Saturday, October 29, 2011
FASCINATION WITH FEAR lists some favorite horror soudtracks.
Some good suggestions here. I have a good many of them already but this has added several titles to my 'Must Buy' list.
Soundtracks are my life.
Okay, that's over-stating it a bit. But it's no lie that most of the music on my iPod is horror movie scores. You could say I have a serious obsession. I've got waaay too many downloaded scores from off the internet, many are even legal!
Of course I like most of the same scores as the majority of other horror fans, the ever-popularHalloween, Jaws and The Omen...but I also have a lot of more obscure ones. I recall my serious fixation with getting my hands on the score for Psycho II (which most regular readers here will not be surprised to hear). It was listed on eBay, sure...for about $150.00! That was certainly out of the question. Finally found it for around $25.00 - it was on cassette and was in Nebraska. Guess what? I bought it. A few years later I found it online - for free! Of course I won't tell where, but suffice it to say I was elated and probably made about four or five copies. I even have a copy in my fire safe with my marriage certificate and insurance policies. Now that's commitment! It remains one of my favorite scores.
Anyway, I've listed twenty-eight of my favorite scores. I thought about trying to find samples for every one of them, but some of them would be hard to find and I'm not savvy enough to know how to upload them here...
Okay, that's over-stating it a bit. But it's no lie that most of the music on my iPod is horror movie scores. You could say I have a serious obsession. I've got waaay too many downloaded scores from off the internet, many are even legal!
Of course I like most of the same scores as the majority of other horror fans, the ever-popularHalloween, Jaws and The Omen...but I also have a lot of more obscure ones. I recall my serious fixation with getting my hands on the score for Psycho II (which most regular readers here will not be surprised to hear). It was listed on eBay, sure...for about $150.00! That was certainly out of the question. Finally found it for around $25.00 - it was on cassette and was in Nebraska. Guess what? I bought it. A few years later I found it online - for free! Of course I won't tell where, but suffice it to say I was elated and probably made about four or five copies. I even have a copy in my fire safe with my marriage certificate and insurance policies. Now that's commitment! It remains one of my favorite scores.
Anyway, I've listed twenty-eight of my favorite scores. I thought about trying to find samples for every one of them, but some of them would be hard to find and I'm not savvy enough to know how to upload them here...
(Recommended Reads) 'Little Demon Girl' by Anthony Venutolo
Not sure how else to put this but I think Sadie loved being possessed.
You might think that's a harsh thing to write but it's true. I remember hearing about her around town when she was around a year old. People called it a freak accident but the story always stuck with me.
One night, as a babysitter dry humped her boyfriends downstairs, Sadie crawled out of her crib and suffocated her big sister while she was sleeping...
One night, as a babysitter dry humped her boyfriends downstairs, Sadie crawled out of her crib and suffocated her big sister while she was sleeping...
CULT MOVIE REVIEWS talks about HANNIE CAULDER
This film is a sentimental favorite of mine. I first saw it as a kid and crushed on Ms. Welch for most of my pre-teen years. And I liked the story too, it was nothing new but I really cared about the good guys.
During their very brief existence Tigon British Films were responsible for some of the very best gothic horror films ever made, including Witchfinder-General and Blood on Satan's Claw. In 1971 they decided to try their hands at what was in effect a British spaghetti western. I guess you could call it a bangers-and-mash western. The movie was Hannie Caulder and it’s definitely worth a look...(Recommended Reads) 'Orange Dot' by Michael Solender
Ours is a typical suburban housing development with mailboxes affixed to sturdy posts, standing solitary sentry at the end of our drive. As I retrieved the mail the other day, I noticed a reflective green dot, about the size of a quarter, had been placed on the post just below the mailbox. Puzzled, I wondered for just a moment what its purpose might be and then promptly thought nothing more of it...
(Recommended Reads) 'Trick Or Treat' by Icy Sedgwick
I walk along the street towards the next house. Fake cobwebs drape across the porch, and several grinning pumpkins light my way up the path. Further down the street, giggling children run from house to house. They stop to compare candy collections on the sidewalk. I chuckle to myself, a deep rumble inside my hood...
Friday, October 28, 2011
THE LIGHTNING BUG'S LAIR and HORROR'S NOT DEAD talk about my favorite Vincent Price movie.
And that movie is MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH.
Lets start with what HORROR'S NOT DEAD had to say;
Price was a gift to directors like Roger Corman and William Castle, able to step into low-budget B-pictures and craft characters who carried genuine weight. Put Price in front of a cardboard wall, hand him a fishing pole that can control a skeleton and watch him not bat an eye: he knows exactly what kind of film he’s in and manages to find the perfect pitch, taking everything that happens completely seriously but elevating his performance to a level that can’t help but ooze a little self-awareness. They don’t make actors like this anymore, folks. There will never be another Vincent Price and his Prospero may be one of his greatest roles...
And now THE LIGHTNING BUG'S LAIR;
Much of the credit for the film's success has to be given over to Corman and Price. Roger Corman is thought of as something of a hack, but looking at the lush color palette and the lavish sets (borrowed from the filming of Beckett), it has all the visual brilliance of Blood and Black Lace or Susperia. Corman knew how to get the right people for the job, and the film's look wasn't hindered by cinematographer and future film director Nicolas Roeg (Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell To Earth). Corman also got some great performances out of his cast. Price is at his menacing best as the lecherous Satanist. He's so delightfully slimy that he practically oozes around the screen. Jane Asher (who was Paul McCartney's gal pal at the time and brought the then unknown (to Roger Corman) Beatle to the set) is the picture of loveliness, and her decent into nihilistic numbness is well played and believable. The lovely Hazel Court appears as a would-be bride of Satan, but her plotline is disposable and the only part of the film that felt like padding. Skip Martin clearly has a good time playing the role of the vengeful dwarf, but it was Clockwork Orange's Patrick Mcgee who shines in their scenes. While Prospero seems the noble, refined devil worshiper, Mcgee's Alfredo seems only a hair away from being a snarling beast...
HALLOWEEN PRAYERS:The Man That Ate Newborns
Halloween Prayers
stories of faith and fright
The Man That Ate Newborns
by
Al Bruno III
by
Al Bruno III
Don't squirm so much my wee one. Don’t struggle. Let me hold you close while I work up my nerve. Only a day old and you're fighting to live, well so am I. Isn't that what we all want in the end? Life, a warm place to sleep and a full belly. Well, that's what you've got and what do I have? Nothing I'm just a middle aged man, used up and waiting to die.
Just like you, not that you realize what's coming next of course.
Then again maybe you do understand, you may be blind and confused but maybe you do know somehow. Is that why you keep trying to get free?
This is all because of Eve. We had known each other since college. She was already halfway towards becoming a lawyer and I was a well respected graduate student. You should have seen her. She was so damn beautiful with creamy skin- just like yours. I first saw her in the college library, I was so smitten that I followed her home. Just to see if she was married or living with a boyfriend or something like that. I spent the next few days tracking her, learning whatever I could and once I was sure I knew enough to pass for her soulmate I made my move.
I played my cards just right and won her heart. It was a whirlwind romance, the kind of thing you'll never know my wee one. Maybe that's just as well, maybe if you could you'd thank me for sparing you the heartbreak.
Even now I don't know what went wrong. Was I too agreeable? Too clingy? It doesn't matter. She found someone else. The breakup was an ugly thing, uglier than you my wee one.
She tried to be gentle, she told me we could still be friends. I was so angry, I said terrible things but in the end I took her up on the offer of friendship and hoped she might come to her senses.
I'll never understand women. They're called the fairer sex but everything they do is unfair. How is it time and time again they're drawn to the wrong men? Why couldn't she see that her new boyfriend was all wrong for her? And why for God's sake did she marry him.
Now don't get me wrong, I tried to move on. There were other towns, other girls and no matter how much I learned about them before I made my move I never got as far as I had with Eve.
Was that why I kept coming back to my home town? Was that why I stayed her friend even though the sight of that ring on her finger left my skull pounding with rage?
Calm down now my wee one. I might drop you if you keep struggling so. Is that what you want?
I stayed her friend, I prayed for her to divorce but then it got worse. They were tears of joy in her eyes when she told me she was pregnant. I smiled at the news but in the back of my mind I was calling her a bitch. She never cried for me but she had a fountain of tears for a baby that wasn't even born yet. A baby that at this point was just a lump of cells no better than a tumor.
Some say life begins at conception but I don’t think it begins until you have your first real thought. Until then your just a thing that eats and crawls mindlessly.
It was during her final trimester that I decided something radical needed to be done. I would steal her little baby and I would keep it away until she promised to leave her husband and love me forever.
We would raise the child together. Even though it was another man's I would raise it as my own.
Thanks to things like email and her husband's Facebook page I knew when Eve started to go into labor. I waited about twenty-four hours, and then made my move.
As always I had done my homework, I knew the hospital's routine. I went at night, wearing stolen scrubs and an official-looking ID badge.
I made my way to the nursery convinced that no suspicious eyes would turn my way. I suppose love blinded me in that respect. I barely had the baby in my arms before someone raised an alarm. Escape wasn't easy but I managed to get out of the building. Then I found myself in the middle of a car chase. I knew I could evade the police if I made it to the state park and drove with my headlights off.
The crash was a directionless blur, I thought I was running parallel to the ravine but I ended up careening right into it.
Now here I am, pinned in my car with broken bones poking through the flesh of my legs. I had dared everything and I came away empty handed. Doubtlessly Eve and her husband are cooing over their baby and cursing me for what I had tried to do.
I'm not sure why no one has found me yet, I mean they must be looking but it's been two days and I'm still waiting alone.
Well, I was waiting alone until you came along. The flies must have laid you while I was drifting in and out of consciousness but now my wounded legs are crawling with maggots.
This isn't cruelty, it's just that I'm so hungry and you’re all I have. I'm going to eat you first and then once I’ve gotten the taste for it your brothers and sisters will be joining you by the handful.
I'm going to live through this, and somehow I'm going to get my Eve back.
Somehow. Somehow I'll do it.
Just don't squirm so much my wee one. Don't struggle.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Michael Bukowski continues to be a Mythos-making machine!
He's got a Hell of a lot of talent. Stop by his blog to see more.
Check out his Ithaqua the Wind Walker...
THE DARK TOWER the TV series? Could it work? Could it go the distance?
Good news, fans of epically long Stephen King sagas! The hefty King series The Dark Tower will be getting the HBO treatment. This is a good thing, as HBO is really the only place with the budget and patience to take on such a long, complicated story.
HBO broke the news from producer Brian Grazer, who confirmed there will be yet another fantasy series on the channel that gave us Game of Thrones and True Blood...
I'm 44 years old today! My daughter and her friends are giving me a makeover!
I can't wait to see how it turns out!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Remaindered, Rejected And Irreconcilable part five
Price Breaks And Heartaches
A journal of retail and failed romance
Chapter Eight
Remaindered, Rejected And Irreconcilable
part five
Tallulah's family was staying in town this year and my Mom's side of the family insisted I stick around to enjoy what was being planned as a more intimate Thanksgiving holiday.
Of course you and I know that an 'intimate Thanksgiving' meant something very different to me now.
There was no sign of my Aunt, Uncle or cousins, which could have meant that they were off enjoying an intimate Thanksgiving of their own but I knew what it really meant.
“So we're all not speaking to each other again I guess.” I said.
“They asked for it.” My Mother dropped a plate of food down in front of me.
“What- what is this?” I asked, my head was already spinning with questions and I still didn't know that my brother was wearing a back brace yet.
“It's chicken friend steak.” My sister Greta explained, “Our Aunt was supposed to bring the turkey and other food this year and the fight happened so fast Mom didn't have time to pick up replacements.”
I looked back to my Mom, “Is that true?”
Mom started handing out her hastily improvised side dishes- bread instead of dinner rolls, mixed vegetables instead of stuffing, jelly instead if cranberries. “I'm sorry Al but I can't say. I'm not talking to your sister right now either.”
“Well since she's sitting right next to me I'm gonna have a Hell of a time getting my fair share of the franks and beans.”
“It's their own fault.” My stepfather explained, “We did all that work on the boat-”
“You mean the one that they paid for and owned?”
“-we did all that work and suddenly they don't want us around any more.”
Greta shrugged, “Then maybe Phil shouldn't have been sneaking into the boat house to have drunken orgies.”
“Hey!” My brother pounded his fist on the table, “That was just me and two chicks, orgies are for fags.”
“And what do they care?” my Mom said, “He kept the vinyl covers on the seats.”
“Truly.” I said, “A gentleman's gentleman.”
My grandmother said, “Everyone just needs to calm down and stop being ridiculous with all this fighting when we all know it's Cousin Buck's fault.”
“It is the music all the devil music they play on the radio,” my great grandmother said but then again she believed any music from the post Lawrence Welk era was the work of the devil so I think we can all feel safe with our Metallica/Barry Manilow mix tapes.
What? I can't be the only guy that had one of those.
*
I have always been a fast eater, perhaps because of the fact I have spent so many years trying to get nourishment on a half hour lunch break. This time of course I had another reason, Tallulah and I were going to the movies, I was going to meet her there. We were going to see Scrooged . It was snowing lightly and I was speeding slightly and I ended up doing a little bit of a spin out right in the middle of Central Avenue. It took a few minutes for me to catch my breath and as you can imagine I was late and missed the movie.
We went out to grab a bite to eat but I noticed that the old frostiness was returning again. I didn't know what to do so I kept acting like things hadn't changed. If anything I was trying harder and harder to get her to laugh, just to smile. I carried around a strange feeling of unease in my stomach all the time. We made love one last time and I couldn't help but notice that my desperation was matched by her disinterest.
Finally, as the first week of December everything started to fall apart.
*
My room was dark and I had Kate Bush's album The Hounds of Love playing on the stereo. Tallulah and I hadn't spoken for days- mostly because we couldn't say two words without getting into some kind of an argument but I kept trying but the times between attempts were getting further and further apart.
I was sitting on the floor with the phone in my lap. I was determined to get through to her this time to make her see what we might lose. Most of my life I had played roles; the clown, the dutiful son, the victim, I was something a little different to each person in my life.
But with Tallulah (and Lily before her) I had been me, or as close to who I thought me was. I finally felt comfortable in my own, admittedly roomy, skin.
It took me a few moments to get my confidence up, and then I dialed her number.
“Hello?”
“Hi.” I said.
“Oh hi. What's up?”
I decided to get my groveling off to a good start, “I miss you.”
“Haven't you been busy with school?”
“Never to busy for you my love.”
“Oh please.” she said with a groan.
“What's- what's happening to us?”
“What do you think is happening to us?”
“I don't know.” I sighed, “You know I love you right?”
“You sure as Hell keep saying that a lot.”
“Well I do!” my shouting angered the Shih Tzu's my mother had wandering the house. They barked and barked and barked and barked, then barked some more.
“You say it so much it doesn't mean anything. What do you want from me? A partner, a friend, someone to fuck?”
This was going worse than I had imagined, “I want you.”
“Do you want someone to spend your life with or someone to take care of you?”
“Can't I have both?”
“You just don’t get it.”
“Then explain it to me.”
“I shouldn’t have to.”
“Well you damn well better.” I said, “Because I would like to know the Goddamn reason we’re about break up.”
There was a long pause, “Oh. That’s how it is.”
“I don’t know how it is.” I growled, “What do you want from me?”
“What do you want from me?”
That tore it, “I give up. I’ve got plenty of blood relatives lining up to make me miserable. I don’t need it from you. Good bye.”
I slammed the receiver down and then spent the next hour praying she’d call back. She didn’t of course.
*
I didn’t sleep much that night, I knew this was one of those moments when my life had changed forever but couldn’t accept it. I listened to her favorite songs and leafed through my copy of one of her favorite books.
Again and again I asked tried to understand how things could have gone so wrong. I hadn’t been a jerk to her, unlike most of the men in her past; in fact I had been obsequious to her, so obsequious that I’d had to look up the word to figure out what the Hell obsequious meant.
Had everyone else been right? Was the only way to make a girl love you was to be an utter prick to her? How could that work? What did that say about love?
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