Western Movement Beat

As I've mentioned in a previous post Anthony and I have been hosting a weekly event called, Six Nights of Horror. It's basically a weekly movie night where we introduce a new horror movie to our friends for the six weekends that lead up to Halloween. I've been having a blast, and it seems our friends have been too! I've decided it would be a good idea to blog about each movie we watch. Since I just had this idea, I'm already a bit behind, so I'll have to post double time to catch us back up to the present! The first weekend in our Six Nights of Horror we watched a Sam Rami/Bruce Campbell classic, Army of Darkness.

(How do you NOT watch a movie with a poster like that?)

This movie could really be argued to be more of a horror comedy, but there are plenty of spooky elements that keep it from firmly landing it in that category. We thought it would be a good idea to start out the series with a film that would be fun for people to watch and would help them ease into things. Army of Darkness was the perfect choice. I hadn't seen Army of Darkness in a good long while. Once upon a time I actually owned the collectors set that came in it's own book of the dead. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Army of Darkness is the third installment in a series called, The Evil Dead, directed by Sam Rami, staring Bruce Campbell. In Army of Darkness our hero, Ash, has been sucked into a time portal that has sent him back to 1300 AD. He lands in a village tormented by evil forces. After a bumpy start with the locals, it is discovered that Ash is the savoir spoken of in prophesy who can find the Necronomicon. The Book of the Dead.

(Aww....It's so cute when it's sleeping)

Why would anyone want a book that looks like that you might ask? Well, the Necronomicon has the power to dispel all the evil spirits that have been plaguing the village, finally allowing them peace. Ash runs into a little problem when he finally finds the Book of the Dead. He forgets the magic words he's supposed to say and accidentally releases an army of skeletons dead set (heh heh) on storming the castle and taking over the village!

(Is it weird that I think they're kinda cute?)

The film ends with an exciting battle between good and evil, the 14th century and the 20th century, alive and dead. Do the good people of the village triumph? Does Ash ever get home? You'll have to watch the movie to find out. I have to say that this was the best choice to begin our movie marathon. Everyone was laughing and having a great time, even those of us who have seen the film many times before. There was at least one exclamation from a new viewer of, "this is my new favorite movie!" That's the mark of a good film, it keeps both new viewers and returners equally entertained. It would be my suggestion to watch the whole series starting with, The Evil Dead, and working your way to Army of Darkness, but we learned that it's not necessary. The evening that we watched Army of Darkness we had one viewer who had only seen part 1 and another who hadn't seen any of the films at all, and they were able to follow along just fine.

(And who wouldn't want to follow Bruce Campbell?)

We had a nice, simple weekend around here.

Friday, Anthony and I saw, Gravity. It's an incredible film from top to bottom. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I don't want to ruin anything for anyone, so go see it and maybe I'll talk about it in a week or so.

Saturday was spent in thrift stores and at the park. In the evening we got together with the band to work on new songs and such. Then Saturday night we had our friends over for the 3rd installment of "6 Nights of Horror" (I completely forgot to take pictures of that event, but I promise to do so next weekend).

We watched a horror comedy this time around, "Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil." We had talked about doing "Shawn of the Dead," but most folks have seen that one so we thought we would go a bit more obscure and it paid off.

Sunday was full of resting, reading, and preparing for the beginning of the week.

A lovely, simple weekend all in all. The best kind you can ask for.

My favorite month has begun and I have every intention of doing it too the max.

Apple cider, pumpkin patches, haunted houses, costumes, and horror movies are all on the agenda. In fact, we've already begun celebrating Halloween in my house. Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say, we never stop celebrating Halloween in our house. A good look around the place will reveal that we're always decorated for October.

Gargoyles keep sprouting up in the corners to look out for us. And everywhere you look are skeletons to keep you company.

I feel most at home with things a little spooky around. And every October I seem to find a little something new to add to the collection.

In addition to our general Halloween fun, Anthony and I have been hosting a movie night titled, "Six Nights of Horror". Each weekend, for the six weeks leading up to Halloween we will be having a screening of a horror movie. Some are classics, some are obscure, others are really more horror comedy, but we're making sure to dive deep into every aspect of the genre.

I'll make sure to post our whole screening list here soon. And expect a post about this weekend's screening. It's going to be a double feature!

I don't know if others share this experience, but I find that I go through periods of intense consumption followed by periods of intense creation. A lot of the summer was a consumption period for me. I read a lot of books, watched movies in the evening with Anthony, went to a lot of shows and generally gorged myself on the amazing things being created around me.

The tables, however, are turning and I'm finding myself moving into the next creation phase. More writing, new songs with the band, cooking new meals and even some drawing have been part of my day to day.

Which brings me to my October challenge.

A few days ago I stumbled upon the blog, Don Kenn gallery. There's not a lot of information on the artist on the blog aside from one small paragraph that pretty much sums it up, I think.

Born in Denmark 1978. I write and direct television shows for kids. I have a set of twins and not much time for anything. But when i have time i draw monsterdrawings on post-it notes... it is a little window into a different world, made on office supplies.

The artwork that he creates is truly amazing. I fell in love with it instantly and after just a few minutes of scrolling through the blog the idea for an exercise started to form in my head. Each day, for all 31 days of October, I'm going to use one of these drawings to inspire a little story. Some might be as short as a paragraph or two, others might be a more traditional short story length. The point is simply to get something down on paper in a concrete form.

The idea of "reboots" can be a polarizing one. For example, if someone came to you today and told you that they were going to reboot your favorite childhood movie, you would probably react strongly. Positive or negative, you would be moved by that information.

On the flip side, we reboot our computers all the time (or, at least I do). In fact, the easiest way to fix the damn things sometimes seems to be to just turn them off and then turn them back on.

It seems to me that reboots are a pretty natural part of human life. We try something and see how it goes. If it's successful we might leave it alone for a while, but, eventually, we pick it up again. Start over, or take a new twist on the material. We reboot our work.

In that context I can really get behind the idea of reboots.

So why all this talk to reboots? Because it's about time I rebooted this blog. I've only ever started in earnest to blog once or twice, and it always ended in dismal defeat. But this time I'm going to work for something different. I'm going to try to stick with it and see what life is like on the other side of the reboot.

I can't guarantee what all I'll post about. (You can safely assume, books, science fiction, comics, my band, and other projects) I hope to expand the edges of what I write about slowly but surely.

If you've read my tumblr before then you probably already know that I am a self-proclaimed scream queen.  Halloween isn't just October 31st.  In my world it's everyday.  In some ways I almost feel like Halloween follows me throughout the year.

This picture is a great example of that.  Just a few weeks ago Anthony and I decided to take a walk.  We didn't have much of a destination, just wanted to enjoy the nice weather.  We didn't make it more than 6 blocks from our house when we found this house.  Neither of us had ever seen it before, but then, suddenly, it was there.

It was impossible to tell if anyone lived there.  No signs of life around the place at all.  The perfect haunted house.

One of the reasons I love spooky things is the two-fold joy of "the mystery" and "the mystery revealed."

One aspect of our love of spooky things comes from the mystery surrounding it.  This house tells no direct story.  There's no way to know if it's abandoned. All of the windows are covered.

The other side of this coin is equally as thrilling; the mystery revealed.  The moment where we finally see the monster that's been stalking us.  Or the clue that shows us that the killer has been right there all along.  The mystery revealed is always tied into the climax of the story and, in horror, it's usually a pretty big scare for the audience as well.

But this house is all mystery to me and I hope that it stays that way.  Because as much as I would love to know who owns it, who has lived in it, and why it now seems to vacant, I would rather get to keep the mystery alive than end the story.

Well then you should probably check out FABLES by Bill Willingham.

He's calling the style "mythic fiction," and it won't be the first time you've encountered it.  Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN is just one of the many popular titles that uses the mythic fiction style.

FABLES centers around some of the most famous fairytale characters in our cannon.  The basic plot is that an evil adversary has taken over all of their lands, leaving them with only one place to hide, earth.  More specifically, New York City.

It's a pretty fun idea and Willingham has been pulling it off for well over 100 issues at this point so you know he's got it down to a science.  A magical science.

The thing about FABLES that I enjoy the most is that although it has a large and epic story to tell, most of the moments are focused on the characters and their relationship to each other.  It's my opinion that story doesn't become plot until characters have motivation and relationship with each other.  Willingham gives his characters both in spades.