Unbetitelt

There’s a lot of talk about creepy clowns lately, but where’s the love for the classic primate monsters, werewolves, ghouls, and vampires at this time of year?

According to Vincent Price’s character Aramus in the movie The Monster Club, “Vampires sup, werewolves hunt, ghouls tear.” These are the rules of monsterdom.  Shaddies lick, maddies yawn, and mocks blow. But Shadmocks only whistle.Now the humegoo, which is a cross between a ghoul and a human being, don’t really do anything interesting, but they do have an unfortunate appetite for carrion (which they get, of course, from the ghoul side of the family).

A monster’s genealogical chart by John Bolton

One of my minor regrets in life is I had an opportunity to buy a copy of the comic book produced from the script by Dezz Skinn and John Bolton. This copy was signed by Vincent Price. A copy was given to everyone in the crew at the wrap party. 

Wish a Raddie or a Shaddies were on the Cubs right now and could turn the Giants into a pile of rubble. This is nerve wracking. I know the Cubs are going to get multiple shots at the World Series, but let’s get one like the Black Hawks did then be casual about it every time from then on.

Back to the Monster Club. Directed by Roy Ward Baker. The last production from Amicus and Hammer legendary producer Milton Subotski. Starring Vincent Price, Donald Pleasance, John Carradine. Mixes musical interludes with three short horror stories from the book by R Chetwynd Hayes. 

In my personal collection is the French movie poster, the English quad poster, the VHS from Thriller Video, the Beta tape from Thriller Video, and the Monster Club soundtrack from Chips records. 

I first saw the movie on Movie Macabre in 1983. And I made a copy on VHS from Video Outlet in 1991 that I still play to this day and it has never worn out. 

Got to love a movie that features an entire story about the underappreciated ghoul. Some great artwork by John Bolton in this story. I almost bought one of the original illustrations he did for the third story, but balked on that, too. There’s a fine line between being a fan and being broke. This third story about a village of ghouls is my favorite in the movie and the only one that packs any real scares in it, although lack of scary moments is not a problem for me as The Monster Club was originally meant for a television audience and can be watched by anyone you’d allow to watch a PG 13 movie.

John Bolton ghoul illustration. Would love to have one of these, probably will never get one.

While my burrito cools down in the microwave and I watch the first of two episodes of Barney Miller on AntennaTV, I’ve decided maybe at this time each night I’ll just do a free write at one of these twenty or so ridiculous blogs. Like someone else’s house, this was once someone else’s blog. No idea who Tigerkitty was. 

Maybe I’ll call the nightly free write The Rockford Poetry Files. Seems like I already am. I have two projects in the fire right now: one facetious, and the other deadly serious. The facetious project is The Outsider Poetry Slam League of America, or OPSLA. I’ve changed the acronym now seven or eight times, which might be a good indicator of why Google has no idea what I’m talking about. Today I created a team for Rockford called The Rockford Pages, a takeoff on The Rockford Peaches immortalized in the movie A League of Their Own. I guess I created a mythical league of their own for fictional Rockford slam poets.

The more serious project is the book The Blood Dark Sea by Outlaw Poet Dennis Gulling. I was doing some final edits on the book late last night, and I looked outside the window and the moon was huge and orange over the Old City Hall Building. 

It looks like that, except my view is from the back side where my apartment is. The moon was right over the building for a few minutes, but sunk very fast when I noticed. At one time I almost got an apartment in the building, but I really wanted one of the basement apartments that had been the city jail a century ago. 

That is the type of imagery replete in the book, which I just signed an estimate form for today. The files might be sent off to the printer as early as next week. Interesting. I just noticed the buildings behind  and next to Old City Hall in this postcard are no longer there. Also, people tend to not ride around in buggies anymore. 

Calvin Trillin and Charles Grodin on Johnny Carson tonight, which should be a real wit fest. I remember when Grodin was initially promoting the book he’ll be on the show talking about tonight, It Would Be So Nice If You Weren’t There. I always thought that was a funny title. At midnight (9 minutes) I’ll watch The Rockford Files, which I’m really getting into, then that Carson show, and maybe go to bed early, if you call 2 a.m. early.

Unless that moon is out again even bigger and more orange.