Halloween Happenings: Tales from the Front Yard!

I wanted to take a quick moment to share some of the front yard decorating my domestic partner in crime and I had done for Halloween this year. Unfortunately, however, as exciting as this should be, this post is plagued by sadness and despair. More on that in a minute, though. In the meantime, I'll go over these sick pics real quick so you can see what we did!

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Here are a couple of jack-o'-lanterns that my slave lady and I carved up to ward off demon's during the Halloween season. This was only our second Halloween carving jack-o'-lanterns, and I think they came out pretty rad, especially considering we did them freehand. Ain't no stencils up in dis piece!

This is a quick glimpse of the rave to the graveyard we put together. This is certainly the most we've ever done as far as outdoor decorating goes, and I like how it all came together. I actually built the spooky looking dude on the left as well as the rave to the graveyard fence, both of which were done for under $10 in total.  

Here's a video that will give you a better look at what we did as far as decorating goes. Don't mind me being an idiot, because I don't.

 

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Anyway, as great as all this Halloween decorating was, tragedy struck. Well, actually, lame Ohio weather struck, and because we live on the flat chested part of the country, most of these beautiful decorations took a beating from Mother Nature's unrelenting flatulence. No matter how well I reinforced them, all of the rave to the gravestones were uprooted two or three times, and no matter how far into the ground I stuck him, the grim reaper dude also kept getting blown over. To top it all off, our awesome $2 pumpkin light cover was blown away and into oblivion, never to be seen again. $2 or not, that shit pissed me off like you wouldn't believe. That thing delivered an orange glo powerful enough to clean any surface.  

In the end, I gave up on constantly trying to re-secure and reinforce shit, only to have it get rocked like a hurricane on a constant basis. I've taken out all of the rave to the gravestones as well as the grim reaper dude and away they have been put for the season. At this point, I'm over it. Though, for the record, we did carve the jack-o'-lanterns after all that shit went down, so that's helped make this disaster a little easier to deal with. Keyword being little.

RIP Pumpkin Light Cover Guy 

May your orange light glow oh so brightly in pumpkin light cover guy heaven.

This One's for My Fallen Soldiers

Rest in Peace, Planet of Terror. Your warm and controlled touch will be missed by us all. 

RIP Sally Menke

With a resume that includes every film directed by Quentin Tarantino, Sally Menke's contribution to cinema is quite impressive, and the news of her passing is beyond unfortunate. People often overlook the importance of great editing, but the second you see a film that is poorly put together, it really sticks out like a sore thumb. An editor can control the flow, tone and direction of a film. They can make an actor look great, or completely terrible. They can even make a scene epic, or completely subdued and personal. Editors are the unsung heroes of film, and Sally Menke's contribution to the form is quite important.

Menke had received Oscar nods for both Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds, and being a huge fan of Tarantino's films, I see this as a major loss as her work on his movies was so very important to their success. While her passing is saddening - especially considering her age - she will always be remembered when I watch something like that amazing car chase in Death Proof, the House of Blue Leaves scene where The Bride faces off against the Crazy 88 in Kill Bill Vol. 1, or any number of amazing scenes she helped bring to life.

Freddy's Friday Night Dance Party!: Nice F**king Model Edition!

With the recent and unfortunate passing of Glenn Shadix, I thought no time would be better than to show some love for the Tim Burton horror/comedy classic, Beetlejuice, on Freddy's Friday Night Dance Party. Shadix perfectly played Otho, a flamboyant interior designer that was one of the unfortunate (or fortunate?) victims of the infectious Caribbean rhythms in a scene that gives us today's wonderful dance party extraordinaire.

*Warning*

It takes a good minute and a half to get to the dance party goods here, so I apologize in advance, but the lead up is, of course, worth the watch.

Written by Irving Burgie, William A. Attaway and performed by the King of Calypso himself, Harry Belafonte (who also had a total of three other songs that were used in the film), Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) was cemented as a piece of American pop culture due to its use in this scene from 1988's Beetlejuice. To be honest, Day-O is completely ridiculous (and wicked annoying during baseball games) but it so perfectly works for this hysterical scene, a scene that is really sold by the letting it all hang out performances from the cast. Especially the always amusing Catherine O'Hara, who really shines the comedic light in just about everything she does.

I don't know what else to say about this iconic musical moment outside of it being super fun in the silliest of ways, something that is not always easy to achieve. When it comes down to it, this scene speaks for itself, and I do know watching it again makes me want to revisit Beetlejuice as it has been far too long since I've seen it.

RIP Vonetta McGee

I don't know how this one got past me, but I am guessing it isn't very well known that cult film icon, Vonetta McGee, passed away on July 9th at the age of 65. I'm (not really) surprised it hasn't been a slightly bigger deal with some of the cinematic work she has done, and I might have all but missed the news if not for Ivan's post about her passing over at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear. As a fan of many of the films she has worked in, as well as a fan of cult cinema in general, I feel she more than deserves a little love here at CNAMB.

Here are a few trailers for some of her most notable films:

The Great Silence (Review)

Hammer

Blacula

The Eiger Sanction

Repo Man

On an interesting side note, director Alex Cox is a Spaghetti Western guru, even writing a book on the subject. He does an interview on the DVD release for The Great Silence where he cites that film as where he would be first introduced to McGee, enjoying her so much that he would later use her in a small yet awesome role in Repo Man. I quite enjoy The Great Silence, and consider Repo Man one of the greatest cult films of all time, so it's pretty interesting how things like that come together.

It's sad that she had to go at such a young age, but she has left behind a solid batch of classic cult films for many to enjoy for years to come.

RIP Dennis Hopper

A madman's cinematic reign comes to sad end, and even though it was inevitable, it still lessens the blow none whatsoever. Dennis Hopper's battle with prostate cancer was long lasting, but his career and impact on screen outlasted any illness that would become him. Hopper was a true original, he lived his life his way and by his rules, and that is something that translated to his films and his performances…never will there be anyone quite like him. You will be missed Dennis Hopper, and even though you were in the Super Mario Bros. movie, you're still the man, man.

Freddy's Friday Night Dance Party!: Jimmy Dean Edition!

Out of all the deaths that have happened in the last year or so, Corey Haim's has been the one that is the toughest for me. All deaths are awful, but the better of the two Corey's was the coolest cat on the planet to me when I was a kid and him being pretty close to my age, makes it all the more troubling.  Haim was someone that I idolized as a youngster and I wanted to be just like him. I remember all too well wanting to have the same cool hair that he had in Fast Getaway, but thanks to my wavy past two inches hair, I couldn't (don't judge me). Corey Haim was my first favorite actor (that I remember…before that, it was probably Kermit), and with some of the movies that are on his resume, that shouldn't be a surprise.

He was a major part of my childhood and a handful of his films were and still, are some of my favorites. Silver Bullet, License to Drive, The Lost Boys, Lucas, Dream a Little Dream, and yes, Fast Getaway are movies that I loved growing up. So, when it came to the choice for a song tonight, it was tough because I would rather it be something more lighthearted, as opposed to all Cry Little Sister and shit. Unfortunately, Haim didn't go through the same corny M.J. phase that Feldman went through (though he did have an album!), so I have to settle for Rock On from 1989's Dream a Little Dream.

 

Originally recorded and released in 1973 by David Essex, Rock On went on to be covered in 1989 by some lame soap actor, Michael Damian. His version appeared on the album, Where Do We Go From Here, but is better known for being the battle cry song in (also recently deceased) Marc Rocco's, Dream a Little Dream. I actually never really liked this song and really still don't. Jimmy Dean? Really?! I should've just done Cry Little Sister. RIP Corey Haim…I look forward to seeing you in Crank 2 someday.

RIP Dan O'Bannon

At a measly 63, genre icon Dan O'Bannon has sadly passed away from what I gather would have been sometime earlier tonight. One of the best writers of Science Fiction and Horror, Dan O'Bannon will be greatly missed.

Lifeforce



The Resurrected



Total Recall



Return of the Living Dead



Alien

Got a Little Captain in You?

Well, that post title is kinda creepy sounding if you think about it, so don't. Captain Lou Albano died this morning at age 76 and my buddy posted this photo over on his Face book page, so I thought it would be cool to share it with the baby eaters of the world. It was taken at the NJ Chiller Theater Expo in January of 2006. Apparently, I was going through my thumbs up in photos phase...so glad I got over that! I was a pretty big fan of WWF wrestling when Captain Lou was doing his thing, plus, being in my early 30's, I love The Goonies and he was most famous for being in the "Good Enough" video too. So, it was cool seeing this photo again after not seeing it since it was probably taken, but a bummer that it resurfaced for a not so great reason. RIP Captain Lou.

RIP Pat Swayze

With the sad news of Patrick Swayze passing away from a long battle with cancer, I thought it would be nice to revisit trailers for some of the movies that he was in - that doubled as movies that are just flat out kick ass, with many of them being childhood favorites of mine. This is quite the sad news...RIP.

The Outsiders



Roadhouse



Black Dog



Point Break



Red Dawn