Posts from October 2008

I have curated a podcast of Halloween-ish songs over at Sidedown: Hallowcast 3. You can subscribe to the podcast—Downcast—by inputting this URL in your iTunes (http://www.sidedown.org/downcast/downcast.xml), or you can just play this particular episode right there on that page. It's a 45 minute mix of creepy and fun horror-themed music, and it's free. So check it out, will you?

8 days to Halloweenn now, and I haven't seen as many scary movies as I'd hoped to yet; there just hasn't been time for it. But here's a few I did catch:

• 30 Days of Night - I really enjoyed this one, and it partially fulfills my craving for more zombie movies, even though it's not a zombie movie. Not only is it a slightly different take on vampires, but the location was intriguing. Vampires in the freezing cold in the far distant north? What's not to like?!

• Rosemary's Baby - Never had seen this before. Pretty freaky, impressive for 1968.

• Rose Red - I'd seen this before when it first aired on TV years ago. It's so full of awesome visuals and sets, and even has a decent plotline and some good characters. But like most haunted house or ghost movies, it suffers from a convolution of ambiguous and arbitrary ghost powers which sort of degenerates into an illogical conclusion. I still enjoy watching it, though.

Pretty soon I want to Netflix The Real Ghostbusters. I miss those cartoons.

Seen anything interesting this month?

October is proceeding splendidly, all things considered. Despite the dangers posed by this brisk autumn season, and the multitude of multitudinous things going on, fun things abound. At least for me. For example, I went to Salem, MA this last weekend and had a good timme.

If anyone wants to see photos, you should go to Facebook. If you're already on there aren't haven't befriended me, what's taking you so long?

Also...horror webzine Flames Rising has put up my monster for their monster countdown: The Glaring Hunter. Check it out!

Hey! I know him! I know him! He's a great guy.

And how cool, they got Brad McDevitt to illustrate the Hunter. Brad did some work on my Jeff's published adventure, DCC #31: The Transmuter's Last Touch. Neat!

October! This is my month, which really just means that there's a lot of things associated with this time of year (harvest season) that I really, really like. I've rambled on it in the past, so I'll keep it short now.

The month culminates with Halloween, which to my wife and me isn't just a one-off kooky holiday. We take that day and drag it backwards in time so that the whole of October is peppered with bits of it. the decorations are already up, I've already got a pumpkin, and I'm gearing up for some scary movie watching throughout the month. I like how a bunch of networks run these horror movie marathons. Take that, the brisker weather (at least it should be; it isn't always), the falling, multicolored leaves, the darker days, and you've got a net effect that just appeals to the core of me.

While I'm always a fan of horror in writing, art, and movies, that craving magnifies a whole bunch because of this seasonal shift. Of course, it's prompted by the commercialism which only increases in this country with every passing year. Somehow the festivities of Halloween seem to be observed less and less, yet the amount of plastic Halloween crap you can buy booms. Thing is, I like all that stuff. Okay, it can get ridiculous.

Speaking of which, I'm doing my part for the Halloween effort:

In addition, the horror website Flames Rising is offering a daily dose of monsters throughout the month of October. Somewhere in the mix will be one of mine. Check 'em out each day.