everyday is halloween!

 2 clowns down!

boo!

the nobel prize

the newest nobel laureate in literature was announced today & kudos to the novelist, i was obsessed with the prize giving when i was a bit younger, & i don't mean to poo-poo the massive lifetime achievements of its winners, i was quite happy when seamus heaney & tomas transtromer & wislawa szymborsska got the coveted award, & some of the lodestar writers of my life, william faulkner & ernest hemingway, were also laureates of this great honor, but at the risk of sounding jaded & silly, the award means little to me now, cuz some of the most important & critical writers of my life, be it thom gunn or nicanor parra or james schuyler or jim mccrary or tom beckett or jonathan hayes or eileen tabios or jean vengua or mark young or alex gildzen [a few here listed among a great many more who are not only teachers in my life but literally operatives of my life support systems], have not gotten this honor, still & yet the great antipoet parra, who was often on the nobel prize shortlist, opted for another kind of prize from the swedish academy, a prize that i yearn for too, one that might never be created by awarding boards & their trustees, but without it literature simply fails as an art, thus i give you parra's request:

for without readers literature is simply noise, take from parra's antipoem what you will, & in the awarding of the nobel prize in literature in re the spirit of bob dylan's laureateship perhaps next year the swedish academy might consider one of our great filmmakers as a laurate for cinema is literature too

everyday is halloween!

 monsters crash the pajama party [1965]

this short film, made for about a buck & 75 cents, was made to be shown during a Spook Show, a live performance of magic, monsters, thrills, chills & goofiness.  kinda like vaudeville but with monsters & horror gimmicks.  think william castle kinda of gimmicks but for live performances.  the ad campaigns were lurid & goofy.  but could they deliver the goods?  couldn't tell ya for sure since by the time i was alive & conscious enough to want to see such a thing they were already on their way out of popular entertainment.

bummer!  still, something weird video released in 2001 a gorgeous DVD with this flick on it & chock full of cheapie Spook Show trailers, odd horror movie clips, another full-length film & other goodies & easter eggs to make yours truly slightly crazy with happiness.  i still have the DVD but lost the 3D glasses that came with the disc, booklet & artwork.  oh fucking well!  often i'd skip this main feature on the DVD but i just watched it again via a streaming platform & lemmee tell ya watching this movie is a fun slog.

the gist goes like this.  the narrator of this flick, a dude with thick rimmed glasses & a white lab coat monogrammed MAD DOCTOR on it speaks to the audience about the dangers & horrors we are about to experience.  then a group of girls decide to have a pajama party at a haunted house.  their boyfriends dutifully drop them to their nightly abode.  little do the girls know that the MAD DOCTOR who introduced us to this movie is in the basement along with what i think is a witch, a guy in the silliest gorilla suit, & a pair of goons dressed in their monsterest finery.  later, the goons & the gorilla chase down the girls & bring them into the MAD DOCTOR'S lab.  

the gimmick of this flick is HORROR VISION.  what?  HORROR VISION!  a new cinematic technique when the monsters crash the fourth wall with operatives in the theater who grab a real girl sitting in the audience then brings her onscreen.  that must've been something to see!  well, then the girls' boyfriends return to the house, fight off the gorilla & the goons & rescue the girls.  the end!

this is all done tongue-in-cheek & the humor is worn on its sleeve.  this movie runs only about 30 minutes so it doesn't wear out its welcome or its novelty.  it was made to be shown during the live performances of a Spook Show so this pic was not the main attraction.   would it were that i had the opportunity to see this flick in its intended setting!  nevertheless, this movie is easy to find on the interwebs.  a halloween emblem of yore.  

boo!

    

quote unquote

 

--jim mccrary

everyday is halloween!

 waiting for the Great Pumpkin

boo!

everyday is halloween!

 here there be ghosts.  beware!

boo!

everyday is halloween!

chopping mall [1986]

now for some '80s cheese!  this pic has become a comfort movie.  like mom's meatloaf.  whenever i need a dose of calm i watch this film, in bits & pieces, or in its entirety.  how the hell can i explain that?  i can't.  but for the synth score, the adequate acting, the mis en scene (in a SoCal shopping mall, might even be the same mall that other '80s flicks were set, like Valley Girl [1983] & Fast Time at Ridgemont Hgh [1982].  my brother & i visited that mall in the late '80s, the Sherman Oaks Galleria.  it looked so cool onscreen.  a place where dreams & desires are met.  at any rate, it was just a mall.  very 1970s decor & vibe.  c'est la vie!

the gist is this:  murder bots are brought to this mall to patrol & protect the mall afterhours.  this is a Roger Corman production.  indeed, Corman movie posters adorn almost every inch of the walls of this mall.  so we have Corman regulars like Paul Bartel & Mary Woronov, as mr. & mrs. bland, hamming it up in the first few minutes of this movie.  later we are treated to the great character actor, & Corman regular, Dick Miller, as a hapless janitor who is greased by one of these murder bots.  

does this shit make sense?  it's not supposed to!  directed by b-movie stalwart jim wynorski this flick is fast-paced, dumb & fun.  the final girl is kelli maroney [who?] she is better known as one of the cheerleaders in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.  maroney does more than a fare job against these robot killlers.  but the fun is watching this movie as a time capsule of days gone by.  malls no longer have hardware stores where survivors can find weapons, ammunition, & fuel.  malls no longer have pet stores with live animals in them.  malls no longer have smoke shops where you can buy tobacco.  malls are no longer the apotheosis of capitalism, a place where you can find anything & everything your heart desires.

still, there are murder bots. or the worry of them.  which is kind of prescient to today's worries of AI & drones.  but don't believe that this is a visionary flick.  it is not.  rather it is a cheapie exploitation flick intent on cashing in on the straight-to-video market.  still, i said this is a mom's meatloaf movie to me & i meant it.  watching this movie is like settling in to bed with your best comforter & pillow while your cats stretch out beside you.  for a horror movie?  yes, indeed.  just like The Spooky Season where one can feel like he or she or they is home again.

if that is not the highest praise i don't know how to praise!

boo! 

quote unquote

 

--sallie tisdale

everyday is halloween!

yep, it is the first full day of the most wonderful time of the year, THE SPOOKY SEASON.  the weather certainly turned cooler with clouds & a chance of rain.  quite autumnal.  despite all the terrible shit going on & around us it is absolutely critically important that we be kind with each other & with ourselves.  that also means taking our pleasures from, & with, the people we love & things that we love.  so in that spirit, & to start out halloweentime, here is a cartoon that breaks in the humor of any creative person - be him/her/they a poet, painter, filmmaker, songwriter, even finishing carpenter et al. - who also went to grad school to get an advanced degree married with the time-honored halloween tradition of trick r' treating! 

boo!

i fucking love this song!

the swirling guitars, the tempo, the melancholic constructive/destructive beauty of youth.  slowdive hits all the notes.  damn this song is both ecstatic & sad.  it is a piece of the many things i want from art.