From left: Roberto Azula, Joseph Sylvers, Kevin McCormick

Editor-in-chief and General Grand Poobah Roberto Azula was born in Northridge, California, and thankfully has retained the accent of his homeland. The son of Colombian immigrants, he had to endure jibes about being a cocaine dealer and Juan Valdez’s kid throughout his childhood. Roberto dropped out of college at 21 to enter the glamorous world of retail. When that glamor wore off eight years later, he went back to college and graduated from the prestigious Kennesaw State University in English…not because he enjoyed English, but because that was subject he had the most credits in. Living with his parents sucked, so he joined the Peace Corps and remained in Asia for the next eight years, with stints in the Philippines, China, and It’s Not China Taiwan. After mastering all seven deadly venoms of kung fu and killing a Yeti in a boxing tournament on the summit of K2, Roberto felt terrible remorse for killing such a majestic creature, and returned to America to settle in Seattle in 2008, when we all realized George W. was bad for the economy. You can now see him marching up and down First Hill with a grim expression for a variety of good reasons. Roberto’s turn ons include karaoke, pancakes, and rayon shirts. Mention Steely Dan to him and he won’t shut up. Roberto suddenly turns into a Mariners and Seahawks fan when he gets free tickets.

Grand Vizier of the Pacific Ocean and general Film Geek Kevin McCormick was born in the cradle of the wasteland known as North Texas, then later relocated to the shores of O’ahu in the much more hospitable climate of Hawaii. Several priceless years of his youth were wasted recording or viewing illicit horror and other R-rated genre flicks late at night on the VCR expanded his exposure to the world of the Psychotronic (going hand in hand with the abyss of AVOID AVOID AVOID). Then came a short but sweet employment at a now defunct branch of Diamond Head Video. It would be the beginning of a stormy relationship with various video stores, remorseless corporate stooge bosses, and collection agencies. When he’s not hiking, working on elaborate scripts or artwork, struggling through old school PC games like Thief II and Deus Ex, or sharpening his (metaphorical) culinary daggers, Kevin is either watching some sort of film or writing a long-winded review about one. His short-term goals include acquisition of the fabled Sheepskin of Higher Education, a press pass to any film festival, no matter how obscure, as well as to defeat the local Eight Diagram Pole Fighter with his expertly honed Lotus Palm technique.

Joe “Danger Is My Other Middle Name” Sylvers was born in Hollywood, California, but quickly relocated to San Pedro, California, a place as our T-shirts warmly boast “Where the ghetto meets the sea.” The first film he was taken to see in a theater was Who Framed Roger Rabbit? at age 2 in 1988. Years later, he began making and re-assembling short stories, drawings, and collage, collecting/inhaling novels, comics, books about theories and books about books, and above all, music. He writes about films because he likes writing and he likes movies, and it just seemed natural to combine the two. He went to school in Northridge for a few years, lived in North Hollywood for a year, and is back to the coast to the finish the odds and ends of his education for a few years. When he goes to a new city, he asks where the libraries are. Joseph persists in the belief that Who Framed Roger Rabbit? informs the basic structure of the universe. To this day, he insists upon it if you’re friendly and willing to buy him a drink. He will spout off about how Neo Toon Town and all movies from throughout history all exist at the same time and place, living in a beneficial, if uneasy partnership with trench coat and fedora-wearing, cigar chomping, hard boiled film critics.

Low Down Cinema staff meeting. From left, Joseph Sylvers, Kevin McCormick, Roberto Azula. Crown courtesy of Burger King.