February Chills

Greetings from the frigid wilds of Michigan where it’s so cold that your boogers freeze when you go outside. If you are reading this, you have survived the horror that is Valentine’s Day (I advocate for replacing it with Second Halloween). I stayed in the house, thereby avoiding one of my most hated things in the world — people who say “ValenTIMES Day.” Consequently, I avoided being thrown in jail for punching someone in the face.

The Mrs had a lovely birthday, if a bit of a low key one. Last year was her first birthday in The New House™ so we used it as an excuse to have an Open House. This year we just had a nice dinner.

Other than that, it has been too blistering cold to do anything outside. The only real things of note were car related. The Mrs had some type of road marker launch itself into the undercarriage of her new car. Fortunately there was absolutely no damage and the dealership didn’t even charge us to have it removed. Meanwhile, I have been debating what to do about my vehicle whose lease will be expiring soon. The original plan was to purchase it outright, but a quick internet search revealed that it is now worth less than the purchase price. So the dilemma becomes do I go ahead with the plan and take the immediate depreciation hit or use that money as a downpayment on a new vehicle?

Listening To: My usual mix of 80s New Wave and Punk hits. I find that the best way to read the news is while listening to The Dead Kennedys’ “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” on a loop.

Currently Reading: I spent a few days reading graphic novels that I acquired by backing Kickstarter campaigns, notably the “Cthulhu Invades…” series put out by Orange Cone Publishing.

Current Obsession: The 2008 series Apparitions on Prime. I’m always down for a good exorcism.

We are still moving ahead with the editing and production of various projects. We are all set for our trip to Pittsburgh next week for Horror Realm. If you are in the area, come out and visit us in the Vendor’s Room. The members of the Otherworldly family will be participating in a panel on Friday night (28 February) at 9pm in the Allegheny hall.

A few years back I was one of a number of authors and reviewers who were invited to participate in a massive project to categorize all of the werewolf movies ever filmed. The result was Moonlight Marquee available from Splatter Theatre Press which you should definitely check out (link to the title here). As noted, it has been a while since the book was released and the time has come to address the films which have come out since then. So, it’s back to looking at those beautiful lycanthropes.

I watched the first movie on my new list this afternoon. Shaky Shivers is a very silly movie, definitely more a comedy than a horror flick, but still enjoyable. For a more thorough review, check out this week’s Dead On Movie Reviews tomorrow (Thursday, 20 February, 7 Central/8 Eastern).

As I mentioned last week, I have always been a fan of the werewolf genre. It probably has a lot to do with the idea of letting ones animalistic nature take hold and run free. There is also a big allure to the tragic nature of the werewolf, especially when done well. This made Moonlight Marquee a wonderful project to be a part of. It literally gave me an excuse to sit on my ass and watch movies I had never heard of and revisit some other amazing movies. Initially the films were broken down by decade, then we filled in watching whatever was left. I picked the Oughts, knowing that some of my favorites of the genre would be on my list: Dog Soldiers, GingerSnaps, even the Underworld movies. What I failed to remember was that I would also be forced to watch that most dreaded of literary and cinematic abominations, the sparkly vampire (in name only) and its CGI created lycanthropic friendemy.

That being said, Moonlight Marquee was a great project to work on and I am looking forward to diving back in and watching the new batch of recent films.