments have finally made this book start to gel.
First, Keith Giffen has come on the book as layout artist/plot contributor with Issue 40. The significance of that cannot be overstated. With countless years in the industry, mastery of pacing and visual storetelling, and the experience of already having worked on a weekly book (the only one among the main contributors to Countdown), Giffen's experience, poise and attitude are just the injection of "freshness" this book needed.
Second, with Issue 39, the book has finally escewed the need to check in on all of the players in every issue, thus diluting the impact of those appearances with minimal page time. There are still a couple of interludes in this issue that probably could have been left out (we're looking at you, Mr. Action!), but overall, this issue finally felt like its own story and not a conglomeration of vignettes and news-brief style recaps.
So, what happened?
Karate Kid and the recently non-Triplicate Una, in an effort to find out what's wrong with the Kid and maybe why Brainiac 5 stranded them in the 21st century, break into the home of none other than Barbara Gordon, f/k/a Batgirl, currently a/k/a Oracle. For two kids from the future, that's not the brightest of moves. But the Kid proves he's as determined as Batman and makes it through all of Oracle's defenses to get to the mastermind. Too bad she's a little busy with another major security breach - someone's trying to hack a database that has every hero's real id! I smell a conspiracy.
Speaking of conspiracies, Trickster and Piper are still being hidden by the Penguin in Gotham City. Too bad they forgot the golden rule among super-villains: never turn your back on each other. Looks like the Penguin went to a higher bidder and called in the all-new, sort-of different Suicide Squad to re-capture the Rogues. As readers saw in All Flash #1, the new Suicide Squad (with team members Deadshot, Captain Boomerang II, the Bronze Tiger, and Plastique, among others) have been busy gathering up all the Rogues who took part in the murder of Bart Allen, the Flash IV.
Just as Boomer is about to layout the two misfit Rogues, they make a miraculous escape. Too bad they just jumped (yet again!) from the frying pan to the fire! Oracle and Batwoman are waiting for the two and they don't look happy. With Trickster the only straight man in that alley, things are bound to get awkward.
Finally, this issue also checked in on Mr. Action making another save and determining to get into the Titans; and it looked at Holly Robinson, confronting Athena of the same-named shelter about their acceptance issues. Nothing much there, but we should see more in the weeks to come. Wrapping up both Issues 40 and 39 were more of Dan Jurgens's History of the Multiverse, but since that timeline is up to date, the story has concentrated more on the ongoing debate amongst the Monitors about how to handle so-called "reality jumpers" like the now deceased Duela Dent and the still at large Monarch, as well as how to face the oncoming Great Disaster. More on that in a special article coming in the next few weeks - Kirby created it and the 1970s DCU loved it - what was The Great Disaster!?
Next week: ISSUE 38, TITANS TOGETHER, IT'S ACTION TIME!
Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" seems like your typical song about heartbreak. boy meets girl,boy leaves girl, girl is totally bummed out and spends the rest of her nights walking around a mansion, reminiscing about her lost love.
The video is a whole different story as it takes Bonnie Tyler's power ballad takes a sinster turn a la Mary Kay Letourneau.
For your viewing pleasure.
(Warning: this video contains ninjas, dancing boys in football equipment and boys with REALLY bright eyes)
As reported allover the net, Warner Bros. have made casting announcements for the fall-shooting Zach Snyder vehicle, Watchmen. The classic Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons graphic novel is considered the greatest of all comic book creations by fans and critics alike.
THE PLAYERS James Jesse/The Trickster Hartley Rathaway/The Pied Piper James Olsen/Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen Lois Lane Kal El/Clark Kent/Superman Mary Batson/Mary Marvel Jean Loring/Eclipso Ryan Choi/The Atom III Jason Todd/Robin II/The Red Hood Donna Troy/Troia "Bob" the Monitor Holly Robinson/Catwoman II Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn Val Armorr/Karate Kid Luornu Durgo/Una/Triplicate Girl
ISSUE 41
So, lots going on in between the covers of this issue, but not really a lot happening. We start off where last week we left off - with the Trickster and Pied Piper freefallin' from 30,000 feet. Luckily, Piper grabbed a piece of luggage on the way out of the plane they were being held in and, lo and behold, within are Trickster's flying boots! Convenient for the pair, but still a little hairy. Good thing they were able to crashdown into Gotham Harbor.
Well . . . maybe not a good thing, since every cape in the DCU is going to be hunting them for their role in the murder of Bart Allen a/k/a the Flash! And since Gotham is home to the greatest manhunter in the world, a/k/a the Batman, a very bad future awaits our two favorite Rogues.
Especially since the first place they head for help in the big bad city is to pre-eminent Bat villian, the Penguin. Bad choices seem to be plaguing these two. Being cuffed together isn't helping.
Next up, the issue checks in on Mary Marvel and Jimmy Olsen. The former is contemplating the Riddler's sage advice about finding a mentor (and someone with a bit of dual personality - Jean Loring, a/k/a Eclipso - seems more then ready to take on the position!) The latter has created himself a costume and a super-hero name . . . get ready for MR. ACTION!
Moving on . . .
Holly and Harley are still with the Athenian Women's Shelter, but now are apparently in the Gotham extension. I could have sworn they were in Metropolis last issue! Hmmm. This seems to be the first of many continuity/consistency gaffs that plagued this issue (and some of the previous ones to a lesser extent.) Anyway, Gotham doesn't like their newest Amazonian guests, especially since Wonder Girl and Supergirl just took out Air Force One over in the mini-series, Amazons Attack!
Over in Ivy City, the Atom is getting small with the newly named, Bob the Monitor (yeah, I know), Donna Troy and Jason Todd. Heading into the micro-verse to find Ray Palmer, their first stop doesn't exactly look friendly - robotic amphibians and mutant micromen abound!
Finally, the book closes on Karate Kid in a scene that seems to have happened some time ago in the rest of the DCU (remember those continuity gaffs we mentioned a little while ago?) Completing their mission to resurrect Wally West and his family into the 21st Century, the Kid and his fellow Legionnaires get gone. But Brainiac Five tells the Kid his mission in our time isn't over. Anyone reading Justice League of America and "The Lightning Saga" already know this, but what we didn't know is that the Kid gets some help sent to him - Triplicate Girl! Or, more accurately, Una, one-third of the Triplicate Girl persona. What's their mission here? Wouldn't you like to know! For some clues, check out the latest issue of Justice Society of America where Superman asks the very same question of the Legion's Starman.
Well, it feels like it is about time for we here at Rundown HQ to give some deeper commentary on Countdown so far. While we've been enjoying some aspects of the story - specifically the Rogues' adventure and Mary Marvel's journey - a lot of the rest of the book, especially in recent weeks has felt like filler. More accurately, it's felt like a series of recaps for the same stories happening in other books. We understand that the book is attempting to tie together the continuity of the entire line of DCU titles, but the focus of Countdown itself is starting to get lost in the scramble to "fill in the blanks."
This week seemed to be the weakest of all the issues so far, with only a few pages advancing the stories of the lead characters and even worse than that, the issue was filled with head-scratching continuity flubs: Is Clark Kent/Superman really just sitting around at his office when Air Force One is taken out by Amazons (who by the way have been ransacking Washington, DC for the last couple of weeks)?? Is Karate Kid just getting to the point of trying to leave our universe, days after Bart Allen's funeral that happened in the last issue of Countdown? Did Piper and Trickster fall to Earth from Mars? Because if not, they must be defying gravity to give Holly and Harley enough time to get from Metropolis to Gotham between the Rogues exit from the plane 'til the first page of this issue.
Being diehard DC heads, the Rundown hates to harp on these "fanboy-ish" continuity issues, but when the gaffs take you so far out of the story, it's hard not to address the problems with a critical eye. And to go one further, the less said about this week's art, the better. There isn't a single consistent countenance on any character that appears in this issue.
In closing, the Rundown isn't giving up hope on this title. Quite the opposite, with 12 issues published, Keith Giffen on board next week for layouts, and the talented writing pool and veteran editorial team now on the book, things should only improve. It's just the hope of all of us here at Rundown HQ that some of the continuity rubs are a little less obvious and that DC focuses more on story-telling than story-recapping. If this title is truly meant to be the "spine of the DCU" - as it was so often touted - then let it tell its own tale and build off that base. Don't just use the title as a bridge between disparate storylines throughout the rest of this gigantic shared universe; use it to BUILD THAT UNIVERSE!
All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #6 by Frank Miller and Jim Lee Onslaught Reborn #4 by Jeph Loeb and Rob Liefield (with a cover by J. Scott Campbell)
Interesting that the three artists involved in these books were Image Founders (Lee, Liefield) and members (Campbell) - wonder why their books failed over there, too?!
Now, if Wildcats #2 came out next Wednesday, I think the Earth would explode on top of Hell freezing!
“If they call us mutations ... what must they be like?” ‘The Daleks’, Doctor Who, Episode 2, Season 1 (1963)
At last it is here: the pop culture equivalent to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Imagine, if you will, two of the most enduring pop culture icons of our era joining together for the first time to celebrate that gloriously tacky institution, the Christmas Special. Come December, this miracle will be born in a manger near you.
Yes folks, hold on to your feathers, tassels and sequins, because Doctor Who and Kylie Minogue will be rocking the Tardis this yuletide. I am so excited I’m wriggling like a five-year-old on a road-trip, two hours away from the next toilet stop.
Kylie Minogue is the unchallenged queen of pop schmultz, and I say that with affection that overfloweth, being one of the devastated many who missed out on Ms Minogue’s Sydney concert when she was forced to cancel and face bigger personal challenges last year. And then there’s Doctor Who, the most enduring science-fiction television show on the planet, and the origin of probably one of the most over-used nerd lines in history, “we will exterminate,” (I confess to being guilty of committing this verbal crime).
The two of them together is almost too much pop culture saccharine to bear. Almost. Throw in the fact that this is for none other than a Christmas Special (in any program, almost guaranteed to be the worst – and therefore most fun – episode of the season), and we’ll all be very happy little pop-culture campers indeed.
The story goes that the latest Doctor (David Tennant) is dealing with a bit of a problem: the Titanic has crashed through the Tardis walls. It seems to me that this suggests some fairly crappy sailing even for the doomed Titanic crew, given how small that Tardis is on the outside – they’d only have to swerve a metre or two to miss it. Anyway, lucky for the Doctor, Kylie is on board as Astrid, a purty little waitress, alongside British comedians and actors Geoffrey Palmer, Clive Swift and Gray O’Brien.
But Kylie, sadly, is not a permanent fixture of Doctor Who. So if it’s not the pop princess, what is it about this little sci-fi program that has kept us watching (and humming “oo-OO-ooo” in our heads) for the past 40-plus years? Who is this man, and what is his appeal?
To refresh your memory, the Doctor is an alien Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. He’s a fugitive from his home planet, traversing the universe in a stolen time machine that, due to a malfunction, is stuck in the form of a blue British police box. Being Gallifreyan (or whatever the term may be), the Doctor is able to return from death by ‘regenerating’ himself into a new body, complete with a new personality.
Since materialising on our screens in 1963, the Doctor has taken 10 different forms and enjoyed the company of more than 20 companions, most of them female (cheeky lad). In that time, he has also faced every imaginable (and unimaginable) enemy, from ancient philosophers to evil robots, blobs of slime, and cave men. I guess the combination of time travel, space travel, adventure, wisdom, babes and immortality is a pretty attractive mix.
I came late to the Doctor Who viewer club. My brother, on the other hand, practically emerged from the womb wearing a stripy multi-coloured scarf around his neck. But when I was 11 and my brother was six, I gave him two goldfish for his birthday, with the cutest names I could think of: Bib and Bub. My brother said ‘thanks sis,’ and promptly renamed the fish Buck Rogers and Doctor Who. (Incidentally, this was around the era that my brother also had a Castle Grayskull of his very own for He-Man and She-Ra to gallivant in, as well as a Man-At-Arms figurine, and evil Skeletor’s Snake Mountain, complete with a microphone that would distort your voice into a cross between Darth Vader and the Wicked Witch of the West when you spoke into it. And if you haven’t heard of Masters of the Universe and therefore don’t know what I’m talking about, crawl out from your cave and check them out. They rock!)
But I digress …
Because of the fish, I was inspired to watch Doctor Who. I wanted to see what had impacted my little brother so much that he would name a cute orange fish after an old man who didn’t even have a magic sword or wear speedos. At that time they were playing very early re-runs of Doctor Who, so the first episode I saw was ‘The Daleks’ from the first series. It frightened the hell out of me.
The Daleks, as I’m sure you are well aware, are these freakily-smart, evil, blobby brain-monsters that get around in R2-D2 style robotic machines. To write this story, I read a synopsis on that early episode, and apparently there was also a beautiful, peace-loving race of ‘Thals’ living on the Dalek’s planet. I have no memory of them. What I remember is the relentless evil robot-things rolling around with telescopic shooting arms and throat-cancer voices. Man they were scary. And man were those ‘special effects’ bad, bad, bad. It was like watching a high-school play.
But somehow, the bad effects and cheap sets didn’t matter. I was hooked, and I guess I wasn’t alone. According to the ABC, the Daleks virtually doubled the Doctor Who audience overnight. The scary little robot-aliens immediately spawned the BBC’s first merchandising boom, and today, have their own entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. And here’s a fact you probably didn’t know: the Daleks were actually inspired by ballet, after writer Terry Nation saw a performance by the Georgian State dancers, and was captivated by the gliding motion of the long-skirted ballerinas.
That was back in the 60s, but the Doctor’s popularity has rarely let up since. In Britain last week, the final episode of Season Three (of the new Doctor Who series), ‘Last of the Time Lords’, was watched by 8.61 million British viewers, the 7th-most watched program on UK TV, in a week that included the Concert for Diana.
As for me, I just feel lucky, lucky lucky that Kylie and the Doctor will keep my schmultz-o-meter oiled and my jingle-bells a-ringing this Christmas.
Russell Sams burst on the pop culture scene with his extremely memorable appearance in the film, The Rules of Attraction. Watch this clip:
Russell Sams: I looked at ForcesOfGood and I liked it, usually people who are into comic books have a certain intellect, I don't know what it is, but usually those readers are thinking people.
Garrett Faber: Oh definitely. Are you into comics at all?
RS: When I was growing up I really loved Vampirella, I can't help the sexual allure of female vampires.
GF: Her outfit was intense, it was just those two things covering her boobs and that was it.
RS: I'd let her suck my neck.
GF: Definitely, she's like the queen of the underworld or something.
RS: It would be hard to fight it. I also loved some of the models she was based on, and how she changed over the years. I didn't get a lot of her issues, but I picked up some here and there. I also liked Legends of The Dark Knight, Batman, and before that, when I was a kid I read G.I Joe and Ninja Turtles.
GF: I love the Turtles, I think I’m gonna get a Turtles tattoo.
RS: Oh really, would it have all their faces on it, or just one turtle?
GF: I think I'd have to go for the team, all four, however if I was gonna go for just one turtle I'd have to pick Raph. He was badass.
RS: I had this huge 6 foot tall cardboard cutout of all four of them. When the movie came out, that was it, Elias Koteas as Casey Jones, so cool.
GF: My friend and I were talking about how good the original movie was and how cartoonish the others were. When I was a kid I didn't realize how serious that movie was, like, the Foot was a gang that was recruiting kids off the street. They beat the hell out of Raph and throw his ass through a window, they're fighting in a burning building and the floor falls out from under them, they leave New York and go to the country, and it's one hell of a movie.
RS: I'm almost afraid to go back and watch certain movies now.
GF: Another good movie you should watch again would be Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It's better now than it was when I was a kid.
RS: I remember watching it and it was the first time I ever saw animated characters mixed with real life, and having them interact, I'll check that out now though, does it have a different meaning to you now though?
GF: Yeah, I never noticed that one company was trying to buy Toontown to turn it into a highway, and that Toons were treated as second class citizens with no real rights of their own. Toons were getting killed on the spot by the judge with the dip.
RS: That always bother me too, I know it was a cartoon but it was still a little gruesome. Also when the Judge's fake eyes fell out, that bothered me, I don't like to have anything close to my eyes or touching my eyes, so when his eyes popped out, that disturbed me a little.
GF: What are some of your favorite movies?
RS: One that I've seen many times, is Braveheart, I'm a big fan of the Scottish people and the British Isles, I love that time period, I'm a big history buff. I also love Platoon; I know a Vietnam vet and he said it's one of the most realistic Vietnam movies. All the young actors went on to do other great things.
GF: Johnny Depp was in it!
RS: I know man! Oliver Stone has done some great work.
GF: I had an idea for a movie that would take place during the time the Declaration of Independence was being signed, and it would have Johnny Depp playing Ben Franklin. It would show the drama and danger of what these men were doing in making America an independent country. It would have George Washington and all those cool people in it.
RS: That would be a great character piece, and Johnny could totally pull off playing Ben, he'd find a way to make to work.
GF: Did you see the Libertine?
RS: Yeah, that was one movie I went to see twice in theaters. I really liked that piece. I met this person who told me about this documentary called "Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride", I haven't seen it, but the guy who told me about it said that Johnny Depp got a call from Bill Murray where he said "Johnny, be careful, once you get close to Hunter S Thompson, he'll never leave you, he'll always be there in some way." So, in Pirates of the Caribbean, you've got a little bit of Keith Richards in Jack Sparrow, but there is also part of Hunter S Thompson that comes in there a little bit too. I haven't seen the new Pirates movie, but when I do I'll pay more attention to it.
GF: Hunter S Thompson was great, whenever I write anything I try to write in my own voice, the way Hunter had his own distinctive voice. He was crazy, but he wasn't crazy, but he was crazy.
RS: That duality, I think, is what separates the great from the ordinary, there is a fine line that people dangle on, if you go too far onto either side then you're too far up the stream, you're either socially defined as crazy or you become whatever normal is, I think the people who dance on that line become some of the greatest, most influential writers, teachers, actors, whatever in the art world.
GF: Are you a big fan of art?
RS: Oh yeah, when I get a chance, I love to go to the museums, I backpacked for three weeks through Europe with my girlfriend, and of course you want to see everything so you don't want to spend too much time in museums but there were a couple that we just had to go in because they had such amazing work. I love paintings and busts, we saw Queen Nefertiti's bust in Berlin, and you realize how much an object holds it's weight when it's in a room with a Picasso and a Matisse, and the first thing you see is the bust, you fly by everything else and go straight to the bust. You go back to the other paintings too, but that bust definitely holds its own. I like the German artists in between World War 1 and World War 2 because they had so much to say.
GF: The Dada movement?
RF: Yes, you had the soldiers coming back from World War 1 absolutely devastated and depressed about losing such a major conflict and them trying to repair themselves as a country. Which I think is another testament to honor because that was way for them to express themselves and leave a note for later on. You can look back at some of those paintings and some of that literature and realize how these people felt. That is what's great about the art world.
GF: What did you think about Andy Warhol?
RS: I saw the movie Factory Girl and that gave me a different perspective on Warhol because I didn't know much about him, it gave me some food for thought, about his work. The cool thing about art is that you can look at it and go "I don't get it" and another person can look at it and go "That is really powerful". One of the things Siena Miller says in the movie is that Warhol takes the industrial line and makes it into a statement, with the Campbell's Soup, or the movies he put out, he made them statements. I don't know what I think about Warhol sometimes, he did something that no one else was doing at the time and he made people stop and think, so that has to mean something. Guy Pierce was great as Warhol, I really like his work, he's very committed to his roles, he's a very stellar actor and brave in the roles he chooses.
GF: What are some of your favorite books?
RS: I really like The Idiot, Siddhartha and Fight Club, those are a few off the top of my head, I do enjoy reading though, there is so much to read out there, they can totally change your perspective on things, that’s why I love the Russian and German writers.
GF: Do you write at all?
RS: I do have a journal, I have almost six full journals right now, especially when I moved to California I kept a journal. I had one before I left Tennessee, especially being out here, I wrote a lot. When you first move out here that's really all you have, so you read a lot more and you write more. I have a couple of ideas I'd like to use for short film, one day I graduate into being a writer, write something to make people laugh or write something to make people think.
GF: That's the most important thing a writer can do, is inspire someone else, write something to touch peoples lives. Who were some of the people that you admire that you got to meet?
RS: You see a lot of people out here, but you don't really get to talk to them. One person I've got to talk to was Tom Petty, I got to tell him how much I appreciate his music. My manager used to do artist development for Warner Brothers; he's had a hand in helping a lot of musicians. His name is Paul Scott, he's part of Simmons and Scott, my management company, he's got some great stories that you would die to hear. So, I saw Tom Petty at this function and I’m like "I gotta tell him that I love his music!" His eyes were so kind, and so warm, for a guy who's been around and had all these business things coming at him from all angles, it was nice that he took that little moment with me and say thank you. Another person is Frances de la Tour, she is a British actress who won a Tony for History Boys, she's an older lady, but when I was having trouble out here, acting and being an actor, you go through times when you get really discouraged man and the thought of quitting sometimes sneaks into you. I was at that crossroads where I wasn't sure what I was going to do. She sat me down in her garden and she gave me a lot of her wisdom on acting on stage, film and TV. She's also in the Harry Potter movies; she's really talented and really funny. I also go to meet Marilyn Manson.
GF: Marilyn Manson! How was he?
RS: It was at the premiere of The Rules of Attraction, it was my first red carpet, you're walking down, talking to people and I bumped to him, we didn't really say much, but after the film at the premiere party, I walk past him and he goes "Dick!" I turn around and Marilyn Manson is standing there, I tried to maintain cool. He said he appreciated my performance and he said a lot of nice things and I said to him, Marilyn, I loved your biography when you said "the less people know about you, the more they think you're a genius". I think he was kind of surprised that I read his autobiography, and that’s what was great because I am such a fan of his. For me to be a fan of his music and his book, and me to meet him and get that compliment from him will always be a highlight for me. You should check out his book, the Long Road out Of Hell. I also got meet Dita.
GF: Dita Von Teese?! Whoa, what was that like?
RS: The speech kind of left me, because she's so lovely, it was pretty cool, it was a highlight.
GF: The Rules of Attraction is one of my favorite movies; I've seen it at least a hundred times.
RS: Oh, that's cool, that movie was a highlight for a lot of people, I know it didn't do too well in theaters but a lot of people picked it up and it has it's own following now, I give a lot of credit to the director Roger Avary. He allowed to people be free and try stuff, some of that stuff was great. I didn't know any of the other actors at the time it filmed, I only met them at the premiere party, and now look at what they're doing, a lot of those actors and actresses have gone on to find great success. I got the callback and I got to audition for Roger, that dinner table scene, and we did it, I couldn't get my shoe back on, so I got frustrated by it so I kicked it, and the shoe flew over and hit Roger in the shin. We just kind of stared at each other for a second and I kind of made up something and said "Okay, fuck you all very much, I'm outta here." I started to leave and he was like "Wait!" He guided me and helped me have freedom, and made it possible to do those scenes really well. With the "Faith” scene, I didn't know we were doing that until right before we did it and he says to me "Here's what I want you to do for me, I want you to get on the bed and strip, and I'm going to play a song for you to strip to." and I go, "Oh my gosh, are you serious?" He says "Yeah, it's an initiation into our club. Trust me; you'll thank me for this later on." And I go "What song?" he says "It's a George Michael song". I say "What, Faith or something?" and he says "Of course." It was in this small little hotel room in Pasadena, I felt this surge of energy come over me and we did in one take, Ian Somerhalder jumps right in on his own will and we're just there doing it. It was one take and Roger's like "Okay, you're in the club."
GF: You guys didn't plan that dance or anything?
RS: No, I didn't even know it was happening I felt my stomach churn like "I don't know what I’m gonna do, or what's gonna happen." I've never done anything like that before and then bam, there it was in the movie.
GF: A lot of people said those scenes, the dinner table and the Faith scene were their favorite parts of the movie.
RS: Thank you, that's a huge compliment, the way the movie is, in the first few minutes of it, anytime you have a girl at a party getting taken from behind and puked on, you know you're in for an interesting movie. That movie wasn't for everybody; my Mom wasn't a big fan of that one, to be honest. Rightfully so, I told her ahead of time, about it. I think that part of the movie gives everyone a chance to laugh out loud a little bit, the movie is kind of heavy in a lot of ways, it leaves you with that feeling like, "I have to go shower, or have a beer or something." That's also the writer of the book; he leaves you like that sometimes.
GF: Bret Easton Ellis is my favorite writer, whenever he writes, it seems like he's speaking to me. I think he's a genius. Have you read any of his books?
RS: I read Less Than Zero, and I didn't read Rules of Attraction, because I didn't want it to influence anything. I have a copy of the Rules, Less Than Zero and American Psycho, have you read a lot of his stuff?
GF: I've read all of them except The Informers, I think Glamorama is his absolute best work and my favorite book of all time.
RS: I think Roger wanted to do a Glamorama movie, Roger is a huge fan of Bret Easton Ellis, and he wanted to do it with Kip Pardue to be in it, I don't know what's happening with that.
GF: Are you still cool with any of the cast members?
RS: I've seen Ian a couple of times, the guy who did Wonderland with Val Kilmer, Josh Lucas, Janeane Garofalo, Christina Applegate, and Timothy Blake Nelson, damn talented cast, at the Rules of Attraction Premiere party, the director was like "I don't have a part for you in this movie, but do you wanna come and be in it? You can hang out on the set for a week and you throw you in when I can, you can improvise." I'm like "Yeah man!" If I get to be on a set with people like that and watch and learn, I’ll do it for free. I'm in it in the middle, for like a minute in this one scene with Dylan McDermott at a party. Besides that I haven't spoken to any of the cast of the Rules, that's the way it is. You do this project with people and have a good time, but then when that project is over, you move on to the next thing. You never forget them, but sometimes you lose touch with them. This town is small in a lot of way; you'll run into them again, one way or the other.
GF: Do you ever do theater?
RS: Oh yeah, I'm doing a play right now actually. It's a contemporary play set in LA, it's written by a guy Gardner McKay and it's called Toyer, it's two person piece about a guy who seduces woman, makes love to them and then lobotomizes them. He meets them, charms them, makes love to them, drugs them, and then he lobotomizes them by cutting the fibers in the back of their skulls. He leaves them wheelchair bound in a vegetable state. I'm doing it with a talented actress I met at the University of Tennessee, great stage actress Jennifer Pennington. I haven't done a play in a while, I've gotta find a way to do more plays because I love them so much. I started out onstage, but it's hard because when you move out here, you have to keep your days open for auditions, plays are usually at night and you've still got to pay rent and eat, you've got to figure out some way to do it, and it's hard.
GF: Do you like plays better than movies?
RS: I like them both man, they're both beautiful beasts, the constant thing is you get to create and you get to act. A great character is a great character no matter what medium it's in, it doesn't matter to me; I'm in it to win it. There is something about live theater that is amazing, last weekend, one of the lighting cues didn't work, it was kind of an important part in the play, you've got to somehow, decide what you're going to do and move on, because there is no "cut", no stops, or editing, it's live. I love it for that.
GF: What did you do about the light cue?
RS: We just kept going, the light was supposed to go out, but it didn't go out all the way, then the lights were supposed to go on and they didn't go on all the way. We just kept going until finally the lights worked out, sometimes that stuff happens. A funny story was about this actress who was playing Helen Keller and the scene was, this guy was going to attack her and she was going to defend herself with this knife, the thing was, the knife wasn't where it was supposed to be in her kitchen. She couldn't find it during the scene and the guy was getting ready to attack her, so she picks up the bowl of sugar, hurls it at him and says "Poison Sugar! Poison Sugar! Poison Sugar!" That shows how crazy and spontaneous it can be.
GF: What other talents do you have besides acting and writing?
RS: Not many, [laughs] theirs a lot of things about people that I love. I like people and I like the things that surround us. Not to sound too weird but, I love nature and I love the human condition. I love a lot of art forms, I sketch sometimes, I'm not good at sketching people but I love landscapes, and trees, things that tie into nature, those are the things that I love to do. A lot of the other things I don't have, I think I just haven't tapped into them yet. I love to play the harmonica.
GF: Are you on Myspace?
RS: No, I'm not, I get weird about that stuff, once I figure out everyone is doing it, then I don't want to do it. It took me a long time to get email, and a cellphone.
GF: It's a good social networking tool.
RS: I agree, I guess I'll weasel my way into it eventually, just not yet. It's good for bands.
GF: What was highschool like for you, were you acting then?
RS: No, I didn't know anything about acting until two or three years after highschool. I went to the University of Tennessee and at the time they had an awesome undergrad program, the young actors and undergrads worked so hard and we did everything from lighting to set dressing to costumes, we did our own thing man. That's when I realized how great it was, we had a great space at the Clarence Brown Theatre, it's awesome. After college I realized that acting was what I wanted to do, although I’ve never been west of the Mississippi, I packed up my car and came out here, I've been fortunate on some things. I wasn't very popular in highschool, I just tried to get good grades and worked at McDonalds to try and buy a car.
GF: What was it like working on CSI?
RS: I was nervous because it's such a big show, I had to audition for it for different parts, eleven or twelve times, finally I got this part in this episode and it was a good win for me. That's an example of good relationships; the lady who cast the show championed me and believed in me.
GF: How do you learn how to act? How can they teach that to you?
RS: I don't know, I don't know how you do that, I think there has to be a combination of different things, it's gotta be in you. Like drawing, everyone can draw, it's just that some people can draw really well and others can't, same as singing. It has to be in you a little bit, and you've got to have that passion to want to do it, and want to be better at it, and work hard at it and learn. That's what passion does, it makes you want to work and learn. You've also got to be committed to it, you can do all those things but if it's not in you, if it's not some type of gift then you probably won't get it. It's like public speaking, some people are naturally good at it, but others are always bad at it, no matter how hard they try. It can be a combination of things.
James Jesse/The Trickster Hartley Rathaway/The Pied Piper Floyd Lawton/Deadshot Danton Black/Multiplex Edward Nigma/The Riddler Mary Batson/Mary Marvel/Black Mary Clayface Holly Robinson/Catwoman II Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn Ryan Choi/The Atom IV Donna Troy/Wonder Girl/Troia Jason Todd/Robin II/Red Hood The New Earth Monitor Bruce Wayne/Batman Val Armorr/Karate Kid Lois Lane James Olsen/Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen
ISSUE 42 (written by Paul Dini with Sean McKeever & Tony Bedard; pencils by Carlos Magno)
This week starts off with the continuation of Trickster's and Piper's capture by Deadshot and Multiplex. Now, bound together by a taser-inducing gauntlet, the two sort-of villains find themselves in confined quarters. Always one to jump before he looks, Trickster pulls one final trick out of his sleeve (actually, his tooth!) in a last ditch effort to free himself and Piper. The plan works in freeing the two from their predicament, but takes them from the frying pan to the fire - they blew their way out of a speeding jet and the issue closes with them freefalling to certain doom.
The other major development this issue focuses on the so-called Challengers - Donna Troy, Jason Todd and their erstwhile Monitor. Following up on last week's conversation about the nano-verse, the three find themselves in Ivy Town, the home of the Silver Age Atom, Ray Palmer (just a reminder: he's been missing since the end of Identity Crisis), as well as the home of the current Atom, Ryan Choi! Even a Monitor doesn't have the power to get to the nano-verse alone, and it seems if these new Challengers are going to stop the coming Great Disaster (as predicted by the Source wall back in Issue #51), they have to find Ray Palmer to do it. Who better to take them to that microcosm than the new Atom? Choi readily agrees and they proceed to shrink down to atomic size! While the rest of their story will be touched on in the coming issues of Countdown, to get a more thorough view of their adventures, readers will have to check out the series of one-shots titled, Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer, expected in stores in September.
The rest of the issue checks in on the other players in the story so far: Mary Marvel is still in Gotham, oddly enough teaming up with the Riddler to stop Clayface after a bank robbery. Her enjoyment of her new found Black Adam-induced super-powers garners the attention of Batman, and that's never good.
Speaking of Batman, Karate Kid stops in to tell him that he hopes the Bat doesn't have any hard feelings about the beating the Kid handed him back in Justice League of America Issue #8. If you know Batman, you know how that conversation went!
Finally, both Holly Robinson and Jimmy Olsen get brief page allotments this issue - Holly gets a little more insight into the Amazonian hostel she crashing at from new gal-pal Harley Quinn. Olsen gets caught by Lois Lane while sketching costume ideas for his plan to put his new-found powers to some good use. She tells him not to quit his day job - what a be'atch!
So, while the story of the Rogues and the Challengers brought us to the brink of their previously advertised plots (a/k/a Villains Defiant and the Search for Ray Palmer), the rest of the book was more set-up and throughlines for the entire DCU. It's still only 10 weeks into this yearlong series, so there's plenty of time for things to kick into high gear, but we here at Rundown HQ think the writers on Countdown might want to take a page from the 52 playbook: instead of giving a few pages to every storyline/character arc each week, spend more time on one or three of those plot lines a week, and leave the others out. It worked well in 52. Even if you weren't the biggest fan of, say, the Black Adam/Isis storyline, you knew in the next week or two, you'd be getting a whole lot more about Steel vs. Luthor, or the demise of the Question. It kept you reading, and begging for more. Right now, Countdown feels like its treading water a bit too much, waiting for other regular DCU titles to catch up, or spin-offs like Countdown to Adventure and The Search for Ray Palmer to kick off.
Next Week: Issue 41 - things aren't looking good for Piper and Trickster in a story that only Tom Petty could call . . . Freefalling!
“Dear TV,
