Review: On the Road

The first impression I had of Jack Kerouac was initially provided by my family describing him as a bum, a drunk; someone who did nothing with his life. I come from a working class family and they believed in working hard to pay the bills, putting family first, and going to church every week. Having been raised in Lowell, MA, the town where Kerouac was also raised and also left behind, it wasn't until I moved out to San Francisco, California that I read his novel On the Road. 

I arrived and found City Lights Bookstore, founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Discovering that there was more to Kerouac than his drinking and his slacking off the 9 to 5 typical work schedule, I enjoyed his novels because he wrote profoundly from the heart about the human experience, about the post-war culture of big cities and open plains, and excelled at documenting the journey that brought him over pastures, mountains and the bayous of North America. The best parts of Kerouac's stories are his witnessing of the human spirit and writing about what is at the core of living as a free person, living each moment by expressing your desires and regretting nothing. Reading On the Road for the first time was an adrenaline rush. Meeting William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady, under aliases of Old Bull Lee, Carlo Marx and Dean Moriarty, respectively, challenged my views of these writers who were not entirely bums, dope fiends and crooks. Kerouac as Sal Paradise -- his voice as the constant observer -- you feel that you're in the room, in the car, flying around the frenetic, speeding party scenes. Certainly they could have respected their woman much more, but at that time period womens' lib hadn't turned around the views of any men.

When I heard the news about the film adaptation of the book and the three significant figures in the movie business -- Walter Salles, Roman Coppola, and Francis Ford Coppola -- at the helm, I knew that there was going to be an endless amount of speculation on whether the film ever would be able to lift from the page the same experience you get from reading the book. I also had expectations that some areas of Kerouac's life would be better portrayed on film than it could be on the page. One area that was the most refreshing and nearly unexpected is his conversation in the Canadian French dialect between him and his mother, Gabrielle Lévesque, expertly portrayed by Marie-Ginette Guay of Quebec. Her expressions and reactions are hilarious!

Canadian French dialect is seldom, if ever, accurately depicted in fictional films made in the province of Quebec where mostly French is spoken. The films made in Canadian French language are later dubbed with Parisian French for distribution (in my opinion much meaning is lost within the sounds of the original language when dubbed). Hearing the Quebec French in On the Road for the first time in years was so much more of an authentic experience. Kerouac spoke a Joual version of the dialect with his mother, yet in the film, it definitely sounded more elegant like what most Montreal-ers sound like today. As Sal (Sam Riley) spoke French, I recognized several words without needing subtitles in English. My mother and grandmother spoke Canadian French at home, but I've yet to master it to speak it fluently. Hear for yourself how Kerouac spoke in this 1967 interview. 

Riley being from Yorkshire, England, he uses an American accent with a light regionalism of a French Canadian living in New England. It isn't quite the accent I heard in my family, but to have studied this accent and drop his native accent, it is no easy feat. He spoke in a similar vocal range and head vocal register that is common among the people with a New England accent. He would only have been more convincing if he put on about 20 pounds for his role as Kerouac.

The challenge for the screenwriter José Rivera is to adapt a prose novel into a film with Kerouac's jazz-influenced writing style. In the film, the literary voice of Sal is demonstrated through use of narration, unobtrusively paired to the visual. Director Walter Salles chose majestic visuals of the west -- traversing the wide open landscape by car or feet. There are no overtly sentimental sequences, though every time Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund) leaves Sal, you see through Sal's eyes the void left behind until they're reunited again. The pair enjoy going to live music events and include scenes of them singing along to Slim Gaillard's "Yep Rock Heresy". I would have preferred to see more of the live music in the film, but we do get to hear Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Son House, available on the soundtrack album.

Hedlund's Moriarty radiates on the screen, a kinetic and intensely magnetic man. Each time he turns up, you know there will be all night mayhem. He wasn't clearly a boozehead and perhaps moreso because his father was a drunk, as was Sal's (Kerouac's father smoke, drank, and died of stomach cancer). One of the key driving points is Moriarty's goal to find his old man in Colorado. Hedlund's portrayal as the speed-loving, womanizing Moriarty is genuine and rooted in loving and living. He's selfish and kind all at the same time in the scenes with Kirsten Dunst who plays Camille aka Carolyn Cassady. 

Moriarty's empty promises to Mary Lou aka LuAnne Henderson (Kristen Stewart) is one among their relationship's contentious and antagonistic issues resulting from his impulsive choices. There are times when both Sal and MaryLou have to settle for letting Dean be with someone else, but it is MaryLou's emotional turmoil that is most visible in Stewart's performance. Henderson reportedly was 15 when she met Cassady, married him at 16 and the marriage was annulled shortly after so that Cassady could marry Carolyn Robinson who was pregnant with his child. Alluding to this marriage with MaryLou, Moriarty's plan to reconcile with Camille is the elephant in the room throughout the cross-country ride, but only is it apparent that MaryLou feels their relationship is forever doomed upon crossing the bridge into San Francisco. Stewart has the challenge of displaying the widest range of emotions unlike her monotone-style character in the Twilight series. Humorous as it is to hear her talk about the lack of food on the road trip for the first time we meet her, later she again refers to food in saying, "It's been 30 hours since we ate anything." Out of all the women, MaryLou and Camille are the most practical-minded women who end up with Dean, who is one of the most impractical people they know. Maybe in reality LuAnne and Carolyn felt they could fix Cassady, which temporarily kept them from breaking it off. The peak of the film is MaryLou and Dean's dancing to Dizzy Gillespie at the New Year's Eve party welcoming in 1949. Stewart's imploding emotions of MaryLou's full-on despair at Dean's dead silence as they depart in San Francisco is not unlike those times we've all had at having to face the cold, heartless truth of the ending of a relationship.

Scene stealers are Steve Buscemi, Viggo Mortenson, and Amy Adams. For the short amount of time we see the character Jane aka Joan Vollmer, memorably portrayed by Amy Adams in a state of a vacant stare, wild hair, so sadly we are not given the privilege to see her true intellect. She was said to have a severe addiction to Bennies, but mostly what we saw of her in On the Road was a very strange display of character.

The role of Old Bull Lee aka William S. Burroughs by Viggo Mortenson is not entirely mimicry; Mortenson is the eccentric but wise inventor. Sure, he's the junkie with generosity, too. On the one hand the gloomy style of Burroughs' voice is from a source of deep thinking and yet there is a sadness among his home as there's not much love between him and his wife. A brief shooting range scene is a little rough on the foreshadowing of what happens between Burroughs and Vollmer in about two years.

There are comic moments throughout, especially when we meet the group of travelers led by Steve Buscemi, the driving portion of their interaction is possibly scored by a sappy song sung by a group sounding like The Andrew Sisters. It is best not to spoil it for those having not seen the movie, but the key scene with Buscemi after he knocks on the door to Dean and Sal's room is priceless. It lends some insight into the "means to an end" ethic that Dean Moriarty lives by. Sal may be protective of his friend and, yet, is it completely reciprocated after his bad bout with sickness after a trip to Mexico? There's a constant sense that Dean doesn't wait around for anyone if he has to move on.

All the characters are well-read, but you don't know for certain if the reading they're doing is leaving an indelible influence. There are times when Moriarty quotes from Marcel Proust's Swann's Way which ironically is about a man analyzing and longing to relive his past. Eugene O'Neill is another reference to writers who they relate to in that the characters who dominate O'Neill's works are often on the outside of the mainstream society. The letter writing between Moriarty and Sal and Marx and Sal is tribute to the writers friendships and their need to constantly have an audience with each other.

As the movie comes to a close, we finally are rewarded after all the glimpses into the journaling Sal was doing throughout the movie. The impracticality of having to waste time feeding sheets of paper into the typewriter is resolved and the plunge into all night and all day purposeful tapping of the typewriter is juxtaposed with scenes the last emotional encounter between Sal and Dean in NYC. Wait through the initial credits to hear Kerouac's reading from On the Road.

Director Walter Salles did more than an excellent tribute to the book and really found the best actors to bring the characters to life, including using unique places to make us think they were in Denver, Mexico, NYC, and California during the 40s and 50s. Francis Ford Coppola had the rights since 1979. Yes, it may have taken 23 years to get people on board, but he found the right people at the right time to generate a new following for these old souls and their legacies.

Rating - 4 headless dolls

Littered with Cliche - Burton's Dark Shadows Disappoints Diehard Fans Who Loved Dan Curtis' Show

Fans of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are finally able to see the results of a new take on the gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows" from the '60s and '70s. Together Burton and Depp present a gothic vampire story with 1970s-era pop culture with some class and mainly clash. I question if Burton's fans will a) know the Dan Curtis version of "Dark Shadows" and b) will leave the theatre saying that Burton and Depp deliver a beautifully tragic story they will feel sentimental about in ten years. They have stiff competition in that the soap opera delivered 1225 episodes for the fans to look back on with dedicated love.

We definitely get the iconic Tim Burton themes of his depiction of children as victims, loss of parents, parents misunderstanding children, the mob mentality against or for outsiders, and transcendence of time and old age as a metaphor. We have seen Burton's child versions of main characters suffering at the hands of other adults in nearly all of his films. Here in Dark Shadows, Barnabas Collins as a child is not unlike the innocent boys we've seen in Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorhands, Batman, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Writers John August and Seth Grahame-Smith do well with the creative language of old centuries and spoken with a nod to the original Barnabas Collins played by Jonathan Frid. However, the jokes about adjusting to the new century don't reach a level of hilarity enough to forgive the obvious cultural adjustment angle. We've seen new world vs. the old world in dozens of movies and it is old in five minutes. The aim is to get teens into the humor, but it fails to be funny enough after several scenes of using the same joke in different ways. We see a young and then a grown up Barnabas before being turned into a vampire, quickly thrust into an eternal suffering at the hands of Angelique Bouchard, the witch, played incredibly well by Eva Green. The story is breezing by the audience too quickly while the cliches about cultural nuances take up way too much screen time.


Depp as Barnabas Collins is not a miscast, in fact, he has his physicality in his walking and in his use of his hands as well as the old world speech style. The make-up and hair is a bit exaggerated, but you cannot take your eyes off of him. Depp's Buster Keaton-like subtle slapstick style occurs when Barnabas is exposed to sunlight, when he finds the secret room, when he meets Willie Loomis for the first time (played by excellent character actor Jackie Earle Haley), and when he looks for a place to sleep.

Green's version of Angelique is the best example of an actor doing their homework in depicting Lara Parker's version of Angelique in the TV soap version and making it her own. She runs Angel Bay Fish Company and has portraits of her "ancestors" in the conference room in quite a hilarious array of time periods. She has the right level of OCD for Barnabas Collins and her super powers are exciting to watch. Her villainy is enhanced by a subtle special effect that depicts a weakness which is fun to see progress throughout her attempt to defeat her enemies. It brings to mind the TV show's storylines.

Equally eccentric is Dr. Julia Hoffman played by Helena Bonham Carter. We get small edges of the original character, whom Grayson Hall played, in the way Bonham Carter talks to Barnabas. The liberties taken with HBC's version are not unwarranted. We see her trying to help Barnabas, but the character was never totally without selfish reasons. There's a lot of liberty taken on the doctor-patient confidentiality in a most comedic way. The original Dr. Hoffman did have an unspoken love for Barnabas.

Some storylines are not fully explained and fans of the TV soap will hear hints about David's mother and will have to make assumptions that the film is hinting at the storyline involving the Phoenix metaphor. It is poorly executed as a side story, in the end, leaving out a crucial piece of history involving David Collins' mother.


For some reason Barnabas decides to throw a ball which takes a joke about an outdated kind of party and makes a reference to body parts -- clearly another attempt at humor that teens could enjoy if they haven't grown bored. At the start of the arrivals to the ball, if you blink you'll miss the cameos of four of the original TV soap stars, Lara Parker, Kathryn Leigh Scott, David Selby, and the late Jonathan Frid. Alice Cooper is the headlining performer highlighted at the party and offers no enhancement to the story. His name is joked about by Barnabas, again with the cultural adjustment.

There are important story points involving Victoria Winters/Josette DuPres, both played by the wonderful Bella Heathcote. Victoria and Barnabas could have a richer story, but the film depends on Angelique and Barnabas a little too much so Victoria and Barnabas' story never feels fully-realized. At a climactic scene, Victoria is nearly forgotten until their side story has to be quickly resolved, though there are liberties taken again. As we've seen in all vampire films where there's a romance between the living and the dead, the common tragedy is one dies and one lives forever. It is disappointing to see the cliche arise out of nowhere. Dan Curtis would definitely had opted for a cliffhanger or tragic plot point. The film resolves the situation to help Burton reach closure, but "Dark Shadows" fans are going to find the ending a bit irritating.

My rating is 3 out of 5 headless dolls with 2-1/2 going mainly towards the performances and 1/2 going towards the fake looking production design, which is a definite tribute to the low-budget sets used in the soap opera.

Hearing about a graphic novel named Wednesday with this blog debut halts me in my tracks; teasing me with words of "fast cars, nanobots, sock monkeys. The post-apocalypse as you've never seen it before." World War Wednesday will be erupting from writer John Bergin (From Inside) and artist Alex Riegel. Watch this space for news.

You need a Gomez in your life!

The Poe House and Museum in Baltimore is auctioning off a cartoon painting of Gomez Addams. It is signed by John Astin, the actor who we all know played Gomez in the TV series "The Addams Family". You can find out more at the auction site.

Creepy, Classic Ghosties in The Woman in Black

Hammer Films has come back to classic ghost story (since their return to vampires in 2010's Let Me In, the remake of Sweden's Let the Right One In) with their latest film production of Susan Hill's 1983 novel, The Woman in Black. Starring the ever watchable Daniel Radcliffe as Arthur Kipps, The Woman in Black, is shot in Essex, England, including exteriors on Osea Island in the Blackwater Estuary. Locations include a few classic railway stations to transport you back to the turn of the century, remote village life in northeast England.

New-ish director James Watkins is not new to horror with having made The Descent 2 and Eden Lake. Watkins honors the novel in giving the film a respectfully ornate, gothic production that creeps under your skin. Art Direction is by Paul Ghirardani known for being the Art Director on TV productions of "Little Dorrit," "Great Expectations," and "Sense and Sensibility". The introduction to the isolated wilderness, the weather, and the haunted Eel Marsh House is a slight nod to gothic classics such as The Old Dark House and The Haunting.

However, the film, as well as Hill's novel, is more geared towards the purpose to which ghosts return and how the living investigate why a ghost obsessively directs them to their history. The ghosts lurk over their shoulders and cause havoc in The Woman in Black and Kipps knows he will get to the bottom of their wrath if only the living don't get in the way of the dead. Watkins' delicate method of showing blood only when it is absolutely necessary makes tragic situations all the more morose. The villagers are terrorized, with the muted colors, no one looks well-rested, nor adequately nourished, and there's a heaviness to all the unwelcome eyes cast down upon Arthur's visitation.

Janet McTeer portrays Mrs. Daily, who has a foreboding presence with a history of becoming hysterical. We are forewarned by her husband, who hosts Arthur Kipps for his first dinner at their home, not to mention children. She slowly unravels as does their story, and as do all the townsfolk's stories of tragedy. The villagers curse Kipps presence, but little do they know how he intends to help them, though all of his intentions do not lift the ghost's need for revenge. Eel Marsh House's ghost is beyond being able to forgive and forget no matter how Kipps understands the truth as he then tries to bury the sorrow and quell the angry spirit.

Five out of five headless dolls; for being creepifyingly excellent.

REVIEW: First two episodes of ABC's The River

There are spoilers here but I will try to not reveal everything. I will say that my primary reason for watching The River is to see Thomas Kretschmann be a mean bastard. He is kinda mean. Doesn't like to do much without a gun in his hands. He has a bit of character development going on that leads us to believe he knows a lot more about what Emmett Cole was searching for and it is not magic. But don't let son Lincoln Cole know that yet... he's got magic on his mind and mentions it several times. This show is perfect for creating a drinking game. Every time you hear "magic", take a drink. Everytime the shot is messed up by fast camera moves when there is nothing to see, take a drink. It's the only way to get through the dizzying, actionless first 45 minutes. I didn't get giddy drunk, but more of an upset stomach while watching the debut of The River on ABC, created by Paranormal Activity's Oren Peli. Two hours of shaky action sequences with very brief moments of stillness in stationary camerawork. It was as if I drank an Ayahuasca smoothie when the crew, looking for missing naturalist Emmett Cole, arrived at his abandoned boat on the Amazon River. There's no widening of a shot to capture the expression on faces. The jarring motions are so predictable that I usually felt like I could look away and not miss anything during large amounts of dialogue. On that boat is a room welded closed; no pause given to waiting to figure out if it would be safe to enter. Upon entering the room, the crew discovers what looks like voodoo-like ritual tools and a vessel under a blanket that harkens to one of those empty pods from the 70s version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Immediately, whatever was in that thing, fled the room into the jungle. Seriously, you have cameras rolling and you're not rewinding and slowing down the footage to investigate it? There's a lot of foreshadowing in the mechanic's story of his daughter's ghost friend he encountered when she was a child. It's a good story, listen to it. The camera is steady on the father so you can regain some balance until the vertigo-inducing shaky cam returns. Soon his daughter becomes possessed. Oh, well, we figured with all her "spirit" intuitiveness that this was bound to happen. Papa Cole's disappearance is connected to the "magic" he was seeking. We get it. We had to wait 45 minutes for a clever use of the photography. In hindsight, it seems quite ironic that this entity from the spirit world is really into this shaky style and, while the camera is still in the hands of the man, whom the entity just took out, it gets the man off the ground, spins him before the show cuts to commercial. It was pretty funny to watch. Second episode then airs and there's some interesting moments when the Billy Zane-ish a la Dead Calm producer starts to make me wish Papa Cole's wife, Tess, will sooner than later bash his head in; give it time, I tell myself. He likes to capture moments for his documentary like the forest of hanging dolls in the graveyard. Okay, clever work in having a monkey wearing a doll face. It was creepy, Japanese-style horror in a twisted, funny way. Tess calls, "Little girl," to set up the viewer into thinking that there's a child in the jungle, yet here we are again mystified that the cameraman isn't showing what she's seeing yet. Why is the cameraman in the back of the group all the time?! So friggin' lame. I also wondered: where are the battery chargers for the cameras? They're in the jungle all day and half the night and they are not changing the batteries. It is so unrealistic. Just when you think you'll not hang in for a 3rd episode next week, in the last 30 seconds they reintroduce a plot device involving a necklace given to the son by the father. That same symbol appears on the neck of a character and it hooks the viewer in... though it will not answer any questions if they reveal next week that this character got drunk with Papa Emmett one night and thought it would be a good tattoo to get as a rite of passage. I give the first two hours 3 out of 5 beheaded dolls. It means, watch it but don't worry about rewinding sequences where you think something went too fast by the camera. You won't see anything. It's just a bunch of prop people throwing things across the frame to jar you awake. 

The River debuts February 7 on ABC: I really just want to watch Thomas Kretschmann be a mean bastard

If you are a fan of the Paranormal Activity movies, you should be already aware that The River debuts Tuesday, February 7, on ABC. It is created by Oren Peli who is behind all three movies with a fourth just announced.

One of the stars, Thomas Kretschmann, was interviewed in character as Kurt Bryndilson here. He is a "hired gun" in charge of the boat taking a group of searchers down the Amazon river to find Dr. Emmet Cole who's gone missing while making a documentary, according to ABC's site.

ABC offers some clips to which it is clear that the show will probably never show what exactly is terrorizing people when they start to discover the mystery. If you enjoy shows and movies with plots based on unanswered questions, then The River will be something to watch. I think the concept is overused ever since The Blair Witch Project and The X-Files, but maybe they think fans of Paranormal Activity will get into it.

I've mentioned Kretschmann a few times on the Korner, so I am a fan of his work and will be watching The River. If you watch it, let me know if you liked it.

Mary Shelley's Frankenhole

To my favorite monsters, ghouls, werewolves, zombies and vampires: Adult Swim has begun airing the 2nd season of the stop-motion, puppet-horror series Mary Shelley's Frankenhole on Cartoon Network, Sundays at 12:15 AM. The series was created by Dino Stamatopoulos (Moral Orel, Star Burns on Community). I first heard of him when he worked on Comedy Central's TV Funhouse. The series revolves around Frankenstein getting crafty with famous historical characters who travel through the "Frankenhole" from other time periods seeking Frankenstein's services.

Frankenhole's voices include Scott Adsit (30 Rock, Moral Orel) as Professor Polidori and Jeff Bryan Davis (Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza, Whose Line Is It Anyway?) as Victor Frankenstein. Both actors are nominated for an Annie Award in addition to the show earning four other Annie nominations. Awards are announced on February 4, 2012.

Here is a feature from Wired and from Animation Magazine about the show. Check out clips and episodes online.

Type O Negative "Red Water (Christmas Mourning)" animation

Here is an animated sequence for Type O Negative's "Red Water (Christmas Mourning)":
http://typeonegative.net/videos/redwater.swf

Full song if you want to hear it in its entirety. Makes me wish for more Metalocalypse, too.

James O'Barr and John Bergin comic collaboration in "IO"

This is an exciting piece of news; James O'Barr and John Bergin restored and published a comic called "IO" originally published by Caliber Press in "Caliber Presents". It is a limited edition so hesitating to buy is mightily discouraged.

Halloween is over until Christmas

There's a new film from Finland, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, coming out in time for the holidays that has a gothic-mystery theme to it. See the excellently suspenseful trailer.

Music Choice - Halloween Music 24/7 for October

Music Choice's Halloween Music is back. They said so on their blog. The first terror tune I heard when I switched to the channel was "Scary Monsters, Super Creeps" by David Bowie. Scores from movies, tv, and obscure songs that only Dr. Demento would spin are haunting the channel throughout Halloween month. It also shows you facts about the season and its rituals. I'm happy to see the channel also play The Kills "Night Train", and The Cramps "I Was a Teenage Werewolf", which you wouldn't get on the alternative channel. I recommend this to all the veiled in black out there needing a refreshing change from their music rut. No cable TV? Listen online.

True Blood is back and I'm on it like it's crack

Loving the first two episodes of True Blood, Season 4. I won't spoil it for anyone by talking about it here, but I will share links about it in my reader feed above. Click with caution is all I can say. I do recommend getting HBO for this season's shows. You can even ask a favor of friends who have HBO to lend you their login to watch it HBO Go online. I did this for a friend who is recovering from a surgery and she is really thankful that she has something to keep her mind off her pain.

There's a site that is tracking the songs used in the episodes, so check it out. You can also listen to the cover of "She's Not There," by Neko Case and Nick Cave. It's on iTunes now.

"Scream: The Inside Story" post-airing comments

Wednesday's Korner watched tonight's airing of "Scream: The Inside Story" and gives it very high marks. The back story of Kevin Williamson writing the script over the course of three days in the desert after watching a documentary about the Gainesville Ripper was truly a fascinating story. Williamson being alone while house sitting and being behind on his bills fueled his mind for a fantastic horror story. The producers, 1428 Films, also did well with getting the Scream production team to explain their choices behind the mask and the costume; key details we fans love to uncover.

(read this interview with Lito Velasco, Associate Producer of "Scream: The Inside Story")

Segments throughout "The Inside Story" feature voice actor Roger Jackson. "It's my job to try to scare the hell out of them," states Roger. Following his viewing, he humbly revealed to Wednesday's Korner that he "felt very chuffed" upon hearing what actor/producer/director Eli Roth had to say about his voice work in Scream. Roger Jackson, a longtime fan of Wes Craven's work, is looking forward to seeing Scream 4 at the premiere next week in Hollywood.

"Scream: The Inside Story" airs April 6

Roger Jackson and the rest of the Scream 4 cast as well as Wes Craven were interviewed for the Biography channel for "Scream: The Inside Story." Tune in Wednesday, April 6, for the special episode. A list of future air dates can be found here. There is a facebook page for the episode. See video previews here.

The 2011 Japan Crisis

Please help the people of Japan. They have a long way to full recovery. Radiation contamination is going to be a long lasting effect, too.

Dark Shadows remake to have Rick Heinrichs as production designer

Production designer Rick Heinrichs is confirmed to be working on Tim Burton's Dark Shadows movie. Heinrichs has previously worked on 14 projects where he and Tim Burton are both credited in a creative capacity. Dark Shadows crossed with Sleepy Hollow can be a real treat for fans of gothic soap operas.

REVIEW: Grimm Love

Grimm Love is a movie not for the squeamish. If a person thinks they can handle gory subject matter, then perhaps even the strongest person is unprepared for the heaviness of the true story of Armin Meiwes and Bernd-Jurgen Brandes. The story is of two lonely men meeting in a chat room focused around the fetish of cannibalism. Meiwes was seeking to consume and Brandes was seeking someone to consume him.

Martin Weisz directed the movie Grimm Love which was written by T.S. Faull. An interview with Faull sheds more light on how he approached the story. Names were changed and the story has a fictional element in having an American woman (Keri Russell) researching the story. Russell's solemn narration style keeps the haunting inner thoughts fresh in your mind.

The cinematography is exceptional; superbly showing how the grainy flashbacks depict desperate emotions. Oliver (Meiwes) is played by Thomas Kretschmann who also played the boat captain in King Kong and played the Pope that same year he played a cannibal. Kretschmann is excellent as the lonely, awkward Oliver; innocently unnerving and creepy, yet not maliciously cruel. Thomas Huber plays Simon (Brandes) and you may have briefly seen him in Æon Flux, but he's mostly known in Germany. Simon is unfulfilled by traditional love relationships and seeks to satiate a need to "make things right".

A very cold, somber ending closes the story, thankfully not taking us through the routine arrest, trial and sentencing. It is a story of psychological horror, a view of the loneliness of these two individuals.

Deep Dimension: A Retrospective of Select Works By Winston Smith

Winston Smith's retrospective has opened (on September 15) and is the most thrilling collage art collection happening at the Robert Berman/E6 Gallery in San Francisco. Smith's collection dates from 1977-present, covering a stirring range of dystopian thoughts foreshadowing human mortality, financial doom, family dinner table horrors; menacing, cuddly bunnies scaling skyscrapers, and the ruinous lives of maniacal leaders. One can also find Dead Kennedys album art and illustrations created for Playboy among the 100 notable pieces at E6 for the next month.

Attending the opening reception was musician Neil Young, who bought two of Winston's favorite pieces, "The Lady and the Tyger" and "Ship of Fools/Neanderthals Attacking the Constitution." Winston's reaction was, "I'm so glad those pieces found a good home!"

The packed room held an assorted crowd of skateboard enthusiasts, fellow artists, authors, musicians, filmmakers, and photographers; well-dressed folks in 1940s-era fashion were right at home standing next to Winston wearing his trademark black fedora. Other associates of Winston's in attendance were Ted Falconi from Flipper, Klaus Flouride from Dead Kennedys, Lou Gwerder from The VKTMS, and V.Vale and Marian Wallace from Search & Destroy (RE/Search Publications and The Counter Culture Hour).

In late October-early November, Winston will be in Tokyo for the first time for a showing of his work. He muses that he may just get over the jetlag when it will be time to leave and adds, "I just hope they don't try to make us eat ice cream with chopsticks."

Deep Dimension: A Retrospective of Select Works By Winston Smith runs Sept. 15-Oct. 14, 2010 at Robert Berman/E6 Gallery, 1632 Market St B, San Francisco, 94102

Listen to True Blood Season 3 finale

SOUNDTRACK FOR PREPARING FOR THE SEASON 3 FINALE OF "TRUE BLOOD"

Grimm Love aka Rohtenberg releases September 28, 2010

CAUTION: adult information (not pictures) discussed here: Wednesday's Korner has had its eye on the psychological horror movie Grimm Love, based on a true story, ever since the story came out about a person in Germany placing an ad for someone to consume their dead body. Essentially the "victim" gives permission to have the person murder him and eat him by contractual agreement. You can actually buy the movie starting September 28, 2010. Will you be renting/buying the movie? A review of the movie will be published on the blog at a later date.

Grinderman - "Heathen Child" is Wednesday's style!

Please grind out a moment of your groovin' dance time of the day to listen to "Heathen Child," the new track by Grinderman. The album Grinderman 2 is released in the US on September 14. Here are the North American tour dates. Lyrics like, "You think your government will protect you/you are wrong," is Nick singing the truth! He can preach to Wednesday anytime!

Seth Grahame-Smith

The remake of "Dark Shadows" is going to be a Tim Burton and Seth Grahame-Smith collaboration. Smith wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies so it is apropos that he's into the gothic macabre end of literature. Johnny Depp as the vampire Barnabas Collins with Tim Burton directing should make the movie tantalizingly dark emphasizing on the dramatic closeups.

The original "Dark Shadows" soap opera ran on ABC for 30 min. a day from 1966-1971. Stories of people running home from school to catch it have been told to me over and over. It was syndicated later on the SciFi Channel where new fans found it addictive. All the episodes are now available in DVD box sets for all to enjoy. There isn't a storyline of the series that I didn't like where Barnabas was in love with Victoria Winters or Josette Collins, or when Angelique bewitched Barnabas and Quentin Collins.

Memorable characters will hopefully be warmly reprised such as Dr. Julia Hoffman, Willie Loomis, Maggie Evans and her father Sam Evans, Prof. Timothy Stokes, Carolyn Stoddard and her mother Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, Roger Collins.

Perhaps most underrated is the original music composer Bob Cobert. His suspenseful episodic music moments and the opening theme are timeless. Would a movie remake of "Dark Shadows" use different music? It just would be unthinkable; box office suicide.

The Dark Shadows Boards are where you can find a lot of updates on festivals and movie tidbits.

honey bee in the cold of San Francisco

I am troubled tonight at this early evening hour where it is 56 degrees F and there is a honey bee outside my kitchen window, lost and lonely. I see pollen on one of its legs. It is impossible to find its way back to the hive tonight. Do I take it in? I run the risk of getting stung if I do. Its antennas were moving when I first spotted it, but now I see the antennas are cast down and its nose is right against the wood. The antennas went from fluttering to a very light, microscopic twitch. I think it could either be dead or just sleeping. Is there any way to tell the difference between a bee sleeping or having died and not flipped onto its back? Tapping on the window does so little for it. Here is a photo of it.

I opened the window and it started moving so I know it is still alive, but I don't dare let it in and it can sting me or my cat.
UPDATE: The bee was still sleeping there at 8:30AM, but once the sun burned through the clouds, the little fella must have warmed up enough to fly back to its hive. It was nice seeing you, bee.

Anagram of the Dead

In recent days, three famous writers (of song and/or book) have died (Tuli Kupferberg, Harvey Pekar and Sugar Minott) and I decided to revisit an anagram creator to see what their three first names would make as an anagram: I entered "Tuli," "Harvey," and "Sugar" and found these fascinating
anagram results, some so bizarre and visually disturbing. I dare you to use them in a sentence today.
"A Sugary Evil Hurt"
"A Guitar Very Lush"
"A Surreal Thug Ivy"
"A Variety Lug Rush"
"A Variety Rug Lush"
"A Heart Ugly Virus"
"A Hater Ugly Virus"
"A Hearty Lug Virus"
"A Vague Hit Slurry"
"Trashy Luau Giver"
"Hairy Uvulars Get"
"Gay Hair Vultures"
"Gray Luaus Thrive"
"Gray Hula Virtues"
"Augury Trash Evil"
"Augury Shalt Rive"
"Sugary Ultra Hive"
"Vulgar Hairy Suet"
"Alive Trashy Guru"
"Heavy Trial Gurus"
"Heavy Rituals Rug"
"Yeshiva Ultra Rug"
"Earthy Visual Rug"
"Share Virtual Guy"
"Shear Virtual Guy"
"Heavily Star Guru"
"Heavily Rat Gurus"
"Heavily Art Gurus"
"Heavily Tar Gurus"
"Heavily Sugar Rut"
"Auras Thrive Ugly"
"Larva Hirsute Guy"
"Aviary Lures Thug"
"Aviary Gruel Huts"
"Salivary Huge Rut"
"Ashtray Evil Guru"

Roger L. Jackson confirms working on Scream 4

Voice actor Roger L. Jackson confirms he is working on Scream 4, which is to be released April 15, 2011. This marks Jackson's 4th consecutive appearance in the horror franchise.

"It's a lot of fun, I love the work! It's going to be a great horror sequel," he tells Wednesday's Korner.

What hopes do you have for Scream 4?

EDIT July 8, 2010: Wednesday's Korner found the most unbelievably lame comments on this site, which are from a person named Myerschild. The comments purport that the Scream 4 production would not use a real actor to play the voice of Ghost Face; that Roger L. Jackson is using a voice changer. If anyone has seen the video games, films, and TV shows in which Roger Jackson has starred, they'd know his true talents are for real and would never need an electronic device to alter his voice.

Tim Burton's Stop Motion Addams Family Movie

Sometime in March there was a story about Tim Burton directing a stop motion animated version of an Addams Family movie. Now there is further news that the project is going to go ahead! YAY!

article about Peter Steele in The Atlantic

I was pleasantly surprised to have found an article reflecting on Peter Steele in The Atlantic today.

Peter Steele interview: more humor about life and more humor about death

more humor, this interview with Peter Steele

R.I.P. Goth/Metal hero Peter Steele

It is always devastating to hear of someone dying too young and now even more tragic that the world has lost Peter Steele. His morbid sense of humor is the side of Peter's voice that I hear despite my sadness of his death. The first time I saw him in Type O Negative was at The Channel in Boston, about 1989 or so. The big finale involved a chainsaw and he had a thick gauge chain for his bass strap. There was no other frontman that could match his baritone vocals, his lyrical genius, his Cro-Magnon physical traits, and who could also possess the sensitivity and love for women. I finally met him before their show at the Berkeley Square in 1994 when I was asked to interview him. I asked him when his birthday was and first he said January 4, 1462, and then corrected it to 1962. I found that he spoke very self-depracatingly about himself and his music, which I found to be completely hysterical. I played into it; kept a straight face throughout which seemed to be even funnier to the band when they watched the interview later. His tough front could have him be mistakable as an angry thug, but really deep down he was well-read, very intelligent, and wise. He is way too young to go and he had a lot left to offer the world. He is very sadly missed by his fans, including myself. I often felt that Peter Steele, and Type O Negative as a whole, was misunderstood and sometimes seen as sending a bad message to the youthful fans. It was the bands' honest feelings being expressed of what people felt; it was their right to write about it; express it without censoring themselves. You didn't have to agree with their lyrics to like their music. If anyone brought their controversial lyrics to light, it only made more publicity for them. Peter explains in one interview: "Well, we were kinda singled out for all the wrong reasons. I’ve got a big mouth and am politically incorrect and I’m very proud of it. Just the word politically correct irritates me because I don’t want to be told by anyone or any entity like the media what I should believe or what is right or what is wrong, y’know. My opinions are not based upon hearsay, my opinions are based upon life experience and so when we were accused of being fascists and communists and Satanists it kind of did us a huge favor because it generated so much press and it increased record sales." There are posts on the 'Net like this one that describes what it is like to be around him. I rarely met fans of Type O Negative on the west coast and then they increased abundantly with the release of the album Bloody Kisses. One of the ways I met a fan, whom soon became my friend, was by spotting him wearing a Type O Negative shirt while I was visiting New Orleans. I did not hesitate to approach him to ask if he had been to one of their shows; he had seen them in Lafayette, Louisiana, and loved it. This friend is Allen Jaeger, an infamous poster artist for hundreds of shows and his work helps promote shows in the New Orleans area. Jaeger later met the band on their way through New Orleans made show posters in 1996 and in 2000. Allen is one of the first Type O Negative fans I met who "got" what they were about and didn't question it. If you are also a fan, feel free to comment about Peter Steele's death below this post.

Review of the Addams Family Musical; theatrical performance from March 18, 2010, Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, NYC

Nathan Lane, is a perfect Gomez with a Spanish accent, suited in pinstripes or smoking jackets and ascots; an infectious laugh; his recalling of ancestral names all sounding like dishes found on a Mexican restaurant menu. His charming, charismatic grins, were most often paired with Bebe Neuwirth's (Morticia) mischievous purr. Neuwirth's solo "Just Around the Corner" takes a moment to tease us by pausing midsong, "Get it? Coroner..." as if to see if we're at all listening to the lyrics. She does the number with a wardrobe conversion that gives her thigh-high, black shiny boots. Neuwirth's Morticia, like Lane, brings to life (and death) our favorite goth parent. The comedy of Carolee Carmello (Alice Beineke) reminded me of Carol Burnett. She's the mom of Wednesday's love interest and her energetic stage stunts are very much a tribute to Burnett's slapstick. Her husband Mal is played by Terrence Mann and Mal runs into a little trouble in the dungeon with Bernice while trying to bond with Gomez Addams. His song "In the Arms" is cabaret-like and he has a nice duet with Carolee Carmello. Jackie Hoffman is Grandmama and she is a scene stealer. Hoffman was told to improvise a line each night. Her twisted jokes include singing the lyrics to Buffalo Springfield's "Stop, Hey What's That Sound" and, with Pugsley, who doesn't understand her old references, she commands him to stop texting and read a book! She has a part in "Let's Not Talk About Anything Else But Love" as does Fester, Puck-ishly played by Kevin Chamberlain. Early in the 1st act, he daringly breaks the fourth wall with a lyric asking how the audience is doing in the mezzanine. Chamberlain's twisted Fester falls in love with the moon and is literally floating high above the stage. Fester's story livens up the second act of the show. Zachary James plays Lurch, who is a character of few words, more grunts and some phrases of jibberish, and he has many memorable scenes, great timing with the deadpan humor. His jokes are primarily physical. Observing him slowly shuffling to the door like an octogenarian, just drives poor Wednesday mad (or madder) awaiting the arrival of her boyfriend and his parents at the house for the first time. I get that the trick with the story is to play on the juxtapositions between the preppy boyfriend Lucas Beineke played by Wesley Taylor and the dour Wednesday. The concept is of having their odd romance throws off kilter the rest of the Addams, apparent in the moments where the parents are singing, "Where did we go wrong?". The other side is playing Morticia and Gomez against each other and her concern that she's old. It never was a subject in the cartoons nor in the TV and movies. Their conflict may not have been true to the Addams characters, but the players were still fascinating to watch as they worked it out. "Pulled" is a solo sung by Krysta Rodriguez (Wednesday) while torturing Adam Riegeler's Pugsley, rather polished and predictably upbeat in typical musical theatre fashion. Here is where one imagines the fans of Christina Ricci's Wednesday Addams would not appreciate the choice for Wednesday to sing with such fervor. "Crazier Than You" is a slightly better song Rodriguez performs with Taylor. Riegler's song, "What If" is a little sweetly sentimental number about longing to be tortured by his sister, hoping it won't cease, and allows him to interact one on one with Hoffman's Grandmama. The contrasting connotations of the youngest and the oldest is a little contrived, but funny nonetheless. Closing the show with "Move Towards the Darkness" embraces the bleakness that the Addams cherish and the song is beautifully sung by Zachary James with the rest of the cast joining him. Fans of the Charles Addams cartoons may see a few references in the Addams Family Musical, set in New York City, which is a location often celebrated in Addams's cartoons for it was a hometown he loved. For example, the bed Pugsley sleeps in is carved in the image in the bed used in one of the cartoons. The family dined on one side of a long table on stage in one of the scenes. It was clear that the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation had a lot of influence on the show. There are references to Thing, the amputated hand, from the TV shows and movies. Cousin It is seen at least once, but unfortunately not a guest at the dinner table. Fester can light up the lightbulbs inserted into his mouth; both from the TV show and movies. Like in the cartoons, creatures live in nooks and crannies of the house. Bernice is a giant squid living under the stairs in a dungeon area of the mansion. I didn't think that the Venus Flytrap plant had much to do with the story. Pugsley cradles a pet fire-breathing dragon. The puppetry is cute, but a bit corny and, unfortunately, fails to capture the deadpan humor we have seen in Charles Addams's drawings. It was my choice to view the exhibit of Charles Addams's New York at the Museum of the City of New York within days of attending the musical at Lunt-Fontanne theatre near Times Square. It was apparent from the show that these original characters created by Charles Addams were an adored family and the performances were a tribute to their creator. Preview the original cast recording album and you'll here how the songs range from upbeat show tunes to ballads. edited for link updates on 11/08/2020

Video: Late Show with David Letterman > cast of The Addams Family Musical performs

From Broadway World, video of cast of The Addams Family Musical performing the first number, "When You're an Addams"

Charles Addams's New York through June 8, 2010 at Museum of the City of New York

I uploaded photos in a private set on Flickr from the Charles Addams's New York exhibit, currently on display at the museum through June 8, 2010 at Museum of the City of New York. It's a wonderful exhibit that presents a great array of preliminary drawings, unpublished works, memorabilia, and many prints from private collections. One room separately is dedicated to The Addams Family items viewable under glass. It is worth taking the time to see the exhibit and visiting the gift shop to find the books and cards of Charles Addams's cartoons.

I monitor all comments. If you use the comment tool below this post, it will email me with your email address and I can invite you to view the set of photos on an invite-only basis. State in your comment, "Invite me to your Flickr photos." I won't be making the photos publicly viewable due to copyright restrictions. No photos can be used without permission from me.

The photos include some of the slide presentation of unpublished pages during a book signing event at the museum. The director of the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation, Kevin Miserocchi, presented his new book The Addams Family: An Evilution. It's the only book you'll find that explains the origin of each character from The Addams Family. The book is published on very high quality paper with color images; loaded with excellently weird Addams Family panels.

Soon I will post my review of The Addams Family Musical. You can find merchandise from the musical online as well. Watch the performance from cast members this Tuesday, April 6 on Late Show with David Letterman.

Addams Family Musical character Wednesday Addams Twitters

The Addams Family Musical's curtain is up in NYC. You can also follow twitters from the character Wednesday Addams.

Hear it for New York: Museum of the City of New York exhibits Charles Addams's New York

Wednesday's Korner has two exciting announcements about Charles Addams and his cartoons surrounding the Addams Family.

On March 16, 2010, there's an Addams event at the Museum of the City of New York. Join author Kevin Miserocchi for a discussion of the "evilution" of the creepy assemblage as they developed as mainstays of Addams's cartoons: The Addams Family Evilution. You can order the book now at a special rate.

The Exhibit (March 4 - May 16): Charles Addams’s New York exhibition at the Museum of New York includes watercolors, preliminary pencil sketches, completed cartoons, and examples of published work from the cover of the New Yorker.

Reviews of the exhibition and the event on March 16 are forthcoming in late March or early April.

Here is the press about the exhibit from Broadway World.

Ann Magnuson: If I Ran the Oscars

I love Ann Magnuson and there isn't anyone more perfect to be interviewed about how she would run The Oscars as seen in the LA Weekly here. I like her idea that she'd "make sure that every year, one person in each main category finally gets their 'should've won' Oscar. Ditto for best picture."

I would pick The Misfits for best picture and Montgomery Clift for Best Supporting Actor for portraying Perce Howland. His phone booth scene was done one time and director John Huston didn't want to shoot it again because he knew Clift wouldn't have done it better than that. This is an actor that was thought of as a risk to cast from his reputation as being a mess. Marilyn Monroe is performing her best work in a serious role as a woman having had a lot of romances with men but no soulmate connection to any of them. She had suffered a great deal and her emotions are controlled so beautifully in her role as Roslyn and in Making the Misfits we learn that what he has Gable say to her was Arthur Miller's Valentine to Monroe.

Magnuson says she'd never change the In Memoriam montage, which I completely agree with because the screen time is so important for the deceased. It is the final salute to their career.

Here is my list of those whom I am saddest that we have lost in 2009:
Vic Mizzy, Addams Family composer
Andy Hallett, The Host from Angel
John Hughes, the best director of 1980s teen angst comedies
Ken Ober, former host of MTV's Remote Control
Brittany Murphy, a great actress taken much too young
Patrick Swayze, a dancer and actor who had some of his best comedic moments on SNL with the late Chris Farley
Natasha Richardson, classic and charming actress of theatre and film
Wendy Richard of Are You Being Served... Miss Brahms
Mollie Sugden of Are You Being Served... Mrs. Slocombe
Reg Evans of Are You Being Served... Mr. Cocker (He and his domestic partner Angela Brunton were among 181 or more people killed in a series of bushfires across St. Andrews, Victoria, Australia on February 7, 2009.)
Grandpa Munster Al Lewis
Patrick McGoohan of The Prisoner
Karl Malden, probably one of the best actors next to Brando
Farrah Fawcett, powerful woman and a true star everyone will admire forever
Kim Manners, Producer of shows such as The X-Files
Soupy Sales, he made so many children smile
Ron Asheton, of Iggy & The Stooges
Walter Cronkite, an unforgettable voice in news
Jim Carroll, an unforgettable voice in poetry and music, famous for The Basketball Diaries and the song "All the People Who Died"
Vic Chestnutt
Roland S. Howard of The Birthday Party and his solo work
Lux Interior of The Cramps
J.G. Ballard, a writer who opened our minds to thoughts of deeply disturbing characters
Ted Kennedy, public servant for the people
Les Paul, visionary guitar builder
Sam Butera, played tenor sax with Louis Prima and Keely Smith
Mary Travers, of Peter, Paul and Mary; Puff the Magic Dragon
Michael Jackson, with mixed feelings. He wasn't really living with all the medications he depended on for comfort; shame on the doctors that complied to his wishes.

Winston Smith Party and Art Sale

ANNOUNCING
THE MID-WINTER ART SHOW
FOR
WINSTON SMITH'S NEW ART GALLERY

GRANT'S TOMB ART CRYPT
Presents:

NO FRILLS, NO FRAMES, NO STRINGS ATTACHED!!

THURSDAY, 28 JANUARY: 7 p.m. till 11 p.m.

Come check out Winston's Bizarre & Beautiful Collage Creations produced over a 33 year period.
(The elderly Winnie himself shall be in attendance, if he can get a ride from his retirement home).

Lots of Vintage Punk-era Originals, and Color Laser Copies from record cover Art created for Dead Kennedys, D.O.A., NoMeansNo, Green Day, Alternative Tentacles, George Carlin, Ben Harper, including Rare Album Roughs and Preliminaries never before displayed.

Ultra-Affordable, Uniquely Low Prices and Singular Bargains Available!! Cash & Carry!

Please Note: This is a ONE-NIGHT-ONLY Event!!

Sangria & Chips! Lots of Art! Lots of Laughs!
No Frills, No Frames, No Strings Attached!
Admission is Free. (All donations gratefully accepted!)
Be there or Be Triangular.

GRANT'S TOMB ART CRYPT
50-A Bannam Place
(E-Z to find: Tiny Lane just off UNION Street near corner of Union & Grant,
one block up from Washington Square in North Beach)
San Francisco, Calif. 94133

View Larger Map

Help Haiti

Donations can be made to aid people affected by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that recently occurred in Haiti. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is taking donations. IFRC is the world's largest humanitarian organization, providing assistance without discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions. Watch how they help.

WSPA is also working on a way to assist animals affected by the disaster.

Here are ways to help through texting:

Text the word "Yele" to 501501 to donate $5
On behalf of the Yele Foundation, the leading contributor to rebuilding Haiti founded by Wyclef Jean

Text the word "Haiti" to 85944 to donate $5
On behalf of the Rescue Committee

Text the word "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10
On behalf of the Red Cross in the U.S.

Coast to Coast AM Predictions airing 12/30 and 12/31/2009

Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM airs the predictions shows over the next two nights. Here is 2009's list of predictions with some evidence that points to what almost came true and what did come true. Use the comments feature of this blog (screened for spam) to list your predictions if you don't get through to Art on the phone. Do you see any that you can prove that came true in 2009 below? If so, please enter links in the URL to show us all!:

Predictions for 2009

1. Alien spacecraft will land in Memphis TN (at airport area for landing on a special platform)
2. Nuclear device detonates in the US
3. Prince William will succeed Queen Elizabeth and take the throne (Eric from Alabama) [in actuality, there are rumors William is being groomed as the Shadow King as of Dec. 2009]
4. Dennis Kucinich is going to be hypnotized by Bud Hopkins to see what happened when he lost time
5. Major earthquake in a west coast city (Eric in L.A.)
6. US and Canada moving towards Communism. (Angela from British Columbia)
7. The economy will flounder and there will be a depression; marshall law declared in some cities (Rick in Arkansas)
8. an increasingly harsh winter; food shortages in the springtime (Brian in Portland, OR)
9. nuclear device goes off in the Saudi oil fields (Jason from Fallon, NV)
10. Obama honeymoon over by October (from Boston, MA)
11. Solid proof that Bigfoot exists (Patrick from Cleveland)
12. Coast to Coast fans are gonna form an insomniacs club (Bill from Toronto)
13. Year of the homicide - record number of homicides (Keith in Hamilton, ONT) - Not a fact in actuality
14. Commercial real estate sector is next to be hit (Mark in Oregon) - This is true
15. food and energy rise 12-15% and there will be price fixing by the govt.; food shortages (John from Chicago) - NOT true
16. Obama will nationalize electric power companies (from caller named Serge)
17. Sept. 15 2009 - nationwide pandemic possible global pandemic (David in Pueblo)
18. flooding for the south - This came true
19. discovery of life outside the solar system; through NASA spacecraft sent in Spring or by SETI (Tom from Salem OR)
20. govt. confiscates all gold and precious metals like in the 20s and 30s.
21. moon will be brighter because it is closer
22. the rapture - those that are deemed ready to go at the Rapture and the dead considered saints will be resurrected, we'll have a nuclear conflict on the earth and UFO contact; Sept.
23. Chrysler and GM will merge by Oct. (Joe in Corpus Christi) - not true
24. 1st dog will be a cocker spaniel - not true
25. all the forests in the Pacific Northwest will die
26. unions go under by March
27. sports will go up in smoke; due to low sales and no sponsorship
28. Russia will show its military might - this did surface as a real story here and here
29. intention experiment returns
30. earthquake around Orange County
31. tire accident with someone high profile
32. the year of full disclosure by the US on UFOs and Obama will be the disclosure president
33. Glendale AZ a bloodbath on the border before the end of April 2009; INS will be involved - the catalyst that will make the US gov
34. transportation interruption due to a catastrophic event and food supply will be in high demand
35. tsunami from a undersea geological eruption off the coast of Australia; not surprising after it occurs in looking back on it
36. global leaders design one global wage and one global currency
37. july 24 we'll see world peace
38. North America union declared this year
39. currency combining Canada, US and Mexico; the Amero
40. American Hotel company will have a fire; high loss of life and a couple of miracle rescues; through some miracle the people thought to be dead actually make it out
41. blimp crash
42. US govt will be overthrown
43. George Noory gets married in 2009
44. Rain gauge at the airport will read 8/10 of inch at least 5 times in Phoenix (Alden from Phoenix).
45. investigations into artificial manipulation of oil prices
46. auto production cut in half because of the unemployment (Chris in Detroit)
47. we're going to see changes in the GAT and NAFTA agreement; level the playing field (Rich in Las Vegas)
48. Obama is going to play a major part in bringing peace to the Middle East with the connection to Islamic Mujahadeen, the guy with the blue turban (Angela in Southwest desert)
49. first time America is not going to stand with Israel; [the Obama administration] will turn their back on Israel (Julie from Kansas)
50. All the paper currency of the world will be rendered useless; Marshall Law declared in US to secure food and fuel supplies and dispersion of military -- instant enlistment (East of the Rockies caller unamed)
51. A major terrorist event much like 9/11 in England or Western Europe area; President Obama will rally a coalition to attack the country responsible; he'll be the hero in retaliation; the people who were behind helping him come to power will be actually have orchestrated it (East Tennessee caller)
52. sometime in midsummer when it appears we're going into hyperinflation and instead we'll go into serious deflation, back to 1967 levels, but we'll come out stronger for it; it will be rapid -- take 3 mos. to roll back (Stu in Phoenix)
53. In February some cluster of meteors will hit the planet like hail stones on the ground (Tommy from Aurora)
54. US breaks up into regional countries; Atlanta as the capitol; redo of the old south without VA, FL, and TX (Jim from Guntersville, AL)
55. Hoover Dam breaks due to earthquake; Lake Mead will come rushing down CO river and fill the Salton Sea; there'll be a snowmelt (Jim from Twentynine Palms)
56. "the beginning of the end of the Mayan calendar" The events from the Mayan Calendar will be surfacing and a scholar will be understanding it; reading it and forecasting events before they occur in 2012 by February (Curtis from Tennessee)
57. Armed rebellion of the people against their own government. States will secede. (west of the Rockies unnamed caller)
58. The economy gets worse and Alvin Topler will be appointed president of the world bank. He'll rectify it and save the banks. (unnamed caller)
59. Obama's national healthcare plan will go through just when they will socialize employment; it will go downhill and become a socialist police state; socialist housing, food rationing, etc. by 2015 (from Oregon)
60. Disney is going to attempt to acquire Christmas because their revenues are going down and they want profit for next Christmas (Billy from Toronto)
61. Obama will be the big disappointment, the people will realize it
62. A natural disaster pushes US into Marshall Law (Todd from Sacramento)
63. Green gadget year; surge in entrepreneurship in the US pooling their intelligence and resources making small businesses serve their communities to move the economy; solar products
64. Rising death toll in everything in general; something big coming our way (Rebecca in Salem)
65. Amero is the new currency with North American union by the end of the year (Ray from Illinois)
66. N.E. Ohio will have a huge earthquake before October; Youngstown, Warren, that area
67. New World Order is announced in the middle of the year, embraced by Christmas
68. Genetic mis-engineering causes outbreak of food poisoning (Jan from Brooklyn)
69. There will be a scandal with Barack Obama in 2009 (Donald from TN)
70. We're gonna hear an announcement from the Exec. Branch of the White House and the trains are going to turn everything around; it will cost a trillion dollars (Tom in Ashland, OR) - this is true, somewhat, not in the trillions as of yet
71. Major seismic event in Yellowstone in 2009.
72. A new member to Art Bell's family either for Dolly the cat or for Asia (Michelle from WA)
73. Predict unity in the US through the US citizens; enforce federal law to remove the illegal immigrants through buses and pickup trucks; American teenagers picking crops like in the 30s & 40s
74. There will be some kind of major news about the Jon Benet Ramsey murder case, something to bring the case to the forefront again (Dan in Tampa, FL)
75. Mechanical, hands-on type toys will surge back as a concept for a more real and not simulated interaction; erecter sets and things manipulated with your hands
76. President Obama will be tested in the first half or three quarters of 2009 and will rally the people to put a stop to the downslide we're in
77. The Obama administration and, sponsored by Joe Biden, will expand the assault weapon ban (Daniel from Queens)
78. This will be the year that the Manning boys will meet in the Superbowl (James from Winnipeg)
79. Wonderful things are happening because the society is changing; consciousness is being raised; we are not being ruled by fear; there will be a shift in consciousness, not manifesting what we fear but what we have faith in (living in a state of love or bliss). things are more transparent; treachery and lies are coming to an end.
80. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem will be destroyed; Iran or another Arab nation will destroy it; the Temple will be rebuilt (from Orlando, FL)
81. Individual citizens will be growing its own food more; instead of getting the food from supermarkets and from fast food chains (Riverside, CA caller) - this is happening
82. Americans will help economy and housing values will begin improving in 2009 (Blair in Sedona)
83. Ark of the Covenant will be brought out from ancient Israel by caravan and contains a consciousness (Alexandra from Toronto)
84. Her husband predicts that the people disgruntled about President Obama for whatever reason is that one of the Watergate-esque setups will happen but they'll get caught and someone young, a Deep Throat person, will catch them; the American press will be reinvigorated to report the news (Deb Deb from El Sobrante, CA)
85. Black Panthers will try to come back to power in 2009 (Renegade from the Bohemian Mtns. in Oregon)
86. California doesn't sink into the ocean (John from San Diego) - Ding!
87. Mainstream media will admit that peak oil is a reality
88. It's going to be unusually wet and green in the desert; houses falling off of hills
89. Massive earthquake and volcanic event in Yellowstone between April and August
90. We're going to look at our junk DNA and find intelligence; science and religion will discover something in junk DNA (Karen in Houston)
91. This will be the year for alcohol as a fuel; we can cook our way out of dependence of foreign oil and convert our waste into alcohol (Randy in Aberdeen, WA)
92. Poseidon adventure; a rogue wave will hit one of these cruise ships
93. People will get together and create self-sustaining societies/communities who don't need to go outside only for taxes (Missy from CO)
94. There will be a new energy source in the coming year using high energy and static electricity (David from Georgia)
95. There will be more revelations on how we've come to the way we are; return to the golden rule, brotherly love and the morally upright way to be; more of a consciousness of taking care of one another (from Kansas City)
96. Heath Ledger will win best supporting actor Oscar (Don from Columbia Canada)
97. The year that we capture Osama bin Laden in early 2009
98. People in early teens and early 20s will start a movement to join a secret society, but won't draw attention of adults and then will soon find out and become concerned about it (catherine from Richmond, CA)
99. We're going to see mounting evidence that microbial life exists on Mars -this appears to be a ding!
100. Seeds and garden products will skyrocket as more people realize that they need to grow their own food, see #81
101. The precursor or the act itself of some disaster will bring us to the fascism we're headed to. The end of the Mayan calendar will lift the yoke of slavery that 450 years brought on S. America. Corporations and government will bring us closer to fascism.
102. Towards end of 2009 Art Bell will return to regular radio (caller from NY)

Sadly remembering Brittany Murphy

I remember Brittany Murphy best in the movie Girl, Interrupted in which she played a girl institutionalized and shown to have rehabilitated. She had a pet cat with her and she was the object of much torment by a character played by Angelina Jolie. Murphy played this role excellently and touched my heart. She has won awards for her roles, most notably for her character of Luanne on "King of the Hill". Try to catch an airing of an episode and remember her genuine, heartfelt voice as Luane; the warmth that brings out so many great moments in this character.

R.I.P. Vic Mizzy

R.I.P. Vic Mizzy, theme music creator for TV show "The Addams Family."

Halloween Music is back on Music Choice

October means Music Choice channel "Sounds of the Seasons" is playing Halloween music. It began on October 15. I've even heard more than I used to hear including "Halloween Scarols" where they take Christmas Carols and change the words to be Halloween-themed. I've heard sound effects, which really are excellent if you find a way to record it into a program on your MP3 player and play them when you drive around the rural areas. The sound of someone being murdered coming from your open top car, driving down a two-lane highway without streetlights... classic way to freak out the distant hermit living in a remote cabin. Here's the complete 2009 schedule in PDF format. The rest of the Music Choice channels can be found on this page.

tickets on sale for The Addams Family Musical on Broadway

In case you missed it, tickets are on sale for The Addams Family Musical set to hit Broadway in spring of 2010. I've already got my ticket for March. I read about the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Yelp.com before purchasing a ticket and went for a 4th row front mezzanine seat. It is not cheap, but I am not holding out until I get to Times Square in hopes to finding a half-price, same-day ticket. When I searched Yelp, I noticed someone commented, paraphrasing, that if you sit below the mezzanine in the rear orchestra, you may not have a full view of the area high above the stage. This fact may or may not matter, depending on how the show is using any stage scenery. I'm not taking my chances.

If you cannot wait that long, then you can see it in the Windy City sometime between Nov. 13-Jan. 10 during its pre-Broadway world premiere run at the Ford Center/Oriental Theatre.

Who's playing Wednesday? Krysta Rodriguez - you can find her in videos online. I have to be objective that the director wants great singers who have great stage presence and from what I've seen, I have no problem with Rodriguez playing Wednesday. It's a separate production from the television shows and the movies and I hope Rodriguez can bring a part of her own dark humor to her performance as Wednesday.

{Article} Edgar Allan Poe finally getting proper funeral

See this article about the Edgar Allan Poe funeral ceremony this weekend in Baltimore. The Baltimore Sun had a larger article late last week which includes a few quotes from Poe funeral officiator John Astin.

I once worked with a person who insisted on reading the end of a book first or on finding out from someone the end of a movie before seeing it because they wanted to know how it ended before they got invested. It pissed me off. Well, now comes "The Vampire Diaries" on one of those lame teen TV networks and, though I don't know her any more, I really think this is a show written for someone like her. She would easily predict what will happen and be glad that everything will have a happy ending just like it says on the site for L.J. Smith, the author of the books for which the series is based.

I promise you I hated the show. Here's why: unless you never watched or read a book (aside from the Stephanie Meyers crap) about vampires, you'll know what will happen. At some point I just started to watch the clock and figured out very quickly that the script is perfectly timed. I never noticed this in shows well written. Here's the timeline I noted:

0:00-0:08 Narration a la brooding confession combined with lots of perfect hair, dark wet streets, beating into your head that the lead female dark teenager, Elena, lost both her parents in recent times, heavy amounts of pressure on her to be happy.

At 8 minutes in: Vampire Stefan glamours a person of authority a la Obi Wan Kenobi Jedi mind tricks.

At 9 minutes in: Vampire Stefan and Elena are eye-to-eye, AWKWARD! ...but he's no "Angel."
Sometime in the next ten minutes we're supposed to be all mystified by a crow in a cemetery, fake dry ice fog... are you goths still with me?

At 17 minutes in: Object of importance is planted... the diary.

At 19 minutes in: first ironic joke between human and vampire (aw, if she only knew he was a vampire and how much that is so ironic), gag, cough, gag.

Group scenes with Stefan and the teens involve lots of silent gawking and ditzy blonde comments from the female teen named Caroline, who's no Cordelia Chase.

At 20 minutes in: Elena feels the bond. Oh, yes, Vampire Stefan writes a diary too. Utterly phenomenal stuff, really. More moments of dumb gawking.

At 23 minutes in, we are shown a woman from Stefan's past that, guess what, looks just like Elena!

At 35 minutes in, you see Elena thinking Stefan is kind of weird, big HMMMMMMMMM.

At 36 minutes in, the first attempted kill (damn) of a somewhat disposable character. If you didn't know that walking alone in the dark in a suburban forest well lit by set lights was dangerous, well, bad girl sex addict, you will soon find out. The character is named Vicki (played by "Freaks and Geeks" alum who did 3 episodes, Kayla Ewell), whom by the way is close friends with Elena's brother whom is way too mothered by Elena that it's almost like incest.

At 42 minutes in, we meet the big bad guy of the series, Vampire Damon, played by the botoxifull Ian Somerhalder, remember Locke's "friend" from "Lost"? Yeah, that guy. Sad that he was bearing a completely expressionless face. BUT, and a big but, he was mocking Vampire Stefan referencing the mystical fog and spooky crow! One point goes to Vampire Damon!

At this point I am nearly in tears that it isn't nearly over yet and that I committed to reviewing the pilot episode for this blog, but finally, 51 minutes into the goth-forsaken episode, we see a fight between Damon and Stefan, like some real physical action for about 10 seconds. But Vampire Damon doesn't even growl for real, it's recorded! Damon even needs some special effects to move his face into a frightening sneer! Lots of "men beating chest" and "I'm stronger," and "No, I'm stronger."

At 54 minutes in, the word "vampire" is uttered for the first time by the victim of the attack while recovering in a hospital.

At 59 minutes in, Elena invites Vampire Stefan in... fade to black.

If reading this was sheer agony for you, then try watching this pilot, or rather, don't and spend that time making an effort to do something really important like dye some pretty lace outfit from bright white to midnight black and wear it out on the town with your hair all wild for a drink of some delicious dark red wine with your favorite buddy. Life is too short to spend a minute watching "The Vampire Diaries."

new book: Andromeda Klein by Frank Portman

If you're digging the young adult novels or are seeking something fun to read, check out Andromeda Klein by Frank Portman, his follow-up to his first book King Dork. You may just see him singing in a bookstore soon. He's on tour to promote Andromeda Klein.

Portman, aka Dr. Frank, was the singer in the '80s pop-punk band The Mr. T Experience. In 2006, his first book King Dork was published by Delacorte Press. It went so well that they wanted him to write some more books and songs. His words are brilliant just like the band names that the King Dork character, Tom Henderson, invented, which include Tennis with Guitars, The Mordor Apes, Ray Bradbury's Love-Camel, and The Underpants Machine.

If you are a young adult/teen reader, you can volunteer at one of the signings or by contacting him ahead of time to plan which passage you want to read from in either book.

Here's an article from The East Bay Express.

video: Peter Murphy sings with NIN on "Reptile"

You cannot see much:


Or watch this.

video: Charlie Rose Interview with Guillermo del Toro

If you are nearly through with reading The Strain, by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro then watch the Charlie Rose Interview with Guillermo del Toro. It won't spoil it.

I really loved so many passages in this book. It's not as dense as I have seen some horror stories. The Strain makes for a great summer read if you just want some meaty vampire fiction.

Del Toro and Hogan's shrewdly chosen details of each scene is filmlike. You see the landscape, the toy that the child is touching and the food that they're eating as part of the physical setting and then, WHAM!, their entire fate comes into question in seconds and then its over.

Taking a slower pace at the beginning helps the reader grasp a sense of the characters whom are genuine humans they would personally know. The intro is a contrast to the faster paced action towards the middle and end of the book by its careful unfolding mysterious occurrence on a TransAtlantic Flight, following a planetary event, when suddenly chaos begins to develop on the tiny island of Manhattan. The beginning takes a little too long, for my short-attention mind wanting instant action. At first I became increasingly concerned I would not find it unpredictable, but it actually kept me really surprised and I loved even what I knew was about to happen.

"It's as sexy as rectal cancer," del Toro says to Charlie Rose. Yeah, there were definitely parts of the story that made me question if I should be reading during the part of lunch where I enjoy a snack. Somehow the gory images got to me. Milk is definitely a metaphor... pretty cool, too.

I hope it does have a sequel. Del Toro hints at it in the interview.

Caution, if you check out the book's trailer, you should have already gotten to the chapter titled "The Second Night" or what you see could dampen your own imagination from adding more to the image of the "beast" in the book.

True Blood Paper Dolls!

True Blood paper dolls!. Designer and cartoonist Andy Swist has debuted a printable paper-doll collection based on characters from the series. There's a contest, too, and a hilarious video explaining their plans to do more paper dolls.