So now I know what it feels like when I constantly harass folk about getting a column done for Mad Monks. Not that Rick has really harassed me mind you, but I've said I'll write something and there ain't no backin' out now! In fact I've gone into this with no ideas whatsoever. Fuck. Oh, I have been doing a lot of travelling to gigs in London recently. The last thing I went to was the premiere for the movie 'Godmoney' and, contrary to the hype on the flyers, it really had nothing to do with the skate/ punk scene whatsoever. In fact the only 'punk' thing about it was the soundtrack, well, and the fact that Rick Rodney (lead singer of Strife) played the lead role. I'm sure there were more 'in scene' folk in it but there were no credits so I wasn't sure (although Fletcher from Pennywise has a brief role - and what an 'ard bastard he is too!). The film was directed by Darren Doane who is responsible for all the punk videos over in the US (like Pennywise's 'Same Old Story') and the only thing I can say about him is that he's a fuckin' genius. In fact, without trying to sound like an overly pretentious film critic, 'Godmoney' is a fucking timeless classic and, I'm sure, definitely one of the most impressive movies to ever come out of the late nineties.
It's hard to explain without kind of giving the whole game away (not that you'll ever get to see it if it doesn't get released in the U.K.) but it just seems to break away from all regular cinema conventions; There's a girl and, in any 'normal' self-respecting Hollywood extravaganza, she would have been the mandatory 'love' interest, but in 'Godmoney' she's not. Also the characters are just so gritty and realistic. There's this suburban drug dealer guy and when you're watching him, just like talking and his motions and stuff, it kind of sends a shiver down your spine. You can imagine going to the States and meeting him, and he'd be exactly the same - scary.
The music actually plays a pretty important role in setting the atmosphere too. The scene in the park where the two local dealers and their 'henchmen' meet up is filmed in slow motion in an aerial, 360 degree kind of way which uses 'Peaceful Day' by Pennywise as its theme. This scene is remarkable. When things get back to regular speed and the dialogue comes in you find yourself getting sucked in something chronic, just by like the whole randomness and chaos of it all - obviously down to tremendous script writing and brilliant direction on the whole. The Rollins Band track is used well too, and by the end comes to symbolise Rick Rodney, uh, walking down the street!
The plot is a relatively simple one, but is laced throughout with some ingenious twists and turns that just makes you like the film even more. Basically, due to a pretty harsh reason, drug addict Rick Rodney (sorry, can't remember any of their names - I only saw it once and that was after four pints) leaves New York to start a new life in Hollywood. He misses his stop and ends up in The Valley, and goes about getting off the drugs, finding a place to live, some friends and a job in a pizza place. He's sorted, he's gettin' it together... Well, that's until he loses his job after being late one too many times. From then on things start to slide for ol' Rick as the local coke dealer offers him a quick way out of his continually worsening financial situation. His plan is to do the deliveries, make some cash, get the hell out of there and buy a one way ticket to the Mid-West, and he plans to do all of this in two weeks. After a few easy deliveries Rick decides he wants more money. There seems to be no way of getting it until the guy he's working for offers him a solution - $20,000 for shooting dead the 'other' local dealer. At this point things go completely insane as we soon realise that we don't know Rick as well as we thought we did, and then later on find out that maybe we did after all. The final few scenes of this movie come together in one shattering crescendo as things don't turn out how we thought they were gonna, Rick lands a few people in it, and the film ends as it began, with Rick sitting at a table in a coffee shop thinking about all that has happened. As I said, I don't wanna give too much away because it's so great going into it not knowing what the hell is gonna happen, but I can tell you that the ending is so powerful and pretty moving, and it's ingenious that what we saw in the opening scene is not at all how it seems. At this point the answers, the whole point of the movie I suppose, come flooding in. 'Godmoney' is the most essential film ever - simple as that, and my overwhelming thanks go out to Stan at Phoenix Records for setting it all up, having both Rick Rodney and Darren Doane present at the showing, and losing a hell of a lot of money in the process, oh, and allowing fabulous Lovejunk and the wonderful Pinto to play afterwards. As I said, if this film ever makes it to this country than do not miss it.
Okay, just a final plug then, the latest issue of my 'zine Mad Monks is out now (#11). It's 64 pages, £1.50 ppd and has interviews with One Hit Wonders, The Ataris, Man... or Astroman?, Soeza, Panic and skateboarder Ben Bodily, as well as a pretty big letters page, columns, cartoons, reviews and more. Also, I'm currently working on #12 which is gonna be the most substantial issue yet with (hopefully) almost 100 pages. At the moment it has interviews with Swingin' Utters, No Use For A Name, Pinto, Suicide Machines, Girls Against Boys, Caustic Soda, Blitz Babies and a great one with Icki from Sty Zine. Hopefully by the time it's finished it will also have interviews with Pulley, Duane Peters (skate legend and now of US Bombs), J Church and NRA - few! I hope I can pull it off! Don't order this issue yet 'cos I've still got a way to go, but I'm sure you'll see a few flyers around nearer the time. That too will be £1.50 ppd. Right, that's it from me so I'll just say thanks to Rick for letting me look like a second rate Barry Norman, and um, keep watchin' the floor... uh, I mean the skies!

Love
Dave..

Address: Dave/ Mad Monks Magazines,
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