Cheers, Borrrrrris!

Happy b-day to one creeeeeeeeeepy dude.


If you have some free time (or free DVR space), check out TCM today for tons of Karloff flix (The Lost Patrol, The Walking Dead, West Of Shanghai, You'll Find Out, Isle Of The Dead, The Body Snatcher, Bedlam, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome, The Terror).

Obviously a few of these have ...already played this morning, but maybe you can time-travel and you're just keeping it a secret from us all. Dunno.

Those Val Lewton (RKO) ones are some very cool films (Body Snatcher, Isle/Dead, Bedlam). Or pull out some classic Universal Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, or The Mummy, if ya have them. Probably the most famous (mainstream) of his movies.

Kinda makes ya wanna dig up that old box of CHILL stuff, right? Who knows what else you might unearth...

pants = soiled

Oh BTW, HBD2 Sara Karloff (his daughter) too! Pretty cool dualie celebration, right there.

Super-cool birthday gifts... from back in '77

I was diggin' through some old photo albums at my folks' house this week, and came across this snapshot in time:


I found several years of birthday pics, including some from back in '81, but this one really caught my eye, especially with some of that suh-weeeet vintage Star Wars swag.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a peek at some of those AWESOME b-day gifts from "a much simpler time."

So let's take stock. From left to right (sorta):

• a Star Wars marker/coloring poster (with 3-D Vader mask, mind you!)
• a Dallas Cowboys helmet lamp (I either put 12 or 33 on the back with stickers)
• a set of 6 "silver" (ok, silver-colored) Hot Wheels cars (these I kept... they're my son's now)
• an mpc R2-D2 *fully-articulated* model kit
• a full set of all NFL teams pencils
• an amt Cuckoo Nest Custom Ford Van model kit
• an Obsession board game - "The game you can't get enough of!" (Dig that preposition-ending sentence. Nice grammar, babe!)
• a Skorpion (advanced design street machine) model kit - I guess I got my share of sniffing glue back then, eh?
  

Sadly, no TSR loot. But then again, the earliest I really got into the likes of D&D, Gamma World and Top Secret was, well... back in '81.

Live a little, Chewie!

"Gggggaaaarrrrrrrr!!!! Arrrrhhhn!!!!!"

Happy World Wide Wookiee Life Day!

November 17 - And it's my birthday, too. Sorry for the self-promotion - I'm just in a happy mood today, and proud to have made it through another year.

"Me? Old? Hhmmmm...? Think so, I do not."

At any rate, in Chewbacca's honor, tonight I think I'll dig out this old fella from back in '77 (actually, I didn't get mine until '78, IIRC), and school my son on the wonders of late '70s action figure articulation... all four points of it.

Veterans Rock!

I did not serve. I never would've had the guts to do so. To those who did... and those who still do... every single one of you ROCK! Thank you so very much for our freedom.

/salute

A belated beheading. Plus a *pac*-o-lantern and some Darth Silliness

I had the above pic set aside for a Halloween related blog post, but 10/31 came and went. Alas, here it is, several days late. Still, what an totally AWESOME work by the late, GREAT Frazetta. I absolutely LOVE his stuff; always have. I still run across works of his that I have never seen before. This was one of those. The image alone is so bad@$$, but the use of color in his art is just plain stunning. God, I wish I could draw/paint/*pastel* like that! Nobody even comes close, in my mind.

Since this is basically a post-Halloween post, I may as well cover a couple other items:

First, on the "back in '81" tip ('80, really, but who's counting?), my son (6 y.o.) wanted a Pac-Man pumpkin this year. It's nothing extravagant (not like some of those amazing carvings I've seen posted online), but about 3/4 of the way through, it started to get a little tricky. Ya see I almost blew out the whole thing when I carved away too much of the bottom half before punching out the ghosts' eyes. Doh! Anyway... it held up, and he really dug it... and that's truly all that matters.

"Waka-waka-waka..."

And finally, I also had a little too much fun out with the fam, as Darth Robbo, terroizin' y'alls neighborhood (hope this works - the video won't play in the *preview* pane - gives an ERROR):

Darth Neighbor
"I sense something; a presence I've not felt since... [burrrrrp]"

Note to self: Eating garlic-heavy lasagna for dinner and then heading out trick or-treating with the kiddos in a tightly-enclosed face-mask is NOT highly recommended.

"The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now *I* am the master-bathroom![sic]"

Truth be told, if I would have had this costume this year, you bet your bounty-hunter-butt that I would have worn it instead of that Target one I'm wearing above. Check out this life-like, near-movie-prop below from back in tha day (note, this is for the lesser-known, often-disregarded Darth Vadar):

The Dark Lord of the Sith's "fun poncho."