Shout Factory’s The Vincent Price Collection: Timely, Indeed (Warts and All)…

Posted on October 7, 2013 by geelw

Someone hipped me to this upcoming Shout Factory box set of six classic horror flicks featuring the late, great Vincent Price (who’s also Star of the Month on TCM all October) and I had to give it a thumb and a three-quarters up just for that lovely cover art alone. Oh, alright, the six sick flicks here are all top picks (and on Blu-Ray for the first time, I believe). But I’d still have to gripe out a grape sized whine about the total lack of love for Doctor Phibes Rises Again, which SHOULD have been grafted into this sextet just because it’s the darn sequel to The Abominable Doctor Phibes and yes, I’m STILL waiting my ass off for Tim Burton to announce he’s remaking both Phibes philms at the same time like Peter Jackson did with his epic The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Granted, Phibes’ offbeat mix of camp and 70’s era gore “lite” isn’t anywhere on the same level as Tolkein’s works, folks. But hey, I grew up glued to the tube with many of Price’s films and those two hold a very special place in my still beating heart. Hey, it’s not as if I’m asking for Scream and Scream Again, right? RIGHT? If you ever see that one, you’ll understand, kids…

Anyway, if you’re too lazy to click links, that collection costs $55, features tons of special features and the six films are as follows:

THE PIT & THE PENDULUM

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

THE HAUNTED PALACE

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES

WITCHFINDER GENERAL (aka THE CONQUEROR WORM)

Who needs to go out on Halloween and get a tummy ache from some lousy cheap candy bought at the dollar store? Get this Blu-Ray set, pop up that dried out corn display you’ve had on the table for years and sprinkle some chili powder on it, slap a few razor blades into a pomegranate (apples are SO last century!) pull up a chair and veg out! Friends optional, but go “borrow” some (have some rope and gags handy) so you can show them a good time before you kick them out in a more bewildered but appreciative state (like Maine or maybe California, ha ha)…

Come to the Dark Side… I Hear The Coffee’s Pretty Damn Good…

Posted on September 28, 2013 by geelw

And even if it tastes awful, you won’t be complaining to the company head for any reason, guaranteed. “I find your lack of taste buds… disturbing.” Of course, if the Force is strong in this one, it’ll be powerful enough to keep you up through multiple work shifts as an underpaid Imperial Stormtrooper with ONLY a few side effects. For example, your aim with a blaster will always be a bit off (especially when in large groups), you’ll be more susceptible to Light Force powers (“These aren’t the droids we’re looking for, duuuuhhhhh…”) and in some cases, people may even accuse you of being a little short for a stormtrooper.

Hmmm. I haven’t tried this brew myself yet, but I’m definitely intrigued by that package for some strange reason. If you’re also a weak-minded fool with somewhat of a caffeine habit. Let the Force guide your mouse hand as if it’s on an Ouija board over to Think Geek where you can score a bag of Dark Side Roast for a mere $14.99. And if you can’t make coffee to save your life… well, there are positions open for Imperial spies who can dress up as Rebel Alliance secretaries and try to cause havoc from the inside. If you can’t kill them with kindness.. you may as well let your lousy coffee do the job in a lot less time, correct?

SCIENCE! Be A Test Tube Wielding Smart Ass. Buy From A.S.S.!

Posted on September 17, 2013 by geelw

So, let’s talk American Science and Surplus. Established 1937. Sells overstocks, surplus science gear, military ephemera and all sorts of other stuff you may not have thought you’d NEED but will find a use for once you have it in your hot little hands. Yup, they’re STILL around! I used to get their hilarious catalogs for a few years and bought quite a number of inexpensive items I used in many a shenanigan, as emergency gifts and even as parts of assorted costumes when I used to traipse out of the home base on Halloween. I’d forgotten all about them after a few moves and not renewing my catalog subscription, but when talking to a friend recently about how kids taking science in school don’t have access to actual chemistry sets OUTSIDE of the classroom, a light bulb went off and I immediately thought of A.S.S (or A.S. & S. if your ears are burning or grinning too much right about now).

Anyway, I’d ramble on about all the great deals they have and how you need to boogie on over to check out their site for a laugh once you start reading about some of their items (and clicking the optional hand drawn pictures of each, which adds another layer of fun to things) as well as how you should sign up for a catalog yourself. However, I’ll let you do just what this paragraph says at your leisure, as I hate telling people what to do. Unless it’s something like “Please give me some money so I can buy stuff from A.S.S. (oops, A. S. & S.) and maybe buy something for YOU as well!” Or something like that. It’s been a long day already for me (but you still need to check out that site!)…

Random Music Battle Time: Blur vs. Liberace (Well, They Both Kind Of Win)…

Posted on May 10, 2013 by geelw

While waiting for a game to download the other day, I randomly Googled something and got something else entirely, and with a little brain work and rewriting here’s one result of that mistake: Song 2 by Blur, meet Song 2 as performed by Liberace. Yeah, it was a tough battle, folks… but believe it (or else), the results were a dead tie at the end of the voting. Well, actually, one half of my brain was bouncing up and down and the other was laughing, so that’s how that all worked out.

Liberace DVD Of course, Liberace gets the last laugh (and probably wins the bigger prize) because hell, he was a lot more talented (and funnier) throughout his long career than Blur will most likely ever be (or have been… hey, are they still even around?). That and you won’t lose your hearing from listening to too much of his music with the volume way up (well, depending on your age, you probably have some hearing loss if you’re a Liberace fan, ha ha).

Anyway, the fine folks at Shout Factory and Timeless Media Group have actually just released Libreace: The Ultimate Entertainer on DVD this week, so you can go see for yourself (c’mon, be brave! Expand those musical horizons! I won’t tell…) for a mere $13.98, which is a bargain considering what’s on the disc. Hey, get it as a Mother’s Day gift for someone old enough to appreciate that man’s work and you’ll get a few cheeks pinched afterward (make sure you’re sitting sown when you hand over that package)…

And hey, I’m betting Michael Douglas will make me fall of the couch laughing in a few with that HBO biopic coming up… we shall see, I suppose…

Toy Fair 2013: Insanimals Are Here! Get Your Money (and Your Crazy) Ready…

Posted on March 3, 2013 by geelw

Sometimes the best things in life come out of (and often come out) a little crazy idea taken from concept to creation, and I’d say Maryland-based brainchild and designer Chris Sciannella’s “crazy” idea is more likely than not going to make someone a millionaire at some point. Insanimals, the cool line of wild-eyed (but completely lovable) plush toys, made me laugh for a few reasons when I strolled up to the booth at this year’s Toy Fair, all of them good. For one, how can you not automatically get a grin going when seeing a chihuahua, cow, monkey or zebra (all with BIG hypnotic plastic eyeballs) staring back at you? I felt like picking them all up and shaking them gently to see if they’d snap out of it, but that bad idea of mine would just turn them back into “Normanimals” and you can get those anywhere from the local florist to the world’s biggest toy store. Insanimals are special because they’re completely bonkers and don’t try to hide it one bit…

Continue reading →

Toy Fair 2013: HoboNinjas Need Love (and Food and Hugs and So Forth & So On) Too!

Posted on February 16, 2013 by geelw

So, we all know from that Japanese history course we took (what, you cut class all the time? Shame!) that an unemployed samurai is called a Rōnin and if he says a hearty “Heck no!” to that mandatory seppuku clause in his termination contract, must wander the land, masterless until he drifts into whatever fate (or a decent movie director) hands him. But what about the elusive unemployed Ninja? Well, they don’t quite see the eternally wandering thing as good for potential future gigs because how can you hire an assassin if he’s always wandering around stumbling into trouble (decently-directed though it may be). Anyway, somehow, Mackenzie Mayer, chief designer and all around art ninja (I was going to say “guru”, but mixing mythologies creates time paradoxes or something disastrous like asteroid-shaped pianos falling from the sky over Russia) has managed to capture the spirit of the out of work black-clad agents of assorted demise in HoboNinja form as WillNinjas! Once you see these guys, you’ll want to put them to work for you in any number of (legal) ways…