Stalker

Stalker is a 1979 Science Fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, of Solyaris fame. The film tells the story of 3 men on an excursion into a mysterious area known as "the zone." The leader of the trip is the Stalker who makes a living by guiding people into the zone, which is rumored to be able to bring a persons innermost desired to reality. The two men whore hire the Stalker to bring them into the zone are known only as the Professor and the Writer, with the Professor seemingly intent on using the zone to win a Nobel prize, and the Writer concerned with his recent loss of inspiration .

Visually the film is nothing less than stunning. The atmosphere it creates of the dingy, almost post apocalyptic Zone is beautiful and highly detailed. The bleak visual is combined with an amazingly well written sound track that fits perfectly into the tensions atmosphere. The seemingly benign nature of the zone, coupled with the fear and danger discussed by the stalker almost makes it more intimidating than if the danger was actually realized. The film may be slow for some, moving at almost real time for much of the duration but overall was highly enjoyable to watch. The films philosophical discussions do a good job of bridging through some of the more slow sections of the film. I would describe the film as arduously slow, but necessarily so.

World Cup Draw

I'll be Slacking off at work this afternoon to follow this. Catch it in an easy to follow format online at ESPN Soccernet. For commentary on the draw check out the live blog at, at my favorite premiere league site, EPL Talk who will be having covering the draw also. Definitely excited to see where the two teams I'll be following, USA and Spain will end up. I also cant wait to see if a group of death gets drawn for the initial stage.

Cant Get Enough

All I want to do is dump a stupid amount of money in an BMW E30 or a Nissan S30. Need to resist the temptation.

John Dyer Baizley

John Baizley is not only an amazing print maker, he is also the vocal and guitar component of Baroness. Based out of Savanna, Ga the sludge metal four piece was formed in late 2003. The band put out two EP's entitled First and Second in 2004 and 2005 on Hyperrealist Records. The albums which were each recorded in a single session generated a lot of buzz in the metal/hardcore world. Following the success of these albums the band has gone on to release two full lengths in 2007 and 2009 on Relapse Records, titled The Red Album and The Blue Album. While the blue album was a little lackluster in my opinion, overall reception of the record has been positive. Its interesting to see a band whose routes are mainly based in punk and hardcore become so popular in the metal arena. Baroness is currently on tour with instrumental psychedelic rock band Earhless, and one of my other favorites old school sounding metal/thrash masters Iron Age




Along with fronting Baroness, Baizly has created all the art for his bands album covers and t-shirts. He has also been the artist for album covers, show posters and t-shirts for bands such as Torche, Skeletonwitch, Cursed, Vitamin X, Black Tusk, Kylesa, Pig Destroyer, Darkest Hour, The Famine, and Daughters. His work definitely shows a lot of influence from the legendary metal artist Pushead. Along with this influence there is also an amazing Art Nouveau look to his work that makes it very eye catching. His pieces are extremely intricate compared to many other music oriented print makers and his attention to detail is unmatched. His work has been featured in a solo exhibit in Lancaster, PA at the Metropolis Gallery.

Baroness-The Red Album

Baroness- The Blue Album


Torche- In Return

Kylesa T-Shirt

Black Tusk/Holy Mountain Split

Darkest Hour- Deliver Us

Flight of the Conchords- I Told You I Was Freaky

Black Tusk- Passage Through Purgatory

Print with Burlesque Design, goes on sale tomorrow
(Thursday, December 3rd) at 2pm CST