everyday is halloween!

at last, it feels like fall arrived!  it even rained a tiny bit this morning.  puts a spring in my step.  lots of homes in the neighborhood have decorated for the Spooky Season.  & today, the satellite radio station, Scream, on SiriusXM [we are longtime subscribers] began its annual broadcast of scary sounds, spooky songs, & terrifying stories.  below is one of those stories that some good soul put on youtube.  it's called The Scarecrow.  

tune in, turn on, drop dead!

boo!

Jim Cory [1953 - 2024]

i just learned poet jim cory recently passed away.  friend of jim's, alex gildzen, just posted this memoriam here, Arroyo Chamisa: Jim Cory (1953-2024).  i don't remember what compelled me to write to jim many years ago.  perhaps it was at the beckon of alex?  perhaps it was some poems that i read either in a journal or online by jim?  but i did reach out to jim cory & for well over a decade plus years he was generous with sending me his books, including the manuscript of the selected poems by karl tierney he was editing & later published, & his thoughts.  jim was kind in our correspondence.  he was an exciting poet who thrilled me.  he still does.  jim & i fell out of touch these last few years, but something compelled me to reread his poetry this weekend, as well as look him up online.  i am shocked by jim's passing.  

below is jim cory interviewed about his friendship with the poet james broughton.  both jim & alex are featured in the broughton documentary Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton, which you can watch in its entirety here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lazAYHrKxw0.  

godspeed, poeta

everyday is halloween!

it came from the trailer park!

here is the classic trailer to one of my all-time favorites scare flicks, Creepshow [1982].  i've seen this flick a thousand plus times in the 42 years of its primary release.  i remember the first time i saw this movie, in what theater, & who i was with.  i was 15 years old who grew up on the weekly TV horror host bob wilkins' Creature Features.  when this flick, written by stephen king & directed by george a. romero, based on the 1950s era horror EC Comics, i was already a bonafide cheesy horror movie geek.  my companion, a girl i had a strong crush on, was kinda meh about this pic.  but me, i was in horror movie heaven!  i still am & this movie is like mom's meatloaf, or tortillas.  pure comfort food.  as it is great viewing for the Spooky Season!  but i dig this trailer with the voice-over narration.  ol' skool!  as it is said, they don't make them like they used to!

boo!

everyday is halloween!

scooby-doo on zombie island [1998]

yes, i admit it!  i confess!  i love the scooby-doo franchise whether it be in TV or movies or or or!  & this flick is one of my very favorite of my favorites direct-to-video scooby-doo films.  darker in tone, where the creatures are real supernatural beings, this flick is great viewing for the Spooky Season.  the voice actors are stellar, the writing is impeccable, the editing is killer, & the songs are memorable.  the director of this flick, jim stenstrum, was on a roll at the turn of the millennium making a few more of my favorite scooby-doo pics, like Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders [2000] & Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase [2001].  these are films to watch & savor.  i mean, they are damn good movies!

the gist goes like this: Mystery Inc. is kaput.  the gang has gone their separate ways.  velma is the proprietor of a mystery book shop.  scooby-doo & shaggy work as customs agents at the airport where scoob's sharp sense of smell finds contraband foodstuffs.  daphne is now a TV host of paranormal phenomenon & fred is her producer.  each one misses the gang & their adventures.  fred sees the wistful melancholy in daphne.  so he hatches a plan for daphne's birthday.  get Mystery Inc., along with their van, the Mystery Mobile, back to together & find real paranormal stuff for fred & daphne's TV show.  a few few calls to velma, scoob & shaggy, & bob's your uncle!

the gang lands in new orleans where a local cook/caretaker overhears their wanting for real ghosts.  she tells the gang that in the bayou is a pepper plantation where she works that is really haunted.  the gang having nothing to lose follow the cook/caretaker into the swamps in their search for ghosts & ghouls.  & they are soon not disappointed.  the owner of the plantation, ms. lenoir, voiced by sacramento's own adrienne barbeau, readily takes the gang into her confidence & her property.  soon the shit hits the fan!  as i've said, this scooby-doo adventure is darker than most of the gang's adventures.  the zombies are real.  there is a purpose in leading the gang to the pepper plantation.  which is based on a curse.  of course it is!  

nevertheless, scoob, shaggy, velma, fred & daphne break open the mystery to save themselves.  but does it save zombie island?  i won't tell!  this is a fun rollercoaster of a movie where the boogeyman is real & things do go bump in the night.  the voice actors are killer, including frank welker as fred, scott innes as scooby-doo, billy west as shaggy [i love shaggy!  that beatnik that will eat you out of house & home!], mary kay bergman as daphne, b.j. ward as velma [love her too!], & mark hamill as snakebit scruggs [a cantankerous local who only wants to catch the biggest, oldest catfish in the bayou, big mona!].  this is one helluva ride!

but i must also confess my love for this movie stems from my watching it with nick when he was a wee lad.  yes, i have loved the scooby-doo franchise since i was a wee little mutt.  but this movie, along with several other Mystery Inc. movies, holds a special place in my heart.  in the mid to later first decade of this new century nick & i would make an afternoon of going to Fry's Electronics [long shuttered] which had a vast DVD section.  nick would pick out a DVD as i would too.  often nick's selections were scooby-doo movies.  i don't know if nick's choices were influenced by me.  probably there were.  then at check-out we would get a box of Red Vine licorice to eat on the drive home.  i've seen this particular movie hundreds of times.  so that colors my love of this flick.  i am, at bottom, a dad who cherishes the memories made in sharp relief by this pic.  but don't let that stop ya!  because this is a damn good halloween movie!  go for a ride with Mystery Inc. & head into the bayou where things do go bump in the night!

boo! 

everyday is halloween!

it's friday nite & you wanna watch the original 1969 intro to Scooby-Doo!

boo!

everyday is halloween!

the pumpkin patch @ cool patch pumpkins, dixon, ca.  excellent pickings, the largest corn maze [allegedly, but i can tell ya that we've been lost in its rows for hours!], & it is said that when the sun sets you might even catch a glimpse of The Great Pumpkin rising up out of the patch!  

boo!

everyday is halloween!

 the return of the living dead [1985]

a young punk rocker gets a job in a medical supply warehouse.  his boss is having a great time showing the young man the ropes.  how to fill out the paperwork.  what kind of inventory, such as cadavers for the U.S. military & medical research, taxidermized dogs sliced in half & mounted on display stands [for, again, medical research], human skeletons, etc etc.  so far, an ordinary shift in a somewhat scuzzy warehouse.  but wait!  there's more!  the boss tells our young punk that the movie, Night of the Living Dead [1968], george a romero's groundbreaking zombie movie, is based on a true story.  the U.S. military created a way to reanimate dead human beings by a chemical gas &/or solvent.  now those 'zombies' are stored in the basement of this warehouse.  does the punk wanna see?  oh boy!  does he!

meanwhile, the pumker's friends are driving around aimlessly waiting for their pal to get off work.  they decide to spend the remainder of their waiting time in a nearby graveyard.  so punk!  back inside the basement the young punk asks his boss is it safe to store these containers with the bodies of the military experiments.  the boss reassures the young man that these canisters were manufactured by the U.S. Army.  they are safe.  BANG! goes his fist against the side of the canister storing a once reanimated human being.  & lo!  the gas leaks from the old container & the shit hits the fan!

& yet this is not your ordinary zombie movie.  written & directed by dan o'bannon, who, among many of his movies & screenplays, penned the great gothic horror movie in space where no one can hear you scream, Alien [1979], this flick is playful, goofy & satirical.  it is a punk rock movie where its tone is remarkably similar to Repo Man [1984].  no fucks are given.  authority is questioned & often mocked.  while taking in the zeitgeist of its era, i.e. nuclear war fears as well as detailing the fuck-it-all deviltry common to punk, & other kinds of, subcultures of the mid-1980s.  

this flick also boasts a killer score that has become standard on halloween mixtapes.  the songs on the soundtrack deliver the goods as well, with tracks by T.S.O.L., the cramps, 45 grave et al.  this is a funny flick & fun to watch in its nihilistic glee.  another thing is that o'bannon gave his zombies the ability to talk, use tools, & possess an appetite for BRAINS!  the zombies in this movie are no dummies.  they even organize to create more opportunities to feast on our grey matter!

this flick has become a classic of the spooky season.  many great character actors, like clu galager, james karen, & don calfa, are in on the madness.  the young punks are essayed by the likes of thom mathews, miguel a. nunez, jr. & linnea quigley et al.  pure popcorn goodness!  scary?  sure.  but even more so is this flicks raison d'etre.  be bold, be wild, be crazy, be goofy, & have a great time!  you want more than that?  i want your BRAINS!

boo!