(image) A few years ago a friend was showing me his tattoos at a geeky event I organized. He turned around, pulled down his collared shirt -- and my eyes popped out of my skull. He had a DB-9 port tattooed to the back of his neck. He then proceeded to show me other parts of his body as that wasn’t... more

A few years ago a friend was showing me his tattoos at a geeky event I organized. He turned around, pulled down his collared shirt -- and my eyes popped out of my skull. He had a DB-9 port tattooed to the back of his neck. He then proceeded to show me other parts of his body as that wasn’t his only “geeky” tattoo. A few months later I met a friend’s wife who had her name tattooed on her arm -- in binary code. It wrapped her arm like a bracelet of ones and zeros. These geeky tattoos were few and far between, so I went in search of tattoos of the geeky kind. Here's a tour of some of my favorites.

The Transistor

As I mentioned, the first geeky tattoo I saw was on the body of my friend, Eric Gradman. He’s the one with the DB-9 port on the back of his neck. “I got this tattoo at a time when lots of people were getting barcodes on the back of their necks. I have a bit of an aversion to permanent numeric ID markers.”

He tells the story of how he got another one. “I'd been drinking at Zeitgeist in San Francisco for about 7 hours when we decided to get tattoos. Transistors are in every piece of electronics we use and their discovery revolutionized the world. Nobody really uses BJT transistors anymore; they use FETs (which use a different schematic symbol) but the BJT symbol is so classy. Even hippies smile when they see it, mistakenly believing that it stands for world unity.”

011000100110100101101110011000010111001001111001

I’ll bet you know what language the above is–- but I’ll also bet you can’t read it (hint). Lots of people get binary tattoos with their name or special words. The only problem with binary is the quantity of ones and zeros. After researching geeky tattoos on Flickr, I found some very simple binary art that I particularly liked. “I am a geeky person," explains Robert Maki, whose body it belonged to. "Since I love computers and people call me a geek, I decided to get it tattooed on me, in the most primal language of computers.”

Love in 3D

Meg Watcher's tech-head body art is also some that I stumbled across on Flickr. She has a traditional Mom and Dad in a heart on her arm –- with one very cool twist -- it’s tattooed in 3D red/blue lines. “I really liked the look of old-school offset red and blue 3D drawings and wanted to get it done in tattoo form,” Meg told me. I got out my 3D glasses (which I have on my desk) and spied it through the blue and red shades -- and it looked pretty good. If you have a pair of shades, get em out and see for yourself.

Showing the <3

A friend of a friend of mine (thanks for introducing us Joz), Ed Morita, writes a blog on baking and his pastry creations make my mouth water. Earlier this year, Morita asked his readers to help him decide where to get a tattoo featuring the Wordpress logo. “I have been a blogger in some form or another since 2004, and five years is a long time to be using any sort of brand. WordPress has been a big part of my life, and like other big things in my life I think that it is time for me to get inked.” (See photo.)

My Bar Camp LA buddy Jason Cosper wanted to show his love for Apple but only to fellow Apple lovers. “Why get an Apple logo when you can get something that the really hardcore people will get? Also, it's easier to explain it away as a simple Celtic knot when people I don't want to talk to ask about it.” (See photo.)

Fellow Bar Camper Jeremy Kitchen has two Linux tattoos. His first is the classic penguin, “Tux” holding a sign that reads “1337.”

“I was 19, wanted a tattoo, was very gung-ho about Linux, and thought it might be cool.” Last month, he convinced co-worker Terri Haber to join him in his second Linux themed tattoos. His image of choice: Tuz -- the new Linux logo, which was changed to bring awareness to a rare disease that kills Tasmanian Devils.

Time traveling

Our final geek tattooist comes inked with so much good stuff I don’t know where to start. How about with the inside lip tattoo of “geek” (showcasing his inner geek!). What about the yin/yang Tron circuitry on his forearms? The Atari console with green screen and punch cards? The Flux Capacitor? And I can’t forget the Logan’s Run Jewel on his palm? I’d like to introduce fellow SG member: FEJ

In homage to his Dad, FEJ has a complicated tattoo of an Atari console, punch cards, green screen and Dad tattooed in 8-bit binary on his arm.

“Dad had punchcards around the office when I was a kid. I remember seeing them and wondering about them, and as I got older, admiration for him being able to use them in the early days of programming. He worked for Rockwell which made the eProms for the Atari and Activision game cartridges. We had a modified 'Adventure' cartridge with s eProm quick release that allowed us to change games that way. We got games almost a year before they were released.”

And the Flux Capacitor? “One day it just popped into my head (I didn't fall and hit my head on the sink) and knew. Those that know what it is always point it out.”

My favorite of all the tattoos in this article is FEJ's Logan’s Run palm jewel. In this future world, to combat overpopulation and consumption, everyone reaching a certain age is killed. “When someone turned 29, the jewel in their palm glowed and they are supposed to go to 'Carousel' and ultimately be executed in the ceremony. Those that fought the system became 'Runners' and went looking for 'Sanctuary.' I like to think of myself as a 'Runner' on the constant spiritual journey looking for 'Sanctuary'”

Heathervescent is a writer, technology consultant and agent of cacophony. She was unable to find a tattoo of Cronenberg’s back port from eXistenZ and was constantly distracted by this collection of the worst Unicorn tattoos! You can read more of her adventures at heathervescent.com and follow her @heathervescent

One hundred. This is a milestone or something. A centenary of Asshole Fuckfacing. What better way to celebrate than with another horrible, horrible Asshole Fuckface Roundup. Put something on and get ready for some stuff. First, some disgusting pro-some life Asshole Fuckfacery. Our religious zealots have... more

One hundred. This is a milestone or something. A centenary of Asshole Fuckfacing. What better way to celebrate than with another horrible, horrible Asshole Fuckface Roundup. Put something on and get ready for some stuff.

First, some disgusting pro-some life Asshole Fuckfacery.

Our religious zealots have a lot of explaining to do this week. Not just for the murder they committed, but also for their reaction to the murder. On Sunday, anti-abortion lunatic and American terrorist Scott P. Roeder shot and killed Dr. George Tiller. Tiller was one of the few doctors in America willing to provide 2nd and 3rd term abortions.

Oh, good, the gunman did it in church, in front of God and probably a bunch of children. I was worried this might be really creepy. Roeder is a terrorist, plain and simple. In the past, he was caught with explosives.

He is a member of the American Taliban.

Jesus Fail.

Roeder should be waterboarded in order to get information out of him about other American terrorists. Since that is what we do to terrorists, we should get on it pronto (and take photographs -- so we can destroy them later after leaking some to the press). Also, we might want to start putting these type of citizens on a list of possible terrorists. They certainly should be placed on the “no fly list.”

These ones have all put their names next to their Twitter updates, so they should be easy to identify.

Terrorist sympathizers, every single one. They support the Dr. Killer killer, so let’s put them on the “no fly list” and waterboard them for info. Let’s get to it. Now. Please. Thanks.

Next up, some office hi-jinks Asshole Fuckfacery.

Sometimes it’s hard not to take a little something from the workplace. Stapler at home broken? Why that one on your desk seems nice. How about those files? Really could use a couple for the cabinet at home? Pens? Want and need. Or maybe you need a foot.

Hey, when you need a foot, you need a foot. There's no getting around that.

No. But he didn’t need it, right? He’s got another one.

First question: Why can’t that be Adam Lambert? Second question: What the fuck?

Yeah, I’d believe that if you hadn’t taken HIS FOOT.

No, it doesn’t. She took a dude’s FOOT.

Next up, a lunatic lying Asshole Fuckface.

Dick Cheney is obviously the worst human being America has produced this century. Not only is he a crazy torture fanboy, but he also enjoys lying out of his ass constantly. This week, former Bush I and Clinton counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke criticized Cheney for using 9/11 to justify his torture nonsense. Cheney no likey.

Um. Dude.

Other than that, and telling Condi Rice Al Qaeda would be the Bush Administration’s biggest problem, yeah, you totally nailed it. Many politicians seem to forget that videotape exists that undermines their current positions, but Dick Cheney seems to forget that print exists. He still hasn’t wrapped his little brain around the existence of the written word.

Finally, some visual WTF Asshole Fuckfacery.



Totally not gay. You know who would have loved this? George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Andy Kaufman, Lenny Bruce, Johnny Carson. They were all about their sweet, sweet bodies. Anyone who knows anything knows a comedian isn’t good until he can pose in Entertainment Weekly straining his oiled up abs so hard his capillaries might burst.

I remember when comedians were the guys who were tormented by the hypocrisy, unfairness and insanity they saw in society and were driven to point it out. Now, it’s all about abs.

FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comedian. Check back each Tuesday and Friday for more from FearTheReaper You may also enjoy his blog, Stop All Monsters.

Downloading Nancy has already faced a rough road to movie theaters. At the Sundance Film Festival in 2008, audiences walked out of the screening. As of last summer, any theatrical release was still uncertain. The film finally hits theaters this week, more than a year and a half after it was finished. more

Downloading Nancy has already faced a rough road to movie theaters. At the Sundance Film Festival in 2008, audiences walked out of the screening. As of last summer, any theatrical release was still uncertain. The film finally hits theaters this week, more than a year and a half after it was finished.

Maria Bello plays the title character, a depressed housewife who asks an internet pen pal (Jason Patric) to kill her. Her husband (Rufus Sewell) would rather check his cell phone than dance with his wife at a wedding reception, yet he is still surprised when she disappears. Some guys just can't take a hint.

Still supporting the film after over a year of disappointing activity, Rufus Sewell made last-minute phone calls this week to get the word out. Though separated by miles and phone lines, Sewell maintained a connection, laughing up the film's rocky path and its technological commentary.

He even made jokes at his own expense, many about the abundance of one-dimensional villain roles on his resume. Most audiences may only know him as the baddie who menaced Heath Ledger in A Knight's Tale, Antonio Banderas in The Legend of Zorro and Jessica Biel/Edward Norton in The Illusionist. TV viewers got to see him weekly in the short-lived Eleventh Hour and die hard genre fans still remember Dark City. Downloading Nancy offers the sort of role Sewell prefers to play, like it or not.

Fred Topel: Did you know when you made Downloading Nancy that it would be controversial?

Rufus Sewell: No. I mean, if you don't know if a movie's coming out, you certainly don't know if it's going to be controversial. There's nothing controversial about a film that doesn't come out. I think as far as I'm concerned, [I gave] my recent interview in the New York Times last weekend talking about the surprise at the reaction in Sundance, and I was very surprised. To tell you the truth, I found it amusingly provincial because I do think, yes, I suppose the film is shocking and it's very dark and has a certain tone, but I was very surprised. I still am to a certain extent.

FT: With the subject matter, did it seem like something that was going to inevitably divide people?

RS: The subject matter, that's what I mean. The subject matter, people watch films where people die every day. What is it specifically about the subject matter, as people are now referring to it, that is more offensive than blowing up countries and stuff?

FT: In this one, you get to know her.

RS: There you have it. So I just think it's quite revealing about what people don't want to look at. Of course, from the way it's shot and everything about it, it certainly was never going to be a mainstream film but no, I didn't expect so many people to walk out at Sundance. I was delighted.

FT: When you got the script, what was your reaction?

RS: I thought it was great. It wasn't just as simple as that but I thought it was very interesting. I thought the characters, obviously it's very unusual. You don't read a lot of stuff like that and I really, really liked the fact that the part being offered to me was not the kind of standard unimaginative offer that I have been getting used to. That it was to play this middle American, very kind of out in his depths, someone who wants to be Mr. Average, trapped in a relationship that is beyond his scope of experience. He copes with it by just freezing someone out in a way that actually is very, very cruel though not intentional, and then ends up, though he may not be able to express it properly, completely devastated by what he's done. I just thought that was amazing.

FT: You say he's distinctly American. Would this story exist in England?

RS: Oh yeah, I don't think the situation is quintessentially American. It just so happens that the character very much was. But yes, it could just as easily happen in England. Absolutely. I don't know how easily it happens anywhere, but unusual though it is, that unusual one in a million thing could happen in England.

FT: How did the festival circuit shake out?

RS: I only went to one festival because I was doing a play on Broadway at the time. It was the only weekend I got off. I just had the experience of being there at the screening at Sundance and watching the door flap open and closed.

FT: How many times?

RS: Quite a bit. I thought people must be drinking a lot of Diet Pepsi before it started. Then I thought maybe after a while there was a bit more to it. Then we had to, kind of ill advisedly, we were all pulled up in front of the screen to be interviewed afterwards. One of the main things, this is why I think of the reaction as being quite provincial, is that one of the questions is: why did you make this film? I just don't think that's a question that should be asked at an independent, or supposedly independent film festival. It's quite funny really. I mean, it's a film I'm very proud of, whether you consider that it fails or succeeds, whether you like it or don't like it. I'm proud to be in it.

FT: Well, why do you make any film?

RS: Exactly. It's just a stupid question.

FT: Was there a certain point that set people off?

RS: Yeah, I think between the beginning and the end, it got them. Possibly my knitwear. I was expecting some kind of reaction to that. My signet rings and diamond patterns, I was expecting a little trouble.

FT: Do you think the internet connects these darker elements in real life?

RS: It's easy to get involved in alarmist [theories] but yes. I think it's undoubtedly true. There is an incredibly powerful forum for people. In the past, when you'd hear about pairs of people who'd get together and murder for example, the first question is: how the fuck do these people find each other? How do you find out in casual conversation that you both like, for example, skewering baby seals and then throwing them off beachheads. I mean, how does one discover a shared love of the obscure? It's taken a lot of work out of that which is potentially a very worrying thing. But I suppose, it could equally, to be cheesy, have a power for good but you know, our experience of humanity so far doesn't hold up in that direction.

FT: How connected are you with cell phones and Blackberries and Facebook, et. al.?

RS: Quite, really, because I live pretty much around the world. My son is in England and I live wherever the work is, so the idea of Skype and stuff like that has actually revolutionized my life because I can still be in contact in a real way. So things like that have become quite important. The funny thing is, no matter how technological or how technical indeed these advances sound, in the end, they all end up being used for humans to either show pictures of their asses or lie to each other, or in the best sense to be able to see their child's face or whatever. There is no technology so sophisticated that it can't be ultimately used to just show an ass.

FT: Were you surprised that CBS didn't pick up Eleventh Hour?

RS: Honestly, personally, I'm quite happy they didn't because I wanted to do something else.

FT: Was the TV experience not what you expected?

RS: I never really wanted to get into a long term thing to tell you the truth. The idea was to no longer feel as underused as I have. I felt underused, not insomuch as unemployed. There are people that are aware of what I can do but in terms of the people who are actually allowed to give out the jobs, people don't realize how useful I can be. I felt that possibly, the idea of doing something like this, would at least give me a forum to do a lot of different things. As it turned out, I felt underused. The idea of being overemployed but underused at the same time is not a future that I would choose for myself.

FT: Is that just the procedural nature of the mystery of the week?

RS: Oh, not necessarily. No, I don't think it was simply that. The truth is, I think it improved enormously, and I think if there was a second season, it would have really got quite good. But I'm still relieved that they let it slip through their fingers as far as I'm concerned. I think it probably would have been good enough if we'd done a second series to continue beyond that, by which time I decided that's not what it wanted.

FT: It was surprising because it got decent ratings.

RS: Yes, I know, that's why I say, I'm not condemning the show. I think it had a lot of strong points. I'm talking about the experience I had from what it started with and what we ended up getting towards was quite respectable. It's just that irrespective of the fact that I worked with people I really liked and made a lot of friends, by the time it finished, the fact that I think they made a mistake in not renewing it was good news for me. So I think they made a mistake, but at the same time, I dodged a bullet.

FT: What have you found since that allows you to be rightfully used?

RS: Oh, I don't know yet. I was prepared to stop doing the series and be unemployed for anything up to a year and still would think I've made the right choice. As far as what I've been happily reminded of is my nature, and my nature as an actor is I'd rather have lack of financial security, lack of security all around with the faint glimmer of very, very exciting, incredibly disparate things in my future. That also includes low points, unemployment, drudgery, whatever, but to me that is the life that I would [prefer], with varying highs and lows. There's a number of really interesting independent projects which is very much the future that I've always wanted to have. Theater possibly, Shakespeare, possibly next year and possibly another very high quality TV miniseries in Europe which I may well be doing. It's not definite yet but it could be happening in the next couple of months, but the difference being not for any of the networks and finite, a beginning, middle and end.

FT: What are the roles you feel did utilize you?

RS: Well, none yet.

FT: Not even Dangerous Beauty or Dark City?

RS: Definitely not, definitely not. Dark City is a wonderful film. I don't think I'm very good in it. No, I don't think so. I don't mean to dismiss it completely but it's not work of mine I'm proud of. I'm proud to be involved in that work. I think I've gotten much better since then, to pat myself on the head. To tell you the truth, I'm very proud of some of the smaller roles I've done, When I've managed to push myself to be in a part other than the one they wanted me to be in. I like Vinyan very much which I did recently. I did like my work in that. Amazing Grace, in which I play a relatively small part, because of the fact that I campaigned to play that kind of oddball part that I played in it, I'm very proud of that. Very proud of the comedies that I've done even though they've been unsuccessful, like Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence or The Very Thought of You, the version in America which I was kind of cut out of. The Taming of the Shrew which is a BBC modern adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew that I did with Shirley Henderson a couple of years back. A lot of comedy stuff where I've been given a real chance and my theater work. In terms of film, I've been conscious of trying to make the best of never quite getting the part that I want. Everyone has their thing they have to get around. With me, it's like okay, how can I make this upper class bad guy in the 19th century different and interesting?


Downloading Nancy opens in select theaters on June 5.

(image) I'm no expert on superhero comics. But in the pile of comics in our living room, stuck between The Boys, Walking Dead, and Air, are a few out-and-out good guy vs. bad guy books -- and the best of the bunch is Ultimate Spiderman. Never mind that it's an unusually good retelling of the... more

I'm no expert on superhero comics. But in the pile of comics in our living room, stuck between The Boys, Walking Dead, and Air, are a few out-and-out good guy vs. bad guy books -- and the best of the bunch is Ultimate Spiderman. Never mind that it's an unusually good retelling of the story of everyone's favorite geek hero. Never mind that Mary Jane has a mean right hook, or that Gwen Stacy went punk. I like the book because it gives us a Spider-Man who's still learning right from wrong.

Spidey taught us -- and say it with me -- that with great power, comes great responsibility. But really, that's just his opinion. And if he didn't have the memory of his dead uncle nagging at him all the time, would he always play nice?

As the SG Gamers group caught on, Cole MacGrath, the star of Sucker Punch Productions's PlayStation 3 sandboxer inFamous, owes plenty to Spider-Man. As the erstwhile motorcycle messenger, you can scale buildings and fall from any height -- not to mention shoot lethal bolts of electricity from your fingertips. Like Spider-Man, when you start out everyone thinks you're a menace: accused of being a terrorist who turned the city into a free-fire zone, you're scoffed and spat upon everywhere you go. But unlike Spider-Man, you live in a city that can't stand in your way. Sometimes the cops sneak out of their hidey-holes to take potshots at the gangs, and the military mans the barricades around the island. But inside the city limits, you are the law. And everybody else looks very, very helpless.

In most games, the run-of-the-mill civilians fall into two extremes: they're either crucial, or insignificant. In a game like Grand Theft Auto, pedestrians are just moving targets. Running down a sidewalk full of people may get the cops on your tail, and a stick-up might bring you a few bucks, but your rampages have no long-term ramifications. The little people just don't matter. At the other end, a real-time strategy game will give you a population to protect or an army to deploy -- and every last one of those folks is a resource. Lose one or two and it's no big thing, but waste too many and you're going to lose the game.

In inFamous, the civilians matter -- but they don't matter much. You can help them, but the rewards are minor. And thanks to that design decision, you'll focus on the role you want to play rather than the points you need to earn.

Choose to be a hero, and you can stop every five feet and heal someone who's wounded and dying on the sidewalk. You get a few experience points for every save, but that's just a "thank you"; knowing that you've saved hundreds of lives is the real reward. On the other hand, have you ever tied your ex's dog to the back of a bus? Or maybe grabbed the last beer in the fridge? If you're the villain-type, inFamous lets you wreak havoc on an already wrecked city, torturing the populace and even draining the last gasps of life from victims dying on the street. All these crimes will nudge your karma toward evil, but in the scheme of things, a few murders here and there don't add up to much -- and anyway, you'll quickly learn how hard it is to do good.

Maybe Spider-Man had time to catch baby carriages and save grandmas from falling taxis. But in inFamous, stray passers-by love to jump in the middle of a firefight, and who the hell has time to protect them? Plus, most of them are obnoxious. I talked to one gamer who tried to play nice, until he got trash-talk from one too many civilians -- so he walked up to the guy and knocked him across the street. Could Spider-Man get away with that?

Yes, he could -- if he wanted to. And nothing made me appreciate the masked webslinger like trying to follow his example, and failing in so many little ways. Don't get me wrong: this ain't Watchmen. The story crams 50 pounds of nonsense in a 5 pound bag, and the hero is just some guy with a squeaky messenger bag and a rechargeable battery for a brain. But the game puts its stubby little finger square on how it feels to be the ubermensch. Nobody can judge you, because nobody can stop you. And yes, all those little people matter -- but they only matter a little.


Rachael Webster (a.ka.a SG member PixelVixen707) is SG's Hit Play games columnist. A game lover and game blogger living in New York City, she also writes at PixelVixen707.com and tweets as PixelVixen707.

Morrissey and his legendary former band The Smiths continue to have a far-reaching impact on music and style, reaching artists and fans across international and genre boundaries alike. Some, such as San Antonio-based rock trio Girl in a Coma (sisters Nina and Phanie Diaz and Jenn Alva), who are second-gen... more

Morrissey and his legendary former band The Smiths continue to have a far-reaching impact on music and style, reaching artists and fans across international and genre boundaries alike. Some, such as San Antonio-based rock trio Girl in a Coma (sisters Nina and Phanie Diaz and Jenn Alva), who are second-gen fans, have paid the ultimate homage by naming their group after one of his songs - in this case, 1987's "Girlfriend in a Coma."

With a name like that, it's not a total surprise that this band was eventually able to meet Morrissey, but it's fairly remarkable that these rockers were hand-picked to tour with him. But that's not where the life of this charming band ends. Before that monumental moment happened, they had already been discovered by another living legend: Joan Jett, who signed the ladies to her own Blackheart Records and has released two of their albums, Both Before I'm Gone and the newest Trio B.C.

In an interview with SG, GIAC lead singer Nina Diaz, 21, talks about the band's multiple brushes with greatness, and how they've grown along the way.

TP: Joan Jett and her manager/producer Kenny Laguna produced two of the songs on Trio B.C. - do you feel like they were able to help you bring out a different side of your talent that you hadn't seen before?

ND: It was a great experience, and I think the songs came out well. I think they came out exactly how they should have at the time.

TP: When they told you that they wanted to sign you, everyone knows Joan Jett, but did you know about the Runaways or did you go back and listen to the band to learn about the music?

ND: I knew of the Runaways 'cause of Phanie. Everything Phanie listened to, I would kind of drop my ear into. We knew the Runaways and we definitely knew Joan Jett.

TP: How would you describe your growth on this album as compared to the first one?

ND: On the first record, I wrote the songs between 13-to-17, so there was kind of a lot of experiences and growing up going on. Now, on this album, two of the songs are older but the rest of them I wrote on the road. Now I'm 21, I'm able to actually go into the clubs and not have to wait outside. Before, when I had to wait outside, I'd just suffocate myself in the van and start working on stuff to show the girls. I'm proud of the writing, I think it's a change from Both Before I'm Gone.

TP: There are two major differences you're talking about, the age difference in the songs and also writing on the road from the perspective of someone who has "made it," so to speak. You didn't have a deal before and didn't necessarily know you would, so there's a lot of change, a lot of growth.

ND: Yeah, and when I was writing, a part of me was thinking that everybody has to like it now. And also that people know a bit about [me] now, and that sort of messed me up a little bit. But I had to just let all that go and say to myself that I've been doing this since I was 13. And when you let go, it's amazing what can happen.

TP: As a writer, you can second-guess yourself to the point of not writing anything!

ND: It's a horrible, horrible feeling. You want to rip your hair off and scream!

TP: I can see how that would be a pressure to think about how people like what you've already done, and you want to continue to please them.

ND: Yeah, well, people go through different phases of what they listen to, so you can't always get everybody. We are changing, and I hope people will continue to grow with us.

TP: Your videos are great and really unexpected. How did you manage to get [legendary transgender performer] Amanda Lepore in the "Road to Home" video?

ND: That's actually my favorite video out of all of the videos that we made. Amanda is beautiful and moving and it's so cool that she did the video. It was a really quick process and everyone was working together as a team. I was really happy about that.

TP: Whose idea was it?

ND: I have a fascination with transvestites and transgenders. I like the idea of it; it's beautiful to me.

TP: What was Amanda like?

ND: It was really last minute. We contacted her three days before the shoot and she said yes, she would do it. And she did a great job!

TP: You've played some gigs with Morrissey, and to be a band named after a Smiths song, that's got to be incredible. How did this happen?

ND: We were fans of the Smiths and Morrissey and we wanted to pay homage to them and call ourselves Girl in a Coma, but we never thought we'd ever get even close to seeing the guy. One of our past managers was friends with Boz Boorer, who is a guitarist with Morrissey. He listened to some of our cheap little demos and said, "Come to London, I'll make a demo for you guys." I dropped out of school my junior year, got my GED, and went to London. As soon as we landed from the plane, we were recording our Boz Boorer session. So then we toured on it and toured on it, and knew then that Morrissey knows of it because Boz showed him, like, "Hey, Morrissey, check this out. It's a band called Girl in a Coma!"

Then, when Morrissey happened to need an opening act in New York, we were there. We cancelled our show - hey, we're opening up for Morrissey, no problem! After that, they asked us to continue on the tour and go overseas and we accepted everything with open arms.

TP: Did you have much personal interaction with him?

ND: Yeah, he would pass by here and there. We would get really nervous, like, there's Morrissey! Sometimes I'd actually turn my face to the wall, it was kind of really funny. On the last show in Paris, he came into the room. We gave him a little gift and a thank you card and he brought champagne and sat down for a moment and had a conversation with us. I thought he was just going to drop it off, but he sat down and it was really cool.

TP: There's so much legend about him that some of us forget sometimes that he's actually just a guy, you know?

ND: Yeah, his fans are wonderful but some of them kind of cross the line a little bit. It's expected. But he's an amazing, awesome person.

TP: I'm one of the only people I know who actually got to see the Smiths in concerts.

ND: Really? Wow!

TP: Yeah, that shows my age, but it was one of my first shows ever, the year before they broke up.

ND: Oh wow! Congratulations on that!

TP: He's someone I would actually be frightened to interview, because I was always such a big fan. It's kind of like not wanting to know what Santa Claus is really like.

ND: Yeah! I thought I never really wanted to meet him because I didn't want the idea that I had of him to be different. But it was better than I could have ever expected. It was wonderful.

I was very sad to see Obama pass on my gay pick for the Supreme Court. I really wanted the Republicans to be forced to show their colors as they made homosexuality the main issue to keep someone off the bench. It didn’t happen. Fortunately, Obama went with a pick that is so politically shrewd it... more

I was very sad to see Obama pass on my gay pick for the Supreme Court. I really wanted the Republicans to be forced to show their colors as they made homosexuality the main issue to keep someone off the bench. It didn’t happen. Fortunately, Obama went with a pick that is so politically shrewd it is astounding: Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Turns out she’s not white. After the dust settles, the Democrats will have created a majority for many, many, many years. Why? Because Republicans can’t stop their racist nonsense from spewing forth out of their loud holes. By the time this nomination process is over, America’s Hispanic population will be done with the Republicans for a long, long time.

Immediately after the pick, the idiots went on the offensive. Rush Limbaugh, who is a shocking racist, declared Judge Sonia Sotomayor a racist. Rush is one of the leaders of the Republican Party and he is losing his shit over the Sotomayor pick.

Right. Racism should remain where it belongs – on AM radio. Next Newt Gingrich also joined the asshole party. He’s made statements to the press and has Twittered about Sotomayor.

Oooooo. This southern white racist seems to be upset with the Latina. And he follows it through to its natural conclusion.

Wow, what a weird thing to Tweet during a trip to Auschwitz. But, hey, stay focused and all that. Don’t feel weird Twittering about a Latina woman being racist while you are at the hellmouth of hatred, super white guy.

Naturally, Newt followed up with with an email to his minions that explained how Sotomayor nomination is “un-American.” Totally. That’s why George H. Bush nominated her to the bench. Of course, the racism charge stems from a quote taken out of context. Here’s the deeply offensive statement.

Oh no! She’s worse than the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan! What will white men do?!?! If you really want to know how the right wing is spinning this, take a look at the entire speech. Not at all what they are spinning it into.

But let’s take that quote out of context and accept it. How’d this guy make it on the bench?

What the fuck?!?! Racist son of a bitch! How dare he use his life to contaminate his views. How’s he on the bench?!?!

While most, but not all, of the Republican lawmakers in Congress are saying this nomination should not have anything to do with race, they are letting the attack dogs run wild. Tom Tancredo is running around freaking about Sotomayor being a member of La Raza, which he says is a Latino KKK. He mostly says that because he is retarded.



Um, yeah. Remember all those lynchings of white people La Raza pulled off in the west? Man, those were some dark days. And in the '50s, you couldn’t go a week without hearing a story about a group of Latinos dragging a white man behind a truck by a chain.

Tancredo – and my father – believe La Raza means “The Race.” It does not.

While I know they are completely incorrect and their attacks are insane, I’d like them to continue. And I’d like them to go on every news channel, radio station and talk show in America. Scream that message loud and often, idiots, because you are doing even more damage to your already unpopular party. If it continues at this pace, the damage will be permanent. By the time this is over, Latinos will flock to the Democratic Party in dramatic numbers.

They need to keep this up. It looks like nothing other than angry privileged white men attacking a woman because of her race. And the news networks will eat it up and continue putting these morons on the television because it’s conflict and conflict means ratings.

Oh, and there’s an added bonus. Republican on Republican violence. Not all conservatives are pleased about the attacks on Sotomayor. They can see them for what they are: The death of the Republican Party, which may not be able to resurrect itself from this for years.

That’s not how your side came into power. You guys rode the back of fear and hideous attacks. Your peeps are doing what they have always done. They literally know no other way. You’re just pack animals who have tasted blood and won’t stop until you’re put down.

I mean, look at this shit.

This dude has his own radio show.

Please. Keep. Going.

So, it should be all white men.

Sit back, pray for more racist nonsense and enjoy the show. It’s the end of any hope the Republican Party ever had at regaining control of Congress.

FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comedian. Check back each Tuesday and Friday for more from FearTheReaper

Vera Ramone King's book Poisoned Heart: I Married Dee Dee Ramone documents her 17-year marriage to the bassist and lead songwriter of seminal punk rockers the Ramones. In vivid and loving detail, she recounts the rise and demise of her lover and best friend, who succumbed to a heroin overdose in... more

Vera Ramone King's book Poisoned Heart: I Married Dee Dee Ramone documents her 17-year marriage to the bassist and lead songwriter of seminal punk rockers the Ramones. In vivid and loving detail, she recounts the rise and demise of her lover and best friend, who succumbed to a heroin overdose in 2002. She offers the untold story of how she continually kept him alive even amidst bouts of terrifying abuse from her husband, illuminating a vital link in the band's masterful and enduring legacy.

In a revealing interview from her home in South Florida, King spoke with SG about her book, the "Ramones curse," and her extraordinary life as a strong woman standing in the supportive shadows of a music icon. Without her, the history of the Ramones - so often portrayed as a staunchly masculine narrative - might have been forever altered.

Tamara Palmer: Your book is a total page-turner. I had a really hard time putting it down!

Vera Ramone King: Thank you! I wanted it to be straight and truthful and from the heart and honest, and I hope that that comes across. I really wanted the fans of Dee Dee especially, and all the Ramones fans, to know that there were so many other different sides to him besides leaving the legacy that he was this crazed, drug-addicted rock and roll punk person, you know? I wanted them to know that he had a lot of different, good qualities to him and that there was more to the man than just what people wrote about or want to remember him with.

TP: It must have been very therapeutic and healthy for you to tell your story as well?

VRK: It was. In the beginning, when I started writing it, I had some moments where I didn't know that I could continue because there were a lot of painful memories that were put out of my head, that I chose not to remember for so many years. But in the end, you know what? It was extremely therapeutic and I felt alleviated of all this stuff that I've kept inside me for so long, 'cause we parted on not the greatest of terms and we both left a lot of things unsaid to one another and unresolved.

I am remarried for a long time now and I discussed this with my present husband Kenny. I wanted to know how he felt about it, and he was extremely supportive. He said to me, "This will probably help you heal and just put this to rest, put this behind you." Without his support, I couldn't have done this. There's no way you can, 'cause you don't want to hurt someone else. But being that he gave me all the support and he told me just to do what I needed to do, he's a secure enough person within himself that he didn't feel threatened in any way as far as our relationship. There's no insecurity there. We've been together almost 19 years, for cryin' out loud!

TP: That's a long time.

VRK: I met him in 1990, a year after Dee Dee and I split, and we lived together for five years until my divorce was finalized in 1995. I just wanted to make sure that I knew the person that I was going to spend the rest of my life with, which is what it was with Dee Dee; I would be spending the rest of my life with him. And I don't take my vows lightly. It's a commitment to me. I don't think, well, if in a couple years it don't work out, so be it, we'll get a divorce. It's not like that for me. I take it very seriously. Divorce is not a thing that people want to go through. It's horrible.

TP: Sure, all the disentangling of emotions . . .

VRK: And finances. So I was hoping that my message was that there was more to this man than just what people know about. There have been other books written about the Ramones, but they've been by third parties, I should say, like Monte Melnick, the road manager, or Jim Bessman, who just wanted to do a book on the Ramones for the fans. But there's never been a book written by a woman or someone who actually lived with a Ramone on a day-to-day basis. I don't really write about the whole band. I'm basically talking about my experience with one man. I do mention the different guys in the band, of course, but I try not to get into that too deep.

TP: You're right that the written history of the Ramones outside of this is a very masculine history. You show that there were women behind the scenes, you in particular, and without you the band might not have ever . . .

VRK: Well, Dee Dee wrote the majority of the Ramones songs, and I strongly believe that - and I'm not flattering myself or anything like that, 'cause I'm not an ego person - he had a lot of issues and I don't think that he would have been alive past 1980 had I not been around. I think that I was really put into his life for a reason. He wouldn't have left behind these wonderful songs that they have, or the legacy that they have now that has continued for three generations. 'Cause I see little Maddox Jolie-Pitt wearing a Ramones T-shirt, I see Tom Cruise's daughter Bella, who's like 15 or 14, wearing a Ramones shirt, and I see 50-year-old people wearing 'em too, you know? It's just amazing that the Ramones legend has spanned generations.

TP: This was something I was going to bring up, because little kids love them some Ramones!

VRK: Where would you think that they would be familiar with this music? They weren't this popular when they were touring and making albums in the early '80s. Nobody would play them.

TP: There are only a few bands and artists who have had that kind of career after the fact. Tupac Shakur is a possible parallel.

VRK: Right, and that's what I wrote about. When they all started to approach that 50-year mark, they all just passed away within a year of each other and I thought it was somewhat uncanny that that had happened. I talk about the curse in the book obviously, and it makes you wonder if there is such a thing.

TP: There's never a definitive answer on something like that, but when you recall being spooked by someone putting down a curse on the band, and then everyone starts to die so close to each other so many years later, it has to make you wonder. The evidence is overwhelming, from what happened to all the guys, to your battle with brain tumors, to the murder of their former manager Linda Stein.

VRK: And just recently, in mid-January, Gary Kurfirst, their long-time manager, was on vacation - totally healthy, never had a heart problem, dropped dead. Just like that, and this happened just a few months ago and left everybody in shock. He was having such a good time, extended his vacation by a week and he died on his vacation. Yeah, with no history of medical problems.

TP: You were there when the curse was uttered.

VRK: Oh yeah, oh yeah.

TP: Did you not really think about it or believe it or give it any weight until later?

VRK: After that night it really freaked us all out. You know the kids from the Columbine, with those long leather coats, that kind of look? I mean, this is what this guy looked like, and he was clutching a Bible and rolling a cross around in his hand. This was like something out of a movie. And usually backstage at the back door where the band has to go through to get in their tour bus or van or whatever it is, there are usually fans that are waiting to have pictures signed or pictures taken with the band and this was like a totally different thing. It was pouring rain and there was this bizarre group of people standing there.

He had a whole little entourage of people behind him and they started denouncing [the band members], going up to each one of them individually and saying, "You must repent for your sins" and trying to denounce them and have them give in to God and give up this horrible way and their music. It was just so bizarre. We all were left so speechless after this when we got into the car. It left us with chills. After nobody responded to him, he just started cursing each and every one of them. I tried not to look, but he was cursing everybody that was there. We piled into the van and we were all dead quiet. I mean, you could hear a pin drop. And then finally, Dee Dee was like, "That guy gave me the creeps!" We were all really taken aback, we had never experienced anything like that before. People would always tell the band, "You're great, we loved the show," stuff like that. And this was in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was just so creepy. Creepy.

TP: It's not like the band was doing anything overtly sacrilegious.

VRK: Yeah, they weren't Satan worshippers or worshipping the devil in their music in any way, or writing their lyrics backwards to say, "Satan, you are" whatever. I could see if this was happening to some of the heavy metal, Satanic . . . I mean, look at Ozzy Osbourne!

TP: Exactly: Save it for Black Sabbath!

VRK: Yeah, even the name Black Sabbath! So we didn't really give much thought to [the curse] until they all reached that age and it was all like the magic number: 50. Dee Dee was two months short of his 50th birthday, Joey died on Easter morning, barely a month before his 50th birthday; and John was diagnosed with prostrate cancer on his 50th birthday. And, naturally, I got sick on my 50th birthday.

TP: You did? Oh, wow!

VRK: Yeah, and it was like a magic number, your time is up kind of thing.

TP: How is your health now?

VRK: I still have issues. When something like that happens to you, you don't just get off scot-free. I could get into it in depth, but I'm not going to bore you with that kind of stuff. Looking at me, my doctor calls me his miracle patient every time he sees me . . . I wasn't afraid of dying, it was just so damn painful. I lost my hearing, they told me I'd never get my hearing back, and I couldn't even just stand up to brush my teeth with an electric toothbrush. I was totally shot.

TP: This is something you bring up late in the book, and really give very little space to - almost shockingly so, like, "Oh, by the way, I had tumors in my brain, no biggie . . ."

VRK: I wanted to just mention it and that I had been through a lot. When I got diagnosed, they actually told me I had had it for at least 15-20 years. And I remember having headaches as far back as 1989 and going to all these doctors in New York and then giving me pills for headaches. Nothing helped me, painkillers, but nobody gave me a brain MRI and it must have been when [the tumors] started. So finally, down here, after three months of looking for cancer in different parts of my body, seven neurologists later, nobody wanted to touch it because of the delicate area it was in, I finally found a doctor/professor in Miami who was willing to do the surgery. I saw him at 4 o'clock on a Friday afternoon, I was his first patient Monday morning at 5 o'clock. It was a few days before Christmas and I told him that a doctor in Gainesville could do [surgery] just after Christmas, and he said, "Vera, you don't have a week." It was that bad. So that I even came out of it as good as I did, I feel like my life has a purpose and I didn't finish doing what I was supposed to do. I hope that this was a part of it, and that Dee Dee is proud of me.

TP: How could he not be? You're very fair and loving to him in this book.

VRK: It's a punk love story! We didn't break up because we no longer loved each other, there were other issues.

TP: Like fearing for your life?

VRK: I believe that, being that he went off his medications and wouldn't go back on them, if I would have stayed with him, I would have just ended up as another statistic and I would not be sitting here talking to you right now. So I had to make a choice and I didn't just lose a husband, I lost my best friend. When we broke up, it was really painful for both of us. He would still call me every day and we would talk and we'd cry. But he didn't want to go back on his medications and that was just my one requirement that I wanted, because otherwise he would have been too violent. I didn't want to end up like Nancy [Spungen] or anybody, you know?

TP: Why didn't he want to go back on his meds?

VRK: He had this in his head - if you ever saw him, he wasn't fat. There wasn't a fat inch on his body. He was convinced that it was making him fat, the medication. I didn't write about it in the book, but he ended up being bulimic and he just developed all these different issues. He wanted to go off the medicine, then he wanted to quit the band. Like I said, it wasn't that we stopped loving each other. But he just went off on a tangent and I was not feeling well and I couldn't cope with everything that was going on. I had to start letting go and taking care of myself. I wondered, is his illness rubbing off on me? Could it be catching? I really started to think that his illness was becoming my illness.

TP: How could it not get ingrained into you, when it's happening to your partner?

VRK: Maybe after all these years, it started to affect me. I was not feeling well and I had these headaches 24/7 and I would have to lay down, and he'd be like, "Are you laying down again? What are you laying there for?" When he wasn't feeling good, I had to deal with it, but the minute I didn't feel good, I was on my own. I wrote about it in the book, but whenever I got sick, he went ahead and had a good time. He would take advantage of me coming down with the flu because he knew I'd be bedridden and that gave him total rein to run wild. I knew that there was something wrong, but I didn't know what. Finally, they told me that I had to go to a psychiatrist, that they could find nothing wrong with me, but they never gave me a brain MRI. I went to a shrink and she put me on Prozac but I still had the headaches. It alleviated some of the depression of my divorce and trying to put the pieces back together. It was all I knew, and when you're trying to start over in your late 30s, it's tough. Especially doing it on your own. He just turned around and quit the band and left me with the finances up in the air. I had houses and cars and apartments and no job for the last 13 years. What was I going to put down on my resume, rock wife? Full-time rock wife for 13 years? That's not gonna cut it! I went through a really hard time and I had to do what I had to do, but I knew that for once I had to put myself first. And that's what I did.

TP: It saved your life in a couple of ways, because if he hadn't have done something to you, your tumors might have still gone undiagnosed and that could have got you.

VRK: If there were reality shows in the '80s like there are now, he would have given Ozzy a run for his money. What can I tell you? We lived a rock and roll soap opera every day. Every day! And when his addictions would subside, as far as taking drugs for any length of time, there would surface other addictions, whether it was tattoos or shopping. Everything was in excess. He could never just do things in moderation, and that's when things become a problem.

TP: That sounds like it would have been so hard on you, not leaving any time to decompress.

VRK: Well, I'm not portraying myself as a saint in any way, you know? We partied together.

TP: But you were still his lifeline, his support system.

VRK: I was, I had to be. I was his chauffeur, his personal manager, his everything.

TP: I don't think you try to portray yourself as saintly in the book. You're obviously not Mother Theresa.

VRK: No, and nor do I claim to be. Like I said, we partied and we did everything but I knew where to draw the line. I knew when to say, "Okay, let's go home now." Or, "I think that's enough now." You know, you don't party 'til you frickin' overdose, or you're foaming at the mouth. I don't know how old you are, but in the late '70s and all throughout the '80s, people did drugs recreationally. That didn't necessarily mean that you were a drug addict, but some people were. It's okay if you can keep it at that. I'm too old to be doing that kind of stuff, especially now. I try to live a pretty clean life. That's in my past. My favorite pastime was smoking weed, period. If I did a line here and there, big deal, to stay up and hang out or go to a new club or something, but it wasn't to constantly be looking for it and wanting it and needing it. That's a whole different thing.

TP: It sounds like Dee Dee's financial habit with drugs was at a rock star level before he became famous.

VRK: Well, absolutely. No one can possibly say that I married him for his money, okay? There was no money. I will swear to this on a Bible: We lived on $10 a day per diem and $175 a week for his paycheck, and he spent most of it. I'd eat a fruit salad a day and what was left over went for cigarettes or maybe a Quaalude or whatever, some weed. We weren't rich by any means, and then when we did start to have a little bit of money and could afford a better life, he had to have the best weed around. He had to have the best of everything. He put out a solo album, Standing in the Spotlight, and the very last song at the end is called "I Want What I Want When I Want It." And he lived by that. That was his motto, it should have been on his tombstone. But he had a lot of great qualities as well and I hope that comes through in the book. He had a big heart, he was very giving, he loved to make people happy. When Stiv Bators came and wanted to borrow one of his knives, because he collected them and had about 200 at one point, he was like, "Give it to him," even though it was one of his favorites. And when Sid [Vicious] saw Stiv's [knife], he had to go to 42nd Street and buy the same knife. And that was the same knife that was used to kill Nancy. I don't know that he actually committed that crime; I heard that it was a drug deal gone bad, and that somebody else used the knife to stab Nancy while Sid was passed out. Because Sid was really a very sweet soul; he didn't have a mean bone in his body. Just because he called himself Sid Vicious, he wasn't vicious.

TP: The legend of how somebody like that is portrayed is often so far from the reality.

VRK: You only know what you read, but when you know the people that were actually involved - we were invited there that night and my intuition told me, don't go. Something just told me, don't go. First of all, I knew that going to the Chelsea meant that Dee Dee would end up shooting heroin with Sid at some point, and I didn't need to get into a shouting, screaming match with Nancy either, because she could be a handful. Dee Dee was disappointed but he listened to me and thank God he did because I'm glad we had no part of that. When we heard about it from people in New York calling us up, Dee Dee and I just looked at ourselves and I said, "I told you so." Something just told me, do not go.

The surprising success of last year's Rambo proved that today's theatrical audience is being underserved when it comes to neck-crunchings, arrow-piercings, and exploding heads, which is why for the last few months Sylvester Stallone has been deeply ensconced filming The Expendables. A deliberately... more

The surprising success of last year's Rambo proved that today's theatrical audience is being underserved when it comes to neck-crunchings, arrow-piercings, and exploding heads, which is why for the last few months Sylvester Stallone has been deeply ensconced filming The Expendables. A deliberately old-school action extravaganza with a seventy million-dollar budget, the film boasts an all-star roster of action notables that includes modern stars like Jet Li and Jason Statham as well as classic action men such as Stallone and Schwarzenegger (Jean-Claude Van Damme famously refused a role in the film after claiming Stallone insulted him during negotiations).

On board as the film's villain is another vintage action lead: blonde Swedish giant Dolph Lundgren, who first came to prominence as the unstoppable Soviet squaring off against Stallone in 1985's seminal study of Cold War relations, Rocky IV. That film was, of course, such a mega-success that Lundgren followed up with a flurry of big-budget actioners of his own such as Red Scorpion, Masters of the Universe, and Roland Emmerich's vastly underrated Universal Soldier.

As they tend to do, the cultural winds eventually shifted and the bodybuilder-centric, save-the-girl style of action that dominated in the '80s and early '90s gave way to the more fantastical, comic-oriented fare that now rules the box-office. To keep the rent paid, Lundgren and other roundhouse-kicking luminaries of his era moved to the field of direct-to-DVD movies, where they could crank out modestly-scaled (often simplistic) retreads of their classics for a devoted fan base eager to cough up a few bucks for them.

Although he has spit out some two dozen of these films over the last several years, Lundgren remains not only a fan favorite but also a man of ambition who increasingly writes and directs his own material and strives to maintain his foothold in the world of big-budget, theatrically-released film. While recently making the rounds for his latest film, Direct Contact, Lundgren took the time to call up SuicideGirls for a chat.


Ryan Stewart: Sorry to read about your recent home invasion. The paper said that the crooks recognized you in family photos around the house?

Dolph Lundgren: Yeah, it was actually a ways back. I don't know how it got to the press so late, but it was in January. It's more or less true. We've always managed to be very safe, but now I've got armed guards and the whole nine yards, cameras everywhere. And the burglars did recognize me -- my wife told me so.

RS: Have you ever had to defend yourself in real life?

DL: Hmmm...no. I used to work a door in New York when I was a kid, but I'm a guy who has been either lucky or smart enough not to get into fights. Except in the ring, of course!

RS: When you perform your fight scenes in movies, is it more important to you that it look good or that nobody get too bruised up?

DL: It's more important that the fights look good. You're always going to get a little bit bruised up. It's just a matter of not wanting to get any kind of permanent injuries. You won't have to go to the hospital or anything like that if you're lucky, but usually in a film, especially in a bigger action movie, somebody always gets a little bit hurt. That's just the way it is. I don't remember getting banged up on this movie, but it all kind of blends together unless you have a big injury. I had an injury to my foot from a motorcycle thing that happened on another film I did. A Harley fell on my foot, and I had that injury with me when I came to this picture and I think I did something else to it during one of the fight scenes. But I didn't have to take any stitches or anything like that, so it was pretty good.

RS: With a project like Direct Contact, what can you do to make it your own? Do you choose your own weapons?

DL: It depends on what it is. This is a film where I knew [writer] Les Weldon and [writer/director] Danny Lerner very well and they asked me about the script a little bit and we made a couple of changes to it. And yeah, with the weapons you can usually pick your own, or at least you usually have a say, but it depends on the director. For instance, Sly Stallone is very detail-oriented, and he may have his mind set on something and he'll just present it to you and usually it's very good, so you don't even have to worry about it. Some directors will just more or less give the actor their choice. But usually, with fight scenes the fight coordinator will work it out and then you'll look at it and make some changes to it to make it your own. So, it depends a little bit. Obviously, when I direct myself, the whole thing is my vision.

RS: Is there a martial arts discipline that deals with gunplay? How to grab a gun away from someone?

DL: Not necessarily the original martial arts, because they were created before there were those weapons. It's usually unarmed combat, but there is stuff with swordplay and with sticks and stuff like that. But that's more of a military technique, like the Green Berets training, with a mix of jujitsu or special forces training. They deal with gun disarming, which is really dicey of course. It's easy to teach, cause if some maniac's got a gun and his finger is on the trigger and he's about to blow you away, you'll realize that you're not going to do that much, unless you totally have to, if the guy is imbalanced or something. If it's a certain caliber weapon, if you can assert that, you can probably take a shot to the guts and then they'll put him down and you can call the doctor. But if you get shot in the head...[laughs] It does happen, I suppose, that people disarm gunmen, but not that often in real life.

RS: Why do you think these DTV action movies are still focused on '80s style action? They haven't really embraced the shift towards superheroes and comics.

DL: That's a really interesting question. I think part of it is cost-oriented, you know? It's cost-related, because to do any superhero movie, by definition, you're gonna have somebody be flying through buildings and you have to make that look good. Those effects mean extra money. There are always ways you can try to make your film feel bigger, though not necessarily a superhero film. I don't know if the superhero trend is one that's going to last another ten years or twenty years. It's only been going on for about ten years, or at least that's when it's gone nuts. As far as people flying between buildings, I don't think De Niro's gong to be doing that anytime soon, but you never know.

Stallone didn't look bad flying between buildings and I've kind of almost done it. I guess it's just something that the young generation has a dream of doing, things like that. I guess it could be a trend, but a movie like The Expendables has a seventy million-dollar budget and it's an old-school, kick-ass action movie where people are fighting with knives and shooting at each other, breaking necks and shit like that. While there are some airplane sequences and a bit of chases, it's still very down to earth in a way. So, while these things do go in cycles, I think a lot of it is cost-related.

RS: So you don't want credit for being ahead of the curve by playing He-Man?

DL: [laughs] Well, they had Superman before and I think maybe Batman came before He-Man, I can't remember. But it's always a bit weird to be doing "flying through the air" stuff. I think when you come from a fighting background, and I've done martial arts, then you can do it but you feel a bit silly. Or I do, anyway. But no, I didn't know that was coming. I didn't expect that every superhero would come to life. Some of them have been making a lot of money, so obviously there's a huge audience for them.

RS: I noticed that Direct Contact and your next movie, Command Performance, both have a Russian angle. I'm sure you built a great Russian fan base with Rocky IV. Are you trying to retain them?

DL: Well, I think that's a little bit of a coincidence because Les Weldon and Danny Lerner developed Direct Contact and they are based out of Bulgaria, that's where the studio is. They probably wanted to include an Eastern European element because it's cheaper to shoot. You don't have to make it look like New York City or Santa Monica Blvd. or something like that. Even though people do try, usually with not very good results.

While I was shooting Direct Contact I was prepping the other one and, yeah, they both have a Russian element. You're right in saying that I do have a big Russian fan base, even though I don't even play a Russian in Command Performance, I play an American, believe it or not. The Russian thing is something I think about a lot, and it does end up in my movies. I kind of like Russia -- there's something mysterious about it.

RS: You know what I always found interesting about Rocky IV? How futuristic it is. Drago has this computerized training station and Rocky has an artificially intelligent robot. Where'd he get that?

DL: [laughs] It's very clever. He gave the robot to Paulie. I remember he says to it, "Come on, honey, get me some coffee!" I should ask Stallone where he got it. It was ahead of its time in a lot of things, that movie. The equipment we used was very high-tech for the time. Some of those machines were being developed for astronauts, they didn't even have them available in those days. These days you see them in every gym, but back then it was just weights and maybe a Nautilus machine. They didn't have any of the stuff we had in that film. It was ahead of its time.

RS: Are you wrapped on The Expendables?

DL: No, I'm still working. We're shooting all through June. We started in Brazil and that was back when I was still shooting Icarus, which was another movie that I directed. It's a long shoot and it's a pretty big movie. It's certainly the biggest film I've ever been in and I think it's the biggest film Stallone's ever been in. That I can remember, anyway, and he's the one directing it, which is cool. He's kind of a role model for people -- if you just keep going for long enough, people will stop having bad things to say about you and then it's all good.

RS: How's the mix on the set? With all those action stars around there must be some dick-measuring.

DL: It's a good mix. Stallone is Stallone, you know? Nobody messes with him. He's the writer and director and star. Everybody is really respectful of him, because they know that it's because of him that they are there. Also, he's working his ass off every day and night and it's a very tight crew -- these people are surprisingly nice. He has the best fight coordinators in the world on this film and the best stunt and car guys too. Stallone is Stallone and there's only one of him. I don't think anybody has starred in more big action movies than him. I thought about that yesterday, when he was giving me some direction on how to grip the steering wheel during a car chase. He's done more than me and whenever he wants to give me some advice, that's great because I can give that advice to other people.

RS: You just did another Universal Soldier movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Did you ask him about why he turned down Sly's offer?

DL: I didn't, actually. I don't know what happened. I didn't ask him, but I don't think it was a good idea. Who knows, though. With all these stories floating around you just don't know. And I didn't ask Sly about it either.

RS: And Steven Seagal never got a call, apparently. Is he just too much of an oddball? No one wants him around?

DL: No, I think it's just all up to Stallone. I think he could still be in it, if there was something for him. There's still some time here, and I'm actually hearing some other names being mentioned here and there, but we'll see. I can't tell you anything about who, but you know the Governator might be in there, we'll have to see how that goes. But I really think that anybody who asks, they would say yes.

RS: You mentioned role models earlier. You've said before that Clint Eastwood is yours -- why?

DL: Because he was a guy that was underestimated through half of his career, as a cowboy with reactionary or fascist views. At least that was the case in Europe, where they boycotted his movies. People thought he was just some dumb guy who carried a gun, but then people started looking back and realizing that he directed some really cool movies. He was about sixty-one years old when Unforgiven came out and that's when everybody said "Hey, this guy is a good director," you know?

Then his career really took off and instead of being remembered as a cowboy, he's going to be remembered as one of the greatest directors that America has produced. And he's still a screen icon, which is terrific. Stallone is a bit like that, too. People don't have anything negative to say about him anymore. They've said everything already and now it's like, well, shit. You know, I've started directing and I've directed five movies already, but still, Clint Eastwood was my age in 1981, so I have a ways to go!


Direct Contact is available on DVD and Blu-Ray formats in stores everywhere on June 2.