"Tread carefully now..."

Hello S&Pers!

Oh don't get up. The box isn't heavy, I'm alright.

Whew! Okay.

So how has everyone been?

I know I don't get in here too often lately -- things just pile up -- but I always come by late at night after all that pile up gets a little less, uh... piled. What?

Anyway, tonight I bring a little bit of monstery, Hallowe'eny goodness in the form of a video game.

Not quite as "old school" as Odyssey, Pong, or Atari, no. But in these days of that is so five minutes ago tech, anything from the early '90s is damn near ancient.

From Electronic Arts comes one of my Top 5 favorite games, video or otherwise:

Escape From Monster Manor!

Man! I love this old game!

I think it'll hook up to the Predicta TV atop the bar, so we can all see it as we play.

Alright -- hook up should be simple -- there!



The game was made by Electronic Arts in 1993, for the Panasonic 3DO Interactive Multiplayer console, a grand, noble but ultimately failed gaming system that cost too much initially ($700 US in 1993?!), and had too many golf and soccer games and not enough interesting games by the time the console was affordable.

I certainly was never going to buy that system -- I made a good living then but no way was I dropping that kind of money when I've never been much of a video game kinda guy -- but when I saw the box for this game in the $7 bargain bin at my local big box store in 1995, I figured it looked so cool and had to do with monster, ghosts and haunted houses that there was no point in not buying it for seven bucks. I also figured at some point soon, the game system would be obsolete, cheap and plentiful, and when that happened, I'd be killing myself for not buying this when it was available.

Well, within a year I'd met someone who pointed to the game on one of my shelves and asked if I had the 3DO.

"Nope. Just bought the game really cheap, waiting for the system to drop into my lap."

He laughed. "I'll sell you mine for $100."

In my house we call the game 'Shootin' Ghosts', and I've been doing it off and on ever since that fateful meeting.

I especially love to play it at night, during the long winter 'off season'. Something seems very right about it -- put on some tunes, make some hot chocolate, shoot ghosts. Simple heaven.

How can you not love it? Such imagery:

And when you took one too many hits, you got this, bubbling up from behind your attacker, laughing at your foolish mortal attempt to defeat its eeeeeeeeviiiiilll:

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have found it (I knew it was in the house, but it took a month of casual searching to find the whole system!), and to bring it here. I know we're not about video games in this ol' pub, but I also knew you would all enjoy the heck out of seeing it at least this once.

Escape From Monster Manor, the Skull & Pumpkin salutes you. With a ray gun and a bunch of keys and pieces of a magic talisman...

... and no fear about what's around that corner...


More Hallowe'eny games to come soon. For now, more work calls.

Catch you on St. Patty's Day-


O' ZOM-beeee!

A million votes of electricity.

I know.

But there's a good reason for such a bad pun.

You see, once again, it is time for each and every one of you to vote for your favorite horror-related films, magazines, TV shows, albums, DVDs, toys, websites and other goodies in the Ninth Annual
                                                                  
                                                              RONDO AWARDS!

Every year, a ballot is compiled, and posted for ANYONE WHO WISHES TO VOTE to copy and paste into an email, and vote away. 

The beauty is, there is no corporate sponsor, no advertising, no pressure or influence.

All that is required is that you only vote on the categories you know about, and ignore the rest should you desire.

The only deciding factor for all nominees is plurality of votes -- honestly, it's just a matter of getting as many votes as possible. 

And the winner receives one of these:

Based on the real life mug of the acromegalic, unsung character actor Rondo Hatton...

 ... the award is a real treasure in the realm of horror fandom. See, because it's earned solely by the good faith support and commendative votes of your peers, receiving a Rondo is a very serious honor. 

Now, far be it from me to try to influence your vote in any way -- we're fair and impartial here at the ol' S&P -- but like last year's request, I am asking for your consideration of a blog.

Not this blog which, as we all know, is such a fine blog that it is far beyond the stain and smearing of mere human contests and awards. I mean, duh!

But the very cool Pierre Fournier has been running a remarkable blog for some time called Frankensteinia which celebrates the brilliance of the Monster and all of its varied and fascinating manifestations in the culture over the years. I have felt this way for a long time: keeping alive the spirit of classic horror in its own unique way, Frankensteinia one of the best written, most pleasing and praiseworthy blogs you could hope to find, and deserves any and every award that comes its way... but especially, for this year, a coveted Rondo.

Just go copy the ballot, vote, and e-mail it to the address given on the Rondo website. Be sure to vote for Frankensteinia for Best Blog. And then spend the rest of your days perusing the visual, speculative, artistic and cultural history of one of the world's most iconic monster archetypes.

Fournier's brilliance is in his choice of subject matter, his treatment of said, and his fearlessness in following a trail (of thought or evidence) to its logical, Frankenstein-loving conclusion. He is followed by many, and his posts are legend in horror circles.

Oh just go already. Vote for him -- you only have until March 27! -- then read him.

It is as deserving of your time as it is your vote. Trust me.

O'ZOM-beeee!

Son of The Ghoul Goes West, part KTLA 5.

Hello again, S&Pers!

I surely hope you have all been enjoying the Irish Month. I know weather across the country has been nearly schizophrenic in its ups and downs, so we know Spring is so tantalizingly near. With that renewal just about here, I have been busy with some projects and starting back up at my current workplace for the 2011 season, and haven't had time to relax here at the ol' pub.

One of the things that has been occupying my time is compiling audio for Nevermore and his exciting trip to Burbank next month. I still have plenty of programming to do, and it scares me a little. But just a little -- I'm good with deadlines.

Another exciting part of Monsterpalooza this year is... television! Yes, come early morning of Friday April 8th, the first day of the convention, a number of us crazy monster makers will be involved in news segments broadcast from the convention! This is all because of a close friend of my family who happens to be a hilarious and brilliant reporter for the morning news team on the oldest TV station in Los Angeles.

KTLA 5.

KTLA is now on digital channel 31, but it still represents a few firsts -- the first station licensed for commercial broadcasting in L.A., acquiring its license in 1947, and the first commercially licensed TV station west of the Mississippi (and only the seventh in the country, at a time when there probably weren't more than 500 or so sets in L.A. alone).

But for me, it represents a more personal set of firsts.

You see, KTLA TV5 was the station that ran all of the classic Universal horror films for decades. Oh, they weren't the only station to show great horror and sci-fi in the Southland-- KHJ 9 and KTTV 11 had plenty of shock power in those days, and I have much love for those memories too -- but Channel 5 seemed to always be running the great films of Karloff, Lugosi, Chaney Jr., Price, Lorre, Atwill, and all my other heroes.

There was always a Monster Week, or Sci-Fi Week, or Godzilla Week, or Apes Week, and each weeknight was another film in the series... it seemed to never end!

They'd run the movies on weekends too, repeating them four or even six times over Saturday and Sunday. In the days long before VCRs, let alone computers, DVDs, Tivo and Netflix, we had entire films memorized by Sunday evening, and were performing them at school on Monday morning.

Oh! the incredible images, the nerve-rattling moments KTLA was first to show me...

Yes, the first time I ever experienced the shock of these Monster Kid Moments, these rites of passage for fantasy film fanatics, was solely the fault of KTLA. I was watching TV 5 the first time my mind was blown by these legendary scenes...

Oh the precious memories.

KTLA was also the station that carried The Twilight Zone. Golly, the first time we saw these images...

KTLA also ran the fantastic films of Ray Harryhausen, all the Planet of the Apes films, and more of the great Toho Giant Monster 'kaiju' films from Japan than I could count.

In the mind of my inner child it was every week, all year long, that you could find something monsteriffic on KTLA.

It was KTLA running a Monster Week that helped me bond with my uncles over all things Universal Monster at my grandmother's house so long ago. It was KTLA which first taught me to stay up late (Movies 'Til Dawn!) suffering from a full bladder because I was too scared to walk down the hallway. KTLA absolutely put so many terrifyingly fun images in my brain that I could probably sue them for damages, but I owe them so much more than anything I'd get that it hardly would be worth it.

Besides, they also gave us legendary personalities like the unstoppable reporter Stan Chambers...

... and the funny and fun Tom Hatten, who'd doodle great pictures for us while showing us Popeye cartoons and episodes of Our Gang, Laurel & Hardy, and hosting the Family Film Festival every weekend...

... and getting back to the horror, the nearly god-like persona of Seymour, horror host extraordinaire!

Created and portrayed by the wholly under-appreciated and unique actor Larry Vincent, the tuxedo'd Seymour began his L.A. horror hosting career on KHJ 9 in 1971, but moved to KTLA for some years, and this is when I best remember him and his Monster Rally.

More of the fascinating, creative and all-too-short life of Larry Vincent, including audio files of Seymour shows, can be read here. Seymour, your Fringies miss you!

And just in case you still don't quite grasp how important KTLA was to the rise of the Monster Kid movement:

... this was published in the very first issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine in 1958. What's zat say in the corner? What're them call letters? Yeah, that's right.

'Nuff said.

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Oh, KTLA 5, you rocked. Very, very hard.

And so I am looking forward to Monsterpalooza all the more. Being back in L.A., showing off my Hallowe'en work, seeing friends and family, and somehow connecting ever so tenuously to KTLA 5... I cannot wait.

O' ZOM-beeee!

Old tubes, part the dozenth.

When magic eyes are smiling...

Oh, you sly S&Pers. You knew it wouldn't be long after the jukebox changed that the ol' Hallowe'enith radio would start to crackle and hum, and we'd have a new program to enjoy while we relax in the warmth of our little pub.

Sure an' tis true, there's (so far) one new/old bit of fun to be heard on the ol' machine.

From Hallmark Playhouse comes a half an hour's worth of the blarney; based on the famous 1938 Stephen Vincent Benet short story, O'Halloran's Luck tells of a seeming troublemaker who finds himself a leprechaun... and all the luck that can bring.

It stars Edmond O'Brien:

... who, among myriad other notable roles, also starred as Kansas City big-shot Fran McCarg in Pete Kelly's Blues (the tale of another fine Irish boy).

How is this remotely related to Hallowe'en?

Not much. The episode was first broadcast on October 28, 1948.

Close enough to be green and orange and black.

Give yourself the half-hour, you'll enjoy it, trust me.


Now whaaaaar's me gold...?

O' ZOM-beeee!

In like a lion.

Well, say goodbye to Runtmonth -- oh what a month she was.

Say hello, or perhaps aye, to the month that is the end of Winter and the beginning of new life, new horizons, and such wonderful, wonderful green...

March. 

Month # 3. 

Most importantly -- the Irish Month.

Oh, bless me soul, the amount, the depth of SPOOKY we owe our dear Ireland.

We'd have precious little Hallowe'en but for the Irish. And precious fewer public houses.

If not for Ireland, then, there'd certainly be no Skull & Pumpkin (and very likely no Humble Pubkeep for that matter).

And... we'd have no Elphaba.

That's right, the Wicked Witch is (at least partially) Irish. It's in the book. Deal with it.

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As ever, a changed month means changed music on our li'l ol' S&P jukebox to the right.

We always begin with the official S&P theme song, The Great Pumpkin Waltz, but the second slot is usually a position of fun. In that vein, I offer a song that for me signifies something very early Spring, something very March-like.

Hobbits.

From the now-classic 1977 animated TV movie The Hobbit, comes a lovely instrumental version of the memorable Roads Go Ever, Ever On, composed by Maury Laws. The soundtrack to this film has long been a family favorite and this song, for me, is such an integral element of the very idea of Spring.

In fact, all of Tolkien's incredible works are, in my mind and heart, wrapped up in Spring, renewal, family, music, celebration... all the things that make life so worthwhile. So sticking with this notion for one more song, I thought a bit of Howard Shore's breathtaking score for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) would be perfect. Concerning Hobbits is my favorite motif of the entire trilogy's worth of them. That pennywhistle...

Then, we have piece that I had on the player last March. Near Northern is the closing piece on the 1986 Live at Montreaux album from my favorite "new grass" group, the Anger-Higbie Quintet. You hear them a lot here at the S&P -- they write a lot of Autumn into their music.

And then, considering Ireland's many gifts of ghostliness to our culture, I thought I'd add a haunting little piece from 2001. From the piano of William Allaudin Mathieu and the inimitable pipes of Bobby McFerrin comes an improvisation called To The Well. One feels a sense of drawing, of quickening, in the repeated phrases and reel-like passages that fill this almost alien beauty.

Finally, a piece of real, honest-to-goodness Irish reel from a group called The Bothy Bandy, titled The Green Groves of Erin. It's exactly what you want to hear. Go on, no one will be bothered if you play this one first. I just thought it would live best next to last month's British Isle beauties John Barleycorn and The Unquiet Grave, which shall, of course, remain for yet another month -- they are just as appropriate now as ever.

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March, you make me happy to have lived through a dark, deep Winter without ruining myself. 

You help me dream again, and dream new dreams.

And like the hobbitish songs above suggest, life is often full of new dreams, new opportunities, choices to pick a new road, to maybe see an old road as something new, and to know that for the journey undertaken, coming home again will always be the sweeter...

... and if sweet homecomings ain't Irish, I simply don't know what is.

Oh, wait -- that's right:

O' ZOM-beeee!