Fistful of Brains

Okay, full disclosure up front. I know someone involved in this. Does that make me biased? Well, only insofar as wanting to see them succeed. But seeing them succeed will not be helped by telling people something is great if it isn’t so, no, I’m not going to say something is good if it isn’t.

Fortunately I don’t have to worry about that here. First though; lets get everyone up to speed on the who, what and where behind the film.

Fistful of Brains is the cinematic child of The Adrenalin Group. They’re a small. independent film group working out of Sanford, NC who, at this point, specialize in the zombie flavor of the horror genre and have already created a small library of DVDs to their credit. Fistful of Brains is their third zombie film and a sort of prequel to their first full length feature The Forever Dead (being an extension of their short film The Second Death.) Their pedigree has some technical credits up to and including director and co-founder Christine Parker’s background as a videographer and schooling in the field of film-making, but the largest of these credits seems to be simply being fans of the genre itself.

But don’t confuse that with the idea of their work simply being that of fans making films. While they’re certainly fans of the genre, their first and foremost roles when working on their films are those of filmmakers. They know what needs to be done to make a film tick. They also understand that the big moments have to be built up to and separated with quieter moments in order to give them impact. Their work is not simply fans stringing together a film with a series of “cool” moments devoid of substance but rather a complete and effective film. Speaking of which… On to the film.

As stated above the film is their second full length zombie film, but on a technical level it shows an incredible amount of growth that makes it appear to be three or four films removed from The Forever Dead. Christine Parker’s directing shows a great deal more focus and polish here. There were moments in their prior two films where some scenes looked as though they were being shot at odd angles or in odd ways for no other reason than to be done in a “different” way. Here, you can actually see where she’s going when she uses an angle or a shot that’s not a “normal” POV shot or a typical setup for a scene. They work and they convey the needed feel of the scene and the story being told. And even when they don’t work it’s not a 100% “huh” moment. You can at least see where she was going with it and still understand the ‘why’ behind it. And, honestly, the few scenes that didn’t work 100% for me may simply be a matter of taste on my part as they’re technically very solid.

The FX in general are much better than you would expect from a film that had a production budget that wouldn’t buy you a brand new car. There’s even a few good uses of split screen that don’t suffer the fun glitches that everyone likes to make fun of. The only real general FX nit that I might have picked is an incredibly small one involving the use of fire in one scene. But then fire in the way they used it is a tricky bit of FX even when you’re working on a Peter Jackson level film so, as I said, it was really only a very small nit. I have been told though that they have some new software to play with in their next film.

Then there’s the zombie makeup itself. Well, there’s no other way to say it. Utter crap. No, I’m kidding. (Guess you figured out who on the film I know now.) The makeup is actually quite good. It’s actually amazingly good considering how much of it was needed to be created VS the time they had, the shooting schedule they had to deal with and, of course, the budget that they were working with. The zombies of the piece show various levels of damage and decay and the gore is perfectly in that zone of horrific yet humorous when needed. You can definitely see where there’s some heavy cribbing from the Tom Savini school of “oh, gross” going on. As far as low budget independent zombies go; it would have been a home run for me if only that one zombie’s jaw didn’t look so odd…

The only other “FX” matter in the film that really sticks out is a constant one and one of personal taste. The final product was treated in a way to give it an odd grain and slight color shift to convey (I’m assuming) that old west feel. It has an ever so slight worn look that stylistically is similar to what Terantino and Rodriguez did with Grindhouse. It sort of worked for me, but I’m not sure if I might not like the film a little better without it. But you have to give them credit for trying it. It could be seen as a risky move by some, but they went with their vision for the film and decided to let the chips fall where they may. That in and of itself is a good sign for their future endeavours in my book.

So, for overall look I’d say the film rates a solid 7 out of 10. No, it’s not Universal’s FX shop, but any fan of Romero, Fulci or early Raimi is going to feel comfortably at home here. Now, enough of being someone who can’t just mercilessly picking on those who do. Lets get to what’s the heart of the film for most people. Lets talk general story. I’m not going to get too detailed since there are things that the viewers get to discover along the way and, frankly, there’s no way to tell the whole story without giving away spoiler points. So…

Again, the leaps and bounds in story quality here VS their prior film makes this feel like a film two or three films removed from The Forever Dead. The basic breakdown of the story is that you have a typical old west huckster, Dead Eye, comes into a tiny, drying up western town to sell his wares. It’s just that his special wares really are a bit more… special… than average. The town itself is filled with characters that play out their own various sub-stories throughout the film that show off the various failings in human nature along with a few of the better points of our nature. Not sure about that preacher though…

The central figure of the town’s cast of colorful characters (and one of the primary characters in the film) is Lily. She’s the daughter of the local sheriff and suffers more than just a little from the fact that daddy has quite a few screws loose. Unfortunately for her the loose screws are the kind that make him violent, paranoid and controlling. It also makes her relationship/not relationship with Jack a wee bit complicated. The dysfunctional nature of their interactions is consistently damaging to their lives throughout the film (and into the next one it appears) and actually works to make the protagonists of the film more interesting than the cookie cutter heroes of some genre films, but also not as defective as the stereotypical “damaged” heroes in most films.

And into this mix we add a mysterious group of people out in the woods who may or may not be behind some unsettling matters that started happening just prior to the film’s starting point and the (obviously) all hell breaking loose moment when the dead decide that maybe laying around in the dirt isn’t as much fun as getting up and looking for a good meal. The nice, and rather ambitious, twist in the story is that they attempted to do something a little bit beyond the usual zombie story setup. Our zombie hoards are the result of something older than the old west itself and the story touches myth territory as the relationship of two of the characters and their conflict with one another goes beyond simple human issues.

The story itself actually unfolds at a nice pace. The first half of the story might feel slow to some, but it’s necessary as the groundwork for everything that comes in the second half is laid out and explained. But, rest assured, once the story starts moving it really does start moving. A lot happens in the second half of the film and it almost feels like too much for the time they gave it. Still, better to have just a little too much than to have too little.

The dialog is well done and has a very natural feel to most of it. There was, for me, only a few weak dialog moments and those were created mostly by the actors having to use an old west style accent. And, again, that may simply be a matter of personal taste as I’ve never been a big western fan. Some of the transition scenes and pillow scenes also work quite effectively. Again, they show that the people behind this film know how to space their action and their scares, and what to space them with, so that when something does happen it has a real impact on the viewer. The big scenes have meaning because they use the small scenes as effectively as they do.

There are a couple of scenes where Parker and crew should have had someone on standby with a wiffle bat to whack a few of the extras upside the head though. There were a couple of times when the action in the foreground wasn’t quite being reflected properly by the extras in the background. They were obviously having fun playing around on the set of a zombie western, but they probably shouldn’t have looked like they were having fun when the zombies were breaking into their refuge. (Hey, if they need an extras wrangler on the next film I work cheap and can supply my own taser.) But, again, it’s a small nit to pick and doesn’t truly detract from the action in the foreground.

Between the scripting, directing and use of effects there are some genuinely creepy moments in the film. There are also some fun moments as well. Lily and Dead Eye (and Lazarus) are played well and that goes a long way since they’re central characters and get a lot of screen time. The rest of the cast does a good job as well and there really wasn’t a bad performance in the group. Quite the contrary actually. Even smaller characters have their moments. I quite liked the barkeep who had a “same shit, different day” attitude, but seemed to look as though he still found it to be depressingly amusing “same shit.”

The music used in the film was actually very good as well. The composer deserves some serious kudos. I actually liked it and I’m not a fan of western music or western flavored music.

On the whole the story (and the execution thereof) is also a solid 7 out of 10. Quite a bit better than your average “independent” horror and actually better than quite a few studio zombie films I’ve seen. Oh, and it doesn’t quite end where you would think it would either. Is that a spoiler? No. Why? Cause you’ll never guess it in a million years. Yes, this is a film worth tracking down and, especially for zombie geeks, owning.

The extras on the DVD are fun as well. Maybe not as fun as (inside joke alert for fans of their work) a dead rabbit playing with cats, but still fun. They also include the grossest scene on the DVD. Blood and puss spurting on film actually didn’t bother me. Blood and puss combined with the sound of whatever hand pump they were using (and failing with for a bit) to push the stuff through the tubes? That actually got me squeamish in a way that the scene itself didn’t come close to doing.

Other extras are the standard expectations for films on DVD these days. There are cast and crew interviews, little making of featurettes and a music video. All in all, a very nice package and very much worth the price of the DVD.

A website with info on the film can be found here:

http://www.fistfulofbrains.com/index.html

Purchase information here:

http://www.fistfulofbrains.com/store.html

And updates on happenings with the film and the sequal film can be found on MySpace here:

http://www.myspace.com/adrenalin_productions

http://www.myspace.com/afewbrainsmore

Again, very much worth the price to pick up and far better than my review likely makes it sound.

“EVERY OTHER DAY IS HALLOWEEN”

“EVERY OTHER DAY IS HALLOWEEN”
Has World Premiere at AFI Silver Theatre

Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 8:20 p.m.

Silver Spring, Maryland, May 19, 2009—The Spooky Movie Film Festival is proud to announce the world premiere screening of C.W. Prather’s new documentary, EVERY OTHER DAY IS HALLOWEEN, Saturday, June 27, at 8:20 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD. 

This comedic documentary chronicles the career and legacy of Dick Dyszel, whose television alter-egos, “Count Gore De Vol,” “Captain 20” and “Bozo the Clown” helped raise generations of Washingtonians in the 1970s and 1980s (almost a half-million “Channel 20 Club Cards” were distributed during this time). But it was in the 1990s that Dick helped revolutionized the concept of entertainment-on-demand when he launched the first-ever streaming horror host show, “Creature Feature: The Weekly Web Program,”—predating Hulu, YouTube, and the iPod by years—which opened him up to the world.

“A nostalgic ode that makes you wish you had
your own Gore De Vol on your own TV!” 
-  BadLit.com

 More Here: 

http://everyotherdayishalloween.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/official-press-release-on-world-premiere-screening/#comments

Monsters HD has Passed Away.

The following message appeared on the Monsters HD website this weekend:

MONSTERS HD – BORN: OCTOBER 2003 – DIED: JANUARY 2009
“TV’s first and longest-running hi-def horror and creature feature channel will cease operations and mad experiments this month. Thanks for all the screams and support over the years. Fear not – monsters never die…they always come back! Pleasant dreams fiends.”

Kung-Fu HD and a number of other Voom Network channels also passed away into the digital night with it.

Sucks to be a geek right now.

See more(ish) here.

http://www.monstershd.com/

http://fangoria.com/home/news/17-television/1075-monsters-hd-has-passed-away.html

1 match that showcases why TNA is clueless sometimes.

I was working this last Thursday night and had to DVR TNA Impact. I made a point of getting to it tonight so that I’d be caught up on the events for tonight and that I would be up to speed for the PPV. Not a bad show, but really a pretty weak one for the show heading into the PPV.

But one match derailed the whole thing for me as both a wrestling fan and as a critical observer. Beer Money, the TNA Tag Team Champions, lost their titles to Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed. Now, just having Beer Money drop the straps to Lethal and Creed in and of itself wouldn’t have bothered me. No, it was how TNA Creative wrote the title changes into the program.

With Beer Money you have TNA’s two best “home grown” heel talents. James Storm, once considered by many as the lesser half of America’s Most Wanted, has gone on since their break up and his heel turn to outshine his former partner in every way and perfect his arrogant, cocky, good old boy persona to the point where he can make an audience respond to him in any way that he wants them to. And Robert Roode… Robert Roode is one of the great, under appreciated heels in the industry right now. He’s taken a gimmick that started out looking like TNA creative wanted to clone “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase (and then couldn’t make up their minds if he was Ted 2.0 or Diamond Dallas “Rags to Riches” Page 2.0) and created a heel so smooth, so great and so in control of the fans in attendance that I have no doubt that, if you could drop him into the NWA of the late 80s and early 90s, he could easily have become one of the Horsemen and been remembered as one of the great Horsemen. And both men know how to work inside the ring in a manner to bring out the best of the faces they’re against while drawing as much heel heat as possible.

So, of course, TNA books them as the Faces in Peril of the match. A quick recap for those who missed it.

Beer Money has a scheduled match where Roode faces off against one half of their PPV challengers Matt Morgan and Abyss in the form of Morgan. Morgan and Abyss are supposed to be, despite their recent booking, an unstoppable powerhouse team. The perfect set up for the match going into the PPV. Roode cheats to win on free TV and you either have the faces win on the PPV or lose to Beer Money so that they can go on to feud with the next team. Easy booking to do.

But TNA being TNA has to go and create a mess. Roode gets “injured” in the match and can’t continue. His knee is blown and he can barely stand on it. The match is ended and awarded to Morgan due to the inability of Roode to continue. A little strange I thought given that TNA has had matches continue before with a wrestler likewise injured. But I took it for what it was and decided that it wasn’t that bad a warm up for the PPV.

And then Creed and Lethal, two up and coming faces in TNA, come running to the ring. They announce that they’re going to cash in their “Feast or Fired” chances at the Tag Title Belts under the anywhere, anytime and any place rules. The match is started and the faces beat the crap out of Beer Money and win the belts.

WTF…

I don’t even know where to begin on the details of everything that was wrong here. Let’s start with the two obvious ones first I guess. You have a match that was stopped midway through because the ref says that one contestant can no longer continue and then that same injured man and his partner compete in a full match that isn’t stopped for the same reason we just saw the previous match stopped for just minutes earlier. Uhm… Okay…

I also have some issue with the concept of faces, the good guys, being written into the position of being what would have been pretty much exclusively the territory of the cowardly or opportunistic heels of old. I mean, you have two faces who see an injured man who can barely move and decide that now would be a good time to have a match with him and his partner? You have two good guys who decide that now would be a good time to double team one guy and beat on a borderline crippled man while their at it?

Dumb, dumb, dumb booking.

The match itself was actually rather good, but the vibe in it was total bass ackwards. During the match you had Storm valiantly fighting two men, moments resembling the classic face in peril hot tags (but done by the heel team) and Roode struggling to help his partner even at the cost of his own well being. At one point Roode actually gets into the action and pulls off some come behind moves before the double team of Creed and Lethal destroy him by, amongst other things, targeting the injury he had from the prior match. You know, that injury that stopped the other match just before this one started. After a few minutes of opportunistic actions, two on one double teams and targeting an adversaries injury the “faces” win the match and the titles.

Oh, and they also used a cheap shot to win.

Like I said above, it was totally bass ackwards. The heels were playing the traditional roles of the faces and the faces were working an almost full heel style. And not only did the dynamics of the match not really make sense, but the booking around the match doesn’t make any sense when related to a match like this.

Is this the beginning of a Beer Money face turn? It’s doubtful because there’s been nothing else to indicate that they would do this. And besides, you don’t face turn a heel team by having them beaten down, injured and taken advantage of by a face team. The logical motivation and reasoning that most fans would relate to is absent from the equation. Well, it could be there if the match was a heel to face and face to heel double turn, but…

Creed and Lethal aren’t going heel. They were treated like faces at the end of the match, acted like faces at the end of the match and embraced and cheered for their victory by the fellow wrestlers and fans after the match as though they were full on, 100% faces. Even the backstage segments afterwards were the typical face celebrations and interview bits. They were straight up faces and it would appear that they’re staying that way.

Oh, and they’re now weak champions. Why this works for heels is that heels can go on and lie, cheat and steal their way towards holding on to those titles in their next series of title defenses. Heels can use an opportunistic cheat like this and still safely come out looking like a weaker team than the former champions because you know that, unlike the faces, they’ll resort to cheating in their next matches and, if that doesn’t work, they’ll just up and walk away for a count out loss where they still retain the belts.

Faces can’t do that. Faces can’t go out there and be the weak, cowardly heel act and look like credible champions. Creed and Lethal look like two guys who double teamed a tired wrestler and beat up a cripple to win the titles. They look like weak, fluke champs right now. Beer Money, the heels, look like the guys who were screwed over by a team that knew that they were so inferior to Beer Money that they couldn’t beat them in a fair fight. But Beer Money are still the heels and Creed and Lethal are still the faces.

TNA creative didn’t think this thing through logically or sanely and it shows. They’ve devalued their face team as champs, made their heel team look like guys who the face team are afraid to fight fair and square and TNA made their officiating look even more clueless and random than they sometimes do thanks to their stopping a match because of a serious injury that apparently wasn’t serious enough to stop another match for two minutes later.

Nothing about this seems like it was given more than two minutes of thought. Nothing about this title change works towards increasing the storyline credibility of anyone involved and may actually lower it for some.

TNA seems like it treads water far too often and this is, to me, a perfect example of why. Too many times TNA creative seems to take two steps forward with characterization, concepts and execution and then they turn right back around and take two steps backwards. They did it again here. They took two guys that they were trying to build into a strong face team and made them weak champions while taking two heels that were becoming one of the greatest heel teams of their era and made them look like strong, valiant and even sympathetic fighting champions. And they made their officials look clueless and random in the process.

WWE can afford to make these mistakes a bit too often because WWE is so large that it can tread water where it’s at. TNA can’t. TNA has to grow and it has to stop taking the good opportunities that it has and booking them into sheer stupidity. I’m not going to be one of the chorus of voices who say that TNA won’t be around by next year if they keep this up, but if they keep this up they will be exactly where they are now and not one step forward from there.

Forrest J Ackerman

Word is spreading fast amongst horror fan circles that the great Forrst J Ackerman, who would be celebrating his 92nd birthday this November 22nd, is slipping away from us at an alarmingly fast rate of speed. So dire is his condition that Ray Bradbury, no spring chicken himself these days, dropped everything else that he was doing and rushed to his friends bedside to speak with him one last time.

Ackerman is an icon of horror historians. He’s famous for his massive collection of movie memorabilia and for his publishing the classic magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. He was such a well known and respected character that true movie buffs turned pro would seek him out to give him bit parts in films just to be able to say that they had him in their films and many a documentary was made where Forrest Ackerman’s name was first on the list of must have interviewees.

Forrest J Ackerman is, quite unfortunately, another name in a long list of people that I wanted to meet but never did and, from the latest news, now never will.

Here’s a portion of his write up on his MySpace page as to what he has done with his 91 years on this planet.

“Some of my Achievements – I founded and Edited FAMOUS MONSTERS MAGAZINE that brought Halloween to kids around the World every month for almost 200 issues and almost 30 years. — I created VAMPIRELLA. — I coined the term SCI-FI. — I wrote the shortest SCI-FI story in the World, consisting of a single letter. — How did I start? Well, in 1922, at the age of 5-1/2, I saw my first fantasy film, ONE GLORIOUS DAY.

In October, 1926, I read and collected my first “scientifiction” magazine, AMAZING STORIES. In l929, I won a contest in the San Francisco Chronicle, entered by over 200 teenaged contestants, with my short story about a trip to Mars. In that same year I founded The Boys Scientifiction Club (I would have included girls but at that time female fans were as rare as unicorns’ horns). In l932, I presented the world’s first known list of “imagi-movies” (one of my many coined words) on the first page of the first science fiction fanzine,The Time Traveler. By l935 I was correspondingwith l27 sci-fi fans around the world– although it would be l954 before I coined the ubiquitous abbreviation, “sci-fi .” Since l948 I have served as literary agent for approximately 200 clients including: Pierre Barbet Nelson Bond Jerome Bixby Bradbury & Asimov (early foreign reprints) Harry Bates Arthur J. Burks Cleve Cartmill Mark Clifton Stanton A. Coblentz Mary Elizabeth Counselman Hugo Gernsback Horace L. Gold L. Ron Hubbard Raymond F. Jones George Langelaan Ib Melchior P. Schuyler Miller Kris Neville Andre Norton Ross Rocklynne Victor Rousseau Curt Siodmak Sherwood Springer William F. Temple Lyn Venable A.E. van Vogt Stanley Weinbaum Jack Williamson and S. Fowler Wright and I represent the estates of artists Frank R. Paul, Elliott Dold, Albert Nuetzell, Charles Schneeman and Hannes Bok I have collaborated with Catherine Moore, A.E. van Vogt, Robert A.W. Lowndes, Francis Flagg and other sf authors.

Among 50 stories, I’ve written the world’s shortest one myself: one letter of the alphabet. I have seen my favorite film, METROPOLIS close to 100 times. I have appeared in over 50 motion picture cameos, in films such as THE TIME TRAVELERS, AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON, THE HOWLING, BEVERLY HILLS COP III, THRILLER, INNOCENT BLOOD, VAMPIRELLA, and DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN. My handprints and autograph are enshrined in cement in front of the Vista Theater in Hollywood (est. in l926; former location of the Babylon set pieces from D.W. Griffith’s INTOLERANCE and the upstairs office of Ed Wood, Jr.). My life companion, Wendayne (the only one in the world) Ackerman, as the aftermath of a mugging in Italy, died some years ago, but not before translating l50 sci-fi novels from French & German, moonlighting while teaching for 20 years at university.

It would be nice to look forward to going to a Great Sci-Fi Convention in the Sky when I expire and reuniting with Wendayne & Boris & Hugo & Paul & Bela & Isaac & Bob (Bloch) and my beloved maternal grandparents, last of the big time angels (my grandfather, George Herbert Wyman inspired by the sci-fi bestseller of the day, Looking Backward, architected — for $5. a week — the monumental Bradbury Building in Los Angeles, which has been seen in BLADERUNNER, WOLF, DEMON WITH THE GLASS HAND and many other films). I am vaguely contemplating opting for a cryogenic comeback but in case I don’t become a human people-cicle, I, like Isaac Asimov and other thinkers I admire, don’t expect to wake up in some spirit realm of an afterlife. I’ve been a secular humanist since I was 15, long before the term was invented, and nothing since has changed my mind. I regard myself as a sci-fi sponge that should be squeezed for information and anecdotes as long as I’m here. So while I’m still around, squeeze me.”

His official MySpace page can be found here:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=67699686

 

Three of the Giants of classic Sci-Fi.

The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company (ARTC)

Are you a horror fan? Do you like Sci-Fi? Do you like comedy? Are you a fan of old radio characters like The Shadow? Are you a sick freak like my wife who likes Victorian Romance? If you answered yes to any of the above questions I have the group for you. The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company is a group based out of (duh) Atlanta, Georgia that does “new old radio” shows at various venues, for podcasts and for sale on CD.

I first found out about ARTC when Jenn and I saw them performing Rory Rammer (an original creation in the mold of radio’s old Saturday morning space adventures for the younger set) and an adaptation of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Colour Out of Space’ at Dragon*Con 2006. I was very impressed with the live performance to say the least. All voice acting, music and foley effects were done live and to perfection and created a perfect setting for the mind to create the images needed as the story unfolded. But more impressive to me were the stories themselves.

Rory Rammer captured perfectly the feel of some of the old radio shows it was meant to be a tribute to while adding a touch of humor to it that makes the production more endearing rather than, as is typical with modern productions of this nature, making fun of the shows of yore. But it was ‘The Colour Out of Space’ that really impressed me. Lovecraft was a horror writer of great skill at creating horror that is almost psychologically visceral and very difficult to adapt properly. Most people, with rare exceptions, either fail in making good material based on Lovecraft’s work or they make something good that’s only about 10% H.P. Lovecraft. Their Lovecraft was pure horror, almost purely Lovecraft and magnificently preformed. My only thought after the show was that I had to learn more about these guys and I had to check out their table.

They didn’t have ‘Space’ on a CD, but they did have ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ which has long been an old favorite of mine. I picked it up and, owing to money issues, resigned myself to not getting more at that time. With everything else that there is to do at Dragon*Con I was only able to really sit down and listen to ‘Innsmouth’ some time after I returned home from Atlanta. I was extremely happy with the purchase to say the least.

Being a horror geek first and foremost in my geekness; I put together a birthday and Christmas list made up of ARTC’s Lovecraft work for friends and family to choose. I was quite happy that Christmas. However, It wasn’t until after that Christmas that I really started to explore their website and what ARTC’s full range of productions really were.

ARTC does a line known as The Dean’s List. It is so named because the productions (done with the approval of the man’s family) are adaptations of Robert A. Heinlein’s work. SF by Gaslight is a series of classic science-fiction works while they do original sci-fi productions under their Centauri Express line. Into the Labyrinth and Dark River covers their works of Dark Fantasy. Oh, and they’ve got some Romance stuff in there as well.

Each CD runs around $12 and is worth twice the money. But don’t take my word for it. Look at their website, find something that looks like it’s your thing and buy just one item to try. Iffy on blind buying with a tight economy? Hey, we’re entering the holiday season. Put a CD or two on your Christmas list.

What? Some of you are still a bit iffy on the idea? Fine. For you I have a special offer. Well, it’s not for you as much as it is for everybody. ARTC podcasts their live events for free. They’re not as slick or well produced as their studio work, but they’re still damned good and they’re free. Try out their podcasts and see what you think. If for some reason you can’t download their productions you can always check out their MySpace (you don’t have to be a MySpace member) page. They have a media player on that page that has many of their podcasts set up to listen to without the need to download anything. And, as of this writing, it’s as up to date as possible with their first listing being a funny spoof called ‘Haunter Hunters’ that Jenn and I saw them do live at Dragon*Con 2008.

I’ll post all the links you’ll need below, but I have a request first. ARTC is a group that survives on the profits it makes from live events and the sale of its shows on cassette (yeah, they still have a few of those) and CD. If you enjoy their podcasts then please, please, please buy some of their actual products. If you’re tight for cash right now like a lot of us are; put some ARTC products on your Christmas wish list. And then, especially if you enjoy their work, spread the word about them.

ARTC’s main website:

http://www.artc.org/

ARTC’s Podcasts:

http://artcpodcast.org/

ARTC’s MySpace page:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=242421596

The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company – There Is Adventure… In Sound

Dragon*Con 2008.

Dragon*Con 2008

   That was freakin’ awesome. This year’s Dragon*Con was the largest yet and it had more to offer than ever before. It unfortunately offered a few lows as well though.

   Day -1:We got our badges for the convention that afternoon and headed out for dinner. The five of us (Jenn’s mom and dad were with us for the convention this year) sat down and looked at the materials that we had picked up in the registration hall. I opened up this years large convention book and my heart sank immediately. I hadn’t really been checking up on the guest lists as closely as I normally do. Somehow I completely missed the fact that Robert Asprin, author of numerous novels and, from the one time I met him, an apparently very nice person, passed away unexpectedly earlier this year.

   Great talent. He will be missed.

   Day 1: The plan for the day was to have no plan save for the 7PM Atlanta Radio Theater Company show. After getting packed and driving overnight for nine hours, I was pretty much not in the mood to do the hectic run around schedule. I just drifted from place to place and checked things out.

   I went to a panel by The Ghost Hunters. If you ever have a chance to see them speaking; do it. They are funny as hell. They were mostly talking about the show and where it’s going to go from here. Basically more of the same but with less slick editing tricks by the producers. Both they and the fans have gotten on the production company about some of the silly stuff and we’re thankfully seeing less and less of it each year.

   I bounced around between Artists Ally and the dealer rooms for a bit. I got to chat with Joe Jusko about ERB and spoke with Kathleen David (Peter was at a panel) about Peter David’s upcoming book. Sounds funny. I won’t go into detail about it here since it’s his book and I’m sure he’ll have something on his website (www.peterdavid.net) when he’s ready.

   I met one of the head members of The Midnight Syndicate (www.midnightsyndicate.com) in one of the dealer rooms. We struck up a nice little conversation thanks to the shirt I was wearing. I had on a 10th anniversary shirt for Count Gor De Vol’s (http://countgore.com/gore/) webcast of his Creature Feature show. It seems that the good Count has a small role in their upcoming film. We talked a short while about The Dead Matter before pining over to complaining about the fact that American Scary is still without a DVD deal. Look the film up if you’re a horror fan who used to love the local and national horror hosts who made even the bad films watchable. Fun little documentary from what little I’ve seen of it.

   I went on a book hunt for Jenn. She and her mom were watching a panel hosted by Todd and Anne McCaffrey and wanted a copy of her favorite novel, The Rowan, for Anne to autograph at a later signing. She couldn’t find hers before we left the house and I was lucky enough to find one at a Barnes & Noble table. Pretty much just went around doing the people watching (and photographing) thing for a while after that.

   The ARTC show was, as always, a blast. They actually opened the show with a fun little non-ARTC bit where three wrestlers from TNA, Christy Hemme, Gail Kim & Traci Brooks, played a variation of Who is The Real… They each answered questions as though they were all Anita Blake. At the end of the Q&A, one of the panel of questioners stood up as the “real” Anita Blake. None other than Laurell K. Hamilton herself.

   Once the show got going it was great though. They always do fantastic audio drama, comedy, horror and sci-fi. As good as their CDs are, they’re even better live. They are definitely one of those unknown groups that deserve some support in the form of buying some of their stuff. (http://www.artc.org/) I recommend anything of theirs based on H.P. Lovecraft. Oh, and Jenn is now going to be doing volunteer editing work for them.

   After that it was pretty much just a slow slink back to the hotel and dinner. Everybody had a ball and Jenn’s dad, lost to us for over twelve hours, was going on at great lengths about what he had learned about Manga (his granddaughter is a huge mange fan) and talked about laughing until it hurt at a panel where Jerry Doyle and Walter Koenig started basically doing a comedy stand up on the political events of our times. Apparently no one was safe from their wrath and the entire room was convinced that these guys need their own CD and DVD deal.

   Day 2: My plan was a bit like day one while Jenn and her mom were doing a lot of the McCaffrey panels and her dad was looking to sit in on some tech panels. I chatted with the Ghost Hunters International guys for a bit at their table before embarking on The Great Waste of Money. I decided to raid the dealer rooms for whatever struck my fancy that I couldn’t get in the average local store.

   I grabbed some nice CDs from The Midnight Syndicate table. I noticed the music playing the other day and it wouldn’t get out of my head. Very basic, but very strong in invoking that horror vibe. Grabbed a shirt of theirs for myself and a really nice one for Jenn as well.

   I stuck my head into a couple of ok panels, but nothing really noteworthy. I met up withJenn and we headed over to Artists Ally. I got my hardcover special edition of Fallen Angel signed by Peter David and Jenn discussed puppet making tips with Kathleen David. Kathleen mentioned having a class that day and we decided to throw it on the agenda.

   We met up with Jenn’s mom and headed back to the hotel for a spot of a late lunch. That actually ended our day as Ian went into information overload and reintroduced the entire contents of his bottle to the world while sleeping. We kept him at the hotel for the rest of the day and let him relax a bit. As strong as an ox as he’s become, he still has a few stomach problems that are sometimes associated with premature babies.

   Day 3: Jenn, Jenn’s mom and I went to another Ghost Hunters panel were members from both shows were talking. Again, very funny guys and enjoyable as hell to watch. Some guy tried to throw them by asking a plumbing question. Never try and catch Grant off guard with things like that. That’s all I’ll say.

   Jenn and her mom went to the McCaffrey signing and I headed for Voice Acting 101. I wished I hadn’t. The guy giving the “interactive” course was basically referencing someone else’s “how to” tape cassette the whole time and didn’t really seem that good at the job he does.

   I found a booth buried in the back of the dealer area that had a lot H.P. Lovecraft related merchandise. I saw a couple of items that I thought would be awesome for Ian, but the beatings that I would get from my wife and mother-in-law saved me a few bucks. Yes, I’m whipped in some areas. My wife has an unrealistic view of when Ian should or should not be exposed to horror films and whatnot. It’s my burden, but it’s a burden I asked for.

   I hooked up with Jenn and her mom after they got out of the signing. We needed to kill some time so we ended up checking on some stuff in the dealer areas. We came by the H.P Lovecraft table. Ian is now the proud owner of a Cthulhu children’s booked called Where the Deep Ones Are. It’s sort of a riff on Where the Wild Things Are with a Lovecraft twist. We also got him a fanny pack that’s a little plush Cthulhu. He saw it and hugged it like it was his favorite kitty cat from second one.

   I really enjoyed walking around after Ian got that thing. It was actually surprising more than anything else. I no longer assume that horror and sci-fi fans know anything about Lovecraft since I’ve met so many who have never heard of him. We got stopped every five feet by people finding it adorable that Ian was clutching a plush Cthulhu. It was a “special day” for him since he was getting his “first Cthulhu” and so happy about it.

   We did a few more small shops and panels and met up with Jenn’s sister and her family before we headed in for the ARTC’sshow that day. We walked away from that one with several new CDs of their work and a job for the next convention. They want someone to dress up as Rory Rammer for next years Dragon*Con. I spoke with a couple of the guys about what Rory would looklike and came away with very few details. Hey, I’m almost the same age as Rory and I know what the basic idea is so maybe I can be the definitive image for the character by this time next year. I know, you’re all just green with envy now.

   We left after that to find Jenn’s dad and all go out for dinner. There are some good restaurants in Atlanta. I wish we had found one.

   Day 4:I left everyone else to go to a panel about the state of women’s pro wrestling today. The panel guests were the above mentioned Christy Hemme, Gail Kim & Traci Brooks. Wild panel discussion and the ladies were all great. Traci Brooks and I started to get side tracked on some of the older legends of the game before things got pulled back into the panel parameters.

   After the panel, I met up with Jenn and we went over to the Walk of Fame. I got to chat with Robert Llewellyn about Junkyard Wars and Red Dwarf, Jerry Doyle about going from sci-fi TV to talk radio and Lance Henriksen about vampires and aliens. I also got to finish chatting with Traci Brooks about Penny Banner and other legends of the old days of women’s pro wrestling. Nice lady that Traci Brooks. By the end of it she’d made a new fan out of my wife. That’s PR, folks.

   We blew a little more money and then had a nice lunch before heading off to The Mighty Rassilon Art Players doing a stage spoof of Doctor Who, Torchwood, Battlestar, James Bond and everything in between in one go. It was a hilarious show. Jenn was going to video tape (it’s allowed) it but we decided not to since we needed the disc for a later panel. We wished we had taped it after the show. Besides being side splittingly funny it was announced at the close of the show that Dragon*Con has decided that they don’t have the room to bring them back next year. We unknowingly watch what may well be their last ever Dragon*Con appearance.

   And all of the above was just the highlights. There’s a ton of stuff I left out and a ton of photos that need to be scaled down before I can post them. If any of you out there ever wanted to see a really large convention but never went to one; start planning now for Dragon*Con 2009. (www.dragoncon.org/) You’ll love it.

Countdown to Dragon*Con:

3 Days and Counting:

   Dragon*Con is closing in on us. The fun and palaver starts this Friday but the run around and the packing started yesterday. Our cloths are packed and the important needs have been taken care of. Tonight has been about getting the “want to” items packed.

   The “want to”items are the things we want to get signed this year. The list is huge and unwieldy so it must, of course, get reduced to the slight and easy to deal with. Right now the items on the must go list is small but growing. Robert Llewellyn is a guest this year, so one of my Red Dwarf DVD covers is going to get signed by the man who played the greatest robot ever in sc-fi comedy. The crews from both The Mythbusters and The Ghost Hunters TV shows are there as well will be getting bugged to sign books and DVD cases as well. Oh, and a god amongst cult vampire horror, Lance Henriksen of Near Dark fame, will be attending this year.

   I know for a fact that I have to get Peter David to sign my hardcover, limited edition Fallen Angel collection. I started a small flame war on his site one tie when he announced the thing coming out so it would only be rigt to prove that I actually bough the thing. Laurell K. Hamilton will also be there and I have to get the first Anita Blake novel signed. I may even try to get a few copies signed for some friends at work.

   A huge attraction for me will be being able to see The Atlanta Radio Theater Company perform live again. These guys are great and their CDs are awesome. They have a great series of H.P. Lovecraft adaptations and a fantastic line of original works. I’ll be picking up a few new works for sure as well as getting them signed.

   Happy me. Check out their website here: http://www.artc.org/

   Unfortunately, one of the major attractions for me had to bow out this year. Sylvester McCoy, one of the best Doctors in Doctor Who history, was announced as unable to attend in just the last few days. Very disappointing for me since I’m a huge fan of his work on that show and in various audio dramas.

   Beyond all of that will be the stuff to buy, see, trade and enjoy. I’m just hitting the highlights here. For those of you that don’t know what Dragon*Con is all about; you can just follow the link provided below.

http://www.dragoncon.org/

   But I need to go. I have to have as much ready as possible tonight because tomorrow will be… interesting to say the least. I’ll explain why in the next addition to this post.

2 Days and Counting:

   Not starting as well as it could. Getting lots done, but the problem is that I have the time.

   I just lost you, didn’t I? See, our plan was to set out sometime after 7:30 PM and drive all night to Atlanta. The idea behind that was that it was a really good idea to plant Ian’s butt in the baby car seat about an hour before his bedtime and let him zonk for the entire trip. In order to do that in the safest way possible, I’ve been pushing my sleep cycle a little farther back each night for the last few days. Last night I went to bed sometime around 5 AM wit the intention to sleep until about 1 PM. That didn’t happen.

   I woke up at around 10 AM and couldn’t get back to sleep. As a result, we may be leaving a little earlier and dealing with a grumpy butt who doesn’t really like to be strapped into his child seat for long trips.

   Other than that we’ve got everything in order and the five of us (Jenn’s mom and dad are coming along as well to hook up with Jenn’s oldest sister, her husband and their two daughters at Dragon*Con) are heading South in just a little bit.

   Later.

1 Day and Counting:

   Got into Atlanta, got four hours of sleep and got our Dragon*Con badges. Had a nice lunch, had a nice dinner and crashed. That’s about it.

Forget the stranger than fiction cliché… Truth is just f’n weird!

   Last night I went to bed and the world was what it was. This morning I wake up and find out that Julia Child, Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg, John Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway, Quentin and Kermit Roosevelt, sons of President Theodore Roosevelt, Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The Police and and Thomas Braden, an author whose “Eight Is Enough” book inspired the 1970s television series amongst many others were all operatives for the OSS. The OSS for those who don’t know was the forerunner for the CIA.

   And these guys weren’t just doing office work. Oh noooooooo. Some of the files coming out have these people working on top level projects and working behind enemy lines. Anyone remember a character actor by the name of Sterling Hayden? He was the crooked cop (Capt. McCluskey) in The Godfather. His files have him running missions behind the German lines, single handedly stopping some German plots and having at least one “run for your life” moment that rivals anything in a Hollywood film. His record is filled with notes of his heroism and almost reckless disregard for his own safety when it came to completing a mission and saving other people’s lives.

   The complete list should be available by this weekend, but what has come out today is absolutely amazing. There were some real Jason Bourne type of spy boys and spy girls working against the Nazi war machine who later went on to lead very public lives with very public personas that are almost impossible to reconcile with the information of the lives they once lead that is coming out today.

   I know better than to believe that spies, agents and special operatives look like Matt Damon and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I’ve met guys that used to be in the cloak and dagger business. I’ve met guys that used to do counter terrorism. Hell, I’ve met the former Navy SEAL who founded SEAL Team Six. I knowthat the cover of the book ain’t as easy to judge as it should be. But some of the people involved in the declassified documents coming out today? Blew my f’n little mind.

They Have Gotta Be F’N Joking!

   So, I’m having problems sleeping these days and I decided to chill on the recliner rather than bother the wife. I decided that I needed to relax so I pulled up a movie on the DVR from the Sci-Fi channel’s Sunday Night movie.

   I start watching the ever so more than slightly bad ‘Legion of the Dead” and get less than ten minutes into it before wanting to throw an f’n brick at the TV. Was it because of the bad acting? No. Was it because of the bad plot? No. Was it because of the bad CGI? No.

   It was the cigarette scene.

   They blurred the scene. Three times. The guy lifts his cigarette to his mouth three times and each time they blurred his hand and mouth so that you couldn’t actually see the cigarette in his mouth.  60 seconds later he gets a metal spike through the chin and up into his cranium. Oh, and a guy is killed by having the skin burn/melt off of his skull later. And they show it in all its glory. All the violence is there as well.  And just prior in the day, during the afternoon hours and not the prime time hours, they have film where violence, blood and guts were on full display for all to see. Oh, and an attempted rape scene as well.

   But we have to blur out that evil cigarette!

   Look, I don’t smoke and I never have. Jenn doesn’t smoke either and we’re both going to be trying to raise our son to not smoke. But WTF? It’s legal, people do it, people do it in public and the government taxes the crap out of the people who do it. It’s a part of life. But we’re going to get so anal about about it that we’re going to censor scenes of smoking on television in prime time now? The same time and channels where you can see drug use by the way. Sci-Fi has had movies on in the last few weeks where people were stoned and got that way on screen.

   But we have to blur out that evil cigarette!!!

   Look cigarette Nazis; go away, get a life and stop screwing with all of our lives. If you can’t do that then just fuck off.