Roecker sure is a romantic about certain things, like art and music, though you might not know it from watching Live Freaky! Die Freaky!, his claymation musical retelling of the Helter Skelter Charlie Manson saga.

I wanted to look at how people deal with death. Why is Henry Kissinger not in jail and Charles Manson is?

Writer-director John Roecker's debut, Live Freaky! Die Freaky! will have you convulsing on the floor ... with nausea, laughter, or both.

Live Freaky! Die Freaky! will be, without a shadow of a doubt, the single greatest film of all time about Charles Manson being the savior to all humanity in the year 3069.

Manson's the man who's responsible for "killing the Sixties." He really knew how to play up the whole "most dangerous man alive" thing when at the time, the most dangerous man alive was Richard Nixon.

Everything that is good in the arts is done by some sort of diversion.

Any movie about cult figure Charles Manson needs lots of sex, drugs and blood. But as John Roecker discovered while filming his first feature - screening Friday and Saturday only at the Avalon - the key to amping up the gore is an old standby: puppets.