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AWESOME-tober-fest 2009: Coney Island’s Dante’s Inferno and a few other dark rides

Posted in Frankenstein, Halloween, movies with tags amusement parks, AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, dark rides, Frankenstein, Halloween, haunted houses, holiday, monsters on October 9, 2009 by Paxton

Today, I finish talking about haunted dark rides. I’m going to start with a former Coney Island attraction but I’ll also talk about a few others as a bonus.

Let’s begin…

Dante’s Inferno (Coney Island, NY) — Constructed and originally located in Europe, this two story portable dark ride was brought to New York’s Coney Island Astroland in 1971. It was originally run as an independent carnival concession until the owners of Astroland bought it outright a few years later. In the ’90s ride designer Lou Nasti completely redesigned the inside. Despite the name, the ride isn’t based on Dante’s poem nor is it a “ride into Hell”. A “bumper” type car would ferry you through several unconnected scenes of horror including monsters and human torture. As of 2008, this ride as well as the entirety of Astroland has been closed. Check out an in-depth article including pictures about this ride here.

The Haunted House (Ocean City, MD) — Located in Trimper’s Amusement Park, this ride was originally built in 1964 by Bill Tracy, a legend amongst dark ride enthusiasts. In 1988, the ride was expanded with new and updated scares. However, at least 20 of Bill’s original stunts are still intact throughout the ride making it the most complete Bill Tracy ride still in existence. Check out Surfing Pizza’s nostalgic rememberances of this ride as well as the unofficial website.

Castle Frankenstein (near Darmstadt, Germany) – I couldn’t pass on mentioning this when my theme this year is Frankenstein!! Built sometime in the 13th century by Konrad Reiz von Breuberg (who took the name Frankenstein) it is said that this castle was the inspiration for Mary Shelley’s novel. However there is a lot of controversy about this and there is nothing historically to prove it. For instance, in the actual Shelley novel, there was no Frankenstein castle. It would be James Whale’s 1931 movie that would popularize the idea of a Frankenstein castle. This “real life” Frankenstein castle, however, is now mostly in ruins as there are only two towers and a chapel left standing. If you ever go to Germany and want to see it, tours are available.

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Countdown to AWESOME-tober-fest 2009

Posted in Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, Halloween on September 17, 2009 by Paxton

Two weeks until October 1st. That means 14 days until this blog starts celebrating AWESOME-tober-fest!!! For those that don’t know what that is, it’s AWESOME, it’s October and it’s fest….wait, that’s not right….

Anyway, I have lots of things planned. The loose “theme” of this year’s celebration will be Frankenstein. I’ll be discussing books, movies, costumes, etc for the titular monster as well as some other AWESOME goodies. Be sure to mark your calendars and prepare for the bloody celebration of AWESOME-tober-fest!!!

Also this year, I’ll again be participating in the HUGE Countdown to Halloween Blog Tour.

Click the image to go to the blog site of Countdown to Halloween. All the participating blogs are there and it’s run by Shawn Robare of Branded in the ’80s as well as John Rozum of JohnRozum.com. Should be a lot of spooky, good fun.

To check out the archives for previous AWESOME-tober-fest articles click here.
Or try these favorites:
1. A look back at the Crestwood Monster books
2. I review gallons of Halloween sodas
3. Some of my awesome, awesome Halloween costumes

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Twilight: The Art of making vampires lame

Posted in books, movies, pop culture, reviews, Twilight, vampires with tags movie review, movies, pop culture, vampires on March 24, 2009 by Paxton

So, Twilight came out on DVD this past Saturday. I’ve had people ask me to read the book or see the movie because they want to know what I think. I’m told I would love the books and/or movie because I love fantasy/sci-fi books. Well, as a litmus test, I decided to watch Twilight the movie to decide whether I will continue on with reading the books (I got the first book for Xmas). I admit, I do love vampires (they are, appropriately, AWESOME) and I do enjoy teen fiction, so this should be a good fit.

So I be-bopped on over to Blockbuster on Saturday afternoon and was able to pick up a copy (one of many left on the shelf) of Twilight on Blu-Ray. Interesting, because I would think that more copies would be gone from the shelves based on the popularity of this movie. Conversely, the movies Role Models and Sex Drive were gone completely from the Blu-Ray stacks. I had to pick up these last two in Standard Def (disappointment already). Anyway, the wife and I ordered pizza and popped Twilight into the DVD player.

Here’s what I thought: Awful. Terrible. Horrible. I realize I’m about to piss off the collective throngs of Team Edward, but it’s got to be said. This movie is terrible.

Even my wife didn’t enjoy it. She didn’t hate it like I did, but she said she preferred the movie Watchmen to Twilight, and to me, that speaks VOLUMES about the enjoyment level of this movie. Acting, script, the portrayal of the vampires in general. Just plain God-awful. Stephanie Meyer takes what’s awesome about vampires, rolls it up into a tiny ball and wipes her ass with it. Then she sets it on fire and pisses all over the ashes. Everything I love about vampires is stripped away and made into the Harlequin Romance version of vampires. And Edward Cullen, is the Fabio of this fable. They may as well have cast Fabio as Edward.

harlequin twilight