Why My 2011 ROCKED...

Despite the loss of my ultra-cool mother-in-law and continuing to have to work underneath a culture-less drug addict at my day job, 2011 was a GREAT year for me.  Here's my list of just WHY 2011 was so cool:



For the first time since losing the pooch of my childhood back in 1984, I FINALLY became the owner of a cute mini-dachshund we named HERSCHELL (yes, after infamous horror film director Herschell Gordon Lewis!).  Can't believe how much I missed being a dog owner.
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In September, I got to meet director John Waters at the Horrorfind Convention in Gettysburg, PA.  I've been a fan since seeing PINK FLAMINGOS when I was 16 years old on VHS!  (I was also on the BIZARRO panel and did a reading with the hysterical James Roy Daley).
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I FINALLY got to see two films from H.G. Lewis on the big screen: one of my all time favorites, BLOOD FEAST (1963), played at the Anthology Archives as part of a Lewis retrospect, and THE WIZARD OF GORE (1970) was featured at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of their "Magicians on Film" series.
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Since 1981, I've been RAVING over Romano Scavolini's gross (and grossly under-seen) slasher film NIGHTMARE.  It FINALLY came to DVD thanks to the folks at CODEREDDVD.  PLUS:  I represented the film in Dark Scribe Press' HUGE tome on slasher films,  BUTCHER KNIVES AND BODY COUNTS (see pic below).  Both the film and the book were released over the summer.
Order a copy here!: BUTCHER KNIVES & BODY COUNTS~~~

My good friend Sheri treated me to my first ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN concert, a band who I always meant to see but for whatever reason never got around to it.  They played their first two albums in their entirety, then did a set of mixed classics.  They're one of the few bands who don't need a stage show or any kind of stage antics to give a GREAT live performance...the music does all the talking.  'Loved it.
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Not only did Alexandro Jodorowsky's amazing SANTA SANGRE finally come to DVD, but I attended a cool screening of the film in January.  Severin's DVD features loads of nice extras, and the blu-ray edition looks and sounds incredible.
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2011 was THE year I think I saw more films I had always wanted to but never had the chance, and FINALLY getting to see Takashi Miike's ICHI THE KILLER on the HUGE screen at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade theater was an amazing experience.
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Likewise, Sam Fuller's once banned WHITE DOG screened at midnight at the IFC CENTER, and while I found it a bit disappointing, it turned out to be an ANTI-RACIST film, despite what early reviewers may have thought.  Was nice to see this after reading about it a zillion years ago in an early issue of FANGORIA.
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My writing went well, as I also sold a novella, THE APOCALYPSE OF PETER, to Damnation Books (to be released June 2012) and also sold a Lovecraftian tale to a forthcoming anthology. I was invited to write for 3 other anthologies, and so far I have one confirmed sale (which I can't announce yet) and 2 others still waiting in the wings.  I'm also in the middle of writing my third novel, another novella, and am about 22 chapters into a novel titled THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM which I'm writing with my good friend L.L. Soares.  My SUBURBAN GRINDHOUSE MEMORIES column over at the CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT site passed its 40th installment...
~~~I was also part of one of the COOLEST graduating high school classes back in 1986 (New Dorp High School in Staten Island, NY), and we celebrated with a 25th anniversary that was a lot of fun.
MOST amazingly, on 11/9/11, my wife Maria and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.  We're both still trying to figure out how this has happened...


Here's hoping a GREAT 2012 for all those reading this blog!