28 May 2015

Crypticon 2015




So now nerdgasm aside, it's back down to brass tacks. Crypticon was this past weekend and despite not been given the time off I still decided to make a point of it to show up and be there for as much as I could. Sadly Friday was a wrap by the time my better half and I arrived but we met up with Warning Signs creator and fellow partner in crime TJ who had several successful panels with the Soska sisters and talking Stephen King (he'd just finished his Master's thesis on the man and was slated to defend it earlier this week).


 The three of us ran into Tim Long who invited us to dinner with Craig DiLouie (who I hadn't seen since ZomBcon) and a host of other authors. Over the weekend we got acquainted with Chris Marrs, and Katie Cord of Evil Girlfriend media... but the apex was finally getting to meet the proverbial man of my nightmares, Jon Moon. Icing on the cake meant getting to sit in on Thom Carnell's Ask the Mortician panel before he departed back to Bellingham.
What mattered most was having been remembered fondly and welcomed back into the scene I love most by people I consider peer, friends and family to an extent.
Though my time was limited, it was worth every second and despite I didn't get much of a tour of the dealers room or see any of the celebs (Missed Bill Forsythe, damn)  some definite highlights were seeing Bill Moseley step off the elevator amidst a sea of undead party girls and having Michael Berryman himself ask Teej and I where the Crystal Ballroom was. Real friendly guy.
  If nothing else it re-lit the fire under my ass to get back to doing this and what I love most. So sorry for the introspection from what should be a horror and geeky blog but I've found something of a new purpose so I'm sharing that.
And to tie everything up for the day, with the release of Kung Fury, my general love for all things retro and being late to the proverbial party I've decided that my aim is going to be on retro movies and such... I'll throw in something current when possible but the focus will be on yesteryear...

so with that I close with a line from Kung Fury:The hero is asked what he is going to do, he replies gruffly:
My Job.
So that's what I plan to do. My Job as a retro-action reporter, and show my findings in revenant research and defense. If you haven't watched Kung Fury by now stop reading this and go watch it now... go on, shoo!

PS Thanks again TJ!
That's Wade Davis' autograph on a copy of his book
The Serpent and the Rainbow

Two Words: Kung Fury

Unless you've had your head under a rock, the hottest thing to hit the internet this week is the long awaited Swedish homage to 80's martial arts shlock movies, Kung Fury. What began as a Kickstarter project and a trailer soon took the internet by storm. To say the project was indeed funded would be an understatement. As promised, writer, director and star David Sandberg released the finished product for free for all of us to drool in nostalgia over

This one has it all: a rogue mystical martial arts cop, Nazis, Viking girls with guns, laser dinosaurs, anthropomorphic robot arcade games on the loose... all packed into a neat compact 30 minute timeframe. Enough brightly light neon 80's visuals and an excellent score and an epic music video by David Hasselhoff is enough nostalgia to make anyone want a Tab cola again and ask "Where's the beef?" again. 
So without any further ado, for your viewing pleasure, I present Kung Fury.
I give this one 5 out of 5 stars, roll it




And for an added bonus the music video for the aforementioned David Hasselhoff song for anyone that's interested, and look for Hoff's in-movie cameo



What're you going to do?
My Job

I Live... again!

Me trying to adult first thing in the morning
Hi everyone, remember me? You know the guy who runs this festering corpse of a blog I call home? Yes I'm still kicking, Hell hasn't found it's vacancy for me yet... on the contrary: I'm thriving... though not creatively as much... though the research papers I've been writing for school have been keeping me busy. But the end is in sight! This Halloween will definitely kick all sorts of ass having freshly graduated by then.
That and everything else in my little life has finally calmed down to a point where I'm getting grips on those energies again.
Considering some tuneups here and there... retrofitting, so to speak... most of what I want to cover has already come out or lapsed into obscurity waiting for me to dig it up again. That and considering we're experiencing something of a resurgence of all things retro... Surge soda has returned, French Toast Crunch came back by popular demand, Frut Brute and Yummy Mummy arose from the dead a few Halloweens ago... that and we're supposed to be able to bask in all the glory that is Kung Fury today (it's after midnight) which seems oddly fitting considering the genre of music called retrowave I've stumbled into.
It'd be a dishonor to not at least mention the awesomeness that was Crypticon last weekend here... greater detail must be gone into tomorrow. But it restored something in me I was lacking... it was a re-synching with my own scene with people that share putting words on paper (screen) and enjoy it. Reconnecting with old friends and making new ones and just spending time with people that are like a whole separate family to me is what matters most.
That said special thanks to TJ of Warning Signs as always for being a brother and my proverbial Cryptkeeper into the vault of horror once more and for the gifts, he gave me a personalized autographed copy of Wade Davis' Serpent and the Rainbow... something I've been meaning to actually cover... so with that said I leave with a laundry list of dusty corpses of ideas of things to come:
-All Things Retro! Arcade games, epic noir 80's synth scores, classic 80's cinema

This needs more Hasselhoff


that's better.


this just gives me ideas

-With Jurassic World right around the corner I think it's time for When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth week soon

-100 Years of Nazi Zombies across Time and Space... based on the Black Ops and World At War Zombies
having wasted enough time opening doors, turning the power on, maximizing M1911 ammo, buying perks, passing barely at kiting/training/juking zombies, getting the worst weapons out of the mystery box and Achievement Hunting from World War I on up until the future... which might very well just lead me into more Nazi zombies... Dead Snow... and on... and on... but that's enough for tonight. Sweet dreams and pleasant nightmares freakbags


I leave you with proof of life
Me mugging it the fuck up with the original Wacktards of the Apocalypse Tim Long and Jon Moon