'Vice Squad' Screening @ Nitehawk Cinema... CCD Style!!!

Last night Tommy Lombardozzi and I ventured into Williamsburg, Brooklyn to one of our favorite cinemas to watch an 80's classic.
Nitehawk Cinema gives you plenty of reasons to love it: Good food (a full menu of food, not just snacks), a full bar... and all of those goodies served continuously as the movie is being shown. Their programming is also impeccable. They balance newer release indy/art house films with a healthy mix of older features in many different categories. One of the things they do best is called 'The Deuce', which focuses on movies that reflect the grindhouse nature of 70's-80's 42nd St. here in NYC... gritty, full of nudity, and usually plenty of drugs/crime. 'Vice Squad' is the perfect movie to highlight these types of films. It premiered in 1982 and was supposed to portray a day in the life a hooker, a murderous pimp, and a vice cop all at the same time. Wings Hauser plays the killer pimp Ramrod, and boy is he close to amazing! He is smacking bitches, poppin' cops, and much more... a true villain. Gary Swanson stars as Tom Walsh, a vice cop trying his best to clean up his city one bad guy at a time. Season Hubley plays Princess, the hooker Walsh plans to use to flush out Ramrod. Until he escapes police custody and everything goes to shit. An amazing example of sleaze cinema, this movie is a must see! After last night's 35 mm screening (complete with scratches, missing reels, and terrible cuts), star Gary Swanson came up for a little Q & A that we recorded impromptu on my Iphone. Now that means there are multiple clips and the sound/pics are not fantastic... but it is cool to hear the star of the movie talk about it. Check out all the videos after the jump, and make sure you check out what is coming up at Nitehawk Cinema in the future so you can attend a cool ass screening like this one....




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Here are some pics we took from the Nighthawk Bar after the screening and Q & A:

Me, Gary Swanson and Tommy

Original Movie Poster On Display

Heinekens In brown paper bags were served... very appropriate!

CCD Links It Up #12

This is the first edition of CCD Links It Up of the New year and as usual it is packed full of page hopping goodness. We got an upcoming CCD Meetup/Mike D birthday outing involving cereal, 80's cartoons, and booze on the big screen... yeah, I just typed that! We got a Top 10 list of the best films of 2012 from Roger Ebert, and like him or not the guys is the defining movie critic of a generation. Need a way to spend those holiday gift cards? We got some suggestions for you. Plus some bonus boobies and much, much more.... what are you waiting for? Get on after it by clicking on the links after the jump...



1) Nitehawk Cinema is one of the coolest movie theaters I have ever been to. Since we NYers don't have an Alamo Drafthouse to go to yet (soon... 2015!), Nitehawk is a pleasant surprise that I stumbled upon doing things similar to what they do at Alamo Drafthouse. They serve drinks and food throughout the films via waitress service, and their menu is outrageous. One of the upcoming events that they have on the agenda is Spoons, Toons and Booze. They are pairing a free cereal bar, tons of 80's cartoons, and a full complement booze for a multi hour marathon on the big screen. I have decided to use this cool ass event as a CCD meetup/birthday get together on Saturday January 19th at noon. Here is the link to the Facebook page and here is the link to official Nitehawk page to order tickets. It is first come first serve tickets, so order ahead of time because they might sell out ahead of time. Come on down!!!!!

2) Here is Roger Ebert's Top Ten Films of 2012. Not a lot of surprises on here (his #4 pick was a bit bizarre for me), but one thing stuck out to me. He named 15 'almost' movies after the Top 10, and Django was not on the list. nor was The Hobbit. Now I can see why these wouldn't make EVERY BODIES Top Ten, but they should have cracked the Top 25, no?

3) ThinkGeek is having a massive 75% off Post holiday Sale that is featuring some cool ass items. Sean Hartter is also selling 11 x 17 prints for 3 for $26 bucks. That is a great price and you can order ANYTHING he has on his website. And Tommy Lombardozzi has some killer artwork as well for sale over at his site... go order some stuff ASAP!!!

4) And now for the BOOBIES!!!! Beer Mug Sports is starting the New Year off right by naming model Kristen DeLuca the beer Mug Girl of the Month. She has boobs, a butt and a face worthy of the title. Enjoy more pics here, and these two are just a bonus...

5) We know what movies made booku bucks in 2012, but what were the LOWEST grossing movies of 2012? Slashfilm takes a look at the worst performers of the year... 

Guess Who Met Chris Claremont??? This Guy Right Here!!!!

The 2012 edition of the NY Comic Con was a memorable one for many reasons. I got to chill with my boys, got treated like a king due to my press pass, got a ton of free swag, bought a ton of cool shit... yeah, all that shit was great. But getting to meet some of my comic creating heroes... yeah, that tops the list by a long shot. In the next couple of days I will tell you guys about meeting the likes of Mike Mignola, Herb Trimpe, Neal Adams, David Lloyd, and many others... but hands down, the coolest person that I met had to be THE X-MAN himself, Mr. Chris Claremont!!! 

Click after the jump for the rest of the story...



Claremont is responsible for creating the modern day X-Men as you and I know it. Starting in 1975, Claremont wrote the Uncanny X-Men book for a total of 17 STRAIGHT YEARS. That is unheard of in the comic world. Shit, Stan Lee didn't even write the X-Men for that long... and he created the team! Claremont used some of the old characters but brought in a shitload of new ones, and many of those characters were strong females. He put the ladies to the forefront of the team, and the stories that he wrote are some of the best you will ever read. He wrote The Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past, and many other popular story arcs that made the X-men the most popular characters in the Marvel Universe. The guy is a god. And there he was, just sitting at a table in Artists Alley....

Claremont's first isuue, #94

I couldn't believe my eyes. Claremont... right in front of me. This was like a dream come true. I was brought into the comic world in the mid 80s by reading large runs of Avengers & X-men books. Claremont was my first fave. I own a huge chunk of that 17 year run, but unfortunately most of those books are in my Dad's attic way out in Long Island. FUCK!!!! I knew I would be back again on Friday and I needed to formulate a plan, so when I got home that night I immediately ripped up my comic collection that I have in my apartment...

I wanted to get Claremont to sign as many things as possible, so I began sifting through my issues. I found a couple, #201 & #204 respectively. #201 is technically the first appearance of Cable  (actually Nathan Summers as a baby), one of my faves when I was a young collector (it was wroth a few bucks back in the day!) . I also had two of the new X-Men books that Claremont did with Jim Lee back in 91.  Finally, I  had a very Cool original Marvel Graphic Novel (the oversized ones) of God Loves, Man Kills that I acquired at Joseph Koch's Comic Warehouse (so much old cool shit there for cheap, you gotta get out to their Warehouse Sales once a month!).

 So I went and got those signed by Claremont the next day. When I handed him issue #204 (Nightcrawler on the cover). He thumbed through it and gave me a serious look, and said 'Wow... thank you. I haven't seen that particular issue in about 15 years!'. I almost dropped... you gotta be kidding me. Props from Claremont on my book choice? Yup. He also cracked a smile when I handed him the Oversized Graphic Novel. "Another oldie but a goodie" he said... yup Chris Claremont just became my new favorite guy in the world.

I decided to hunt down some more back issues to get Claremont to sign, which I did at one of the vendors tables, I got some really cool books from his run, like 10 in all for about a buck a piece. Well worth it since I was about to get the John Hancock of the King X-Man himself on them. Claremont was glad to sign those as well, and again thumbed through a full issue. This time it was # 181, a book called 'Young Dragons In Love' that feature Lockheed the Dragon. That book is special to me because we have our very own Lockheed here at CCD, so I loved that he liked that selection as well. Mr. Claremont, you really are the man! So much so, I asked him to sign my credential as well. A Fitting way to end the weekend!

Either way, it was a great haul and I got to meet & talk to one of my idols from the comic world. Thanks again, Mr. Claremont... and thanks for all the great stories!