So long, Leslie Nielsen!

I'm late in saying "farewell" to Leslie Nielsen, because I didn't want to face the fact that he was gone. As a reliable "serious" actor in films like The Poseidon Adventure and as a guest star in series like Night Gallery, Kojak, MASH, and so many others, he was part of my childhood.

When I grew up, he made me laugh in Airplane and in the The Naked Gun movies. The peak of his career and my entry into adulthood occurred at the same time.


And now I'm getting older and he's dead.

But he isn't dead--more like "undead," as long as there is a remote control to operate a TV or a mouse for a computer--depending on how you watch movies and old television.

He was part of my entertainment my entire life--guess he'll continue to be.

Thanks for all the fun, Shirley.

Undying movie franchises

The folks at the Theater Seat Store commercial website run articles on films. They sent me a heads up on their latest:

Not a look at horror film franchises that go on forever as much as fantasy and sci-fi ones, it opens like this:

"Be it through lack of fresh ideas or trying to cash in on nostalgia, the last few years have seen a number of critically panned movie sequels and remakes grace our screens. Many titles are simply unoriginal rehashes with the lead role recast with a popular face, and deservedly flop at the box office.

"But what about upcoming features which have been stuck in development for decades, or sequels we just never thought would happen? We take a look at seven such movies, and at the same time dispelling the myths and exploring the likelihood of them ever coming into fruition…"

Read more at this link.

3rd eye for the artist guy

A bizarre, almost Frankensteinian art story appeared this week from the Associated Press. A New York University arts professor has had a video camera implanted in the back of his head as part of an art project titled "The Third I."

Here are several excerpts from the report, illustrated with a photo of Bilal (above, right) and images of third eyes from various sources:

"Wafaa Bilal, a visual artist widely recognized for his interactive and performance pieces, had a small digital camera implanted in the back of his head - all in the name of art.

"Bilal said Tuesday that he underwent the procedure for an art project that was commissioned by a new museum in Doha, Qatar, in the Arab Gulf.

"Bilal, who is teaching three courses this semester at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, will wear the camera for one year. It is 2 inches in diameter and less than an inch thick.

"He said he chose to have it put in the back of the head as an allegorical statement about the things we don't see and leave behind.The back of Peter Lorre's head from the 1955 sci-fi TV movie "Young Couples Only."

"The camera will capture his everyday activities at one-minute intervals 24-hours a day and then be transmitted to monitors at the museum, said curators Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath of Art Reoriented, who commissioned Bilal on behalf of the museum.

Art by Simon Jones. Image found here.

"Many of his previous works have invited debate and controversy.

"In a recent live performance piece titled "...and Counting," Bilal had his back tattooed with a borderless map of Iraq covered with one dot for each Iraqi and American casualty. Bilal, whose brother was killed by a missile at an Iraqi checkpoint in 2004, used the piece to highlight how the deaths of Iraqis are largely invisible to the American public. The dots for the Iraqis were represented by green UV ink only visible under black light, while Americans were represented by permanent ink."

A tattoo by Fun Size Design found at the Creative Design Magazine website.

To read the entire article on Bilal and his implanted camera, go here.

Sideshow souvenir card of Bill Durks; the middle "eye" is painted in. Image found here.

More news of the melding of a camera with the human head came to my attention at the same time, in a bit of very striking synchronicity. Last month, the website of art/fashion blogger Scott Best posted photos of a working pinhole camera, created by artist/photographer Wayne Martin Belger, that is made from a human skull:
To see more about this eerie-but-fascinating "must have"art piece for the seriously strange shutterbug, go here.

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This prosthetic 3rd eye can be purchased here.

"The Executioner"

From Marvel's WHERE MONSTERS DWELL #26, cover date January 1974. Originally appeared in UNCANNY TALES #9, cover date June 1953. Art by Myron Fass.

Click on each image to see the larger version.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL TDSH READERS!

No subtext here!

"The Life of the Party" -- is that the chocolate candy or the eye candy?

Every wolf surrounding Ms. Luscious is thinking, "Wanna roll, tootsie?"

Oh, those were the good old days...(eye roll)

Priest to hand out delayed sentence

Making no political commentary here, but the Associated Press reports,t following the money-laundering conviction of former powerful House Majority Leader Tom Delay, that "DeLay has chosen to have Senior Judge Pat Priest sentence him."

I can just see Herman and Grandpa as bailiffs.

Happy Birthday to FJA!

Photo by August Ragone. Source: The Good, The Bad, and Godzilla (An excellent blog!)

Forrest J Ackerman

Born Nov. 24th, 1916. Died Dec. 4th, 2008. Missed by his fellow fans of "imagi-movies" around the world. An appreciation of Ackerman from the Los Angeles Times can be found here.


Banner photo by Robert Gauthier, L.A. Times. Source found here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HIS MAJESTY--

The King of Horror.

Worst description for a filming schedule EVER

Steven Spielberg is now about to begin production on a long-planned film about Abraham Lincoln that is based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's book, Team of Rivals. The director of E.T. also just signed to work on another film, titled Robopocalypse.

Here's how the website Deadline describes the situation: "Spielberg just committed to Robopocalypse, but it looks like Lincoln will be shot first."

Ow!

Huge discounts now on great crapola!

[From my friend Brian Horrorwitz, lead sanger and banger of the band The Ubangis --he does vocals and percussion-- and famous self-styled "connosewer of crapola" comes the following GIANT-Size announcement of a big holiday sale at Brian's online store, Trash Palace!]

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Hello again from lovely Trash Palace! Every November thousands of stores off you discounts during their brief "Black Friday" sale. But we here at The Palace like to take things a step further, which is why we proudly resent our PURPLE THURSDAY sale! Yes, from now through Monday, November 29th, EVERY COLLECTOR'S MOVIE ON THE WEBSITE IS JUST $12.00 EACH!

Also we are offering our regular DVDs, CDs, LPs and more at sale prices (see below)! To take advantage of the PURPLE THURSDAY sale just write the code word "PURPLE" in the Comments box on our order form. (You must write the code word "PURPLE" so we know to apply the sale prices.) The sale ends at 12 Midnight (East Coast Time) on Monday, November 29, 2010. Check out all of our rare Collector's Movies starting here:
http://www.trashpalace.com/DVDR.htm .

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DURING THE PURPLE THURSDAY SALE...

ALL NEW REGULAR DVDs ARE 25% OFF THE LISTED PRICE! http://www.trashpalace.com/DVD1.htm
http://www.trashpalace.com/DVD2.htm

ALL USED VIDEOTAPES ARE 35% OFF THE LISTED PRICE!

http://www.trashpalace.com/usedvideotapes.htm

ALL NEW VIDEOTAPES ON THIS PAGE ARE 50% OFF THE LISTED PRICE!
http://www.trashpalace.com/newvideotapes.htm

ALL CDs and LPs ON THESE 3 PAGES ARE 25% OFF THE LISTED PRICE!
http://www.trashpalace.com/CDSandLPS1a.htm
http://www.trashpalace.com/CDSandLPS1b.htm
http://www.trashpalace.com/CDSandLPS2.htm

ALL MOVIE POSTERS, STILLS, LOBBIES AND PRESSBOOKS ARE 25% OFF THE LISTED PRICE!
http://www.trashpalace.com/post_a-h.html
http://www.trashpalace.com/post_i-r.html
http://www.trashpalace.com/post_s-z.html

ALL MEXICAN LOBBIES AND CELEBRITY POSTERS ARE 25% OFF THE LISTED PRICE!
http://www.trashpalace.com/mex_lc.html

http://www.trashpalace.com/celeb_posters.html

ALL BOOKS AND MAGAZINES ARE 25% OFF THE LISTED PRICE!

http://www.trashpalace.com/books_magazines.htm

ALL TOYS AND CRAP ARE 25% OFF THE LISTED PRICE!
http://www.trashpalace.com/toys_and_crap.html

ON OUR "BLAXPLOITATION" PAGE THE SAME ABOVE DISCOUNTS STILL APPLY (DVDs are 25% off, CDs are 25% off, etc.)
http://www.trashpalace.com/blaxploitation.html

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More new Collector's Movie titles are on their way! We've got some really cool and rare movies comin' so stay tuned!

My Wish List

Okay, so this is really my "Wish in one hand, pee in the other, see which fills up the fastest" list.

But gee, Virginia, if there really IS a Santa Claus, I so want this (and I'm only putting this ONE thing on my wish list to prove I'm not greedy):

That's right--the dream of every boy and girl: one's very own taxidermied bat! With jeweled eyes even and perched inside a faux Victorian bird cage made from salvaged vintage metal!

How cool is this? THIS would be perfect for my house--I love this kind of creepy handicraft.

It's offered by "ravenofskys" on this Etsy page, the source of the photos above. (I did tweak the pics just a bit for better clarity.) It's had 1602 viewings so far, but at $450, no takers since its initial posting. (Not sure when that was, but I found it on Nov. 13; it now shows a listing date of Nov. 17.) Ravenskys is the Etsy moniker of one Raven Young, a gothic artist who describes herself as a "female outsider artist from Berks County Pennsylvania."

If she showed up outside on my doorstep with this, she'd be an "insider" real quick.

And if you came to my place, saw this, and said you liked it, you would probably be my friend for life.

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"HOLLYWOOD KARMA" Sorta-related Link: Plague of rabid bats hits L.A.!

Four Loko explained

The name is a variation of "For loco"--because that is who it's for--loco people!

At least it was.

The high-alcohol malt beverage with lotsa caffeine was getting bad press as being unhealthy. (That's one of the biggest sins nowadays.) But Phusion Projects, the manufacturer, has announced it's getting rid of the caffeine in Four Loko, just ahead of the FDA getting ready to curtail commerce in boozy beverages with a buzz.

Seems ineffectual--can't people can just substitute shots of espresso as a chaser with their malt liquor? But it IS crazy to mix stimulants with a depressant, and make people feel they're less blitzed than they really are. Bad for the safety of drivers and bystanders. Also causes more cars crashing into bars! People get hurt! Drinks get spilled! (Shudder.)

Fruity malt liquor with java's jolt--seems a crazy mad potion to me. Positively Jekyllian!

Four Loko was a wacky idea. I think it was a mix of this--
plus this:
and this:
Or maybe it was a combo of these three ingredients:
Bleah!

Whether you're sober or sloshed, straight or stoned, please go the Wacky Packages Online Reference Guide, the site where all the above images came from. It's loaded with info about (and photos of) Wacky Packs, the stickers from the late Sixties into the late Seventies that satirized so many consumer goods! (Happily, the stickers were revived for this decade, and new Wacky Packs are available for people not around the first time they appeared.)

Final Lessons of Zombie Fest 2010: Pt. 2

Continued from this post. The other Zombie Fest 2010 posts can be found here, here, here, and here.

Zombies do schtick.
Zombies don't do hairspray.
Zombies know a toy rifle when they see one.
Zombies keep an eye out for friends.
Zombies have no taste when it comes to oldies music.
(At least this zombie construction worker didn't sing.)
Zombies enjoy the wrong part of Vietnamese cuisine.
(Oh, go look it up on Wikipedia. Would it have been better if I'd said East Timor cuisine?)

And the wrong parts of German history:
Boy zombies like to slack.
And why not? They're dead!

Girl zombies like to bow. (They thought a talking severed head was pretty cool.)
I thought the one on the right above needed the blouse neckline of her companion.
Ah! Now that's the ticket!

Okay, one more conclusion left--that I'm saving for the end of the post. But let's look at more photos and crack wise, eh?

Here's a Grimm girl--Little dead Riding Hood!
I have no need to make a "goodies" joke here, because you're already thinking it. (Oh, yes you are.)

This guy's no zombie...
But he's brought one back from darkest...uh, Sweden?
Who's dis clown?
Oh! It's crusty!
And here's Stiffy the Clown from the It's Alive Show. Not sure who the other guy is. Either it's his straight man, or his life partner, Not Straight Man.

Hooray for Captain Spaulding, the supplier of tennis balls to zombies.

His girl can't make up her mind (what's left of it) as to what he best side is.
There's a 'big screw" joke here, but I can't bring myself to make it:
She might hurt me if I did!

When zombies appear, who ya gonna call?
Is this guy a monster fighter just some dude with a homemade self-abuse device? I can't decide.
The Ghostbusters were nowhere to be found when this devil showed up:
Seems he showed up waaay early for Demon Fest--
Wow. Demons can read their watches right through their jacket sleeves! So I guess I should write this: Devils have x-ray vision.

Maybe he can take these folks back with him to Hell:



Except for her. I need a maid.

$5 via PayPal to the best caption for this mime zombie photo. I have to get at least five entries!
The last lesson I learned about zombies from Zombie Fest is this--

No matter who sticks it to them, you can't keep a good zombie down.
That's true no matter what this bloodsucker-centric blog says in posts like this one. Feh.

Zombies rule, if only by force of sheer numbers. (You ever see large hordes of vampires or werewolves? Of course not.)

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Related (and recommended!): This Zombie Fest 2010 Flickr set.