M.C. Thomason & Cinema: The Sad But True Story

Born in 1968, so I'll leave the math to you all. Located in Western Australia's sunny capital city, Perth, and probably wouldn't have it any other way! I've been a lifelong film buff and long standing enthusiast of genre cinema since I picked up a copy of "Famous Monsters" in 1976. Discovered there was more to my beloved Horror genre in the mid-eighties when magazines like "Fangoria" introduced me to wild excesses of European film-making and thus (living in a country who boasts fairly liberal censorship attitudes) pigged out on Argentos, Fulcis & all the other mavericks.

A move from Rural South West town Albany, to capital city Perth, in 1991 (coupled with a cool two part article in the ever reliable "Fangoria" magazine) stimulated a healthy interest in Hong Kong, as well as World, cinema. I guess you could say I spent far too many (late) nights reclining in darkened Chinese repertory theatres, enjoying outrageously entertaining cinema, and ingesting all manner of nibblies from the Asian snack bars. But it was a great period of my cinema-going life that I'd be only too happy to relive and, sadly, an era I may never see again.

From 1995 through 1997, I served as an Australian contributor to Rick Baker's labour of love, "Eastern Heroes" magazine, churning out more reviews than Rick had space for. I also threw a few odds & sods at "Shocking Images", "Impact", "Manga Max" and "Hong Kong Superstars", as well as assisted local independent distributor Siren Entertainment with their Chinatown Video label from 1995 to early 2000 (If you've got some of the early tapes in your possession, you can blame me for the liner notes!). Did I mention that, through Eastern Heroes, I furnished MIA's Hong Kong Classics label with copy for a number of their early DVD & video releases? Yeah, I guess you could say I've been around…

I belated joined the digital age in 2000 with the purchase of a DVD player (the amount of genre product available in the medium was the decider) and haven't looked back since! I was working (consecutively) on five genre-related novels, and a website of my own, when correspondence with Alan turned into an offer to write for him. So, this marks my return to genre writing after a two-year sabbatical! I don't profess to be either an expert on genre cinema or a mad train spotter when it comes to the DVD medium, but I know what I like! I watch (collect, whatever…) DVDs for the films, am pretty forgiving of (most) transfer issues, and am more than thrilled that "my kinda movies" are being released with a respect WAY beyond what a lot of them deserve…J (No matter how bad some genre titles are presented on DVD, would anyone be happy to go back to bootleg cassettes? Apart from the cheapskates…)

What do I like movie wise? Hong Kong cinema (obviously), Bond films, Hammer films, a lot of material that originated out the seventies (European soft-porn & all those freaky horror flicks), Italian & Spanish cinema (of course, their genre output goes without saying), and a cavalcade of Cult & Arthouse features. Steer me clear of commercial film, and I'm a happy man! My favourite movies? This'll spin you all out, but some best cinematic experiences I have had include "The Godfather" trilogy, the "Dollars" trilogy, "The Killer", "Cinema Paradiso", "The Wicker Man", "High Fidelity", "Suspiria" & "Tenebrae" (of course!), "Witchfinder General", "The Bride With White Hair", "The Big Blue", "Easy Rider", "Desperado", "Gladiator" (Ridley Scott version), "Natural Born Killers", "Scarface", "The Thing", "Apocalypse Now", "9 & ½ Weeks", "Casablanca", "The Usual Suspects", "Good Fellas", "The Last Of The Mohicans" (Michael Mann's version) and "Magnolia" to name but just a few. I could go on, but we'd be here all week! So, that's me and cinema, any queries of a more personal nature can be directed at me via email…if you're brave.

Well, as everyone else here as expounded the virtues of their musical tastes, I guess there's no reason I shouldn't either! Though the less said about my abortive attempts to become a muso in my early twenties, (as a keyboardist in a cover band), the better. I'll always be a lifelong fan of Queen and early to mid-period Bowie (poor Dave's gone off the rails a bit in recent years), but like fellow SGMer Carl I'm a bit of a Glam fan (and miss the talents of the late Marc Bolan a bit). Contemporary performers who have impressed the socks off of me include crazy Germans Rammstein, Garbage, mid-period Grace Jones, The Cult, The Damned, Sisters Of Mercy, Iggy Pop, Lisa Dalbello, Def Leppard, The Black Crowes, Faithless & Aussie rockers Regurgitator, Powderfinger, You Am I, The Cruel Sea, The Mavis's and Primary. Recent interests have encompassed Basement Jaxx, Butthole Surfers, Tricky, Divine Comedy, Live, Moby, Palladium, Tori Amos, The Rollins Band and Spiderbait. There's also a special soft spot for the kooky Nina Hagen and legendary Aussie social commentators TISM ("Give Up For Australia" should be our National anthem!). The odd soundtrack doesn't go astray either! Yep, even my musical tastes are decidedly eclectic…

But I've said more than enough already, so I'd like to take my remaining moments to wish all the very best to the readers of this site and may your love of this genre grow as the years pass! (You can send your hate mail [just kidding], or any other intelligent thoughts here! My Inbox has been a bit quiet of late, and I love to hear from like-minded souls…irrespective of your global position!)

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