Aeronautic Primates and Other Delights

Repo! The Genetic Opera is expanding its Road Tour to another four cities and Phoenix (well, Chandler Cinemas) is first on the list. Thursday, December 4th. 10:00PM. One night only. Director Darren Lynn Bousman and screenwriter/composer Terrance Zdunich will be there.

More Details at Classic-Horror.com

I've written a lot of lengthy reviews in my time, but never before has one foisted its lengthiness upon me, at least not to this extent. This is the single longest, most complex review I've ever written and there's still a few talking points I had to cut just so I could get it done in time to have it edited.

midnightfae says it's the best review I've ever written, and she should know, given that she's edited all of my stuff since 2006.

Ladies and gentlemen, my review of Nobuo Nakagawa's Jigoku (1960).

For the Supernatural fans looking for the references from last night's episode:

( Read more... )

I'm whipping up the logo for Classic-Horror's Shocktober event and I need to know which of four potential fonts works best for a marathon of foreign horror reviews. Not really looking at color yet -- I know it needs some work. Just looking at the fonts.

( Poll under cut! Ticky boxes for all! )

Look, it's another post about Nate and his on-again off-again relationship with his Muse.

I've been trying to get a review written -- any review for a month now. I haven't written anything since I finished my review for Scars of Dracula in mid-July. This is especially problematic because Classic-Horror has almost nothing for September right now and I also have eight reviews due for our October review marathon.

I need a spur -- a film that fires up my intellectual interest in horror or, alternately, is a really easy target (the former tends to work better over the long-term).

There are three options -- I can review a film I hope will be very good that we haven't reviewed yet, I can re-review one of the 31 films that I own that need better reviews, or I can review something terrible (my last two reviews have been negative, though).

Hm.

So, two months ago, a reporter from the Chicago Tribune emailed me to see if he could interview me for a piece about a series of horror double bills playing in the Chicago area.

A week and a half later, he called me and I babbled for 45 minutes.

On August 8th, the piece was published.

There I am. In black and white. Sounding like a total geek.

Anybody from the Chicago area have a spare copy I can steal?

I've had to put my How I Met Your Mother vid aside for a moment -- I think it's a little outside of my scope as a vidder and I'm having trouble putting together appropriate clips, despite having extensive notes. I'm going to take some time away and let my subconscious work out the various obstacles.

However, this has let me move on to the vid I'm really excited about -- my Universal monsters video. I've told a few people what song I'm using and they've accused me of not sharing the crack. Sorry?

Originally this was going to have a much broader scope, encompassing the whole of Universal's output from the 1920s-early 1950s, but I've since narrowed it down to the six main monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon) for a number of reasons. The main one is that there are five choruses and one bridge in the song, so I can devote each to a specific monster (my Mummy chorus is freakin' wicked). There's a few other areas in the song that sync up with the number six, so I decided to take it as a sign (I didn't know this before I picked the song) and I've focused the vid on only movies featuring the main monsters.

So far I have three of the six monsters completed (although I'm not completely happy with the Wolf Man section).

This is going to rock.

Lots of great interview opportunities coming in for Classic-Horror this year. Can't name any names in a post, but they're insanely cool.

I need to do some quick news posts this weekend, clear off the loooong list of DVD releases I really should've posted about earlier. And also do the usual "see you at Comic-Con" post.

Just one more hour and one more day of work and then I'm off.

I'm just bursting with excitement. BURSTING.

[Poll #1217848]

Saturday

The Roomie left me her car to run errands, so that's pretty much what I did all day. First I stopped by Mom's to pick up some packages I had mailed there, including the Night of the Living Dead 40th Anniversary DVD with the Classic-Horror quote on the back cover. Mom was babysitting my niece, who ran over to give me a big hug. It was the cutest thing ever.

After that, I ran to the hardware store to pick up some materials for the Memorial Day Project. Then I spent more time and drove more miles than I'd like to admit trying to find sufficient Testors Metal Flake Ruby Red paint, as the Project requires it in large quantities.

Picked up the roomie from work, dropped her off at the gym. Instead of heading to the nearby Best Buy, I headed into Bookstar, which was a book store that I'd seen a billion times but never gone into. It looked chintzy from the outside and I'd always assumed it was a half-price used bookshop. Nope. It was a Barnes & Noble in everything but the sign on the front and the way the employees answered the phone. Even the little placards over the individual sections said "Barnes & Noble". I ended up spending *coughcough* on some books on digital photography, web design (I'm trying to get a more elegant look for Classic-Horror) and Final Cut Express.

Sunday

Programmed my new Universal Remote. The old one only really controlled my stereo receiver and my VCR. This one handles everything but the Playstation 3 (which can't be helped because it receives over Bluetooth). I did have to reprogram Every Single Key for the HD-DVD player, because while the box received the signal, it thought I was trying to control a Standard DVD player and would throw up a little message on the front display that said "HD-DVD" instead of, y'know, doing something.

Edited two reviews and one Masters biography. Started working on a new fanvid for Donna Noble set to Oingo Boingo's Just Another Day.

Went to the coffeehouse that night with The Roomie to finish up some other work.

Memorial Day

Woke up early, skipped breakfast and computer to go directly to beginning the Memorial Day Project: painting the pieces of what will eventually be my very own Tom Servo puppet. The Roommate gathered them about a year and a half ago as a Christmas present, but circumstances prevented her from putting it together. Now we've finally decided to tackle this as a team. I have high hopes for its completion before she leaves for vet school in three months.

The Roomie's boyfriend came over that night and we watched Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, followed by Mystery Science Theater: Mr. B. Natural, then Cinematic Titanic: The Oozing Skull, and finally Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II. Good times were had by all.