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chiseler · 5 years ago

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Pop Modernist Dystopia

In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich shortly before his death in 1976, Fritz Lang said of Metropolis, “You cannot make a social-conscious picture in which you say that the intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart. I mean, that's a fairy tale – definitely. But I was very interested in machines. Anyway, I didn't like the picture – thought it was silly and stupid – then, when I saw the astronauts: what else are they but part of a machine? It's very hard to talk about pictures—should I say now that I like Metropolis because something I have seen in my imagination comes true, when I detested it after it was finished?”

Lang wasn’t alone back in 1927 when the film was first released. Critics applauded the striking visuals and the ambitious technical achievement, but lambasted the trite melodrama and cheap platitudes. In a vicious New York times review, H.G. Wells attacked the picture’s anti-progress, anti-technology message, accused it of ripping off several earlier works (including his own), and called it “quite the silliest film.” It was also attacked as a bunch of simpleminded and heavy-handed pro-communist propaganda, while at the same time and ironically enough it was hailed by the Nazis for portraying the overthrow of the Bourgeoisie.

(As a quick sidenote, Lang’s wife, novelist and Metropolis screenwriter Thea von Harbou, became quite infatuated with the Nazis after they took power, which led to a divorce shortly before Lang fled to the States in 1936.)

The story, admittedly, is pretty trite. In the year 2000, 2026, or 3000 (depending on which cut you see), there is no middle class. The top .001 percent of superwealthy intellectuals live in unimaginable luxury in the towering city of Metropolis, while the teeming masses of impoverished proles work the monstrous machines in the underground factories. Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), son of Metropolis’ ruler, falls for a poor worker named Maria (Brigitte Helm). Meanwhile an engineer with a beef builds a humanoid robot to exact a little revenge, and the workers begin muttering about conditions and revolution. There are another half dozen storylines at play, but we’ll keep it simple here. There are some disasters, some rioting, things go a little crazy there for awhile until everyone learns they can live together happily. Yes, well. But the story hardly matters. Background becomes foreground in a film so packed with unforgettable images.

Produced by the German studio UFA, Metropolis called for 13,000 extras, over 200,000 costumes, and a city’s worth of monumental sets. It took fifteen months to shoot, over which time its initial 800,000 Reichmarks budget ballooned to over five million.

At the Berlin premiere for distributors, Lang’s directors cut ran about 153 minutes. Everyone, particularly Paramount, who’d signed a distribution deal with UFA, felt the film was way too long and the story far too tangled and confusing. That Berlin screening would be the one and only time anyone saw a complete version of Metropolis for the next eighty years. Paramount took the print and cut it down to 92 minutes, excising a number of characters and subplots, as well as the perceived commie propaganda. Then they brought in a new writer to concoct a new story to replace Lang’s original intertitles. UGA took Paramount’s version and cut still another ten minutes out, and other international distributors made other cuts of their own.

During its first theatrical run, Metropolis brought in a pitiful 75,000 Reichmarks. The brass at UFA was not pleased. Neither was Paramont, and the film ostensibly vanished. From that point, the history of Metropolis became as tangled and complicated as the original plot about class struggle, dehumanization, several layers of betrayal, a couple illicit love affairs, and robots. Beginning in the early Seventies, a number of attempts were made to restore Lang’s original complete vision by splicing together scenes from assorted international versions, but the story didn’t come to an end until 2008, when, much to everyone’s surprise, a print of Lang’s original 153-minute version was discovered in an archive in Argentina. The print was cleaned up, remastered, and released by Kino International in 2010. Two scenes from the Argentinian print were unsalvageable, so the 2010 version ran 148 minutes, five minutes shorter than Lang’s director’s cut, but what are you gonna do?

Until his death, Lang would tell the story that Metropolis sprang into his head fully formed upon seeing the towering skyline of Manhattan for the first time. He, his wife, and a German film critic were sailing into New York harbor for the U.S. premiere of Die Nibelungen in 1924, and Lang was mesmerized by all the skyscrapers. Immediately he envisioned a film about a magnificent city of the future. It’s a good anecdote and one he told quite well, but the only problem is by the time they first arrived in New York, von Harbou had already sketched out the story upon which the Metropolis script would be based. There’s no denying, though, that architecture would play a central role in Lang’s visuals. He supplied the film’s staggering architecture and machinery while von Harbou provided the human melodrama and social commentary. Lang was inspired by not only the Manhattan skyline, but a number of radical architectural movements of the time, from Art Deco and Bauhaus to Futurism, elements of which he would mix and match in order to design his own magnificent vertical city. His designs for Metropolis would in turn later go on to inspire not only other filmmakers and production designers, but artists and architects as well. And in the end, it’s the film’s visuals that stick with us far more than the plot: the new Tower of Babel, the robot-like workers marching into and out of the underground factories, and of course that insidious engineer Rotwang’s Maschinenmensch which itself was inspired by avant-garde sculpture of the early 20th century.

In a way that is absolutely key to understanding Metropolis’ unique and singular position within not only cinema, but the culture at large. It remains to this day a lynchpin between highbrow and lowbrow, the most enduring and influential embodiment of what might be called Pop Modernism.

The world’s first feature-length (and then some) science fiction epic took the Modernist art and architecture of its time and transformed them into a vision of a dystopian future that was at once a staggering achievement of cinematic art and imagination as well as a simple message film aimed at a populist audience. Despite the initial critical and audience reaction, and despite having been butchered by distributors, it would go on to inspire artists, architects, filmmakers, writers and musicians across the board. The Los Angeles of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and the Gotham of Tim Burton’s Batman both owe a great deal to Lang. Madonna, Lady Gaga and countless other pop acts have grabbed imagery from Metropolis to drop into their music videos. Respected composers, indie acts and electronic industrial outfits have all composed new scores for the film. Osamu Tezuka insists he only saw a single still from Lang’s picture, but that was enough to inspire his own Metropolis manga, which was turned into an award-winning animated film in 2001.

Perhaps the most perfect and telling example of Metropolis’ place in the Pop Modernist spectrum came in 1984, when producer and film composer Giorgio Moroder edited and released his own 80-minute version of Metropolis, which by that point had fallen into the public domain. Moroder replaced all the intertitles with subtitles, ran the film at a slightly faster speed, slapped on a pop soundtrack featuring Top-40 acts of the day like Loverboy, Pat Benetar, and Bonnie Tyler, and worst of all colorized it.

Film purists were outraged, assailing Moroder for mangling and desecrating Lang’s film in such a crass and cynically commercial way. But the critics at the time neglected to consider several things. First, a British distributor had already released a colorized version (quite the unfortunate rage at the time) with subtitles replacing the intertitles. Although the Moroder version clocked in at a zippy 80 minutes, this was simply the result of removing the intertitles and speeding up the film. Fact was, his version was the most complete version of the film available at the time. And most importantly, that pop song soundtrack, as painful and outdated as it sounds today, drew a much younger audience who would normally have no use whatsoever for a silent movie. He transformed a classic example of silent German cinema into a long music video, and the newly-born MTV generation bought it. The film brought in a darn sight more than Metropolis had upon its initial release. Moroder’s version, cynically commercial as it may have been, rescued the film from the museum and gave it a new life, introducing it to a whole new generation who were likewise dazzled by the stunning visuals, and who would then go on to incorporate the imagery into their own art and films and music. So 90 years after making an ambitious art film aimed at a popcorn crowd, Lang continues, if unintentionally, to dance that line between the High and the Low, kinda like Andy Warhol.

Funny thing is, from Moroder to Club Foot Orchestra to Lady Gaga, the more contemporary artists co-opt Lang’s film, the more timely and timeless Metropolis seems, and the more ephemeral and pointless everything else seems in comparison.

The final, sad irony of Metropolis’ long and complex history, blasphemous as it may be, is that for all the understandable ballyhoo surrounding the discovery of Lang’s complete original vision, and of at last having a pristine, remastered edition (minus those five minutes they couldn’t salvage) finally available again, I’d still argue the 92-minute Paramount version was the better picture.

by Jim Knipfel

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rolltidewrestlingfan4life · 6 years ago

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THIS IS VERY LONG AND VERY PERSONAL FOR ME. YOU MAY FIND IT AN ENJOYABLE STORY. I DID NOT PLAN TO WRITE A VIRTUAL NOVELLA BUT MY HEART AND SOUL STARTED POURING.

I didn’t do this back in February but this man deserves the mention and respect. This is the man that raised me. The man I idolize. He died February 5th as I was performing CPR on him or just before. I’m happy that he had a very quick and painless death that I believe he was expecting and prepared for. This man was born in New Hampshire and took a job in the 8th grade, he never returned to school and usually worked 2 jobs 6 days a week. His family moved back and forth between New Hampshire and Vermont. He got his first car when his brother’s car broke down, his brother traded him a 48 Ford for a bicycle.He loved riding his Indian motorcycle until a car slowed too fast in front of him and he collided and flew over the top of the car, miraculously his only injuries were cuts and knocked out teeth. In 1955, he made the decision to join the US Air Force.It would be the decision that triggered his destiny, After completing basic training he returned home to New Hampshire, gave his brother his air force ring as a momento (I have it now) and headed to Savannah Georgia where he was stationed.

431 miles away, in a booming coal mining town deep in the country of central Alabama, there lived a teenage girl in her senior year of high school. She didn’t really care for any of the boys in her town though she would “take them from their girlfriends to prove she could” She had an aunt and uncle that lived up in the big city in Birmingham, that is..until her Uncle joined the Army. Ironically, he was station in Savannah.

As fate would have it, the man from Alabama met the young man from New Hampshire and they became friends. One day there was a special event at the base where family was invited, the teenage girl came with her aunt to see her Uncle. In the cool twilight of the day the girl was walking outside when she saw a man sitting on a bench beneath an oak tree. The tree was huge,it had stood for many decades if not a century, the tree had wisdom in it’s soul. She stared at the young man in the distance. The sun was fading as swamp moss swayed in the breeze as the night began to overtake the day. She saw a flicker of light as the young man lit a Lucky Strike with his zippo. “he looks just like Elvis Presley” she thought. Something in the breeze made her sneeze, try as she might she could not hold it in. The young man turned at the sound and stopped in his tracks. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever saw and he had to meet her. He approached her and introduced himself, he was the young man from New Hampshire. They spent a lot of that night sitting under that mighty oak and talking about their pasts, their presents and their hopes for the future.

Not long after the meeting, the man was deployed to Morocco in North Africa. Morocco had been under French control and the locals were ready for a revolution. He was a photographer, after a battle between the rebels and the french, he would either sit on the edge or hang from a cord out of a helicopter and take photos of dead bodies, destroyed buildings. He saw a lot of things a man just don’t want to remember while he was in Africa. When he was being sent home, the airplane he was in lost an engine over the Bermuda triangle, the plane struggled but managed an emergency landing in the Virgin Islands.. after a day there, he was in the air bound for Savannah.

He was pleasantly surprised and happy to see the girl from Alabama waiting when he and his fellow soldiers stepped off the plane. They went to the movies that day. They would talk on the phone and write long love letters to one another almost daily. I have a shoebox full of these and they span a month, It was clear these two were smitten. One weekend, he decided he had to see her. He went AWOL on a Friday night and drove almost 7 hours through a state he had never seen, to a town he had never heard of. The young girl’s mother had heard about him and knew he was her brother in law’s friend, she also knew her daughter was crazy about him. She invited him in for supper and to talk and get to know the family. When bedtime came though, the young man was made to sleep on the porch. Going AWOL on weekends to spend days in her house and nights alone on her porch became a regular thing until finally, he showed up one weekend with a ring. A week later, they were married in a small church that her family had established decades ago, He was called up to serve in the Bay of Pigs but received his honorable discharge just a week before. He flew to New Hampshire and kissed his momma, got his dad’s guitar (the only thing he had left of his father) and wished his brothers and sisters well. He flew back to his new home and his new wife in Alabama. He opened his own photography studio but business was slow, there just wasn’t a demand for professional photography in this town. He took a job with the owner of a gas station/general store at the end of Main Street, he worked 6 days a week,, delivering items, repairing things and installing huge propane tanks. In 1959, he and his wife had their first child, a daughter. A little boy came in 1961. His father in law was an electrician at the huge hospital in Birmingham Alabama, he got the young man a job in the maintenance department.

He learned much working at the huge University Hospital, he learned about electricity, he learned HVAC, he learned plumbing. He watched and soaked in everything. He was a long way away from the burning corpses he photographed in Africa, or was he? September 15 1963 seemed a usual day at work. Even a slow day, He was working in the attic area of the hospital, running ductwork, secluded from people or news. Around noon he got a call to immediately go to the morgue and repair a broken light. When he got there he climbed his ladder and fixed the light. With the room now bright, he realized he had illuminated bad memories and new sorrow, as he climbed down the ladder he looked down upon the charred and burned bodies of four young innocent girls. One was completely decapitated, barely recognizable as a human, another had metal embedded in her head. He could not fathom what he was seeing, he did not know what he felt. He only knew his heart was broken. He found out later these girls were murdered. The church they were attending sunday school at was bombed, an act of racism in the deep south in 1963. He hated it. This man never liked seeing someone innocent hurt or suffer. He also never saw color, he saw people for being decent or not. He was a part of history that day, however small a part it may have been.

After 5 years of working at the huge hospital in the magic city, he was told of a new, smaller hospital being built. It was closer to home and they were paying more to attract employees. He started in maintenance and engineering the day they hospital opened in 1964. Two months later, the director of plant operations resigned, this position was 3rd in command of the whole hospital and responsible for overseeing engineering, maintenance, and security. At only 26 years old,he was shocked when the position was offered to him. He accepted without hesitation. He was a nervous wreck but it fueled him. His wife took a job at the same hospital.

In 1982, his first grandchild was born, His son had a daughter. A grandson followed in 1984. In 1989, his daughter had her only son. To the man, there was something different about this kid, maybe it was his father not being around, maybe it was fate but the man decided he would mold this kid and raise this kid. He was closer to this kid than the other grandchildren. He fell in love with that baby and as he grew that baby became a kid and loved that man too. From then on out, they were absolutely inseparable.. I am that kid. We would ride dirt roads while Alan Jackson or George Strait, George Jones and Merle Haggard blaring on the radio. I was always the flashlight man. Deep in a dark crawlspace holding it while he worked on electrical wires.. just as he did I was watching, I was learning, I was soaking in his knowledge like a sponge. We would ride the country roads on the weekend, stopping at every yardsale and junkyard we’d pass. Oh, how I loved when we’d burn brush or leaves and watch the fire. We’d go fishing and somehow there was always a venomous snake and he always killed it with a wooden handle floating fishing knife. I still have that knife today.

His father in law had passed in 1984 and his mother in law’s health was failing, His wife retired early from the hospital in 2001 to take care of her. Her aunt and the Uncle that had arranged their meeting way back in Savannah were also gravely ill, she moved them in too. He kept working at the hospital,He was the man that made that place run. His mother in law passed in late 2001. In 2003, her uncle passed away. It had come full circle. He had made it possible for them to meet and they had returned the favor by caring for him, her aunt followed him in death shortly after.

By this time, his granddaughter had two daughters and he and his wife had been through a lot caring for 3 bedridden people for 3 years. When he received word that the huge hospital in Birmingham he had left 40 years ago was taking over the hospital, he retired. For the next 19 years, It was yard sales, brush fires, and working on houses. I was grown but I was still a kid, still watching his every move, still his helper, still his flashlight man. In 2017, he suddenly grew weaker. He still worked and pushed himself as hard as he could but something was wrong. He knew it. He just didn’t know what. Through 2018 I became the main repairman, he just couldn’t do it anymore. His leg and back had great pain. He lit the pilot light with me and all but collapsed as we exited the basement. His legs had grown week and just gave out on him. Later that day I had to repair something in the attic, I will never forget him saying “I’m sorry, I’d help you if I could, I’d even just hold your flashlight but I gotta say in my chair right now, you know what you’re doing son.” Neither of us spoke it, but that was a powerful moment.. He had called me son. All of my life, I never saw him as my grandad, though I did call him Papa. I called him dad from that day forward. Later that year, I bought a fuel pump for his truck, I love that truck. I bought new tires and got it running. When he saw it running, he told me “You did a good job getting her going son, take care of YOUR truck.” He knew he had grown old, his memory had began failing, his legs weakening. He had passed his role as the fixer around three houses, and he had passed his truck to me.

Through 2018 most of our time together was spent in his den, him in his recliner, me on the couch, nana in hers. We watched NASCAR, we watched every Alabama football game together, when nana was gone.. me and Papa would watch reruns of Gunsmoke, and Mash. He passed out at a store in late 2018 and was admitted to the hospital, all the test revealed nothing wrong, they attributed the pain to a nerve. On February 4 2019, He really wanted a haircut to the point the barber had to stay late to wait for us. It was a 15 minute drive to the barbershop and he and I talked, we talked about memories, we talked about friends who had died, and family who had died. His memory was sharp as a tack that day. On the way home, I asked him why he was in such a hurry for a haircut.. He reached over and put his hand on my knee, gave me a gentle pat.. his eyes.. the same eyes that had seen dead bodies in Africa, burnt little girls dead in alabama, that had seen 60 years of a wonderful marriage, 2 children, 2 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren, those same eyes looked at me. There was a focus yet a distance in them as he answered “I just felt like I needed to look good for tomorrow.”

The next morning, I woke up around 7 as usual and walked next door to their house, he wasn’t awake yet. He had started sleeping in, or just laying in the bed. It had gotten to where by the time he got up and got dressed, his legs were so weak he had to lay right back down. I got my coffee and visited with my grandmother a while and refilled my cup and went home. A couple hours later I had the strongest urge to go see him, as I got up I noticed my coffee cup was full. “He’s probably not up yet, I’ll wait until all my coffee is gone then I’ll see him.” That was a decision I will always regret.

Maybe 30 minutes later, As I was listening to the The Rolling Stones through my headphones, I heard the sound of my little cousin screaming. She was outside running toward my house just screaming help and crying at the top of her lungs. I ran outside and she yelled it’s papa. The whole world became a blur. I knew nothing. Nothing was familiar. It was so fast yet so slow. All I knew was I was me, and he was him. I loved him. He was my life and I was his. I had to get ti him. I ran faster than I ever dreamed I could, I didn’t even notice doors or steps.. Though I had to have somehow seen them. Everything was blur. I was here, he was there. It felt like an hour but it was really less than a minute. I got to him. There he was, laying on his back in front of his bedroom door. As soon as I saw him, his words about his haircut the day before played in my mind. I knew he was gone. He was my Papa, my dad, my friend, my teacher, my everything. I had to try and bring him back. I immediately started cpr. 911 advised me to do mouth to mouth as well, when I did, I tasted blood. I never stopped cpr. I knew je was gone. In that moment, his kid finally became a man. I felt different, I finally felt just like him. My Mind 2 months later is still in the floor with him. Today, I let that go. He would want me too. He would say sometimes, well we tried everything.. that thing just can’t be fixed. A couple nights ago I had a dream, so vivid. It was an exact replay. I was over his body desperately performing CPR, suddenly, in the dream.. he appeared and pulled me away from his own body. It was clear this was his spirit as he put his arm around me and hugged me and said “It just gave out on me, you tried everything, that old thing just couldn’t be fixed.” He lived an amazing life. The world will not remember nor remark him but today I celebrate him. I celebrate him for going from an 8th grade education to an air force photographer to spending 40 years as director of engineering at a hospital. I celebrate him for being a rock who always helped his family or those in need. I celebrate him for picking me. It’s no secret I was his favorite. He never tried to hide it, not to spite the others. This man loved all of his grandchildren equally.. There was just something different with me. It was like we were twins. We were just inseparable. I write all this to celebrate him and to let him go. My mind must stop trying to bring him back. He lived his life and he is now free from pain and a failing body. He is learning all the mysteries, he is getting all the answers so that he can teach me when I get there. I love you so much Papa, your soul is in heaven, but your spirit is in me. I see you in my eyes, I wear your belt buckle and I use your tools. I drive our truck. Your fingerprints are everywhere. It’s okay that you’re not here in your body. You’ve left a mark on everything. You will always be alive in us. I wish you had lived until I had children, I know you liked the young lady I wish would be mine.I can’t wait until I do have children and I can tell and show them all about their amazing Papa.

Heaven needed a jack of all trades engineer, they got you. Have fun up there, I’ve got it down here, I learned from the best and you taught me well. I will take care of nana, the houses and the rest of the family and hopefully one day I’ll do what you did and move and marry the girl of my dreams. I hope you get to watch my life from up there, and I hope I make you proud.

-JLM

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alexbandfan · 6 years ago

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CrypticRock

The twists and turns of life can easily break someone down, but through hope and determination anything is possible. Growing up in Hollywood, California, Alex Band knew he wanted to be a musician from a very young age, and by the age of 15 landed a record deal with RCA Records. Eager to make his move, it would not be until 5 years after his signing that his music would finally get a chance to shine, and shine it would when his band The Calling hit the airwaves with their single “Wherever You Will Go.” The lead single off their platinum-selling debut album, Camino Palmero, the song set records as a number 1 hit single on the Billboard charts, earning The Calling one of the biggest Alternative Rock radio songs of the 2000s.

Following up with their sophomore album, Two, in 2004, the future was promising for The Calling, but sadly there were some bumps in the road, leading to the band’s dissolvement. Fortunately the story does not end there because Alex Band has continued to fulfill his musical passion since, and now after many years, brings The Calling back, hopefully for good. Set to tour, and yes, release new music, the next chapter is still being written for Band and The Calling. Excited for the future, Band recently took the time to chat about the twists and turns over the years, his undying love for music, plans for The Calling, plus more.

CrypticRock.com – You have been involved in music professionally for nearly 2 decades. From the tremendous commercial success of The Calling to your solo career, you have certainly accomplished a great deal. First, briefly tell us, what has your experience been like dedicating your life to music?

Alex Band – What a question. First and foremost, it has been what I was born to do – it’s all I know and it’s all I’ve ever done, I just followed this natural path. I look at it as life, it is nothing I would ever stop or not continuing doing, even if there was no one left to listen. This is a wacky, crazy business, growing up in Hollywood and in the movie industry, it makes that very tame. It’s the business of an art, and when that happens, it can become very frustrating. For every amazing, incredible, life-changing moment I’ve had, I’ve had equal moments of crazy struggles, things you wouldn’t even believe. Getting on the stage and performing songs and seeing what 200 or 10,000 people sing back, there is nothing like that. It’s all worth it for me. I have been handed an insane hand in this card game, especially in the past 10 years. It’s crazy, but I am very optimistic right now and looking forward to what is about to come.

CrypticRock.com – It seems like it has been a very exciting ride, ups and downs.

Alex Band – Oh yea, it’s never boring. I will give it that. There have been lots of ups and a lot of downs.

CrypticRock.com – Understood. The Calling’s 2001 debut album, Camino Palmero, topped charts around the world, attained gold and platinum status, and really left an impression on the Alternative Rock scene. Being your debut album, was the success at all overwhelming and what were those times like for the band?

Alex Band – For me, it was actually kind of like it was now. I had been signed with a lot of those songs written already, actually, 6 years prior to that album coming out. There was this insanely long amount of time of arguing, anticipation, and trying to get noticed by the guy who signed us. The typical story of pushed in 100 different directions to create one sounding thing, but then coming full circle to what I was and what I had first met him with songs like “Wherever You Will Go,” which I wrote when I was 16. There wasn’t a band, I hired people. The person with me in those early times was my songwriting partner. That in itself is a whole other crazy explanation.

They were very exciting times nonetheless because of the insane amount of anticipation. The struggle that went just to get the album out, then it dawned on me, 19-20 years old, when that album came out, I started working my ass off. There was 8 months straight, touring around America doing radio before that first song broke. It was a lot of work and a long time coming, but the true battle is once the music is out there, that’s the true work. At the time I was just thrilled! They all thought I was crazy at the record label because I was the perfect kid for a band because I wanted to do every press thing and everything possible. It was exciting, I was excited, and I wanted to make it happen. It almost didn’t happen, that is actually a story I never told. But it did happen, it became a hit.

CrypticRock.com – Wow, sounds like a wild ride. That debut album was anchored by the number 1 hit single “Wherever You Will Go.” It broke records remaining at the top of the charts for a long, extensive periods of time, and is considered one of the defining Alternative Rock tunes of the early 2000s. That all said, do you personally connect with the song as much as fans do?

Alex Band – I became connected to it because of how it changed people’s live, because of how expansive it was, because of how it reached parts of the world I have never been to. Be able to go to 100 plus countries and meet these people who were changed in some way or just enjoyed listening to my music was the wildest thing ever.

That song for me was 1 of the 200 songs I had written. I knew it was a good song and a single contender amongst the songs on the record in the label’s mind. It was a very personal song when it was written, but I had no idea until it all happened. I think the biggest accolade for me was on the Billboard Charts, it was the number one song of the last decade for adult top 40. That is crazy to think, of all the songs that were played in the last 10 years. More recently, it made the number 3 song of all Billboard history, again, Billboard started in the ’80s, so we are missing a huge chunk of music. But still, the number 3 song of the last 30 years, that kind of stuff is nuts to think about and comprehend.

The quick answer, it was a song to me that was not at all what it became until I experienced that. Like I said, it was only through all of that I became more fond of the song and performing. Which is a good thing because I have performed it a zillion times. (Laughs)

CrypticRock.com – It really is an amazing story. The Calling followed up with Two in 2004. While the album was not as successful commercially, it showed a level of maturity from the band as songwriters. All these years later, what are your thoughts on Two?

Alex Band – I’m bias, but the following record, I thought was really strong. “Our Lives,” not only was featured in the Olympics in 2004, it opened the Oscars in 2005. The song was number 1 in tons of countries around the world. I lived it, so I know, it was a complete business plug pulled on the project. There was a cash flow plug pulled on the project in the midst of that record which led to the demise. I know that for a fact, it’s a sad thing, because it would have gone much further. Things happen, it is what it is, I have moved on.

I then stupidly said, I will just do a solo thing. That wasn’t the stupid part, the stupid part was I signed with the same person I did as a kid who made me wait those 5 years. He did it again, which was crazy. The whole exact same thing happened again where I we went full circle where I made this album which was the original material I first brought to him in 2006. Anyway, it’s a crazy story that I won’t go into detail about. The important thing is I have always wanted to make more albums and be The Calling. I certainly have stopped playing shows, I have been all over the world and played shows, but I have needed a few things in life to come together to able to make it possible again to be The Calling. Which relieves a huge stress which makes it possible for me to do what I already did, just without a lot of heartache and drama in the background at the same time. That is why I am very excited, I get to to be The Calling again.

CrypticRock.com – It certainly seems to have been a long road travelled. It is exciting for fans to see The Calling back in full force.

Alex Band – It’s kind of scary, because you’re kind of starting over. We are out to do a tour around the US, just a few dates on the coast. Then we have massive shows in Brazil and Europe, we just came from Australia where we sold out. It’s very exciting that fans of The Calling are still around, it’s a good thing!

CrypticRock.com – It is a very good thing. With you doing this North American run of shows, can fans expect a new The Calling record?

Alex Band – Absolutely. I’ve spent the last 10 years making it. I recorded over 2 1/2 albums worth of songs, full production recordings, and I narrowed that down to an album. Again, I’m bias, but going off opinions of people in the industry who I trust and who are very big people in the industry that say it’s a phenomenal record and it’s going to blow people away. I am very proud to be able to get it out there. It is in kind of the beginning stages, but the record is done.

CrypticRock.com – That is wonderful news. Do you have a timetable of an expected release?

Alex Band – Right now, I need to decide which label ultimately I am going with. I am in the lucky position to be able to choose that. Ultimately, that then will of course dictate the dates of release and what not. It’s a very different business, very different than when I caught the last moment when I came out of the music business as it always was. These days, you work 10 times harder to get 10 times less. It doesn’t stop me for a second, but there is also a much smaller window getting lucky, there is luck involved. It’s not just a great song ended up being a hit song. I have a good time around me at this point, but to answer the question, the goal right now is to get a record release date. We are just going ahead and starting playing, why not get people’s reaction and play some of these new songs? Play all the old songs too of course live, just start doing that in the moment since we don’t need to make a record right now.

CrypticRock.com – This is all something to look forward to. Beyond music, you are also involved in several causes to help raise awareness for diseases such as Parkinson’s. Do you have anything new going on in association with these causes?

Alex Band – I don’t. I like it to happen naturally and Donate Life is doing organ donation awareness, they are really making a dent on it. The numbers of lives we have saved in America from my fanbase alone, working on that with Donate Life was huge. I really pushed that for a number of years. Then you have of course with Parkinson’s, I have worked with that.

I think naturally with this new record coming out, and us touring, something will come of it. I know the things I am passionate about, of course I always love to help if I can. If people listen to you and you are in that powerful position enough to help other people, that is the best part of it. I am not sure what that’s going to be at this point.

CrypticRock.com – We will see what happens, it seems like positive things are coming together, as stated.

Alex Band – Yes. The last few years have been rough. Just being healthy is a blessing that a lot of us take for granted. I went through a couple of things that were really scary, I am really happy to be here. I am happy to be healthy and to be about to go do what I have wanted to do, and loved to do, and honestly have been missing from my life. It’s that dear to me and it’s been a lot of work to get this point to be able to at least try that journey and see what happens.

CrypticRock.com – Fans have waited for it, so the reaction should be a good one.

Alex Band – I hope so. Of course I have to believe in myself, I beat on myself, I’m hoping. If there is one thing I know, the same people who were touched by “Wherever You Will Go” or The Calling’s music in general, are going to find themselves with this record in a continuous level, if that makes sense. I am interested to see how disillusioned I am. (Laughs)

CrypticRock.com – The determination is paying off! Last question. CrypticRock also covers Horror and Sci-Fi films. Growing up the son of a Horror filmmaker, if you are a fan of either genre, what are some of your favorites and why?

Alex Band – Yea, of course. My first memory is literally of a giant bear monster ripping a girl’s shirt off and eating her breast. (Laughs) I was on the set of my dad’s movies, I truly grew up in them, and he has made a lot of them. I have always been a fan. There are definitely a couple of films from the ’80s of my dad’s that are classics and I enjoyed.

I don’t know these days what a B-movie is. It was always direct to video, but I am out of touch with that world these days. Favorites for me, Trancers (1985), Re-animator (1985), Ghoulies (1984) was awesome, Troll (1986). It is crazy how many movies my dad made as a kid, which had all these no name actors/actresses who became huge stars later.

TOUR DATES: SAT. JUNE 16TH LAS VEGAS, NV TOP GOLF TUES. JUNE 19TH SAN FRANCISCO, CA THE INDEPENDENT WED. JUNE 20TH SACRAMENTO, CA HARLOW’S NIGHTCLUB SUN. JUNE 24ND LOS ANGELES, CA THE TROUBADOUR TUES. JUNE 26TH BOSTON, MA BRIGHTON MUSIC HALL THURS. JUNE 28TH NEW YORK, NY GRAMERCY THEATRE FRI. JUNE 29TH WASHINGTON DC PEARL STREET SAT. JUNE 30TH PHILADELPHIA, PA THE FOUNDRY AUG 18-19 FESTIVAL ROCK ARENA – ARENA PANTANAL CUIABA, MT BRAZIL

FOR MORE ON THE CALLING:

THECALLINGMUSIC.COM | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM

FOR MORE ON ALEX BAND: FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM

Crypticrock

#alexnews2018 #alex band #the calling #model #singer

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paraseekersuk · 6 years ago

Photo

THE ABC THEATRE HAUNTING

Deep into that darkness peering,

long I stood there wondering, fearing,

doubting, dreaming dreams

no mortal ever dared to dream before.

-Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Raven’

Jim McNeill, who tells the following story, was the under-manager in the ABC Cinema on Great Victoria Street in Belfast. Formerly known as the Ritz, it was one of the most popular cinemas in the city. It was a beautiful theatre, the biggest in Northern Ireland at the time, with an organ in the pit and a grand piano on the big stage for the live shows. It had a capacity for 2,200 people and had over 60 members of staff, all of whom wore a uniform.

At the time of this eerie happening, Nigel Empett, an Englishman, was the manager and Mr Brown was the assistant manager.

Jim recalls, ‘I moved there, as the junior assistant manager and I loved it. Just to work in a place like that was a marvellous experience. Back in the 1960s, it showed classic films like Gone with the Wind as well as modern ones like 2001, A Space Odyssey.

‘When I started there Nigel took me to one side on the first day I was there and said to me,

‘’’Jim, after the show is over you will have to count all the takings from the box office and make sure that it balances with the ticket sales and so forth. If it tallies, you must then lock everything away in the safe. When you are working at night after the show, don’t stay here by yourself.”

‘I thought that a bit strange and asked why, but Nigel simply added, “Make sure that the doorman or one of the staff is in the building too.”

‘It crossed my mind that they were trying to spook me or trying to do something funny, maybe play a trick on me but they wouldn’t explain. Anyway, one night I had to stay late because we were having a roadshow on. After it was over, I was counting the money but it wasn’t balancing out right. I had to recount it and it was taking longer. All the staff had gone home except Jimmy Black, the chief doorman. Time was running on and I had to call my girlfriend Anne, who lived about 15 minutes away to let her know I would be late because I usually met her after work.

‘I called Jimmy and told him to go on home because I wasn’t sure when I’d be finished.

‘He said, “Oh no, Mr McNeill, I have to stay, you aren’t to be here on your own.”

‘But I persuaded him and eventually I got the takings to balance about midnight. All the managers then wore tuxedos at the front of the house so I had to walk back through the theatre to the dressing rooms to change out of my tuxedo into my street clothes.

‘There were quite a few dressing rooms at the back for the big names like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Bee Gees and Englebert Humperdink, who all came to play in the theatre when we had a week long stage show.

‘I headed for the managers’ dressing room to change. There were three washrooms in the same area and Nigel had told me to leave the light on there because the window could be seen from the street. Apparently when the police drove around at night, once they saw the light on it was a signal that everything was okay. He’d told me to make sure I didn’t turn the light off. I thought that was a clever idea so was careful to leave it on.

‘For some reason, I looked back to the washroom and the light was off even though I was sure it had been left on. But I thought maybe I was mistaken and I turned back, switched on the light and walked away leaving the door open. As I hurried back down the corridor towards the exit, the washroom door slammed shut. I jumped as the sound echoed around the empty theatre but I went back thinking that there must be a draught from a window or something. I opened the door and the light was out. I was puzzled. I turned on the light and checked the window and it was closed.

‘A strange feeling came over me. I knew I wasn’t imagining things so I called, “Is anybody there?” I looked in the stalls in the theatre too because we had to make sure that the theatre was empty before we left at night but I couldn’t see anyone there so I went back, feeling quite nervous and I yelled louder, “Is somebody there?”

‘I checked the washroom again and noticed that it was getting quite cold, frigid actually, and I was really nervous at this time. I switched on the light again, left the door open and walked quickly down the hallway. I was sure in my mind that as I walked away the door would slam and sure enough that is what it did. I decided I’d try it once again. The door was definitely closed and when I turned the handle, it turned all right, but the door did not open. I began pushing but it was as if someone was on the other side pushing against it to keep me from going in. It wouldn’t open and I shouted once again, “Is anybody there?” Only silence answered me.

‘I thought, “I’m going out of my mind here!” I hurried back down to my office and decided to call my girlfriend, Anne Shepherd.

‘” Look, Anne,” I said, “I know it’s late but could you come down here and bring your father with you because there’s something strange going on and I don’t know what it is.”

‘I went on to explain to her that I didn’t want the police to call the manager in the middle of the night when they didn’t see the light on.

‘A short time later Anne came down with her daddy and she had her little poodle, Silver, with her. Although he was a small dog he absolutely feared nothing. Anyway, I brought them up through the theatre and across the balcony on the way to my office. To get there we had to pass the washrooms but as soon as the dog came to the stairs into the balcony it froze, it was scared. Its hackles rose and it backed off. That was really spooky because we’d never seen the dog like that before. Anne and her dad remarked how cold it was as we walked up the stairs. When we reached the washroom the same thing happened again and it shocked them. This weird thing was really happening. I felt relieved because I knew then that it wasn’t just my overactive imagination. And I thought, “It’s not me. I’m not crazy.”

‘I realised that I would have to call the police to tell them and they came very quickly. They searched the whole building until about three in the morning but the only thing they found was a water tap running in one of the dressing rooms, as if someone had been interrupted washing himself. The police were adamant that there was definitely no one anywhere in the theatre and they left.

‘The next day I told Nigel and he said, “That’s the reason I told you never to stay here by yourself. This theatre is haunted.”

‘I was a bit skeptical and although I knew there was something strange going on, I replied, “Haunted? Honestly!”

‘He assured me that it was, “but don’t tell anyone about it because the bad publicity will damage sales.”

‘In the summer of 1968 we were advertising the movies to get people in. The ABC managers in England would award us points towards company prizes for managers, depending on the publicity and other things. We were always thinking of ways to say, get an article in the newspaper or publicity on the radio for the upcoming films.

‘There was one made by Hammer Films called The Devil Rides Out, based on a Denis Wheatley novel by the same name and directed by Terence Fisher. Denis Wheatley was a known Satanist and apparently in the book on which the film was based the actual words for calling up the devil were used.

‘I had read some articles about the making of the movie and it seems there were some inexplicable accidents, apparently even someone died during the making of the movie. The director changed the words for calling up the devil but the general reviews labelled it a Satanist shocker.

‘When Nigel asked me what we should do to publicise the film, I admit that I was a bit nervous but suggested that we could invite someone to sit through the movie at midnight. So we arranged that the newspapers should do articles to help promote the film. The Devil Rides Out with Christopher Lee starring was to be the main feature and the second one was The Blood Beast Terror with Peter Cushing. I’d voiced my concerns to Nigel saying that I didn’t like the idea of a Satanist movie being shown in a place that was supposedly haunted. He partly agreed with me but Nigel was an atheist and thought that I was being a superstitious Irish man. So in the end we agreed to try it.

‘The Belfast Telegraph and The Irish News wrote articles asking if anyone would be brave enough to sit through the film on their own at midnight on the Friday before the film opened to the general public. We interviewed some people and there was a girl of sixteen I think, who said she would do it.

‘She was a Goth; you know the style where they dressed all in black with heavy whitish make-up and black eye make-up. We chose her and when the night of the showing came a reporter and a photographer from the Belfast Telegraph were there. We arranged to show it after the regular show that evening.

‘When this girl came in we told her that she would be sitting upstairs in the balcony and she would be the only one in the whole theatre but that she would have a buzzer, which would be connected to the projection room. If she became too frightened she could press the buzzer and the projectionist would stop the film. We said she could have anything she wanted from the snack bar, which had all sorts of expensive things like huge boxes of chocolates, caramel popcorn, etc., but all she wanted were two packets of Rowntrees Fruit Gums. I found that amusing.

‘Once she had those we brought her up to the balcony. It was big and she sat roughly in the middle. The photographer took pictures and left. Then the reporter came down and sat with me in the middle of the stalls underneath the balcony but we didn’t let her know that we were there. I was in the middle of the row, the reporter was on my left and Nigel was at the end of the row.

‘The movie started and the first fifteen minutes were slow but I could see that Nigel was quite nervous and he rose and went back a few times. When he sat down he kept looking to the back of the stalls towards the exit sign above the door. He rose another time and left and I looked after him. In the light of the doorway I saw that he seemed to be looking for somebody. He did not seem to see the large black shadow right beside him sort of crouched over, not touching him but certainly leaning over. To me it seemed to be a tall man, yet Nigel still appeared to be looking for something, unaware of the shadow even though it was beside him. Then he left the auditorium.

‘Just after that I could hear some clicking noises that seemed to come from the carpeted floor and I thought that it was the photographer coming back to the theatre to scare his friend the reporter. I assumed that the clicking noises were from his camera. I thought that I’d play along with his trick and didn’t look back any more.

‘Then I heard someone come down the aisle and the seat right behind me went down and someone sat in it. I could hear him breathing and I kept looking across at the reporter but he didn’t seem to notice anything. I could still hear the clicking noise and breathing. I was thinking that the photographer was waiting for me to leave so that he could scare his friend all the more. I was half prepared for him to jump and shout but if he did, I would certainly jump too.

‘As I got up to check with Nigel I turned around and saw the seat was still down and those seats do not stay down unless there is a weight on them. But the seat was empty; there was no one there. I knew that was impossible. My legs went like jelly. I moved but I could hardly walk up the aisle to the exit I was so frightened. Then I began to get a bit angry thinking, “What the heck is going on there? Is someone trying to scare me?”

‘I made my way out through the foyer, and ran up the set of stairs to the office. I was still angry and thought I’d give Nigel a piece of my mind; after all he was the manager. At the top I could see that his office door was open and when I went in he was standing at his desk. He was as white as a ghost and I said, “What the hell is going on here? Who was that man?”

‘He said, “What man?”

‘I was so annoyed and answered, “Don’t fool with me! Who was that man? You must have seen him. He was crouched down beside you. What is going on? Something is happening here.” I was getting angrier.

‘He looked at me, “You’ve heard something too, haven’t you?”

‘”Heard what,” I demanded.

‘He said, “There is something going on but it’s not me, Jim.”

‘Nigel told me that the reason he looked back and kept getting up from his seat was that he thought that someone had come in.

‘At that moment there was a terrible ear piercing scream from above. I turned to rush up the other flight of stairs to the balcony to see if the girl was all right but Nigel ran after me and grabbed my arm.

‘”It’s the film, Jim, it’s not the girl. Don’t go there.”

‘But I heard another scream and rushed up into the balcony. There was no screaming coming from the screen. Then I heard another moaning sort of scream coming from the middle of the balcony but I couldn’t see the girl. I ran to where I thought she was but Nigel shouted, ‘Don’t go, she would have pressed the buzzer.’

‘Just after that the buzzer sounded and the lights went on. I ran over and the girl was there, crouched down in her seat. I can honestly say that I have never been so scared in my life. She was trembling and terrified and crying uncontrollably.

‘We said, “What’s wrong?”

‘She said, “Something came right behind me and was breathing on me and all I could hear were clicking noises.”

‘I asked, “Why didn’t you press the buzzer?”

‘She said, “I was so frightened I couldn’t move. I tried but I couldn’t and then I dropped the buzzer.”

‘We helped her down to the office and let her talk a bit until she calmed down. After that we went down to the lobby to the reporter. He had heard nothing other than her screaming. Rather than stay in the theatre we walked to a local hotel to talk it over. Nigel, without much persuasion, divulged what had happened to him previous to this when he took over the theatre.

‘He said that there were times at night when the building became really cold at particular places, one of them being where the stairs led up to the balcony. The usherettes who showed people to their seats refused to stand there because there was such a strange sensation of cold and unease at that spot.

‘The sales girls refused to go down the left-hand side of the theatre after nine o’clock because they said that they felt an invisible presence, something pushing them out of the way as if it was running past.

‘Pauline Short, the lady who worked the Concessions Stand told me later that they had seen a man in black always rushing down the left hand side of the auditorium and that the smell of perfume was at times overpowering and there was no obvious explanation.

She didn’t want to scare the girls any further so did not tell them of these strange goings on but they confessed that they did not like to stand at those points of the theatre because it was creepy, cold and really scary. Later I found out that they had been told not to speak of any of this because it would be bad publicity.

Nigel explained that he was in the theatre one night when My Fair Lady was showing and they had mannequins in the lobby for a display. They were wearing dresses, replicas of Audrey Hepburn’s that she had worn in the film. Nigel stayed on laer to count the tickets and within seconds his office became exceptionally cold and a strong smell of perfume pervaded the air.

‘He continued, “I thought that someone went into the ladies’ washroom near the balcony and I followed but when I opened the door there was no one there. When I left and walked away I heard the washroom door squeak open again behind me and then slam shut. I returned to the lobby but it was ice cold too and unbelievably the mannequins had been knocked down to the floor and dragged across the lobby. One dress, the copy of Audrey Hepburn’s, was ripped to shred and that must have happened in a matter of seconds.” He called the manager from the News and Cartoon Theatre across the road and asked him to come over so that he could see and verify what had happened.

‘One night another eerie thing happened on the big stage. A grand piano sat at the side and it was dragged from one end of the stage to the other although no one was there.

‘Nigel asked the reporter not to publish what had occurred on the night of the showing of The Devil Rides Out because they were so concerned that people would not come to the theatre if they knew it was haunted. The strange thing is that the reporter was aware of nothing until he heard the screams of the girl, yet Nigel and I heard everything.

The reporter did look into things and it appears that the Ritz Cinema (as it was called then) was opened in 1936 and previous to that there was always a fair and he said that a man and woman were both killed on that site where the theatre was built. He surmised that because they had a violent death their spirits were unsettled and for some reason still lingered there.

‘One of the most frightening experiences for me was the knowledge that once we left the hotel where we had discussed things, we had to go back into the theatre to change out of our tuxedos. Going up to the balcony and through it to the corridor where the washrooms and dressing rooms were almost made me sick with fear. The place was freezing cold inside even though it was mild weather outside. The hair on the back of my head was standing up and Nigel said, “I thought when I came here that it was just you superstitious Irish but I have to say Jim, that there is something in this theatre and it is evil.”

‘We managed to get changed and out of the theatre without further incident that night but I’ll never forget it nor do I want to experience it again. Maybe that satanic film brought the presence out more forcefully than before but I wish we had never shown it.’

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chiseler · 8 years ago

Text

POP MODERNIST DYSTOPIA

by Jim Knipfel

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alexbandfan · 6 years ago

Text

INTERVIEW – ALEX BAND OF THE CALLING

JUNE 15, 2018

CrypticRock.com – It seems like it has been a very exciting ride, ups and downs.

Alex Band – Oh yea, it’s never boring. I will give it that. There have been lots of ups and a lot of downs.

RCA

CrypticRock.com – It certainly seems to have been a long road travelled. It is exciting for fans to see The Calling back in full force.

CrypticRock.com – It is a very good thing. With you doing this North American run of shows, can fans expect a new The Calling record?

CrypticRock.com – That is wonderful news. Do you have a timetable of an expected release?

AMB/EMI

Killer Tracks

CrypticRock.com – We will see what happens, it seems like positive things are coming together, as stated.

CrypticRock.com – Fans have waited for it, so the reaction should be a good one.

Empire Pictures

TOUR DATES:

SAT. JUNE 16TH LAS VEGAS, NV TOP GOLF

TUES. JUNE 19TH SAN FRANCISCO, CA THE INDEPENDENT

WED. JUNE 20TH SACRAMENTO, CA HARLOW’S NIGHTCLUB

SUN. JUNE 24ND LOS ANGELES, CA THE TROUBADOUR

TUES. JUNE 26TH BOSTON, MA BRIGHTON MUSIC HALL

THURS. JUNE 28TH NEW YORK, NY GRAMERCY THEATRE

FRI. JUNE 29TH WASHINGTON DC PEARL STREET

SAT. JUNE 30TH PHILADELPHIA, PA THE FOUNDRY

AUG 18-19 FESTIVAL ROCK ARENA – ARENA PANTANAL CUIABA, MT BRAZILFOR MORE ON THE CALLING:

THECALLINGMUSIC.COM

|FACEBOOK|TWITTER|INSTAGRAM

FOR MORE ON ALEX BAND:FACEBOOK|TWITTER|INSTAGRAM

Source

#alexnews #alex band #the calling #singer #rock

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