FRANKENSTEINIA wins!

The Rondo Awards for 2010 were announced last night, and in the category of "Best Blog" Pierre Fournier's FRANKENSTEINIA won the prize!

And I voted for him, so I feel an eensy-- teensy bit helpful in the outcome I'd hoped for!

Mary Shelley, somewhere, is smiling.

Congratulate Pierre at his blog and/or at the blog's Facebook page.

Big things

http://blog.seva.ca/?p=929

http://community.webshots.com/photo/fullsize/1430846415059658987NTrtzs

http://crystellalim.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/christiania/

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2011/02/327-pound-alligator-gar-possible-new-world-record.html

History of an undying story

1818: Mary Shelley publishes her most influential and lasting novel, Frankenstein. Sir Walter Scott later praises it.

1823: Richard Brinsley Peake's Presumption: or the Fate of Frankenstein, the first stage adaptation of the novel, is performed.

Halloween, 1836: The first "popular" single volume edition of the novel appears.

1882: The first cartoon version of the monster appears in Punch magazine in England. The monster appears in an editorial cartoon and is meant to symbolize Ireland.

1910: Edison Studios release the first film version of Frankenstein.

1931: The novel is substantially altered when adapted into a film for Universal, starring Colin Clive and Boris Karloff, and becomes the most iconic and influential version of the story.

1952: The first adaptation of Frankenstein for television appears on the program Tales of Tomorrow.

1957: Hammer Studios begin a series of popular films employing the character of Victor Frankenstein and his creation.

THEN---

August, 2007: The blog FRANKENSTEINIA debuts. The creation of writer and cartoonist Pierre Fournier, it becomes THE premier source of online information about all things Frankenstein-related in popular culture, history, and the arts.

MARCH 2011: It wins the respected Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award because people like YOU vote for it. If YOU haven't voted for FRANKENSTEINIA in the Rondo Award "Best Blog" category, YOU still have time! UNTIL MIDNIGHT TONIGHT, MARCH 26. (The ballot says March 27, but insists on midnight Saturday.) VOTE here NOW!

Rondo Award news flash! A major scoop!

It has come to my attention (via a reporter friend with hacking skills) that a wave of write-in votes has flooded the Rondo Award polling in the "Best Blog" category.

The following blogs seem to be getting a last minute surge of votes:

• Spooky Spooky Boo Boo!
• Thrift Store of Direct-to-Video Slasher Flix
• My Halloween M&M Collection
• No Sucky Monsters
• Drive-In Movies That Made Me Sh*t Myself
• If Tura Satana Were a Gunslinger, There Would Be a Whole Lot of Damp Pants
• Wankensteinia
• So What If I Like Scary Crap?
• Scream and Cream Again
• The Jess Francophile
• The Castle of Terror Horror Scans
  

Only you can prevent them from winning. VOTE TODAY IN THE RONDO HATTON CLASSIC HORROR AWARDS.

My thanks to my friend (who will remain nameless) for sharing this undercover investigation with me. Julian Assange would be proud.

Nominated for a RONDO for "Best Article"

To read a version of the Rondo Award-nominated article "The Greatest Ghost Story Ever Heard" go to this post and this post here at TDSH. You have until Saturday at midnight (Mar. 27) to vote--go HERE for the official ballot. Make sure you include your name.

I was very happy to run this guest article by Craig Wichman, which originally appeared in a somewhat different form in the magazine Nostalgia Digest.

More Zombie Gras photos

As introduced in this post, here are more photos from the recent Zombie Gras event, organized by the fine frightening folk who put on Horror Realm every year.

There were cool vendors, including artists:

And filmmakers--
And there were interesting panels, like this one with the stars of the underrated classic Day of the Dead:

There were workshops, such as one on self-defense in a zombie apocalypse:

And of course, plenty of zombies and horror fans there to have a good time--

This is zombie Sandy Stuhlfire, one of the organizers--

This is the platter spinner of the dance party, DJ Zombo:

He got zombies to show some rhythm!

Some preferred to dance close:

Speaking of close, I think I'll close here! Go check out this link to see LOTS more photos from Zombie Gras!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Image source: Elfwitch.com

Do you do anything to commemorate the day?

I'm trying to decide whether to watch that classic Disney horror film, Little Ol' Darby and the Gill People (I really like the part where drunken mermaids and fish-men start battling it out with shillelaghs!) or Sodom and Begorrah. (A different kind of shillelagh gets used in that, and there's no fighting--but there is a lot of action.)

St. Patrick, the Terminator of snakes.

If you want to read a very "foin" article on the history of Irish horror film, read film scholar Kim Newman's excellent "Irish Horror Cinema."

Or, if you have time to skim only, you may want to check out this list of 10 great Irish horror movies.
But what's your hurry? Read! Have a beer! Play this Stu Venable video of the song "I Love You (Beer)"! (Just so you know, the lyrics are a little risque and may seem just a wee bit sexist, so it's NSFW.)

I've always had a weakness for Irish women. I admire their strength--and to me, they all look like this:

Erin go braless!

Wouldn't it be a grand thing if St. Patrick's Day were celebrated like a "real holiday"? This commercial for Guinness imagines just that!

The Voodoo Queen and I will celebrate with the traditional store-bought zombie leprechaun cake:

Image source: Flickr acct. of Karen Portaleo/Highland Bakery

Irish a "Happy St. Paddy's Day" to you all!

Rondo Award-worthy: TOO MANY CREEPS

This blog was the place of first publication for the play TOO MANY CREEPS, an affectionate "dramedy" (and sometimes farce) about a fictional last film project set to star horror stars Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Other featured characters include genre greats Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney, Jr., and John Carradine. And also Ed Wood! Written (and illustrated!) by Ted Newsom of Flesh and Blood fame, it's perhaps the wittiest piece of fiction incorporating real-life film stars I have ever read, and features a touching final "confrontation" between Boris and Bela that moved me. I was honored to run it here.

It is nominated for a Rondo Award for "Best Fan Event" as a reading of it was performed last year by a uniformly fine cast. Among the stellar performers are scream queen Brinke Stevens, splatterpunk author David J. Schow as Peter Lorre, author/film historian David Skal as Bela Lugosi, and actor Mark Redfield (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Death of Poe) as Boris Karloff. Below in this post are videos of part of that reading, which took place at the Monsterpalooza con last year.

Any other year, the entertaining, informative, and sometimes emotional reunion of the cast of Night of the Living Dead that occurred at the Famous Monsters Con would get my vote, but Too Many Creeps is a classic and just edges it out for me. I hope the events tie, but I'm plugging the play, which was not as well publicized and needs votes. I hope you give it yours.

You may go here to review the Rondo Award ballot. Send in your votes in whatever categories you want to vote in. You may vote--or even amend a previous vote--until midnight March 27.

TOO MANY CREEPS is shared here in six parts. (Links are to the right.) Parts Five and Six of the play were taped at last year's Monsterpalooza convention. Here's the video--enjoy! (And vote! And spread the word!)






Seemingly coincidentally, I recently saw online this sculpture of a Peter Lorre-looking chef--

Image found here.

I was meant to find it--I just know it! From beyond, Peter Lorre is telling me that he approves of TOO MANY CREEPS! Do you need any other reason to vote for it?

To help Japan

Here are some highly rated charities working on disaster relief in Japan:

AmeriCares (through Charity Navigator)

Red Cross (through Network for Good)

The Salvation Army (You can donate directly at the link, or text 'JAPAN' or 'QUAKE' to 80888 to make a $10 donation.)

Did everyone have a good Fat Tuesday?

Mardi Gras came early for the Voodoo Queen and I--last Saturday, as a matter of fact. A horror mini-convention/Mardi Gras dance party called "Zombie Gras" was put on here in Pittsburgh by the indefatigable, creative, and fun-lovin' folks of Horror Realm.

Let me share some of the sights with ya. It was such a hot event a certain zombie with tiger blood and rock star DNA showed up:

And brought a goddess:

More goddess:
Loves me some blue, mottled zombie goddess! Yessir!

Tried to see any if goddesses wanted to earn beads the old-fashioned way, but no one wanted to. This attendee made her point plain:

And this goddess ran to her mummy:

More photos to come.

Me want!

Via Jessica at Horror Society:

Life imitating art

Life sometimes imitates the cinematic arts, and recently I came across two examples.

In a scenario straight outta The Manchurian Candidate, Robert Kennedy's assassin Sirhan Sirhan is now claiming to have been hypnotized into killing the famous former senator and attorney general. Sirhan (who was NOT ever, but should have been, a resident of Walla Walla) is currently up for parole, though he's unlikely to get it.

You can hear a report of this claim on National Public Radio's audio archive; the news was reported on their program All Things Considered. A bonus bit of yuks is hearing host Michele Norris clearly say "hyp-ma-tized" for "hypnotized." (Not surprising-- but mildly dismaying--is the fact that NPR's transcript of the program corrects Norris' mispronunciation.)

Michele Norris, in a trance, is made to do "jazz hands."
Behind her, a man chews on the wrong end of a lollipop.
Original image by Alex Wong/ Getty Images here.

A second recent instance of life aping the movies--specifically, adaptations of the story The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, was found in a press release by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office in Oregon. As a follow up to their educational 2005 media project Faces of Meth, the office has released From Drugs to Mugs, a series of mug shots that show how hard drugs like meth, heroin and cocaine can radically changes the looks of those addicted to the illicit substances. Here, purely for educational purposes of course, are some of the most shocking of those transformations:

Warning: Use of hard drugs can turn you into Keith Richards.

Here's a sad Jekyll and Hyde image from the 2005 Faces of Meth:

Back to From Drugs to Mugs-- and life imitating the movie Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (except for the gender change part):

Here's Barbara Steele from the horror classic Black Sunday (La Maschera del Demonio):

And here's her contemporary, real-life counterpart:

Eeeeeeeeeeek!

Read more as reported by the Daily Mail in England. (Yep-- a news story from the U.S. getting better-written, more detailed coverage overseas than here. Sigh.)

_________________________

Related link: Faces of Meth

More! MORE! MORE!

Sorry that there hasn't been much posted lately, but that's due to a injury limiting my time at the keyboard. However, the Voodoo Queen will be assisting in getting some partial posts ready, and after that, a big announcement will soon be made here.

Please stand by.

200,000 MANIACS!

Today The Drunken Severed Head got its 200,000th hit! HOO-HAH!

Below is a snapshot of typical TDSH readers:

Actually, this is art by digital illustrator Brett Dewall, but I think he must've worked from a shot of my readers. And a shot of absinthe, too--which is always good for the artistic soul. Makes the heart grow fonder...

For those of you who don't follow me on Facebook, here's a pic I put up on my wall there of Tor at the blog's birthday party:

Tor celebrate anniversary of blog by attempting to eat Drunken Severed Head! BAD TOR! BAD!