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.

I wanted to push the envelope, and I wanted to go so far as to actually offend both the liberals and the right. I think I have succeeded.

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.

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.

It is hard to explain to people now how hard it was being a punk back then [the 1970s]. If you had short hair, didn't wear bell bottoms and walked down the street, chances are some asshole in an El Camino was going to kick your ass.