We were busy, but happy. Day started with legwork and paperwork for the landlord and fellow tenants. It was a big success.
And then! To celebrate what would have been his 92nd birthday, Gerry Anderson Day was a fabulous success with a dizzying array of screenings, live events, and very cool stuff!
Our modest contributions to Gerry Anderson Day included several tweets and pics…
INCLUDING sharing our absolutely favorite moment from the the first Ballantine paperback, BREAKAWAY by EC Tubb…
We also received and unpacked some physical copies…
We cooked…
Yes, this is stock.
We did laundry…
No, this is real, that’s us.
And look! These words and pictures. We posted! Ooraah.
We’d wager that a lot of people are thinking about Tom Flynn.
YouTube videos make for a poor seánce—we know, we apologize.
Still, we do what we can. So smoke it if you’ve got it, drink deep if you are so inclined, turn off the lights and pump up the volume. It’s Movie Night, somewhere. Out there. In The Tom Zone.
And we seem to have hit some sort of cap as to the number of videos YouTube will allow us to embed. Bummer! On deck were THE TRAIN, THE GREAT ESCAPE, and THE TERMINATOR. Ah well. The smoke swirls still, the spirits hover. They will always be there. So carry on, DoomFuckers.
Sonic allegories for transitions, the soundtrack to a new beginning. Music to prepare for what comes next. Songs to recall precedent. A gift for the present.
A ritual, a soundtrack, a conjuring of the forces within, bone and blood, stronger than any god, the revelation that you are the god, the seed, the spear, the arrow through generations.
More Later. If you are reading this, Welcome to 2021!
Ω
Edited to add: A little inelegant, dropping the entire tweet in there, but as long as the little gif film runs and the links work, we are happy. Bear with us as we still give the block editor and new format a shakeout drive.
Went looking to see if there was a band called SABBATUM and found these dopes. With the opening blare of the “dirty organ,” I burst out laughing, but not with displeasure! “Ok, let’s go worship at the altar of Ozzy by way of Deep Purple for 45 minutes, let’s do this.” It was nice!
Things have been crazy at The Lab. More later, maybe. Hope you are all well and tightly wrapped, my pretties.
I just added these flicks to my watchlist! Just now! Let’s see, we have: SEVEN (7) absolute comforts that can be played anytime (or be listened to, say, at The Lab) and they are Highlander, both Nosferati, Busan, Trilogy, Night, and The Church; ONE (1) Film from the 80s with a serious rep that I never bothered to see, Gods; ONE (1) that deserves a no-bullshit, all eyes front rewatch, Inception; TWO (2) stone-cold strangers that, uh, yeah sure, we’ll give them an optimistic watch! And they are Agora (maybe Rachel Weisz, as an Egyptian Princess under cruel Roman Occupation, has a really big strange cat, and Stonehearst Asylum because what the Hell, we like Kate Beckinsale. No really. And it is an asylum story! Which brings us to…
The Ninth Configuration.
So, let’s see. It’s on the SHOUT! label. Doesn’t SHOUT! cull its shit from various catalogues? So there’s a chance, unlikely, but still a very remote chance, that out of all the recuts and edits and its goddamn various incarnations as TWINKLE TWINKLE KILLER KANE, that somehow this could be a copy of the original cut.
Highly unlikely. Last we read anything on the matter, it was largely accepted that the original cut is gone forever. Thank you Mister Blatty.
Which is really too damn bad, Joe. Because I saw this movie on its original release—on a night like tonight, rain and wind, except it was day, and I was fifteen, skipping school, and my weird older sister drove us to New Hampshire in a town by the ocean, and seeing 9th was one of the greatest film experiences of my life.
But Joe, but! And this is important! Even if the original cut somehow surfaced, it would not alter the fact that for all its imagination and flair and moood, The 9th Configuration is a pretty weak movie, clumsy, at times embarrassingly inept. Which is so weird, given that super-rich and first time director Blatty had extensive prior exposure to the film industry, such as the Pink Panther movies and his involvement on The Exorcist. Obviously Blatty realized his film was flawed, and hence the endless tinkering and re-tinkering.
So there we are. A beloved imperfect final result, still a comfort.
Will report back on the newcomers. We’ll talk again soon, Joe. We’ll keep watching the screens!
Son of a bitch, it IS Lon Chaney Jr on the cover! From THE INNER SANCTUM.
Yes it’s really Fall. I have to remind myself. Because Summer roared with a vengeance and it’s still on fire, I know, but it’s October 15, the Zero Moon is nigh, and thank The Gods, VideoScope #115 is here for us to enjoy.
Joe Kane and Nancy Naglin make the glorious SCOPE happen 4 times a year. It’s all here: Horror! Sci-Fi! Action! Asian! Cult! Animation! Indies! Exploitation! 4 times a year, man! What are you waiting for? Subscribe or die, baby!
SUPERNATURAL! What a cover! The usual great shit can be found within, including a lengthy and enlightening interview w/ MOTEL HELL director Kevin Conner; the always amusing “B” Wards; Debbie Rochon’s SPIDERS BESIDE HER; Nancy Naglin’s ART HOUSE VIDEO, The Phantom’s reviews of S. Craig Zahler’s DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE, Takashi Miike’s FIRST LOVE, and Boon Joon-Ho’s PARASITE; a profile of the photogenic Jessie Graff; and a very groovy full-page inside-back for THE WORLD THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL.
Belated Birthday wishes to the ever-mighty JOE KANE, The Phantom of The Movies.
Jesus. He’s a dead ringer for Wayne Hussey of The Mission. Rock on, Joe! \m/
SUBSCRIBE OR DIE!
That is all. Carry on and be safe out there, Doomtroopers, Survivors, and Misfits.
