Dark Stars Rising: Conversations from the Outer Realms

by Shade Rupe

The smaller half of Penn & Teller ends his silence for a lengthy discussion of magic and falsehoods, John Waters' stars Divine opens the closet during his transition to playing male roles, Crispin Glover gives love to Fassbinder, the star of Russ Meyer's Faster Pussycat! Kill, Kill! Tura Satana tells it like it is from burlesque shows to Hollywood, Alejandro Jodorowsky showers cinema lovers with psychomagic, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge lays down the gauntlet with his creations Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, Udo Kier, the star of Andy Warhol's Dracula and Frankenstein, hunts for virgins, Gaspar Noé helps up Enter the Void, Viennese performance artist Hermann Nitsch lets the blood flow, Chas. Balun paints us Deep Red, Richard Stanley unleashes a Dust Devil with his Hardware, and much much more. Shade Rupe's DARK

Genres: Music, Cultural, Nonfiction, Art

560 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2009

Reviews

[Elina Mäkitalo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ihan ok. Kuvia oli paljon, ja ne olivatkin parasta kirjassa, vaikka olivatkin vähän sameita. Ihan kaikista en jaksanut lukea, vaikka suurimmaksi osaksi luinkin. Siksi pitää lukea toiseen kertaan. Siinä tämä on hyvä, että voi lukea palasina jos niin haluaa eli jokainen pätkä oli omansa. Jos aihe kiinnostaa niin suosittelen.

[Horror DNA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark Stars Rising opens solidly, with an interview with the great Divine, possibly best known for his work in the John Waters films like Pink Flamingos and Hairspray. But instead of delving deep into Divine's career with Waters, Rupe simply has a conversation with the man, discussing not just his film work, but his music career, drugs and high school. This first interview sets the pace of what's to come, as the majority of the discussions in the book are conversational in tone, jumping from topic to topic. This is a great format, as you end up learning more about the subject instead of the typical fluff where it's a barrage of questions like "What was it like working with so-and-so?" or "Who was your favorite actor [or director] to work with?" Nobody really cares about those questions, people want dirt. And, boy, Shade Rupe's style of interviewing allows that dirt to come up.

You can read Steve's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.

[Osku · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book of interviews with interesting people. Divine, Crispin Glover, Tura Satana, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Peter Sotos, Richard Stanley and many others. Many of the interviewees I knew already but there were some that were completely new to me. Some of the interviews felt like a random section of a longer interview which was a bit confusing at times. Sometimes it is obvious that the interviewer and the interviewee know each other since quite some time. The tone is often very friendly and chatty. The interviews cover the time from 1986 to 2010. I would have liked the date of the interview being more clearly present; the dates are listed only in a very small print in a footnote on the last page.
In the end of the book there are also book and film reviews of material that is kind of in line with the interviewees (and my interests), like Immoral Tales (both the book and the movie), Blood Feast, Cannibal Ferox, Vampyros Lesbos, Aftermath, Hardgore, etc.

[flannery · Rating 4 out of 5]

"For me, therefore, the obvious way to succeed as an artist, whether it be a musician or a painter or a writer, is to find a unique voice or style or trademark of some kind, and then keep doing it relentlessly, and refining it relentlessly.

But never, ever abandon it. Keep on and on and on and on. And eventually one day you will be known as 'the guy who paints stripes,' 'the guy who kills pigs.' The guy with the vibrato voice, Roy Orbison, etc. And people will say, 'I know who that is singing that song, it's Led Zeppelin. Or, 'I know who painted that picture. Francis Bacon.' Or, 'I know who did that soup can. Andy Warhol.' Or, 'I know who wrote this book with young boys ejaculating over lizards. William Burroughs.' It's that simple. You knew as I was saying it that it was William Burroughs."

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review at HorrorTalk.com.

[Katherine Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

An encyclopedia of the bizarre and strange in Hollywood. Very thorough and interesting. Plus, the fact that one of the featured individuals is my hero doesn't hurt.

[Leftjab · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun, with the interviews ranging from the surprisingly insightful to the completely bonkers.

[Jason Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome collection of interviews!!