Friday, July 13, 2007

Finnish phenom Lordi brings monster look to Bay Area

FOR YEARS, Finnish film student Tomi Putaansuu had analyzed the way good gorefests work; how Sam Raimi, for example, conjured up the cadaverous scares in his "Evil Dead" trilogy.

Putaansuu went on to make his own bloody homages to the genre — which placed high in countless European competitions — before settling into a grisly position in horror-flick storyboards, makeup and prosthetics. And he had a theory he desperately wanted to test: that nothing shocks the public, not even monsters stalking city streets in broad daylight.

So when his Scorpions' retro-rock band Lordi was doing a photo shoot for its first album four years ago, he made a bet with the photographer — that the members, dressed in their outrageous alien-zombie stage get-ups, could stroll through town at afternoon rush hour without raising any sort of ruckus. "And guess who won?" chirps the gabby ghoul, who rechristened himself Mr. Lordi, the band ringleader/vocalist who sports onstage claws, 8-foot retractable demon wings and electric blood-spewing chains.

"At 4 in the afternoon on a Friday in Helsinki, we took subways to different stations and hung around where there were a lot of people coming out of work, and nobody stared, nobody said a thing. And it was at a time when no one even knew us," he says, "but thousands of Finns at rush hour just ignored huge monsters standing in their path. So this certainly tells you something about film."

Today, of course, the band would mobbed. Lordi has become the hottest homeland attraction since reindeer; Finnish President read more...

source:Inside Bay Area

Read also Lordi's horror dream becomes reality

Lordi - It Snows In Hell - Video

Lordi - It Snows In Hell

Verka Serduchka (Andrei Danilko) In the Spotlight

The Moskow Times reports:
Andrei Danilko revealed that he grew up without a bathroom and never takes off his baseball cap.
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The love life, and orientation, of Andrei Danilko, aka Verka Serdyuchka, is much more mysterious.
"Something happens about once a month, but I'm happier on my own," he commented obliquely in OK! magazine last month. The intriguing interview also revealed that the reclusive comedian grew up in a house without a bathroom and never takes off his baseball cap.
Far more predictably, newspapers have been reporting on a conspiracy against Serdyuchka after she possibly sang "Russia Goodbye" at Eurovision.
Various reports have said that she was disinvited to festivals in Sochi and Latvia and edited out of a concert shown on Channel One -- which happens to broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest.
It's all rather baffling. In an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets on Wednesday, Danilko was noncommital, saying dismissively that "Russian television shows are reporting on an alleged ban on my concerts" but going on to hint at a negative attitude from "people from a certain channel."
Read full article here

Anna Vissi not to open George Michael's Athens concert

oikotimes.com reports:
On of the top events in Greece this year will be the concert of George Michael in Athens in two weeks. One of the most valid magazines in Greece Downtown published the information that Anna Vissi will open the concert of George Michael as supporting act. Oikotimes.com partner site www.loveradio.gr informs its readers that the news are false.
Anna Vissi is currently recording her new CD album and travels between Greek cities and United States as she has a house in New York including a restaurant. The George Michael Athens concert will take place on July 25th at the OAKA complex, next to the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest venue.