Category Archives: Nostalgic Obsessions
Obsessions of the Old Gravedigger
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Filed under Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Magazine Rack, Nostalgic Obsessions
The Nightbreed Chronicles
In a mere handful of movies, writer Clive Barker made an indelible impression on the world of horror. Hellraiser gets the bulk of the praise, with its puzzle boxes and flesh-shredding demons, but one of Barker’s lesser-known novels was equally imaginative. It was called Cabal, and in 1990 it became a movie called Nightbreed.
When you look this cool, who needs eyesight?
A movie that was… not all that good. Continue reading
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Filed under Bad Influences, Faint Signals, Movies You Missed, Nostalgic Obsessions, Saturday Movie Matinee
Charles Addams
In the 1960s, there were two unusual homesteads on television. One was monstrous, the other creepy and spooky. Both had excellent opening titles music.
Lovely type treatments and title cards, too.
The Munsters was easy to comprehend, for the most part; it was a show about a family of classic movie monsters (hence the pun). Father Herman was the great Fred Gwynne dolled up as a friendly Frankenstein’s monster; wife Lily and Grandpa were vampires. Son Eddie (Butch Patrick) was the wolf-boy, with a prominent widow’s-peak that ensured I would be humiliatingly likened to him, and daughter Marilyn was the freak, with no monstrous qualities whatsoever. They all lived in a spooky mansion on 1313 Mockingbird Lane. Who knew or cared about the genetics involved in such a lineage? Continue reading
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Filed under Comix Classic & Current, Faint Signals, Magazine Rack, Nostalgic Obsessions
Brian Froud’s World of the Dark Crystal
When crafting a fictional universe, where does one begin? The introductory story, the characters, or the world itself?
From the back cover
Today, the general process involves cribbing from whatever made the most money previously, and changing just enough to keep from getting called a plagiarist. Actually, that’s not completely true; your average latter-day Hollywood mogul couldn’t care less about charges of appropriation. Cash comes first, imagination and progress later.
This was not the way it used to be. Continue reading
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Filed under Faint Signals, Movies You Missed, Nostalgic Obsessions, Saturday Movie Matinee, Unfairly Maligned
The Cola Challenge
On a recent Age Of The Shrug podcast, Joey Pikkels and I did a blind taste test with the two leading brands of cola: Pepsi and Coke. We were surprised and amazed and all that.
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Filed under Eatable Things, Idiot's Delight, Late To The Party, Nostalgic Obsessions
Thrills: A Retrospective
The life of a hardcore junkie.
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Filed under Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Faint Signals, Idiot's Delight, Movies You Missed, Nostalgic Obsessions, Saturday Movie Matinee, Thousand Listen Club
Career Immolation: A User’s Guide
They say there is no such thing as bad publicity. Of course there is, when the public asks;
“Whatever happened to that guy?”
And then the public remembers, “Oh yeah. That happened.”
In the late 1990s, MTV gave Canadian public access personality Tom Green his own show. It was a raucous, prank-filled half-hour wherein Green literally abused and humiliated every single person he encountered, while affecting an oblivious, addled mien. It was for the most part very funny.
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Filed under Animation Analysis, Bad Influences, Don't Know Don't Care, Faint Signals, Idiot's Delight, Late To The Party, Nostalgic Obsessions, Saturday Movie Matinee, Worst Of All
Hate Proof: Midi Maxi & Efti’s “Bad Bad Boys”
You used to hear a lot about refugees on the news. Typically, refugees are not assimilated to the host culture, which allows politicians with agendas to exploit them. There is literally no one to defend or look out for them. They have taken refuge from their country of origin, often because of a dictatorship or carpet-bombing.
The reason of exodus is irrelevant. Media spotlights refugees because of their skin color.
Midi, Maxi & Efti was a Swedish pop group.
Just goddamn SCREAMING HOT.
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Filed under Bad Influences, Don't Know Don't Care, Faint Signals, Girls of BIUL, Idiot's Delight, Nostalgic Obsessions, Thousand Listen Club
Jailbreak
Artistic success isn’t measured in money; it’s measured in eyeballs. As in, how many land on your artwork.
Part of it’s luck, part is talent, and part is timing. Not just the timing of your output, but that of your birth, and the period in which you exist. The quality of stimuli available during your receptive phase. For example, growing up reading comic books drawn by gifted inkers, like Jack Kirby and Neal Adams. Continue reading
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Filed under Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Late To The Party, Nostalgic Obsessions, Thousand Listen Club
Animation Analysis: Heavy Metal
When analyzing or criticizing animated feature films, it’s important to keep three factors in mind:
- The talent
- The resources
- The date of production and release
Production designer: the late great Michael Gross, who gave you National Lampoon Comics and the Ghostbusters logo (for a movie Ivan Reitman directed that you might have heard of).
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Filed under Animation Analysis, Faint Signals, Girls of BIUL, Movies You Missed, Nostalgic Obsessions, O'Shloktoberfest, Saturday Movie Matinee, Thousand Listen Club, Unfairly Maligned
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