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!