Monsterpaloozin' my mind: The Ghoul Goes Western Electric, pt. 4

"... they're coming to get you, Barbra."

Here's another slice of the wonder that is Monsterpalooza -- and why this past show may have been the best yet.

 'Monsterpalooza '13' sign created by Mad Miranda and Your Humble Pubkeep.

Now, you can't have been loyal S&Pbrains this long and somehow missed that your Humble Pubkeep is a fanatic for the films of George Romero, and most especially his original 1968 masterpiece, Night of the Living Dead.

I've only written about it like a zombillion times.

I believe I have coined the phrase RomZoms to distinguish Romero's creations from the rest of the films/tropes/mythologies of zombiedom.

But we'll let future scholars argue over it another day, because tonight, I have a tale to tell.

Onward...

On Friday night, the first night of the 'palooza, we all attended a very fun panel discussion called Ladies of the Living Dead, featuring original cast members Judith Ridley (Judy), Judith O'Dea (Barbra) and Kyra Schon (Karen, the body at the top of the stairs, and other stand-in parts).

Historic.

L to R: Ridley, O'Dea, and Schon.

Led by documentarian (Autopsy of the Dead) and Night of the Living Dead expert Jim Cirronella, the discussion was essentially a room full of zombie geeks asking questions I am sure these ladies have fielded a thousand times a year for decades... but it was just so much fun!

Now, I knew months before that they would be there -- it was in fact a fairly historic moment for Night fans, since the three of them had never attended a convention at the same time -- and a thought hit me that I should do something to mark the occasion.

Do you remember this t-shirt?

This shirt was given to me by my Mama in 1988. I wore it for a year straight, it seems, and on every Hallowe'en since; if I include the extra Hallowe'en I gave the neighborhood during the September 2004 taping of the HGTV Extreme Hallowe'en special (and I do!), that makes 25 Hallowe'ens I have worn this very shirt!

I brought this special shirt with me to Monsterpalooza. I thought maybe I'd have Kyra Schon sign it, since she's on the damn thing and it is so cool.

Almost as we were heading out the door to make our way to Burbank, I thought "Wait, no Sharpie or paint pen is going to write on this threadbare shirt -- the white area is too washed out now, the black is... well, too black to see any writing. A silver or gold or even white paint pen would simply soak through and never hold up. What do I do?"

And I ran down to the dungeon laboratory and opened a drawer of painty things. There, laying atop the mess as if in wait for this moment, was a bottle of bright green slick fabric paint, with the tiny pen applicator tip.

Too perfect.

Come Sunday morning, the lovely V and I were at the show early, to turn on the Raybot and make sure he was working, and get ol' Eddie Van Bone at least looking good, if not moving at all (ugh, hard drives!).

And V said, "Now. Now is the time to get her to sign the shirt, before the doors open and the lines form. She might be at the table already!"

We walked to the celebrity table section, and sure enough, Kyra, Judith and Judith were all there, just about ready to begin one last long day of monstergeekery and autographs and pictures.

Judith O'Dea looked up at us first, with her big smile and friendly eyes, and immediately began talking to us like we'd known her for years. At one point she even asked if either of us knew what was "going on with The Masters?" Apparently having to spend that entire tournament weekend at a monster convention signing table was difficult for her golf-loving heart. I brought up the news and leader board on my Galaxy tablet and she perused it for a while, and thanked us for the "update on the civilised world!", she laughed. (I kinda have a crush on her, can you tell? A truly welcoming, wonderfully funny lady).

Then Kyra said hello as we came up to her table, and I told her the story of the shirt. She laughed, and thought it was very cool that "... you mean a Lennon Sister actually bought a t-shirt with my face on it?!" She then said "Oh, you're going to need some cardboard to back it..." and reached under the table and grabbed a piece of cardboard (apparently just waiting there?!) to give me. V and I slipped/taped the shirt over it, and brought her the pen.

Well, ALL three ladies were so wonderfully warm and friendly, and fun...

 Kyra Schon couldn't have been more 'normal' and cool. 

 Judith Ridley explained, "I am only writing 'Judy,' not Judith, to save on having to write more with the paint pen!" 

She was very sweet!

Ah, Barbra! Judith O'Dea rocks!

I could go on forever about how elegant and kind these ladies were, and are. But the end result for me, beyond forever having the memory of meeting three of the most important Scream Queens in my Hallowe'en Lovin' Heart... is this:

And now, officially retired from Hallowe'en duties, it is still on that same cardboard given me by Kyra, framed and mounted under glass next to my Romero zombie shelf...

... alongside my other original Night of the Living Dead treasures.

An honor.

And another splendid addition to the wondrous decor here at the Skull & Pumpkin.

To Kyra, and Judy, and Judith, a toast... raise 'em high now:

DUMDUMSHREKPOP!

Onward...

DDSP!

Monsterpaloozin' my mind: The Ghoul Goes Western Electric, pt. 3

Greetings loyal S&Pers!

Tonight, I have finally put together video of my Raybot, his entire (though brief at only a few minutes or so) routine.

Very proud.

I don't think I have to add anything textually to this, beyond my joy at him working without a hitch the entire weekend, and how very much I love, and appreciate the help of, my Monsterpaloyees --  Henner, Miranda and my V.

I loved making him. I loved displaying him.

And I loved, and always will love, Ray Bradbury.

Live forever.

Onward...

DDSP!

Monsterpaloozin' my mind: The Ghoul Goes Western Electric, pt. 2

Oh, my dear, beleaguered, patient S&Pbrains, I have finally found a moment to pop in and give a few nods to the people and the moments which made this past weekend's Monsterpalooza so fun.

First, let me introduce you to the Raybot, the Body Electric, ol' Botbury himself, my animatronic Ray Bradbury...

In his element, his workdesk loaded with toys, books, robots, dinosaurs, more books, skulls and pumpkins.

He would have loved this ol' pub, I think.

He worked, and worked well, all weekend long. People took pictures, stood awed, a lot actually shed tears for the remembrance of their love of this giant of fantasy and inspiration. I will post video of him when I get home (we're still traveling back from the convention). Quite the display.

Now, ol' Edward Van Bone, a returning champion from last year, didn't fare as well.

Oh, he looked sensationally sick and decrepit, thanks to the hard work of Henchman Henner, my niece Mad Miranda and my wife, the Lovely V. 

And for all of Friday night, he worked beautifully.

But Saturday morning, as he was warming up, he stopped talking. I found the minor problem right away, and fixed it... but not before somehow stepping on the notebook computer controlling him and his audio, and causing the hard drive to stop working entirely. No replacement was at hand, and even had one been, a complete installation and reprogramming would have been too prohibitively long a process. So, we just lit and posed him to beckon folks inside. Worked like a charm, actually.

He'll be back. 

Onward...

This is the fun, fanatical, sexy shaper of stoneware and prestidigitator of pumpkiny pottery, the delightful Shelley from one of the S&P's greatest friend-blogs, Shellhawk's Nest. Here she is with Raybot and the famous -- so famous I am breathless at having the honor of posting it here at this humble little pub -- Chris Aype!

Great to see you again, Shell and Ape!

My friend and make-up artist extraordinaire Casey Wong built a stunning full scale Phantom of the Opera piece, with Erik, Christine, and a beautiful old organ built from scratch (more pics later). It's always so good to see him and his ever-impressive monster creations. And "hi" to Mama Rhonda! Mahalo!

Of course, no Monsterpalooza is complete without a visit with one of my best bloggin' buddies and uniquely visionary artist Bob Lizarraga. His work just stuns me. I am happy and proud to say I own some of his works, a few gifts from a very cool Bob himself. Never get enough time, sir. 

Here's my nephew, my Godson, Young Will (you remember him, don't you?) with my friend, artist, puppeteer and producer Bill Diamond, discussing the finer points of inking in shades. Two peas, these guys, though three-thousand miles and a generation apart. Love it.

More motley monstergeekery in the form of some pretty outstanding and wonderful folks. From L to R, the actor, teacher and event moderator Perry Shields; mask maker, artist/designer Kim Reynolds; sketch artist and movie producer/director Frank Deitz; and long-time genre writer and opiner David Schow.

And finally, for the moment, my brother-in-Monsterdom, actor Daniel Roebuck, with my wife, the Lovely V.

There is much more to show you, and I will have it after our return to the Skull & Pumpkin this weekend.

For now, sleep is calling. So are the truckers outside -- cheap motels, I gotta tell you.

Until again, 

DDSP!

The Ghoul Goes Western Electric, pt. 1

Hello long-suffering S&Pbrains!

Monsterpalooza is rapidly approaching, and my ill-timed but very needed stretch of emotional learning and grieving has not stopped me from working on this year's submission to the Museum.

Oh, ol' Edward Van Bone will be back -- he made a real splash last year and I think he ought to head up the Museum every year -- but I've been working on a new figure.

Oh, I know I'd mentioned perhaps having Ray Bradbury and Uncle Forry having a long-awaited discussion now that they're both in the realm of Prince Sirki, but that was simply not to be. Not enough time or resources.

Sometimes life is just like that. No one's going to be injured. I'll take it.

But I still wanted to tribute Papa Ray, so pondering his Walt Whitman-inspired 'I Sing The Body Electric', the idea of a Raybot, of Bradbury's own Body Electric, came to me in a sparking, zapping, giggling dream.

Here he is so far...

He needed those steel blue eyes to be lit, and his neck (along with the rest of his Body Electric, which I'll be working on today) is comprised, I am happy to say, of old radio parts. There's something very apt about that, to me. Vintage radio. I'll take it.

More to come, but I had to update today.

I hope you are all enjoying your first day of Spring. Out here, the S&P is awaiting a big winter storm.

Apparently the weather guys didn't get the memo.

Onward!

DDSnowyPrecipitation!

Rumors of my death...

...have been greatly exaggerated.

Well, not so greatly. I mean, I'm not dead, this is certain.

But for a moment there I sure felt pretty gone.

Oh dear S&Pbrains, I am okay, I have been merely struggling with something I am sure many of you have also experienced from time to time.

Depression.

It's one thing to love the image, another to feel like that image all the time.

The causes and cures are my own, and certainly none of your problem (or business, really), but I will say that it takes me out of my life for a time, every time. 

And I am heartily sorry for this ridiculous span of Skull&Pumpkin-less down time. 

I feel guilty for having followers, almost. I am afraid my own fears and folly will bring you all to breaking down the door of this li'l pub, chanting for my aching head, the lot of you a seething, swimming mass of monster-madness...

Now, don't worry, if you cared enough to worry. I am alright -- my incredible wife and family are always supportive and uplifting, and I am coming back.

Just kind of taking some alone time in a cold, sad Winter.

 I am also finding my Hallowe'en love slowly pulling me back into sanity, back to myself...

And I must come back, I must.

Not just for my own sanity... but because there's something wonderful coming in a little over a month...

... and I've got monsters to build.

Thank you for being patient, and for understanding.

Send me some good ol' fashioned Hallowe'en Loving vibes, would you?

I'll be back.

EDIT:
In honor of my first post in quite some time, and just to shake off the dust of Christmas, I have removed all the Christmas songs from the jukebox and replaced them with a few pieces I felt I needed to hear in my process of returning to life.
First, because I miss my friend Andy Williams, I felt the need for a little Days of Wine & Roses, this version by two other musical legends, Bill Evans and Toots Theilmanns -- if you have to ask who's playing what, you don't listen to jazz nearly enough.
Second, because I miss the sunny, windswept Fall, guitarist Will Ackerman's Shape of the Land lays in quite nicely.
Third, because I miss my childhood, the theme to Dusty's Treehouse. It was only on L.A. TV in the '70s, but was then picked up nationally on Nick in the '80s.
And finally, because I miss Disneyland and my favorite ride of all time, I give you the entire 22 minute audio bed for the Haunted Mansion -- every scream, rattle, clank and cackle. It's what you would hear if your Doombuggy paused at every scene in the ride until all the audio was played.

Enjoy some new tracks.

Again... I'll be back.

DDSProcess

Give me a break?

NO, I say!

I'm just busy.

I know, dear S&Pbrains, that I have been markedly absent from this humble little place for a while, but it really is strictly about my workload and my mind being... well, my mind!

I do want to assure you all -- if it's at all important to you -- that I am not "taking a break from blogging" or "going through a rough patch" or even "reevaluating my life".

I'm just... busy. And a kind of busy that keeps me from fully immersing myself into the darker -- and way more fun -- side of my life.

I can also assure you that come Christmas, everything will get back to what passes for normal around this spooky ol' place.

(I am also trying to locate a better audio hosting site for our jukebox and radio, which should explain why there has been no change to either for some time -- Podbean has decided my paid account no longer merits uploading multiple files at once, and adding five or ten mp3s one at a time? Yeah, not going to put up with that when I have paid to not have to hassle with it).

The Skull & Pumpkin, like all aspects of our Hallowe'en and Horror love, is always alive and well, even if your humble pubkeep has vanished for a time.

More posts to come, promise.

I mean... hell, Monsterpalooza's coming in April... and I have this feeling that Ray Bradbury and Uncle Forry might be having a nice chat together somewhere in that Museum...

I  hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving.

Please keep coming in, relaxing, perusing the library.

See you very soon.

DDSPatience!

Lizarraga, you magnificent bastard!

Hello dear S&Pers!

I'm glad you're all here tonight, because I need you to help this spooky little place celebrate something utterly unimportant and therefore completely praiseworthy.

The Skull & Pumpkin has just received its -- are your ready for this?

ONE THOUSANDTH COMMENT!

Yes dear Autumn Friends, just this evening was posted on the door of this fine old pub a parchment scrawled with commentary from a loyal S&P-brain, for what is now the thousandth time since our doors were first opened to S&P-brains.

1,000 thoughts, questions, answers, laughs, sympathies, tears, jokes, well-wishes and words of encouragement, all from you wonderful pubgoers who frequent this tiny tavern of terror.

And just who had the good fortune of being Commentor #1000?

This is the best part for me.

My friend, longtime loyal S&P-brain, and uniquely incredible artist of what he calls 'Kreepy Swank', the great Bob Lizarraga!

The kreepswank way to start your day!

I've posted about Bob before. In fact, the 5th post to this blog, way back in June 2009, was of Bob's print Halloween Fever Dream, which captures so perfectly my own sense of All Hallow's Cool...

Bob was also interviewed by Allie MacKay during the first Monsterpalooza/KTLA TV5 early morning segments of 2011 -- he drew a zombified Allie as she interviewed him. One of the great monstery joys of my life is that I got to be a part of making that happen.

I just wish I'd had a better camera.

I am very proud to say that I have three Lizarraga prints on display here at the S&P, including a great Werewolf of London sketch that was a gift from Bob, and another gift he just gave me at Monsterpalooza this year -- a signed copy of Famous Monsters #259, which features his cover art tribute to the freaks of The Twilight Zone...

Had to lift this from Bob's amazing art blog. I hope he won't mind!

What he wrote is not what's important -- you can read it at the bottom of this post here, or on the PubTalk scroll to your left -- or even that he wrote it, and sent it, and now the S&P has one thousand of 'em.

The truly important thing is, you ALL need to click the highlighted links of Bob's name and blog I've provided in this post (and which have been in the Rest of the Neighborhood links area to your right since the very beginning of this blog), and see for yourselves, if you haven't yet, the wonders he creates.

Thank you for the Big One Gee Comment, my man.

Of course you don't really win anything for it, other than my gratitude, but you've always had that.

But thanks for the amazing art.

And thank you for your friendship.

Everyone, a toast to Bob Lizarraga... raise 'em high now --

DUMDUMSHREKPOP-ART!

Spook on --

Ghost of the Ghoul Goes West, pt. 15

Hello again, loyal S&Pbrains!

Still recuperating from a long two weeks' traveling and gearing up for performing two shows a night, five nights a week, for the next month.

I'll take the work, trust me. But it might be a little daunting.

At least at my age.

I am still organizing souvenirs and photos from my trip, and as I mentioned in my last post, my friend Adam Dougherty's table in the Monsterpalooza showroom was (probably) the coolest in the whole place, with its vintage Hallowe'en decor, and his incredible limited edition Hallowe'en Nightmare! series of model kits.

See for yourself...

He made that TV, too. 

Those kits just kill me. If the original Topstone Mummy, Ghoul, Melting Man and Shock Monster masks had actually been living, breathing monsters in the heyday of Monster Kid Hallowe'en nights, well -- it would've looked exactly like these scenes (as always, click to enlarge)...

Add to this brilliance the fact that the sidewalk and white picket fence look so exactly like the fence and walk around my Grandmother's house -- the scene of my Hallowe'en birth and growth -- and you have a perfect storm of old school All Hallow's LOVE churning through my soul.

Oh, and this li'l kit (called The Ghost!) is pure genius...

Brilliant work, Adam.

Happy Hallowe'en!

DDSP!

Ghost of the Ghoul Goes West, pt. 14

I have been organizing my photos and videos from this past-a-palooza weekend, and I thought it was about time I started passing around some of that cool, cool monstery goodness I promised, it seems ages ago...

 Casey Wong's Frankenstein. The Monster is loose!

A modest tribute to the recently passed Henry Alvarez. Rest in peace, amigo.

 I loved this Aragon tribute to Jack Pierce!

 More of Daniel R. Horne's genius.

 Adam Dougherty's brilliant vintage Hallowe'en table -- this is getting

its own post soon. Way too much awesomeness to include this time around.

 Oh, here's another Dougherty masterpiece:

 Midnight Studios FX had their usual eye-catching booth.

 All I can remember about this guy is his name: Sam Hain. Cute!

 Another Midnight Studios FX piece.

 A superb mockup of Tony Todd's newly zombified Ben from the 1990 remake of

Night of the Living Dead, courtesy of Gotham FX.

 MacGee's Alien Warrior and Chestburster kept drawing me near...

Legacy Effects' stunning bust of Neytiri, in actual (enormous!) scale to the 

fictional species of Na'vi. 

This beautiful piece was just breathtaking, and I kept coming back to stare.

A splendid tribute to Ezra -- the head turned and it played 

Haunted Mansion music and dialogue all weekend long!

Ah...

Such dark beauty.

There's more, especially about that vintage Hallowe'en-lookin' table up there...

DDSPatience!