In honor of one of my favorite authors birthdays: Edgar Allan Poe (born January 19, 1809 Boston, Massachusetts)

I decided to write about one of my favorite interpretations of Poe’s classic poem: ” The Raven.” from the Simpsons.

This segment was the part of the first Simpsons’s Treehouse of horror episode from season 2.

It was the last segment shown in the episode and it is one of my favorite three houses of horror shows in general.

It starts off as Lisa reading the poem in there treehouse and than transition into James Earl Jones’s voice that continues to read the rest of the poem and also becomes the narrator in the poem.

Homer Simpson plays the main character (he has no actual name in the poem), Bart plays the raven, Maggie and Lisa played the Seraphs and Marge is the Lost Lenore.

I really like this take on this classic poem and when I first read Poe’s poem I was in fourth grade and it was for a school assignment. At first I didn’t really understand why the main narrator was love lost over Lenore.

But it wasn’t until I saw the Simpsons version I  had a much better understanding of the pain he felt at the loss of Lenore.

I personally feel like when you love someone regardless of whoever they and they love you back. It creates such a strong bond that nothing even death could break the love for that person will forever be there.

Bart’s role as the raven is a perfect fit because Homer gets so easily annoyed by his actions as Bart the human. That Bart as the raven that the irritation further annoy Homer (who is absolutely heartbroken) and infuriates him when Bart’s only response to him is “never more.”

I also enjoyed the further homage to Edgar Allan Poe in this segment when the raven protects himself but throwing other books by Poe and hitting Homer in the head.

 

 

Hello everyone! So I have to admit I am a bit of a Investigation Discovery channel addict! Ever since I was little I have been glued to my TV and anything that struck a historic pop culture reference just caught my attention! I used to watch a lot of E! True Hollywood Story (are they out on DVD yet???) and anything that involved an intense real court room drama that was on TV I would totally watched it. Although a lot of my classmates couldn’t relate when I would bring up those topics to them so I mainly kept that kind of conversation to myself.

So when I heard a couple of years ago that a channel that involves all of those elements existed 24 hours a day! I was so trilled!!! And when I saw previews for the show “The 1990’s: the Deadliest Decade” I knew it was a must watch for me!!!

This show highlights some of the most infamous cases of that decade and personally growing up in that decade they were a LOT of cases that defined that era!

Such cases as the Club Kid murders in New York City:

This show highlights the beginning of the AOL Chat Rooms and the every growing fear of stranger danger!

It also covered the horrific and sad murder that happened in Indiana in 1992:

Every time the show comes back from a commercial break a computer or a pager hits the screen with progress date of the case:

All in all this show is a must see! And is available to watch on the ID go app. Here is a short commercial for it:

The ID channel also had a similar programs called: 1980’s: The Deadliest Decade. Which is another show I totally recommended there was at least 2 seasons worth of the most notorious cases from that decade:

Until Next time!!!!

 

When you think of actor Vincent Price (1911- 1993) you think of the many, many horror movie roles he played. However did you know that he was also a gourmet chef!  The video below is from a segment from the Johnny Carson show where Vincent Price cooked a salmon in the dishwasher in 1975!

A couple of years ago I came across one of  his cook books:

This was from his 1971 cooking show called Cooking-Wise which played on a British TV channel called Thames Television. It was only six episodes long shown in April and May.

On the show Vincent showed how to make many delicious dishes from around the world.When the show ended his recipe book “Cooking-wise with Vincent Price” he continued his TV series with his book. He notes in the introduction of the book that he didn’t make up the recipes rather on his many worldly travels he collected them and complied them into the book.

He goes on to say that you don’t have to travel around the globe for become a wordly eater and chef. You can do it from the comfort of your local town and markets and make everything in your kitchen!

He divided the book into pretty simple chapters. There is a cheese chapter, a bacon chapter and there is even a chapter for recipes solely on coffee! Every chapter has a introduction as to why he chose to go with these recipes. Vincent Price creates a kind of comfort feeling when you read them like he is part of your family bringing these recipes that were past down from generation to generation.

“Cooking-Wise with Vincent Price” was the last cookbook that Vincent made. He previously made three other cookbooks before this one. He even collaborated with one of his wives on one called “Mary and Vincent Price presents a National Treasury Cookery” that was published in 1967.

Until Next time!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s movie of the day is Who’s Harry Crumb? (1989) directed by Paul Flaherty. And starring John Candy, Annie Potts,  Jeffery Jones and Shawnee Smith.

I remember that the first time I watch it was on channel 20 on a Sunday when I was 12. Channel 20 was known to show the most random old or not well known movies to fill up there afternoon time slots over the weekend. Who’s Harry Crumb? was one of them! It is part mystery and part comedy and it is about a private detective named Harry Crumb (played by John Candy) journey on solving a missing person’s case. However this particular case hit close to home because the person who did the kidnapping is someone Harry Crumb personally knows!

The opening of the trailer to this movie kind of draws you in as a dark film noir but then as soon as you hear James Brown’s I Feel Good song it takes a comedic turn. For some reason I always felt like when I heard that particular song by James Brown in a movie or in a commercial I automatically knew that whatever I was watching was about to turn into something funny!

I have always been such a fan of John Candy movies. Mainly because every time I watched one of his films I felt like I was watching my uncle or a close member of the family. It look like any role he portray he took it on with such ease and always had a funny but natural pose with it.

I remember that Channel 20 showed this movie regularly through out the late winter through the spring every other Sunday so I kinda grew up with this movie and felt a sense of confront when I saw this movie on the screen.

Fun Fact about this movie:

Jim Belushi made an uncredit cameo role in this movie.  He is in the background as a man on the bus.

 

 

UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!

Hello everyone! It is not secret that I love love love to read! So I thought I would share a couple of titles that I want to read this winter. Some are new titles and some are books that have been on my to read list for a while. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Paperback from Hell by Grady Hendrix (2017)- This book talks about horror books from the 1970’s and 1980’s. This books looks interesting to me because it talks about a lot of hidden horror novel gems.

2. True Indie: Life and Death in Filmmaking by Don Coscarelli- from the director of Phantasm, The Beastmaster and Bubba Ho-Tep director Don Coscarelli writes about the good and the bad of independent film making!

3. Counting Sheep: Reflections and Observations of a Swedish Shepard by Axel Linden- Author Axel Linden learns that he inherited a farm full of sheep and he writes about taking his life in a total 180 degree direction!

4.

Any kind of winter theme Fear Street books by R.L. Stine- I like horror, anything seasonal orientated, and books. I think R.L. Stine does too because he made a lot of books about the winter season. Because what can be scarier then being cooped up in your house during the winter??

5. The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce. Editor Michael Newton selected some great ghost stories in one book! If you want to take a break from  your normal reading why not pick something out to scare you?

Happy reading!!!

Hello everyone! Recently I got the Criterion Collection end of the year drawing where they have all the potential upcoming releases for the new year.

And it made me want to do another wish list of what movies I would like to see as part of the Criterion Collection library. So here are four movies that I would like to see as part of the collection and why:

1. Freaks (1932)- directed by Tod Browning. I was five years old the first time I watched this movie. My parents both had full time jobs and I was often dropped off at a babysitter’s house who mainly let me watch TV 80% of the time I was there. She never controlled what I watched so I pretty much watched anything. I remember that this movie was playing a lot during that time so I watch this movie the first year I was with my babysitter maybe up to 15 times that year. This movie stuck with me throughout my life so far and I really enjoyed it because of the diverse talent and crazy plot line!
2.   Basket Case (1982)- directed by Frank Henenlotter- It is no surprise that this movie made my list. Frank Henenlotter is one of my favorite directors because of the characters he creates and Belial is one of my out there characters in cinema today! Henenlotter is known for his low budget creations and dark humor. If it were up to me Basket Case would be part of the film registry at the Library of Congress!
3.  Grease 2 directed by Patricia Birch (1982)- If I had to choose between the first Grease and Grease 2 as which one is the better favorite of mine.I will always pick Grease 2 and it is mainly because of the soundtrack! With such song titles as “Do it for Our Country”, “Cool Rider” and “Reproduction.” How can you not have fun watching this movie??? It has a less serious tone than the first movie and I feel like it is way more entertaining!
4.  Phenomena directed by Dario Argento (1985)- I am kind of surprised that Dario Argento has not been part of the Criterion Collection yet! I feel like this movie would be a good introduction to film fans that haven’t been introduce to this director.

What movies would you like to see as part of the Criterion Collection?

 

Until Next time!!!

Hello everyone! I hope you had a good start to 2019!

Today I will be discussing about Wayne’s World 2 (1993). It stars Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Tia Carrere,  and Christopher Walken. It is also jammed pack with guest celebrities such a Kim Basinger, James Wong, Chris Farley, Drew Barrymore and many many more actors!

This movie is a sequel to Wayne’s Word (dud) and it starts off with Wayne’s public access show “Wayne’s World”. Wayne catches the audience up with all the information that we miss out of between sequels as  they get ready to do to an Aerosmith’s concert. After the concert Wayne has a dream where he meet Jim Morrison in the middle of the desert and Jim tells him what the meaning and purpose of Wayne’s life is. Which is to throw a rock concert in Illinois. Throughout the movie Wayne experiences some pitfalls of getting to concert to happen like trying to stop his girlfriend from marrying her record producer.

He is also not sure if any of the bands he booked will come ( He made a long list of band  that would come and play; such as Pearl Jam, Aerosmith and Van Halen) and if any people would buy tickets to this concert.

I remember watching this movie in the theater because as  a child I really enjoy watching the first Wayne’s world on TV. I actually prefer the sequel more than the original because  I felt like this plot seemed more attractive then the original. Also I like the fact that it paid homage to some classic movies such as The Graduate and Jurassic Park.

Fun fact about this movie: Mike Myers wanted Federico Fellini to direct Wayne’s World 2 but the producers at Paramount thought he was joking and quickly rejected the idea.

Could you imagine what kind of movie Fellini would of directed?

 

ROCK ON!