I was going to write something else today but I’ve been listening to this song all day and I think you should, too.
Oct 08 2010
Weekly Weird News
Google Books never ceases to amaze me. Not only has it been a boon to the Local’s horror research, but it also has full uploads of The Weekly World News back issues from its now-defunct print edition. Now you can finally read the infamous tabloid like you’ve always secretly wanted to, but were too embarrassed to do so at the supermarket!
In honor of the season, let’s take a quick look at some particularly Halloween-related content. First up is this two page spread featuring a “Horrorscope of Evil.” The October 17th, 2005 edition features a wealth of Halloween goodies, like stories about an exercising exorcist and Frankenswine monster, a vampire knowledge test and a cut-out “Bat Boy” mask.
But those aren’t the paper’s only horror connections. Not only does the Wikipedia entry for the former editor-in-chief list the numerous horror projects he has worked on, but the now-deceased founder of the horror magazine/website Scarlet Street used to write the Weekly World News “Miss Adventure” columns!
Oct 07 2010
That Sync-ing Feeling
Popular legend has it that if one plays Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon album while watching The Wizard of Oz, the music and actions totally sync up MAN. Pink Floyd denies that any of this was intentional and it has been pointed out that any seeming connections between the two are just cases of the viewer counting all of the hits and ignoring all the misses.
That said, it’s still fun to look for synchronizations. In fact, My younger brother and I once discovered that Bush’s “Machinehead” worked pretty well when played over the opening title sequence of Batman: The Animated Series. Others apparently feel the same way, as there’s an enormous amount of alleged movie/album syncs, both Floyd-related and ones involving work from other bands. Here’s a list (taken from the previous link) of synchronizations involving horror and science fiction movies that you can try when things start to die down at your Halloween party:
City Kid (Dark City) + (Kid A)
Prawntechre(District 9) + (Amber)
Fallen Dracula(Dracula) + (Fallen)
The Black Matrix (The Matrix) + (Metallica)
Load The Matrix (The Matrix Reloaded) + (Load)
The Ozzorcist (The Exorcist) + (Black Sabbath (album))
Night Of The Living Zombie (NotLD) + (Hellbilly Deluxe)
Ziggy Starfighter (The Last Starfighter) + (Ziggy Stardust)
Friday The 13TH Step (Friday the 13th) + (Thirteenth Step)
Logan’s Revolt! (Logan’s Run) + (Tonight the Stars Revolt!)
Fellowship Of The IV (LotR: Fellowship of the Ring) + (LZ IV)
Break The Butterfly (The Butterfly Effect) + (Break The Cycle)
Devil Rekall (Total Recall) + (La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1)
Tim Burton’s Code Atom Hollow (Sleepy Hollow) + (Code Atom)
T3: Rise Of The Machina (T3) + (Machina/The Machines of God)
Curse Of Dracula’s Daughter (Dracula’s Daughter) + (The Curse)
Tim Burton’s Eternal Nightmare (Nightmare Before Xmas) + (dC)
UPDATE: I’m afraid I don’t know how to do any of these synchronizations. I strongly encourage readers to post a comment if they have any tips or movie syncs they’ve discovered which aren’t on the above list.
Oct 06 2010
Move Your Dead Bones
Back in 2003, the people behind Beyond Re-Animator came up with a brilliant idea. In order to further publicize the latest installment of the 80’s Re-Animator franchise, a music video was prepared featuring an artist specially named to tie into the series: Dr. Reanimator. Not only would it further pad out the extra features on the DVD, but it was also so ridiculous that word of mouth would have people scrambling to see the video (and the film that spawned it). It got insanely popular when it was uploaded onto the then-new Youtube service two years later in 2005. For those of somehow missed it (and those who just love watching it), I’ve decided to post it here using the same account I originally found it on:
Oct 06 2010
King Sickabilly/Sasquatch and the Sick-a-billys
I’m selective in my rockabilly/psychobilly choices.
The genre shares an unfortunate quality with modern country, where different people sound alike. Modern country has always appeared to be made up of five session bands and a rotating cavalcade of singers, producing different songs with different vocals but ultimately, sounding the same. It’s dull. There’s no real act that stands out.
Same goes with psychobilly or rockabilly. When you toss an upright bass into the mix, a band has to fight extra hard to avoid sounding like any other band. There are some cases that it works, in which case, these bands are to be treasured.
(same can be said about surf, punk or any genre, I suppose.)
“Do you guys like Hank Williams?” asked King Sickabilly, aka Sasquatch of Sasquatch and the Sick-a-billys during his one-man-band performance back in May. I talked about seeing him when I went to catch Deadbolt in Providence, Rhode Island. “Not Hank Williams Jr.,” King said with disdain, following with an even more sardonic, “I FIGURE Y’ALL LIKE HANK THE THIRD?”
I think this statement sums up both King Sickabilly and Sasquatch and the Sick-a-billys, as players who are more in tune with the outlaw country sense than in the current psycho-nostalgia country vibe.
King Sickabilly is about five hundred pounds of raw personality condensed into one man, given a guitar and put up on stage with people he, most likely, wouldn’t hang out with if given the choice. He’s doing something he loves and it’s clear in that while watching him live or listening to any of the recordings he has made as a solo act or with a band.
I think too many psycho/rockabilly acts rely on the upright bass as a driving instrument, as the novelty of the object somehow requires that it takes center stage. Listening to any Sasquatch songs and it’s clear that the fullbody guitar King plays is on par if not important to the sound. I think the parity achieved in balancing out the bass, the guitar and the drums makes the sound stand out.
The new solo work incorporates a drum but it’s mainly King and his guitar, which is a good combination since his voice is strong enough to carry what normally a bass and richer drum section would. It’s highly recommended that you pick up anything you can by this band and its members. If they get back together, I’ll put some effort into seeing them and not miss out like I have in the past.
(this was at the Providence show. neat.)
Oct 05 2010
Modern Halloween…Sanity?
I might goof on Halloween articles from old issues of Popular Science in the last few Halloween countdowns, but I should be fair and show some modern examples of their material. After all, things are certainly much safer (and saner) nowadays, right?
Sadly, Halloween articles seem to be few and far between these days and what few they do publish are very short. This page from the October 2003 issue has a write-up about a nifty $50 motion sensing gadget that can record up to 20 seconds of sound effects. It’s a great all-in-one device for those who don’t want to build their own motion-sensing devices using plans found on places like the Monsterlist (which cost less and can be connected to a CD player so you can play longer clips).
The “Scare Tactics” article from the October 2006 issue has more meat on its bones despite the single-page length. The tutorial about how to make scary sound effects go off when a person walks by a certain area using a Mac laptop, webcam and a few downloads is very cool. The only remotely bad part (other than the seeming uselessness of the article to PC laptop owners) is the suggestion of where to download sound effects. I’m shocked that they don’t tell Mac owners to take advantage of the free sound effects available through imovie (which came free with most Mac products at the time of that article’s writing) rather than dump them onto some “free sound effects” site that was probably the first result in a quick web search on the matter. Since they didn’t do it, I will…link to a preview of Keith Underdahl’s Digital Video for Dummies that tells how to do so (which also tells how to record a few sound effects of your own).
But the three bonus “Haunted Hacks” at the bottom are a different story. The one about ripping off the face of a robotic chimp and using it as a creepy face might sound crazy, but it’s not that bad of an idea. Just imagine how this would look in dim lighting. I know of a guy who did something similar with a modified, skinned Furby for a home haunt and the results were pretty creepy. Sadly, the instructions for turning an old laptop into a projector in order to cast horror movie scenes are far too short to be of any use and there are no warnings about handling or keeping people away from the dry ice fog necessary for the projections (dry ice can be dangerous, but nowhere near as dangerous as stuff from old-school Popular Science articles). Speaking of old-school Popular Science Halloween articles, the suggestion to mix liquid soap and liquid nitrogen to make a bubbling witch’s brew is a bizarre flashback to those days. I guess it really is true that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Oct 05 2010
World Needs Monsters – diemonsterdie
You don’t need to go any earlier than the first Ramones record to see how interlinked punk and horror have been from the start: you can find it in ‘Chainsaw,’ a punk tribute to the ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ but as well in ‘I Don’t Want To Go Down to The Basement.’ There was something automatic about how punk rock and horror go hand-in-hand.
diemonsterdie carries on that tradition. Ten years of being in the horror punk business, this Salt Lake City, UT band has put out some catchy and killer spooky punk. Fronted by horror master Zero Delorean and backed up by drummer Meatwhistle, the two original members still going with the band, they’re joined by Stikki Nixx on bass. In 2010, diemonsterdie released a new record recently, Fall To Your Knees.
Fall To Your Knees is a great album that really is a good place for any horror punk to get into diemonsterdie. It really showcases the attitude of the band, this cool arrogance that comes when you adopt a vehicle for your true persona. Zero said in the interview that his mask allows him to express how he really feels inside. Not unusually for a performer to do, but it’s good to always know that even in 2010, a bit of costume and fake blood can help someone find out who they really want to be.
‘Lucky Number 666’ and ‘Midnight Run to Houston’ easily conveys the monster of rock influence the band takes from the likes of Alice Cooper, Motorhead and Gwar. ‘The Dead Shall Inherit the Earth,’ ‘From Screaming Graves We Rise’ cover the horror genre while songs like ‘Deep Space Isolation Psychosis’ and ‘Lyka The Russian Space Dog Will Have Her Revenge” shows off the band’s sci-fi chops.
Some of my favorite songs from other albums include ‘Human Heads in Funeral Jars’ from A Great And Terrible Loss and ‘Black Death Sheds Its Skin,’ the latter shows off both Zero’s singing at a way to convey control, sex and horror all at once. Hard to do when you’re singing from the perspective of a reanimated skeleton, but the band does it.
They could just be a regular horror band in the middle of Mormon country but diemonsterdie has taken it upon themselves to unite the horror punks across the world at worldhorrornetwork.com, a site keeping track of horror punk news and offering reviews. The band also puts out a couple podcasts – the DiaboCast hosted by Shane Diablo, but also Zero Hour Podcast (from Zero himself, which you can find at his MySpace page.
Head over to diemonsterdie.com and get yourself some free music. Recommend DMD to two friends and you’ll get a free download of their album ‘Only The Dead Will Survive,’ featuring such songs like ‘October Slowly Dying’ and ‘One Night at Devils Rock.’
Oct 04 2010
Still More Vintage Halloween Insanity
For the last two years that I’ve do this, I always think I’ve found the most dangerous and foolhardy Halloween how-to and will never find anything that will top it…only to then find something that does so. This year was no exception.
When I first read the “Mechanical Halloween Pranks” article from an October 1918 issue of Popular Science, I thought I wouldn’t have a good “Vintage Halloween Insanity” this year. The homemade lanterns were only somewhat unsafe, although use of a flashlight, LED or glow stick would make modern usage of the plans safe, while the window posters were fine. But just when I thought I had mined vintage Halloween stuff for all it was worth, then came the instructions for a witch’s cauldron scene. Although wisely telling the reader to only use real fire (and flame powder that produces colored bursts of light) outdoors, the “safe” indoor alternative of a light bulb covered by wads of tissue paper is anything but.
However, the star of this entry did not appear until I chanced upon an article called “A Halloween Chamber of Horrors” from the November 1916 issue of Popular Science. Not only is it worthy of note due to its dangerous ideas, but it’s also the earliest example of a haunted attraction that I know of, homemade or otherwise! The fact that such things existed in the early 1900’s must be a huge shock to home haunters and Halloween enthusiasts. Amazingly, this haunt was not simply a “blindfold someone and have them touch bowls full of icky-feeling items”-type deal. No, this was an honest-to-goodness walk-through attraction with several electrical effects!
The first page of the article details what one would see and experience if they had been at the haunt. Numerous “moderately severe shock[s]” are administered to visitors, with visible electrical sparks that even the writer noted would be dangerous to touch appearing at one point. Oh, and did I mention that visitors also have to kiss a baby’s skull? Don’t worry, it’s just a small fake. They weren’t THAT crazy back then. Still, I’m impressed that they came up with something that sick. Speaking of “sick,” I wonder how many diseases were contracted due to all those people kissing the same skull in the exact same spot?
The next page is filled with behind-the-scenes secrets, such as how patrons were hit in the face with raw meat and football bladders! The final page reveals more secrets, such as the use of a Crookes’ Tube (which give off cancer causing x-rays) for lighting and the use of live snakes. Said snakes (and bare skin) were covered in homemade glow-in-the-dark paint made from crushed match heads! Do I even have to explain why that’s a terrible, terrible idea? If the previous installments are any indication of the future, then I’m going to find one hell of an unsafe tutorial for the 2011 countdown…
Oct 04 2010
Providence
[This is going to be a long one.]
Providence, Rhode Island was and remains the home of H.P. Lovecraft. It was a town I had been to only once before I ventured north to see the Deadbolt show at Club Hell back in May 2010. The last time that Deadbolt came east was a year before, playing down in NYC for the Psychobilly Luau. The second-hand account said that it was that the band lived up the image presented on all their recordings. Sparks. Snakes. Voodoo. Of course, they had to come East on the one weekend when I had to go West. Still stinging from my bad luck, I don’t know if I could have bought my ticket any harder than when I did after finding out that Deadbolt were coming back.
Initially, I was going to catch one of the shows down in Brooklyn but I got the heads up about the Providence show because John from The Crimson Ghosts said his new band, The Evil Streaks. Forget Brooklyn. I was Rhode Island bound.
Providence was a short drive in a rented car, a tomato red sedan that was chosen for me out of availability, not because I wanted to be putting 200 miles under the wheels of a cop-catching blur. I wouldn’t roll into town in a car the color of electric-ketchup by choice, but it was all the rental had. My own car had been dead and buried a good six months before. It doesn’t really stand for a stellar endorsement but if you need to go to Providence, go rent a wreck. No need to go all out.
Oct 03 2010
Meanwhile…
Our apologies for not getting back to http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/ to get listed in the directory for the 2010 Countdown to Halloween. Paperwork has kept us from making the right connections. Luckily, many others have signed up to the Countdown and here are a few you should check out.
Weird Hollow highlights Stan Lee’s Monsters To Laugh With, showing that Stan The Man went to Horrow Land.
13 Visions is too good to just locate one post. You’ll find a lot of spooky images there to turn your day creepy.
Things That Don’t Suck revisits one of John Carpenter’s more biting commentaries and iconic violent scenes.
Don’t forget to see Slash the Zombie as well.
Spooky Little Girl talks about Jack White, Night of the Living Dead and Elvira.
Meanwhile, Strange Kids Club proves to be a great place for just about anything you might possibly like if you’re reading a site like ours.
And we’ll cap it off with Terror Titans writing up of all things Bela.
Oct 03 2010
More Creepy Cocktails (and Ghoulish Goodies)
If you thought that I had covered every type of Halloween-related cocktail and food recipes last year, you are quite mistaken. Here are my latest discoveries:
500 Caribbean Rum Recipes by Barb Mindar has a recipe for Voodoo Juice.
The Daily Cocktail by Dalyn Miller and Larry Donovan has a drink called Hammer Horror. They seem to think it’s a reference to MC Hammer, but us horror fans know of another possible explanation for the name.
The Joy of Mixology by Gary Regan offers two versions of the recipe for Satan’s Whiskers.
The Complete World Bartender Guide by Bob Sennett has a drink named after the horror-related hero, The Incredible Hulk.
Girls’ Night by Jaclyn W. Foley offers a quick how-to for preparing Lizard Slime
Dona Tomas: Discovering Authentic Mexican Cooking by Thomas Schnetz, Dona Savitsky, and Mike Wille claim that the Chupacabra is a type of Bloody Mary while Wikipedia says it’s a type of shot.
Speaking of Wikipedia, it also has a recipe for Dan Dunn’s Hayride cocktail.
Since we all know that eating plenty of food is a big part of drinking responsibly, here are some quick creepy recipes:
The Amazon preview for Matthew Mead’s Monster Book of Halloween offers many recipes (starting on page 11), including: Toothsome Tibias, Spider Bite, Ritzy Snake, The Evil Eye and Squirmy Worms.
Speaking of eyes, Custom Zombie has a recipe for edible eyeballs and Chateau Grrr has a recipe for Peanut Butter Eyeballs (along with recipes for Cannibal Cake and other tasty treats).
Finally, Atomic Mystery Monster alerted me to a recipe for faux pumpkin pie in a post by GeeMack made on November 22nd 2009, at 10:59 AM at this JREF forum thread.
Please drink responsibly!
Oct 03 2010
Additional: derf city
derf city has a lengthy Ghoulardi comic. You can read the rest of it here. Highly recommended, for both the artwork and the story.
Oct 03 2010
Stay Sick! Ghoulardi: Inside Cleveland TV’s Wildest Ride
Ghoulardi
Inside Cleveland TV’s Wildest Ride
by Tom Feran and R.D. Heldenfels
Tom Feran and R.D. Heldenfels book Ghoulardi: Inside Cleveland TV’s Wildest Ride documents how Ernie “Ghoulardi” Anderson, through the Ghoulardi character, captured the imagination and energy of Cleveland the way that a lot of the initial horror hosts did during the early sixties.
Ghoulardi existed for three years, 1963-66, which seems like a small amount of time. But to a teenager, three years is a lifetime and Ghoulardi was there during a period of Cleveland youth that may never come again, being a grinning joker ready to throw darts at Mike Douglas or to thumb his nose at the growing suburban sentiment of Parma, Ohio. Like the bad movies he was showing, he was there to say ‘this is our life, group. It might not be the greatest right now but we can make it work for the next couple hours.’
The book details the creation of the ‘Ghoulardi’ character, from his conception from make-up designer Ralph Gulko to the execution from jazz-loving and cool-talking Ernie Anderson. Ghoulardi goes over a good build-up on Anderson’s history, how he traveled from Boston towards Cleveland and the work he did prior to donning the van dyke mustache/beard and fright wig. His relationship with Tim Conway is discussed as is the general attitude towards Cleveland and how Cleveland took to Ghoulardi. It’s clear from reading Feran and Heldenfels’s book that Ghoulardi tapped into some youthful energy, capturing the budding imaginations of that Midwestern generation.
Ghoulardi is a good summary of the persona. I would have enjoyed if there were ten to twenty more pages highlighting jokes, since there’s no real online video library. But Feran & Heldenfels do a good job in presenting an idea of Ghoulardi’s humor, of his aesthetic, of who the character was. From reading this book, I got a good overall idea of Ernie Anderson in Cleveland, of his work on ‘Ernie’s Place’ with Tim Conway, of the time as Ghoulardi, of his charity work as the character and his less-than-charitable barbs he launched at the city that was his adopted home.
As all things, time was that which ended Ghoulardi. Had the character remained the counter-culture icon of cool he was before rock and roll, if the Beatles not changed the landscape of teenage hipness, Anderson might have remained in Cleveland for a little longer. Ghoulardi wasn’t a job, it was a persona. It was tied to attitudes and actions that Ernie Anderson had himself, to rebelling against management and authority and somehow getting away with it. It was a side to Ernie Anderson, one that would drive his golden Honda motorcycle through the television office during his weekend shift, from the lobby, through the hallways and into the News Director’s office; the part that said “you get a girl and you ‘poke ‘er’ while live on the air.
His success might have spread the character too thin, but it the world changed for Ghoulardi. He had, as a TIME magazine article once said, “caged nearly every teen-age mind in Cleveland,” but the mind is only caught for so long. Three years is a lifetime for the mind and when it was time to move on, so did Ernie Anderson. He left Cleveland and Ghoulardi behind.
Ghoulardi exists as an example of how to rebel and get away with it, that the rules that seem in place might be worth breaking, if not bending enough to have some fun. You can make fun of the movies. You can light off fireworks in the studio. You can look at your world around you with a loving eye but also point out its silliness. You can turn blue, stay sick and cool it.
Oct 02 2010
A Horror Beyond Imagination…
While reading the excellent horror site Evilontwolegs.com, I learned of the artistic equivalent of the fabled Necronomicon, which only gets worse for your sanity the more you look at it. Here’s a quote hinting at the madness within:
“If you imagined Freddy impregnating Jason, you’d probably think that this a completely original, albeit bizarre, idea. Sadly, you’d be wrong.”
Click here if you have the nerve (or is that foolishness) and prepare to feel rage (some content might be somewhat NSFW).
Oct 02 2010
House
Not Hugh Laurie
Writing will be the death of you.
Personally, I saw this when I tried to finish the 4th Friday the 13th ‘Strange Trip,’ which remains unfinished on my computer until the day comes when I can pick up where I left off. Something about either that movie or the regiment drained me. I know that I’ll have to finish it, someday but until then, it’s a ghost haunting me and this site.
Similarly, we have 1986’s ‘House,’ a story about dealing with personal demons in the form of horror writer Roger Cobb and his aunt’s haunted house.
It seems that about mid-80’s, the horror genre decided to experiment with slapstick, making a ‘splatterstick’ series of films that combined horror and comedy. ‘Evil Dead 2,’ ‘Monster Squad’ and ‘Night of the Creeps’ are examples that kind of blended things together to not make just a single spooky experience, but one that can make you scared and laugh at the same time. ‘House’ has similar elements as well.