Tuesday, January 23, 2024
RIP David Emge
Monday, October 19, 2020
12 Days 'til Halloween
I know a lot of folks are up in arms about Michael Graves' political leanings. Being a person who dislikes staunch adherence to either party, I feel like there are good people on both sides - although these people are the ones who definitely get noticed the least, as they're not running their mouths preaching the kind of hate and intolerance now trafficked in on both the Left as well as the Right. Either way, I haven't ever looked into Mr. Graves' political philosophies because I don't care. I love the two records he did with the Misfits and after that, well, for me he just fell off the face of the planet, which I am 100% okay with. I rewatched George A. Romero's Bruiser recently, and the Graves-era-Misfits make a cameo in, and the bonus features on the disc reminded me that the late, great Mr. Romero directed this music video for the band. How absolutely perfect, no?
31 Days of Halloween:
Playlist:
Sunday, October 14, 2018
2018: October 14th
I had not heard of Prospect previous to encountering the trailer on Bloody Disgusting earlier this weekend. Looks pretty good. I think Annihilation paved the way for more of this type of Sci Fi film getting major theatrical releases, and that's a good thing.
Zeal and Ardor absolutely killed it last night at the Roxy. Having seen them about a year ago at the Hi Hat, a smaller venue, this band proved it is going nowhere but forward. Very little talk between songs, except to express gratitude and joy at their 100th show and such an awesome turnout (if it wasn't sold out it was close), the ripped through pretty much everything you could ask them to. I was especially happy to hear Waste live, and they closed with a new song called Baphomet, which was fantastic. Also, like I may have mentioned a few months ago when I saw Windhand there, the Roxy really does a good job maintaining their beer taps. The Lagunitas Pils was exceptional.
Here's a video of Baphomet from Lowlands in August:
31 Days of Horror continued with the Director's Cut of Land of the Dead. I liked it about as much as I did the theatrical version back in 2005 on opening night, which is to say not very much at all. Recently, George A. Romero's widow announced he had left behind a lot of scripts. Now, not all of them are necessarily zombie movies. However, I've always been kind of bummed that George A. did such an amazingly cerebral take on horror - while creating a new monster/genre* with the zombie film, no less - devolved into the pretty straight up action film Land and then he re-booted the continuity with Diary and Survival of the Dead. I've not seen those last two, but as soon as I heard he was no longer continuing the original timeline, I was out.
Why?
I want to know what the world we were introduced to in Night of the Living Dead looks like 6 days down the line, 6 months down the line, 6 years down the line, etc. Romero deftly continues the evolution of that world in Dawn and Day, the former being, in my opinion, the best zombie film of all time, and the latter, despite some questionable acting and directing choices (Jamaican accent?), a great continuation of that evolution, for both the "monster" and the concept, but what's next? This is why I've always loved The Walking Dead comic series: the evolution of the world where this apocalypse has come to pass. Incidentally, I read once that Robert Kirkman's original title for The Walking Dead was Night of the Living Dead, or that the intention was to set it in Romero's universe (it's public domain).
31 Days of Horror:
10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06) Re-animator
10/07) Night of the Demons
10/08) Species
10/09) The Roost
10/10) The Convent
10/11) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10/12) George A. Romero's Day of the Dead
10/13) George A. Romero's Land of the Dead
10/14) The Apostle
And yes, at the time of writing this I've already watched today's movie, the just-dropped new film by Gareth Evans, Netflix's The Apostle. The articles I read about this describe it as somewhat Lovecraftian. Man, that is one over-used term these days! There is nothing Lovecraftian about this film. That said, I enjoyed The Apostle, however it has an odd pacing that feels a bit over-stuffed at times. My guess is this was originally supposed to be a series, then while filming the pilot someone decided to make it a film, and they shot enough to complete it. The film handles its multiple storylines well, however it just feels like the first season of a show streamlined into a 2 hour and 20-something minute movie. Not a bad thing, but makes for a little bit of cumbersome viewing. Cumbersome might be too harsh, so let's just say it doesn't flow the way a film like this seems it should.
Playlist from yesterday:
Joh Corigliano - Altered States OST
John Carpenter - Lost Themes II
Windhand - Eternal Return
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Tom Vek - Luck
Card of the day:
Confirmation of the dark side? Entering the night, exploring the darker aspects... of myself? Or something I'm writing? No real frame of reference for this one today.
Saturday, October 13, 2018
2018: October 13th
The closing track from Windhand's Eternal Return, my current musical obsession.
Zeal and Ardor tonight at the Roxy! Can't wait. Normally I'd show up a bit later and hang at the bar, but K wants to get there early, grab a spot by the stage and hang there all night, so it'll be front-and-center for one of her favorite bands. We saw them last year at the High Hat and hot damn! what an awesome show. Not a huge fan of The Roxy, but I'm happy as hell to see them growing into bigger venues.
31 Days of Horror continued with George A. Romero's Day of the Dead, primarily because I ordered the bare bones, director's cut Blu Ray for Land of the Dead - a movie a saw opening night in '05 and did not like very much. In spite of this, I've decided it's time for reassessment, and my friend Anthony swears the Theatrical was unlikeable because of studio edits which the director's cut corrects. We shall see...
31 Days of Horror:
10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06) Re-animator
10/07) Night of the Demons
10/08) Species
10/09) The Roost
10/10) The Convent
10/11) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10/12) George A. Romero's Day of the Dead
Playlist from 10/12:
The Final Cut - Consumed
In Solitude - Sister
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
Steve Moore - The Mind's Eye OST
Windhand - Eternal Return
Zeal and Ardor - Devil is Fine
Card of the day:
Probably because the prospects of doing any real writing this weekend are slim. Boo social activity!
Monday, October 10, 2016
Dawn of the Dead 3D at Beyond Fest 2016
I will admit that while I have extremely low tolerance for the Zombie film as a genre there are several Zombie-related stories in popular culture that inspire an allegiance in me that little else receives. My Zombie list goes like this, not in any order of preference:
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Sunday, October 27, 2013
George A. Romero's Season of the Witch
Whoah! The previous post turned my train of thought to other 70's, witchy movie-related tunes and of course Donovon's Season of the Witch and its use in George A. Romero's largely unknown classic of the same name sprang to mind. When I popped over to the youtubes to look for said song imagine my surprise when I noticed that the entire freakin' movie was on there! Now, I don't own the rights and as usual I implore you to buy this is if you dig it, but it's up there and a lot of folks don't know about it and it's almost Halloween, so when you get a minute, sit down and thrill to the domestic witchery of a lost Romero gem!!!