Review: Night Fright

Holy Crap, a new post! I know that no one is reading this blog anymore, but I'm gonna try and post more regularly and drum up some traffic. Anyway, there is a new review over at The Graveyard for 1967's Night Fright, a low budget (low, low, low budget) monster flick with a gorilla suit as the monster, far too much day-for-night photography and the late, great John Agar as a small town sheriff. Check it out!

Full Review Here.

 Now, where have I been? Short answer: overloaded at work and distracted with other things. Hopefully I can get back to writing and blogging and yammering on and on about movies, books, wargaming and such things.

Until next time, later dudes.

Review: The Snow Creature

After an absence of nearly seven months, I have returned to the Graveyard to unearth 1954's craptacular yeti film, The Snow Creature. The movie was the first western film centered on the Abominable Snowman, who was quickly gaining in notoriety thanks to plenty of reported sightings during the preceding decade. Boring, plodding and featuring a monster than looks like the cast off from a fourth rate Banana Splits rip-off (google the Banana Splits if you're too young to recall who they were), this movie is no where near mediocre, let alone good or entertaining. This is the type of film you force people to watch on endless loops when you have them tied up in your basement. Not that I have ever done that. nope.

Some of the lessons imparted by this film:

1. A crate of scotch is standard gear on any expedition into the Himalayas.
2. Despite their environment, Yetis are not natural rock climbers.
3. Yetis possess the ninja-like ability to vanish into their surroundings, especially in urban areas.

Go to review.

The Scroll Of Anubis Is Here!

Just got my contributor's copy in the mail and was so jazzed, I made this:

2010 In Review

Troubled Times

Has it really been three months since I posted here? Sheesh. I knew I was getting busy with other projects, but in the back of my mind I kept meaning to post something. Before you know it, a quarter of a year has gone by! Wow. So here's a quick status update:

Shadow's B-Movie Graveyard - Again, the movie site has taken a back seat to make time for other things. I've been itching to get back to it and I do have a review in progress, I just don't know when I'll get the time to finish it. Probably not until 2011, with all that's going on around here now.

Writing - Alas, I have not written a word in months and months. That hasn't stopped me from jotting down ideas, I just never get around to working on them. If 2009 was the year I proved to myself that I could write and get published, 2010 was the year of self reflection and delayed aspirations. Numerous things have conspired to keep me busy and away from this blog and my online writing friends, but I won't get into the boring details. I'm hoping to get my schedule sorted out soon and get back to regular writing. Maybe 2011 will be the year of kicking oneself in the ass.

However, despite a lack of writing, I have subbed a few stories that were completed last year. Everything has come up rejected with the exception of The Transcendental Man, the time travel story that I originally wrote for the Time in a Bottle antho. They promptly lost it and after a year (and prodding by K.C. Shaw) they finally found it, too late of course to make the cut. I let them keep it for consideration for the second volume, but methinks they lost it again, cuz after 638 days, I have yet to hear a word from them. No matter, I decided to sub the story to Permuted Press' Times of Trouble antho and after months of waiting, I learned today that I made the cut! This is even more gratifying because I subbed the story under my real name and not my JTC horror pen name. And again I will be sharing a TOC with the fast-rising Aaron Polson. I will dog his every step until we both have multi book contracts.;)

So, I have no idea if anyone even checks in here any more, but I just had to stand up and shout out that small bit of "yay me!" I hope everyone is doing well.

Words Fail me

So I've been away a lot for the last few weeks. It's the busy season at work, so that has taken up a lot of time, plus all manner of other things here at home. For the last month or so, I've only been getting the chance to catch up on blogs and what not about once every week or two. So imagine my utter shock and disbelief when I logged on earlier only to learn of the passing of Jamie Eyberg. I never met Jamie, but still considered him a friend. He was one of the first to comment on this blog and always had something positive and constructive to say. All my other complaints of the last week seem so trivial now. My first thoughts upon hearing of his passing were of his and Ann's two children. My heart goes out to them. I cannot even imagine how tough it is for them right now. My second thought was of all the stories we won't ever get to read. In truth, I am still trying to process this tragic news and find that I am feeling a great sadness. I'm just gonna go and have a drink in memory of my friend.

Worst. Week. Ever.

Last week sucked.

Monday - 12 hour day. Nothing overly crappy happened. Just a long ass day.

Tuesday - While loading my truck at the Chevron rack, one compartment on my tank truck overfilled. THAT COMPARTMENT WAS EMPTY. It overfilled due to their malfunctioning equipment. Still I was the one who got locked out for a week and has to take a class before I can load there again.

Wednesday - At my first delivery of the day, I got sprayed with diesel. No, I need to amend that. I got SOAKED. I had go the rest of the day with diesel fumes filling my nostrils.

Thursday - I Slipped and fell and hurt my shoulder really, really bad. So bad that I can't raise my arm all the way. At a certain point when lifting, it begins to shake. Torn rotator cuff methinks.

Friday  - Arrived at work to learn that my coworker was in a motorcycle accident and broke his leg.

Overall a truly craptacular week. This week had better go more smoothly.

Now that the bitchfest is over, we now return to the normal sporadically used blog of Jameson T. Caine.

Opening The Vault

So over the holiday weekend I opened up the famed treasure vaults here at Shadow Manor, looking for items to sell on eBay so as to fund my OOP book recovery project. Many a wide-eyed niece and/or nephew has stood slack jawed at the merest glimpse of the vault's contents and no doubt they would have readily agreed to part with their young souls were I to offer them the chance to get their grubby little digits on the items within. Alas, no amount of pleading or flat out wailing on their part will convince me to allow such juvenile persons alone time with such valuables. For the most part, the items I chose are things that I really cannot see myself ever having  use for and/or opening, or they are multiples of things that I already own.  Now I just hope someone buys this crap stuff. Click the photos for the super size versions.

Further exploration of eBay opened up another avenue of possible income: old computer games and books. I was astounded at the amount of older things (going back to the commodore 64) that people were buying and I am literally loaded with such stuff. I was this close to throwing out a lot of those old clue books and things. Who knew some people were willing pay 50 bucks for some of them?

To Sell Or Not To Sell

So after cruising eBay quite a bit lately, I've drawn up a massive list of OOP books I want. Naturally, this great literary recovery project requires funding. I began looking around my house for things to sell. The first thing The Other Half suggested was all the unopened toys I have. Some of you may recall the pictures of my "Man Cave" last year and the toys that could be seen in them. Those were just a small portion of the crap stuff I have. The only problem is, I'm not quite ready to give up that stuff. Likewise with the near mint copies of Dragon magazine I have. I have over a hundred of the early issues and I know some fool geek out there would love to get his greasy hands on them. I really have no use for them, as I have all the issues on CD and can access them much easier that way. Still, I'm not sure if I want to part with them. Maybe I can sell a kidney or something?

For some of you around my age, maybe you recall the old animated show Star Blazers? The Americanized version of the great anime Space Battleship Yamato? If you remember, then feast your eyes on this:



I sooo want a U.S. release for that.

Review: Megalodon

I’d never heard of this film until I saw the DVD on the shelf at the electronics store. Since it was cheap, I bought it. Sharks both scare and fascinate me, and I’ve read up on them quite a bit over the years. I was already familiar with Megalodons, having read about them in the late 70’s. After teenage years spent at the beach surfing (during which I had my own encounter with a shark), I’ve grown more fascinated with them, so movies like this always interest me. Too bad the film is rather plodding, slow and underdeveloped. I watched it once. Then I watched it three more times for this review. That’s enough for me.

Lessons imparted by this film:

1. The best way to provide oxygen to a person suffering a panic attack, is to crowd around them in a tight circle.
2. Savage storms strong enough to prevent rescue at sea will not produce much in the way of wind or rain.
3. Engaging in tag with an eleven ton Carcharodon Megalodon is not the smartest game to play.
4. Deep sea mining routinely makes use of anti-matter for demolition purposes.

Go to review.

In other news, my writing has once again stalled. Halfway through this year and I've written six or seven thousand words, maybe. Right now, I'm all about the world building; researching various things, using different programs to draw maps of my made-up locales and so forth. This in itself has rekindled another old hobby: Dungeons and Dragons. I have absolutely no one to play the game with and am not about to seek out other gamers via the local game shops, but I find myself looking at all my old D & D books and wishing I had managed to collect all the ones I had wanted. In times past I would have been SOL, but with fabulous things like Ebay, I can find those older books I missed out on 15 and 20 years ago and finally obtain them. Somebody stop me before I max out my credit card!

Where's The Beef?

I've quite literally been beefing up lately. The Other Half works for a farm management company and as a result, we are often on the receiving end of lots of free produce - fruit, veggies and nuts (I go bonkers on the pistachios when those come in). Every now and then when some livestock are slaughtered, we get some meat. Well, last week it was the cows turn and we ended up with loads of beef: prime rib, T-bones, ribeyes, porterhouse steaks and several pounds of burger meat. By the end of this month, I'll be sick of it all, but for now I'm in beef heaven.

The 10th anniversary issue of Blood Moon Rising has been posted online, featuring my flash piece, The Customer. Long time readers may recall an even shorter, work in progress version from last year. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Writing has been slow this week, with my shoulder problems keeping me from getting much done. Still, I have managed a few words here and there on an untitled short as well as more fleshing out of the novel I hope to do in November.

Musical Inspiration: Rie Tanaka

The past few days have been the first in some time that I have actually felt like a writer again. For too long now I've been dealing with one family crisis after another or some larger than life project that requires all of my focus. It seems that things may be settling down and I can get back into my earlier (as in 2009) groove. I finally got to the requested re-write from the Times of Trouble antho from Permuted Press. That was sent in and the editor replied favorably to the changes, saying that I had a good chance for the finals. I am really hoping to make the cut on this one for two main reasons: 1) Since my story is Science Fiction, I wrote it under my real name, and 2) PP books actually show up in my local bookstore so it would be entirely possible for me to find a copy and see my name. Here's hoping. After getting to that rewrite, I perused Duotrope and subbed three other stories to various markets, then wrote some tidbits on a new story before jotting down lots of notes for another. All in all, a productive few days.

This week's musical inspiration is the song Ningyohime by Rie Tanaka. The song was one of the themes used for the end credits on the Chobits anime. For those unaware, Chobits was an anime about personal computers shaped like real people...hot young females to be exact (don't ask where the reboot button is). A poor student named Hideki finds a discarded one and eventually wonders if she may one of the fabled Chobits series, a computer that is far more evolved than others. Despite the often playful and (mostly) wholesome nature of the series, there is still an undercurrent of tragedy and loss. Somewhat haunting, this song really conveys a sense of longing and unrequited love. Plus, hot Japanese female singers are a nice counter to all the hot Japanese male singers that Nat posts!

Review: Hunchback Of The Morgue

This movie somehow manages to squeeze in a veritable cornucopia of horror story elements, including a mad scientist, a hunchback assistant, a warren of creepy catacombs, a series of murders, a crazy experiment conducted in secret, an inhuman monster, a small town European location and a liberal dose of blood and gore. Despite the gothic undertones inherent in the story and setting, the film takes place in a (then) contemporary 1970’s German town. The narrative takes a while to set things up and get into proper gear, but once it does, things unfold at a lively pace.

Lessons imparted:

1. Drink enough beer and you'll literally drop dead.
2. Robbing graves in a cemetery while it’s still light out and not expecting to be seen while doing so is a rather foolish notion.
3. Repeatedly breaking into and then back out of a women’s prison is an easily accomplished feat.

Go to review.

June Already?

Bloody hell. It's June already? Why didn't anyone tell me?! The past month has kept me quite busy. Unfortunately, most of it has been away from the computer and my writing. More health issues in the family, longer hours at work and several projects around the house that could no longer be put off (I'd been procrastinating for years on some of them). Maybe, maybe, MAYBE with the new month some order will descend on the chaos that has been my house. I sure could use some. While not writing very much, I have been sneaking in a few moments here and there for some research or to jot down notes for later use, so I'm going to consider that as keeping on the ball. Yep, that's what I'll do.

For fans of the Graveyard, YES, that new review will be coming soon. I've just been lazy about getting to it with everything else going on.

And yes, I finally changed the name of the blog to reflect the banner above. I've been meaning to do it forever now, but kept forgetting when the first of each month rolled around. Being the stickler for details that I am, I refused to change it at any other time.

The Scroll of Anubis TOC

Looks like the TOC for the Scroll of Anubis anthology has been finalized:

The Lockwood Collection, By Mary Rajotte
Amunet, By Rhiannon Frater
The Companion of Jacob Bleek, By Jeffery Scott Sims
The Rise of Terefini, By John McCuaig
Let Justice Be Done, By Alva J. Roberts
White Cloud's Return, By Janett L. Grady
Family Under Wraps, By David Bernstein
Styx and Stones, By Malachy Coney
Kiss of Death, By Jessy Marie Roberts
The Jaws of the Jackal, By Patrick Rutigliano
Caves of Gold, By Jim Bernheimer
The Baron and the Cat, By Megan R. Engelhardt
The Legacy of Seshat, By Jameson T. Caine
The Dry Man, By Amanda C. Davis
Amun’s Curse, By Carey Burns
Beneath The Floorboards, By Robert Essig
The Book of Osiris, By Charles Kyffhausen
Balam, By Megan Bamford
Mistress of the Scarab, By Miles Boothe
Egypt, PA, By Wayne Goodchild
The Lurker In The Depths, By Michael C. Lea
The Desecrators, By Paul A. Freeman
Pharaoh’s Best Friend, By Adam Blomquist
The Eternal Resurrection, By, M.S. Gardner
Calixite’s Curse, By Deborah Walker
Abu Timsaah, By Zachary Thomas Tyler
The Pyramids of Rock Lake, By Derek J. Goodman
The Curse of Djer, By T. Patrick Rooney

Yup, I managed to get my comedic take on mummy thieves in there. Gotta love that cover.

Nightmare Imagery

I think it's safe to assume that just about every writer out there, published or not, has at one time or another fueled one of their stories on something taken from a dream or nightmare. Be it an entire story idea, a setting or just a quick image, I'm sure we've all done it. The other night I had a dream that was filled with such nightmare imagery that I fail to see how I cannot use it in a story. The subjects of the dream? Tarantulas.

Now, let me be clear. Spiders rank number two on my list of things that cause instant heart failure and/or the spontaneous calling for "Mama!" If you must know, number one on that list are sharks and some day I will regale you with the story of my long vanished surfing days, when on one fateful day I had a close encounter with one of Satan's fishes. But that is a story for another day (or ask Mercedes Yardley, she's heard it). Anyway, back to spiders. I hate them. They freak me out big time. This stems from waking up in my crib as a baby and seeing a huge specimen just a few inches away. I cried and screamed and hollered up a storm that would have put a banshee to shame. So what if it was just a piece of stuffing from my teddy bear? I thought it was a spider and ever since then, spiders have been the enemy.

The really strange thing about my tarantula themed dream from the other night is just that: it was a dream and not a nightmare. Despite the abundance of eight legged hell spawn, and their proximity to me in the dream, I never felt any sense of fear or loathing. It was quite odd. I awoke with such an odd feeling of awareness, as if on some subconscious level my mind had come to a realization about the dream spiders that I had not yet processed. The images and ideas in that spider dream would normally have freaked me out big time (especially the part where I was concealing tarantulas in my mouth), but even in the dream things were calm. I plan on using those ideas and images in a story at some point, because I'm sure it will scare someone. I just need to be patient and wait for the right story to come along.

Review: Zombies of Mora Tau

Wow, what a lifeless movie. No, really..bad pun aside, this film was boring. About as exciting as watching tryouts for the flea circus. A bunch of Americans travel to Africa where they meet more Americans. Seems there are some diamonds in a sunken wreck off the coast, but it's being guarded by a bunch of zombies. LOTS of talking, arguing and yelling ensue. This one is dark, hard to see and has characters that you want to see pulled to a watery grave. Overall, a real snoozefest.

Lesson's imparted by this film include:

1. Every ship has at least one crewman named Johnson.
2. Zombies are clean freaks, maintaining pristine abodes.
3. Zombies have swimming skills that are only eclipsed by those of Michael Phelps.

Go to review.

When It Rains

After two solid weeks of rearranging the interior of the house, I thought I had reached the point where I could return to a normal schedule.

Wrong.

The Other Half's dad had to hospitalized due to low blood sugar. The following week (this past week), her mother went in for surgery. Her dad was so stressed by everything - coupled with his bouncing blood sugar levels - that he had to be taken to the hospital again. My poor wife has been run ragged, and she is nearing the point of utter exhaustion and mental breakdown. Right now her dad is at home and her mom is doing good in the hospital, recovering. I took some days off from work last week to help, but man am I pooped. It's been a hell of a month.

For fans of the Graveyard, a new review is coming soon. It's been written now for weeks, I just have not had the time to proof read it. Tomorrow I should have the chance to do that.

On the writing front, I have not written a damn thing in weeks, but that is about to change. I got the news today that my submission for the Permuted Press "Times of Trouble" time travel anthology made it past the first elimination round (meaning it didn't get rejected right off the bat). The editor asked for some mild rewrites and expansion in some spots, so I'm gonna work on that this week, too.

Another bright spot has been reconnecting with an old friend. We fell out of touch over the last few years, but hopefully we can keep the lines open again this time.

It's back to the day job tomorrow. :(

The Great Spring Rearranging

About two weeks ago I came to the realization that I was rapidly running out of bookshelf space. The bookcases in my office: crammed. The DVD shelves in the bedroom: overloaded. The bookcases in the downstairs library: close to bursting. The solution? The four big bookcases given to me by my mother before she died. They've been sitting out in the garage for the last few years and the time finally came to clean them up, move them into the house and use them. Alas, things could not be that simple. Are they ever? Those four bookcases don't really match any of the others, so I wanted to keep them all together on one wall. This necessitated moving half the freaking house around. Because various bookcases were bought separately, not all match and are the exact same height. Others were inherited and are unique. Thus the great move went like this:

1. Move the four bookcases from the garage into the library.
2. The three bookcases usurped from the library would go upstairs, one to my office, two to the bedroom.
2. Move two existing bookcases from my office to the bedroom.
3. Move two different existing bookcases from the bedroom to my office.
4. Completely rearrange the (now) 8 bookcases in the bedroom.
5. Remove collectibles from one large bookcase in living room and place into two barrister bookcases given to us my The Other Half's mother.
6. Move this now empty bookcase and use it for books.
7. Move four small bookcases from various locations around house to bedroom.
8. Move one (of two) TVs from bedroom to office.
9. Rearrange entertainment center downstairs.
10. Buy wood and cut new shelves for various bookcases.

Of course, in order to do all this moving, all the books and DVD's in these bookcases had to be removed. Great googly moogly! I never knew how many I had until I went to take them out and keep them in the same order. There were books and movies stacked EVERYWHERE! Some books moved from one room to another, but for the most part, they stayed where they were at. The really tough part was because The Other Half has a pinched nerve in her neck/back, she can do very little physical work. Thus it fell on me to move everything by myself. With my bum shoulder it took some work, but I managed to get everything done over the last two weeks - and this is why it's been so quiet on this blog...I've been utterly exhausted. Now, after all this moving, there is plenty of shelf space for more books and DVD's. At least for another five years or so. After that, I have no idea what I'll do.

Musical Inspiration: Tenebre

Today's musical selection is the theme from Dario Argento's 1982 giallo-thriller, Tenebre (also known as Unsane). Tenebre or Tenebrae is a Latin word for darkness or shadows. The film follows a writer who arrives in Rome only to find somebody is using his novels as the inspiration for committing murder. As the death toll mounts the police are baffled, and the writer becomes more closely linked to the case than is comfortable. The music is by the legendary band Goblin, who provided music for many a horror film, including George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. The Tenebre theme has a very disco-like vibe to it and I can't help but picture guys in leisure suits dancing to it or chicks on roller skates zooming around to it. Needless to say, it is currently the one piece of music that I cannot get out of my head. Give it a listen:



The French electronic music duo, Justice, sampled the music for their songs Phantom (which you can hear below or here) and Phantom Part II. This leads me to wonder, when is sampling a good thing, if ever? Some artists only sample specific beats and riffs, while others sample larger pieces. Where is the line drawn between being so creatively challenged that one has to lift music from others and the desire to take an older piece of music and put a modern spin on it? From all accounts, Justice had Goblin's blessing, so die hard Goblin fans cannot get too irate. Personally, I prefer the original version, but that's just me. Oddly enough, this sampling theme fits with the movie Tenebre, where a writer has his words co opted by a killer and used in several bloody murders. Now I just need to snag a copy on DVD. Fortunately, a newer special edition is available, since the original edition went OOP quite some time ago.