Exhaustion sets in

I took a bit of a posting break after wrapping up my Countdown to Halloween posts, and I needed it. The store is now gearing up for Christmas big time, and this past week has been a whirlwind of work, housework, more missed television, and lots of driving.

Oh, and the Foo Fighters/Social Distortion show!

I'll be getting to that later (I'm actually hoping to get my friend Laura to write a review of it, since they're her very favorite band, and she is really good at describing all the right moments that can really "take you there."), but today I'm over at The Music Mamas with my first edition of "Whatever happened to..." Wednesday. This week, I'm writing about The Prodigy, one of my favorites from the 90s that I mistakenly thought fell off the face of the planet after their massive success with 1997's The Fat of the Land. I think you'll be just as surprised as I was at how much they've been up to since then, so be sure to go check it out! And while you're there, feel free to leave comments suggesting another act to check up on.

Image Source: This work by Prateek Bahadur is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

All these things that I've done

....and now I'm supposed to pick just one and talk about it?

Okay, well...here goes: two weeks ago, one of the prompts for Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop was to "list 22 things you've never done," which I turned into a post about bands, artists, and tours I've never seen. The next week's prompt was to "list 22 things you HAVE done," in which I listed 22 bands and artists I HAVE been able to see live.One of the prompts for this week?

"Did you create a list of 22 things you've done in your life for last week's Writer's Workshop? This week, choose one item from your list and elaborate! We want the story."

I'm going with that one, since I've already held with the other two in previous posts. And, as you might have guessed, I'm going to pick just one artist and give you the goods on my experience at their show. This is incredibly hard on me, as most shows I've attended have been special in their own way. My favorite shows ever were in recent years and at smaller venues (except for 1985's Motley Crue shos in Memphis, which you can read about here if you choose to do so). There was the Hank III show in Huntsville in '09, which I wrote about here, and the 30 Seconds to Mars show in Atlanta from earlier this year, which I gushed about over at The Music Mamas.

And then there was the Type O Negative show in Atlanta back in 2007, which is probably my favorite of all shows, ever. Not only because they're one of my favorite bands, but because of Peter Steele's untimely passing, they sadly are no more.

I made a post about this at one of my old blogs, but it's waaaay too long to publish here. (I'll be sure to come back and link to it when I get it transferred, though!) So for post length's sake, here is the gist of it:

My friend and I got to hang out inside the venue all day (instead of having to wait in the rain), met some of the bands and crew (some of whom I still talk to!), got shout-outs from the sound board, and watched different sound checks before the shows started. We got our favorite spot along the security barricade, and of course it was right in front of Peter, who at the time was really looking and sounding good again. I enjoyed all the bands' performances, but Type O's was the best I've seen out of all the times I've seen them. And Peter seemed to really enjoy dousing the front of my shirt with water bottles throughout the night. A friend insisted that he just wanted to see me in a wet t-shirt, so I'm gonna run with that idea

So....tell me all about your favorite concert experience in the comments! I love discussing music and concerts.

For more of Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop, head on over here to read or link up!

Yay! It's Halloween!

And probably my favorite holiday of the year: the new horror releases in theaters, the ghosts, witches, goblins, vampires, pirates, book and movie characters out roaming the streets; the scary movies from Halloweens past on tv; the haunted houses/hayrides; the CANDY AND TREATS!

And....the 1978 John Carpenter film of the same name. Featuring Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut (and also introducing us to the iconic blank, CREEPY white mask), Halloween was one of the highest-grossing independent films in recent history. Like Night Of The Living Dead, Halloween is also included in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. I liked the film because, due to little violence and gore, it relied heavily on atmosphere, implication, and a compelling score. Halloween's main theme is one of the most widely recognized pieces of music associated with a horror film.

There's a lot of information up at the Wikipedia page I linked to, and it's all very interesting. Definitely sheds some light on why the movie was included in the National Film Registry. You should go read it! And tonight, if you're at home, you should watch Halloween.

Image Source: found at Best-Horror-Movies.com

1 day till Halloween!

It's time to do the Time Warp again, because Halloween just isn't Halloween without The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

This is one that I really had to grow into appreciating, because when I saw it as a youngster I was expecting something scary, and this? Just wasn't. However, it launched the career of the incredible Tim Curry, and amassed a HUGE cult following. RHPS is included in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry, and continues to be shown in theaters 35+ years after its original release. It is well-known these days for its unmistakable soundtrack, enthusiastic fan base and audience participation.

I know will get some flack for this, but I am STILL a RHPS virgin - as far as dressing up and participating goes - but I try to catch the movie around Halloween whenever I get a chance!  And if it counts?  I'd love to particpate someday!  I think I'd look more like a Magenta, but I'm obviously more of a Columbia, personality-wise

Image source: Wikipedia

2 days till Halloween!

We're getting closer and closer, y'all! And I think another movie is in order for today's post.

I think The Exorcist is hands-down the scariest movie I've ever seen in my life. ALL movies related to demonic possession and the Anti-Christ freak me out, but this one tops them all by far. It's also in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry, been named the "scariest movie of all time" by several different media outlets, and is one of the highest-earning movies of all time (source: Wikipedia).

As I've said before, I've pretty much always been allowed to watch horror films. Most of them never scared me beyond when I was actually watching the movie (and some didn't even scare me then, but I guess that's beside the point). But this one? Oh, my. I wasn't allowed to watch it for the longest time, and I think that was because my aunt had seen it in the theater (or the drive-in, I'm not sure which) when it was released and it really, really, REALLY scared and disturbed her. In fact, I've only ever seen the version shown on tv - and not even cable tv, but one of the "Big Three" television networks.

So I finally convinced my parents to let me watch it when I was about 12, and they sat right there beside me, and said that I MUST cover my eyes, or possibly even shut my eyes and stick my fingers in my ears whenever they told me to. Of course you all know I cheated, and watched all the graphic scenes through my eyelashes and didn't do a good job of plugging the sounds out of my ears, either. And it was hard sitting there trying to act like I wasn't seeing and hearing everything (at least the sounds, I probably couldn't tell you the actual words even to this day), when I had NEVER BEEN SO FREAKED OUT BY ANYTHING BEFORE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!! And to be quite honest, the hold this movie had on me was probably due to the fact that it was touted at the time as being based on actual events.

I've since come to learn that the novel The Exorcist (upon which the film is based) was merely "inspired" by actual events. That's a world of difference, especially to an adult as opposed to a child. But things of this nature will always both intrigue and frighten me, as I truly believe there is so much out there in terms of good and evil spirits, energies, etc, and there are a lot of things that more practical people would dismiss that I just don't find that farfetched.

Image Source: Wikipedia

3 days till Halloween!

So I know what my final three movie selections for the countdown to Halloween to be, but I'm drawing a blank today for the fourth. I think instead, I'll focus on horror/supernatural/fantasy on television. There is so much good stuff out there these days! I started watching Supernatural way back, but for some reason didn't watch it beyond two seasons even though it was a good show. I think I'd like to play catch-up one of these days.....

In the meantime, here are some recent and/or current shows that I have enjoyed this past year or am enjoying right now:

1. The Walking Dead
2. The Vampire Diaries
3. The Nine Lives of Chloe King
4. Death Valley
5. Teen Wolf
6. True Blood
7. Game of Thrones
8. Being Human
9. The Secret Circle
10. American Horror Story (more on this one later, as I really, REALLY want to discuss it with other fans!)
11. Once Upon A Time
12. Grimm

Not to mention, I've enjoyed The Munsters, The Addams Family, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Twilight Zone, Tales From the Crypt, Night Gallery, and  Dark Shadows!  (And probably many, many, many more that I can't think of right off the top of my head.)  And I am very much looking forward to Hell On Wheels.

What are some of your favorite horror/supernatural/fantasy-based television shows, past or present?

Image source: Wikipedia

More bands, artists, and tours

This week as part of Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop, one of the prompts was "Last week we wrote about what we have never done…this week write a list of 22 things you HAVE done."

So, in keeping with my last week's theme, where instead I posted a list of 22 bands, artists, or tours I have never seen, this week I will post 22 bands or artists that I HAVE seen:

1. 30 Seconds To Mars
2. Hank III
3. 100 Monkeys
4. Weezer
5. Blink 182
6. My Chemical Romance
7. Type O Negative
8. Motley Crue
9. North Mississippi Allstars
10. Willie Nelson
11. Ozzy Osbourne
12. Metallica (with Cliff)
13. Alice Cooper
14. Kiss
15. Bush
16. Satyricon
17. Ratt
18. Bon Jovi
19. Danzig
20. Cradle of Filth
21. Dimmu Borgir
22. Sevendust

This was actually a LOT easier than last week's prompt.  I consider myself very lucky that there really aren't very many bands that I want to see that I haven't, and that  I'll never be able to.

Head over to Mama Kat's for more Writer's Workshop.  And while you're there?  Link up your own!

4 days till Halloween!

Let's have another movie, okay?

The first "documentary"-type horror movie I'd ever seen was The Blair Witch Project. What attracted me to this film was the way in which the movie was shot, promoted (more on that in a minute), and the Blair Witch's resemblance specifically to a tale of southern folklore that I'd grown up hearing about due to several families I knew who were related to the Bell family of Tennessee: The Bell Witch.

There was SO much hype surrounding this film at the time that even our local news devoted time to it, and a lot of internet promotion touted the film as actual recovered footage from events which really happened. In this respect, it was probably one of the first movies to build such hype over the world wide web in what is known today as viral marketing.

This movie was another one that didn't rely on gore and violence, but worked well with all the movie's other elements: the setting was creepy, with dark woods and sudden movements, bizarre and unnatural sounds as well as sudden, heart-stoppingly loud sounds, steadily escalating fear and paranoia, lots of motion sickness-inducing camera work, and some of the dialogue was unintelligible to me because of the way in which it was filmed.

Still, it is a pretty scary movie if you could manage to suspend your disbelief (because really, there is NO WAY three college kids could have just disappeared off the face of the earth and it not be mentioned anywhere by anyone) and just enjoy the "footage" as it was intended.

Image source: Wikipedia

5 days till Halloween!

There won't be any actors, actresses, or movies today, because today is all about the music. Long before (and even since) movies began featuring songs by popular artists on their soundtracks, the instrumental score was crucial to setting the right mood; inciting the right emotions. Here are some instrumental selections from various horror movie scores over the years. Some you'll probably immediately recognize

• Psycho Theme - Bernard Herrmann - Psycho

• Friday the 13th Main Theme - Henry Manfredini - Friday The 13th

• JAWS Main Theme - John Williams - JAWS (yes, it's a repeat from another post, but still deserves to be here!)

• Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield - The Exorcist

• The Bride of Frankenstein Main Theme - Franz Waxman - The Bride of Frankenstein

• Halloween Theme - John Carpenter - Halloween

• Toccata and Fugue in D Minor - Johann Sebastian Bach - The Phantom of the Opera

• Ave Satani - Jerry Goldsmith -The Omen

Image source: PSD Graphics

6 days till Halloween!

My last post was all about the Scream Queens I adore. I've never heard the term "Scream Kings," but that's basically what this will be. The men who've made a mark in the genre or otherwise caught my attention in a horror movie in some way or another .

• Boris Karloff (Frankenstein) 

• Christopher Lee (Dracula - Hammer)

• Peter Cushing (Dracula  - Hammer)

• Lon Chaney Sr. (The Phantom of the Opera)

• Lon Chaney Jr. (The Wolf Man)

• Bela Lugosi (Dracula - Universal)

• Vincent Price (The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Masque of Red Death, Edward Scissorhands (not horror, but still...), the voice and maniacal laugh in Michael Jackson's "Thriller," and so, so, so much more!)

And now, for a few more "recent" ones.....

• Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness, Bubba Ho-Tep)

• Jackson Rathbone (and I don't mean for the Twilight Saga; he's also been in Pray For Morning, S. Darko, Hurt, and Dread - the latter two are actually decent and underrated thriller-types.)

• Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood.  Not horror to some of you, and certainly not a movie - but he stays!)

• Skeet Ulrich (Scream)

• Brandon Lee (The Crow)

And my favorite, not only in his horror movies, but in all his other movies as well:

Johnny Depp.  Most already know that he got his start as a Freddy Krueger victim in A Nightmare on Elm Street.  But he's also been in other horror and/or atmospherically dark films such as Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, The Astronaut's Wife, Sleepy Hollow, The Secret Window, Edward Scissorhands, From Hell, Corpse Bride,  Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and The Ninth Gate.

That's a LOT of horror/thriller stuff for a pretty mainstream actor.  And on top of all that, he'll be playing Barnabas Collins in Tim Burton's upcoming Dark Shadows.  My favorite actor is playing the main characer in the movie version of one of my favorite childhood tv shows, and with Tim Burton directing, you know it'll be visually stunning. 

Image Source:  found at Strollerderby

7 days till Halloween!

I'm taking a break from movies today to pay tribute to some pretty amazing "Scream Queens" we've seen over the years. So, it goes without saying that you should endeavor to watch any or all of the films that made these ladies famous.

There is actually a Wikipedia page devoted to the Scream Queen, with a set of criteria listed and everything. I know there are many, many, many Scream Queens, but due to time constraints I'm only listing a few that I particularly like for whatever reason. No bios or links. And here they are, in no particular order:

• Elsa Lanchester (Bride of Frankenstein)

• Fay Wray (King Kong)

• Janet Leigh (Psycho)

• Linda Blair (The Exorcist)

• Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween)

• Cassandra Peterson (Elvira, Mistress of the Dark - "Movie Macabre" hostess and tv personality. Also: made out with Jimi Hendrix AND Elvis Presley!)

• Jennifer Tilly (Bride of Chucky. And probably a real-life vampire, because she NEVER ages.)

• Neve Campbell (Scream)

• Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street)

• Linnea Quigley (Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers!!! And practically every horror B-movie ever made since the mid-seventies.)

• Karen Black (House of 1000 Corpses is what most people probably know her from. I know her from Trilogy of Terror.)

• Danielle Harris (Probably most known for Rob Zombie's Halloween reboot, but she's been in horror movies since she was a small child.)

• Debbie Rochon (if you spent many a Friday night at home watching the Troma features on USA, then you're familiar with Debbie.)

• Shannon Lark (writer, actress, director, film festival director, dancer, and all-around powerhouse in the genre.)

Now....on to my favorite Scream Queen of all:

 

Sheri Moon Zombie. (House of 1000 Corpses) Wife of Rob Zombie. Star of all Rob Zombie films, and many Rob Zombie and White Zombie music videos (as well as music videos by other artists), clothing designer, dancer, and owner of one deceptively dangerous laugh. I guess she's probably not as qualified as some, but since most of what she's done has been horror-related, she fits. Plus, she's my age and still manages to look super-hot. That's not always easy!

Image soucre: found at We ♥ It

8 days till Halloween!

I'm not really sure if you'd consider Jaws a true horror movie, but I'm slapping it up here anyway because it was a scary movie, it was bloody, and it really did make many people think twice about going into the water.

I can clearly remember seeing it for the first time: It was showing at our local drive-in and my parents took me with them. I'm not sure how I ended up going.....either my grandparents couldn't babysit, or I begged and pleaded till my Dad relented. The conditions were: 1) no asking questions, 2) no having to get food/drink/go to restroom every five minutes, 3) no talking. They probably figured at five years old, I'd be out cold before the first twenty minutes of the movie.

But they couldn't have been more wrong! The movie grabbed my attention from the opening scene. The movie probably really was too much for me, the concept of water was very familiar to me (I didn't ever really swim in swimming pools when I was little, but we mostly swam at the local lake), and I knew that there were big fish in the water. I didn't really understand the difference between lakes and oceans at five, but I took my parents' word for it that there were no man-eating sharks in the lakes we visited.

So the movie boasts plenty of action, terrifying moments, and got to moviegoers psychologically by taking something so many of us do, and see as relatively harmless (swimming), and reminded us that you never really know what might be lurking just under the surface. This was a movie where the monster was a REAL creature, as opposed to one based largely upon folklore, or a human monster. You can attempt to reason with a serial killer or maybe even the made-up monsters of the classic films, but you can't reason with a shark!

And who can forget the awesome Official Jaws Theme from John Williams?



This movie both scared the bejeezus out of me and excited me, and I credit it with starting my almost-lifelong fascination with sea creatures.

Bands, artists, and tours....

I'm now two days late with Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop, but I am slapping a post up anyway. Just to keep me in the routine, and hopefully, some other Saturday stragglers such as myself will play along. Of course, tomorrow will be my catch-up day, so that's when I'll be out and about, visiting everyone.

One of the themes for this week's workshop was to "...list 22 things you've never done." That could cover a LOT of ground for me, so I'm just going to narrow it down, and list 22 bands and/or artists/tours/etc that I *REALLY* wish I'd been able to see, but will not be able to due to death, breakup, or not the lineup I prefer.

OR bands I just really want to see, but haven't yet.

None of these are in any particular order, except for the first:

1. The Doors. Hands-down, THE band I wish I'd been able to see. Jim Morrison was truly unlike any other. I'd still be in love with him even if he were alive today, even though he's as old as my Dad! Alas, it was not meant to be, as Jim Morrison died before I was even one year old.
2. Jimi Hendrix
3. Johnny Cash
4. Nine Inch Nails
5. Kiss, during the 70s, BEFORE the makeup came off
6. Led Zeppelin
7. Pink Floyd
8. Woodstock, '69. OR '94.
9. Lollapalooza in its inaugural year.
10. Guns N Roses, the Appetite or Use Your Illusion years.
11. Jan and Dean
12. Waylon Jennings
13. The RAMONES!
14. Ozzy with Randy Rhoads
15. Van Halen before splitting with David Lee Roth
16. Nirvana
17. ELVIS PRESLEY. 'Nuff said.

And now, for bands that I've never been able to see, but really want to...and maybe will be able to one of these days:

1. Avenged Sevenfold
2. Hollywood Undead
3. Slipknot
4. Iron Maiden
5. Social Distortion - BUT.....I am going to see them in November.  Yay for that!

Head over to Mama Kat's (link above) to link up and go blog-hopping!

Image source: Wikipedia

9 Days till Halloween!

And I figured it was a great day to give you more Johnny Depp (but really, when is it not a good day for Johnny Depp?) In The Secret Window, he plays a writer who retreats to his rural cabin in an attempt to deal with his writer's block and depression. And, as you might have guessed....he's keeping a pretty big secret.

Stephen King wrote the novella upon which this movie is based, and the movie definitely has King's creepy touch. You'll probably like this if you're a fan of Depp, King, or horror that isn't that scary.

Image source: Wikipedia

10 days till Halloween!

I don't know which movie to put up here today, as both The Prophecy, actually the first in a series of films, and Legion are very similar - angels fighting, trying to prevent the birth of a child who can save mankind, both having strong ties to North American deserts. Both films are more action than horror, in my opinion, with the Prophecy series being atmospherically the darker and more ominous of the two.

 
But religion has always been one of the things that interest me to no end, and anything having to do with the Bible's Book of Revelations is especially interesting, with all the predictions of doomsday, apocalypse and hell on earth. The thing about films such as this, even though they play mainly upon the fears of Christians, the "warnings" themselves can be taken in a number of different contexts depending on one's religion, or lack thereof.

Image source: Wikipedia

11 days till Halloween!

So the Scream Awards the other night were a bit underwhelming. Biggest WTF?!!? moment? Let Me In winning Best Horror Movie. Umm...I saw that. It wasn't scary at all! Or am I just too desensitized to all this by now?

Anyway...this horror movie series from the 80s brought out a new breed of killer - one who stalks you in your sleep! I loved A Nightmare On Elm Street not only for being a pretty cool slasher flick, but for all its camp, witticisms, and humor. And for giving us Johnny Depp! The sequels were all pretty decent, and the soundtrack to the third one (Dream Warriors) featured music by one of my then-favorites (and performers on the Monsters of Rock tour here in the U.S.), Dokken. Since that time, every Nightmare sequel has featured at least one metal band on its soundtrack.

You learn these things when you are a teenager and you have no social life!

Image source: Wikipedia

12 days till Halloween!

Since this was recently featured on AMC's Fear Fest, my mind is on The Hills Have Eyes. (The 1977 movie, not the remake - though the remake was okay.)

It's every traveling family's worst nightmare: a breakdown in the middle of nowhere and being terrorized through the night by a family of hungry, cannibalistic mutants - the most prominent one being played by Michael Berryman (the guy in the poster on the right). He probably looks familiar to you if you grew up watching MTV in the 80s, as he was the principal in Motley Crue's video for "Smokin' In The Boys Room."

I prefer this film to the recent remake, which was much more gory. I felt this one delivered better with tension!

Image source: Wikipedia

What do you get when you mix late night + travel + storms + temp change + allergies + the Scream Awards?

Apparently you get a dream like the one I had last night.

I arrived at this event, or party, and it's already in full swing. I ask to be directed to my husband, and am taken to him. Turns out I am married to Eddard Stark (yay, Game of Thrones, for your Scream Awards win!), and he is already well on the way to getting busy with another woman! I almost said this is weird because Eddard Stark would never do such a thing! But then....well, there is Jon Snow, so yeah. For some reason this doesn't bother me too much, but I am still excited to see him and he is excited to see me, and immediately stops what he's doing to be by my side for at least some of the evening.

I don't know if this is the SAME dream and Ned Stark has wandered off, or if I woke up but didn't wake up fully, turned over, and started something completely new. But I'm still at a party, this time in what seems like a hotel room overlooking the pool area. I walk out to the walkway, where chicks are jumping into the pool from six or seven stories up (no guys, though; strange.), shouting "you know what a sticky means!" on the way down. Obviously it means they never re-surface from their "dive."

I wonder what I'd have come up with if I'd actually taken allergy meds?

Image source: IMDB

13 days till Halloween!

Today is the day I get to be "clever" (and not at all tired and obvious) by throwing the Friday the 13th franchise up here, with 13 days to go till Halloween. The only way this could actually be more clever (and tired and obvious) is if today actually fell on Friday the 13th.

So, I'm a fan of the series as a whole, even though some of the sequels were outright awful. My favorite of the series was the Friday the 13th Part III, first off because it was the first one I was actually able to see in a movie theater (our local theater always let junior high-aged kids and older into the theater without a parent). It was released in 3D, and I think it was also the first 3D movie I saw. I also liked it because it's the first one featuring Jason wearing the trademark hockey mask that you see in all the subsequent films.

You don't need me to tell you how popular and important a series this is in horror, so I'll just leave you with the links above if you care to check any of them out.

And in other news, Spike TV's Scream Awards will be on tonight! I am going out of town for a bit, so I will have to watch the encore presentation. I am so excited about this, I may even blog about it tomorrow. Maybe.

Image source: Wikipedia

14 days till Halloween!

Speaking of zombies, the "Godfather Of All Zombies," George A. Romero, directed a series of zombie films (beginning with Night of the Living Dead) which is probably the first taste anyone of my generation had of the amazing zombie movie! And one of the funny things is, the creatures in this film were not referred to as "zombies," and were not associated with voodoo the way zombies in White Zombie and some of the earlier zombie films were. Yet this movie gave birth to the zombie movie genre as we know it today.

With several sequels and remakes, Night of the Living Dead has inspired numerous filmmakers and makeup artists for generations, and has been included in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry.

Image source: IMDB