Despite new music and tour, nothing is too solid with Concrete Blonde

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Just prior to Concrete Blonde‘s tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its landmark Bloodletting album two years ago, I spoke to Johnette Napolitano for accessAtlanta (which you can read right here). That was actually my second time interviewing Napolitano and both experiences have lead me to the conclusion that it’s hard to keep up with her creative energy. For Concrete Blonde fans, that’s a good thing considering that the band recently released a white vinyl single for two new songs: “Rosalie” and “I Know the Ghost.” And after touring the world over the past couple of years, the band (rounded out by guitarist James Mankey and drummer Gabriel Ramirez) is currently on an East Coast tour. In the midst of that tour, Napolitano takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the possibility of a new Concrete Blonde album and her various other music projects.

I talked to you a couple of years ago just before your first rehearsal for the Bloodletting anniversary tour. Now you’re on tour again and have a new vinyl single, which is something you may not have anticipated last time we spoke. How did the new music and tour come about?

It just seems to be the right thing to do. We did that seven-inch single on white vinyl, which was fun to do. I don’t know how that idea really came about. It just seemed like the right thing to do. At my day job, that’s what I used to do is get masters to the plant to get them made into stampers and all that. That was my job, so I know a lot about vinyl and I just thought it would be fun to make a single. Obviously you can download anything digitally, but it was really fun. We took it out of the box and just went, “Oh, this is really cool.” It’s like it used to feel, that excitement when we made our first record. I think for Gabriel it was really cool because that’s how this band started was on vinyl. We’re excited about it and people apparently want us to play. That’s nothing that I take for granted. There are waves, especially in this fabulous entertainment industry we’re in, where trends come and go and things ebb and flow. The last thing you want to do is get out there and think everything’s cool and have six people show up.

Since that Bloodletting tour, we headlined a festival in China last year, which was a really amazing experience for all of us. We’ve been to South America a couple of times. As a matter of fact, we have to go back there in March or April because two days before a Brazilian festival I fell off one of my horses and broke four ribs and four vertebrae, so we’re going to make that up. Most of our touring in the last few years has been foreign. The States are a difficult place to work, as anybody in this business will tell you, because it’s like five different countries in one. You may do well New York, but nobody in Mississippi gives a shit, or vice versa. It’s really painstaking to make sure you’re connected in the right places and doing the right things to make sure people come because all you’ve got to do is one bad tour and nobody will come again.

The two songs on this seven-inch are stylistically very different from each other. One is very punk rock while the other is almost country…

Much like our first record.

Exactly. Are those the only two new songs you’ve been working on or do you have other new stuff that might be released soon?

I do. I always have a million half-finished things laying around. I’m my hardest critic and a song really has to earn its place before being immortalized. I love both of those songs. “Rosalie” just came to me in one piece while I was sitting on the porch of my cabin in Joshua Tree. It just blew in with the wind. It was just perfect. When that happens, all you’ve got to do is catch it. And with “I Know the Ghost,” “The Ghost” was a poem I wrote for a book called Rough Mix, which we have on sale, and I really liked it and loved the idea of setting it to music somehow. I also wanted to do something that we didn’t have to take that seriously; just a good old-fashioned West Coast punk feel because our roots are in West Coast punk. That’s when everybody started making their own records. That was a big deal and everybody was doing the DIY thing big time back then. That’s when Black Flag’s first record came out and Agent Orange and all that. Brett [Gurewitz] started Epitaph with a seven-inch single from Bad Religion, which both Jim and I worked on. But everybody was doing that then, so it makes sense. And on a very basic level, the sound of vinyl sounds good with certain stuff. Country music on vinyl just sounds so pure and right; and punk on vinyl sounds pure a right because there was a lot of that going on on vinyl. Now they have plug-ins to simulate the sound of vinyl if you record digitally.

The book is another thing you mentioned last time we talked. I’m glad to see that it’s out now.

Oh, yeah. It’s steadily selling on Amazon, which is really all I wanted to do. I want it to be a series and I’ve started another one on this tour. There are so many songs that it’s basically explaining what some of the songs are about. Then it has miscellaneous drawings, poems and things that don’t seem to fit anywhere else. I also did a CD series called Sketchbook and I only do 1,000 of each, then they’re gone. It gives me incentive to do another one because I have a loyal base of people who want every one I do. That’s really cool. I like that sort of approach. It’s not just throwing stuff out there for mass consumption; it’s custom little things for people who want them. People do appreciate that they have something special that is not going to be there once it’s gone.

You always seem to be working on musical projects with various other musicians. What else do you have in the works right now?

I’m still working with David J and David is all over the map. We’re working on a project called Tres Vampires with a DJ named Shok out of L.A. We’ve got three tracks down, only one mixed, and a video that really needs some re-editing. It’s hard to keep up with David J. He’s one of the most driven artists I’ve ever known. He really is off the planet and I’m a big fan.

You were also working with a flamenco group in New Orleans called Ven Pa’Ca and talking about opening your own flamenco club there. Did that ever happen?

I spent a lot of time down in New Orleans after my dad died and opening a place down there was definitely not as simple as I thought it was going to be. New Orleans is a scary place if they don’t want you there. I was at the airport and two big white men came to the bar where I was sitting and said, “Can we join you?” I said, “No,” but they sat down anyway. I was pretty much told that it wasn’t a good idea for me to be opening anything down there. It was pretty scary. I’d heard that New Orleans is no place to fuck with, but I don’t know who they think I am or whether they didn’t dig what I was doing. I had rented Preservation Hall for one day and shot flamenco with Leticia from Ven Pa’Ca. We did a version of “Mexican Moon” and it was really cool because it made sense for me to have flamenco there. But that’s not what the place really is about. New Orleans really doesn’t appreciate you deviating from what they want to go down, basically. That really did freak me out because they were just like, “We’ll bury you down here.” It was very creepy. I don’t know if they thought I was related to Janet Napolitano or what. It was really strange, so I kind of put that idea to the side because I think playing down there with the big boys is not the easiest thing in the world to do.

You mentioned that you’ve been working on other new songs. Does that mean we might see a new Concrete Blonde album in the near future?

Everybody keeps asking me that, but I’m afraid to make that commitment with the band, to tell you the truth. We have a relationship that is difficult sometimes, like anyone else who’s been together for so many years. It’s really important that nobody get too comfortable. That’s why I got pissed off at the band in the first place because everybody got really comfortable and everybody started taking things for granted. I like that we’re doing this, I like that there’s a single and there is new music, but I know I’ll never again in my life go out and tour for seven months at a time like we used to do in the old days. As a matter of fact, what has been the main factor in the last couple of years for me is I don’t like to leave home for more than a week out of the month. It throws me off balance and I really need to be home because I’ve got goats and horses and all that. But it’s not practical to do that. On the East Coast we’ve got to do it for two weeks to make it work, but it’s hard for me to be gone for that long. It’s hard on personal relationships and your life and it’s not worth it. To keep that balance is the most important thing for me and if it takes doing things in little spurts so everybody keeps it together and stays nice to each other, that’s great. The minute it’s not fun, there are a million other jobs to do that pay more.

As we just talked about, you also do various other musical projects with other people. So you seem to stay busy even when you’re not working with Concrete Blonde. Are you working on any other new musical projects?

I am pleased to be working with Billy Howerdel on the new Ashes Divide record. I just spent a couple of days not too long ago doing some heavy duty writing with Billy, which is always intense, but a total pleasure. It’s a beautiful record; I’m really pleased. I just love Billy Howerdel. He’s a great guy and I love his family. I’m just envious of him because he has a beautiful wife, beautiful kids, he makes beautiful music and he makes amazing food. That motherfucker cooks like an angel, so anytime you work with Billy you know you’re going to get fed really well.

Kickboxer Gary Daniels goes toe-to-toe with Peter Weller in “Forced to Fight”

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After an accomplished kickboxing and karate career, Gary Daniels made the transition into acting in the late 80s. Since then, Daniels has been the lead in numerous B movies and performed alongside better-known action stars like Jackie Chan, Dolph Lundgren and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Daniels biggest mainstream exposure came in 2010 when he was part of the ensemble cast of Sylvester Stallone‘s The Expendables. But with the Dec. 18 release of Forced to Fight, Daniels gets the leading role again alongside the original RoboCop, Peter Weller (playing a crime lord villainously similar to the corrupt cop he played on Dexter). In the film, Daniels plays a retired fighter who has no choice but to get back into the underground fight scene in order to pay of his brother’s debt. With Forced to Fight now available in DVD, Blu-ray and digital download, Daniels talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about making this film and his career goals going forward.

You made the transition from kickboxing to acting many years ago…

I attempted to. I’m still working on that.

But with Forced to Fight you’re also the fight choreographer. Have you been a fight choreographer on many of your previous films?

I’ve actually choreographed a lot of fights in a lot of the films that I’ve done. It’s something I like to do, but unfortunately to really get your vision for a fight scene on film not only do you have to choreograph it, you have to direct it, choose the right lenses for the camera, get the right camera angles and get into the editing room to edit the fight. I choreograph the fights, but I don’t get a say on the direction or in the editing room. So very rarely do I ever get my vision.

How close would you say the fight scenes in Forced to Fight came to what you had envisioned them to be?

The problem with Forced to Fight was I wasn’t the original choreographer. Before I went to Romania to shoot the film, I asked if they already had a fight choreographer and they told me they had a local guy in Romania doing it. So when I went out there I hadn’t done any prep for any kind of fight scenes, I hadn’t done any prep on who I’d be fighting. That’s what you normally do is you prep the fights in advance before you actually get to the set. But once I got to Romania, about two or three days before the actual shooting, I looked at what the local choreographer had done and it was very substandard to what I was expecting, and what I expect of myself. So I had to re-choreograph, from scratch, all of the fights and I only had a couple of days. There’s, like, 15 fights in that film and each of them has to have a story in regards to where they fit in the film and where the characters are at emotionally in the film. Another problem was that the guys I had to fight were not film fighters. These guys were real kickboxers, real wrestlers, a couple of gangsters. One guy was 6’9″ – lovely fellow – and this guy had bullet wounds all up his arm because he had been in a shoot-out with the police when his brother was being killed. These are the kind of guys they brought me to fight. So not only was I trying to choreograph the fights, I was trying to teach these guys how to movie fight. It was a very difficult challenge.

So when you ask me how much of my vision did I actually get, if I had been working with real film fighters it would have been a lot better. When you do a film fight, it’s like doing a dance with a partner – you have to work in tandem with each other. One gives, one takes, one pushes, the other one pulls, you give each other the right distance. So when you work with proper movie fighters and stuntmen, they understand this. But when you’re working with real fighters, it’s a difficult concept for them because they’re used to winning and disrupting rhythm. In a real fight you’d disrupt your opponents rhythm, not work with it. I’m not going to say it’s the best fights I’ve done, but I think with the time we had and what we had to work with we did a pretty good job. If I had to give you a percentage, I’d say it would be maybe 40-50 percent of what I’d have like to have seen.

In many of your films, your character is based largely on your interaction with the bigger stars of each film like Jackie Chan, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin or, in this case, Peter Weller. How would you say working with Weller compared to some of the other actors and action stars you’ve worked with?

When you’re working with someone that’s the caliber of actor that Peter Weller is, it only elevates your own performance. Peter is a fantastic actor and he brought so much to the character he played in Forced to Fight that it was an absolute pleasure working with him. I know it helped elevate my character and my performance in the film. I’ve done about 60 films and early in my career, in about two-thirds of my films, I was the lead actor. What they’d do is bring in bigger name actors to support me for the sales. Sometimes you find that some of these bigger actors come onto these smaller films and just do it for a paycheck. It looks like they’re sleepwalking through the roles. But I have to say that with Peter, he truly brought it. He did a perfect performance in the film and it was an absolute pleasure working with him. You’re always apprehensive when you have these bigger name guys coming off these huge productions, and sometimes they show some apprehension coming to the set. But after the very first scene I did with Peter, I stepped out of the car where we were shooting and went straight to the director and said, “Well, I think we’e got something here.” He had a great presence and brought so much to the character.

You’ve worked with numerous big names, especially in The Expendables. Are there any particular action stars or bigger names you have yet to work with that you’d like to?

To be honest with you, I’m not really looking to work with certain action stars. I’d really like to work with some of the actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and some of the other bigger actors. It’s not working with these actors that’s going to help promote my career. It’s really just trying to work with a higher level of production with better writers and better directors. I’d love to work with Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan and some of these bigger directors. That’s what’s really going to help take my career up another notch. Just working with these B movie action guys like myself is not going to elevate my career. Having done 60 of these films, I’m probably closer to that level. But I really want to work with good writers, good directors, better actors. Like every other actor, I want to step it up a notch and move up another level. So I’m going to be looking for that break and I’m not going to do it by doing another Steve Austin movie. Nothing against Steve, I love the guy to death.

Forced to Fight is out today, but it looks like you have a few other films coming out soon.

One of the films I’m proud of is something I worked on last year in Thailand called Angels. The lead was Dustin Nguyen, who was the Vietnamese character on the original 21 Jump Street, and he’s a very good actor. We had a brilliant, fantastic script, but it was on a budget. We just had the world premiere screening in Vietnam and they took me over for the premiere. I was very, very happy with the way the film turned out. The director was a guy named Wych Kaos – he wrote it, directed it and produced it – and he’s a genuinely talented filmmaker. That should be coming out sometime next year and I think it could do some great things for me. It was a straight acting role for me without any fighting. I was happy with the performance in the film overall, so I’m looking forward to that coming out.

Any chance you might currently be working on something that might take you to that next level as an actor?

I do have a few projects in the works, but not the kind of projects I’m looking for right now. I have three or four projects in the works for next year, but I’m still looking for that one break-out role. It’s pretty difficult when you come from a fighting or sports background. When you do make the transition into the film industry, it’s very hard to get people to take you seriously as an actor. When you come from a fighting background, you’ve learned to not show any emotions. So if you’re tired or hurt, you can’t show it. But in the movie industry, as an actor, you have to wear your emotions on your sleeve so everyone in the audience can see it and feel what you’re feeling. One of my early acting coaches would say, “Look, Gary. I know you’re feeling it but we have to see that you’re feeling it.” I have been working very hard on my acting and the only way you’re going to move up is not by being a good martial artist, it’s going to be by being a good actor.

www.garydaniels.com

Georgia Wrestling Now remembers Jason Speed and welcomes Mr. Donnie

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It has been a sad few days for many people in the Georgia wrestling seen with the passing of Pro Wrestling Resurrection/The New Tradition Pro Wrestling‘s Jason Speed. So this week’s Georgia Wrestling Now is dedicated to Speed, with remembrances by Simon Sermon, “The Lethal Dose” Stryknyn, Matt “Sex” Sells, Matt Von Reaper, Michael Gentry, El Zombie Mascara and Ryan Bonebrake. Sermon also fills in for Team All You Can Eat’s Matt Hankins as we also talk to Mr. Donnie and Brian Alexander “The Great” about the annual Toys for Tots wrestling benefit at Henderson Arena on Dec. 22. Listen live every Monday at 7 p.m. and call 347-324-5735 for questions or comments.

Mr. Donnie (center) talks about this Saturday's Toys for Tots benefit at Henderson Arena. Photo by Terry Lawler.

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“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is an unexpectedly incredible start to new trilogy

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Even if you’ve been living under a rock in a troll cave for the past nine years, you have to be at least somewhat familiar with J. R. R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit and the massive film trilogy Peter Jackson has been putting together for the past several years. And if you’ve read any of the early reviews of the first installment, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, it seems that there are many criticisms for this prequel to Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy that garnered both critical acclaim and enormous financial achievements.

Bifur (William Kircher), Dwalin (Graham McTavish), Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Bofur (James Nesbitt) and Oin (John Callen) have one last supper before their "Unexpected Journey." Photo by James Fisher.

From questions of why Jackson would turn a relatively short novel into a sprawling trilogy of films that are almost three hours each to complaints about his decision to present the film at 48 frames per second (a much higher frame rate than most films, resulting in a much clearer presentation), it seems that The Hobbit is fighting an uphill battle from the very beginning. But from the moment the high frame rate images hit the screen, I realized this film would be more impressive than most people were expecting.

As was often referenced in The Lord of the Rings, the story of Middle-earth’s biggest battle actually begins 60 years earlier when a young Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is visited by Gandalf the wizard (Ian McKellen). After a perplexing exchange, 13 dwarves (slovenly warriors with meticuously manicured facial hair) show up later that night to thoroughly disrupt not only Bilbo’s otherwise-routine dinner, but ultimately the rest of his life. After pillaging his food pantry and unnerving Bilbo with their seemingly careless treatment of his belongings, the dwarves set out to reclaim their kingdom from Smaug, a magnificent dragon that has taken over the dwarves’ home of Erebor and all of its treasures.

The Great Goblin (Barry Humphries) isn't going to let Gloin (Peter Hambleton), Ori (Adam Brown), Nori (Jed Brophy) and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) escape without a fight. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

As you might expect, this Unexpected Journey isn’t a simple one. And since hobbits aren’t typically the most adventurous creatures in Middle-earth, Bilbo constantly finds himself being doubted by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), the dwarf leader who has some very personal issues with the orcs that are hunting his party, as well as the elves who eventually aid him in his quest. This turmoil not only creates constant in-fighting, but it also makes confrontations with orcs, goblins, trolls and other creatures that much more meaningful.

An Unexpected Journey sees the return of Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving as highly-regarded elven leaders, Elijah Wood as the young relative of Bilbo, Ian Holm as the older Bilbo and chillingly foreboding appearances by Christopher Lee as Saruman and Andy Serkis as the emaciated Gollum. There’s plenty of foreshadowing, given what we’ve already seen of these characters in The Lord of the Rings, but there’s also a lot of anticipation of how these characters will develop into the villains we know them to become.

As far as the high frame rate presentation of this movie, I really can’t comprehend what there is to complain about. Not only does it make The Hobbit look incredibly realistic, but it’s also impressive to find that the extra clarity doesn’t reveal any flaws in the special effects and computer-animated elements.

Stone giants battle as the dwarves flee Rivendell. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

And even though there are several superfluous scenes in this film, some of those moments make for the most breath-taking sequences in the movie, such as when gigantic rock creatures do battle in a canyon (verifying myths about the origins of thunderstorms) and the entire capture-by and escape-from the cavern-dwelling goblins (where Bilbo initially meets Gollum, and inadvertently obtains the cursed ring). There’s also an edge-of-your-seat showdown between the pursuing orcs and the dwarves during which Bilbo finally earns the respect of Thorin, and the heroic eagles make their first appearance (with every strand of each feather fluttering realistically in the wind). And as An Unexpected Journey nears its end (which really isn’t an end at all since there are two more epic films in the trilogy), one can’t help but laugh at Bilbo’s ironic proclamation of “I do believe the worst is behind us.”

www.thehobbit.com

Green Day concludes trilogy earlier than scheduled with “¡Tré!”

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Originally scheduled for a January 2013 release, the final chapter in Green Day‘s new trilogy is out a month early. As was the case with ¡Uno! (read my review here) and ¡Dos! (read my review here), ¡Tré! shows the band simultaneously getting back to basics and exploring refreshingly different (at least for Green Day) sonic territories.

What sets ¡Tré! apart from its two predecessors is its simplicity. While ¡Uno! and ¡Dos! celebrated the pop predictability and punk pride that launched Green Day’s career in the ’90s, both albums were unintentionally ambitious. And I don’t mean ambitious in the politically-charged rock opera sense that went along with American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. Quite the opposite, actually. Instead ¡Uno! and ¡Dos! felt like they took the band in different directions because the band was willing to just see what happened rather than creating a highly structured aural arrangement.

Where ¡Uno! favors the bands more rambunctious side and ¡Dos! leans towards Green Day’s folk and garage rock influences, ¡Tré! is a more consistent record with slightly more fleshed-out songs and cleverly tongue-in-cheek lyricism. “Brutal Love,” with its doo-wop-like composition, provides an apt prelude to the punk pacing that follows. It’s easy to envision the members of the band snickering at their prank-like pregnant pause that follows the first few guitar strums of “8th Avenue Serenade,” and “Drama Queen,” with its chorus of “She’s old enough to bleed now,” is probably one of the funniest coming-of-age songs ever written (as is “X-Kid”).

“Sex, Drugs & Violence” and “Amanda” are filled with Green Day’s classic sarcasm and sneering rock ‘n’ roll attitude. “Dirty Rotten Bastard” is a rollicking drinking song not unlike the Irish punk of the Dropkick Murphys. And ¡Tré! ends with “The Forgotten,” a rock ballad that brings the album full circle. Now that Green Day has finished this simplistically excessive undertaking, it will be interesting to see what the band has in store for us next. If it’s anything like these three albums, it should be a lot of fun.

www.greenday.com

Georgia Wrestling Now welcomes Clint Eller and Dementia D’Rose

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Team All You Can Eat’s Matt Hankins, Georgia Wrestling History‘s Larry Goodman and Wrestling with Pop Culture have gotten to the bottom of a few wrestling mysteries on Georgia Wrestling Now. And this week we find out how the once happy-go-lucky Aisha Sunshine evolved into the now-deranged Dementia D’Rose, one of the most enigmatic female wrestlers around. We also talk to Old School Wrestling Alliance’s Clint Eller about this new promotion’s upcoming events at the Georgia Hapkido Academy. Listen live every Monday at 7 p.m. and call 347-324-5735 for questions or comments.

Clint Eller calls the action at a recent OSWA event. Photo by Tray Sees Photography.

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Really Big Santa brings a larger-than-life holiday spectacular to the Plaza Theatre

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Santa and his helpers are everywhere this time of year. But if those department store bell ringers and shopping mall offshoots just don’t live up to the holiday hype, there’s one Santa that will have you believing in a big way. A really big way. Continuing the tradition he started last year, Really Big Santa returns to the Plaza Theatre on Dec. 8 for Santa’s Super Saturday Show. As his name implies, Really Big Santa is a very large version of the big guy from the North Pole. But don’t let his towering frame intimidate you. Really Big Santa is a jolly fellow who will sing and dance with you, offer up his homemade hot cider, take pictures with you and host a screening of Jim Henson‘s 1977 TV movie Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. As he prepares for this big event, he takes a moment to have this fireside chat with Wrestling with Pop Culture.

Santa’s Saturday Super Show features singing, dancing, cider and other holiday fun. For those who weren’t there last year, what else can people expect?

Photo by Evan Bartelston.

We’ll have prizes, Santa’s own special hot cider, a floor show with the folks from Blast-Off Burlesque and wrap it all up with a sing-along and Santa’s dance party! We also will start pictures with Santa at 11 a.m. and at 8 p.m. for the night show. For $15 you get a digital copy emailed to you and a print mailed to your home!

Who else will be joining you at this event?

My helper Max, who is a real elf. We’ll have classical Christmas guitar music provided by “Evil” Jim Wright from the band Bigfoot. Blast-Off Burlesque will be performing with me and our pictures will be taken by Knotty Pictures this year. We are excited! The night show will have a very special surprise crew showing up!

How does the matinee show differ from the night-time show?

The matinee show is not as loud, has longer sitting times for pictures with Santa and has fewer German Christmas characters in the show.

Speaking of German Christmas characters, rumor has it another lesser known (at least to most Americans) Christmas creature will be making an appearance at the night show. What do you know about the Krampus and the bar crawl he has planned in conjunction with your event?

We will be staging the annual Little Five Points Krampus Krawl in conjunction with 7 Stages Theatre, Java Lords and the Euclid Ave. Yacht Club right after the movies wrap. We’ll be hitting The Righteous Room, Manuel’s Tavern, the Five Spot, the Little 5 Corner Tavern, the EAYC, Elmyr and some others over the course of the night. The Euclid Ave. Yacht Club will have Bavarian food specials all night, too!

You don’t claim to be the real Santa, but you’re just as jolly as the big guy at the North Pole. Is there some sort of criteria Saint Nick looks for when choosing his helpers? Was any sort of training involved?

Photo by Evan Bartelston.

I am an official Santa Claus which is different than the Santa Claus. I have a 24/365 hotline to the big guy, and I have a territory I cover as his ambassador. I handle requests, manufacturing, livestock and distribution for my territory as if I were the old man. He picks us personally, trains us rigorously and trusts us implicitly. I am proud to be one of the few.

Kids are often afraid of Santa even when he’s not Really Big. Do you find that you’re more intimidating than the average Santa? If so, what do you do to appease frightened girls and boys?

No. I actually seem to have an easier time with them as I’m willing to work with them if they are scared. It’s not my size, it’s my demeanor. That and the parents that bring their kids to Really Big Santa aren’t pushing their kids to do something they don’t want. I rarely have a kid that doesn’t end up getting a picture of some sort out of the visit.

I’m sure you’re very busy this time of year. Where else might we see Really Big Santa this holiday season?

The best place to keep up with me this year is www.facebook.com/reallybigsanta. I also will be appearing on Public Broadcasting Atlanta in my new TV special, Christmas Around Atlanta. It will be airing all month on Atlanta’s PBA30.

www.reallybigsanta.com