Hey Pete....... I read the news today. Oh boy.

A God has left us. Up and gone just like the snap of a frackin' finger.

The music world is dormant with pathetic malaise as a true artist has passed. Only those of us in the know are already feeling the black, dark void that is being left here on earth.

I really hate to have to write these kind of posts and turn Zangz's Blog of Geekdom into an obituary column. Especially when it's about an artist I really truly enjoy, have admiration for and who's music made my mundane life a little more worth living.

My soul took quite a huge hit today. I was busy as hell, running around like a frackin' banshee at work. Then suddenly my freind and co-worker, Mr. Salty, came up and asked me If I heard the news. I was in the middle of a work related conversation and had to wave him off for a sec to finish off the one of many tasks I had to perform.

When I was done I walked over to him and asked, "What?"

"Dude, a legend, an innovator of Metal has passed! You haven't heard?"

I immediately thought it was Ronnie James Dio who was recently diagnosed with stomach cancer.

"No dude, Peter Steele."

My heart kinda took a nose dive. I didn't know what the hell to think. I drew a bit of a blank and didn't really comprehend the statement.

If you're an avid reader of this blog (2.5 of you) you'll know what a huge Type O Negative fan I am and how much their music means to me. Peter Steel was the main lyricist, bass player and lead vocalist for this band. Not to slag the rest of the group, but he was pretty much the alpha male of Type O.

Myself being a bit of an old fart, they were pretty much one of the very, very few bands I would still go out and venture to see live. Their music means a lot to me. Dark, heavy, brooding, melodic, controversial and clever. I've been listening to them for 15 years straight, always looking forward to the next long awaited album.

Pete was a bit of a tragic character. He had been betrayed many times by family and lovers. And he fought addiction and depression as best he could, using his gift of music as his outlet and letting us, his fans, in on the dark joke.

His twisted sense of humor saturated his lyrics and sometimes brought controversy. Both left wing and right wing zealots called him homophobic, nihilistic, sexist and satanic. But, it was always tongue and cheek.

I've seen Type O Negative many times during the years. First time I saw them they were opening for Queensryche and were given few lights and minimum staging. They somehow blew the Queens off the stage. That was back in '95.

Ever since, I've tried to make every Milwaukee date on their tours. They always hit The Rave, a haunted music club they seemed to like to play despite many artists dislike of the venue.

I must have seen them there at least 6 or 7 times. And every time was eventful. I was never disappointed. I'm pretty floored that I will not get to see Pete and the boys there, live again.

I'm also greatly saddened that I will not get to listen to fresh, new, Peter Steele laden lyrics coming from Type O Negative ever again.

The world has gotten soooo much darker with his passing, and the generic music world has no clue of it.

Good bye Pete, thanks for the twisted dark humor and music that you gave to us fans. Whether you ever realized it or not, you gave some of us something to enjoy and make our lives a little more worth living.

Here's a pretty decent remembrance from a former record company about Pete that you may want to check out. For an even better remembrance from fellow band members click here!

P.S. I hope this wasn't too man crushy for anybody.

I'm outta here with a beer in hand and a toast in the remembrance of one, Mr. Peter Steele!

"It's better to be hated for who you are than love for who you are not" - Phlogistin Verdigras.

Zangz.

I recently got slapped by a B-flick.

....And I liked it. In fact, I think I would like to be slapped around some more. A couple of good slappings upside my geek head could probably do me some good.

Now how does this all sound to you?.......

Insanely beautiful women. Explosions. Fifteen minute long cat fights. Bloodshed. Explosions. Firearms. Martial Arts. Lots of tight clothes. A water fight you wouldn't believe. Explosions.

How can these words not appeal to the male geek psyche? Well, I'll tell ya. A couple of filmakers put together a sweet little show that has all of that and more within it. I speak of a motion picture that slipped under the cracks, but has emerged triumphantly upon video.

It is the wonderment that is BITCH SLAP!

This movie will not be laden with accolades amongst critics or be heralded as a great, geek genre masterpiece along the lines of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction. There will be no best actor or actress Oscars handed out.

But what Bitch Slap does have going for it is the fact that it is a totally, in your face and unapologetically great big over the top Grade "B" action flick.

Bitch Slap is the tale of how three women (Hel, Trixie and Camero) come upon what they believe is the location of a hidden cache of "treasure" buried out in the desert. Each of them have a mysterious checkered past that are slowly revealed throughout the film.

When I first popped this bad boy into the ol' '360 I wasn't expecting too much. In fact I was expecting some horrible flick that was shot on a video camera in somebody's garage and backyard. But the production quality is pretty top notch as they make very good use of the green screen method to use as virtual sets that come out looking quite fantastic and lend to the over the top feel to the whole film.

Ok folks, here's the part of the review where I let my lonely geek-freak flag fly quite high. While in that process, I'll also be making myself quite vulnerable to restraining orders.

To put it simply, the three female leads are quite smoking hot! A fact that the producers, director and writers certainly exploited to the fullest extent. They put these girls in situations that will have the lesser man running to the bottle of Jurgens that's kept hidden behind the sofa..... in most homes....... or so I hear. Ehem.

If you're looking for a big nudity-fest, you won't find it here. Bitch Slap keeps it somewhat classy by not reverting to cheap boob shots.

Even though the movie subversively makes fun of itself for being so over the top, it still succeeds in having a bit of a twist at the ending.

Another attribute about this flick that I wanted to mention to the geek nation out there on the inter-web is that if you happen to be an old fan of the Xena or Hercules shows, you'll have a vested interest in this movie. Many familiar faces from those shows have smaller roles and cameo appearances in the movie. You'll get to see a lot of them in the documentary about the making of Bitch Slap which is in the extras section of the DVD. The documentary is just as fun, and long, as the movie itself.

Again, if you're in the mood for some outlandish action with three beautiful women in a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, then this is a movie you'll want to take a peek at.


In other geeky endeavors....

You'll notice that this blog is a little more active than it's been throughout the winter months. It's spring and the weather is getting unseasonably warm lately and I think it's thawing me out and rejuvenating my creative juices a bit.

I'm still faring through DragonAge: Origins. It's long, epic storyline is starting to get a little weighted and I'm taking a break on it and started up Mass Effect 2, which is a little more addictive in it's game play mechanics.

After Mass Effect 2 I will either return to DragonAge or start up on Red Dead Redemption. I've also found out that both GTA4 and Borderlands has come out with added content discs for those of us that don't have access to DLC. Then Crackdown 2 comes out in July. What's a gamer to do?

And on top of all of the video gaming there's also some good old fashioned table top games going on. Both my friends Mad Mario and Roberto Del Amorte have started out new fantasy RPG campaigns that I'll be playing in. Roberto is running D&D 4th Ed. and Mario is running the Lord of the Rings RPG.

So my geek calendar is crammed full of nerdosity for the foreseeable future.

What am I listening to lately? Well, a friend at work has been introducing me to some headbanging goodness. My ears have bled to the likes of Shadows Fall, Overkill and Five Finger Death Punch. Check them out, wont you?

That's it for this post. Let the slappin' begin!

Zangz.

Bunny Stew

"Here comes Peter Cotton-Tail, Hoppin' down the Bunny Trail. Hippity Hopping, East....."

KABLAAAAAM!!!!!!

Rabbit stew for Easter Brunch, anybody? There might be a little buck-shot that you may have to pick out, but the broth is just deeeelightful.

Easter morn has arrived and it's brought me some wonderfully geeky memories of an Easter morning long past. Let's travel back in time to that particular Easter morning. Shall we?

I must have been 10 years old. It had been almost a year after I had my own religious awakening when I first viewed Star Wars up on the big screen for the first time. Within the year between Star Wars being released and the following Easter there were absolutely no Star Wars action figures put on the market.

True fact. Prior to its release the Star Wars people were promoting the fledgling Sci-Fi film at Sci-Fi conventions all over America. At the same time they were also trying very hard to market the film to toy companies for the obligatory toy line. Well, all of the toy companies rejected the toy line believing that Star Wars was going to be a fly by night flop.

By the time the movie was released and became the greatest motion picture of all time, there were still no toys in production. Once Kenner Toys saw the monetary potential and started to design the toys, it was still to late to release them to coincide with the success of the summer blockbuster. It would be a long wait until the action figures would hit the toy store shelves.

Being a huge action figure fan, I can remember wondering, "Where the hell were the Star Wars figures?" They had Star Wars pajamas, they had Star Wars bed spreads, they had Star Wars cereal, but no frackin' action figures! WTF?

After a year of waiting and wondering, that wonderful Easter morning came. My little sister and I got up an hour and a half early that morning and banged on Mom and Dad's bedroom door waking them out of their slumber. My dad instantly cursed about how early it was. Then Mom calmed him down and they got on their bath robes and we all headed down to the living room.

Of course Mom and Dad had us wait a bit before they got their coffee because back in the day anything that would annoyingly increase a kid's already out of control anticipation was something that parents constantly excelled at for whatever torturous reason.

Finally my dad opened the crazed Easter egg hunt with, "Ok, kids. Have at it."

Dizzy Lizzie and I tore the whole first floor of the house apart. My sister would always find hers first since she was younger and my parents would have to place them somewhat in plain sight for her.

Mine were a little more challenging, but after some hints and a game of "hot and cold" with my parents I'd find mine.

The first basket I found had a couple of Hot Wheels and the usual chocolate eggs, jelly beans and marshmallow candy with a few of the Easter eggs that we had painted a few nights before.

The second basket was the one with the magic in it. There amongst the fake plastic grass, next to the chocolate bunny sat a small R2-D2 action figure packaged in it's plastic cubicle with the black backboard that had a picture of the droid on it and blazed on the top of it was the Star Wars logo.

I lost my mind. I didn't even know these were on the shelves. This was years before the Internet so I had no clue. My young, action figure-lovin' mind instantly told me, "If there's one, there must be more". And when I turned the toy's packaging to the back I saw a picture of the collection of other figures you could get. JEEBUS HAS RISEN!!!

I went nuts looking for the third and last of my baskets. I finally found it wedged between a chair and the dining room hutch. I gasped when I saw a small Darth Vader looking back at me from behind the plastic packaging. The collection was officially started.

The next couple of hours were filled with Darth Vader chasing around R2 while at the same time I was downing enough sugary goodness to keep me up for weeks. Imagine my grand disappointment when I was forced to stop in the middle of all the fun a frolic to get dressed for.....church. Ugh.

During the whole hour and a half long mass I was goofed up on a sugar high that you wouldn't believe knowing that waiting for me at home were R2 and Darth to get into more wacky adventures together. It took every act of my young human will to not to explode into a sugar induced fit. But somehow I persevered and endured the long, hot, boring institution that is the Easter Morning Catholic Mass. Jeebus, preserve me!

After the mass we went over to my grandparents' house which was a very quick hop, skip and jump from our house. As we all went into the kitchen and smelled that wonderful Easter ham that Grandma was preparing, she told us that the Easter Bunny had stopped there also, but did not have time to hide the treats and that they were on the living room table.

There was one basket for each of us. In in mine was a great site to see. A C3PO and a Princess Leia action figure separated by a box of pink Peeps. I was head over heels in a state of euphoria.

I was able to run over to my house and get R2 and Vader and bring them back to the Grandparents' house so I could play with them until the Easter dinner ham was ready to be eaten. That afternoon Darth Vader captured Princess Leia and R2-D2 and C3PO had to go save her.

As months passed Luke, Han Chewie, Ben and stormtroopers joined the collection and the adventures.

That was one of the best Easter mornings I can remember having.

So here's hoping that some little geekling out there finds a Star Wars figure or two in his or her Easter basket.

Now that I've left you all with a cute story about young materialism and a reference to killing and eating the Easter Bunny on the morning of the most holy day of all holy days, I find myself needing to get hopping along myself. The family is going out for a most tasty brunch and at very nice little restaurant where the hostesses are very cute. So I'm out of here.

Coming Soon to this blog: An ode to the grand cinematic joy that is Bitch Slap!

Until next time kiddos, stay vertical! Happy Bunny Day!

Zangz.