FRANK RIZZO

Rip It Up, Issue 184, 1 November 1992, Page 37

FRANK RIZZO

GETS SCARED BY CHAINSAWS

This being Halloween and everything, I felt that perhaps I should do something of a spooky nature. Fortunately my lady friend acquired some tickets to the opening of the Universal Studios Halloween show, so I was ready for the worst. Unfortunately, I mainly got bad. Like a half line through some cattle pen deal to see two minutes of flames in the Backdraft attraction. Like $1.50 coffee. Still, some of it was fun. The ET ride was corny as hell and fun, while the Terror Tram itselfwas pretty cool. It involved a ride around the Universal backlot with assorted scary happenings (mainly guys with chainsaws). I particularly enjoyed the passenger who had her heart ripped out by a vampire (always keep inside the car, kids) and the King Kong bit, complete with crashing helicopter.

On the whole though, I wouldn't hugely recommend the Studio schtik. It was just as crowded as the rest of LA and nowhere near as exciting as the real world. In fact, getting to annoy a couple of Limey tourist mods in the seats upfront by screaming at all the scary bits (and heckling the Biker gang on a rampage guys) was kind of relaxing after a week that involved nearly being hit by a garbage truck, having guns pointed at one's head, shaking hands with Man Woman (a Canadian lunatic who had a vision telling him to rehabilitate the swastika, thus he has several hundred tattooed on him) and meeting John Hughes and the guitarist for Slayer in the same day without recognising either of them (not entirely my fault as Hughes is built like a NFL defensive while the Slayer guy is smaller and less satanic looking than me!).

In the same vein as Halloween but much cooler is the Day of the Dead celebration. It's a Mexican festival for honouring your deceased relatives and friends, which is a nice idea

even without all the great candy, bread and art that goes with it, all shaped like skulls or skeletons. One of LA's (and the world's) finest underground galleries, La Luz de Jesus, has an annual Day of the Dead show that features some great art around that theme and this year's is no exception. Aside from the usual greats, a few newer artists are always in evidence and this year's number one rookie draft pick would have to be Nathan Ota, whose Vegas singer skeleton would have certainly caused me to part with some cash, had I had any. Galleries draw a pretty rock crowd nowadays, as the likes of Danny Elfman (who probably isn't all that rock really) and Anthony Keidis are often at La Luz's openings. Keidis, who collects Robert Williams stuff (which makes him alright by me) is another surprisingly small rock star. Maybe I just imagine them as being a little larger than life but most everyone has been short. I suppose it's one of those mysteries of the universe Americans so enjoy and often make TV movies about. True Life Ghost Stories and UFO Abductions being my current favourites. It's trash television of the first order in a land ruled by trash TV. Even tonight's news featured a story about a guy who, not able to afford full cryongenics for his mother, had just her brain frozen, but also froze her cat to keep her company when she thaws.

Probably the only class to be found is the Hockey but even the preferred highlight from tonight's game is hardly family viewing as it involves John Mclntyre checking a New York Islander winger so hard the guy had to be carried from the ice. Mclntyre was sent to the penalty box for five minutes but the Kings still won even being a man down. Which kind of sums up life here at times. Happy Halloween.

FRANK RIZZO