T Time: Breakfast

Since I was a kid, Mr. T has been a hero of mine. I can't exactly pin point why, but for some reason his cheesy charm has always brought a smile to my face. Because of this, I will be dedicating a continuing series of posts to all things T., and I pity the fool who don't like it!

To get this shindig started, I figured I would open up the pantry of the past and pour a big bowl of Mr. T cereal. I vaguely remember it tasting very similar to Cap'n Crunch, but honestly it could have tasted like cardboard and I still would have eaten it because Mr. T said "It's cool"! Plus, it came with stickers!

And who can forget the cameo that Mr. T cereal made in Pee Wee's Big Adventure!

Why I Dislike Ti West

First off, I'll clarify that I don't dislike Ti as a person, just his professional decisions. Now, for those of you that aren't familiar with him, Ti West is a film maker that has done mostly horror related movies, and I don't like most of them. I've seen a lot of films in my day, many being horror, and many not being very good. I have no negative feelings against those film makers at all. Bad films happen, it's not a huge deal. If someone makes a bad movie, I'll still give their next one a shot. Then why am I calling out Ti West? Here's my film-by-film explanation:

The first film I saw by Ti was House Of The Devil. It was purposely made to look and feel like an 80's style horror flick and I enjoyed it. It was a slow burn story about a college student who takes a house sitting job for some extra cash that turns out to be something much more sinister. It didn't have a lot of action, but I think it achieved the goal he was going for and was overall successful. This made me very hopeful for this film maker. I even did an interview with him for Scars Magazine, which you can read here for free.

The next movie in line was Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever. There was a lot of controversy surrounding this film. Ti made it public that the final version of the film was not his. It was re-edited and partially re-shot behind his back. He tried to take his name off of it but the producers did not allow it. This is where he put himself in the firing range. I'm sure this kind of thing happens on a daily basis in Hollywood, but you never hear about it. At the time, I wasn't sure if this was a bold move to hold on to his creative credibility or just an act of douchebaggery. Only time would tell. I did see the film and it wasn't very good. There were some creative gore scenes, but overall it was just too cheesy and did nothing for the series. I'm not so sure a different edit would have saved it, but who knows.

When I did his interview, Ti was still attached to the follow up film to A Haunting In Connecticut, A Haunting In Georgia. Once again, word was hitting the streets that issues were arising between Ti and the studio. Dread Central spoke to him who said this:

"So I was on The Haunting in Georgia movie for a while, and we got to the point where we were making different movies, and it was like I don't want to risk us realizing that so late in the game. It's also important for me to write and direct my own movies and edit them so with this MPI-Glass Eye Pix thing, I can do that. The Innkeepers can be my own movie, and [to do that] as long as I can do that is important."

Was this another move to hold true to his artistic credibility? I still wasn't sure. Finally, a film that he was happy to put his name on was released. As soon as The Innkeepers was released, I grabbed a copy so I could see the masterpiece that "the man" was keeping him from creating. The film follows two hotel employees working the final days at the Yankee Pedlar Inn who decide to investigate the possibility of a haunting. I watched and waited for something to happen. I continued to wait. Is something happening here? Nope. It's nearing the end, it's gotta get good now, right? Still nope.That's it? Damn it! I was so disappointed. Maybe my hopes were too high, but with all the drama being built beforehand, I couldn't help but have high expectations.

V/H/S was a film that I was really looking forward to without even knowing who was involved. An anthology style film that used found footage in a new and creative way sounded very promising. Luckily, I was right in thinking that as the majority of it was great. I did, however, learn that Ti had done one of the stories before I saw it and I couldn't help but cringe. I went forward in viewing it without seeing which part was his on purpose to see if I could pick it out. When I got to the segment titled "Second Honeymoon", I saw a dragged out story with very little payoff and really didn't fit with the overall feel of the film. I immediately knew that was Ti's contribution. I was right.

If by chance Ti were to ever read this, this is for him: Don't take this as a personal attack. What I mean with this article is: if you are going to go out of your way to "hold on to your integrity", don't make shitty movies. Compromise is part of the business. From what I've seen, your creative juices are very bland when left alone. Allow others to throw in some flavor and you will have a much tastier end product. The end.

The Art Of The Music Video

These days, music videos aren't thought of as something special. They seem to be part of the process. Release album; release singe; make video for single; rinse and repeat. Most videos, as far as rock and metal bands go, are often just the band doing their thing in an abandoned warehouse or a field, sometimes with a girl in distress walking around. Nothing really special. Once in a great while, a band will take advantage of the video medium by creating visuals that take that song to an entirely new level. Using art to compliment art. Below are a few example of what I mean:

Tool is by far my favorite band. Not only for their incredible music, but the total image they created. When I saw the video for Sober the first time, I was completely blown away. I had never seen a video like this before and I wanted more! Luckily, all of their videos are this amazing. Check them all out here.

I'm not a huge Aphex Twins fan, just not my cup of tea, but they do have some really cool videos like this one for the song Rubber Johnny. the Come To Daddy video is also rather creepy.

Meshuggah, another one of my favorites, have recently released a video for the song I Am Colossus which I absolutely love. It doesn't hurt that it has a Tool video feel to it!

Ganesh Rao, a musician and visual artist, quickly made a name for himself by posting this video online.

The band Tesseract were obviously fans of Ganesh's work and hired him to make their video for Eden 2.0. It's the second version of the song featuring short lived vocalist Elliot Coleman. Not my favorite version, but the video is still cool.

The last video I will post is Uneven Structure's Frost/Hail video.I'm not usually a fan of the band-in-action kind of videos, but I think they found the perfect balance of that and some mind blowing imagery that enhanced my love for this song.

I hope you enjoyed these. If you feel I missed some really good ones, let me know!

Product Spotlight: Strange Kids Club Posters and Stickers

Through Horror Decor, I get to meet a lot of cool people from all over the world that I otherwise would never have the chance to meet. One of these people is Rondal from www.strangekidsclub.com, a blog-style site that celebrates our inner child by featuring articles on video games, comics, unbelievably cool toys, exclusive interviews, movie reviews and more. He contacted me about doing an interview for his site and I jumped at the chance to do so. Check it out here, it was a lot of fun!

Doing the interview was enough for me, but since he is obviously an awesome dude, Rondal sent me some goodies from the SKC Shop. I was unaware of the badass-ness that would be entering my mailbox. The first thing I saw were a pack of stickers inspired by Madballs. The pack included Stay Puss, Mogwad and Strange Kid (their mascot). A fourth sticker, Alf meets Alien, was also included. This design is now a t-shirt which is available through Fright-Rags and I highly recommend it.

The highlight of the package was an 18"x24" poster for The Burning 2. "There was a part 2?" Nope! Which is why this poster is so cool. If there was actually a sequel made, it probably wouldn't be very good, but this amazing artwork allows you to create this film in your mind that will always be great.

I highly recommend you check out all of the things available at the SKC Shop. Not only can the items I featured be purchased, but a whole bunch more stickers, buttons, comics and  posters (including another what-if poster for Cujo 2) are there.

The Childhood Toy Box: My Pet Monster

For my first post, I am introducing the start of what will be an ongoing series called "The Childhood Toy Box". As with most children, I spent countless hours playing with what ever toy I could con my parents into buying for me. Luckily for me, most of them kicked ass! I truly feel that the eighties and early nineties had some great toys, and since I no longer own most of them and it just doesn't make any financial sense to hunt them all down since I'm sure the majority of them now cost a pretty penny, I will feature some of these toys here for all to reminisce about and enjoy.

Toy #1 is the almighty My Pet Monster. Sure, stuffed animals were for girls, but this was no stuffed animal.  Complete with horns, pointy teeth, blue fur and orange chains that kept his hands locked up, there wasn't a boy on the planet that didn't want this guy! It became so popular that it spawned a direct-to-video movie about a boy who becomes the monster when he gets hungry, which I watched constantly. I have been tempted to track it down, but I have a feeling it's one of those films that is better off living in my memories since it probably won't hold up these days.

A cartoon also came from the success of the toy, but I don't remember ever watching it. After viewing this clip, I can see why!

Other creatures from the My Pet Monster universe starting emerging, like Gwonk, Wogster, and Rark, but none of them did anything for me, so I just stuck with the original.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little blast from the past. Stay tuned for many more to come!

Welcome to my brain!

Why did I create this page? Good question! It's mainly due to the reason that I don't have very many people who share the same interests as me anymore, and I need a place to spew my random thoughts! Over the years, it seems that many of the people I know that did have common interest with me grew up and lost touch in all the things that I still hold dear to me. Music and movies occupy a lot of my thoughts, as I'm sure it does for many others, but make it metal music and horror movies at age thirty something and the numbers seem to dwindle a bit. Throw in a love for all things Halloween and it takes even more of a nose dive! Some may call me immature, but I call it staying true to myself. I'm an adult for 40 hours a week at work and take care of all the adult things I have to do, so if I want to spend the rest of my time watching zombies devour the living, listening to music that make most people cover their ears and turning my garage into a haunted house, what's the harm in that?

Most of the things I post here will be related to music, movies, Halloween or childhood nostalgia in some way. If any or all interest you, feel free to stick around and share your thoughts. Thanks and let the fun begin!