WIN "Ghosts: True Encounters with the World Beyond"

  Or, "How the Pun-ishing Heat Profited Me and May Profit You."

 The blogzine Shadows and Screams, a site I recommended yesterday, awarded me a prize that I'm going to pass onto TDSH readers because I already have it! The prize is a copy of the book Ghosts: True Encounters with the World Beyond, by Hans Holzer. Fans of the history of paranormal activity who don't have this book shouldn't pass up this chance to get it!

 First, I want to tell ya how I won the prize. Shadows and Screams has a prize contest every month, and for the occasion of this summer's scorching temperatures, asked readers for heat-related variations of classic horror film titles.

I jumped in like I was canonballing into a pool. The winning ones I submitted were DAMP PITS AND THE PENDULUM and TASTE THE SWEAT OF DRIPULA.*  Others I sent in included these groaners:

 The high-temperature drive-in double feature:

I SWEAT ON YOUR GRAVE / I HEAT YOUR SKIN

 Starring Vincent Price:

THE FRY, RETURN OF THE FRY, and CURSE OF THE FRY

 '80s horror:

ROAST IN PEACE

 Grindhouse:
LAST UN-AIR-CONDITIONED HOUSE ON THE LEFT

 Fortunately, Mother Nature's feverish days seem to be over, at least for a while. So enter the contest by messaging me on Facebook. (Look to the right for a link to friend me.) The tenth person to send me a message that includes an e-mail address that I can forward to Shadows and Screams wins the book!



* Don't these sound like some sort of fetish porn titles?

SHADOWS AND SCREAMS...

...is a whimsical horror website I discovered last month, and I think might enjoy taking a tour there:

The dapper-but-insane host is another geeky guy like me hiding behind a persona creepy cemetery caretaker Myron Morbidio.Right now Myron's got up an interview with Lucy Chase Williams, a friend of genre great Vincent Price and author of the essential reference work The Complete Films of Vincent Price.

Morbidio also has monthly contests with cool prizes. For the rest of August, you can enter his Star Trek contest. (Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was born in August.) 

Shadows and Screams says "our latest contest asks you to incorporate something Trek-ish into a well-known horror film title to create some fresh interstellar spookiness. Examples? How about Data of the Dead, FranKahnStein, or Who Sulu Auntie Roo?

"Whether you are an obsessive Trekkie, secluded in your basement compiling a list of inconsistencies in Deep Space 9 episodes, or just a casual fan, we invite you to better these offerings and those of your fellow entrants.  The (ahem) most enterprising entrant will win his or her choice of 3 terrific recent sci-fi/horror films on DVD: The Mist (2-disc special edition), Splice, or Daybreakers."

Click here to read the rules and usual disclaimers.  Hurry! Entry deadline is August 30

Cult movie actress Bev Bonner and me!

This event held at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont, PA will also feature a Q & A conducted by ye olde Severed Head!

The evening finishes up with an after-party to celebrate Ms. Bonner’s birthday.  Admission is $10 for the theater event and $5 for the after party (cash bar).  VIP tickets will be available for $20, which includes balcony seating, a poster autographed by Ms. Bonner, an exclusive meet & greet and free admission to the after party!

All sponsored by HORROR REALM!

Get clubbed!

Growing up, did you ever feel you were a weirdo? And now, you realize you've never grown up? Well, the Head says to head over to The Strange Kids Club, one of the grooviest and ghouliest blogzines I've ever seen. For the month of August, SKC is having a Homemade Halloween Costume Contest, where the chosen photographs will get these fabulous prizes:  $125 in Halloween and Strange Kids Club-related merchandise including:

Nail Mouth Halloween Mask sculpted by Justin Mabry (based on original artwork by David Hartman) 

Limited Edition Monster Squad Poster illustrated by Corlen Kruger and SIGNED by FRED DEKKER  

Limited Edition Strange Kid T-Shirt illustrated by Glen Brogan 

FREE copy of the SKC Comix Anthology #2

 AND MORE! Go here to get more info, toots.

Also, this week the SKC is putting the spotlight on Jose Cruz, the man behind From Beyond Depraved and now the new site MEPHISTO'S CASTLE! 

Jose has a wide-ranging curiosity (read: his mind wanders) and a love of horror and weirdness in all its forms, but is a "classic monster kid" at heart.

Check out his cool-looking new site and read what he has to say. That is, after you check out the SKC and what club owner and chief Rondal Scott has to share!

No one kicks the cranium.

Have you seen this severed head practical joke on YouTube? Like some episode of the old Candid Camera, only creepy!

Amazing that no one kicks her head in frustration--thank goodness they didn't! Or even nudges her head with their foot to see if she's real or some some sophisticated electronic prop!

A Joker Gets Trumped, or...

...My Connection to a Comedic Crime!

This young guy has made the news internationally, and I know him! He was arrested for trying to (allegedly) commit one of the dumbest crimes this year, and (allegedly) offering the lamest lie EVER to the detective who arrested him. His name's Micah Calamosca, and I worked with him for a couple of years, until a few months ago. He also assembled the computer I blog from!

The crime he (allegedly) tried to commit was carjacking a car from an undercover police officer. He then (allegedly) tried to get out of trouble by telling the police officer that he meant no harm--he was only doing it as part of the filming of The Dark Knight Rises, which is shooting here in Pittsburgh. You can read all about it at online news sources as far as England and Australia. An ABC news item on this can be found HERE.

A soft-spoken amiable kid, I never expected this from Micah. His friends are all very surprised. We wish him a better eventual future than his immediate one. Crime doesn't pay! (Hope tough guys in prison aren't soon singing him "For He's a Jolly Good Felon!")

A couple of comments I found in response to online news reports: 

"Letters in his name rearrange to Ciao Cash, Calm Ma."

"That's what he gets for 'Robin' the officer!"

And apparently he too has a sense of humor about this turn of events, as I see he changed his "work" designation on his Facebook page to "Inmate at Arkham Asylum"!

Hoo boy!