Life is an obscure hobo, bumming a ride on the omnibus of art.

I must say, i really loved everything about the movie "A Bucket Of Blood". I guess you can say i'm partial to dark comedies and movies from that era but this movie combined the best aspects of those late 50's black and white absurd horror movies with a perfect parody of the beatnik movement and art world. One of my favorite lines was said by the main bearded beatnik, Maxwell H. Brock to the little old bus boy and the star of the movie Walter Paisley, played brilliantly by Dick Miller, is the line, "Never say the same thing twice. Repetition is death". Basically he says that when you relive a moment you waste time. This theme of repetition is death continues throughout the rest of the movie and is basically what Walter does with his sculptures. They also mention how in death art is created, happy accidents, which is also what Walter does throughout this movie. David Lynch had to of seen this movie when he was a young lad or at some point at art school because i can see glimpses of Eraserhead and even Blue Velvet. The movie Art School Confidential comes to mind as being possibly an update of this movie in the sense that someone is murdering these students and using there items to create a mixed media painting of their dead bodies. This movie perfectly sums up how absurd and overrated the art world can be when Walter becomes a so-called "artist" by murdering his landlords cat and making it into a clay sculpture. The blend of comedy and absurd horror is brilliant. It also talks about how cutthroat the art world is and how the changing times cause artists to constantly worry about falling out of the limelight as fast as they got in. Walter says, "I gotta do something before they forget. I know what if feels like to be ignored". The end of the movie comes to the Exhibit of a life time consisting of Walters "death" sculptures that depict Realism perfectly, which of course is ironic because they are in fact real bodies. By this ending Walter has gone completely insane hearing his victims voices.

I think this was a great way to start us off for this year of thesis as it shows us how something the art world can become so infatuated with something fresh and new, that all normal perception fall by the waist side.

Jeffrey John Masino