Black Lodge

Black Lodge is a video store in Memphis T.N. The most blood drenched slasher flicks to the most obscure foreign films have found a home at The Black Lodge Video in Memphis. "I have a love of film," said Bryan Hogue, co-owner of Black Lodge with his partner Matt Martin. "I consider myself a film archivist in a way. This is a film library." They met when they were both grocery baggers at Seesel's, according to Hogue. "Horror was our main thing when we were growing up," Hogue said. "It's kind of how we got to know each other." Black Lodge opened its doors in October of 2000 with about 6,000 videos, according to Hogue. "We wanted our hobby to pay for itself," Hogue said. "We knew that we could do it well." Black Lodge has grown significantly over the past few years. Now they have a collection of over 10,000 videos and 4,200 DVDs. "We had a big collection, and we started building on it," Martin said. "Then we said, 'let's just open the doors and see what happens.' At first. we didn't know if we would survive or not, then it just blew up." The inspiration for Black Lodge came from the duo working at similar video stores in Colombia, Mo., where they attended college. They realized that there was not a video store like theirs in the area."It made sense to put up some boards on the wall and see if anyone was interested," Martin said. "The heart of it is that I love people to be able to get access to films. I like to think that people find a place for themselves here, some way for people to make their lives more enjoyable." The name for the store came from Twin Peaks, a TV show created by David Lynch."In the show, there were two spiritual places, the black lodge and the white lodge," Hogue said. "The black lodge was where all the evil spirits were." There has been a certain amount of mythology that has shrouded the store in mystery to outsiders, according to Martin. "I think it's the tattoos," Martin said. "People need something to believe in even if it's creepy and weird."Martin and Hogue, along with many other people over the years, have gotten tattoos of the Black Lodge owl on various parts of their bodies. "Almost every single part of the human anatomy has been tattooed with the Black Lodge owl," Martin said. "For years we've had people come in here thinking that we do all kinds of things.People have thought that they were in a secret society, a cult and that they killed people for not returning movies, according to Martin. Martin and Hogue are the only people who work at Black Lodge for money. The rest of the people are more like an extended family of volunteers, according to Hogue. "We've had a lot of friends come in. They pretty much work for rentals and hang out space," Hogue said. "We prefer that to hiring strangers off of the street. If you have your friends working with you, it's more pleasant than strangers." Working with friends and fostering a family atmosphere does have its down side, according to Martin. "It's more like a Manson family atmosphere," Martin said. "There is constantly in-fighting, but for the most part, it feels like home." The love of film and of Black Lodge has infected more than just its owners though. "This is the most awesome collection I've seen in my life," said Bernard "BJ" Rule, who has been volunteering at the store since 2000. "I take a lot of pride in being here." The volunteers help in all aspects of the store and do a lot to keep everything running smoothly, according to Martin. "It's a great place to watch great movies," said Mike Degnan, who has been involved with Black Lodge since 2001. "It's one of the most innovative and unique businesses in the region that works." Black Lodge also provides a venue for people who are tired of dealing with major video rental chains, according to Degnan. "What are you waiting for? Blockbuster is a joke, and Hollywood video isn't much better," Degnan said. "You've got no excuse not to come here unless you're looking for kids' movies." Black Lodge's vast collection is a great place to get a self-education in film history, according to Degnan. Area film professors also use the store to help educate their students. "Just about every film class, no matter what school, comes to us. The teachers have found us, and they know that we've got what they need," Hogue said. "If someone assigns a paper that movie is always out by the end of the day." Aside from being an archive of sorts and serving the community's film students, Black Lodge has to compete with larger chain video stores and the Internet. "It all has to do with the future of the film industry itself. We'll probably always stick around as a type of vintage shop," Martin said. "The high times for all of this is now, but we'll always have a place to hang out and do our thing." The Black Lodge emerged at an exciting time in Memphis film when Craig Brewer and John Michael McCarthy were first making a name for themselves in the film industry, according to Martin. Black Lodge was even given exclusive rights to Brewer's first film, "The Poor and the Hungry." "There are still things that have gone under our radar. We're still constantly learning ourselves," Hogue said. Speaking for myself, this is the biggest treasure trove I've ever come across. As a lover of old cult films, I nearly fainted when I entered this store for the first time. I've lived in some pretty diverse cities and never in a million years, thought I would come across Heaven on Earth, here in Tennessee. This isn't just any old video store, it's a well stocked cinematic library of global proportions.

Queen Adreena

After the success of Daisy Chainsaw with their punk hit “Love your money”, Crispin Gray and Katie Jane Garside decided to create a new band called Queen Adreena in 1999. Their first EP “Taxidermy” is released in 2000, written by the two of them. This album will become a reference, a classic with their awesome personality and sound, sometimes rock'n'roll, sometimes blues and melancholic. The band will have several bassists and drummers until they found Pete Howard in 2002 for the second album “Drink me”, a record more savage and instinctive than the first one. Pete Howard will bring his strength on the drums, bringing the good rhythm and the good energy to Queen Adreena. With their new album "The Butcher and the Butterfly" Queen Adreena has scored it's biggest hit yet, ironically it's a cover Dolly Parton's "Jolene". Sounds an odd combination, but worked out beautifully. With this new single, Queen Adreena is starting to achieve a more mainstream success as it did with Daisy Chainsaw. If you're a Marilyn Manson fan, then don't miss Queen Adreena as Marilyn's opening act on his European tour.

Party Monster

There are three versions of this story, all of which are amazing. In the early 90's when the club kid craze was at it's peak, a club kid named Michael Alig (the crowned prince of all club kids) committed murder and even though he bragged about the killing, everyone just thought that that was just Michael being Michael, a well known drug user who would lie and swindle Jesus Christ if he thought it could get him some drugs. James St. James (self proclaimed original club kid) was a close friend and sometimes roommate with Michael Alig, and was therefore present for most of the inside story. In fact, it was James St. James that started this ball rolling. He wrote a wonderful book called "Disco Bloodbath, a Fabulous but True Tale of Murder in Clubland". It's a must read. Anyway, they made a documentary on the whole affair, including footage from all the key players in this bizarre story. Before his downfall, Michael Alig was a huge success as a party promoter, mostly for a club in New York called "The Limelight". Drugs flowed freely and the weirder you were, the cooler you'd be. It was a nonstop psychedelic world of color that was very intriguing and fun and even spawned a celebrity or two (RuPaul was a club kid). They also made the talk show circuit for a while, appearing on shows like "Geraldo" and "Sally Jesse Raphael". His favorite tactic was an impromptu surprise party held in anyplace from small McDonald's restaurants to subway stations. He made the news all the time and was a strong personality on the hippest of scenes. Eventually, the more drugs that Michael took, the more grim his party themes became. My favorite being the "Blood Feast Party" featuring every gruesome sight imaginable. Alig and his friend Freeze were all strung out one day when Mr. Pissed Off Drug Dealer Angel Melendez shows up and demands money which of course they don't have. A fight erupts, Angel is hit on the noggin with a hammer, dragged to the bathtub by Alig and Freeze, injected with Drano and smothered with a pillow. Michael dismembers Angels body and stuffs it in a large TV box and uses it for a coffee table. They also feel the need to hastily paint most of the walls red and blame a mysterious stench on screwed up plumbing. Eventually the smell becomes overwhelming so Michael and Freeze dump the box with the body in it into the river. The body is found and put into a freezer with a misidentification of race (he was listed as Asian, and Angel was Hispanic). If it weren't for Michael Alig bragging about it, he probably would have gotten away with it. When Michael Alig told his stories of killing Angel, everyone thought it was a joke because Michael always joked and was a notorious liar. Rumors started to circulate that Michael was not kidding when he bragged about killing Angel and certain people close to the situation started to come forward with their stories to save their own asses. Eventually, it all caught up with him and he and Freeze were convicted of first degree murder. A big budget movie has just been made that is the documentary verbatim minus the documentary narration, feel and look. Macauley Culkin plays Michael Alig with stark precision. Seth Green plays James St.James. Marilyn Manson and Chloe Sevigny also have notable parts in the movie. It's a colorful flick with a fantastic soundtrack which is somewhat nostalgic for those of us who watched the club kids and dared to be like them. It truly is a fabulous tale about murder in clubland.

Divine

Divine. The name says it all. One of my favorite actors/actresses in the entire world. Born Harris Glen Milstead in Baltimore Maryland, he grew up with childhood friend John Waters. The two became synonymous for quite some time, at least until Divine died from sleep apnea in 1989 (the result of years of excessive weight gain). John Waters and Divine created some of the best cult films ever made. Divine starred in all but one John Waters movie (Desperate Living, in which Divine was slated to be in but had to pull out due to his touring schedule) until his untimely death shortly after starring in John's biggest hit "Hairspray" (which spawned an actually pretty amusing musical on Broadway in which Harvey Fierstein very appropriately played Divine's role as Edna Turnblad). Divine remained with John Waters for 90% of his career making classics like "Pink Flamingos" and "Female Trouble", but in the late 70's/early 80's when he began to gain some actual fame, Divine began to spread his wings a little and starred in a few plays such "The Neon Woman" and also starred in other motion pictures like "Lust in the Dust" with Lainie Kazan and Tab Hunter. Divine also had a strenuous singing/touring career as a disco queen, and had some pretty big hit songs like "I'm So Beautiful" and "You Think You're a Man". She was no ordinary drag queen, Divine was a drag terrorist. She sent the best of them running (in six inch heels), screaming for their lives. Even though it was her trademark, it was also her downfall... excessive weight. Divine had been overweight for most of his life and began to have some difficulty breathing and soon developed sleep apnea. When Divine (who was well known for his punctuality) didn't show up for work one morning (when I say "work" I mean that Divine failed to show up for the first taping of the show "Married with Children" with him starring in it as a regular guest character), I think most everybody's heart began to sink. Divine was dead, but far from gone. Thankfully, his amazing talent was all caught on film and he left us with some of the most bizarre, hilarious, outrageousness ever seen. She was bold, she was beautiful, she was... Divine. As a humorous footnote to the story, when the "Married with Children" show sent flowers to Divine's funeral, the card read "If you didn't want the job, all you had to do was say so".

Siouxsie and the Banshees

Siouxsie and the Banshees were a punk/goth band that formed in the late 70's. The lead singer Siouxsie Sioux (Susan Ballion) formed Siouxsie and the Banshees with Steven Severin and Budgie. It was a rough start, but by the early 80's some hits began to come out. With each album, Siouxsie and the Banshees got bigger and bigger and racked up more and more hits, with each album becoming more successful and popular than the last. They weren't quite as mainstream as their counterband, The Cure. But instead kept their own style and were rather original. Siouxsie, with her wild hair and severe makeup, became an 80's signature band. From albums like "Kaleidoscope"," "Ju Ju" and "Tinderbox" came some even bigger hits like "Happy House, ","Spellbound" and "Cities in Dust". In the late 80's, Siouxsie and the Banshees produced an album called "Peepshow" featuring the hit song "Peek-a-boo", which quickly rose to the top of the charts and reached #1 in Europe. In the early 90's, Siouxsie and the Banshees changed their image a little. Siouxsie's makeup and hairstyle had been tamed quite a bit and for once we saw how beautiful she actually was. Their new album "Superstition" was much tamer than previous albums, but still another great success, with it's #1 hit "Kiss them for me" (a ballad to Jayne Mansfield). The band was bigger than ever and was asked to be one of the performing bands at the first Loolopalooza Festival along with bands like "Living Color", The Jesus and Mary Chain" and "Jane's Addiction". When the movie "Batman Returns" was being made, Siouxsie was approached to play the part of Catwoman. She declined stating that she was a singer, not an actress. Instead she composed the movies theme song "Face to Face" and the part went to Michelle Pfeifer. This was to be their last big hit and sadly, their follow-up album "The Rapture" failed to deliver any hits and by now, the band was getting kind of old and facing extinction. Siouxsie and the Banshees called it quits after over 20 years on the billboard charts. Siouxsie married the bands drummer Budgie and started a new band called The Creatures. Not much success there, due to the constant comparison to the Banshees. In 2003, the band reunited for a filmed concert called "The Seven Year Itch" in which despite of the amazing performance that it was, it was quite apparent that Siouxsie was losing her voice. High notes in songs became flat and painfully low baritone. It would appear that this was the end of the story of Siouxsie Sioux and her Banshees. Then a surprise. Siouxsie (alone, no Banshees or Creatures) has a new album coming out November of 2007 called "Mantaray". I'm not sure if she regained her voice or it's just some studio magic, but she looks and sounds great. A new video has been released for a song called "Into a Swan", with Siouxsie looking her gothic best. Sure, she's a little older, but as they say.. "Like fine wine". Welcome back Siouxsie!! We missed you!!

Bettie Page

I don't usually incorporate people into the cult phenomenon, but there's no denying that some people throughout history have a huge cult following. One of the biggest and certainly one of the most beautiful is the lovely lovely Ms. Bettie Page. Bettie was born in Nashville Tennessee into a poor and abusive household. She left Tennessee for the bright lights of New York with hopes and dreams of becoming a great actress. She won a few beauty contests, but unfortunately fame as an actress eluded her. While vacationing in Florida, she was spotted by an off duty police officer with a hobby in photography. After doing some modeling for him, they became friends. He also suggested that she change her hairstyle by adding bangs. This style would become her lifelong trademark. Soon she began modeling for local camera clubs and was eventually introduced to Irving Klaw and his sister Paula. The Klaws ran a very successful photography and modeling operation that produced celebrity photographs as well as their own photos using hired models. The Klaws also specialized in a new form of fantasy photography including various forms of bondage. As risque as this was at that time (mid 50's) Bettie seemed unconcerned and was quite comfortable with this form of modeling. Because of these photos, Bettie began to gain some attention in the modeling world as somewhat of a dominatrix. This couldn't have been farther from the truth. After all, it was just modeling and it was all pretend. To quote Bettie herself "I've never whipped anyone in my life!" Paula did the tying up and always made sure that the ropes were loose and comfortable. In the 1950's, bondage was still seen as a taboo and soon Irving and Paula Klaw were facing some distribution difficulties. Bettie loved the beach and when things got a little hectic in New York, she would always return to her beloved Florida. While there, she met another photographer named Bunny Yeager who was a rising star in the modeling world. From this union came some of the most famous of Bettie Page photos. She even made the prestigious centerfold of Playboy, a magazine that was very new and very classy. Bettie was the second Playboy model ever (Marilyn Monroe was the first). Although Bettie gained much notoriety for her bondage shots, fame (as an actress) and fortune continued to elude her. After a few close calls with stalkers and the lost enthusiasm from the continuation of non-profit modeling. Bettie Page called it quits and disappeared... literally. No one really knew what happened to the missing pin-up queen. Rumors were that she had committed suicide, was rubbed out by the mob, etc. etc. The truth was far less shocking. Bettie had moved to Florida permanently and tried marriage and family (children from her husbands previous marriage, Bettie never had any children of her own). She also gave her life over to God and became a Christian Missionary for many years. She didn't just keep a low profile, she quite literally had disappeared entirely from the public eye. For years and years, no one knew what had become of Ms. Bettie Page. And although she had vanished, her pictures had not. Unbeknownst to Bettie, a huge cult following was evolving around her. Her pictures became more and more popular while her fame continued to grow. Paintings, post cards, statues... soon Ms. Page was everywhere and more adored than any model in history.. After decades of seclusion, Bettie was finally located by the show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous". She lives in an undisclosed location in California with her brother. When she was rediscovered, Bettie had absolutely no idea that she had become so famous and was actually quite shocked. She's 84 years old now and prefers to stay out of the public eye, wanting only to remain the young beautiful woman she left on film so many years ago.

Daisy Chainsaw

Some people find it difficult to intergrate music into a category like cult classics, because the word "classic" tends to strike people as meaning "old". This is sooooo not true here at Cultarama. You see, "Cult" is the key word, meaning the campy, the fun, the shocking, the intrigueing, etc, etc. The word "classic" therefore doesn't mean "old", it means the perfect and distinguishable. Music I feel, should not be excluded from this category, so here we go. Daisy Chainsaw was a really fun band that sprang up in the early 90's, fronted by the lovely but truly bizarre Katie Jane Garside. This woman can do the strangest things with her voice. Honestly though it isn't for everyone, but what is? Katie always wears dirty, tattered dresses with dead flowers in her hair and is usually barefoot. Daisy Chainsaw only came out with one album "Eleventeen", but it was a huge hit on the grunge, goth scene. Their sound is very gritty with hilarious lyrics, backed up with a thrashing energy. The band broke up in the mid 90's and Katie Jane Garside along with former Daisy Chainsaw member, guitarist Crispin Gray formed a new band called Queen Adreena. With albums like "Taxidermy", "The Butcher and the Butterfly", and "Pretty Like Drugs", that hint of Daisy Chainsaw is still there. It's a new band, but essentially it includes everyone that we liked from Daisy Chainsaw and is still fronted by Katie Jane Garside. It's not Daisy Chainsaw, but it's an incredible facsimile.