Stephen Mark Rainey's Blog, page 132

Incredible Edibles

Intrepid frosting crew members brace themselves for the horrors which are about to be wrought.For several millennia, the nice lady has observed a particularly tasty Halloween tradition: baking a big old batch of sugar cookies and then having a frosting party. Last night, it came to be that time. The right honorable Doug Cox and reigning frosting queen Jenny Chapman joined Kimberly and me at Chez Brugger to spread a mess of stuff on a crapload of cookies. Drinks, bloody Band-Aids, gaping flesh wounds, and all kinds of happy nastiness followed. Witness the following frights....
We had plenty of first-aid supplies in case of emergency. Looks like somebody
already bled on the Band-Aids. This cookie has a mighty ugly laceration. I'm not eating that thing!

A smattering of the spooky wares

YES Weekly and the Local Talent

Last weekend, I did an interview for YES Weekly , one of our local free news/entertainment/alternative newspapers. It was a lot for a little, since the Local Talent section is basically a paragraph, but it was a pretty nice little write-up, and it featured a shot of ye ol' man dropping down into the well at The Curse of Samara Morgan (GC1QF2B). Here's the link. Don't say I didn't warn you. Local Talent, 10-24-12

Grandpa Blackbeard's Barbecued Church Chicken

Some of the rural NC roads off Highway 87, between Burlington and Fayetteville, get high marks in my book, for obvious reasons....

Went down that way for some serious caching with Rob "RTMLee" Lee today — essentially, a sunup-to-sundown excursion. Rob picked out some highly rated geocaches, and we set out to grab them. Among the most enjoyable were "The Ghost of Grandpa Alex" (GC2PFMQ) which was ghostly indeed; "Blackbeard's Lost Treasure" (GC1E17N), a nicely done, three-stage multi at the very haunted-looking Texas Lake; the "Compass Rose" series (GC1K03Y), which was a set of four caches placed at points in the four cardinal directions from a center point, at which you find the final cache; "Watchful One (GCYJVK), the setup of which could make certain sensitive persons paranoid; and "Air-Dropped Cache" (GC1P48H), which is an ammo can that was actually dropped from a Blackhawk helicopter — requiring one to calculate the impact point based on the speed and altitude of the helicopter from a specific release point. At the end of the day, I think we ended up with 25 finds, few of which were quick and simple grabs. We had a great time working to get them.

Lunch was a dynamite seafood burrito from Mi Casita Mexican Restaurant in Fayetteville. Biggest damn thing I've ever seen. Bigger than Bigfoot. And good.
Texas Lake, viewed while on the hunt for Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Damned Rodan catches "Air-Dropped Cache," and RTM Lee unearths "The Compass Rose."

Let the Holiday Season Commence

It is now officially acceptable for the Halloween season to commence, for I have watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown . Brugger came round last night, and, after some killer Asian food at Simply Thai in Elon, we popped in the Charlie Brown DVD, just to make sure the season didn't get ahead of us — which, around these parts, is expressly verboten. Actually, we got things off to a mighty good start on Friday night, when I put in my appearance at The Woods of Terror on Church Street, which always makes for an entertaining, energy-charged evening. Today, Ms. Bridget "Suntigres" Langley and I embarked on a decent geocaching run around Thomasville and High Point, which resulted in making the acquaintance of thirty-some caches and a very friendly northern black widow, pictured at left. Lunch happened at Mi Pueblo Mexican Restaurant in High Point, where I decided to attempt a very scientific comparison of the chile relleno and the chile poblano. I have very scientifically determined that both recipes fucking rock when accompanied by a decent margarita on the rocks and hit with a big old splash of super-dyna-whoppin' habanero sauce.
The spread at The Woods of Terror on Church Street, 10-12-12 Ol' Rodan at the Big Honking Chair in Thomasville, NC, 10-14-12

Back to the Woods of Terror!

Ye old dude will be selling and signing books in the concession area of The Woods of Terror on Church Street (5601 North Church Street, Greensboro, NC 27455) on Friday night, October 12, 2012, from 7:00 pm till 9:00 pm. I'll have copies of Blue Devil Island , The Lebo Coven , The Gaki & Other Hungry Spirits , Other Gods , a few Dark Shadows audio drama CDs, and several anthologies that feature my short fiction. It's free to get into the concession area where I'll be set up, though there is a nominal parking fee. The trail itself is a bit expensive — I believe it's 25 bucks a head — but it's a fun and frightful way to kick off the Halloween season. If you're looking for a good scare, do come around. For more info about the attraction, visit woodsofterror.com.

Defileth Not!

When I was a young'un, the woods around my house in Martinsville were a source of pure joy as well as abject fear. In the daytime, they were a seemingly endless place to explore, play army, hunt dinosaurs, practice kung fu, blow up model tanks, and all kinds of exciting things. At night, whippoorwills, owls, insects, and other night creatures made eerie, sometimes ghastly noises that convinced me all was not what it seemed in the dark. It was the latter that so shaped my sensibilities early on and most directly influenced me to explore the emotion of fear in my fiction. It was from those woods that the "Fugue Devil" sprang (see The Log, May 23, 2006), and that "The Gray House" was born. In my teenage years, with the onslaught of land development in the area, I became aware of how fragile and how precious such places are — and how utterly decimated I would feel if they were destroyed by those who see such green areas as nothing more than sources of revenue. Happily, for the most part, those woods still exist, though there are certainly more houses in that part of the neighborhood than when I was growing up. One of my favorite things in my current wanderings there is finding old souvenirs of my past there: bits and pieces of countless toys and models that I used in early special effects experiments; the beech tree carved with the name of our old kung fu club ("Swords of the Dragon," or some such thing); and the two trees that boast the visages of protective demons, which, in my young teen years, I carved to emphasize the natural patterns in the bark, along with the words "Defileth Not" — warnings to anyone who might go into those woods for any reason other than to preserve them.
Well, they're all still there, so maybe the demons are hard at work. Let's hope so.

Brugger and I undertook a little trip to Martinsville this weekend, by way of the Eden Drive-In Theater on Friday night, for a showing of The House at the End of the Street . It was unremarkable, but a fun enough little drive-in movie to kick off the Halloween season. Then, yesterday, she and I spent the day uptown at the annual Oktoberfest celebration. Mainly, I went to autograph some posters from Young Blood: Evil Intentions (see Fun Blood, September 22, 2012 ), which movie makers Mat and Myron Smith were selling at their booth, but I really did enjoy wandering about checking out the vendors' wares. There was a record number this year, and I don't think I've ever seen a bigger crowd in town, save for the Christmas parades I used to attend as a kid. I hope the many vendors made lots of money. We parted with a few dollars here and there, and we had funnel cake. That's two weekends in a row I've had funnel cake. I may die. Of joy.

Last evening, my friends Joe Albanese and Dan Shannon celebrated their birthdays at the Albaneses' place in Greensboro, so after a spot of geocaching in Danville, Brugger and I went to help them out. We drank wine and stayed up late.

Today, it's back to The Night Cache , the current work-in-progress. And, if I'm lucky, perhaps a little caching as well.
Why, yes there were llamas at Oktoberfest. This is important to remember:
If you are swimming and you see llamas, you shout, "Watch out! There are llamas!"
A large number of vendors and attendees at Oktoberfest. Note the absence of stampeding llamas. Disappointing. The old courthouse in uptown Martinsville, which has been restored and refurbished. Unfortunately, the
construction took out one of my geocaches, forcing me to archive it. A shame, as it was a nice cache.

Blue Devils, Caches, and Chicken Salad

Reviewer Bob Morrish gives Blue Devil Island the treatment, here: Rainey's Blue Devil Island Deftly Combines War and Horror Fiction. You can still get the beautifully produced paperback edition from Marietta Books from Amazon.com here. The original Five Star Books hardback is, alas, out of print.

I needed a hike something fierce today, as I haven't gotten in much extracurricular walking this week. So, I went out to nearby Keeley Park, one of Greensboro's newest recreational facilities, and hid a new geocache, called Frankenstein Conquers the World — yes, after the Toho monster pic (the two companion caches in the park are War of the Gargantuas: Sanda and War of the Gargantuas: Gaira ). It wasn't a big hike by any stretch, but so choked with briers and poison ivy that I did get a pretty fair workout in the process.

I whipped up some chicken salad for lunch today, and damn if I didn't get to experimenting a bit: I hit it with some Dave's Ultimate Insanity, which isn't so much a hot sauce as a concentrated burst of liquid fire (about 250,000 Scoville units). Might as well give you my recipe, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Damned Rodan's Ultimate Chicken Salad
(Makes about four sandwiches)

What You Need:
2 cooked chicken breasts, torn to bits3/4 cup mayonnaise1 dozen Trader Joe's jalapeno-stuffed olives1 small onion, chopped2 stalks celery, chopped2 hard-boiled eggs, choppedTbsp. soy sauce dash of powdered garlic dash of celery saltdash of powdered ginger3–4 drops Dave's Ultimate Insanity
What You Do:
Combine the ingredients in a big bowl and smash 'em up. Scoop some on sandwich bread. Eat. Scream.

At Long Last, Megalon

Godzilla vs. Megalon (Gojira tai Megaro, 1973)

DVD Description:
Released by Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock; additional material: none

Directed by Jun Fukuda

Starring: Katsuhiko Sasaki, Hiroyuki Kawase, Yutaka Hayashi, Robert Dunham, Kotaro Tomita

Rating:


For way too many years, Godzilla fans have eagerly awaited an officially sanctioned U.S. DVD release of Godzilla vs. Megalon — ironically, one of the most reviled entries in the Godzilla series. Till now, no licensed U.S. release has existed, so fans who have never availed themselves to the Japanese Region 2 DVD edition have made do with bootlegs; poor quality foreign editions; or unauthorized pan-and-scan versions (which several U.S. distributors released in the 1990s and early 2000s when they assumed the movie was in public domain; it wasn't, and Toho's near all-powerful attorneys had them all yanked). Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock had plans to release a deluxe package that included all kinds of extra material, as they did with the Destroy All Monsters release from last year; unfortunately, they had not received approval from Toho for the extras for either movie, so — once again — Toho's near all-powerful attorneys had the Destroy All Monsters discs yanked and stalled the release of Godzilla vs. Megalon until such time as a satisfactory licensing deal could be worked out. Tokyo Shock finally got approval to release a bare-bones DVD of Megalon with no extra features, and that's what we currently have in circulation. A Blu-ray edition is in the works that is to include the extensive extras, but it won't be hitting the market for some time yet.

I saw the U.S. theatrical release of Godzilla vs. Megalon in 1976 at the drive-in theater in my old hometown. My younger brother accompanied me, and I'm not sure he's ever forgiven me the experience. It's not my least favorite of the Godzilla movies... but, to be sure, it's damn near at the bottom of the list.

Toho made Megalon during the one of Japanese film industry's worst economic downturns, and the movie advertises that fact in big neon letters. Like Godzilla's Revenge and Godzilla vs. Gigan before it, Megalon comes loaded with stock footage, and the new special effects scenes are, for the most part, sparser than sparse. There are a few exceptions, such as an impressive sequence where Megalon destroys a dam and smashes a bridge. Visually, the movie does benefit from very colorful, widescreen cinematography and quite a few spectacular explosions, courtesy of special effects director Teruyoshi "Mr. Pyrotechnics" Nakano. The monster wrestling matches have some entertainment value, though, by and large, they're simply silly — particularly the empty suit flinging and distinctly non-giant-monsterish hopping and flopping about, as the critters are wont to do. The Godzilla suit is one of the worst ever, being quite scrawny with a muppet-style face and balloon-like feet and dorsal fins. Megalon is the neatest looking one of the bunch — a giant, anthropomorphic insect, more or less — but, sadly, in execution, it is mostly a big buffoon. A shame, it is.

As with a number of the later Showa-era Godzilla movies, the story is nothing to get excited about. Numerous nuclear tests have done serious damage to a mysterious undersea kingdom known as Seatopia, so — rather than reveal their existence and say "hey, knock it off!" to the surface dwellers — the Seatopians decide to send their guardian monster Megalon up from the depths to wipe out humanity. To accomplish this, they require the use of a robot called Jet Jaguar (to act as Megalon's guidance system, so to speak), created by inventor Goro Ibuki (Katsuhiko Sasaki). Ibuki lives with his little brother Roku-san (Hiroyuki Kawase) and friend Jinkawa (Yutaka Hayashi); Seatopian agents attempt to eliminate the lot of them in order to take control of the robot, but they manage to escape, and Goro overrides Jet Jaguar's altered programming by using his personal remote control unit. He sends Jet Jaguar to Monster Island to fetch Godzilla, who happily agrees to come whoop some Seatopian ass. In response, the Seatopians call on their friends from Space Hunter M Nebula and ask them to send the monster Gigan around to help out their own big critter. Jet Jaguar, evidently possessed of unfathomable technological skills, grows to gigantic size to better match its rivals. Together, Jet Jaguar and Godzilla get into a big old scrap with the villainous critters and — believe it or not — eventually get the better of them.

To me, the most satisfying daikaiju movies are the ones in which the producers' approach is based on the idea that "if the world of giant monsters existed, it would be like this." Godzilla vs. Megalon is not one of these. It's one of those in which the producers say, "Well, no, giant monsters don't exist, so we can just throw in any old shit we want to." This is not to say I don't enjoy this more lighthearted, kid-friendly approach; I do. It's just that it's a cheap and easy way to avoid constructing or relying on any sort of internal logic. Perhaps the most ridiculous example of this is Jet Jaguar growing to Godzilla's height, which Goro, its inventor, explains by saying, well, he must programmed himself to grow — as a survival mechanism. Yeah, all right. I know, it's a Godzilla movie, but still....

Godzilla vs. Megalon does contain what must surely be one of the most bizarre schemes ever devised by its protagonists. In order to reclaim their laboratory from the Seatopian agent who has taken it over, Goro and Roku-san visit a hobby store and "borrow" a large, radio-controlled F-86 Sabre jet model. When they return to the lab, they knock out the external video surveillance system, and when the Seatopian agent comes outside to see what's happened, Roku-san lets fly the model plane, which boops the agent in the head, knocking him senseless long enough for them to get back inside. Perhaps a brick would have been simpler...?

Back when the movie was first released, I quite hated Riichiro Minabe's musical score, having been so accustomed to Akira Ifukube's majestic monster themes. Nowadays, I actually enjoy Minabe's jazzy, lounge-lizard-style music, both on its own merit and because its dated quality helps place the movie firmly within its unique historical context. When I listen to daikaiju soundtrack music, it's actually one of the scores I listen to most.

The Tokyo Shock DVD, for a bare-bones release, is pretty much okay. The print and transfer quality is quite good — a darn sight better than anything we've seen before on this side of the water, perhaps save the widescreen print that the Sci-Fi Channel aired a good many years ago, which I did have recorded on VHS tape. It would be nice to have the extra features, but for the moment, I'm pretty content to get the movie itself in decent quality. It's not as if I'm going to be watching it very frequently anyway....

Fun Blood

And more on the subject of vampires....

If you've checked in here recently, you've no doubt seen my little blurbs for Young Blood: Evil Intentions , a new indie vampire flick made by Martinsville natives Myron and Mat Smith, both nephews of my longtime Martinsville classmate Sarah Smith. Back in March, I had been on the set to appear as an extra (see Young Blood: The Movie, March 9, 2012). The premiere was last night at the Rives Theater in uptown Martinsville — the same theater where I saw the vast majority of the most memorable monster pics of my youth — so Kimberly and I rode up from Greensboro after work to make a blood-filled evening of it.

First stop was Rania's Restaurant, one of my favorite venues in town, where we met Sarah, her brother Dod, our mutual friend Susan Fleenor, and some of their respective families and friends. Oh, my gracious me — look! Sarah is a vampire! Wait... there are other vampires at the table. How cool is that? Unlike some bloodsuckers, Brugger and I do drink wine; in this case, a most delightful 2008 Ecco Domani Pinot Noir.

Then it's on to the Rives theater, just around the block, where we find a long line has gathered well before showtime. Here, I run into an old friend from childhood, Pete Wells, now a Georgia native, as well as Young Blood poster artist — and former Deathrealm contributor — Leon Atkinson. In fact, it's a sold-out show, as a fair percentage of Martinsville has turned out for the event.

Here's the story: "Raised in a torn home, young Anavey discovers she has the ability to make big changes, with even bigger consequences. She, with the loyal help of her little sister Anastasia, form an army of young, blood-thirsty vampires to kill all the adults. No one is safe, especially the girls' mother, Olivia (Rebecca Kidd), and their abusive, overbearing stepfather, Dale Buckmeyer (Myron Smith). Will Anavey’s dreams become a reality? Will Anastasia escape the cult before it’s too late? Will the angry mob put an end to the insanity?"

In old-timey roadshow fashion, the movie opened with a classic Popeye cartoon, followed by an MPAA-style warning that the following movie "most likely would have been rated R." And aye, that it would. Young Blood is a screaming hoot from start to finish, with over-the-top performances, over-the-top sight gags, plenty of local scenery, a perfect musical score, and a few brief appearances by ye old dude, including a little ad-libbed speaking role. The young leads, Autumn Ward and Zoë Cox, are absolutely engaging. Without a doubt, one of the movie's standout features is Troma Entertainment actor Lloyd Kaufman as an alcoholic newscaster, who periodically breaks into the film to report on the shocking events happening in the little town of Martindale, VA. His interplay with Star News reporter Dick "DICK!" Jansen is beyond priceless — and his final appearance at the climax literally stops the show, which rightly brought the house down. Now, having had a little hand in this movie and knowing many of the people involved in its production, my view is anything but objective, but suffice it to say I had the best time at this little movie premiere, and I imagine that just about anyone with a love for indie horror flicks — and a keen sense of humor — will find Young Blood a monstrously enjoyable vampire outing. I'm not sure when the DVD release will be available, but I'll post the info when I get it.

Young Blood: Evil Intentions stars Autumn Ward, Zoë Cox, Rebecca Kidd, Myron Smith, Brett Smith, Cletus Earles, Robert Hobbs, Cindy G. Price, and Rita J. Smith, who are all Martinsville natives. Lloyd Kaufman (Troma Entertainment), Dick Jansen (Star News), Count Smokula, Butch Patrick ( The Munsters ), Sal “The Vampire Santa” Lizard, Jamison Newlander ( The Lost Boys ), and Sierra Holmes ( Piranha 3DD ) make special guest appearances in the movie.
The kids in Martindale, VA, are acting strangely. Some of them are becoming little blood-sucking
hellions intent on ridding the community of the adults who oppress them. Anastasia and Anavey take no guff. The townspeople become unruly. Don't cross these young'uns, or you may find yourself with a knife in your eye (or your feet
being carried off by housecats).

Long Shadows

Cast of Dark Shadows , the original ABC-TV seriesYou do know I'm a nut for Dark Shadows , right? I grew up on the original TV show; watched portions of it again in the 1970s and 1980s when it was syndicated; viewed the entire series in the early 1990s when it aired on the Sci-Fi Channel; wrote one novel for the HarperCollins book series (and one unofficial novel); and scripted three of recent Dark Shadows audio dramas for Big Finish, which star members of the original series' cast. I attended several of the annual Dark Shadows festivals, mostly in the late 1990s/early 2000s, and was fortunate enough to meet quite a few of the surviving stars. Then there were the two original theatrical movies based on the series ( House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows ), the 30-plus novel series written by Marilyn (Dan) Ross in the 1960s and 1970s, the 1990 revival series, and, most recently, the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp Dark Shadows (which, unfortunately, I damn near loathed; not because it wasn't the Dark Shadows of old, but because it rightly stank on its own merit).

You think I've had enough Shadows for one lifetime? Well, of course not.

Actually, it's been over 15 years since I've watched any significant number of the original series episodes. When I was working on the novel(s) and audio dramas, I put on a few now and again to refresh my memory, but mostly I referred to Pomegranate Press's rich library of Dark Shadows books and various online resources to get the details right. Frankly, during the time I went whole hog into the creative work, I was too caught up in the business end of things to think much about the franchise from the perspective of a mere fan — a fact I've often lamented, despite the joy I took in the writing. After I watched the Burton film, I realized just how vague many of my recollections of the old series really are. Thus, I decided, it was high time to give the show another look from a very much refreshed perspective.

Yep. A few months back, I started running Dark Shadows from the very beginning, with the intent of watching all 1,225 episodes, however long it might take. Yes, I know... for many diehard fans, that means big whoop, since they've been watching, discussing, critiquing, and deconstructing the show over the course of many complete runs. That kind of devotion hasn't been my lifelong desire, although I do admit to believing that if you've lived a good life and said your prayers every night, when you die, you'll go to Collinwood. That's the way it ought to be, anyway.

So, I'm a few hundred episodes in, during the early period when Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) is at his most evil. When I was a kid, of course, it was the whole vampire business that excited the living crap out of me, but watching it now, Barnabas Collins — cold, two-faced, murderous predator — is really quite disturbing. Naturally, being daytime television in the 1960s, there wasn't much graphic about it, and though the actors played it very seriously, you could safely let your kids watch it without fear they'd be damaged for life (although, back then, some particularly sensitive souls did persist in attempting to get the show banned because it just might have ruined your young'uns forever and forever). Later on, of course, Barnabas became far more even-tempered and sympathetic, even heroic. So much the better, I suppose, but even now, I find Barnabas, dark, powerful, and unrepentant, far more fascinating than brooding, tortured, sometimes wishy-washy Barnabas.
Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Joan Bennett), Roger Collins (Louis Edmonds),
Jason McGuire (Dennis Patrick)Although I recollected the show's pre-Barnabas days as being pretty good, this time around, I was particularly struck by how well the distinctly non-supernatural storylines held up. Early on, Louis Edmonds, as Roger Collins, had a much more prominent presence than in later days, and he truly chewed up the scenery, particularly in his confrontations with Burke Devlin (Mitch Ryan), who was out to ruin him (for wholly justifiable reasons, I might add). I enjoyed watching Roger go on a rampage more than Barnabas putting the bite on someone. In fact, when Barnabas first came round, the storyline of Jason McGuire (Dennis Patrick) and his sidekick Willie Loomis (originally James Hall, then John Karlen) blackmailing Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Joan Bennett) for a murder she never actually committed was just wrapping up. Oftentimes, the episodes alternated between these two subplots, and the more true-to-life blackmail story far outshone the budding vampire tale. I rather hated to see Jason McGuire meet his demise, for he was truly a fine villain. (For what it's worth, Dennis Patrick returns as Paul Stoddard way down the line, and he's quite excellent in that part, as well; I do look forward to that point in the series.)

I manage to catch a few episodes here and there, so this full run may be a couple of years in the making, who knows. In any event, an awful lot of that old Dark Shadows excitement, which fell by the wayside while I was involved in the business of writing Shadows , has come rushing back. Warts and all — and yes, there are many of them, oftentimes hilarious — Dark Shadows retains much of the sheer imaginative power that enthralled me all those many years ago. Indeed, it has been one of the constants of my creative life. It's magic, that's what it is.