If You Didn’t Get Down During Spit It Out, Did You Even Slipknot, Bruh?

November 7, 2021

It’s been two days since Knotfest Los Angeles 2021 and my body is still sore. It shouldn’t be. I enjoyed the concert from the cushy comfort of Sec FLST9 Row C Seat 5, the premium sitting by the stage. Fuck. It sucks getting old.

When my husband asked me about my overall experience at the festival—I went alone, by the way—my answer to him was a solid 7/10 as the bands were great but the venue wasn’t. Even though it was my first time at the Banc of California Stadium I had high expectations for it, but at the end of the day the venue’s offenses—not gonna go into detail—were harmless and inconsequential, infuriating yes, but at least us Maggots were safe and had the chance of enjoying the show all night long.

Just like clockwork, Slipknot started their hour and a half set at 9:20pm on the glorious and cold Friday night of November 5th, 2021. That time and date will go down in my personal history as the moment part of my soul was given back to me after one year and eight months of pandemic paranoia; California’s covid craziness put my lifestyle on hold and took hostage part of my identity, who was I without the joy of freedom, of people? So here’s my vaccination card. Let’s fucking do this!

Slipknot gave us an amazing performance. We were their last stop in their 2021 US Tour (29 shows in seven weeks) but you would have thought we were their first, they all had so much energy and holy shit how do they do it!? I pray to god I have a fraction of their stamina when I hit my fifties and that I am still headbanging by then.

Their setlist consisted of their greatest hits plus their new single, The Chapeltown Rag, and even though I loved it all I was hoping they played some of my favorites, but I guess there will be another time to watch them perform in person the masterpiece that is Eyeless, Sulfur, Dead Memories, Custer, and Solway Firth. Also, did I mention that the concert was streamed live all over the world? I hope they end up releasing the pro-shot recording via download or dvd so I can add it to my Slipknot collection.

If I had to choose one moment as the most especial of the entire evening I would have to say it was when we all got down during Spit It Out – what a blast it was! When I realized what was going to happen I took out my phone and started recording. Duuude, I fucking did it, I am now proudly—and without any question or doubt—an Official Maggot!

Here’s to more music, more concerts, more culture, more arts, more people, more us! See you around.

In Love and Fear,

-Marath

P.S. If you would like to watch the full pro-shot live stream of the song Spit It Out, go here and enjoy it while it lasts ;)

[February 17, 2022 EDIT: Slipknot released today the official music video for their new single The Chapeltown Rag which consisted of live footage from their 2021 US Tour and for a couple of seconds (00:45 mark) you can sort of see my left arm. Listen, I fully acknowledge it is so dumb for me to even point it out but somehow it feels… I don’t know… mmmh… important at some very, very small level? All I know is that I am grateful that the girl next to me was able to capture the attention of the band’s film crew while she was headbanging so I could have this tiny moment of perpetual happiness.]

Yes to YAZ! – The Columnist (2019)

November 5, 2021

Friend! How are you! I hope this last month treated you well and that you find yourself happy and healthy today. I have to tell you I am SO EXCITED that I could simultaneously break into a celebratory dance and throw up right now, you see, in a few hours I head to Knotfest Los Angeles 2021 and ERMAHGERD!! AAH!! Fucking Slipknot man, I cannot WAAAAAAAIT!!

*takes a few deep breaths*

Where was I? Right. In order to center myself a little bit since I didn’t know what to do with all the nervous/exciting energy flowing through my head for the entire morning—took the day off from work—I decided to stop by and tell you all about a movie that has been on my mind for a while now. Enter The Columnist (2019) from the Netherlands whose original title is “Kuthoer” which translates from Dutch into English as “Cunt-Whore” but don’t worry too much about the vulgar insult, it only refers to the many words our main character, Femke Boot, gets called online by the trolls of her newspaper column, plus, the term also has to do with the country’s freedom of speech, as in you can say absolutely anything publicly simply because you can, you cunt-whore.

Before I begin listing my favorite things about The Columnist, I believe it is important I tell you I actively use this film as a palate cleanser of sorts every time I watch a bad Horror movie, what do I mean by that? Well, I am not going to name names but oh lord, since there’s a lot of bottom of the barrel type productions out there cashing in on the Horror genre and who don’t give a damn about giving us quality—yet they give lots of damns about investing in online marketing to get those views up and running—I too sometimes fall pray of their sneaky tactics and end up blindsided by their mediocrity, wasting precious hours of my time on their trash… thus my trying to undo the ‘cinematic damage’ by re-watching top quality film-making on my own terms, even if it means investing precious additional hours of my time to remind me that Horror is awesome and this is why I love it.

Without further ado, here’s my top five Yes to YAZ! list of the reasons why I believe The Columnist is such a brilliant film:

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

5. Overwhelmed by online comments: Femke is a writer with a different point of view and she gets eaten alive by those opposing her. What were those specific points of view? We, as the movie audience, never end up knowing but oh surprise, that was the point, one can disagree with stuff but it doesn’t really matter what that stuff is, all that does is that you and I have to treat each other with respect. Okay to disagree? Yes. Okay to attack for disagreeing? No. The attack on Femke was such that it consumed her until she broke because of it, and so then she had no choice but to turn the tables.

4. The Victims: Femke was attacked by several internet trolls, attacked so publicly, so ferociously humiliated by violent words online, just online, nothing but online. Sticks and stones, right? Well, not for Femke. When Femke discovered that her own neighbor was trolling her too she killed him on the spot, as simple as that, and so her revenge had officially started. Femke proceeded to find the home addresses of each of her trolls and went on to killing them in the comfort of their own home, privately, without an audience unlike them fools.

3. Quitting the internet: Killing in the name of freedom of speech became a drug for Femke, but just like with any drug it turned into a real problem and her homicidal addiction almost killed her, well, that and she also missed a very important event with her daughter because of it which caused her to reevaluate her priorities. Internet trolls be damned! Internet be damned! Online life be damned!

2. Relapsing: And just like with any addiction, there was the expected relapse. Femke was doing so well, her book got finally published and on the day of the release party she could not help the craving and used her boyfriend’s smartphone to look at the comments (never read the comments!) and oh shit, there he was, the big-headed troll, the king of them all, now she knew who he was and where he lived and she saw nothing but red. As it turned out, the bad guy was just a random young dude, he was kind of sad, really, a total loser, still living with his parents, stuck in his room playing video games, having no real life, I mean, until Femke met him and *BOOM* no real, real life anymore after that lol.

1. The Book: The best moment in the movie for me was when Femke walked into her book release party wearing all white, covered in the blood of her enemies, with not a care in the world. The struggle had ended and it was great, the book was also done and it was also great. She resembled her book cover, she was her book, she was her story, she was Femke Boot. Hear, hear!

In Love and Fear,

-Marath

Jerry’s Swan Song: STEPFATHER II (1989)

October 10, 2021

Let me begin by saying I regard myself as a good person, but oh my god, am I glad this woman is dead!

Hi, hello there! How are you? How is everything? You good? Me? I cannot complain at all, this past month was super chill due to my making the conscious decision of not relying so much on technology and the internet. Was it a perfect experiment? No, it was not, but at least it was a nice wake-up call and got it out of my system. Mmmh, what else? I went to see Scream (1996) on the big screen and it was as amazing as any horror fan would have expected it. Mmmh, what else, what else? Next month I go to my first post-covid concert and I am ready for it, a little nervous too because it is a festival (Knotfest Los Angeles 2021) with thousands of people. Enough messing around, we are here for a reason so let’s talk horror movies, shall we?

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

A few posts ago I shared with you how much I enjoyed watching The Stepfather (1987) because it gave us insight into the reasoning behind the bad guy’s actions, well, needless to say I was both excited and afraid for part two because, yes, please give me more Jerry Blake, but also no, please do not ruin the perfection that was part one. My final verdict after watching Stepfather II: Make Room for Daddy (1989) was 3.5/10 as it had good intentions with expanding the tormented villain’s journey, but there were several instances where the story did not land in the realm of possibility so it took me out of the very real situation that was a middle-aged man trying to infiltrate himself into a broken home to fulfill a yearning for belonging to a loving [and picture-perfect] family.

Even though I would not recommend watching part two if you truly enjoyed part one, I decided to talk about it here with you because the movie still had a few cool things plus a new character—the nosy woman friend—whose well-deserved death was so satisfying to watch, like, it actually made me happy (!?) which was awesome in my opinion (I’m a good person, I swear).

Part one ended with a defeated and badly wounded Jerry, with his plans of “ending” his relationship with the mother and daughter from Washington State foiled. Part two started with Jerry locked up in a mental institution for the criminally insane. As it was expected of him, he adapted quickly to his new role and surroundings, was the perfect inmate/patient, and gained the trust of his new psychiatrist which of course allowed him to get, no, scratch that, take what he wanted back… his freedom.

So he escapes out of the prison/hospital, kills when he needs anything of value, makes his way down to Southern California, changes his appearance, rents a home in an elegant neighborhood, decides to make a living as a family therapist (replicates his deceased doctor’s mannerisms), and overall moves on with his life.

And since Jerry cannot be a happy Jerry without a partner, he does the whole video dating thing (gotta love the 80’s!) and the female options utterly disappoint him, nay, disgust him? What can I say, I myself felt bad for the ladies as they showed up, one by one, on the vhs tape because I could tell right away that none of them were Jerry material as they were all imperfect. Luckily for Jerry, the perfect woman was right there at his fingertips, living next door to him and attending his group therapy (did I say she was also the realtor who helped him lease the house, and who happened to be separated from her husband?), her name was Carol Grayland and did not stand a chance against his charm.

Beautiful and successful Carol Grayland had a young son, Todd Grayland, and he gave Jerry the opportunity to practice his all-American fatherly values and, quite honestly, I was there for it as it was nice seeing Jerry being the normal person we know and love.

Now, things would have stayed great with Jerry’s new bride-to-be & future stepson, and with his enviable home & new private practice (do I really need to use quotation marks on that last part?), had it not been for the nosy woman friend whose name is not important at this time. Needless to say, when Jerry identified her as a threat he got rid of her, however, it ended up being too late as she had already planted the seed of suspicion in Carol’s head. Everything was ruined. Sigh.

Also, one of the many things that annoyed me about her was that she was a disgrace to the U.S. Postal Service as she misused her privileges as a public servant (worked as a mail carrier) to go over Jerry’s mail and stick her nose where it didn’t belong. [Side note: The character must have reminded me of someone in my real life because she really did upset me, so I guess the question from me to me is, who do I know who was equal parts nosy and negligent at her job and who had it in for me? Damn, this thought is going to keep me up all night.]

Anyway, let’s pretend that the nosy woman friend never existed and that our beloved Jerry actually ended up marrying Carol and lived happily ever after (I said let’s pretend, damn it!):

In Love and Fear,

-Marath