“The Booker” takes an inside look at Platinum Championship Wrestling’s beginnings

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When the Platinum Championship Wrestling documentary The Booker screens at the Midtown Art Cinema at 7:15 tonight as part of the Atlanta Film Festival, it will be the world premiere of a movie that was four years in the making. In the film, director Michael Perkins of Beast OA Films and Studio 5 begins in 2008, when Stephen Platinum began his quest to make PCW an alternative to what passes for pro wrestling today. The movie concludes with 2010’s Sacred Ground: Chapter One, an event held at the Kennesaw State University Convocation Center and featuring some of wrestling’s top independent stars taking on PCW’s top talents. What’s most interesting, however, is the struggles that take place for Platinum and other PCW members as they try to make their dream a reality.

Though PCW still has a long way to go before becoming a viable alternative to mainstream wrestling, it has definitely established itself as one of the top promotions in Georgia, and one of the most active promotions in the country. Perkins and the PCW crew have plenty of reason to celebrate tonight, which is exactly what they will be doing when they head over to the Wrestling with Pop Culture Anniversary Party, which is the official Atlanta Film Festival afterparty for the screening of The Booker. A limited number of autographed copies of the film will be available on DVD, but the challenges PCW faces in the film will pale in comparison to what these guys will face at the Masquerade tonight with Monstrosity Championship Wrestling. Before you go see the movie or head to the afterparty, here’s an interview Matt Hankins, dany only and I did with Perkins on the March 19 edition of Georgia Wrestling Now about tonight’s screening and afterparty.

You’ve made some other documentaries about Motocross and other subjects. What attracted you to professional wrestling and specifically to Stephen Platinum and Platinum Championship Wrestling?

I grew up in the South and watched Joe Pedicino and Boni Blackstone every Saturday night, so I’ve always been a fan of professional wrestling. I knew Steve because he had done some voiceover work for me. I met him through some friends at Dad’s Garage and I really didn’t now about his professional wrestling background. I just knew he had a great voice and after working with him a little bit I found out more about PCW and the timing was perfect because I was really looking for something I could spend a couple of years on. Steve said, “Yeah, I’m getting my wrestling school back together” one day and I said, “Hey, I could make a documentary about that.” He was probably just humoring me at that point, thinking, “Tthere’s no way this guy’s going to stick around.” We were filming for about four years, but he was really good about keeping a dialogue and letting me know what was happening. It just kept rolling until I decided that Sacred Ground: Chapter One would be a good stop for us to cap our story. I really think about the movie itself as an origin story of PCW and Steve chasing his dream of being a big wrestling promoter and actually doing something that’s good.

Stepehen Platinum reaches his breaking point in "The Booker"

The Booker was shot entirely in black and white. Why did you decide to shoot it that way?

The decision to go with black and white for the movie was made about a year into filming. The way we shot the film was a very fly-on-the-wall style. We couldn’t set up a lot of lights because the camera was moving around all the time and a light on the top of the camera was deemed to be too invasive to get the wrestlers to forget about the camera. With so much of the action in our film being in dark or under-lit rooms, we knew that we were going to have to bump up the light in post. This can be done with color footage, but after doing a few tests in black and white we were really blown away by the contrast and grain that we could achieve. That, coupled with the fact that pro wrestling is a seedy business made even more evident in black and white, helped us really hone in on the look that we wanted for the film.

You recently returned to Academy Theatre after an absence of a few months. Now that Empire Wrestling is in charge, how do you think things have changed since you finished the movie?

I saw a lot of new faces. There’s a constant turnover of people coming in and out, people getting injured. That’s the biggest thing I’ve noticed, especially since Empire, but even since Sacred Ground: Chapter One. I go in and I’m like, “Hey, who’s this guy. Wow. I wish you had been around a few years ago.” And there are people that aren’t there anymore that I miss seeing. Overall, it’s just getting better. It’s grown a lot, the stories get more complex and when you add in the Surrealists, you’re not getting anything like that in any other wrestling promotion. I think it’s going in the right direction and one day the right guy is going to see that promotion and go, “You know what? With a couple of dollars, this thing could be huge.” The content is there, the ideas are there and, I don’t know about you, but I love seeing these tiny dudes wrestle, I love to see the big tubby guys wrestle. That’s what it was when you go back to the NWA and the World Championship Wrestling that I watched in the ’80s. Now everything is just big musclebound guys with spray-on tans that use their real names. But in PCW you never know what you’re going to get.

There are scenes in The Booker that really give you an unprecedented look backstage. Have you had any negative feedback from the wrestling community seeing that some people are still very protective of what goes on backstage?

Again, I think you’ve got to go back to PCW being a unique atmosphere. I don’t think I would have gotten that level of access at another promotion because of … the idea of carrying a story all the way through to the parking lot when you’re getting in your car. But I haven’t really gotten any blow-back from that. Most of the wrestling journalists I’ve talked to have been very positive. I think that barrier had been broken already with Beyond the Mat, where they spent a lot of time with Jake Roberts and Mick Foley. That wall had kind of been broken, people knew what was going, so there hasn’t really been any kind of push-back. At least none voiced to me. I’ve had many other critiques and criticisms about the movie, but none of it has been anyone saying, “How could you let the public in on our secret?” Everybody knows it’s a show, but that doesn’t take away from the physicality and theatrics that are involved.

Why is Jay Fury wearing a Warhorse outfit? I guess he just does that when he plays chess with Geter.

That was one of the things that was really nice about working with the folks at PCW was that I explained to them what I was trying to do. I’m not Michael Moore, I don’t want to make you look dumb, I want to talk about this as an art form. I think once they saw that, and saw that I kept coming back show after show, they realized, “OK. This guy’s for real. This isn’t ‘gotcha’ journalism.” But it took nine months to a year of being around before the wrestlers really started to open up to me. And that was a watershed moment. I remember coming back from a shoot at Sam Stone Studios and my wife was like, “How’d it go?” And I said, “People actually opened up to me tonight.” After people really started interacting with me, it became a lot more fun and a lot more enlightening.

You were there so often you must have had a ton of footage that wasn’t used. Will we see any of that in an extended DVD release?

I think we had 63 hours of footage that had to be cut down to an hour and a half. During that process, me and my editor, Alex Williams, said, “Let’s just put the movie together however we want to put it together, then we’ll cut back.” After our first round of editing, we were at about an hour and 57 minutes. So entire sections of the movie were cut out because we’re trying to appeal to as wide an audience as possible and get it down to a reasonable amount of time. The hope is that when we sell it to a distributor, we can put some of that on as extras. And if in five years this movie has a cult following, I can come out with all the extra footage. But starting out, we wanted to make it where pro wrestling fans would like it and appreciate it, but also where my mom could watch it and go, “Oh, this is an interesting story about an interesting guy.”

The title of the movie is rather striking, especially to wrestling fans. How did you decide on that name?

My editor and I were just kind of looking at each other going, “What the hell are we going to call this thing?” We had been going with the working title of PCW Movie, but that doesn’t sell. So we brainstormed for a couple of weeks and I happened to be cleaning up the office one day and[came across] the second tape I ever shot at Steve’s house. It was labeled “The Booker” and I thought, “Wait a second. That’s a great idea!” But it just goes to further prove the point that we started out with “This is going to be about Steve and about booking wrestling,” then it morphs into people who are doing wrestling, then when you finally get into editing everything down, it’s back to what it originally was.

The Sexual Side Effect herself hosts the Wrestling with Pop Culture Anniversary Party

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As the androgynous front woman for the glammy post-punk band The Sexual Side Effects, Amber Taylor is known for her over-the-top persona, even when she’s not performing. Though her attention-grabbing antics certainly haven’t hindered the band’s success, The SSEs mission to bring back the showmanship of such ’70s rock bands as David Bowie and T. Rex, while throwing in elements of dream pop, ’90s college rock and hints of goth, has also helped the band make a bang over the past year or so. Having performed high profile slots at Atlanta Pride Festival, the East Atlanta Strut and it’s own Gilded Trash events at the Masquerade, the band recently caught the attention of award-winning TV director Michael A. Simon, who has worked on such shows as VH1 Storytellers, Rock Star: INXS and Survivor. Simon directed the video for “Aurora,” off the band’s recent High Maintenance EP, which is still in post-production.

Though “Aurora” isn’t quite ready to shine, the band has another video premiering at the Atlanta Film Festival Music & Film Experience March 29. But before that happens, Amber will be hosting the Wrestling with Pop Culture Anniversary Party tonight, adding even more freak show spectacle to an event that already features Monstrosity Championship Wrestling, luchador body painting and the LEGO-headed Death is a Dialogue. Amber and I got drunk a few days ago and had this conversation in front of the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club.

Tell me about the video that will be premiering at the Atlanta Film Festival.

The “All She’ll Ever Hurt” is in the Atlanta Film Festival’s music video competition. It’s a really cool video that was partially filmed at the East Atlanta Strut and at Encyclomedia. It’s directed by David Joseph and it’s all about authentic rock ‘n’ roll and it’s a real video, unlike a lot of videos. It will play during our performance on Thursday, March 28 at the Goat Farm.

The event at the Goat Farm is all music videos with many of the band

Amber Taylor (front) of The Sexual Side Effects hosts the Wrestling with Pop Culture Anniversary Party!

s performing. Tell me a little more about that show.

As far as I know, this is the first year the Atlanta Film Festival has had live musical performances involved in the festival. The event at the Goat Farm is going to be music day, where they’ll have two different stages and six or seven different bands. We’re the last band on our stage and there’s other stuff on the other stage, as well as an area that will be playing the music videos for each band that’s involved. We also did some interviews with Dubious.org about the video and that might be playing as well.

The night before that you’re hosting a pretty special Atlanta Film Festival event that will involve monster wrestling and other festivities.

There’ll be freaks and weirdos, thanks to me. Then there will be wrestlers and rock ‘n’ roll. After thinking about what wrestling and rock ‘n’ roll have in common with each other and what it relates to in our culture, I have surmised that it needs more freaks.

Wrestling was originally a sideshow attraction, which might be why you are part of this event.

And that’s exactly what I hope to bring to it. I hope to beef out the freak side of things. I’d also like to announce right now, publicly, that I’m going to officially run for president. My campaign slogan is, “Amber Taylor for president: a sex change you can believe in.” We’ll definitely have campaign shirts going sometime near the election. I vote to not D) vote for none of the above but to E) vote for Amber, a sex change you can believe in. I’ve also been informed that we have direct competition within the band. Our bass player, who is unofficially known as Manwhore, is also running for president. Either of us could do a better job than anyone else.

Why don’t you run on the same ticket?

Eh. No. There can only be one lead singer. And we could only make one cool shirt, when there are two cool shirts in this scenario. There’s “Manwhore for president” and there’s “Amber Taylor: a sex change you can believe in.” If the drummer can come up with something cool, we’ll make a cool shirt for him, too. Running for president is all about the cool shirts.

For more information, go to www.thesexualsideeffects.com.

NeeDeep gets in deep with hard rock and wrestling

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Normally being knee deep in anything isn’t a pleasant experience. But when it comes to Atla’s NeeDeep, you can expect to be immersed in a mix of dual hard rock guitars, atmospheric keyboards and male and female vocals. The band has established itself as a top rock act in Atlanta, headlining club shows and opening for touring bands like Nonpoint and Sevendust. In 2009 the band won Project 9-6-1‘s Homegrown to Headliner competition, earning itself an opening slot on Mötley Crüe‘s Crüe Fest. NeeDeep won the same contest in 2010, this time getting to play the main stage at Project 9-6-1’s Family Reunion festival headlined by Shinedown. And last October the band got to play the Kiss Kruise. With Kiss. On a boat.

Photo by Matt Alexandre

Though NeeDeep has shared the stage (and a boat) with some rock monsters, the band has yet to share a bill with monster wrestling. Until now. But wrestling is not totally unfamiliar to NeeDeep as front man Brent “Jakl” Cloud competed in a Platinum Championship Wrestling show in December 2010 with bassist Lew “The Jew” Litzinger in his corner. Their opponent was the Rev. H. Billy Hicks, with NeeDeep front woman Valarie Santos in his corner as a sexy nun. Though they won’t be returning to the ring at the Wrestling with Pop Culture Anniversary Party, they will be performing in between matches that will involve zombies and werewolves, which should be a perfect fit for NeeDeep’s showmanship. Jakl and Lew talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about this unique event.

NeeDeep has played some big shows, but also headlined its own club shows. How does opening for national acts compare to headlining your own gigs?

Cloud: The problem we’ve always run into with the Atlanta scene is people are always going to support the nationals. When local bands play a local show, it’s a lot of work because you’re doing all the marketing and promoting yourself. On a national show someone else is doing the legwork for you, so you feel more like a rock star.

Litzinger: I’d say the main difference with playing the national shows is you’re getting in front of 1,000 or 2,000 people that have never even heard your name before. That’s a killer thing. Playing the smaller local shows, everybody there knows who you are and they’re there to support you. It kind of weighs itself out because it’s awesome to play the big shows in front of that many people, but at your shows you’re playing in front of people who know you.

What was the Kiss Kruise like?

Cloud: It was a lot older crowd, man. There was a big generation gap. It was awesome for us to be part of it, but our style of music is a lot different than 99 percent of the bands that were on that show. But it’s cool because this is a band that my parents listened to. Just to be able to say we played with Kiss was probably the biggest thing from playing that.

Litzinger: I listened to Kiss as a child and it was like, “Wow! I’m playing with them on a boat.” I never would have ever imagined that we would playing with Kiss on a ship, so it was pretty amazing.

The two of you were also involved in one of the first Platinum Championship Wrestling shows at the Masquerade. What is your background in wrestling?

Cloud: My friend Grant and I always messed around with wrestling ever since the WCW/NWO days. I thought that was a killer time for wrestling. So we started learning how to do it and we got really good at it for two guys who had never really had the training to do it. Brian McNamara, the guy that owns the Masquerade, came to me and told me about this PCW wrestling event. So I got a hold of Stephen Platinum and told him I’d really like to do this one time as kind of a bucket list thing. So I went to his class and learned how to put together a match. Of course, I yanked Lew into it and said, “You’ve got long hair. You could pull it back and put some black glasses on. You’re going to be my manager.” Valarie, our singer, actually dressed as a nun because my opponent was the Rev. H. Billy Hicks. I was just a demon, a bad guy, and as I’m eye gouging him he’s saying he’s blinded by faith and he’s yelling out stuff like, “The power of Jesus compels you.” I was trying my hardest not to bust out laughing and I had Lew behind me yelling and stuff.

People don’t understand that it takes a lot to hold it together in wrestling. The Rock, for instance. People were like, “The Rock’s going to be an actor.” I was like, “He’s already is an actor. This should be easy for him.” But we had a great time.

Photo by Matt Alexandre

Your wrestling gimmick was the Jakl. Why did you choose to spell it that way?

Litzinger: As Lew the Jew, the manager of the Jakl, he really couldn’t spell that well. He was a demon from hell, so he couldn’t spell.

Cloud: Yeah. I’m not really into the writing, man.

Have you guys done any wrestling since then?

Cloud: I’ve been so busy with the band stuff. Wrestling’s entertainment and a lot of people don’t realize the work you have to put in to stay in shape. You can get hurt out there really easily, so you need to be in shape and you need to be practicing your technique all the time. I knew I couldn’t put the time that I’d need to into it, so it wasn’t really worth it to pursue it. Hicks has done some MMA fighting, but he’s won some silver and gold medals in a bunch of different jujitsu events.

At the Wrestling with Pop Culture Anniversary Party, not only will there be wrestling, but there will be monsters wrestling. You’ve played some unique shows, but what do you think about playing on a bill that includes PCW vs. Monstrosity Championship Wrestling, not to mention the walking freak show herself, Amber Taylor from The Sexual Side Effects?

Cloud: I think it’s a cool thing, man. Hard rock goes perfectly with wrestling and I definitely think it’s going to be an exciting event. We’re happy to be a part of it because we’re a different band. We’re not the same band you see where everybody’s wearing blue jeans and another band’s shirt. We wear jumpsuits and stuff, so we’re all about the entertainment. We want to get people off with the optic sensation as well as the ear. We’re all about showmanship and wrestling is driven by that. Us being a part of that is perfect for us.

Litzinger: I personally want to see if Jay Fury is going to be able to fight zombies and monsters.

We’ll see soon!

Prof. Morte brings monsters to the wrestling ring

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For the past few years, Professor Morte has been the “ghost host with the most” at the Plaza Theatre‘s Silver Scream SpookShow, where he puts on a classic horror show with go-go dancers, screenings (or as he would say, “screamings”) of retro horror films and appearances by a cast of kooky characters. Last October, he took his monsters to the Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse to entertain the lines of people waiting to tour the facilities of the controversial Centers for Disease Development with the debut of Monstrosity Championship Wrestling. Little has been heard from MCW since those two shows, but Morte is ready to unleash the monsters again to help Wrestling with Pop Culture celebrate its first anniversary. As he plots this ultimate monster battle, he steps away from his lab to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about MCW’s return.

Hello again, Professor Morte.

Yes, it’s Professor Morte alive in the undead flesh!

As we’ve discussed on Georgia Wrestling Now over the past few weeks, Monstrosity Championship Wrestling debuted last October at the Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse and the Wrestling with Pop Culture Anniversary Party will be the first show you’ve done since then.

It’s the first indoor show for Monstrosity Championship Wrestling, so we don’t have to worry about lightning strikes.

Well lightning might help with some of the monsters.

Yeah. With some of the monsters we might have to bring the Tesla coils out there to jump start these guys.

A lot of people may not have seen those shows in October…

Well shame on them! It was the greatest wrestling show that was ever put on. We had Frankenstein’s monster fighting the Wolf Man, we had a big all out zombie battle and it was pretty fangtastic. Those guys were really ripping each other’s arms off and beating each other over the head with them and stuff.

Will there be beheadings at the Monstrosity Championship Wrestling matches?!

Which monsters are on the card for tomorrow night’s show?

It’s a big surprise to everybody involved. We’re going to figure out tonight exactly what is going on tomorrow and which monsters I’ve got to let out of the cage and which monsters I’ve got to kind of spruce up in the lab so they’re presentable. And we’ll figure out what we’re going to do about some of these Platinum Championship Wrestling guys showing up and wanting to cause trouble at the MCW show.

Right. Of course Stephen Platinum very politely issued that challenge a few weeks ago on Georgia Wrestling Now. PCW will be coming over after the Atlanta Film Festival screening of The Booker and I guess they want to mix it up with the monsters a little bit.

Yes. It should be very interesting. I’ve been looking forward to this for about ten years now, so I’m really excited to finally be bringing Monstrosity Championship Wrestling to the Masquerade.

And I’m excited to have it be part of the Wrestling with Pop Culture Anniversary Party.

Great. And congratulations on your first year and all the things you’ve been doing. This show you’re putting on is like a variety show of great things that go on in Atlanta. You really pulled a lot of stuff together. You’ve got my favorite chocolate company with those spooky chocolates from Chocolate F/X and a lot of fun stuff going on at this show. You’ve really worked hard and the sponsors are fangtastic, so I’m looking forward to having an all around good time. Even if you don’t like wrestling, there are monsters! That’s reason enough to come to this show. You’ve got rock ‘n’ roll, you’ve got all kinds of stuff.

Even though it’s an all ages show, Neon Armour will also be doing body painting. So there might even be some boobies.

Oh, boobies! Well, children love boobies. And I love children. They’re delicious. I mean delightful. Children are delightful. So if they want to bring some children I’m sure the children will be very entertained with boobies, too.

With MCW, PCW, the bands, body painting and everything else, there’s sure to be a lot of stimulation at this show.

Over stimulation for some people. I’m really looking forward to it. We’re going to put on one yell of a show tomorrow night. I’m looking forward to scaring the yell out of you and the rest of the people that are attending so they can see just what is going to happen tomorrow night at the Masquerade! Muah ha ha!

Death is a Dialogue is ready to rock with monsters and wrestlers at the Wrestling with Pop Culture Anniversary Party

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Atlanta’s Death is a Dialogue is not only one of the most energetic bands around, it’s also one of the hardest working. The band’s punchy pop punk is laced with heavy riffs and just enough punk rock attitude to keep things interesting. Led by former Drownout front man Jason Lee, DIAD consists of guitarist Joe Galunas, bassist Chris Hein and former Hanging Francis drummer Randall Gregg. DIAD recently finished its first East Coast tour and has played high profile shows with the likes of Quiet Riot, Everclear‘s Art Alexakis, Live‘s Ed Kowalczyk, Naughty by Nature and Hawthorne Heights. The band also played the Atlanta date of last summer’s Warped Tour by winning the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands (Lee also won the same contest the two previous years with The Drownout, and you can vote for DIAD to play this year’s Warped Tour).

Having taken its name from an Emily Dickinson poem and recorded a song inspired by Edgar Allan Poe (“Low Lies Lenore”), the band has also been know to perform while wearing lifesized LEGO heads. DIAD has also been known to play some pretty rockin’ covers of songs by Queen, Rancid, The Offspring and other popular rock bands. So even though these guys may not know much about wrestling, they definitely know a good bit about pop culture, which is why they will be performing at the Wrestling with Pop Culture Anniversary Party on March 28. Coincidentally, this show will also be the band’s first anniversary performance. As we all prepare for the monsters, wrestling and rock ‘n’ roll, Lee and Hein take a moment to talk about this and other upcoming shows.

You guys have played a lot of big shows, but I don’t think you’ve ever performed at an event with wrestling or monsters.

Lee: That’s true. When I think back, I don’t think there’s been any wrestling or monsters, and definitely not the two combined, which is awesome. I’m looking forward to Monstrosity Championship Wrestling, though. That’s going to be badass.

Photo by Kevin Griggs

Why did you guys agree to play this type of show? Are you wrestling fans?

Lee: I haven’t been to a wrestling event since I was a kid, but my favorite ones were Hulk Hogan and the battles between him and Andre the Giant were always totally epic. And the Steiner Brothers. You don’t really hear about them much anymore, so I think those guys are kind of underrated. I think as a kid my favorite wrestler was the Ultimate Warrior because he dressed kind of like an Indian and I’m part Native American, so I guess I could relate to him, minus the hot pink tassels.

Hein: I think it will be cool just to have that ring in front of the stage. And putting rock and wrestling together is going to be cool.

Lee: Yeah. Anytime people are fighting and there’s a rock show going on, it’s going to be a good time.

I didn’t realize when I asked you to play this show that it’s not only the anniversary for Wrestling with Pop Culture, but it’s also the first anniversary for Death is a Dialogue.

Lee: Yeah. It’s a dual anniversary party. And our CD release is April 21 at Vinyl.

I know about Jason’s former band The Drownout and Randall’s band Hanging Francis, but how did the four of you come together to form Death is a Dialogue?

Lee: When the Drownout broke up, I put out ads on Craigslist. Me and Joe had already had in mind that we were going to put together another band. He used to play in a metal band called McClane, which was a very heavy, dark band. I always liked his guitar playing in that project, so we just talked about working together. Then we started putting up ads on Craigslist and auditioning people. We got Randall first, then we auditioned several bass players and some were very entertaining, but not in the right way. Eventually Chris walked in and…

Hein: …owned it!

Lee: Well, I think it was a good start when you actually knew how to adjust the volume on your amp. There was a girl that came in and auditioned and she didn’t know how to do anything. She didn’t know how to tune her guitar, turn up her amp or any of that stuff.

Hein: I’ve always been in bands since I was 13. I moved to Atlanta to go to Georgia State and had to leave the band I was in in Buford, where I went to high school. So I was looking, but I don’t think I was actively looking. But Jason hit me up on Facebook after I saw the ad and I came and tried out and got the gig that day.

Lee: It was funny though because some guy replied to the Craigslist post and I messaged this other guy, whose last name was Heim, saying, “Hey, man. You still coming to audition?” And it was so weird because he was just like, “Yeah, sure!” But it was just some random dude and he didn’t even know what the audition was for because I was messaging the wrong person on Facebook.

Photo by Kevin Griggs

You guys released an EP just a few months ago. Will the new CD be all new material?

Lee: At first we were going to release another EP with all new songs. The time frame of everything got pushed back a little bit, but we also thought, “Why do just another EP like that?” So what we’ve decided to do is release three songs at a time and do that three or four times this year, then at the end of that come out with a full album where we can put all the songs on there. I love EPs, but when I’m listening to EPs in my car I feel like they’re too short. If you’re driving somewhere, especially in Atlanta traffic, you’re in the car for at least an hour and I feel like people might get tired of it repeating over and over again. That was the only complaint we got on the last record was that it was too short. So we’re going to take our time with this and we’re going to release three songs at a time digitally and do some limited presses of signed copies for our fans and stuff. But at the end of all that we want to put all those together and do a full length that is pressed professionally so we can actually sell something that will be a complete piece of work. So on April 21 we’re releasing a disc of three songs and we’re only making 60 copies.

Since you’re having your CD release after this show with monsters and wrestling, are you concerned about having all that kind of chaos going on around you?

Hein: I think it will make it better.

Lee: Yeah, the more chaos the better. It just adds to the show. I’m really excited about playing a show where there’s a wrestling ring in the room, like Chris was saying earlier. It’s something we haven’t been able to do before because it doesn’t happen very often. Especially the fact that there’s going to be monster wrestling. I can’t wait to see that. It’s going to be great.

For more information, go to www.deathisadialogue.com.

Upstream swim spawns inspirational comedy in “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”

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Fishing for salmon in the desert sounds ridiculous to Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor).

Does fishing for fresh water salmon in the dry climates of Yemen sound impossible to you? Well, Ewan McGregor would emphatically agree, at least at first. In Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, McGregor plays Alfred Jones, a British expert on fishing who seems to have about as much emotion and enthusiasm as the creatures he studies. After receiving an email from Harriet (Emily Blunt) about a project to make fly fishing a reality in the middle of the desert, Alfred brushes it off without much consideration. But when the idea flows past Prime Minister’s vivacious press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas), who is desperately looking for some positive press from the Middle East, Alfred soon finds himself meeting with a worldly sheik (Amr Waked) determined to make this far-fetched idea a reality.

Jones is reluctantly forced to begin work on the project, gradually realizing that it’s not only doable, but could actually prove to be a thriving prospect for ailing area. With his miserable marriage falling apart, venturing out into the desert to make the impossible a reality becomes a comforting escape. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s working closely with the alluring Emily Blunt, who is need of some comforting of her own when it seems her boyfriend won’t be returning from the war.

Initially adversaries, Harriet (Emily Blunt) and Alfred (Ewan McGregor) become unlikely partners.

The whole thing soon gets a good bit of media attention and financial backers, but not everyone is so enthusiastic as some of the militant natives see this project as a betrayal on the sheik’s part and set out to sabotage the whole thing. Despite attempts on the sheik’s life and other setbacks, director Lasse Hallström manages to keep things lighthearted, giving a sense of humorous hope throughout the film. Once unlikely allies, Alfred and Harriet growing more and more fond of each other as they journey up the proverbial stream together in this inspiring journey rife with resistance.

Even when things seem on the brink of success, for the fish as well as in Alfred and Harriet’s personal lives, they are forced to overcome even greater odds than they first imagined as everything they’ve spwaned professionally and personally gets washed away (metaphorically and literally). As he’s done with previous films like Chocolat and Dear John, Hallström finds ways to keep hope alive even when all seems lost. Though it’s not a Hollywood happy ending for everyone, Salmon Fishing offers a believable look at overcoming life’s obstacles, no matter how impossible they might seem.

Salmon Fishin in the Yemen. Directed by Lasse Hallström. Starring Emily Blunt, Ewan McGregor, Kristin Scott Thomas and Amr Waked. Rated PG-13. www.fishingintheyemen.com.

“The Hunger Games” borrows heavily from other stories to satisfy sci-fi appetites