Halloween Music For the Masses...Finally!

OK so the 2007 Halloween cd has finally been produced. Well almost. The art work should be done tonight but the set list is complete and I will share with you below.
This year we decided to go on the theme of how scary and terribly destructive girls are. This picture is what I think will end up as our cover. It's Vampira from the movie Plan 9 From Outer Space. Anyway, this is a unique cd. Usually we have a core of songs that goes along with the theme but this year ever single song (except for the intro piece) is about girly badness (with a few we had to stretch the interpretation). Jon did a brilliant job of ordering the tracks. Jon went with the theory that with evil (and women) we follow this progression: "First we fear/despise it, then we tolerate it, then we embrace it' but (we end it) with a sort of victimization coda." Also we substituted the usual movie quotes with stanzas from The Raven as read by Christopher Walken. We've wanted to use this for a number of years and fortuitously the poem is all about a man going insane from the haunting memory of a woman. So here's the list and explanation of the song progression:

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1. It's Halloween - The Shaggs (Intro)

2. Scarecrow - Beck: the hero's journey begins

3. Burn the Witch - Queens of the Stoneage: the hero discovers the antagonist and recognizes her evil

4. Reptile - The Church: although this song i think is about the post effects of being wronged, i'm still putting it toward the beginning in the 'despise' phase since that's what the narrator feels

5. Strange Brew - Cream

6. Witch Queen of New Orleans - Redbone

7. Voodoo Dolly - Siouxsie and the Banshees

8. Spookshow Baby - Rob Zombie

9. The Beast - Concrete Blonde: acknowledgement and respect for the evil

10. Out of Limits - The Markettes: a thought process

11. Spooky Little Girl Like You - The Classics IV: an apparent infatuation

12. Be My Druidess - Type O Negative: a proposition

13. Heart of Lilith - Inkubus Sukkubus: an acknowledgment of desire for what is wrong

14. One Caress - Depeche Mode: longing for darkness

15. Cold From Fever - Sunshine Blind: confusion

16. Rainbow in the Dark - DIO: seclusion and betrayal

17. Dead Heaven - Gary Numan: numbness and angst

18. Exit Music (for a Film) - Radiohead

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All the song notes come straight from what Jon told me for his reasons. He deserves full credit. I did none of this. I'll happily take credit for the theme, suggesting some songs and some of the cover art, but all the creative stuff I leave to the pros. Especially this last week. Jon has worked like a Jon possessed. Thanks hard Jon.

So I'm way happy with this cd. I've been wanting to use some of these songs for years including Rainbow in the Dark and Spooky Little Girl (the song that led me to our theme) and Out of limits. I discovered some great new songs like Scarecrow by Beck and Voodoo Dolly by Siouxsie Sue.

So anyway, if you want a copy, let me know. I realise it's a little late this year but well too bad. I had an out of town wedding and a baby born and Jon went to Hawaii. Be happy we did it at all.

Now I'm finally ready for the big day. HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!

October Movie - The Lady In White

So the movie of the month - as voted by you all - is Lady In White. I have to think that we chose this film based on nostalgic feelings of when we were all in junior high and the PG-13 horror film genre didn't really exist yet. So we got REALLY pumped about the one horror film we COULD watch...Lady In White. Even back then I remember being disappointed. If we were feeling nostalgic I wish we had chosen Something Wicked This Way Comes or even Salems Lot. Anyway, here goes.
This film is based on a popular urban legend about the "White Lady" who had a daughter that was killed by a predatory suitor. Finding her daughter dead she kills herself and she haunts the lakefront to this day. So we start the film with this legend already going on. Our nerd hero, Frankie Scarlatti, gets locked in a coat closet at school by the cool kids. While there he sees the ghost of a young girl. She drops something down a grate then she is apparently murdered. We later learn that this apparition occurs every night and that the girl is carried off all the way accross town and thrown off a cliff. Why has no one else seen it before? Is everyone asleep by 10 pm? Anyway, after the ghost leaves we see a real man come in and try to retrieve the item from the grate (the furnace is about to be replaced and if the item is found there where the girl was killed this guy could get caught). The man sees Frankie and tries to kill him. Why not? What's one more murder (there had been 10 or so)? He survives and we spend the rest of the film trying to figure out who this man is. In the meantime we see the Lady in White several times but it's never scary. The director should have watched Halloween on lessons for how to freak you out with the appearance of the scary thing in your movie. Then we get a real treat when we meet the Lady's living sister who is Mona from Who's the Boss? That's the scariest part of the film hands down. We learn that the murderer is Frankie's uncle who in the end tries to kill Frankie. Of course Frankie is saved by Mona and then again by the Lady herself. Uncle Phil dies and the Lady and her daughter can now both rest forever as they blast off into space. But Mona is dead. So that's good news.
Lots of problems. First, this film feels like the Halloween version of The Christmas Story with the author (in this case the Author/Director Frank LaLoggia) narrating the film like a fond remeniscence. It doesn't work for a scary movie. You can't have a cheery, nostalgic scary movie. Then there are the Puma Man flying effects which were so funny in The Puma Man but not here. Then there's the forest which has an eternal layer of fog on the ground. I could go on but it's really upsetting me. I can't remember how many times I hit the status button to see how much time was left. If we have another one like this then I may start exercising veto powers.

So the movie category for this month is Charleton Heston films. No one can screw that up. My vote is for Omega Man.

Home for Good...Or At Least a Few Days

As you can see I photographed only the most important stuff, such as Training Table Cheese Fries.

Spencer won some fabulous prizes in the Guess the Contaminant in the Milk contest. Contaminants included onions, salt, ketchup, refried beans, tuna juice, chicken boulion, A-1 steak sauce, chili powder etc.

I actually came out for a wedding. Here is Spencer and the new Sister-In-Law Erin. She's great.

So I had a really good time, watched a lot of The Office and got very little sleep. It was great seeing Jon, JB, Jake and his kids. Then there are those I didn't get to see. I would make angry cursing words but I'm sure you had your reasons. I promise not to hate you all for the rest of my life. While I was there I discovered a treasure trove of goodies from my past. Most of which I promptly threw away. Should I have burned them? It is an effort to purge the memory of She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named out of my life completely. I figure if I treat her like Rocky 5 (pretend like it never existed) then I can be sort of happy.
I DID find a fantastic old pocket watch, the ruined remains of one of my favorite x-mas gifts ever - a Book on classic horror films Jon bought me many a year ago (sorry Jon but it looked like it had been sitting in a tub of water for 10 years) and a pic of me and Jon going back to Timpview's Homecoming dance our Freshman year of BYU.

So it was a fun and fruitfull trip. I hope to come back out again this next summer and of course the ultimate goal is to move out there permenant like in 4 years. We'll see. Thanks to all for a great time.

Hawaii Jon-0

Jon and Maria came to Hawaii a few weeks ago. I'm sorry I didn't post earlier but I promptly went out of town. Oh there'll be a post about that too.
So we surfed (the above pic wasn't just a pose) in shark infested waters, we snorkled in Shark's Cove (oddly NOT shark infested waters) and we ate at Teddy's Bigger burgers. Aside from that they taught us a new game called Bang (which I highly recommend) and they put up with a game of Cities and Knights (I like parentheticals). Why does no one like that game other than Val and I? It's all these crummy purists who insist that it distracts from the "real" game. Well if you can't handle it, then something something.

Anyway, it was great to have Jon out. I hope that in the next 4 years we recieve many more visits from equally distinguished visitors. Thanks for coming out Jon. It was good times. Now LET"S DO THE FREAKING HALOWEEN CD! Call me! Email me! Anything!