Mike Marano - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I'm Mike Marano, also known as "Mad Prof. Mike". For about 15 years, I've been doing the "Headbanger Movie Reviews" for the nationally syndicated show MOVIE MAGAZINE INTERNATIONAL (www.shoestring.org). At a very young age, I decided I wanted to spend my life watching movies, and somehow, I'm doing just that. I also cover movies for venues like Cemetery Dance, Science Fiction Weekly, Sci Fi Magazine, Sci-Fi Universe, Paste Magazine, The Weekly Dig, Chizine... the list goes on for a while. I cover up to five movies a week, which can sort of make your brain melt, but then again, so can a real job, so... I'm not bitchin'!
I also write horror and some science-fiction. My first book, Dawn Song, made a pretty big splash, netting a bunch of really good reviews and The Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild Awards... which is really cool, because the awards themselves are nifty-looking things to just have on your shelf (even though currently the things are still packed in a box from my last move). I did a novella-length adaptation of Joe Stefano's old Outer Limits script "A Feasibility Study" which I'm really kind of proud of. My work has appeared on Gothic.Net, and has been anthologized in books like Peter S. Beagle's Immortal Unicorn, Queer Fear and Outsiders, among others. My work has been translated into German, Czech and Greek... and I actually got paid for the Greek edition! Whoo-hoo!
In September, I'll be wearing a new hat as co-fiction editor (or is it "fiction co-editor"?) of the award-winning .. magazine ChiZine (www.ChiZine.com).
I'll have a piece in the upcoming collection of essays about Joss Whedon's FIREFLY/SERENITY from BenBella Books called FINDING SERENITY. Now, in light of this, I thought I'd post my "Which FIREFLY Character Are You?" quiz results:
Your results:
You are Wash (Ship Pilot) Wash (Ship Pilot) 70% Inara Serra (Companion) 65% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 65% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 60% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 60% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 55% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 55% Alliance 55% Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 45% River (Stowaway) 40% A Reaver (Cannibal) 15% You are a pilot with a good
if not silly sense of humor.
You take pride in your collection of toys.
You love your significant other.
Click here to take the "Which Serenity character am I?" quiz...

My Interests

Check this out! Some seriously righteous rock 'n roll from the MC5!
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I've been hopelessly in love with this woman for 25 or so years. JOSIE COTTON (of "Johnny, Are You Queer?" fame) does the theme to H.G. Lewis' SHE DEVILS ON WHEELS!

ROCK OUT WITH THE GOD OF THUNDER!

I'd like to meet:

Well... I wouldn't actually want to meet this person, I just want to see him or her. This is gonna sound strange, but I've always just wanted to see a stranger on the subway or bus reading my work. I wouldn't be a dick and tap him or her or the shoulder and say, "I wrote that!" It would just be huge for me to see my work "out there" in this particular way.

In general, though... I'm looking to hook up with people who love books and movies and cool music.

Music:

This is still cool after 33 years... BEEF, from Phantom of the Paradise!

Ramones, Sex Pistols, Misfits, Iggy Pop, MC 5, Angry Angles, The Turpentine Brothers, The Green Goblyn Project, Love, The Leaves, Big Black, Mission of Burma, The Epoxies, Fluttr Effect, Robby Roadsteamer, Harry and the Potters, Old Skool CBGB's, Sweet, Spinal Tap, Joe Black's Midnight Spookshow, Wednesday 13, The Soviettes, Die Cheerleader, The Lurkers, The Adverts, Amen, The Cramps, Dead Boys, Wire, Salem 66, Beef from Phantom of the Paradise, The False Prophets, The Fugs, The Damned, The Gargoyles, Jeff Dahl, X-Ray Spex, Circle Jerks, Avenue Q soundtrack, The Real Kids, Mary Prankster, GWAR, Johnny Thunders, The New York Dolls, The Buzzcocks, New Marble Giants, 50 Foot Wave, A Flux of Pink Indians, Honey Bane, Jane County... that's a good start!

Ahhh... HAZEL O'CONNOR in BREAKING GLASS. Bitchin'. Check it out:

Movies:

I see up to five movies a week for my work... we'd be here all day! ;)But this is, perhaps, the greatest piece of filmmaking ever. Shatner. Lucy. Beatles. Sublime!Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds on Transbuddha

Television:

Battlestar Galactica of the new vintage, Farscape, Doctor Who of all eras, ORIGINAL Star Trek, and dear God, I sound like the biggest geek of all time!
OK... check THIS out. One old geezer. One acoustic guitar. And it's PUNK AS SH*T! TV Smith of The Adverts, introduced by Casey Chaos of AMEN. Like... wow...

Books:

Again, too many to name! Recent reads that I've liked and people I read all the time include: Sol Stein, Kelly Link, Fred Chappel, Joe Conrad, Tolkien, Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance, Lovecraft, E. Waugh, Jerzy Kosinski, Ian Fleming, Peter Straub, Dante, Milton, that "Bard Avon" or "Avon Bard" guy who wrote that Mel Gibson movie a few years back, JP Miller, Nigel Kneale, Reginald Rose, Paul Celan, Rilke on Cezanne, DH Thomas... for a start!

My Blog

Mike’s SCIFi Channel review: THE DARK KNIGHT

Believe the hype about Ledger's Jokerhttp://www.scifi.com/sfw/screen/sfw19120.html
Posted by Mike Marano on Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:36:00 PST

My SciFi Channel review of INDIANA JONES

Hey, here's my review for the SciFi Channel:http://www.scifi.com/sfw/screen/sfw18917.html
Posted by Mike Marano on Tue, 20 May 2008 04:09:00 PST

Depressing moments as a critic...

Just watched a movie that I'm to review, and it was really bad. No problem there, occupational hazard. I see bad movies. I see good movies. I get paid to review bad ones. I get paid to review good one...
Posted by Mike Marano on Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:17:00 PST

Geekiest objective reached--JUSTICE LEAGUE

I have reached the geekiest objective of my very geeky life. Thanks to Netflix, I have just finished systematically watching, in order, every episode of the Bruce Timm-produced JUSTICE LEAGUE and JUST...
Posted by Mike Marano on Sun, 17 Feb 2008 02:32:00 PST

2005 Interview w/ Jonathan Lethem on Omega the Unknown

Two years ago, I talked to Lethem about his work resurrecting the comic book Omega the Unknown, a 1970s Marvel Comic created by Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes and Jim Mooney. It was part of SciFi Magazi...
Posted by Mike Marano on Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:15:00 PST

Mikes 2003 review of Rob Zombies HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES

I took a lot of heat for my panning of Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN over at the SciFi Channel. ( http://www.scifi.com/sfw/screen/sfw16873.html ). It got me thinking, though, about how much I dug Zombie's e...
Posted by Mike Marano on Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:54:00 PST

Joe Conrad Rages Against the Machine

I'm working on a novel right now that treats of a lot of themes first mapped out by Joseph Conrad. Conrad's my boy... and if you ever want to feel totally inadequate as a writer, just crack open some...
Posted by Mike Marano on Tue, 25 Sep 2007 05:53:00 PST

Article on Friedkin's BUG

(c)2006/2007 by Michael MaranoOriginally appeared in SciFi MagazineA Bug's LifebyMichael Marano Playwright Tracy Letts, author of the SF/horror play Bug, now being adapted for the screen by French Con...
Posted by Mike Marano on Fri, 25 May 2007 06:27:00 PST

WEBSLINGER: Spider-Man essay & book sneak peek

Hey, folks... just wanted to give a shout-out concerning a really cool book that's coming out soon, in which I have an essay. It's a book called WEBSLINGER, and yes, it's a collection of essays by a b...
Posted by Mike Marano on Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:12:00 PST

SCANNER DARKLY w/interviews w/ Woody Harrelson, etc

(c) 2006/2007 Michael Marano, all rights reserved DARKLY THROUGH A SCANNER DARKLY Originally published as "Doctored Phil" in the August 2006 issue of Sci Fi Magazine B...
Posted by Mike Marano on Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:55:00 PST