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AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive (1992)

Posted in monsters, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, zombies with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, reviews, zombies on October 18, 2013 by Paxton

Today I’m going to take a look at Peter Jackson’s 1992 cult zombie film, Dead Alive.

Suprisingly, I’d never seen this movie before. I used to be a big gore hound in the late 80s. I’d heard of it at the time, but never had a chance to watch it. I like Peter Jackson’s films for the most part. The first Peter Jackson movie I ever watched was probably The Frighteners with Michael J Fox and I loved it. I even saw his ultra-cult hit Meet the Feebles. So I’m a little behind the curve on this particular movie. But with my zombie Halloween theme this year I thought this would be the perfect time to rectify this situation. So I watched it.

And I didn’t just love it. Don’t get me wrong, there were some funny and weird moments that I enjoyed. I probably would have enjoyed this even more if I had watched it with a bunch of buddies and beer or had I watched it back in the 90s. But, let’s not dwell on what I didn’t like, I’ll talk about some of the stuff I enjoyed.

I liked the leads well enough. Timothy Balme as Lionel was suitably awkward and Diana Peñalver was adorable and cute as Paquita. The crux of the story is an interesting origin for the zombie plague. It all starts with a rare mutant animal called a Sumatran Rat-Monkey that is created by plague rats raping tree monkeys. Yes, you read that right. One of these disgusting looking Rat-Monkeys is, mistakenly, I think, shipped to a zoo in New Zealand.

ratmonkey

In New Zealand, awkward and nebish Lionel meets Paquita who fall in love, but Lionel’s overbearing mother disapproves. While spying on the couple at the zoo, Lionel’s mother is bitten by the Rat-Monkey and turns into a flesh eating undead monster. Everyone else thinks she dies, but Lionel secretly keeps her in his basement along with a live-in nurse who the mother also turned into a monster. Soon, other victims become monsters and are put in the basement. Eventually it gets out of hand when Lionel’s shady uncle shows up looking to get a share of Lionel’s inheritance.

That’s only like half the plot. So much goes on that’s weird and nearly indescribable. You really have to see it.

At one point, Lionel is attacked by a group of punks in the graveyard. His mom attacks them, turns them into monsters and then a priest shows up and famously shouts, “I kick ass for the Lord” and uses karate to kick the monsters’ collective asses. It’s a pretty great scene.

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I go ahead and rank Run-DMC’s albums in order from best to worst

Posted in music, nostalgia, pop culture with tags music, pop culture, Run-DMC on September 16, 2013 by Paxton

Today marks the 25th Anniversary of the release of Run-DMC’s fourth studio album, Tougher than Leather. I was introduced to rap music in the early 80s by two groups. The Fat Boys and Run-DMC. I continued listening to both groups throughout my youth in the 80s and 90s. As a matter of fact, I still listen to them. For me both, but especially Run-DMC, ARE rap music. The prototypical rap group. Copied hundreds of times over.

So, on this anniversary, I’ve decided to make a very personal list of ranking Run-DMC’s studio albums in order of my personal preference. This was a really hard list to make because the first 3 albums are so historically important that I hate to put anything above them. But I have to forget the overall value to pop culture and just talk about the albums I listen to the most.

Here we go.

Tougher than Leather (1988) – Like I said, it’s really hard to rank these first three spots. Run-DMC’s first three albums are so important in the history of rap and hip hop that I struggle to not automatically put them first. As a matter of fact, these three spots have changed at least three times since I wrote this article a few months ago. And they may change again tomorrow. *shrugs* Anyway, for me, beginning to end, Tougher than Leather is my favorite. And not just because its birthday is today. Back in ’88 when this dropped, I LIVED the album. I wore out my copy. Pound for pound this has more good songs on it than any other album. BUT, it’s really close. The title track is similar to King of Rock but with a much harder rock backing track. I LOVE THAT SONG. My second favorite song on the album is Run’s House. It begins with Run’s famous monologue in which he opens many of their live shows, “We’ve had, a whole lot of super stars on this stage here tonight. But I want y’all to know one thing, this is…MY HOUSE!” And how awesome is Mary, Mary? They actually sample The Monkees and make a great song. Other kick ass songs include They Call Us Run-DMC, Beats to the Rhyme, How’d You Do It, Dee?, Papa Crazy, Miss Elaine and Ragtime, which is a fun derivation of the regular Run-DMC track. Reggae-influenced. It’s very reminiscent of a rapper called Slick Rick as, and it sounds weird on paper, the guys use very a very proper, clipped, but subtle, accent throughout the rhyme. It works because the song is sort of weird, too. Plus, you get to hear Jam Master Jay actually rap on the track.

Raising Hell (1986) – Commercially, this was Run-DMC’s most successful album. Part of that came from their cover of Walk this Way with a special appearance by Aerosmith. That cover is considered by many to be the first commercially successful fusions of rock and rap. Depends on how you look at it. Run-DMC’s earlier tracks Rock Box and King of Rock both successfully fused rock and rap before this. King of Rock being a fairly big commercial success. But nothing like Walk this Way. This IS a fantastic album, though. The title track on this album is pretty awesome and follows in King of Rock‘s footsteps. It’s Tricky is probably their second most popular song and is a sort-of sequel to Can You Rock It Like This? from King of Rock. Other great songs include My Adidas, Peter Piper, Hit It Run, Dumb Girl and You Be Illin’. Dumb Girl is one of their “conscientious” rap tracks similar to Hard Times or It’s Like That from their first album. You Be Illin’ is a fun track similar to You Talk to Much from King of Rock. And let’s not forget…”Son of Byford, brother of Al…..” Lots to really like on this album and it’s easy to see why it’s so important and popular.

King of Rock (1985) – It’s deceptive that this album is THIRD on my list. This is the album I discovered first probably in late ’85 or ’86. And it was INCREDIBLY hard not to rank it first. Incredibly hard. Any other day I MAY rank it first. Mostly because King of Rock is probably my favorite Run-DMC track of all time. King of Rock is awesome and showcases the group’s great, high energy backing tracks and awesome lyrical assault. Second best song on the album is probably Can You Rock it Like This? which, like I mentioned above, is a prototype in style and lyrical content to It’s Tricky. You Talk Too Much is a fun, goofy track that I mentioned above is a precursor to You Be Illin’. You can’t go wrong with this album. Other good songs are You’re Blind and It’s Not Funny which is similar in style and structure to Hard Times from the previous album. And Darryl & Joe (Krush Groove 3) is a great old-school rap track. As you can see, Run-DMC’s song stylings will have elements present throughout all of their albums. They are remarkably consistent while also always trying something new on each album.

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Cult Film Club Episode 10: Miami Connection (1987)

Posted in 80s, movies, nostalgia, podcast, pop culture with tags Cult Film Club, martial arts, movies, ninjas, podcasts, pop culture on September 4, 2013 by Paxton

So not only did Nerd Lunch hit triple digits last week, now Cult Film Club is hitting double digits. Welcome to Episode 10 in which we discuss the independent movie sensation of the year, Miami Connection.

Released to very little fanfare in Orlando (and Germany?!) back in 1987, the film was found on eBay last year and bought by Drafthouse Films for $50. Now it’s getting worldwide theater and home video releases with the actors reunited for special fan events like every damn week. It’s nuts how popular this movie has become. So, being that we are Cult Film Club, we felt it was our duty to forgo our original movie pick for this month and check out this masterpiece of dramatic biker ninja action. Do you like feathered hair, white ninjas, aligator earrings and orphans reuniting with their dads? Then you’ve come to the right place.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it online right here.

Vintage Stephen King/Peter Straub interview from Fangoria magazine (1986)

Posted in books, Fangoria, magazine, nostalgia, Stephen King with tags books, Fangoria, Peter Straub, Stephen King, Talismanalong on August 21, 2013 by Paxton

So here I am, just past the half way point in my reading of the King/Straub fantasy epic, The Talisman. I’m going to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t totally looking forward to reading this book. I love King, but the book is kinda long and I kept flashing back to my reading of The Stand. And after the first 80 pages I just kept thinking, “I’ve made a horrible mistake.” But the book quickly started getting better and I’m much more comfortable now. I’m very much enjoying the book at the halfway point. It’s also getting me excited to read the sequel, Black House, as well as that Shadowland book I bought on a whim several months ago.

While trolling through my old Fangoria magazines, I found an article from The Bloody Best of Fangoria Vol 5. The Bloody Best was a compilation of previously published articles that Fangoria released at the end of each year. Essentially, it’s a reprint magazine. This particular volume was from 1986. The interview I’m sharing is with both King and Straub around the time of the release of the book. Like I said, the article was reprinted in 1986 for the compilation, but the article itself is from sometime in 1984.

You can click each of the images to see them BIGGER on Flickr.

For those that don’t want to read the article, there are a few interesting tidbits.

* King and Straub can no longer remember who wrote what. And the parts you think are King probably aren’t because they each tried to put tricks in the story and use each other’s style to fool their readers.
* Universal bought the movie rights to the book in 1984 and Spielberg was attached to direct. Even going as far as having a script commissioned. Obviously, nothing came of that.
* At this point in time, George Romero was set to direct a film adaptation of The Stand right after he finished filming Day of the Dead. King had written the script and whittled it down to a 2.5 hour movie and says in the article that “everything is in there”. But I’m not sure how that’s even possible.
* After The Talisman, Straub is mostly done with supernatural horror. He wants to focus on more crime and mystery. Which is what he does. His next three books are his famed Blue Rose Trilogy (Koko, Mystery, The Throat).

I mentioned Straub’s next few books after The Talisman above. Conversely, the next published book for Stephen King after The Talisman was Thinner, but that was originally under the Richard Bachman alias. The next KING book was the short story collection, Skeleton Crew. Which is one of my very favorite King books. But Thinner is rather good as well.

It seems like this article just ends. I guess the interview is concluded in the next issue. A bit disappointing as I wanted them to discuss any ideas for the sequel we wouldn’t see for like 20 years.

Another thing I thought before reading up on The Talisman was that King and Straub hated each other. That they started off as friends but the writing of the book drove a wedge into that friendship. That’s why it took so long to get a sequel. However, that’s clearly not the case at all. These guys were friends for years before The Talisman and they’ve been friends ever since. Interesting the ideas you overhear other people say that have no basis in reality.

So yes, I’m enjoying the book and I’d recommend it to anyone that is curious and already a fan of either author. However, since this is just the halfway point, there is still plenty of time for this book to go completely “off the rails”.

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Vintage ads for official movie magazines from the 80s

Posted in advertising, Fangoria, magazine, movies, nostalgia, pop culture with tags Fangoria, magazine, magazines, movies, nostalgia, pop culture on August 16, 2013 by Paxton

I’ve talked about movie magazines before. As a matter of fact, back in 2010 I took a look at the Back to the Future souvenir magazine. I love official movie magazines and I have a bunch of them. These magazines were the original movie supplemental material. We didn’t have DVDs and VHS tapes didn’t normally add anything extra (some did, but it was rare). I remember seeing ads for these magazines all over my favorite magazines. I’d fill out the form and select the ones I wanted as a wish list. Just hoping that someday I’d be allowed to order a Rambo or Star Trek movie magazine through the mail.

So, I was perusing through my old Fangoria magazines recently and found a couple of these movie magazine ads. They show a ton of the magazines and it’s great to see some of the covers. So on this lazy Friday, I thought I’d show you this 80s vintage goodness.

This first ad is from 1986.

I love how the magazines are spread out like you took the pile and threw them on the table. Amazing layout. There’s that amazing Rambo magazine. They also have Rocky II, Rocky III and Rocky IV magazines. As a matter of fact there are THREE Rocky IV magazines. AND, Stallone gets a “Best Of” magazine. Damn, he was at the height of his popularity here. As for all the Rocky IV magazines, when a movie was popular enough, it would not only get an official movie magazine, it would also get an official poster magazine and an official “movie book”. I put that last one in quotes because even though it’s called a book it was still a magazine, just with more content and glossier, color pages.

You can see some of the covers on this ad are for the poster magazines (Star Trek III, Rocky II for example). Some of the other ones pictured that I think look cool include the A View to a Kill as well as The Explorers. Take a look at the list in the yellow box at the bottom and there are listed several magazines that aren’t pictured. Annie, Superman III, High Road to China, SF Superheroes, TV Superheroes, Joanie Loves Chachi and Conan the Destroyer. I would buy every single one of these magazines today.

If I were to have ordered every magazine in this ad back in the day it would have set me back $75.35. Plus $24.90 for shipping. That’s $100.25 (incl shipping) for 26 different magazines. Which is about $3.85 each. NOT BAD. It would cost well over that now to track this mess down on eBay and trader sites.

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