At the beginning of this year, my wife and I took a look a our viewing habits and decided the $50+ we were paying a month to the cable company could be better distributed elsewhere in our budget. So, we dropped cable, and went out to buy a digital converter box and HD antenna. We lost a few local ch
At this point in his career, actor William Shatner needs no introduction. But one can nevertheless take pleasure in recapping: We are talking about the or...
This week is really flying off the rails thematically, isn't it? Only ONE Vnicent Price movie in a week devoted to him? Fuck me. However, in addition to a billion other things, we totally forgot American Horror Story started its new season this week, so we absolutely had to watch the premiere of Freak Show on demand last night.
Above and beyond everything in the debut double-length episode is the fact that it makes abundantly clear that, for all the talk of this being an "ensemble cast," this show has really become a showcase for Sarah Paulson and Jessica Lange. Evan Peters and Frances Conroy have become the other two players to feature prominently in the other three series, but, honestly, it's all about Paulson and Lange.
Given the number of scenes where the two actresses interact, and the telling lines regarding how Lange's Elsa Mars has brought in Paulson's Bette and Dot to get people to see her, rather than them ... I think this is going to play out in a battle of wills much like Asylum. Or, so I hope. Their interactions as Lana and Sister Jude in that series were some of the best interplay of the entire AHS franchise.
But, the show: violent. Creepy. Kind of dirty. It's exactly what you'd expect, and given that Coven raised the bar on the sort of violent depravity the show would attempt, one would think a guy in a creepy clown costume stabbing people would hardly push the envelope. In Coven, Marie LaLaurie's actions alone, to say nothing of Zoe's chainsaw spree on the zombies, would be difficult to overcome -- but, holy fuck.
The first appearance of Twisty the Clown hearkens back to the daylight stabbings in Fincher's Zodiac, and there's something about brightly-lit brutal murder that makes everything starkly terrible. The introduction of the rest of the characters is a bit mixed: Elsa Mars and Bette and Dot get plenty of screen time, but it seems like the show's creators are attempting to pack in too many characters at once. That was the big flaw of the first series -- aka Murder House -- and I hope that they don't go supporting-player crazy again.
Still, you've got the basis for the possibility of a very unsettling season. They've promised to stay in this time period for the entire series, and the inclusion of Naomi Grossman's Pepper makes one intrigued to see how this might play out in terms of connection with Coven. Given that series' own masked serial killer, Bloody Face, and the inevitable revelation of a family propensity for murder in Coven's finale, might we see Twisty as Bloody Face's progenitor?
We'll end at the beginning with the credits, which are stop-motion and incredibly unsettling. However, at the same time, I'd kill for miniatures of so many of the creatures shown within the minute-long sequence. What makes it unsettling is that the variation on the theme for this season emphasizes the "under the big top" aspect of Freak Show, recalling the creepier calliope aspects of John Morris' work on the score for David Lynch's The Elephant Man.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UZnYOvv1v4[/embed]
For more information on that sequence, check out this informative interview with one of the folks behind it at AdWeek. American Horror Story: Freak Show airs Tuesdays on FX. 
Soft Skull Press always presents a unique twist with its biographies or memoirs. It's never just a straightforward history of the titular individual, but rather an analysis of the environment which produced the subject. In the case of W. Scott Poole's Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror, the author uses the '50s horror host as an entry point to discussing the era's social mores and how the woman born Maila Nurmi challenged the status quo.
The author has a wealth of information on which to draw. Sadly, little of it is regarding Vampira herself. There's minimal evidence of her television program, and what remains of her work is, essentially, bit parts in a few films. The thing for which she garnered her initial acclaim exists only anecdotally, leading to a great amount of speculation on Poole's part.
This is additionally due in no small part to the fact that many of the stories about Nurmi's childhood and upbringing come from the woman herself. As the author himself states, it's much like trying to find out about Bob Dylan when he was just Robert Zimmerman, only there are no people to whom we can turn for contradiction or confirmation.
If you're looking for a comprehensive story of Vampira's life, this is likely as complete as it gets. Sadly, it's a lengthy magazine article, at best. Poole does a lovely job in demonstrating how Nurmi and her character were something new and wonderful, but falls short of convincingly depicting the actress as a world-changing persona. I'll grant Nurmi created some iconic imagery that still resonates, but as a danger because she "embodied both ancient terrors and the modern threats of the sexual revolution" stretches credulity a bit.
It's nice to have the full story behind Nurmi's relationships with the likes of Elvis Presley and James Dean, but there's more information on those tabloid stories than on her work in Plan 9 From Outer Space, arguable the thing for which she's most known these days -- and most of that verbiage is given over to discussing much Tim Burton's Ed Wood film got wrong, as opposed to details of the filming itself.
Nevertheless, Vampira is an entertaining read, and one that knbows how to engage its reader and provoke some thoughts. It's not due out until September, but keep an eye out for it.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbQfqb2nGi8[/embed] 
Some of you may have recently become acquainted with the UK's Death Waltz Records via their profile in Spin. Well, the fine purveyors of horror and sci-fi vinyl announced their releases for Record Store Day 2013. They're fucking choice. While the soundtracks to Horror Business and the short film Yellow will have a lot of the folks out there most excited, I'm pretty jazzed about the series of three split 7-inches of TV themes.
There's Star Trek / Lost In Space on black and glitter vinyl, The Twilight Zone / The Outer Limits on clear and black vinyl, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents / The Munsters on white and black vinyl. They're all in exlusive Death Waltz die cut retro disco bag sleeves (300gsm card with matte varnish and black paper inner sleeve), include a free 7 x 7 artprint, and are limited to a one-time pressing of 1000.
WANT. HARD. Somebody in the UK needs to figure out a way to get me one of each, please. Check the art below.
[gallery ids="16322,16323,16324"] 
Lorna Jowett and Stacey Abbott's new book from I.B. Tauris, TV Horror: Investigating the Darker Side of the Small Screen, is an excellent, scholarly look at how the horror genre is portrayed on television. The authors look both to Stephen King's oft-quoted opinion that television limits the terror that can be portrayed, as well as examining the possibilities offered by the small screen.
It's strange, though -- the book mentions the likes of the X-Files, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the Twilight Zone, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and even the likes of Twin Peaks. However, the greatest number of pages are devoted not to those particular shows, but to Doctor Who.
While I understand Jowett and Abbott are coming to the topic from a British persepctive, it just seems strange to focus on a science-fiction show as your main example for a book on horror in television. One could assume that this the program with which the authors are most familiar, and thus, it's that which they choose to run with.
And, yes, there are horrific elements involved in Doctor Who, but they're less of the creepy-crawly, blood-and-guts, or even the thrills-and-chills kind. It's more your bog-standard unpleasantness. Same goes for the likes of Dexter. Perhaps the authors are attempting to focus more on the "dark side" mentioned in the subtitle, but it seems that the focus of the book is more on the modern horror resurgence than the totality of the genre.
Background and historical perspective comes in the form of Quatermass and the Twilight Zone, and even the likes of Kolchak, but it seems that much of the '70s and '80s are glossed over in favor of moving to modern day. What of the schlock that characterized much of the late '80s and early '90s? Why not demonstrate how you move from the artistic and literary influence of the '60s to the cinematically-influenced modern age via the shows that really offered little of neither, like Freddy's Nightmares or Amazing Stories?
Eventually, what defines the book isn't so much what's included as what's excluded. For a brand-new book, it already seems dated, for what book on television horror could exclude the recent phenomenon of American Horror Story? It's a shame -- I would've loved to have seen how that would have changed the dynamic of TV Horror, as the show frequently walks the line between the standard jump scares and gore of so much modern horror, and really reveling and relishing the way in which true horror comes from the casual cruelty perpetrated by one person upon another.
While the analysis of what Jowett and Abbott choose to cover is excellent and spot-on, the omissions make TV Horror for a frustrating read for genre fans. 
Murray Forman Zithromax Cure Sifilis, 's new book, One Night On TV Is Worth Weeks at the Paramount: Popular Music On Early Television is an invaluable history, but one with a frustrating premise at its heart. The history, out now through Duke University Press, does an excellent job of setting up and proving the notion that "music television" didn't start with MTV in the early '80s.
In addition to the myriad shows that would feature music as part and parcel of their programming as the medium went forward, television used music from its very inception. Singers and musical combos were part of the first broadcast tests. It's a natural progression from radio, from whose networks television would arise. It's only logical that the earliest things to come across the airwaves into the sets would be a visual representation of the most predominant aspect of radio, Zithromax Cure Sifilis. Namely, 30mg Zithromax Cure Sifilis, music.
One Night On TV goes on to trace the technological difficulties in trying to figure out how to visually represent music in the television format, and this is where I feel the book goes off the rails. Perhaps it's a case of 20/20 hindight on my part, but I find it incredibly difficult to believe that both the producers and consumers of television content had no idea how to approach viewing music.
Forman makes the following point in chapter three, "Harmonizing Genres":
"Viewers in television's early phase usually described either specific musical moments [...] or else they referred to the characteristics of the musical hosy and guests in rather broad terms."
Film and music genres already extant could easily be transferred to the new medium, and the likelihood of those descriptors not being applied in rather ridiculous -- as we see in the quote above, they were being applied to the particular performances. It is more likely that, as the programs were vague, as those producing them were more focused on getting the technology right, 100mg Zithromax Cure Sifilis, rather than narrowing the focus of genre.
It's difficult to believe that early viewers of televisions were like cavemen presented with an iPod when it came to viewing habits. So much of the evidence presented in the chapter four, "The Look of Music," seems extraordinarily contradictory. That many folks had to "acquire TV viewing proficiency and interpretation skills, gaining comfort and fluency with television's unique rhythms and presentational grammars" seems patently untrue when coupled with the the assertion that many folks would gather at the neighbors' to watch television.
When one realizes that the first sets were rather pricey, and thus, many of the early adopters would open up their homes to others in order to watch programs, then why -- as it was a public viewing of popular music on a screen -- couldn't viewers simply adopt habits of the musical performances they'd already seen on a screen, in a public setting, Zithromax Cure Sifilis. In other words, movies. Zithromax Cure Sifilis paypal, Coupled with the assertion that "[b]etween 1948 and the mid-1950s, several norms for presenting musical performances emerged, including standard camera angles and shot duration (often adopted from earlier film musicals and Soundies)," it seems ludicrous that viewers of televised musical performances were flummoxed as to how they might interpret what they had seen.
It becomes all the more frustrating when Forman describes musical performances as part of travelogues in his chapter on Latin music, "Maracas, Congas, and Castanets": "elaborate visual and narrative travelogues" had been part and parcel of entertainment "since the dawn of Tin Pan Alley in the late nineteenth century." In other words, here Forman describes a certain genre, which people were able to follow through mulitiple mediums, and still make sense as to what they were viewing, 10mg Zithromax Cure Sifilis, and understand it in a grander historical context.
The historical perspective offered by Murray Forman in One Night On TV Is Worth Weeks at the Paramount is an invaluable collection of programs, musicians, and hosts, placed in a wonderful context of history. In particular, the chapters on the African-American and Latin experiences in television's early days are especially worthwhile to any student of popular culture. In that case, Foreman's analysis and commentary is first-rate, Zithromax Cure Sifilis ebay, using none of the contradictory evidence present in his genre arguments. A greater bit of cogitation as to why Xavier Cugat could get a show, but Louis Armstrong could not, would have been appreciated, but that's a minor quibble. If you pick this up, prepare to be frustrated for a bit before you get to the good stuff.
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Erythromycin Pdr, Thomas S. Hibbs' Shows about Nothing: Nihilism in Popular Culture makes for an interesting confluence of genres. The examination of philosophy in pop culture is nothing new, of course - Open Court Books' Popular Culture and Philosophy series covers any number of TV shows and movies, including The Simpsons and Star Wars.
However, Hibbs' book weaves a discussion of nihilism with Cape Fear, Nip/Tuck, 500mg Erythromycin Pdr, and a slew of diverse and seemingly unrelated films and programs. Granted, the subtitle is a trifle over-reaching. Hibbs sticks primarily to film and television, with a brief digression into Shakespeare in the early chapters, Erythromycin Pdr. Music is left wholly untouched - a smart move, as it could easily be a series of books unto itself - but those hoping to see how video games tie into all of this will be left wanting.
Granted, it's not as if you'll be sorely disappointed might by Shows about Nothing. The early chapters are a bit underwhelming, and read like a Introduction to Philosophy textbook as Hibbs brings the reader up to speed on what exactly nihilism is, Erythromycin Pdr canada. For the record, it's a "philosophy or way of life characterized by alack of meaning or purpose."
Once past those basic early chapters - one of which is quite literally an FAQ on nihilism - the reader gets into the nitty-gritty of the book, and it's richly rewarding. Erythromycin Pdr, While the book's early chapters are pretty underwhelming, it becomes evident as the chapters go on that they are laying the groundwork for some serious dropping of knowledge.
The chapter "Defense Against the Dark Arts" adroitly demonstrates Hibbs' ability to deeply analyze frequently overlooked facets of pop culture, putting MacBeth, Se7en, and The Dark Knight in a single chapter discussing the nature of good vs. Erythromycin Pdr paypal, evil. The thrust of Hibb's argument states:
"The worst evil is not to be found in those who harbor a conflict within them but rather in those whose passions are under the complete control of their reason and who have a clear apprehension of their goal and the means to its attainment."
That being said, Shows about Nothing is an accessibly entertaining text, in addition to an informative one. Whether a reader is looking for a text to make a philosophic worldview more easily understood, or simply looking to parse their entertainment more deeply, Hibbs delivers a book that illuminates some rarely-examined corners. 10mg Erythromycin Pdr, A note: this version of Shows about Nothing, from Baylor University Press, is revised edition of Hibbs' 1999 book of the same name. Having not read the original, I've opted not to delve into any sort comparison between the two versions.
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Live on the BBC's Rich Bailey And Colchicine, Later... With Jools Holland, 500mg Rich Bailey And Colchicine, 200mg Rich Bailey And Colchicine, this is a much better recording of the recently-reformed Specials than the bootleg tracks from their special guest appearance at Bestival last year. As you can tell, Rich Bailey And Colchicine australia, 100mg Rich Bailey And Colchicine, they sound much better with Terry Hall than the reunion shows they did in the '90s with Roddy Radiation and Lynvall Golding doing all the vox. Still not quite the same as having Jerry Dammers in the band, 20mg Rich Bailey And Colchicine, too, but he's kind of a stuck-up git and thus, it's better than nothing.
"A Message to You Rudy"
the Specials - "A Message to You Rudy" (from The Specials)
the Specials - "Gangsters" (from The Specials).
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