Calabrese and Harley Poe Show!

I'm a little nervous about this show, because it's the first one with our new bass player and only the second with our new guitarist. I hope we don't disappoint. I'm very excited to play with Calabrese though. They are featured on Rue Morgue's second Hymns compilation. We were on the first. Be there.

Do you like scary movies? Well I do; I absolutely love them.

So I went and saw Scream 4 a few days ago. I went to the 2:05 showing, and other than an older man and woman, whom I suspect weren’t functioning with full decks, I was the only one in the theater. This had to be one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had at the movies. I absolutely loved the film! It was definitely the second best of the series, and the countless times I heard “Oh shit!” coming from the couple behind me was an indication they too were having a good time.

It seems to me that before Scream (1996) was released in theaters, the slasher film was almost nonexistent in the 90s. Mainstream horror itself, with but few exceptions, was faring poorly throughout the decade. Scream helped revitalize the genre, simple as that. The film helped open the gates to the horror revival fans have enjoyed within this last decade and introduced a new antihero known as Ghostface.

I remember going to see it after church when it had first come out back in 1996. During those days I was very involved with Christian activities and wasn’t paying too much attention to the genre I once held so dear to my heart. Scream was a sort of catalyst for returning to the dark side. The last showing of the night was I think around ten o’clock and my mother had adamantly expressed her disapproval of me going to watch such a violent film right after church. I think I was going on eighteen and remember stating that I was old enough to make my own decisions, so she didn’t push the issue too hard, except to let me know that she had called dad and he wanted me home by midnight.

Though I was pressed for time, a few friends from youth group and I went to witness the rebirth of the whodunit slasher film. Being a late showing, and due to the film having been in theaters for a couple weeks already, there were only a few other people in the theater. The experience was incredible. I remember how stressed I was about making it home before midnight, but that didn’t keep me from having a great time. It was such a thrill to hear my friends scream like children, and the image of Drew Barrymore’s character getting butchered at the beginning of the film will forever be ingrained in my psyche.

It had been a long time since I’d seen a film so violent and creative. At that time, before the horror boom of the 2000s, I hadn’t seen any of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacres (1974-1994), and I had only viewed a few of the original Halloween (1978-1995) and Friday the 13th (1980-1993) films. I had never seen Hell Night (1981) starring Linda Blair and featuring the surprise killer, so Scream was an experience that was wholly new to me. It was a horror film that called out the clichés of the genre and glorified them, even though Rofle Kanefsky's little known gem There’s Nothing Out There (1992) had done it four years earlier. After the movie was over I left the theater, got in my car (after checking the backseat), and made it home by 12:05 am. My parents weren’t waiting up. That night was a defining moment in my pathetic little life.

So over a decade later it’s good to see the return of a franchise that spawned so many imitations and parodies. At the turn of the century teenage slasher films were popping up every other month, and I made sure to make it to the theater for both Scream sequels (1997 good, 2000 bad), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and its sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), Urban Legend (1998), Disturbing Behavior (1998), The Faculty (1998), Halloween H20 (1998), and many others created in the wake of a classic. And when Scream 5 comes around, I’ll be sure to see it in the theater as well. Amen.

The Vampire and the Haunted Trees

I'm not too interested in Easter, except for the fact I get to spoil my boys with chocolate eggs and other gifts, and I do like the idea of celebrating fertility and the beginning of new things to come. Other than those reasons, it's not a holiday I generally get excited about. But I do love Halloween! Just take a look!



By the way, my house is now on the market. 1616 Kingston Rd, Kokomo, IN, 46901. Please buy it. And now that April is just about over, the song of the month is "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" performed by the Animals. Seriously, it needs to stop raining. Tomorrow is May 1st; time for sun, cocktails, and swimming. It's been a long fuckin' winter.

I realize this post is very random with no point.

SOLD

The Breeder

It’s near the end of spring. At 6:00 AM, outside a remote trailer park just off an old country road, an explosion is heard by the denizens. Further investigation reveals a huge crater, but no sign of a meteorite or anything else for that matter—just footprints starting at the center of the hole, heading toward the park. The prints are simply oval shaped, indicating no heels or toes, but a jelly-like substance is left in each one. This is just the beginning of a twenty-four hour stretch of terror for the occupants living in these trailers, for in one of the homes hides a beast cruel, unusual, and extremely horny.


Whether a beast from Hell, or a creature from outer space, the Breeder has one purpose.
It has come here to mate, and if its phallus can't accomplish that goal, then its fingers will.
SEE Earth girls ravished! WITNESS the men they love torn to pieces! WATCH as the Breeder achieves his goal of creating hideousness!!


Run, Earth girls, run!!!

Important Person

18"x24" charcoal portrait took about 3 1/2 hours in the comfort of my living room while the boob tube blasted with nonsense and my wife lay suffering from TMJ on the couch.Matt Bunn ladies and gentlemen, Matt Bunn. This dude came by last night about 10pm. We began about 10:30 and finished a little after 2am. I feel this is my most accomplished portrait, maybe due to rendering this already handsome man into a beautiful, Americanized Jesus. You're welcome Matty, but enough about the portrait. Let's explore Bunn the person. When I first met this guy I had no intentions of becoming his friend, but the asshole invited me out for a drink on my birthday and we've been buds ever since. I've known him for almost a decade now, but I'm not sure how well I really know him. Carefully selected adjectives come to mind when I think of him, though many contradict each other: atheistic, hedonistic, inconsiderate, selfish, cheap, perverted, instigative, sincere, thoughtful, kind, moral, intelligent, good-natured, faithful, affable. He loves the Beatles, Captain America, baseball, and pizza. Bunn is a predictable All-American, clean cut kid, and at the same time a total anomaly; a veritable walking contradiction. He's simple, yet so hard to read. But the one thing you can count on with this man is his dedication to his friends. It's hard to find a crony as self-sacrificing as Bunn. You need a wing man? A security blanket? A bowling mate? Matt Bunn will find a way.