Get Punked -- Halloween Style!

 Welcome to BLOG-O-WEEN 2023!

                          

Yes, it’s a bunch of silly, scary, goofy, flesh-crawling songs from the Halloween side of the 1980s!  Maybe when you’re done listening, you’ll have conquered all your monsters (Track 2).  Track 4 is an instrumental misnamed after the leading character of Escape from New York.  Track 10 is a fairly sad cash-in attempt.  Would you rather be a teenage werewolf, or his bride (Tracks 17 and 18)?  Track 20 is a silly parody of Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.”  Track 21 is a paranoid rumination on a certain unlucky number.  Track 23 is from the fun 1985 TV movie The Midnight Hour, including such luminaries as Shari Belafonte, LeVar Burton, and Macaulay Culkin’s first role as an uncredited trick-or-treater.  But I saved the best track of all for last, by the minimalist geniuses the Jr Chemists.  Enjoy!

01 - Spring Heeled Jack - Paul Roland   1989   (2:52)

02 - Monsters - Ella Mental   1986   (3:34)

03 - My Mummy - Smart Alec   1980   (3:59)

04 - Snake Pliskin - Annabel Lamb   1983   (2:16)

05 - Kiss of Death - The Warlocks   1987   (4:04)

06 - Invasion of the Gamma Men - Shake   1980   (3:44)

07 - Imagination - Idiot Dancers   1981   (2:55)

08 - Fred Cadaver - Strong Silent Types   1982   (1:54)

09 - Nightmare (Fear of Sleep) - Violent Marriage   1982   (2:57)

10 - Whatever Happened To Eddie - Eddie & the Monsters (Butch Patrick)   1983   (1:51)

11 - Spit Upon Your Grave - Blood and Roses   1985   (4:14)

12 - I Was a Teenage Zombie - The Fleshtones   1987   (2:17)

13 - Ghosties - Red Harvest   1989   (2:47)

14 - Haunted - Marine Boy   1982   (4:04)

15 - Godzilla Approaches Tokyo - Knightclub   1984   (2:55)

16 - The Brain That Wouldn't Fry - Crawling Walls   1985   (4:08)

17 - (I Was a) Teenage Werewolf - The Flirts   1983   (4:28)

18 - Teenage Werewolf's Bride - Bad Karma Beckons   1986   (2:36)

19 - Tango with the Dead - Gollywobblers from Hell!   1985   (4:18)

20 - Monsters - Martyr Complex   1981   (3:24)

21 - Thirteen - Dogma Probe   1982   (4:27)

22 - Synthetic Flesh - The Househunters   1987   (3:20)

23 - Get Dead - Shari Belafonte   1985   (2:58)

24 - Monster Island - Jr CHemists   1981   (1:28)

https://www.filefactory.com/file/3l56674gpbzi/MA-113.rar

See you on Wednesday!  Remember, all this month we'll have new posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!

    

Farewell David McCallum

A week or so after his 90th birthday, David McCallum died.

He was the other Man from U.N.C.L.E.  Beginning in 1964, his outsider-as-cool persona set the fan pattern exploited by Star Trek’s Mr Spock a couple of years later.

And from 2003-2023 he played Dr Donald “Ducky” Mallard on NCIS. In between he played on stage and big screen.

The child of two professional musicians, McCallum released a few albums in the 1960s as conductor. You can find them in a 2019 post on Spock’s Record Round-Up, here. We’ll miss his eye twinkle, his set lips when following a clue, and the humor shown in his understated delivery of a zinger—whether to Napoleon Solo or to Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

  

See you on Monday, October 2, for the commencement of this year's BLOG-O-WEEN!

  

Please Join Me in Warship

This article from the November 28, 1996 Tulsa World discusses the hullabaloo about the U.S.S. Eldridge and how it was supposedly erased from radar (that was the intent, at least).  But did it beam somewhere else?  Or zap some of its crewmen, as alleged by Carlos Allende?

Thanks to the wonderful Internet Archive, the Varo Edition of Jessup's The Case for the UFO is available in PDF form here.  And if you don't support the Archive with some bucks once in a while, shame on you!

See you on Thursday!

  

The Great Jack Davis!

This interview is from Comics Interview #12, dated June 1984.

This genius of American popular art died in 2016.  You saw his art in Mad magazine, EC comics, on multiple covers of TV Guide, and all over the place.  Wotta guy!  Wotta sense of humor, and incisive line!

See you Monday.

  

Shouldn't We ALL Be Concerned?

This article ran in the July 24, 2022 Oklahoman.

I agree that only a fool would trust any projected version of AI with the life or health of a human, without supervision.  I fail to see how a "self"-driving car can compensate for the fact that many roads have worn-down or nonexistent striping (for example).  And judging by the examples of AI "writing" I've encountered, a real human needs to go back and cut out about every third word, to make it readable.

I mean, look where AI got Commander Ilia in STTMP -- or the Terminator franchise!

See you on Thursday, if our computer overlords so allow ...

  

Super Clothes 8

In this installment of Super Clothes, it's a collection of kids' shirts.

This one might have been sold as a separate.

The two above were obviously part of a set.  All parents will recognize the snaps at the bottom, to secure the top to the waistband of the pants.  A little about the "Super Juniors" or here.

"Last Son of Krypton" sounds kind of depressing, now that you think about it.

Good ol' Super Friends!

This possible pajama top, from PCA, is size 6.  The others have no remaining size tags.

Have you scored any silly Super Stuff from thrift stores or garage sales?

  

Alan Moore Checklist, 38 Years Later

Riding on the waves of WATCHMEN anticipation, this list of Alan Moore comics work appeared in the May 15, 1985 issue of Amazing Heroes.  That's issue #71.

How many of these works have you read? Does Sturgeon's law apply to our favorite comics creators?

See you Thursday!