Hellboy II: The Golden Army - New European Character Movie Posters

These new Hellboy II: The Golden Army European character movie promotional posters are sooo much cooler than the original Hellboy II Teaser Character Movie Posters I blogged about back in January.



Those first few character promo posters were just headshots, while these new and improved ones are full bodied and give us a better look at the movie’s creepy looking villains. Along with posters of the movie’s three main heroes, Hellboy, Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien, we get two posters featuring Prince Nuada and the Angel of Death, a creature that looks like it just stepped out of Guillermo del Toro’s oscar nominated Pan’s Labyrinth.



If you haven’t been able to tell from previous Hellboy posts, I love Guillermo del Toro’s work and can’t wait for this film to come out. He just has such a unique vision that translates amazingly onto the screen. Pretty much everything this guy touches is cinematic gold. And, while I’m not a huge middle earth fan, I know del Toro working with Peter Jackson on The Hobbit films will amount to some unbelievable special effects and movie telling. The Hobbit won’t be out until 2010, but you can see Hellboy II: The Golden Army in just 7 weeks!

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive Album and Summer Tour

The Blot just can’t get enough of the Brooklyn, NY by way of Minneapolis-Saint Paul band The Hold Steady. There is just something about Craig Finn’s voice and lyrics that allows the band, at least to me, to really stand out from the rest of indie rock nation. From the first day I heard Boys and Girls in America, the band’s 2006 album, I was hooked. I’ve been waiting patiently for the band’s latest album, Stay Positive, to hit store shelves, and thankfully I don’t have much longer to wait. The Hold Steady’s fourth album will be released on July 15th on Vagrant, and the very next day the band will head out on a three months summer tour in support of the album. Stay Positive’s first single, “Sequestered In Memphis,” is available now on Itunes.


What ticks me off is that while The Hold Steady is coming to Texas, they’re skipping over Houston! People always tell me that Houston is considered out of the way for many band when they are trying to formalize their travel schedule, but if you have time to hit El Paso, Dallas and Austin on your way to Mississippi, then you gotta fit in the H. This was one of two tours I really wanted to see this summer and I’ve now come to find out neither tours are coming to Houston (even though both are playing shows in Texas). I'd almost rather they weren't coming to the Lone Star State at all. At least Pearl Jam is staying on the east coast. I’ll unveil the other band/tour tomorrow, but until then you can check out The Hold Steady's 2008 sumer tour dates below.


The Hold Steady
The 2008 Stay Positive Summer Tour
May 16 - Brighton, England - The Old Market
June 08 - San Diego, CA - FM 94/9 Miller Lite Independence Jam
June 27 - Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head Live
June 28 - Philadelphia, PA - Festival Pier
June 29 - Brooklyn, NY - McCarren Park Pool
July 06 - London, England - 02 Wireless Festival - Sandisk Stage
July 08 - Liverpool, England - Liverpool Echo Arena
July 10 - Leeds, England - The Irish Centre
July 11 - Newcastle, England - Carling Academy 2
July 12 - Kinross, Scotland - T in the Park Festival
July 17 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
July 18 - Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom
July 19 - Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Music Festival
July 21 - Madison, WI - Majestic Theatre
July 22 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
July 23 - Fargo, ND - Fargo Theatre
July 26 - Seattle, WA - Capitol Hill Block Party
July 27 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
July 29 - San Francisco, CA – Mezzanine
July 30 - Los Angeles, CA – Avalon
Aug 02 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre
Aug 03 - El Paso, TX - Club 101
Aug 05 - Dallas, TX - Palladium Ballroom
Aug 06 - Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa
Aug 08 - Oxford, MS - Proud Larry's
Aug 09 - Athens, GA - 40 Watt
Aug 10 - Charleston, SC - The Pourhouse
Aug 12 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
Aug 13 - Norfolk, VA - The Norva

G.I. Joe The Movie - First Look at Destro

After having only seen pictures of two members of COBRA so far, today we finally get a look at another villain from the live action G.I. Joe movie. The Blot is pleased to bring you a picture of Christopher Eccelston (Heroes, Doctor Who) as Destro. Besides being the lover of The Baroness, James McCullen Destro XXIV is a Scottish arms dealer and leader of M.A.R.S. (Military Armament Research Syndicate), an organization that supplies COBRA with all of its weapons of mass destruction.

I’ve loved watching Eccelston ever since his debut in 2005 as the ninth Doctor in the BBC series Doctor Who. What troubles me a little bit is that in Eccelston’s G.I. Joe promotional photo he’s not wearing Destro’s trademark steel mask “forged from Beryllium Steel, a tradition dating back to the English Civil War, when an ancestor of his was caught selling weapons to both sides. Forced to wear a steel mask for his crimes (neither side wanted to execute the ancestor because they still wanted the weapons he sold), the Destro clan has since turned it into a symbol of pride, passing it down from father to son for over 20 generations.” (link)

To me, and I’m sure millions of G.I. Joe fans, Destro’s steel mask is an important aspect of the character and a large part of who he is (as well as the character’s most distinguished characteristic). He has always been one of those bad guys who skirts the line between villain and hero, and I’m excited to see how they use him in the upcoming film. Hopefully the G.I. Joe writers have worked his mask into the movie and at some point Eccelston’s Destro will “mask up” before going into battle.