A Gathering of Crows review

Well I have finally got back into reading mode after all the craziness of moving, and I must say my first trip back into the world of literature was a pretty good one. I just finished reading Brian Keene's "A Gathering of Crows" and think it is definitely a book you should be going out to your local Borders Book Store to pick up. Here is the lowdown on the book as featured on the back of the title:
"Brinkley Springs is a quiet little town. Some say the town is dying. They don't know how right they are. Five mysterious figures are about to pay a little visit to Brinkley Springs. They have existed for centuries, emerging from the shadows only to destroy, to kill, to feed. They bring with them terror and carnage, and leave death and blood in their wake. As the night wears on, Brinkley Springs will be quiet no longer. Screams will break the silence. But when the sun rises again, will there be anyone left to hear?"
To tell you any more about the story would be a disservice to Brian Keene. In "A Gathering of Crows" you will learn a little bit more about Keene's labyrinth mythos--a theme that can be found in most of his novels from "The Rising" onward--including how the labyrinth works and much more about the 13, the denizens that use the labyrinth to sometimes inhabit our world. If you don't know what I'm talking about in regards to the labyrinth and the 13 go back and read all of his recent paperbacks or if you haven't read them at all go back to "The Rising" and start now. But if you do know what I'm talking about in regards to this overarching mythology then you will also find some new surprises lurking within, such as a surprise visit to one of the 13's home worlds, and a visit to the labyrinth itself.  This is a tale that encompasses things on a much more cosmic scale than some of the other books. This is not to say that you have to know about the labyrinth or the 13s to enjoy this book, since each of Keene's novels is a "stand-alone" that tells its own tale and doesn't require any prior knowledge of the overall mythology. Needless to say I think this book gives "The Rising" & "City of the Dead" a run for their money as far as being Brian Keene's most exciting piece of fiction yet!
I am giving this book 4 and 1/2 Jolly Jack-O-Lanterns out of 5.
Go pick it up now!

F#$% Me, Ray Bradbury!

First off let me say that this is not safe for work,(it's not pornographic or anything, just uses some pretty colorful language!) and you also better put the earmuffs on the children cause it's not safe for them either!  This is a piece of comedic genius from writer/comedian/actress Rachel Bloom and gets my vote for the music video of the year!

Wizard of Oz birthday spectacular!

Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite movies of all time so even though it isn't horror/Halloween related I had to give a shout out to it.  Ok just thought I'd get that out of the way.  Well anyways today is the 71st birthday for the Wizard of Oz and below you can see the beautiful design that google is using for it's doodle of the day.

To honor this event I thought I would share two things related to Wizard of Oz that scare the living shit out of me. The first is this image.

FU$% THAT! This picture is the stuff nightmares are made of. I don't know if it's the shadow or the actual pose of Margaret Hamilton that scares me the most. Ok now that we got that scary ass picture out of the way I'd like to share something else from the wizard of oz mythology that scares the death out me. This isn't quite from the Wizard of Oz but is from Return to Oz so it still fits the theme. Here we go.

Fuck you wheelers! Thats right you scared the living shit out of me growing up and now as a grown man you still make me pull the covers up over my head.  Well thats it for the Wizard of Oz birthday spectacular. It was spectacular wasn't it? haha  Tomorrow is Friday the 13th, so should I do a retrospect of the Friday the 13th series like every other blog on the webs is going to do (just kidding ghouls) or should I celebrate some other way? I'll come up with something special I'm sure.

 Oh and in other fantastic news. If you haven't figured out by the amazing artwork above, created by the monstrously talented Jeremy over at iZombielover, the blog association that myself and others belong to known as The Horror Blogger Alliance is going to be featured in August's Rue Morgue magazine. (Issue #103)

How sweet is that! So for you blogs out there that are also a part of this awesome alliance, get ready for some heavy traffic. I myself couldn't be more proud to be associated with something that will be featured in one of the horror communities favorite magazines. For whoever submitted the HBA to Rue Morgue, Thank you!

Oh yeah and here's a little advice from myself to you before you go to sleep tonight.

EDIT - I forgot to tell everyone you can check out my new "Scariest shit in my life feature" by clicking on the feature button over on the right under the "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" feature button.  Click it, I think you'll get a kick out of it, at least I do anyways and that's all that matters right ghouls?

Jack-o-lanterns in cinema

I'd like to thank Melissa over at Little Miss Zombie and Jeremy over at iZombie-Lover for tagging me in the new horror picture blog meme.  My task was to find pictures that all share a common theme.  The theme I chose, Jack-o-lanterns.  Some of these pictures feature very subtle Jack-o-lanterns, some very "in your face", some hard to find, and some not so hard.  Some are plastic and some are real but in every pic below you will find a jack-o-lantern.

As I was capturing these and posting them I thought to myself "These are not going to be fun to tag" so instead of tagging and labeling them all I challenge you ghouls to figure out what pictures are from what movies. Now not every pic featured here is from an actual motion picture, some are from Halloween novelty videos, others from cartoons, and even one from a documentary.  There are also a few from t.v. shows.  Even though they aren't all from actual movies I feel the "hardcore" halloween fans will be able to guess at least 20 of the 25 photos featured here. Up to the challenge? List your answers in the comments below. And no, there are no prizes for this, I just thought it would be a fun time. Hell you can even team up for this one and just list one at a time and the next person in line can name the next picture, that would be acceptable also!

Check that one off the bucket list!

Well today was one of my favorite "horror" moments of my life.  I just had the honor of meeting Mr. George A. Romero and Mr. Tom Savini themselves!  To honor the tattoo shop that is Romero's Tattoos the shop had the two gentleman as special guests.  Driving there I thought to myself, "This place is going to be a fucking madhouse".  It wasn't.  There were probably only about 20 people or so there, maybe because today was also the "Steel City Con" or maybe it was just that time of the year for the family vacation, or maybe because the this event was publicized only through facebook I believe.  Anyways it was so much better than meeting someone at a convention where there are 1000's of fans, it's hot, you always feel rushed, you ghouls all know the feeling I'm sure.  No, this was at a little tattoo shop and it had such a nice relaxed atmosphere to it that I couldn't have asked for more.  I'd like to thank Romero's Tattoos for sponsoring the event and also the Monroeville Zombies for helping out too.  What a great event you people put together!  Thank you!  When my wife and I entered we were about third in line and once we were the next in line to meet Mr. Romero I started to get a little nervous and couldn't really think of anything to say.  All I managed to get out was "Hello, how are you today?" haha  But I have to honestly say that of all the celebrities I've ever met George was the nicest.  He honestly treated us like royalty, thanking us, and thanking the gentleman in front of us who was in the armed forces, it was very nice to see a celebrity act this way.  Once he signed my "Dawn of the Dead Ultimate Edition" he asked us if we wanted a picture.  So my wife and I plunked down on a couch next to the man and I won't speak for my wife but as you can see in the photo below I was just mystified, I was actually just chillin' on a couch with George Romero, are you kidding me?  After that I stood up and thanked him again, he shook my hand and we exchanged pleasantries for a minute and then I moved on to let the other fans have a turn as well.  After this I started wondering where Tom Savini was and out from the back where they do the actual tattoos walks Mr. Savini.  I stood next to him listening to him and Mr. Romero exchange some humor about Tom getting some tattoo work done today.  After that Mr. Savini picks up the George Romero puppet you'll see in the pictures below and starts messing around with his son by using the puppet.  He looks over at George and says "I'll do the puppet, you do the voice" and he makes the puppet say hello to his son, then George, from across the room, yells "Hello" it was hilarious and at the same time touching to watch these gods of horror show their human sides.  Though Tom's little boy might not have had the same idea of what was going on as we all did, everybody loved it.  I then shook Tom's hand, and thanked him.  Again Tom was also very polite and was talking with all the fans outside, signing posters and what not.  By the time I got around to him signing my little treasure he was ready to get his tattoo finished so I didn't bother him with the autograph thing.  All in all this was a wonderful morning spent with my wife, some very nice fans, and some very nice celebrities.  As Emily and I were driving away we were talking about how nice it was to see some celebrities that actually had the most genuine human qualities as that is not always the case.  So again thank you from the bottom of my heart Mr. George A. Romero and thank you as well Mr. Tom Savini, you absolutely made a fan's day!

The sign outside of Romero's Tattoo & Body Piercings, awesome logo huh?

One of Monroeville Zombies' advertisement cards, this is an amazing zombie museum located at Time & Space toy store in the Monroeville Mall (pictures forthcoming)

This was the Romero puppet that Tom Savini was using to tease his son with

The newest addition to my own horror museum

A close up

Does anybody disagree about "Dawn of the Dead" Ultimate Edition being one of the finest horror special editions out there? Four discs (U.S. Theatrical Version with the Goblin soundtrack, Extended Version, The European Version edited by Dario Argento [Next on my bucket list of people to meet], and a whole DVD devoted to documentaries) amazing packaging, amazing information booklet, comic included, what else could a fan want? This thing is a beast!

Mr. George A. Romero, my wife, and myself. All I can say is wow!

One more blogger award!

I would like to thank the wonderful "The Halloween Blues" for bestowing upon me this blogger award! Thank you again it is an honor. So I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy huh? Well here goes;
1. Movie night with my wife (not complete without a gallon of ice cream)
2. Anything and everything Sherlock Holmes
3. My Halloween yard haunt and home-made decorations (pics are on their way)
4. Video Games (have to say it again but especially the "Monkey Island" games)
5. Toys, collectibles, and most importantly PEZ dispensers
6. Sheri Moon Zombie (and to my wife and Mr. Zombie please take no offense)
7. Are You Afraid of the Dark?
8. Man Vs. Food - if you have not seen this show yet I implore you to pull yourself away from the blood and guts for just a half hour and watch it. You'll be hooked for life I promise!
9. My kittens (Roxas & Dracula)
10. Coca Cola and Faygo Rock & Rye (to my fellow Detroit residents, am I right about the flavor or what?)

And as for the 10 blogs that make me joyful!

1. Freddy in Space - I don't care if I nominate this guy for every award that gets sent my way, this is one of the blogs that started it all for me, and is absolutely one of the greatest reads on the net!

2. Dollar Bin Horror - another of my favorite blogs of all time, Rhonny has been such a help with all of my questions and her help is definately one of the reasons I actually have some of the features on this blog to begin with!  And who can argue with cheap horror, it's the best.

3. Pumpkin Rot - you have not seen homemade halloween and spooky decorations until you've seen this site. The person responsible for these decorations is aboslutely without a doubt one of the most creative people on the planet. These decorations are downright disgusting (in a good way!) and the photography is excellent too.

4. Spooky Brew - I actually just recently discovered this blog, but oh what a blog it is. Shit tons of great content and lists. Oh and by the way one of the few other gamer bloggers apparent by the featured gamertag.

5. i-Zombie Lover - if you haven't seen the art on this blog go go go check it out now! Some are very subtle, some are very not but each and every one of them has a unique feel to it and I personally could spend all day checking these pieces of art out.

6. Living Dead Girl Nicole's Art - another blog that features some of the best horror related artwork out there. Seriously go check her stuff out, it's fantastic. And it doesn't hurt that she's an Elvira fan much like myself. (Who isn't?)

7. Ghost Hunting Theories - this site focuses on the paranomormal but also throws in some Halloween and horror goodness for us too. This is another site that you really have to go to all the time as Autumn is constantly giving us new content to read, all of which are excellent by the way!

8. The Person You Benefit from Knowing - Another great blog not totally dedicated to horror but an awesome one anyways.  Kristy has some amazing posts and her recent Lets Fall in Love posts have been very touching reads about other fellow bloggers and how they met their loved ones.  Go check it out, and give Kristy some love over at Fright Rags, one of the greatest horror t-shirt sites out there.  Kristy works for this company as well as writing her blog!

9.  Deadly Serious - Horror, Sci Fi, Comic Book, Fantasy and Halloween Movies, Books, TV and Cartoons News, Updates, Recommendations, Conventions and General Weirdness.  That is the official description for this blog and I don't think anybody would argue.  This blog has anything and everything and is an honest to goodness tremendously good read.  This was another one I was late to the party to but I have been doing my catch up work and must say that I'm damn sad I've been in the dark about this blog for so long, but now that you are reading this YOU don't have to be.  If you haven't already left my blog, do it now and go read this one!

10.  Dave Lowe Design - another great Halloween craftsmen.  Wait until you see some of this guy's creations, they are absolutely stunning!  This blog was also the inspiration for my Cabinet of Curiosities project that my wife and I completed for our Halloween party last year.  Many a good Halloween projects have been born by reading this great blog.  Oh and by the way Mr. Lowe has also done work for Sy Fy, DIY, HGTV, the Discovery Channel, MTV, NBC and Nickelodeon which is a huge bonus!!  You'll also want to check out Dave's fantastic comic blog Para Abnormal.

Honorable Mention:  The Disney Parks Blog - ok ok so I threw a curve-ball in the mix.  Yes I know they can't officiall accept this award, nor would they.  But if you are a Disney parks fan then this is THE go to blog for all of your Walt Disney news.  This is a "must read" on a daily basis for me, if not for the great blog posts, then for the wonderful pictures that accompany them.