After recording six full-length albums, two EPs, and a DVD, selling over 800,000 units in the United States alone, Cristina Scabbia, one of two lead vocalists in the Italian goth metal outfit Lacuna Coil, will tell you that success comes from the heart.

Always surrounded by music, coming from a large family where her brothers and sisters constantly listened to everything from rock to hip hop to traditional Italian music, Scabbia’s dream of performing in a band was realized when she was hired to sing back-up vocals for the group and was asked to join as a permanent member soon after.

“I never took lessons, so basically I started because I was passionate about singing, and then I got better. I improved just by singing constantly, being on tour and recording, but I never did anything special to improve. I always try to sign with my heart more than with my technique. I’m trying to express my feelings through my voice, not really tell the world that I’m the best technical singer in the world. I don’t care about that,” Scabbia insisted.

While some may judge her or her band based on her gender or her stunning appearance before she can even open her mouth, her obvious passion for her work, she hopes, will make people look deeper into her talent.

“I think that happens in every circumstance in life, I mean, from advertisements, movies, anything you could possibly mention,” Scabbia noted.

“The body of a woman is beautiful, women are beautiful, so everyone will always be putting more attention on that, but as long as they recognize that I’m a good singer as well, that’s all that matters. I can’t help if the first thing that appears is my appearance. I just accept it, and so do the guys in the band because you cannot do anything about that.”

Personally, she describes herself as a “romantic psychotraveler” and a “food worshipper” on her Twitter account, which she updates often.

“I absolutely love to travel, and every chance I get to live new experiences, to meet new cultures, I just take it without really thinking about it, so sometimes I do crazy stuff as well, but it’s something that I want to remember forever,” she explained.

“I’m Italian, so for us, food is a religion. We’re always talking about food. Even when we meet somebody, we always end up talking about some Italian specialty and the fact that pizza is better there because the sauce needs to be done this way and this wine should be that way, so we’re really picky.”

While using Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to keep in touch with fans and those she meets on the road can sometimes feel like “a second job,” Scabbia believes that connecting with people on and off the stage is essential.

“It’s important from the human side because now things change so much. You’re more personally involved with the people who get your record and follow you and your band. I think it’s just fun to meet new people, and I try to stay in touch with them even if it’s not easy because there are so many,” she continued.

“I try to post everywhere and reply to everyone and then have a normal life. Just to live and play concerts and do your job is not easy, but I really like to do it because our fans are just amazing.”

Lacuna Coil, which translates to “Empty Spiral,” had little trouble breaking into the United States market, particularly during the 2004 Ozzfest, because of their unique sound, which includes complementary male and female vocals.

“We think it’s something special because most other bands have one singer or they have two singers that are typically using a very feminine voice for the girl and a very growling, masculine voice for the guy. We both sing, so we both can sing aggressively, we can both sing more mellow, and that’s what makes the band special and different,” Scabbia felt.

Their latest album, “Dark Adrenaline,” debuted at number 15 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart, their highest yet, and sold almost 20,000 units in its first week. While their future as recording artists seems bright, the record was inspired by darker times in their personal lives.

“We’re always inspired by our lives, and of course life is evolving, life is changing, new experiences are coming up, and most of them were not that positive, you know, because that’s part of life. And everything is reflected in the lyrics, so the songwriting was a little bit different because of the mood around the songwriting period, but not really the recording,” Scabbia admitted.

“We knew that we wanted to have heavier guitars. We knew that we wanted to have a darker sound because of the lyrics and because of the moment we were living, so in that, yeah, it’s a completely different album.”

The band plans to have a lot of fun, however, when they share the stage once again with Rob Zombie and Megadeth, a tour that is coming to the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain on Saturday, May 12.

“It’s going to be great for the fans that are coming because they’re going to be seeing a show with three bands that are playing completely different music, and this variety will make the show more dynamic and more interesting,” she emphasized.

The band is also continuing their “Dark Legacy” tour around the country, celebrating 15 years with career-spanning sets that last over two hours. Playing songs both old and new lately has been “weird,” Scabbia said, but it also reminds her of what she has learned along the way, which happens to be one of the reasons she got the gig in the first place.

“What I learned is that you have to keep it real, because no matter what you do, if you’re honest and you’re really playing and singing what you feel inside, people are going to follow you because they will see that you are the real deal. You’re not a band put together by a label; you’re not a band put together for the business, so they will connect with you very, very easily,” she acknowledged.

“The same thing is valid for the live show. If they see that you’re having a good time onstage, they are going to have a good time. And thank God we’ve been able to keep it fresh, evolving every time without really changing our roots. They are still there and strong, and fans can feel it.”

Scabbia and Lacuna Coil likely have another 15 years, at least, ahead, as she feels that there is so much more that they “need and want to do.”

“When you feel that you’ve arrived, that means you’re done.”

Looking back on the last several years, it’s hard to remember when the summer blockbuster movie season didn’t contain at least two or three multi-million-dollar superhero movies, but believe it or not, I grew up in a world where those big-budget adaptations were simply a pipe dream.

Sure, we had a few “Batman” movies that quickly went downhill among other sporadic attempts, but I remember picking up my monthly issue of the now-online-only Wizard magazine at the comic book shop and reading the “Casting Call” feature, wondering if I’d ever see an “X-Men” movie in my lifetime.

It proposed casting choices for comic movies we never dreamed would happen, even correctly predicting that one day Patrick Stewart would be sitting in Professor X’s wheelchair. Instead of guessing how Hollywood could make a computer-generated Hulk appear real, fans are now taking bets on which tights-clad character will be optioned for the big screen treatment next. I may be dating myself, but that still amazes me.

A majority of the most anticipated movies this summer, in fact, are based on a comic books, kicking off this week with “The Avengers” and followed by “Men in Black III,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” and “The Dark Knight Rises.” Even films like “Prometheus,” “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” and the “Total Recall” remake are tailor-made for science fiction fans, so while our wildest fanboy fantasies continue to go mainstream, I think it’s worth noting that its source material still exists and is also in need of financial support.

But on Free Comic Book Day, which falls on May 5 this year, comic shops aren’t asking for your money. In fact, as the name indicates, they’re giving away promotional comics to attract new readers and bring some back who may have strayed from the fold. Some stores even have creators on hand to sign their work; locally, my shop of preference, Comics on the Green in Scranton, will have veteran Marvel and DC Comics artist Tom Derenick along with special promotions and face painting for the kids.

The free comics this year star everyone from the Avengers to Peanuts to Superman to Mega Man to Transformers to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and sample stories featuring smaller names like X-O Manowar and the Hypernaturals are also being offered. If you don’t recognize the monikers, that’s OK – the point is to expose you to something you never knew you were missing out on.

Free Comic Book Day started in 2002, coordinated by the country’s largest distributor, Diamond Comic Distributors, and supported by independent shops all over. This isn’t something you’re going to see at Barnes & Noble, and there’s a good reason for that – they don’t care whether you’re buying comics, movies, CDs, books, or e-readers, as long as they’re making a profit. The small shops, however, are doing this because they want you to love what they love, and there’s plenty of love to go around.

The reasons these characters resonate with people in the movies are often the same reasons they have been beloved by generations of comic fans, except the comics give readers so much more. The stories are more varied, detailed, and complex, and they’re more fun because they have the ability to capture so much more creativity. The print pages are limited only by the creators’ imaginations, while live films will always be limited by real-world situations, such as time and budget constraints. Instead of being the guy who has to whisper in the geek’s ear, asking who this guy or that guy is as they appear onscreen, it’s way more awesome to be the one in the know.

But whereas my father grew up reading Captain America and Namor the Sub-Mariner, and I discovered comics through their animated counterparts in the ‘90s, kids today are too busy talking on their cell phones and shouting commands to their squadron of friends they never met over Xbox LIVE to do something “boring” like read. Sure, you have your bestsellers now and again, but sometimes you get “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games” and sometimes you get “Twilight,” so the quality undoubtedly varies. Even with e-readers and iPads, the only reading many children are doing is on the internet, which doesn’t always offer the best material.

You might start on a mainstream comic like “Spider-Man,” but that simply opens you up to an entire universe of characters, and from there, a never-ending list of titles from all different genres. Whether you appreciate great artistry or great writing, it’s all found in a comic, yet the medium forever hangs in the balance. The characters are becoming profitable entities, sure, but the books themselves are mostly supported by diehard fans. Just in my lifetime, I’ve seen the number of comic stores within a few miles of me drop from five to one, and I can count on one hand how many are still in this entire region currently. It may only be a matter of time before everything goes digital, and after that, no one knows how long sequential art will last when it’s viewed on your computer screen rather than in your hand.

It’s no coincidence that Free Comic Book Day usually coincides with a major movie release, though film adaptations shouldn’t be your alternative to the original material – it should be your gateway into that work. People I grew up with who would be bored out of their skulls every time I brought up comics are now asking me to go with them to the next movie opening, so while I’m happy to oblige, I also have to remind them that they can borrow those graphic novels on my shelf any time.

This may sound like an advertisement, but so be it – show your support by going to FreeComicBookDay.com and finding a participating store near you, or just go to your local comic shop any day of the week and ask the store owner for some recommendations. You’d be surprised how much exists out there for every taste, and you may be even more surprised to find how much you’ll learn from reading instead of watching.

Not that I still don’t dream about a Silver Surfer or a Dr. Strange movie, mind you, but at least I’ll always have something to spark my imagination.

When Conor O’Brien is asked what his favorite local concert was, he can’t simply pick just one.

The first on his list was one of his first shows ever at 14-years-old – Captain, We’re Sinking and The Menzingers at the now-defunct Cafe Metro in Wilkes-Barre. He had never been in a mosh pit before, and while the raw energy of the performance was not the catalyst for him opening The Vintage Theater, 119 Penn Ave., Scranton, it certainly sparked his interest.

He goes on to talk about a show at Test Pattern, also long gone, where he worked a merchandise table, A Social State CD release show at his own venue, and an intimate, unplugged performance by River City Extension in that same spot. Without bragging, he hopes that his theater has had its own “substantial impact” on the local music scene. It clearly has made an impact on him.

“What I’m noticing more so, and what is a good thing honestly, is that there seems to be a larger focus on original music again in this region in the past year or so. I’ve seen a lot of focus on that, and I don’t think we were the ones to necessarily create that spark, but I do feel we’ve had a big part in keeping it going and showing that you can be sustainable,” O’Brien explained.

“The biggest challenge has been keeping that balance between friendly, approachable venue and still maintaining a professional level organization. It’s great to be approachable, but if nothing ever gets done, there’s nothing that can ever be produced. But if you’re too formal, you might restrict yourself to more up and coming artists and things that are a little bit more experimental, so we try to walk that very fine rope between the two.”

The now 20-year-old performing arts director co-founded The Vintage just three years ago, and since then has been the host of over 1,000 different artists in 100s of different bands, with at least two of those bands scoring write-ups in Rolling Stone magazine; some acts have since become nationally or even internationally renowned.

“Honestly, we’re just capitalizing on how great a location Scranton really is and can be, in such close proximity to New York and Philly, and it’s not that far from D.C. and it’s not that far from Chicago,” he pointed out. “And also, we do have a very cultivated music scene, I feel. We’ve just simply piggybacked on a really incredible scene, and if we’ve been able to be a part of that, I’m proud to say, ‘Yay!’ but that’s more for others to say.”

The genres have ranged from rap to hip-hop to indie rock to hardcore to jazz to reggae to blues to punk to ska. O’Brien calls the local music scene “eclectic,” a word he also uses to describe the space itself, which blends an art gallery with a performance space and a café.

This diversity led to an exhibit last year called Rhythm of the Region, whose goal was to show how the visual arts are fueled by the performing arts through photography and graphic work; a sequel, Rhythm of the Region II, will open this First Friday, May 4, starting at 6 p.m. This year will also feature photography by Tom Bonomo, but a heavier focus will be placed on original visual art, which will include illustrations by Ted Michalowski and Gerry Stankiewicz. Smeltzer and Smith will, appropriately, provide musical accompaniment while Michalowski hosts a live drawing session during the opening, further solidifying the notion that art and music are synergetic.

“Also, a big heavy focus this year is venue-specific photography and memorabilia, so we have a small collection of stuff from the now resting-in-peace Test Pattern and Cafe Metropolis and others. I’m actually trying to collect memorabilia from places such as Cafe Del Sol and The Dome and The Staircase,” O’Brien added.

“That’s only within the past decade or two. If you wanted to really do a heavy, heavy historical documentation of Scranton’s music history, you’d have to go back to the 1880s, to the vaudeville era…We’re giving respect to the people who created these venues and supported these venues. Without them, there would be no niche for us to fill,” he continued.

“I feel that if you don’t preserve that, like anything in history, if you don’t learn from it, we’re never going to repeat the amazing things that they did and maybe we can learn a little and try to succeed where they might not have. Not that they failed, by any means, but just be able to preserve ourselves a little longer.”

O’Brien facilitated Rhythm of the Region with Visual Arts Director Theresa O’Connor, who is also the exhibit’s curator, and submissions were open to the public. One aspect he is particularly excited to unveil is the wall of t-shirts from local bands.

“That’s art. That’s a form of artwork, and it doesn’t have to be anything too complicated, but collectively, we just want to show through the power of numbers that for every shirt, that’s an average of four or five people and their passion and their music. The shirt is just a piece of merchandise, but it’s what stands behind it,” O’Brien emphasized.

He relates to the bands not just as a fan, but as a venue owner, as he feels that both are facing similar issues to stay alive in today’s economy.

“If one fails, we all fail. I don’t mean that just between venues and bands, I mean that between bands and bands, venues and venues,” he clarified. “Either A, people treat it too much like a business, or B, they treat it not enough. Once again, it’s a difficult balance.”

But he stresses that it’s just as important for music lovers to support both as well.

“Go to shows!” O’Brien exclaimed. “Go to shows that you don’t know! Don’t just go to your friends’ bands…It’s no more usually than five to seven dollars. You waste that on Starbucks…If you find a band you like, support them. Be a fan.”

Because if they don’t, The Vintage Theater and the bands it supports may end up as just another part of Scranton’s musical history sooner rather than later.

“We want to make sure that (closed venues) don’t fade from the spotlight and people remember why they were there and the role that they filled,” he said. “Maybe it’s wishful thinking that someday someone will do that for us.”

If comedian-turned-indie-film-director Bobcat Goldthwait’s new movie, “God Bless America,” was classic English theatre, it might instead be entitled “The Importance of Being Nice.”

But it’s not. It’s classic American wish fulfillment, an over-the-top, violent dark comedy that tells you it’s OK to solve your problems, or in this case the country’s problems, with big guns and witty one-liners. In this case, I happen to wholeheartedly agree.

I’m not a violent man, nor do I condone real-life violence, but give me a good, bloody action movie and I’m left drooling and cheering for two hours, at least during the flicks that are fully aware of their schlocky fun. “God Bless America” is not only conscious of what it’s doing, which some critics have labeled “leftist snuff,” but it’s delightfully good at it because its satiric target also happens to be an easy one.

Frank, played perfectly by Joel Murray, Bill Murray’s younger brother, can’t stand his noisy neighbors, loses his job, is snubbed by his potential love interest, hated by his ex-wife and their bratty child, and finds out he has a brain tumor. He is about to kill himself when he decides that his suicidal tendency would be much better put to use as a homicidal inclination after watching a little too much reality TV.

The marks of his killing spree – a rich, spoiled teenager; a nasty, ratings-grabbing pundit; a bigoted, hateful church group; talentless talent show hosts – all share one thing in common, besides being incredibly annoying; they are all just plain mean. In a world that is already cruel enough, Frank can no longer deal with people like this, and seriously, neither can the rest of us.

This is why he’s soon joined by Roxy, a like-minded, so really quite disturbed, young girl played by Tara Lynne Barr who is sick and tired of these attention-hungry idiots as well. She has much more to live for than Frank, but she kills with just as much gusto, so if you think you know what the outcome is going to be for these two psychopaths, you’re probably right.

But it’s not where the movie goes; it’s how it gets there. From start to finish, the dialogue serves as more of a stand-up comedy rant than a proper story-telling narrative, but that’s not a criticism. This really makes it all the more funny, and when you find yourself agreeing with many of their points, you start to view their massacre in a more sympathetic light. At one time or another, every one of us has wanted to put our hands through the screen and strangle a reality star or a hillbilly pedophile, but Frank is the one actually doing it, and he’s certainly doing it with style.

When Frank says that he only wants to kill people who “deserve to die,” he’s usually referring to people who just annoy him, but it does make you think about the influence these people have on the overall general public. What does it say about us that we’ve let it get this way, that we allow young kids to nationally humiliate themselves on “American Idol” so that we can berate them, that we watch teenage girls rip apart their parents because they didn’t get the “right car” on their sixteenth birthday, that we listen to intolerant political rhetoric from morally ambiguous talking heads? Why have we rewarded shallow, obnoxious people like this with millions of dollars and skyrocketing ratings while the little guy goes unnoticed and unappreciated?

There are a few slaying that are done more for laughs, like the guy who unapologetically takes up two parking spaces, but it’s really hard to feel sorry for any of the victims, which, in turn, makes our anti-heroes more likeable. Both actors have great chemistry and are clearly having a blast in their respective roles, staying within conventions but also poking fun at others – instead of falling in love despite their drastic age difference, as you’d have in most films of this kind, Frank lectures Roxy about how wrong it is to lust after a girl young enough to be your daughter, emphasizing that adult males should “shoot higher” than little kids when choosing a mate. If I could have hugged Murray for stating this, I would have.

Many people may be surprised to learn that this movie was written and directed by Goldthwait, probably best known for his strange, screechy voice and recurring role as Zed in the “Police Academy” movies, but he actually reinvented his career years ago as an indie filmmaker with movies like “Sleeping Dogs Lie” and “World’s Greatest Dad.” Even his on-stage material is much darker now, and as he makes the press rounds to promote this latest film, I find myself enjoying his humor more and more, which either makes me just as cynical or just as much a George Carlin fan.

The film may be deeply cathartic for its intended audience, whether we bloodthirsty Americans want admit it or not, but it seems its creator is making no apologies for putting a bullet in the head of mediocrity:

“It’s a violent movie that’s asking for kindness. And that’s why when people go, ‘What are you going to do if people copycatted this movie?’ I’d [say,] I don’t want them to kill. But if people actually took the message away, that would be pretty rad,” Bobcat recently told HitFix.

“I thought, this movie here was the counterculture revolting against authority. And I thought, who do we have to revolt against now? And then I started thinking about everything – reality television and non-news and all that kind of stuff. And then it was just seeing things like a Tea Party guy with a sign that says, ‘We’re Unarmed, THIS Time.’ I was like, ‘Oh, that’s crazy. I see your crazy and I raise your crazy.’”

From the gruesome opening scene to the final showdown, “God Bless America” is the first really offensive, controversial film of the year, and it’s about time. Any piece of art that stirs things up and gets people talking is important and worth supporting in my book, and as we gear up for the summer blockbuster season, let us not forget that smaller budgets do not necessarily mean less entertainment value. It certainly doesn’t mean less to discuss, so check it out on demand now and in select theaters on May 11.

And if you disagree with Goldthwait’s premise, that’s great, though you may want to reconsider who you’re sticking up for; it probably says a lot more about you than it does about him. I don’t foresee anyone picking up a gun because of this movie, but I do predict a few boats being rocked and a few tops being blown.

If so, then rampage accomplished.

Eric Bass, bassist and pianist for chart-topping rock band Shinedown, always knew that he wouldn’t be making a conventional living.

Growing up in musical family, his mother a vocal and piano teacher, he learned to play piano and discovered the guitar around the age of 12 or 13, learning all the Skid Row songs he could. He would soon take up drums in the high school marching band.

“When I was a young teenager, I always knew that I was going to do something different. I wasn’t going to do the normal thing…I wasn’t going to settle for a desk job,” Bass emphasized.

“I eventually picked up the bass. I came to the bass more from being a producer and engineer in the recording studio and just kind of playing bass out of necessity and finding that a lot of these kids that come and play bass in the studio are just guitar players. They didn’t really have a bass sensibility, so I’d end up kind of having to go back with them and walk them through the process. So the bass kind of came to me in that way.”

But after playing in regional bands in the southeast, he found that he was more comfortable in the recording studio “on the other side of the glass,” spending about six years producing, engineering, and writing songs. But when he was hired to work with Shinedown in 2007 on their third album, “The Sound of Madness,” their attitude and “commitment to excellence” made him reconsider the road after making an album that “needed to be made.”

“Our personalities really worked together, and fast forward a couple months later I get a phone call about the bass player position and kind of came out of retirement. When I got on stage with Shinedown for the first time, that was the first time I had been on stage in over six years. It took a little bit of transitioning back into it, but it was like riding a bike,” Bass recalled.

“My personality is one of, ‘Nothing’s ever good enough. There’s always another step to get to. There’s always something more you can do. There’s always another bar that you can reach.’ And I’ve done that in everything that I’ve ever done in my life, and anybody who knows (singer) Brent Smith and (drummer) Barry Kerch and (guitarist) Zach Myers, of course in the band, knows that our personalities are like it. It was just a perfect match.”

The album spent 120 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, but after finishing the “Anything and Everything” acoustic tour on Dec. 10, 2010, the group was right back in Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 2011 writing their next record, “Amaryllis,” which would be released on March 27 of this year. The pressure was on top their “juggernaut record,” but Bass’ fears quickly faded after the first song was completed.

“For Brent and myself, ‘Enemies’ was the first song that we finished, and when that was done, when that first one was done, it was like, ‘OK, we can do this. It’s OK. You realize you haven’t forgotten how to do that. And as we went through the process of writing ‘Amaryllis’ and we started collecting more songs, it became less about beating ‘The Sound of Madness’ and more about making, what would become ‘Amaryllis,’ the best record we could possibly make it,” he said.

The productive session produced 34 songs, recording 17 and putting 12 on the final record.

“The analogy of the amaryllis is that it’s a flower that blooms in the desert where it shouldn’t bloom. It grows in an area that it shouldn’t grow in and it blooms in a time of year when it shouldn’t bloom. There’s no other vegetation around, so it transcends and goes beyond and it’s unexpected,” he explained.

“It’s just a really good analogy for kind of where the band is. Not only musically have we been pushing ourselves but personally. All of us have gone through this metamorphosis, this personal change in each one of our lives.”

This underlying theme of the underdog’s triumph can easily be heard in the band’s first single from the record, entitled “Bully.”

“The whole bullying thing was just starting to kind of become a hot button issue, but it’s not like it hasn’t been going on for years…It was just a really sad thing,” Bass felt.

“The subject of that came up and it was like, ‘Let’s write a song about this.’ There was really nothing more than that, but it really became something that was really special to all of us because I was a band nerd when I was a kid. Zach got picked on when he was a kid. We’ve all had bullies in our lives whether it’s in our adult life or our young lives.

“At the end of the day, the song is more about survival. We’re not condoning violence, but we are condoning survival, and if you get picked on and somebody pushes you, I was always taught to push back.”

Currently headlining the “Avalanche Tour” with Adelitas Way and Art of Dying, which stops on Sunday, April 22 at the Scranton Cultural Center, Shinedown continues to push themselves with no end to their determination in sight.

“There’s never been any ultimate goal endgame for me. Like I said, it’s always just raising the bar a little bit. Our record debuted at number four on the Billboard Top 200, whereas ‘Sound of Madness’ debuted at number eight. It’s one more step up. I don’t know if I ever want to achieve ultimate success because I would be bored out of my mind without having a goal to reach for,” Bass admitted.

“I’m so blessed. We’re all so blessed to do what we do, and I think as long as we can sustain and keep a career and continue to play music for people and get that reaction from the crowd and the fans, I’ll be really happy. And just continue to climb. Yeah, you want to be one of he biggest bands in the world, and I think we’re working really hard at that right now.”

Televised award ceremonies just bore the hell out of me.

I don’t watch the Academy Awards because I can’t sit through two hours of lame jokes and awkward speeches for 10 minutes of highlights, and I love music, which is exactly why I don’t watch the Grammys or the MTV Video Music Awards.

But, as Motörhead singer Lemmy Kilmister pointed out on the black carpet leading into the fourth annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards in Los Angeles on April 11, they finally made an award show for the rest of us, and it’s “about time.” It’s a ceremony where a metal icon like Lemmy not only gets recognized, but shows up in the first place.

The Golden Gods, shaped like gold-dipped slates from Stonehenge, are awarded to the biggest names in hard rock and heavy metal, chosen by the fans via Revolver magazine’s website. This year, rather than televise it after the fact on a VH1 channel that only certain cable subscribers receive, it was broadcast live on Xbox and Facebook, which was a great improvement in terms of accessibility, though the stream on my laptop ran behind and cut off towards the end.

I did get to see a lot of great musical moments, however, preceded by some interesting interviews with incoming guests conducted by Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider and Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale. Unlike the usual idle red carpet chit-chat, these two obviously knew what they were talking about, and it was fun to watch musicians talk to other musicians about music, and when fashion did come up in conversation, it was thankfully in jest.

In fact, once the event got rolling, it felt more like a concert than an awards ceremony, which is exactly what it should be, considering it’s celebrating music. Instead of attendees being herded into a tiny area where only those who dressed a certain way could be seen by the cameras, the floor of Club Nokia frequently opened up into mosh pits during live performances, which lasted much longer than the awards and speeches themselves.

These performances, like in previous years, also led to some amazing once-in-a-lifetime collaborations, including Slash and Alice Cooper playing “School’s Out,” Trivium covering Metallica’s “Creeping Death” with Slipknot/Stone Sour singer Corey Taylor and Machine Head guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn, and even Johnny Depp playing guitar on “The Beautiful People” with Marilyn Manson. None of it was pre-recorded, and while the sound could have been better for those viewing it at home, it was clear that was no lip-syncing going on at this ceremony.

The whole thing felt very genuine, actually, because it wasn’t about egos – it was about appreciating each other’s contributions to keeping this music alive. Many different generations who play many different varieties of metal were mingling and having a great time. Black Veil Brides were even joined by Snider for a cover of “I Wanna Rock,” effectively legitimizing this new breed of young make-up clad upstarts. So many fans either rip whatever’s new because it’s not old or latch onto whatever is new because it’s not old, but at least the band members themselves recognize that they both need each other to stay alive and relevant. In all my years of going to shows, I’ve never known a more loyal or tight-knit community than the hard rock and metal scene, and that was on full display on Wednesday night.

So while everyone felt like a winner, I’d remiss if I also didn’t talk about those who took home a golden piece of that radical rock. Professional wrestler and Fozzy singer Chris Jericho hosted again this year and kept things moving with light humor, even smashing wrestling rival CM Punk’s award for Metal Athlete. Newcomers like Jeremy Spencer from Five Finger Death Punch took home Best Drummer and Avenged Sevenfold scored two more awards this year for Best Live Band and Most Dedicated Fans, but veterans like Slash and Rush were given their due too for Riff Lord and Lifetime Achievement, respectively.

Even the great “Demon” himself Gene Simmons, winner of the Golden God, shocked me with an uncharacteristically humble speech about following your dreams and appreciating your fans, and if you can still surprise people after 39 years in the business, you certainly deserve whatever accolades you receive.

So I’ll extend my own to Revolver, the only magazine I currently subscribe to, for not only keeping rock journalism kicking and screaming with well-written stories and creative photo shoots, but for reminding us what music appreciation used to look like. The pre-show played more music videos in two hours than certain channels have in two years, including the world premiere of a “lost” track from Pantera’s vault called “Piss” that will be included on the now-defunct band’s 20th anniversary re-issue of “Vulgar Display Of Power.”

They allowed fans, not shadowy critics behind a curtain who are more concerned about record sales than talent, to decide who the winners were, and they invited guys like Damien Echols, one of the infamous “West Memphis Three” who was wrongfully imprisoned for murders he did not commit based on his looks and penchant for heavy music, to speak directly to fans just like himself after his recent release. Revolver understands what it’s like to be a fan because they are fans, not because they hired someone to tell them what “the kids are into these days.”

Whereas other awards shows reward hacks like Chris Brown for ratings, these guys kept it classy and fun. It was truly a great night for music in general, not just the hard stuff your mother still warns you about. If there’s one thing the genre still embraces, it’s being on the outskirts, but at this rate of exposure, maybe in another four years the Golden Gods will play on regular television and receive a little more mainstream acceptance – maybe your mother will even be watching it with you.

Nah, that’s just not metal enough.

With a shaggy beard, gauged ears, and tattoos running up and down his arms, William James looks more like a hardcore punk rock singer than a poet when he takes the stage. That isn’t a coincidence.

It took him many years to come to terms with being labeled a poet, writing his “pre-teen angst” out in middle school before taking writing more seriously in college.

“That wasn’t necessarily trying to write poems. That was, ‘I want to be in a punk rock band and all I can do is yell, so I’m going to write song lyrics and hope that somebody will start a band with me,’” James admitted.

Many failed bands later, he began to realize that penning poetry wasn’t as far away from his original goal as he has originally thought.

“The lyricist of a band will end up writing far more than what his musician bandmates can keep up with, so he’ll have this whole backlog of words written, and at some point you decide, ‘What the hell? I might as well let them stand on their own merit, put them in a chapbook, and say that now I’m a poet, too,’” he explained.

“So I had that moment of realization where it occurred to me that I was probably never going to be successful in starting a band, so I might as well go the next route.”

Residing just outside of Pittsburg, James discovered the city’s slam poetry scene in 2007, which he felt had an iconoclastic mindset towards structure that “really, really appealed to the leftover remnants” of his “angsty, teenage punk rock years.” He has since become a member of the Steel City Slam and the host of the Young Steel Youth Slam.

“I found that, and finally after years and years and years of trying to figure out how to be a poet, I realized that it wasn’t as difficult as I was making it out to be…There’s this whole other world that doesn’t have to follow rules of rhyme scheme and form. I mean, I couldn’t even spell ‘iambic pentameter,’” he joked.

“I kind of went, ‘Oh wow, I can just get up on stage and holler at people and then I will be a poet that way.’”

He found his own voice through stubborn persistence, writing thousands of pages constantly, expanding his influences to classic poets, and immersing himself in the vibrant and diverse writing and poetry scene in his area, eventually taking his act on the road and performing nationally at over 300 readings, slams, and even punk shows with accompaniment from bands.

One particular night at Blue State Coffee in Providence, RI stands out to him, when the co-feature was group of young writers from a summer writing program for inner-city youth called Books for Hope.

“They did their reading and were so absolutely dynamic and awesome that it sort of lit up the room to the point that you could practically feel the actual electricity generated. (My friend) looks over at me right before I got ready to do my set and he goes, ‘Well, you better not suck, huh?’ Up to that point, I had just been sort of emulating what everyone else was doing, standing behind the microphone and being somewhat timid, I guess, and somewhat reserved and not really trusting the power of the art form that I’m a part of,” James recalled.

“I just got so amped up on that night in June of 2010, having watched these kids who were half my age just blow my mind that, without even really thinking of it, I just said, ‘I have to match this energy.’ …I didn’t even think about going behind a microphone and talking and introducing myself and saying, ‘I’m going to read some poems and here’s what they’re about.’ I just started yelling my first one, and it was an unconscious reaction to the electricity and the energy that was already in the room. At the end of the set, I was wiped out, exhausted, and I felt like I had just spent 20 minutes in a mosh pit at a hardcore show, and that’s when I realized, ‘Holy crap, this is definitely perfect.’”

Now 29, he finds that his inspiration is still in man’s struggle to survive at all costs.

“The main driving force behind me as a writer has always been a cross between a coping mechanism and a stubborn survival tool. A lot of the poems that I have that I’m the most proud of and a lot of the poems that I have that have the strongest response when I perform them are the ones that weren’t necessarily written in onset with the purpose of being a poem. It was just a case of, ‘I’m going through some shit and I need to write this because if I don’t, my head is going to explode. So I just wrote something in a journal and had that moment of frantic catharsis,” James described.

“Any time I’m performing in front of an audience, be it of one or one thousand, everything that I write and everything that I perform can essentially, in some way, be traced back to the basic premise of this whole being alive and being human thing is kind of an awful struggle and it’s difficult, and the only way we’re ever gong to get through it is to kind of hold each other up, so let’s do this thing.”

The parallels between music and poetry also continue to this day for James. Much like he turned to his favorite bands to get through these hard times, he has found that his own work has had the same impact on others.

“They say to me, ‘You had that poem that you closed your set with that was talking about when you tried to commit suicide and you didn’t, and I’ve never told anybody this, but I was there just not too long ago,’” he said.

“Basically, they’re telling me, ‘Your poems and your art have helped me to not lose hope and to not kill myself, which is much more intimidating to me to get that kind of comment from somebody than it ever is to get up on a stage and perform the poems. It’s kind of a terrifying validation of, ‘Yeah, this thing that you set out to do is actually happening. It’s a little sobering to realize that I’m now on the same side of equation that the singer of my favorite band when I was in high school was for me.”

While usually intensely personal, his work has taken on new dimensions since he started performing over three years ago, using characters to tell others’ stories as well, such as one piece written from the perspective of soul singer Marvin Gaye’s father, explaining and justifying the reasons why he shot and killed his son in 1984.

With three self-published chapbooks and a new mini-chapbook under his belt, James is currently working with an editor on a full manuscript and will make his third appearance in Scranton at New Visions Studio and Gallery, 201 Vine St., at its third free Writers Showcase on Saturday, March 31, which he promises will have all of the “energy” and “violence” of the punk rock shows that inspired his origins as a writer.

“I’m just going to get up, I’m going to stand in the middle of the floor, and I’m going to yell at you and it’s going to sound like poetry.”

Any fanboy will tell you: “Let the Wookiee win.”

Some in the entertainment industry have learned this valuable lesson this past week, while others stubbornly fight against the very wingman that has helped them become what they are today. Maybe they can learn something from one another.

My first example is the season finale of AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” For much of the second season of this popular series, which follows a group of survivors during the zombie apocalypse, I heard a lot of the same criticism from fellow fans – “They need less drama and more zombies.” I respectfully disagreed, as the humans have always been the more important aspect of any respectable zombie mythos, but I could concede that a little more action, or at least accuracy to the comic series on which it is based, could have been added. Spoilers ahead.

Any adaptation is going to alter things, and it’s great that the comic’s creator, Robert Kirkman, approved of many of those changes personally, but a few of these deviations just seemed unnecessary. Why did they transform Lori from a sympathetic mother who makes a mistake in a moment of emotional weakness to a Lady Macbeth-like manipulator who seems hell-bent on destroying the family she supposedly loves? Why kill off Dale so much earlier in the show and leave us with awful, undeveloped characters like T-Dog?

I liked the idea that they would keep the major plot points of the comic while straying from the path that got them there to keep people guessing, but sometimes I wondered where they were going with some of those departures. In the end, however, the show won fans like me over because the finale gave us all what we wanted. Zombies attacked en masse, so gore hounds got plenty of action, and comic nerds got their first glimpse of the katana-wielding Michonne as they introduced her character into the series and a parting shot of the prison where they’ll seek shelter next, a major plot point in the source material.

Reviews the next day were overwhelming positive. If something worked the first time, after all, why mess with it too much? Director Michael Bay has yet to learn this lesson, mainly because people continue to reward his mediocrity with transforming truckloads of money.

Bay, responsible for the big action, no plot “Transformers” movies as well as lackluster remakes of pretty much every classic horror franchise, announced recently that his upcoming reboot of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” would make the titular characters aliens instead of mutants, which, by default, would not make them turtles, as those are creatures originating from Earth, or ninjas either, considering those came from Japan. It not only screws up the title, it makes the premise that much more outrageous than it already is.

Having an entire planet of walking, talking, pizza-eating turtles doesn’t make these four very special anymore, and do they have to stop by a rat planet to pick up their wise Master Splinter? It raises more questions than it answers, the main query being, “Why change what has been held true in adaptation after adaptation?” When you only have two hours or so to tell a story about those rad reptiles fighting the evil, armor-clad Shredder and his Foot Clan, why waste screen time with the origin absolutely no one asked for? Fans flooded the internet with instant criticism, but Michael quickly responded:

“Fans need to take a breath, and chill. They have not read the script. Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story. Relax, we are including everything that made you become fans in the first place. We are just building a richer world.”

A “richer world”? This is coming from the guy who put testicles on a robot in the same movie he replaced recognizable characters with offensively stupid racial stereotypes. As a guy who grew up on Turtles cartoons, comics, movies, toys, and video games, there’s no chill pill on this planet short of a fatal dose of morphine that could get me to relax about this. They’ve already rebooted this franchise so many times that it’s become more like curb stomping at this point, and while he assumingly has co-creator Kevin Eastman’s support, Peter Laird didn’t seem as open to the idea on his blog:

“I think a planet of turtles is not, in and of itself, a bad idea for some kind of science fiction/fantasy story. But as a way to explain any aspect of the backstory of TMNT, I think it is awful and unnecessary.”

He encouraged fans to wait and see, though, unlike actor Robby Rist, who voiced Michelangelo in the original live action films. Rist called it the “rape of our childhood memories,” and while I wouldn’t exactly use that terminology, I understand the emotional investment there, similar to the outrage gamers felt when completing “Mass Effect 3.”

The best-selling video game has made national news since its March 6 release because its developers promised an ending to the popular series that would give closure to fans and answer their burning questions, but they were given a confusing, plot hole-laden conclusion with fewer possible endings than were promoted. One fan even filed a false advertising complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, and while that will likely go nowhere, it does bring up a valid point – Why are salesmen allowed to lie about entertainment but not about cars and other products that suck up our hard-earned money?

I guess you could say because what is considered entertaining is subjective, but with the invention of the internet, there’s just no excuse these creators have for not knowing what the majority of people want. BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka has since done some serious backpedaling, saying that the team is working “on a number of game content initiatives,” including downloadable content, that will attempt to fix what they have broken, but guys like Bay have this attitude like they know what’s best, which, in the long run, just doesn’t pan out.

The reason that most film franchises only last three or four movies and not 20 is because they paint themselves into corners with sloppy writing that usually goes against what fans expect. You make your money right away from those buying your product on name recognition alone, but when the substance doesn’t live up to its title, these entertainment know-it-alls have to go back to the drawing board and reboot when the writing was on the Facebook wall the entire time.

Take a cue from “The Walking Dead” and just give fans what they want. You’re never going to please everybody, and the masses aren’t exactly right about a lot of things, but when it comes to our movies, games, comics, books, and television shows, let that big hairy beast have his way.

If you do, he’ll always have your back in the end.

Singer James Hart will be the first to admit that the 2007 break-up of his previously successful metalcore band, Eighteen Visions, wasn’t his idea, but he’s slowly bouncing back with hard rock outfit Burn Halo.

After recording five studio albums and 12 years of climbing to the top of the scene, Hart wasn’t ready to give up all that he had worked for and immediately landed a record deal with Island/Def Jam to begin the next chapter in his career.

“Unfortunately, a couple of the other guys in the band just kind of were over it and I felt like moving forward with that band without them would just not be the same after doing so many recording and creating a specific sound and having the fans that we did and connecting with those fans as a group and as a unit. I don’t think it would have been right to move forward without them,” Hart felt.

“It gave me an opportunity to do something new and basically I just wanted to start a band and make an album that was more I think along the lines of stuff that I was into when I was growing up, which was ‘80s and ‘90s rock, which for the most part I was able to accomplish with the first Burn Halo record.”

Working with songwriter Zac Maloy, formerly of The Nixons, on the band’s debut self-titled album, he was finally able to showcase his vocal and musical range and write with more freedom than he ever had before, though it wasn’t all smooth sailing from there. After completing the record, his A&R manager was let go and the deal fell through, but he was fortunately allowed to keep the record and release it independently.

“It was tough to start over. 18 Visions had really built this brand and we were just starting to really, really take off on the international level as well, getting to go over to Japan and Australia, Europe, and the UK and touring over there and being successful,” Hart recalled.

“It’s completely starting over and rebuilding, and yes a lot of the fans followed me over to Burn Halo, but it’s just not something you can expect when starting a new band that’s something totally different than what you were doing in your previous outfit. So it’s a bit hard, but you just have to be patient.”

While proud of his first release, Hart’s 2011 follow-up, “Up from the Ashes,” helped define the band’s current sound and direction, which he believes is the perfect blend of Burn Halo and 18 Visions.

“What was coming naturally was great heavier, more metal-driven guitar riffs, and we said to ourselves, ‘Why hold back these great parts? Who cares? We don’t need to cater to a certain audience. We need to cater to ourselves first. We need to write the record that we’re going to be happy with.’ So we kind of flipped the script and started writing heavier songs and what came out of it was ‘Up from the Ashes,’” he said.

Being independent, however, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The last few months have been particularly rough for the band, parting ways with both their management and their booking agent.

“I think the main problem for us, and it’s been a nagging problem with these two records, is that we’re not on a real record label where there’s a bunch of promotion going on for different artists on that label, so we don’t get looked at quite as much and everything’s kind of more on the independent, DIY game plan,” he continued.

“It makes it hard. I think we rely too heavily on radio and airplay to carry the band, and that’s something I’ve never believed in. I believe radio’s a great tool, but I don’t think that you should rely on it for selling records and a fan base. I think that that’s what touring is for.”

Now, though, Hart feels they’re moving in a more positive direction as they continue to be embraced by fans old and new and rebuild his past success.

“My favorite of this whole thing since day one was probably going out on tour with Avenged Sevenfold and getting the opportunity to play arenas and play to that type of audience. I don’t know that we would be in the same position we are if we hadn’t done that tour. That tour did wonders for us and our fan base immediately, so that was a huge accomplishment and probably something I’ll never forget,” he related.

On tour again now, the band’s next stop will be at Three Kings, 603 Scranton/Carbondale Hwy, Mayfield, on Wednesday, March 21 with local supporting acts to be announced.

“For people that have seen us before, they’re going to see a side of the band that they haven’t seen before. We’re bring out a lot of the stuff off the new album, which is the heavier side of it, the more aggressive side of it, which is going to show them, I think, a side of me that maybe they haven’t seen since I was in 18 Visions onstage,” Hart emphasized.

“For people that haven’t seen us before, I think they’re going to be impressed with a very entertaining, crowd-engaged, energetic show.”

When will comics finally be accepted as a true, respected art form? Apparently not in 2012.

Like any effective political comic strip, people are still talking about the “Doonesbury” series that ran from March 12-17, a satire of a recently passed law in Texas that requires women seeking an abortion to first undergo a sonogram. It’s a controversial topic, therefore requiring some controversial humor, but several newspapers across the country weren’t laughing – they were too busy pulling the strip from their publications before their readers were given a chance to decide if they agreed.

Thankfully, this was not the case in our local daily papers, though the strips have been shared online so much now that anyone who wished to read them has probably done so despite any nationwide attempts to protect full-grown adults from meaningful discussion of real-life issues – you know, one of the main reasons the news media exists.

Whether you agree with creator Garry Trudeau’s take or not, his jokes in these strips are pretty biting and well-executed. Given a form attached to a clipboard emblazoned with a scarlet “A,” a woman must sit in “the shaming room” and wait for a “middle-aged, male state legislator” to calls her a “slut” before a doctor continues to lay on the guilt as he uses a “10-inch shaming wand” to provide the ultrasound.

Calling out Gov. Rick Perry by name, Trudeau compares the procedure to rape, but I’m not here to debate politics, abortion, contraception, rape, or women’s rights in a pop culture column. Rather, I’m here to question why, in 2012, we still can’t accept political commentary in the form of sequential art.

You see, many papers refused to publish the comic simply on the basis that it is a comic. The Reporter in California wrote that Trudeau expressed his opinion “in a manner that skirts, if not crosses, the boundaries of good taste expected in a family newspaper.” The Standard-Examiner in Utah said the “language in the original strips was not appropriate for a comic that could be viewed by children.” The St. Paul Pioneer Press “decided the commentary in some panels is inappropriate for the comics section in the newspaper.” The Press of Atlantic City believes “Texas abortion cartoons venture too far for the comics pages.”

While I can’t say I’ve read any of these newspapers, I’d venture to say that each of them likely publishes editorials on a regular basis. I read nationally syndicated editorials every day, some that I’m sure have ended up in these papers at one time or another, and while they may not be as funny as “Doonesbury,” they certainly discuss many of the same issues Trudeau addresses using many of the same words he uses. In other words, it’s perfectly acceptable to type these opinions out in text, but when you surround this text with a word bubble and draw a person next to it, it’s “inappropriate” and going “too far” over “the boundaries of good taste.”

Even straight news articles have used the term “slut” frequently, sometimes in headlines, when reporting on the recent Rush Limbaugh controversy that Trudeau was touching on. Single-panel political cartoons cover controversial topics such as this every day, but strips are apparently forbidden from treading the same ground because of that rule we just fabricated about what comics can and cannot be.

And to new organizations like The Herald in South Carolina, who were “concerned about the graphic content” that was never shown, I must ask how papers can publish grisly scenes of war, shootouts, fires, funerals, and grieving victims, yet they cannot even comprehend showing readers a drawing of a woman lying on an examination table that simply hints at a basic medical procedure that almost all mothers reading a “family newspaper” have endured.

I think this bias against cartoonists doing what writers do every day stems from that outmoded term you still hear from seniors – “the funnies.” This implies that all comic strips are meant to be funny all the time, but if that were true, why do they continue to print “Mallard Fillmore” next to “Doonesbury”? OK, that was just a jab at a comic whose only punchline is “Liberals are stupid!” but seriously, should they not print “The Family Circus” every time it depicts the dead grandfather looking down on the family from heaven?

Personally, I don’t find that funny at all, nor is it supposed to be, but I guess we only enforce that made-up “must always be funny” rule when the jokes don’t fit our political leanings. Strips like “Dick Tracy” and “Prince Valiant” tell serious action and adventure stories, so those must be eliminated by these standards as well.

Every strip intended to be funny on the “funny pages” has its own sense of humor, as do its readers, so placing political humor right next to slapstick or dry wit just makes sense. As a young kid, I simply skipped over “Doonesbury” because I didn’t get it, and I’d venture to say that many kids today are doing the same, so I believe your family will be safe from the tyranny of Trudeau’s big-nosed protagonists for at least a few more years.

Truth be told, Garry should be used to this by now. He’s been writing the comic as a daily strip since 1970, and over the years, his cartoons have been pulled for talking about homosexuality, sex, drugs, and other touchy topics, often for being ahead of their time. What legitimizes his work isn’t just his timeliness, however, but his ability to craft decades of ongoing storylines involving dozens of aging and evolving characters, adding layers not often seen in mainstream comic strips.

His groundbreaking efforts earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1975, the first strip-style comic to be honored with the award. Maybe those involved in the Watergate scandal didn’t find the winning comic to be very funny, but that doesn’t make it any less culturally important. Just as newspaper articles serve as an important historical record of that time, so does its art, so denying the publication of said art is to deny its legitimacy as an art form, and in this day and age, when comic art is being displayed in museums and graphic novels are being placed on TIME Magazine’s “Top 100 Novels” list, that’s becoming a tougher case to make.

While we award “The Daily Show” Emmys for its satire, we punish “Doonesbury” for making comparatively less harsh jokes. But in a March 11 interview with The Washington Post, Trudeau said that Republicans chose “to re-litigate reproductive freedom, an issue that was resolved decades ago,” and to ignore this “would have been comedy malpractice,” so he went forward with addressing a subject he usually backs away from.

And we should all be thankful that he did. Not only has he got us talking about the matter at hand, he’s done in it in a way that solidifies comics’ place at the artistic table. Now if only more papers would just recognize it.

Read the entire week of “controversial” strips on the official Doonesbury website.