#Donald Nardini

[moosterrecords]

  Coming this Summer from SEVERIN FILMS

THE EUROCRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER LEE COLLECTION

[8 Disc Blu-ray Collection + Book + Soundtrack CD] (6/22)

STRIKE COMMANDO and STRIKE COMMANDO 2 [Blu-ray] and [DVD] (6/22)

INVADERS OF THE LOST GOLD [Blu-ray] and [DVD] (6/22)

SKINNED DEEP [Blu-ray] and [DVD] (7/27)

SIEGE [Blu-ray] and [DVD] (7/27)

BORN FOR HELL [Blu-ray] and [DVD] (7/27)

via MVD Entertainment Group

Severin Films' Summer lineup includes a massive Christopher Lee box set, a boatload of epic Action flicks, and a few Horror gems for good measure...



He remains one of the most beloved horror/fantasy icons in US/UK pop culture history, but Christopher Lee delivered several of the most compelling, acclaimed and bizarre performances of his entire career in 1960s Europe. THE EUROCRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER LEE brings together five of these Lee classics - the 1964 gothic shocker CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE; the 1964 cult hit CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD co-starring an unknown Donald Sutherland; 1962's celebrated SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DEADLY NECKLACE; 1967's lurid favorite THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM and the rarely-seen 1963 oddity CHALLENGE THE DEVIL - with the 24 surviving episodes of the 1971 Film Polski anthology series THEATRE MACABRE hosted by Lee, all remastered from original negative materials with over 10 hours of trailers, rare promos, audio commentaries & vintage interviews, plus the CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD soundtrack and an all-new 88-page book by Lee biographer Jonathan Rigby.

Two years before the deranged genius of ROBOWAR and SHOCKING DARK, writer/director Bruno Mattei and co-writers Claudio Fragasso & Rossella Drudi borrowed from RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II, MISSING IN ACTION and more to create their own mind-blowing 'Namsploitation masterpiece STRIKE COMMANDO. Reb Brown (UNCOMMON VALOR) stars as Sgt. Mike Ransom, a one-man war machine on a screaming-for-vengeance mission against brutal Vietcong, merciless Russians, double-crossing U.S. officers and acres of bullet-blasted Philippines jungle. Christopher Connelly (RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS), Luciano Pigozzi (ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK) and Jim Gaines (ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD) co-star in this exploding bamboo gun-tower of "Mattei magic at its finest" (Good Efficient Butchery), now mastered in 2K from the original negative for the first time.

In STRIKE COMMANDO 2, Mattei and crew return to the Philippine jungles with a higher budget, bigger action and Richard Harris (yes, that Richard Harris) for a crowd-pleaser that shamelessly borrows from APOCALYPSE NOW, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, RAMBO and beyond. This time, Sgt Mike Ransom (Brent Huff of GWENDOLINE fame) battles the KGB, rogue CIA agents, an army of ninjas, a tough bar owner (Miss World 1977 Mary Stavin) and "all the stuntman craziness and explosions you can cram into 90 minutes" (DTV Connoisseur). Mel Davidson (ROBOWAR) and Vic Diaz (THE BIG BIRD CAGE) co-star in this slow-motion machine-gun of Mattei mayhem that's "just as insane as its predecessor" (Good Efficient Butchery), now featuring a 2K scan from the original negative for the first time ever.

From producer Dick Randall - whose international trashterpieces include ESCAPE FROM WOMEN'S PRISON, THE WILD WILD WORLD OF JAYNE MANSFIELD and PIECES - comes perhaps the most notorious all-star Philippine productions of the '80s, INVADERS OF THE LOST GOLD. In the last days of WWII, a Japanese platoon is attacked by headhunters while attempting to hide millions in gold. 36 years later, a grizzled guide (onetime Academy Award® nominee Stuart Whitman) is hired to lead an expedition - including Woody Strode (SPARTACUS), Harold 'Oddjob' Sakata and Laura 'Emanuelle' Gemser - into a jungle inferno of greed, violence, nudity and murder. Edmund Purdom (ABSURD) and Glynis Barber (DEMPSEY AND MAKEPEACE) co-star in this "delicious piece of atrocity cake" (Funxton) directed by Alan Birkenshaw (KILLER'S MOON) - also known as HORROR SAFARI - now scanned in 2K for the first time ever.

His mind-blowing work as an FX artist has included everything from Frank Henenlotter's BRAIN DAMAGE and FRANKENHOOKER to Matthew Barney's CREMASTER CYCLE. And for SKINNED DEEP, his 2004 debut as writer/producer/director, Gabe Bartalos created this "demented gift from the B-Movie Gods" (Bloody Good Horror) about a rural clan of psychotic freaks, the killing spree "that takes us places and shows us things we've never seen before" (Dread Central) and the final girl that may be their depraved undoing. Warwick Davis (LEPRECHAUN) and Jason Dugre (SAINT BERNARD) star - with an appearance by fandom legend Forrest J. Ackerman - in this "brutal, bloody forgotten masterpiece" (Morbidly Beautiful) featuring music by Captain Sensible of The Damned, now scanned uncut in 2K from the original negative for the first time ever.

From co-directors Paul Donovan and Maura O'Connell (DEFCON-4) comes one of the most disturbing - and rarely-seen - Canadian shockers of the '80s, SIEGE, which was inspired by the actual 42-day Halifax police strike. When a local group of right-wing vigilantes massacres the patrons of a gay bar, the sole survivor seeks refuge in a nearby apartment building whose residents must now defend themselves in a night of hate, terror and bloodshed. Doug Lennox (BREAKING POINT), Tom Nardini (CAT BALLOU), Jack Blum (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME) and Keith Knight (MY BLOODY VALENTINE) star in this "dark and intense thriller, still uncomfortably relevant 35 years after it was made" (Blog Of Horror) - released in the U.S. as SELF DEFENSE - scanned in 2K from the original negative recently discovered in a Nova Scotia archive.

In 1976, Montreal filmmaker Denis Héroux - future director of THE UNCANNY and Oscar®-nominated producer of ATLANTIC CITY - adapted the true story of Chicago mass murderer Richard Speck to war-torn Belfast, where a disturbed Vietnam vet drifter (Mathieu Carrière of MALPERTUIS and BILITIS fame) brutalizes a dorm full of student nurses in BORN FOR HELL. Re-edited by its video distributor and released as NAKED MASSACRE, Héroux's harrowing director's cut has remained unseen in America until now. Debra Berger (THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS), Leonora Fani (GIALLO IN VENICE), Christine Boisson (EMMANUELLE), Ely Galleani (BABA YAGA) and Carole Laure (SWEET MOVIE) co-star in this "uncompromising and unfathomably grim work of art" (Video Basement), scanned in 2K from an uncut 35mm print discovered in The National Archives of Canada.

[oldguardaudio]

Trump’s Latest Appeals Court Nominees Would Cut the Vacancy Rate in Half

Trump’s Latest Appeals Court Nominees Would Cut the Vacancy Rate in Half

President Donald Trump has announced nominees for two of the four current vacancies on U.S. appeals courts, where the vacancy rate is already at a 35-year low.

Trump last week announced his intention to nominate Danielle J. Hunsaker of Oregon to serve on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers most Western states.

The president also announced he will nominate William J. Nardini to the…

[mrchrispaglia]

Winning

The first time that I met Norman Nardini, he said something to me about the business of music that I will never forget:  “The work is the reward, and if that’s not enough for you, then you’re in it for the wrong reasons.”

The terrorists don’t hate us because of our iPhones, Jordache jeans, or our incessant obsessions like Pokemon Go.  No, I believe that groups like the Islamic State want to do us harm because of Americans’ unquenchable thirst to win, to be the absolute best at everything.  Of course it also stems from our want to be the World Police, to solve global problems, particularly those that have a direct effect on our capitalism.  

What’s wrong with second place?  Yes, I know that athletes train to win, and I get that no one tries for the runner-up trophy, but what’s wrong with a silver medal?  Since there can only be one number one, why can’t the rest simply be happy with the effort?  When did we start feeling the need to WIN at everything?

This notion that Donald Trump has of us “winning” at everything makes me wonder why we have to.  Maybe, just maybe, there are other countries and races of people who do things a little better than we Americans.  Maybe we can learn from them rather than thumbing our noses at and bullying them.  Maybe, if we work together, we can all be proud of that work regardless of how we rank as a country.

I see it all the time in the Mon Valley, especially with athletics:  Winning is the most important thing.  And if the team doesn’t win, then the fans whine.  If I hear one more time about Catholic schools having an unfair advantage because they “recruit”, I’m going to call bullshit.  I can give some of you a history lesson on students who lived “there”, but played “here” simply because winning was of the utmost importance.

Somewhere along the line we lost our way, started with the unnecessary  participation trophies and ribbons and never really looked back.  Cursed is the day that our children’s self-esteem gets bruised because they finished third or fourth or fifteenth in a meaningless soccer tournament.  My AAU team is better than your AAU team because, well, we just are.  Enormous car magnets, endless Facebook pictures, and constant reminders of just how much better one is than the other.  

And when the game or tournament doesn’t end as we had planned?  Let’s blame someone:  The officials, the other team’s coach, the other team’s fans.  Don’t tell the players that they lost because they were outplayed or because you were out-coached.  It’s far easier to place that blame than to look in the mirror.  

Failure, in my opinion, is vastly underrated in our win-at-all-costs society.  Losing is how we learn to do better.  Picking ourselves up by the proverbial bootstraps, dusting ourselves off, and getting back on that horse is truly the American way.  All this nonsense about having to be great “again” is nothing more than rhetorical nonsense.

You want to win in the world?  Start with education.  Teach children from a very young age that there is absolutely no shame in losing.  Teach them that, with true competition, there can only be one number one.  Period.  Teach future generations that working harder than everyone else only guarantees that you have worked harder than everyone else.  End of story.