June, spoon, croon...

... TUNE.

Yep.

It's June. 

Summer doesn't officially begin until... you know what? Memorial Day IS the beginning of summer, and I'm actually getting rather tired of reading/hearing all over that it's not. Today got up to 89, tomorrow will be 92, it's hot, humid, sunny and full of bugs and by God it's SUMMER.

And please -- anywhere it hasn't already felt like summer is a place where it never really feels like summer anytime of the year anyway.

Summer is here because June is here, and so a little new music in the jukebox is in order.

Remember that the first song will always be The Great Pumpkin Waltz, and the last will always be Pumpkintime.

Next I thought a little spooky summer-ey grooviness was needed.

The Classic IV's beloved 1968 hit Spooky got the job. A classic. OH right, it's their name.

Then I figured "You know something? Summer means a lot of things, but fun, freaky movies are always a wondrous part of the season for any Horror, Sci-Fi and Hallowe'en lover!"

And movies need theme songs...

So...

Yes, Eddie Wood's masterpiece Plan Nine From Outer Space was released in July 1959, and while no one thought it was worth the trouble back then, it has since become a cult favorite and an American cinema legend. The Main Title felt just right.

Now, I wasn't around when Plan Nine was first released, but one of my most favorite memories is of a summer when a fine horror film was rocking box offices all over the country. It was June of 1982, and the film was Poltergeist!

The basic plot of Poltergeist was 'Scare Mike to death,' though I have forgotten any nightmares I suffered the night I first saw it at the UA6 in the San Fernando Valley... but the lilting, seemingly-inappropriate theme music has stayed with me ever since.

Of course, Poltergeist is not the only Spielbergian (it's a real adjective now, has been for a long time) summer horror blockbuster. Indeed, it wasn't even the first.

That would've been June of 1975's Jaws. And while I could post any one of a trillion different well-worn images of the shark, the swimming girl, and the guys on the boat, I felt this is the one that caused me the most terror, and therefore the fondest memory, of the Summer of '75 movie theatre experience:

Yeah. It was Ben Gardner's boat alright.

Now, speaking of sharks and underwater dead guys...

In June, 1980, America was introduced to the previous year's Italian blockbuster horror epic Zombi.

Among the many scenes of hyperviolent imagery is a rather unique and remarkable, nigh stunning, scene wherein an underwater zombie (what need for scuba gear?) battles a 16 foot long tiger shark. Seriously.

The pulsing, brooding theme song is fine pub fare.

Now, I think Bix Beiderbecke's Flashes, added last month, is going to stay for a while. It's been a very welcome addition and needs a little more listenin' time.

Summer's an interesting season for the Hallowe'en fanatic. It's so completely NOT anything like Autumn, nosireebob. Yet it's the time when you realize that you're only one season away... the time to think and create and build and plan... heck, we're only 150-some-odd days away!

DDSP!