October Read: At the Mountains of Madness (1930's)

Despite his profound impact on much of the fiction I consume, I've never read or consumed any actual HP Lovecraft.  Like everything else, I just never got around to it.

What I'd read about Lovecraft's writing was interesting.  Even by his fans, he's not considered to know much about how to turn a phrase.  The term "purple prose" comes up a lot in the sniffier descriptions, but everyone acknowledges his wild imagination and ability to generate a palpable sense of dread that other writers strive for, but force with nameable threats and terrors.

With Halloween coming, I figured it would be a good time to finally delve in and check out what all the fuss was about.

I will not say At the Mountains of Madness is my new favorite novel(la).  But it is a fascinating work - complete in its mythology, striking in its building of atmosphere and dread, and it feels like a single man's efforts to restrain an entire culture's imagination and mythologies, pouring them out onto the page with force rather than cultivating smaller ideas and lulling the reader with craft.

FYI: A Personal Note

Today is the "dating anniversary" of Jamie and myself.  Today marks 17 years of together-ness, at least as Jamie marks it.

We don't make a big deal out of it anymore.  Wedding anniversaries are generally seen as more important.

Here's to 17 years of love, true love.

what I think she was saying was "oh, thank you for taking my picture, my love!"

Octoberama! Sundays with The Bride! Part 2!

As we head into Halloween, let's just celebrate with some Bride Miscellenia and fan art from around Tumblr!

As Ms. Lanchester celebrates her 110th somewhere in The Infinite, clearly I'm not the only one with a thing for girls with interesting hair-do's.

If you didn't read our post on Ms. Lanchester earlier today, please take a moment to do so.  It's her birthday.

from the Mondo Universal Horror celebration.  Saw this in person, and it is absolutely stunning.

This is a collection of fan-art of varying provenance - some official, most not.  From what I can tell, somehow The Bride and The Monster have become icons for the rockabilly-retro crowd as it exists in 2012, applying late 50's aesthetic to the 1935 character with the tattoo sensibilities of today.

Go, pop-culture.

Octoberama! Sundays with The Bride - Happy Birthday, Elsa

Last week, JimD emailed me and asked if I planned on posting about Elsa Lanchester's 110th Birthday, which happens to fall on today, the day I'd planned the finale post for Sundays with The Bride.  Honestly, I had no idea the birthday was coming, so, everybuddy, take a moment and thank JimD and then take another moment and appreciate cosmic happenstance.

I had another post ready, and so you'll still see that today, later, but as it's Elsa's birthday, we need to give the lady her due.

We all grew up seeing clips from The Bride of Frankenstein, or saw the role of The Bride parodied in other films, in cartoons, or pop art.  The role passed into western iconography as much as the rest of the Universal Horror pack of monsters, but - oddly - The Bride appears for a total of one scene in this single film.  The Bride has no speaking lines, and, of all the Universal Horror "monsters", she is the only one which hurts nobody.

But that's only if you don't count breaking hearts.

Octoberama! Silent Saturdays Finale!

I seem to have made a theme of silent film in our Saturday postings this month.  It's belated, but I'm dubbing these posts Silent Saturdays.  Live with it.

If you ever think that all Hollywood does these days is adapt existing material from books and create remakes - well, that's all they've ever done.

If you enjoyed Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow as much as I did as a kid, its of course, an American classic as a novel, but it was also done in 1922 as a feature film of the silent era.  Let's not belabor asking you to watch a 70 minute movie, but we will share a link to the Headless Horseman scene.

Ichabod encounters The Headless Horseman!

Hi yo, Horse from Hades!

Happy Birthday Theodore Roosevelt!

Jake's blog informs me that today is the birthday of Theodore Roosevelt, the most interesting president in the world.

Born this day, 1858, in New York City.

Who WOULDN'T vote for this guy?

Rather than sum up the man and his achievements I shall start by recommending some light reading:

• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
• Theodore Rex
• Colonel Roosevelt all by Edmund Morris.

The River of Doubt by Candice Millard
The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt by a former professor I had at UT, Lewis L. Gould (he was awesome.)

October Watch: Dracula (1931)

With the arrival of the Universal Horror Blu-Ray set, I wanted to get Dracula (1931) in before Halloween.

I first saw Dracula back in high school when it was going through a bit of a renaissance, probably because of those @#$%ing Anne Rice books that I kind of blame for leading to Twilight.

As a kid my concept of Dracula the character was fairly benign and drawn from things like The Groovy Ghoulies and the 70's-monster-plosion.*  But Dracula never seemed to be available on VHS, and I sure as hell wasn't going to read a whole book, but thanks to the monster-magazines and books I always seemed to have growing up, I already knew the story, including the character names and basic plot elements.

I was surprised how spooky I did find the film the first time I saw it.  I've always been of the Ed Wood school of willing-suspension-of-disbelief, even in movies which have long traded on literalism for the most part.  If I see a giant fake bat on a string, I guess I just buy that that's supposed to not just be a bat, but Dracula travelling incognito.  If there are armadillos in Castle Dracula, then, by gum, Transylvania must be overrun with cousins of my fellow Texans.  I dunno.  As long as I'm enjoying the film, I've always been willing to forgive a lot.**

Octoberama! Fridays with Elvira!

Our final Friday with Elvira rolls into the station.

All these years later, who knew Elvira would make a bit of a return in the pop culture consciousness? I, for one, welcome her return for as long as she wishes to stick around.

Really, what better way to celebrate the spirit of Halloween than with a bit of spookiness, a lot of fun and a celebration of creature features, great and terrible?

Octoberama! Superman and a Gallery of Not Really Spooky Supporting Characters!

You have to assume that the Frankenstein here was poor ol' Glenn Strange.

Gungan Style: The Internet Video That Sums It Up

Of late, you may have noted a slight change in tone around The Signal Watch.

I think this video more or less sums up my feelings as I head towards my tenth year* of blogging on comics and pop culture.

Give the video about 2 minutes before giving up on it.

Gungan Style (Gangnam Style Parody) - watch more funny videos

*yes, 10 years in April of 2013.