I almost know what it feels like...

...to be buried alive!

Got buried under snow last night and today by a snownami!

Boy, did the Snow Fairy visit us here in Pittsburgh! (But at least he left me a car--I found it under a huge pile of snow in my driveway!) We broke a 63 year old record for snowfall in one day, and not since since 1994 has there been this much snow on the ground. Two feet or more, (depending on where you live in the county) with drifts even higher.

Had to be attached to my early model android body (which is always breaking down) to go help clear a path to my car and the street. On the way back to the house had to be dusted off when my head got dropped in the snow and rolled down my front yard! (Thank god there was no yellow snow.)

But tonight I ate homemade snow ice cream, something I haven't had in 15 or 20 years. Yum! Snow, half and half, sweetener, cocoa, vanilla and a dash o' salt. The horrors of the day melted away while I ate the stuff.

Our county is in a declared "state of emergency." Probably will be lifted in the next day or so, when the plows and salt trucks catch up. Most businesses did not open today. So I didn't have to call off, thank goodness. Even if my managed to get dug out in time, I'm not sure I could safely drive down from the hill I live on. And even if I could, I'm pretty damn sure I could not drive back up!

Of course my wife is in Florida right now!

To see the photos I took today, click here.

Elegy

This winter I find myself kept indoors more than usual for this time of year, and so I have been looking at old books I've collected but not really read.

The poem below comes from a 1937 hardback anthology I have titled "Three TONY'S SCRAPBOOKS", a gathering of tidbits of philosophy, poetry, humor and trivia by folksy Depression-era radio personality Tony Wons. It collects three previous volumes that sold well. You can learn more about Tony Wons from a 1932 TIME magazine article that is archived here.

I can find no information on the author of the poem, Leonard Snyder, who most likely wasn't an acclaimed writer in any genre. Ordinary fans of the radio show sent in their thoughts and writings, and Wons used them sometimes. Perhaps Snyder was one of them.

I've chosen images found on the net (credited below) to illustrate the poem. It's a simple poem, reminiscent of Poe but without his brilliance. Still, I liked it and share it here.
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ELEGY

I have looked at dead men's eyes

Whose awful majesty

Held nothing, yet I saw therein

An endless mystery.



A dead man's lips are pale and cold

And changeless as of stone,

And yet they strangely seem to say

To find peace...go alone.

--Leonard Snyder

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Related: Johnny Metro's great freaky-geeky blog Midnite Media recently posted the words to the an old dark English ballad titled "The Unquiet Grave." Read it here.

Top image: Statuary closeup found at Flickr account of Sandman1973.

Image second from top: Plasticized, skinned body from the BODIES exhibition--Picture source here.

Image, bottom left: Mexican mummy, picture source here.

Image, bottom right: Detail of statuary photo found at Flickr account of martins.nunomiguel

My favorite "Garbage Pail Kids" sticker

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With a foot of snow coming tomorrow, I'm REALLY wishing I was on a beach right now!

My "Kreativ Blogger" Honorees

Below are my honorees for the Kreativ Blogger award (translation: virtual pat on the back--or head), which was recently bestowed on me by Cool Ass Cinema. (I blogged a few days ago about that; scroll down a bit to read that post.)

Haunt Style This blog's theme: "Images, ideas, instructions, and information for people who live for Halloween, or just want to add some creepiness to their lives." Hey, who doesn't?

A Patchwork of Flesh A site for artists working in any and all media, living in all points on the globe, and of all ages, to celebrate Mary Shelley's immortal Frankenstein monster.

Skull-A-Day A creative, constantly updated exploration of the skull image in all media. Originally, a skull-a-day posting project by Noah Scalin for an entire year; now reader submissions make up the majority of posts. You'll never see so many variations on one interesting theme anywhere else.

Uranium Cafe Bill Courtney's rad blog of retro madness and great podcasts is an act of courage. It is posted from China, a very repressive place to both surf the 'Net, and upload to it.

Billy Loves Stu Although he can't spell "stew" correctly, and never seems to post any recipes, Pax Romano's blog is creative, queer, and fun for all horror movie fans, whether you like classic or contemporary stuff.

I Love Horror I'm giving the award to Brad McHargue's blog because I like his sense of humor, his enthusiasm, his sometimes grumpy but honest persona, and to give him a kick in the ass to get his delayed "Ash Across America" project on his blog!

Under the rules I accepted this honor, I have to post some things about myself and pass on the award to other blogs. I'm going to do that, but in reverse order. (Hey, I don't wanna steal the top billing from these great blogs I'm recommending to you!)

Seven things about myself:

1. I once threw a dinner party at a funeral home. At dusk, we played hide and seek.

2. At one time I was a professional crime fighter.

3. In my twenties, I auditioned in the nude for a play, as required for the part. This was for an acclaimed comedy, and the auditions took place in a Methodist church.

4. I once had a life-size statue of St. Patrick in my home.

5. I have been tricked into going "snipe hunting."

6. I once caught 105 catfish. (Okay, they were only fingerlings, and I caught 'em all at once, but still it was 105! They were freed into a pond.) Another time I caught a fish using only a milk crate.

7. I once used a mold to make plaster busts of John F. Kennedy as a jello mold for a party.

Let's see my honorees top that! (But only if they want to.)

THE DRUNKEN SEVERED HEAD inspires TOTALFILM.com !

The popular site Total Film took a cue from my recent posts honoring 33 blogs*, and upped the ante--they're honoring 600 blogs! Writer Dan Goodswen makes a mammoth recommendation of "600 Movie Blogs You Might Have Missed."

"The weird, the wonderful, the well informed..." is the phrase he uses to pay propers to this crazy collection. I like it.

The Drunken Severed Head placed 37th out of 600, (wow!) a pretty elevated position. If I had real arms, right now I'd probably break 'em patting myself on the back--if I had one of those, too.

It's likely a mistake I even made the cut at all, my inner Eeyore tells me. But I do like to think that I'm weird and wonderful! (I'll let other folks decide if I'm well informed; I think of myself as malformed.)

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*Actually, they're making up to the horror blogging community for the debacle of their recent horror blog award contest, where only one of the nominees, Obscure Hollow, was an actual blog. (And a very good one it is, too.) Mercifully, OH won the vote in a landslide.

Cool Ass Kalls Me Kreativ! I Kid You Knot!

One of the very nicest things ever said about my me or my blog was said last month by Brian Chiba at his blog, Cool Ass Cinema. He said of TDSH, "If the wonderful Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine had an adult oriented sense of humor, the result would look something like this blog...It's a very creative site that monster fans who like to laugh should check out."

I don't know Brian, so I was unprepared for the compliment, but I was very touched. As someone whose life was partly shaped by Forry Ackerman and FMOF (props to Jim Warren too, of course), I couldn't have been happier to be compared to famous "Uncle Forry." Thanks, Cool Ass!

But I do know Brian's blog. Cool Ass is "A site dedicated to the propagation of strange and exciting cinema (and television) from all over the world as well as America's own grand tradition of exploitation cinema classics." In other words, it showcases the best of the worst, the weird, and the trashy. In more other words, it's fun! Cool Ass Cinema is dedicated to helping readers remember "those classic (and sometimes classless) films of old, and even discover some new ones," as it says on its banner. A great mission.

So now I have a new badge-o-honor to wear here! Although, having seen variations of the award at other blogs, I'm not sure it's a badge, or--



--a tablecloth, wallpaper sample, or napkin?

Or even possibly a graphic from a futuristic aspirin commercial:

My first reaction to seeing the badge was one of laughter..."KREATIV? So maybe one of the creative aspects celebrated by this meme was spelling? "KREATIV"? (I was guessing it was started by a marketing person at the "SyFy" channel.) So I did a little poking around to figure out how that spelling started.

Oog! Was I wrong! The award apparently started with a German-speaking blogger; "kreativ" is the German equivalent to the English "creative." Ist gut, ja! (That'll teach me to shoot my mouth off! But I can't help it--I'm a son-of-a-gun!*)

Which graphic do YOU like best? Or maybe it should be this one I knocked out--

Who knew Bismarck looked so much like Bram Stoker's description of Count Dracula?**

Next post, I'll share my list of honorees I've picked. (Have a blog? I can be bribed with large denominations sent in plain brown wrappers. )



*My daddy was Lewis Grizzard. Or not.

**Hey, before I get hate mail, many of my ancestors were German!