Author Archive

Now that’s scary

September 29, 2005

You’ve probably already had this emailed to you by your officemates today–I’ve received it from at least two separate groups of people–but what the hey, it’s horror-related and funny as all get-out: The Shining as a feel-good comedy. This is so well done in its mockery of a particular type of uplifting Hollywood pablum that watching it will actually creep you out. The use of “Solsbury Hill” is a particularly nice touch–I now feel about movies that use that in their trailers the same way I feel about ones that use “Takin’ Care of Business” or that song that goes “hey! hey! hey! hey!”

The Kraken’s Kodak Moment

September 28, 2005

Oh my god.

This is a red-letter day for people who love sea monsters, let me tell you:

For the first time, a giant squid has been captured on film in its natural environment!

Photo (c) Reuters.

A pair of Japanese scientists were the lucky fellows who managed to pull this off (somewhat literally–the squid lost a tentacle to the crew during its struggle to free itself from the bait it had snapped up). The discovery was actually made this time last year, but the scientists’ report on it is only now being made public.

For those who are unaware, giant squids have long been known to exist thanks to everything from carcasses washed up on shores or caught in fishing nets to scars on sperm whales. However, actually observing a live one doing its thing in the ocean has up until now been a vision quest not unlike capturing Bigfoot, only all the more frustrating because the giant squid is and was indisputably real.

I’m so damn excited about this I may have to add Surface to my TiVo To Do list.

When she saw him, she screamed and ran

September 27, 2005

I was gonna wait till October before I brought this to your attention–it seemed more appropriate that way, somehow, even if ADDTF is now pretty much a 24/7/365 horror blog–but this post by Kevin Melrose at Dark But Shining forced my hand.

So to speak.

Horror site The Flesh Farm has put together a set of lovely tributes to folklorist Alvin Schwartz and illustrator Stephen Gammell’s infamous Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book series. Click on the links below for pictures, stories, and general pluggy goodness for one of the current generation of horror fans and creators’ universal formative influences:

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones

I came across these pages when conducting research a few weeks back for what I hoped would be an interview with Stephen Gammell for Giant Magazine. I found out that Mr. Gammell doesn’t give interviews, so that plan fell through, but any excuse to re-immerse myself in these books is a welcome one. I’m of the mind that Gammell’s work with Schwartz (who passed away several years ago, unfortunately) is one of the great unheralded touchstones of contemporary horror, particularly in comics. Here’s what I said on the topic over at Tom Spurgeon’s ComicsReporter.com site:

I know [the Scary Stories series] isn’t comics per se, but fans of cartooning and illustration are hereby heartily advised to go to their local Borders and pick up the chain’s super-cheap omnibus hardcover collecting all three volumes of this series, which they may remember fondly and fearfully from their childhoods. Schwartz’s economical, just-so prose meshes perfectly with the incredibly bizarre and still-frightening ink-washed illustrations by Stephen Gammell. These books are an unsung influence of contemporary American comics, I’m quite convinced; for example, the work of artist Ben Templesmith, whose collaborations with writer Steve Niles have almost singlehandedly revived the commercial fortunes of the genre, is thoroughly indebted to Gammell’s style.

And when I said “still-frightening,” I meant it: Any of you who (like me) occasionally flip through your copies of the books before laying down to sleep will undoubtedly testify that it makes for a nerve-wracking night. And hey, if the only people the books scared were kids, they wouldn’t have been the 1990s’ most frequently challenged library books.

There’s so much to recommend these books: The astoundingly frightening art, some of which is seared into my brain as deeply as any scene from my favorite horror movies; the all-business prose, written for children but translating as economical and almost documentary-like for adults; the brilliantly worded story and section titles, which when taken as a group are my favorite batch of titles this side of Gang of Four’s first album; the stories themselves, selected from folklore and urban legend across the United States and striking chords you didn’t know you were equipped with. Just wonderful in every way, and an utterly essential addition to every horror fan’s library. Makes a fine Halloween present for the kiddies, too. Provided you don’t mind scaring the daylights out of them.

I wanna take the walls down with you

September 26, 2005

Now this is bad news: D’Angelo was critically injured in an SUV wreck a week ago.

Best known to the general public for his outrageously good physique–in his video for “Untitled” he made Brad Pitt in Fight Club look like Will Ferrell in Old School–D’Angelo is also EASILY the greatest member of that whole “neo-soul” movement from a few years back. His album Voodoo is in my opinion a major funk achievement, and ran neck-and-neck with Kid A for best album of 2000. I hadn’t been paying attention to what has been something of a downward spiral for D’Angelo in the years since, so reading that article and its account of his various substance-abuse-derived legal problems was upsetting. And it also made me lose some sympathy for him, as he’s quite clearly someone who had no business whatsoever behind the wheel of a car (which is where I’m assuming he was during this accident). If he were a defendant on Judge Judy I’d be angry if the audience didn’t clap after he lost his case, let’s put it that way. But he’s a brilliant musician and I hope this doesn’t keep him from making more music.

Carnival of souls

September 22, 2005

Perfectly Frank: Bibi’s Box unearths a metric ton of Frankenstein-related links pertaining to every imaginable permutation and iteration of Mary Shelley’s great creation. I wonder if one day someone will make a version of this monster with the ability really to frighten the contemporary audience. It seems like it’s doable.

Mondo Schlocko links to Cake & Polka Parade’s assortment of mp3s ripped from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I got really excited about this at first because I thought it would be recordings of “Fool for a Blonde”–if you’re as big a fan of Texas Chain Saw as I am you know what I’m talking about–but nope, it’s the sounds of whole segments from the movie. That, of course, is still a wonderful find, and I say that independent of the fact that the post effusively links to my essay on the film.

The other great thing about this post is that it was my first exposure to Cake & Polka Parade in general, and it’s a heckuva find. There are a goodly number of horrorrelated posts and mp3s to be found there in addition to the Texas Chain Saw one, but what really caught my eye is this post and mp3 assortment featuring Godley & Creme. I am hugely in love with G&C’s fluke ’80s hit “Cry,” which I first encountered when Beavis & Butt-Head hilariously mocked it on their show back in the day. I think it’s a very lovely song, in no small part because it boasts the awe-inspiringly slick production of Trevor Horn. (See also “Video Killed the Radio Star,” “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” “Poison Arrow,” “Relax (Don’t Do It),” and Seal’s entire career.) Ever since discovering the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtracks I’ve been immersing myself in ’80s pop music (though to be fair I was working my way there by way of late-period Roxy Music and Bowie, not to mention Joy Division/New Order), and one of my favorite flavors is “Cry”-style crystal-clear mid-tempo afternoon music. (I could listen to “Taken In” by Mike & the Mechanics for hours on end–godDAMN that is good music!) The tracks Cake & Polka links to aren’t anything like that–they’re from G&C’s more arty, almost glammy period, and they’re really worth a listen. “An Englishman in New York” should be downloaded for the delivery of those lyrics alone.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: One of the great pleasures of maintaining The Horrorblog Update List has been my discovery of The Dark Side, the true-crime blog of writer/journalist Steve Huff. Simply put, I think this is some of the finest Internet-based writing of any kind I’ve ever come across. It is very, very dark–a given, considering the subject matter–but very, very good–considering the subject matter, almost the opposite of a given . Highly recommended.

Final Girl’s Stacie Ponder is back, with a delightful (but spoilery, so be warned) post about horror-movie moments that really and truly scared her. Her single scariest moment is mine too. I honestly don’t know if it can ever be topped.

Finally, my old comics blogosphere compatriot Franklin Harris has called it quits after a long and illustrious genre-blogging career. I’ll miss him. Good luck, Franklin!

I’m a student of the drum

September 22, 2005

I don’t know if this is something every music blog on earth has already linked to, but frankly, nor do I care: Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Minnetonka (Minnesota) High School Percussion Ensemble’s near-flawless renditions of DJ Shadow’s “Building Steam with a Grain of Salt” and “Changeling,” as arranged by teacher Brian Udelhofen. More info here and here.

You have to hear it and see it to believe it. Best high school band ever.

Carnival of souls

September 21, 2005

I’ve decided that THAT will be my new catch-all link-post title; what with all the blog carnivals that already exist, it seems like a perfect fit, even if I am misusing the term somewhat. (We horror fans are antiestablishment types anyways. Fuck ’em and their law!) This carnival will be of short duration, though.

Bloody Disgusting links to (and, well, reproduces in its entirety) this MTV.com story/interview with Quentin Tarantino, and it’s a veritable cornucopia of information on upcoming projects: Grind House, Sin City 2, Inglorious Bastards, Kill Bill 3, Vega Brothers…really the only thing it doesn’t talk about is the super-duper deluxe edited-together Kill Bill director’s cut DVD and/or theatrical release, but it does imply that this is being worked on. The nice thing is that none of the above-listed projects has been totally shitcanned–even Vega Brothers, the oft-rumored prequel to both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction starring Vic and Vincent Vega (Michael Madsen and John Travolta’s characters from those two films), seems like it stands a decent chance of getting made. Three cheers.

Next, one of my all time favorite stupid-smart rock musician quotes was from Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, from one of MTV’s old “rockumentary” band bio shows, on why Aerosmith’s album Rocks was called Rocks: “‘Cause it is–’cause it does.” With that in mind, gaze upon the wonder that is COOP’s new painting (NSFW, but given that it’s COOP you probably knew that), about which the artist has “paintblogged” extensively: It’s called “Boss” ’cause it is–’cause it does. Extra special bonus tidbit: It was inspired, believe it or not, by the work of Edward Ruscha, who painted the painting my wife and I fell in love in front of, “Oof”! And since we also listened to a lot of Lords of Acid back then, and COOP played more than a small part in that band’s success, I guess the circle is now complete.

Finally, hooray! And a question: Is anyone watching or planning to watch any of the other vaguely paranormal, ostentatiously intricate hour-long dramas with one-word titles that are coming out this season? Threshold, Supernatural, Surface, Invasion? (Not to mention honorary members Prison Break and The Night Stalker.) I guess I’m reasonably curious about some of them, but there’s only so many hours in a day, you know? If you end up biting the bullet, let me know what you think.

Back

September 18, 2005

It was an awful week and a half, thanks for asking, and for more reasons than the obvious one. But I think I’m starting to walk it off.

Here are some links.

Infocult links us to Where London Stood, an academic site examining the literary and artistic trope of the ruined famous city, one with which we’re all too familiar with at this point, I suppose (though fortunately, it seems, not with the body count that usually comes along with it). This page focuses on its use in 20th-century sci-fi. I’ve said before how much I love post-apocalyptic horror, and the link to the ruined-city image is obvious–would 28 Days Later have done nearly as well as it did with both audiences and critics if not for that unforgettable walk through a moribund London?–so if you’re like me, you’ll want to check this out.

Matt Rota is an artist and cartoonist whose work I like. Eerie naturalism. Take a look.

One Louder links us to the Village Voice’s review of Analord, the 11-vinyl-EPs-and-counting analogue-only project by Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin and AFX. As one of the many who found his last album to be a difficult listen, particularly compared to, well, all his other albums (among the most compulsively listenable in my collection), this sounds very promising indeed. However, I am not in the way of buying vinyl, so I will hope and pray that this finds its way onto CD eventually. (Or hell, mp3.)

In Sean-on-dead-tree news, the new issue of Giant features my reviews of Charles Burns’ masterpiece, Black Hole, as well as Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library hardcover. These are not yet reflected on GiantMag.com, but go visit anyway, and while you’re there, subscribe–people, this magazine’s latest issue featured a cast reunion for The Big Lebowski and, for no real reason, a two-page spread consisting of a picture of David Bowie exiting a limo during the post-Station to Station tour of Europe. I don’t know what else to tell you.

The Dark But Shining boys have big things cooking for the month of October, it appears. And I missed it when it happened, but M Valdemar made a barely audible noise of a Lovecraftian nature before resuming radio silence late last month. I guess I’m just gonna have to come up with something big for October…again

Pa-Pa

September 17, 2005

This is what I read at my grandfather’s wake this past weekend.

—–

My mother ended her eulogy for my grandfather by referencing his frequent use of the phrase “men of our talents.” He

9.11.05

September 11, 2005

God bless America
Land that I love
Stand beside her
And guide her
Through the night with a light from above
From the mountains
To the prairies
To the oceans
White with foam
God bless America
My home sweet home

—–
As he followed her inside Mother Abagail’s house he thought it would be better, much better, if they did break down and spread. Postpone organization as long as possible. It was organization that always seemed to cause the problems. When the cells began to clump together and grow dark. You didn’t have to give the cops guns until the cops couldn’t remember the names…the faces…

Fran lit a kerosene lamp and it made a soft yellow glow. Peter looked up at them quietly, already sleepy. He had played hard. Fran slipped him into a nightshirt.

All any of us can buy is time, Stu thought. Peter’s lifetime, his children’s lifetimes, maybe the lifetimes of my great-grandchildren. Until the year 2100, maybe, surely no longer than that. Maybe not that long. Time enough for poor old Mother Earth to recycle herself a little. A season of rest.

“What?” she asked, and he realized he had murmured it aloud.

“A season of rest,” he repeated.

“What does that mean?”

“Everything,” he said, and took her hand.

Looking down at Peter he thought: Maybe if we tell him what happened, he’ll tell his own children. Warn them. Dear children, the toys are death–they’re flashburns and radiation sickness, and black, choking plague. These toys are dangerous; the devil in men’s brains guided the hands of God when they were made. Don’t play with these toys, dear children, please, not ever. Not ever again. Please…please learn the lesson. Let this empty world be your copybook.

“Frannie,” he said, and turned her around so he could look into her eyes.

“What, Stuart?”

“Do you think…do you think people ever learn anything?”

She opened her mouth to speak, hesitated, fell silent. The kerosene lamp flickered. Her eyes seemed very blue.

“I don’t know,” she said at last. She seemed unpleased with her answer; she struggled to say something more; to illuminate her first response; and could only say it again:

I don’t know.

–Stephen King, The Stand

One last thought for the night

September 5, 2005

When Land of the Dead comes out on DVD, you will have to look long and hard to find a write-up that does not reference Hurricane Katrina.

(Please click here for relief links.)

Splish splash

September 5, 2005

How much do I love water monsters?

So much that I almost (almost) TiVo’d Frankenfish, that’s how much.

Skeleton keys

September 5, 2005

Now that the entire region is one giant ghost story* I suppose it would be weird to just now get around to seeing The Skeleton Key. I’ve stayed away from this Kate Hudson-starring voodoo thriller because it’s a recipient of not one but two backlashes amongst the horror cognoscenti, if my trips around the horror blogosphere are any indication: 1) the backlash against horror movies that cast “name” actresses as the lead in order to give the film the veneer of respectability that, presumably, the filmmakers feel horror movies don’t otherwise merit; 2) the backlash against twist endings, a movement that, ever since it was set in motion by The Sixth Sense and Fight Club, has been slowly snowballing (a The Others here, a new Shyamalan flick there) until it’s become endemic across the board–major studio pictures, Euro-horror, indie horror, you name it.

But the movie’s got a few things going for it that intrigue me. First and foremost is the way the trailers use an old phonograph recording of a voodoo ritual. I’m a sucker for the use of recorded media as a locus of horror; its ability not just to record and preserve, but to rewind, relive, rewind, and relive again, speaks of that undeniability that great, transgressive horror moments are made of. I especially like The Skeleton Key‘s combination of scratchy vinyl and old, not-meant-for-modern-ears ritual–hell, something like a castrato can be extremely discomfiting to listen to, and those unfortunates were not summoning dark spirits out of the bayou night.

The movie has also garnered some strong word-of-mouth among certain friends of mine whose endorsement is at least enough to make me curious. It was written by Ehren Kruger, and since I’m the guy who liked The Ring 2–yes, that one guy–his name is not the kiss of death for me that I know it’s become for some people. It’s got Peter Sarsgaard, who was so good in Shattered Glass it made my teeth hurt. And finally, there’s no vomiting in it, which means my emetephobic wife could actually go see it with me; that ups its chances of me actually seeing it significantly. Tomorrow I’m hitting Four Brothers with my brother and his girlfriend, but after that I think The Skeleton Key is next on my “semi-acclaimed genre exercises that make me say ‘what the hey, I’ll give it a shot'” list.

*Please click here for some donation links. PS: My friend Josiah is okay; he and Rose left the veterinary hospital for Maine around midday today, according to her boss there.

The Stand

September 2, 2005

This is not a fiction blog.

Be kind to your four-legged friends

August 31, 2005

My friend Josiah lives in New Orleans. He’s hard enough to get in touch with even when he’s not in the middle of the worst national disaster in American history, and I certainly haven’t heard from him since Hurricane Katrina hit. But one of our college housemates managed to track down his parents, who relate that he is currently holed up in the veterinary hospital where his girlfriend works (worked?), alone with all the animals. I hope they are okay; I hope they can keep the animals comfortable and safe.

I’ve already donated to the Red Cross, and I’m sure most of you have done so through it or a similar organization. But please remember that thousands and thousands of animals, like the ones in Josiah’s veterinary hospital, have been killed or injured or left homeless, stranded, sick, or starving. Please consider donating (a little or a lot) to the hurricane relief funds of one of these organizations, dedicated to helping these most helpless of victims.

The Humane Society

The American Humane Association

The ASPCA

I’ve already heard heartbreaking stories about pets left behind or washed away; perhaps your donation to one of these groups will give a new story a happy ending.

Many more relief donation links may be found here. Whatever you end up deciding to do, please do whatever you can.

The Big Eerie

August 28, 2005

New Orleans is one of the world’s great cities for horror. It’s the kind of place I can tell I’d love without ever having visited it myself. It’s also, if the countless documentaries I’ve seen on the Discovery/History/A&E/Travel/SciFi channels are any indication, one of the most heavily haunted places in America. My deepest wish right now is that it get no more heavily haunted than normal by day’s end tomorrow. Please stay safe, everybody. (Especially my friends Josiah and Rose–I’m thinking of you.)

As a small salute to this wonderful town, here are a few links to some of NO’s horror notables. Keep all of them–living or dead–in your thoughts tonight.

Poppy Z. Brite

Poppy Z. Brite’s LiveJournal

Anne Rice

Haunted New Orleans (lots of linked articles)

“The New Orleans Axeman”–unsolved serial killings (at CrimeLibrary.com)

“Queen of Voodoo” Marie Laveau Wikipedia entry

Marie Laveau biography page

Marie Laveau’s tomb

New Orleans Voodoo information page

Vodun history and information

New Orleans and its ghosts

New Orleans haunted houses (with pictures)

“Cities of the Dead”–New Orleans cemeteries

Lafayette Cemetery inventory/index

nine inch nails–longtime (now former) New Orleans residents

School’s out

August 26, 2005

I thought I would LOVE doing this meme I saw at Bill Sherman’s and Johnny Bacardi’s:

A. Go to http://www.musicoutfitters.com.

B. Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function.

C. Bold for the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate and underline your favorite. Do nothing to the ones you don’t remember (or don’t care about).

I thought I would love doing it, until I saw what songs were big in 1996. Feast your eyes, glut your soul:

The Top 100 Songs of 1996

1. Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix), Los Del Rio

2. One Sweet Day, Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men

3. Because You Loved Me, Celine Dion

4. Nobody Knows, Tony Rich Project

5. Always Be My Baby, Mariah Carey

6. Give Me One Reason, Tracy Chapman

7. Tha Crossroads, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

8. I Love You Always Forever, Donna Lewis

9. You’re Makin’ Me High / Let It Flow, Toni Braxton

10. Twisted, Keith Sweat

11. C’mon N’ Ride It (The Train), Quad City Dj’s

12. Missing, Everything But The Girl

13. Ironic, Alanis Morissette

14. Exhale (Shoop Shoop), Whitney Houston

15. Follow You Down / Til I Hear It From You, Gin Blossoms

16. Sittin’ Up In My Room, Brandy

17. How Do U Want It / California Love, 2Pac

18. It’s All Coming Back To Me Now, Celine Dion

19. Change The World, Eric Clapton

20. Hey Lover, LL Cool J

21. Loungin, LL Cool J

22. Insensitive, Jann Arden

23. Be My Lover, La Bouche

24. Name, Goo Goo Dolls

25. Who Will Save Your Soul, Jewel

26. Where Do You Go, No Mercy

27. I Can’t Sleep Baby (If I), R. Kelly

28. Counting Blue Cars, Dishwalla

29. You Learn / You Oughta Know, Alanis Morissette

30. One Of Us, Joan Osborne

31. Wonder, Natalie Merchant

32. Not Gon’ Cry, Mary J. Blige

33. Gangsta’s Paradise, Coolio

34. Only You, 112 Featuring The Notorious B.I.G.

35. Down Low (Nobody Has To Know), R. Kelly

36. You’re The One, SWV

37. Sweet Dreams, La Bouche

38. Before You Walk Out Of My Life / Like This And Like That, Monica

39. Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Deep Blue Something

40. 1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New), Coolio

41. The World I Know, Collective Soul

42. No Diggity, BLACKstreet (Featuring Dr. Dre)

43. Anything, 3t

44. 1979, The Smashing Pumpkins

45. Diggin’ On You, TLC

46. Why I Love You So Much / Ain’t Nobody, Monica

47. Kissin’ You, Total

48. Count On Me, Whitney Houston and Cece Winans

49. Fantasy, Mariah Carey (Ol’ Dirty Bastard version only)

50. Time, Hootie and The Blowfish

51. You’ll See, Madonna

52. Last Night, Az Yet

53. Mouth, Merril Bainbridge

54. The Earth, The Sun, The Rain, Color Me Badd

55. All The Things (Your Man Won’t Do), Joe

56. Wonderwall, Oasis

57. Woo-hah!! Got You All In Check / Everything Remains Raw, Busta Rhymes

58. Tell Me, Groove Theory

59. Elevators (Me and You), Outkast

60. Hook, Blues Traveler

61. Doin It, LL Cool J

62. Fastlove, George Michael

63. Touch Me Tease Me, Case Featuring Foxxy Brown

64. Tonite’s Tha Night, Kris Kross

65. Children, Robert Miles

66. Theme From Mission: Impossible, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen

67. Closer To Free, Bodeans

68. Just A Girl, No Doubt

69. If Your Girl Only Knew, Aaliyah

70. Lady, D’angelo

71. Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First), John Mellencamp

72. Pony, Ginuwine

73. Nobody, Keith Sweat

74. Old Man and Me (When I Get To Heaven), Hootie and The Blowfish

75. If It Makes You Happy, Sheryl Crow

76. As I Lay Me Down, Sophie B. Hawkins

77. Keep On, Keepin’ On, Mc Lyte

78. Jealousy, Natalie Merchant

79. I Want To Come Over, Melissa Etheridge

80. Who Do U Love, Deborah Cox

81. Un-Break My Heart, Toni Braxton

82. This Is Your Night, Amber

83. You Remind Me Of Something, R. Kelly

84. Runaway, Janet Jackson

85. Set U Free, Planet Soul

86. Hit Me Off, New Edition

87. No One Else, Total

88. My Boo, Ghost Town Dj’s

89. Get Money, Junior M.A.F.I.A.

90. That Girl, Maxi Priest Featuring Shaggy

91. Po Pimp, Do Or Die

92. Until It Sleeps, Metallica

93. Hay, Crucial Conflict

94. Beautiful Life, Ace Of Base

95. Back For Good, Take That

96. I Got Id / Long Road, Pearl Jam

97. Soon As I Get Home, Faith Evans

98. Macarena, Los Del Rio

99. Only Wanna Be With You, Hootie and The Blowfish

100. Don’t Cry, Seal

Jesus, that was ugly. I guess I truly was “alternative,” considering how many of those songs I’ve never heard and how many of the ones I have heard I actively dislike–the Tower Records clerks of my youth would be so proud of me! Figuring out my favorite took about two seconds. And keep in mind that I’m judging this list from my current, far more open-minded-to-pop perspective, too. In that regard I could have been more generous, actually–there’s something undeniably enjoyable to me about all those Night at the Roxbury-type dance songs, like “Where Do You Go” and “Beautiful Life” and “Be My Lover”; I semi-enjoy some of those early precursors of mediocre hip-hop’s chart dominance, such as “California Love” and “Tha Crossroads” and “No Diggity” as well–but I simply don’t relish the craft of those songs the way I do, say, disco or ’80s pop. I’d have done a lot more bolding in 1978 than Johnny B. did, that’s for sure. And Christ, look at Bill S.’s 1968! I would KILL for the equivalent of the Human Beinz!

If you’re interested in what I did like in 1996, I made a list once, and I’m reposting it JUST FOR YOU. I went with only one album per artist or it would have just gotten ridiculous; the album selected is frequently, but certainly not always, the first album I discovered by that particular artist; it’s generally the one that had the biggest impact on me.

69 Albums That High-School Sean Loved

1. Alice in Chains: Dirt

2. Aphex Twin:

The horror! The horror!

August 23, 2005

Hey, look at that–I finally picked a title for my horror linkblogging posts! It was right in front of my nose all along, don’t you think?

The other day I mentioned how much I love a good (or, really, even a bad) water monster. (Catching the episode of MythBusters where the guys debunk nearly every major plot point and set piece in Jaws this weekend did nothing to lessen this love, by the way.) Inspired by that post, I spent a little time surfing Cryptozoology.com for watery cryptids like the sucuriju, the mokele-mbembe, and the strange creatures of Lake Iliamna in Alaska, about which I’d never heard before. (Interestingly, the theory in this particular lake-creature case is the same one advanced in Loch Ness these days, as I mentioned the other day–large, lake-locked sturgeon. And oh, hey, I took a trip to Loch Ness and wrote about it a couple years back, if you’re curious.)

And while on Cryptozoology.com, I came across a link to Leviathan: The World Serpent Revealed. The link loudly noted that “this site is fictional,” but more than five minutes reading the tall tale contained therein would have been sufficient to reveal that; the nature of the sea monster described in this particular bit of web fiction is simply too far beyond belief to maintain the illusion that what you’re seeing is true. But I think that’s what makes the site so interesting, and well worth a thorough visit–this fellow clearly could have concocted this fiction in a more persuasive fashion, but apparently the aspects of this particular monster that fascinated him were beyond the realm of believability, and admirably, he didn’t let that stop him. There are several moments of fine descriptive prose to be found here, but the real highlight? Using an “infinite canvas” model of Web art at which Scott McCloud himself would nod approvingly, this “size comparison” plays upon basic fears of heights, depths, the sea, snakes, and simple enormity so effectively that it gives me the freaking chills regardless of how self-evidently unreal it is.

A little more sniffing around the BigWetOcean.com domain at which Leviathan rests revealed this creepy untitled short story about a very different kind of ocean-based horror. Again, plausibility is not a strong suit of the piece–the first-person narration simply doesn’t make sense as constructed–but the central image is genuinely compelling, an echo of one of the more overlooked aspects of the horror of The Blair Witch Project, actually. Assuming author M.K. Davis is responsible for the Leviathan site as well, he’s a voice worth keeping an eye on. (Can you keep an eye on a voice? Ah well.)

Next up: Bringing more worth-reading insight to the situation than I can muster at the moment, Jog at Jog the Blog brings our attention to a bit of back-and-forth between the makers of the self-proclaimed exploitation flick Chaos and critic Roger Ebert, who hated, hated, hated the movie. If you start with Jog’s piece, then read Ebert’s review of the movie, then read the filmmakers’ response to the review and Ebert’s response to the response, you’ll pretty much be caught up. The long and the short of it is that Chaos is apparently an incredibly cruel, misogynistic, violent, and nihilistic movie whose debt to Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left is comparable to that which Bono has encouraged the G8 to drop; Ebert objects to the film on both counts, and the filmmakers retort that they’re only a reflection of The Way Things Really Are. Jog says most of what I’d say on the subject (which probably wouldn’t be that much, seeing as I haven’t seen Chaos or (this makes me a bad horror fan) the Last House on the Left, or even Virgin Spring for that matter), placing special emphasis on the fact that the movie’s apparently brazen theft from Craven’s earlier film (right down to the promo posters) makes their claims re: Chaos‘s Redeeming Social and Artistic Value a lot harder to swallow. I’ve said quite a bit on where I draw my particular line in terms of cruel, misogynistic, violent, nihilistic films in the past, though: Basically, this is one side of that line, while this is the other.

Another one bites the dust? Not quite. Though it seems like more horrorblogs are on hiatus than not these days, Steven at Corpse Eaters explains that while his blogging has been comparatively light of late, that was his plan all along, pretty much. He’ll be posting once a week, and I definitely recommend visiting his site at least that often.

Finally, in not-quite-horror news, I’ve got a review of cartoonist Paul Hornschemeier’s Forlorn Funnies #5 in this week’s issue of The Comics Journal. There there be monsters…

Links of the day

August 17, 2005

Back when I was mostly a comicsblogger, my linkblogging posts were always titled “Comix and match.” I need to think of a good title for horror linkblogging posts…”Lynkanthropy”? Just a thought. Anyway, on with the show.

Dark But Shining’s Kevin Melrose has Western horror short story in an upcoming issue of the comics anthology Digital Webbing Presents. Check it out, won’t you?

Carnacki at the Mystery of the Haunted Vampire links to this Guardian essay by dark fantasy writer China Mi