If this is your first time joining us: the Starter Pack is an annual serial of sorts that details a very small handful of potential plans for the season ahead: stuff we hope to watch, listen to, eat, drink, read, etc. to further tailor the Summer experience to fit in with the predetermined mood. Usually the details of these adventures are documented on Facebook and Instagram as a way for you to join in - either contemporaneously or on your own journey. Mostly, though, this is just a promise to ourselves to try & stick to a plan - we always fully intend for everything to pan out but we continue to reserve the right to walk away in 30 seconds flat if we feel the heat around the corner.
- Paul
Shadows, Atanas
More than anything else, the real driving force of our Violent Fantasies is going to be music; can't really have a Synthwave Summer without a lotta synth, and that opens the doors to a vast library of artists and albums. One such album that fits into the groove is Shadows by Atanas Ilitch. Some of you may already be familiar with this album or are at least aware of it, but in any case: Atanas Ilitch will forever be best known for his role as The Driller Killer in the 1987 Musical Horror Comedy Slumber Party Massacre II, but the year before that masterpiece came out, Atanis gave us this: 10 Electro Pop Rock tracks with titles like "Talk to Me Like the Rain" and "Shoot the Gun" that will seamlessly integrate themselves into the mood of the moment. I've been sitting on this sealed original pressing from '86 and I'm struggling to find the courage to open it (I really wanna get a look at that "full color poster"). Luckily for me (and you) I can ride that fence forever if I need to because, in the meantime, the entire Shadows album can be found on YouTube. (That link's not mine, but when it finally dies you can come over and we can tear that cellophane and spin the vinyl.)
UNCLE TNUC
If our Summer theme of a neon-hued Crime aesthetic and Glam Metal groupies is your kinda vibe, you may wanna pay a visit to Uncle TNUC ("tee-nuk"), a Wordpress blog that surfs this wave all night and parties every day. Over the years, those nights & days have been spent reviewing Erotic Thrillers, tracking down relics of Hard Rock, eating pizza, drinking beer, and paying tribute to the likes of Garth Algar's bedroom, Nintendo's Power Glove, and Uncle Buck's car. His social media reach lands in all the usual places though he's probably best known for meticulously curated music playlists dedicated to topics like Horror Movie Metal, Vampire Rock, Prostitutes, and Enya. This is all just the tab of the Coors can - the Uncle's been around for over 15 years so there's a lotta bikini bods and guitar gods to sift through all summer long.
Russ Meyer on Blu-ray!
This may not fit in with the overall atmosphere we're aiming for, but at its core this is entirely a Summertime activity; as many (or all) of you are aware, Severin made my dreams come true by partnering with The Russ Meyer Trust and the Museum of Modern Art to restore and release the late auteur's filmography. Since Fall of 2024 they've put out discs of Vixen, Supervixens, Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens, Motorpsycho, and Up!, and while I couldn't pre-order them fast enough, they've sat wiggle-jiggle-free on my shelves since they've arrived, because nobody but nobody wants to watch skin flick sexcapade hijinks in February. So, the pressure's been cumulating and the excitement's been building and my sights are set on Summer as fertile ground for a massive Bosomania marathon that promises to Erupt With Excitement!
TV After Dark
Securing movies and music that compliment the desired ambience of this summer's subject matter will be fun, though not very challenging; we're very much in touch with our Violent Fantasies. With TV we have to get a little creative as to what qualifies, then locate it, then lock in. In the past the goal has often been to embrace a series we're not already exhaustedly familiar with, so there's always a bit of a gamble in regards to a.) will it fit in with the theme, and b.) will we even like it. So again, the obvious Miami Vice aside, off the top of my head I'm thinking Silk Stalkings, Magnum P.I., La Femme Nikita, China Beach, Knight Rider, Red Shoe Diaries, and with any luck, the notoriously illusive Baywatch Nights. I think by this point you get the overall aura we're going for here so if you have any recommendations, lick your lips and whisper tawdry suggestions in my ear.
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