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Vintage ads for NWA solo albums (1992)

Posted in advertising, music, pop culture, rap with tags advertising, nostalgia, NWA, pop culture on April 21, 2016 by Paxton

Here are some more scans from vintage hip-hop magazines.

Today I’m going to show you some ads for NWA member solo albums from late 1992.

Here’s an ad for Dre’s The Chronic from about a month before its release.

Here’s an ad for Ice Cube’s The Predator from right before its release. In fact, the album may have already been released by the time the ad dropped.

This ad is for Eazy-E’s 5150: home 4 tha sick EP. It had already been released when this ad ran. Note at the bottom the solicit for Eazy’s upcoming album, Temporary Insanity. That album was rumored for years and never released. I have no idea if the tracks are still out there or they were mostly used for the posthumous Str8 Off Tha Streets.

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Dr Dre in-depth interview with The Source (1992)

Posted in music, nostalgia, pop culture, rap with tags music, nostalgia, NWA, pop culture, rap on April 20, 2016 by Paxton

Continuing this week to show you scans of old rap/hip hop magazines featuring the members of NWA.

Today we are looking at the November 1992 issue of The Source magazine.

The magazine featured an in depth cover interview with Dr Dre promoting the upcoming release of his solo debut, The Chronic, on Death Row Records.

Dre talks about a lot of things in the article including his new album, the break up with NWA, his beef with Eazy-E and his brand new record label. Very interesting look into the head space of one Andre Young right before he’d change the face of rap with that aforementioned solo album.

He even gets candid about the “Dee Barnes” incident (mentioned in yesterday’s Rap Masters magazine scan), his buddy DOC’s car wreck and The World Class Wreckin’ Cru. It’s a good read.

The article also has two sidebars, both interviews. One is with DOC and the other is with Snoop Dogg who very recently made his debut on Dr Dre’s song Deep Cover and will soon come into prominence due to his heavy appearance on The Chronic.

Here’s the article.

Moving Target 01 Moving Target 02

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NWA in Rap Masters magazine (1991)

Posted in music, rap with tags music, NWA, pop culture, rap on April 19, 2016 by Paxton

This week the Nerd Lunch Podcast is comin’ Straight Outta Compton with a very special drilldown on the rap super group NWA. To celebrate, I thought I’d dig out some of my old rap magazines and showcase some old pictures and ads featuring the group.

This is Rap Masters magazine from July 1991. It features a cover story about NWA.

Here’s the actual article. It’s about the press NWA has received recently, good and bad, due to antics from the group. It starts by discussing Dr Dre attacking Dee Barnes at a Def Jam party because she allowed former member Ice Cube to “dis” them on her show. The article mentions that it was a party to celebrate the group BWP’s new album and Dre’s attack upstaged the group’s release party. The article also talks about Eazy-E’s invite and attending of a Republican dinner which also caught many headlines that summer. Lots of press to hype NWA’s upcoming second album, the article says.

Unfortunately, the article is unfinished. It says at the bottom that the article continues on “page 60”, but it must mean in another magazine because the only thing I found on page 60 was the rest of the Ice-T article that is showcased on the cover.

Check back tomorrow for some more rap magazine scans from the early 90s.

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High Fantasy Month is back with a magical kingdom for sale and a crippled midget

Posted in books, pop culture, reviews with tags Book Report, books, High Fantasy Month, pop culture, reviews on March 7, 2016 by Paxton

Click the above banner to see my other High Fantasy Month reviews. I had recently picked up a new omnibus of a fantasy series and read the first book, so I thought I’d follow it up with a few more fantasy books and knock out another High Fantasy Month.

It’s interesting, the collection of books this month are all sort of similarly themed. I really didn’t even plan it out that way. Each of the books in this months collection are novels mostly set in a fantasy world, but have some twist to the story. They aren’t straight up fantasy, they have a little something extra. It’s an interesting mix this month.

Here are the reviews:

Magic Kingdom for Sale–Sold! (Landover Book 1) (1986) – Terry Brooks – The Magical Kingdom of Landover is a series, written by the great Terry Brooks, that has, currently, about 5 books. I’ve read only one other Brooks novel and that’s the Star Wars Episode I novelization. But it’s good, it really is and it made me want to read more Brooks. I thought I was going to start reading Brooks’ other magnum opus, which sort of spawned this whole idea of High Fantasy Month, The Sword of Shannara, however, I found the first three books of the Landover series in an omnibus for super cheap so I snapped it up and started reading without much thought. The basic premise is that a lawyer, disappointed with his life after his wife dies, finds an ad in a catalog to buy a magical fantasy land called Landover for $1 million. Spontaneously he decides to do it, but it doesn’t turn out to be exactly what he expects. Initially, that premise spoke “satire” to me. I fully expected a massively tongue-in-cheek parody of fantasy novels. What I got was surprising. The novel takes a while to really get started, but once it does, it’s really good. It takes the premise honestly and earnestly. It’s not a satire or a parody. It plays the entire plot straight and is a better novel for it. I liked it much more than I thought considering my expectations were completely wrong and the first 80 pages or so were kind of slow to get through. I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.

Fool: A Novel (2009) – Christopher Moore – I have read two other Christopher Moore books and thought they were okay (A Dirty Job, Lamb). He has interesting premises, but sometimes he’s a little too droll for my tastes. Like the other Moore books I read, the premise of this book sounded pretty great. A satire of William Shakespeare’s King Lear told from the point of view of the fool. It has lots of mad kings, backstabbing daughters, witches, lusty maidens and, of course, a ghost (there’s always a damn ghost). After years of wanting it I finally grabbed the eBook for cheap a year or so ago but just couldn’t get myself to start it until this month. What did I think? Similar to Moore’s other books. Well written, very dry, sarcastic, British humor. This feels like a BBC mini-series. I wasn’t laughing out loud but I chuckled a lot and enjoyed the ride. For the most part. And now I can pretty much say I’ve read Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Sir Apropos of Nothing (2001) – Peter David – I love Peter David’s novels and for years I tried to read everything he’d written. I originally read this book back in 2005 when I randomly found it on eBay. I loved it. The story is a parody of fantasy books in general. It uses a lot of the tropes and has fun with them. Peter David is great at humorous dialogue and he doesn’t disappoint here. Essentially, it’s your traditional epic hero fantasy, except, instead of focusing on the hero, the story focuses on one of the side characters. And that side character is well aware he’s in a hero’s tale and that he’s not the hero. In fact, he prefers it. Lots of fun with the fantasy genre. Also, I’m surprised at how similar this book was to Moore’s Fool. I guess it’s sort of the same idea, except David’s idea goes a little more broad with the concept. And, honestly, I think it’s a better book.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2015: Destroyer (1988) movie review

Posted in Genres, Halloween, holiday, horror, movies, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2015, Fangoria, Fangoria Movie Friday, Halloween, holiday, horror, magazines, monsters, movies, pop culture, reviews, zombies on October 30, 2015 by Paxton

This is it! The final day of the final week of AWESOME-tober-fest 2015. It’s been a blast. I really hope you guys have had as much fun as I’ve had. I’m sad to see the Halloween season come to a close. But, all good things, am I right? Anyway, without further ado, here is today’s final AWESOME-tober-fest article and it’s the last of this week’s look back at all of my previous years’ AWESOME-tober-fest subjects.

Last year, my theme was Bloody Best of Fangoria. I went through the vast history of the magazine, showed you articles and pictures and each Friday I reviewed a B-horror movie that appeared in the pages of the magazine. Those reviews were called Fangoria Movie Fridays. The last FMF was the awesome Cheerleader Camp starring Lucinda Dickey. But it was almost a different movie. As a matter of fact, it was so almost a different movie that I had watched and mostly drafted a completely different movie review but I changed my mind at the last second. I think it’s time to bring that movie back and give it its due. That movie was the flick Destroyer from 1988. It starred Lyle Alzado, Debra Foreman and Anthony Perkins.

Here’s the ad they used to promote the VHS release. I remember seeing it in an issue of Fangoria.

Lyle looks like he’s holding his head weird. Or is his head just Photoshopped into the poster? I can’t tell.

Here’s the actual poster for the movie.

Destroyer_FilmPoster

Yeah, this is actually a bit more bonkers and awesome. Did you notice that they added a LASER SCOPE to the jackhammer? Why the f**k does he need a laser scope on the jackhammer?! Crazy. And weird. And awesome.

Anyway, this movie poster obviously spoke to me. Lyle Alzado as a “half dead” serial killer? Anthony Perkins as a horror movie director? Yes, please.

So, first, is this movie any good. Ehhh, it’s okay. It’s not bad for a late 80s slasher flick with a ton of cult pop culture familiar faces in it. What’s it about, well, Alzado plays a serial killer who is on Death Row. He is about to be executed when a power surge while he’s in the electric chair makes him “half dead”. Essentially it makes him a savage, nearly indestructible killing machine. The jail is abandoned and Lyle is left to roam the empty jail. Flash forward two years or so and a horror film crew arrives to film their movie in the infamous jail. They, of course, stir up Lyle who starts killing off members of the crew. How do you stop an unkillable monster? I. Don’t. Know.

That’s the basic premise. Did I mention this movie had familiar faces? Yep, let’s quickly look at the cast. You’ve already seen sweaty Lyle Alzado up there on the poster as the “lead”. Lyle is known mainly for football but he also appeared in this movie, Ernest Goes to Camp, Zapped…Again! (yes, the sequel to Zapped!) and the sadly short lived wrestling sitcom Learning the Ropes.

The next most notable face would be the aforementioned Anthony Perkins, best known as Norman Bates in the Psycho movies. Anthony is playing the director of the horror movie-within-the-movie, Death House Dolls. Honestly, Perkins is pretty much the best thing in the movie. He’s very entertaining and I loved every scene he’s in.

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Here’s a familiar face, Clayton Rohner.

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I did not expect him to pop up in this movie. This guy is an 80s staple with lead rolls in Just One of the Guys, I, Madman and another little horror film I love called April Fool’s Day. If you haven’t seen April Fool’s Day, watch it. It’s pretty great. But also starring in April Fool’s Day was an actress named Deborah Foreman. And in a nice little reunion, Deborah is in this movie as well.

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Deborah is adorable. You’ve seen her in a ton of 80s flicks like Valley Girl, Real Genius, Hot Pursuit and My Chauffeur. Unfortunately she goes with “Hilary Clinton” hair in this movie which is rather…unfortunate.

I do like both of these guys, so it’s nice to have them here. Clayton comes off a little better because he’s written to be a funny, irreverant writer so he has some funny lines.

So, how’s Lyle? He’s okay. I mentioned his character is described as “half dead”, which I assume means he has “crazy eyes”. Because that’s what he does at every opportunity. Gives us his “crazy eyes”.

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