Horror Report

Month: July 2016

  • Pokémon Go Lunacy

    Pokémon Go Lunacy

    The world is searching for Pokémon !

    It’s been the mid 1990s since the genre of entertainment was this popular ..

    My 5-year-old son’s knowledge of Pokémon Go forced me to have to look more information up about this than I ever would have in the past..  The newest fad taking over media is surely fun for some, but fun gone far for others.

    A small snippet of information  of the goings-on throughout the real world..

    The game has earned Nintendo $7 bil (with a b) .. but it also coming with a huge security risk..
    Apparently people, frustrated for the search for Pokemon characters, lost his job..

    The DAILY BEAST reports that is a hacker’s dream come true..Along with that, fans have taken over Central Park to find Pokemon characters in real life. The scary side of it all: While you track Pokemon, Pokemon tracks you!

    It also leads to robberies and injuries..

    BUT NASA SAYS NO POKEMON IN SPACE!

    x x x

    The amazing part to me,  more than how people are being affected by the game, is the marketing! The brilliant marketing.

    For four full days, Mashable has gone hardcore Pokémon Go in coverage. My Facebook news feed has been propelling through life with a constant stream of Pokémon Go .. And finally, most likely due to advertising companies listening to my family conversations through my phone and computer (don’t doubt me on that), ads popping up on websites are for .. drumroll .. Pokemon Go.

    Pokémon Go uses your phone’s GPS and clock to detect where and when you are in the game and make Pokémon “appear” around you (on your phone screen) so you can go and catch them. As you move around, different and more types of Pokémon will appear depending on where you are and what time it is. The idea is to encourage you to travel around the real world to catch Pokémon in the game.

    If you are searching, be aware: The original Pokémon set of characters was only about 150. Today, as the ‘Go’ search goes, the list has swelled to more than 700..

    The full list here.

  • A ‘slow catastrophe’ unfolds as the golden age of antibiotics comes to an end

    A ‘slow catastrophe’ unfolds as the golden age of antibiotics comes to an end

    A ‘slow catastrophe’ unfolds as the golden age of antibiotics comes to an end:

    This from the LA TIMES:

    The golden age of antibiotics appears to be coming to an end, its demise hastened by a combination of medical, social and economic factors. For decades, these drugs made it easy for doctors to treat infections and injuries. Now, common ailments are regaining the power to kill.

    Harvard University infectious disease epidemiologist William P. Hanage cautions that “we will not be flying back into the dark ages” overnight. Hospitals are improving their infection control, and public health experts are getting better at tracking new threats. But in a race against nature, he said, the humans are losing ground.

  • “Possibly possessed” keyboard player steals the show (She’s not really. I think.)

    “Possibly possessed” keyboard player steals the show (She’s not really. I think.)

    “Possibly possessed” keyboard player steals the show (She’s not really. I think.):

    An 

    enthusiastic keyboard player from the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps became the star of the show .. the performance was intense.. her face portrayed a musician completely into the show .. 

    Some 

    pointed out her uncanny resemblance to Joffrey from Game of Thrones in the Reddit thread where a GIF of the video was originally posted..

  • Art Bell home after intense hospital stay

    Art Bell home after intense hospital stay

    Late last week, talk show legend Art Bell posted a brief message on Facebook for friends and fans: He is back home and recovering after an intense hospital stay..

    Bell wrote,

    Update on me:

    I am now home after five days in what must be one of the greatest Hospitals in the World, St Rose. I am not in good shape, so weak I can not dress myself. I want to Publicly thank my Wife Airyn who never left my side and helped every moment day and night and still is. I went through every test known to Man. Had a hole punched in my Lung, MRI, Pet scans, X-Rays, more blood tests then could be counted, was on Morphine the whole time. Had so many IVs running it started to get hard to find a vein. If I make it I will have the best Wife in the World to thank as well as the best Hospital. Can’t really type more now but that is the current situation, more later.

    Art

    Bell was admitted early July for pneumonia and additional symptoms of C.O.P.D..

    The latest ‘if I make it’ comment may be indicative of the seriousness of the medical visit..
    art-hospital

     

  • Dallas police massacre shocks nation and world: Black Lives Matter peaceful protest turns into brutal massacre

    Dallas police massacre shocks nation and world: Black Lives Matter peaceful protest turns into brutal massacre

    This is a developing situation.. 
     
     
     From CBS in Dallas: 
     

    A peaceful protest against nationwide officer-involved shootings took a sinister turn at about 9 p.m. Thursday night after snipers shot 11 police officers, killing five, according to Dallas Police Chief Brown.
     
     “Some officers were shot in the back,” said Brown, who added during a press conference that they were attacked “ambush-style.”
     
     Brown sent the following statement via email Thursday night before the fourth officer died.
     
     

     Clyde Lewis has been doing remarkable shows on this matter lately.. He also correctly predicted the course of events and was sadly correct.
     
     This summer is going to become brutal.
     
     This is not America right now, people. 
     
     
     

  • People in Philadelphia who like John Carpenter have a once in a lifetime chance to see him

    People in Philadelphia who like John Carpenter have a once in a lifetime chance to see him

    MARK YOU CALENDAR AND GET YOUR TICKETS: 

    John Carpenter: Live Retrospective, 8 p.m. Saturday at the , Keswick Theatre, 291 N. Keswick Ave., Glenside. Tickets: $29.50-$65. Information: 215-572-7650, keswicktheatre.com.

    He is spending time this summer driving around, playing hits from his past films and new music from his two recently released albums: 

    Lost Themes and Lost Themes II

  • UK GUARDIAN SPLASHES: Is it time for a horror movie about the evils of Donald Trump?

    UK GUARDIAN SPLASHES: Is it time for a horror movie about the evils of Donald Trump?

    UK GUARDIAN SPLASHES: Is it time for a horror movie about the evils of Donald Trump?:

    Chuck Bowen writes this for the world to read:

    A much larger proportion of the electorate is terrified of a Donald Trumppresidency, of course. This alarm has led to protests of all kinds. One image circulated on Facebook depicts the “Make America great again” huckster as one of the mossy-colored, skull-exposed aliens from John Carpenter’s They Live. Below this monstrous caricature is a caption that will be familiar to fans of the horror film: OBEY.

    This caricature, like Hillary Clinton’s address in San Diego, offers a small catharsis for those of us who find Trump’s running for office to be a prolonged and baffling ordeal – a serrated cornucopia of unchecked authoritarian aggression, most obviously embodied by his obsession with dictatorial regimes and attending hatred for non-white, non-male citizens as well as the press and judicial systems. (Imagine what the hypocritical Republican hate machine would say about a Democrat who praised Russian president Vladimir Putin.)

    Debate away.. the political spectrum is filled with vibrant colors on both sides.

    But one thing Bowen writes struck me: 

    They Live was released in 1988, following a couple of likeably macho salt of the earth types (played by Roddy Piper and Keith David) as they discover that the upper class of society are alien monsters lulling us into a stupor with pop culture, exploiting us and polluting our planet while living the high life. Change the size of the TV sets, gingerly sprinkle the phrase “1%” into the dialogue, digitally insert cell phones into the characters’ hands, have a few extras snapping selfies in the background and They Live could pass as a story of the present day.

    They live was one of the best movies ever made..
    There have been a lot of candidates for ‘they live’ cred long before Donald Trump emerged from the stairway in the same style the SIMPSONS predicted he would ..

    Bowen goes on to name other films in recent horror memory, like THE PURGE.. 

    Horror and pop culture.. they go together so well.

    I have often written that horror movies encapsulate the moment in time they were created..
    Perhaps a Trump movie is in order. To be fair, maybe Hillary should be in it too. And the victor in the end? Gary Johnson! Ok that can only happen in the movies.

  • DC fireworks under a clear sky on a cloudy night

    DC fireworks under a clear sky on a cloudy night

    You read that right.

    If you were in Washington DC last night (or many other East Coast cities) you hardly saw the July 4th fireworks shows. It was cloudy, murky, ugly, and rainy as a storm zipped by the major metros just in time for dusk fire shows..

    If you watched PBS’ version, you saw something very different: Other fireworks shows from curiously clear skies.

    Perhaps it’s only in D.C. where a PBS show can become a scandal.. But it did just that. Even forcing PBS so say sorry..

    Here is what went down:

    “A Capitol Fourth,” which broadcast Washington, D.C.’s fireworks Monday night, appeared to show fireworks in a clear night sky

    But the weather during this year’s Fourth of July show in D.C. was cloudy and overcast, and the show confirmed it used previous years’ footage

    After viewers complained, the show posted an apology on Twitter “for any confusion this may have caused”

    In the old days before the Internet people may not have questioned this. In the new era where information runs wild, it become an instant obsession of Twitter and social media.

    PBS defended itself first, Tweeting: 

    We showed a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years. It was the patriotic thing to do.

    When they realized they sounded like Twits they apologized over the social media airwaves for “for any confusion this may have caused”..

  • The sad or creepy village of the dolls in Japan

    The sad or creepy village of the dolls in Japan

    From time to time over the coming weeks, I want to start taking some time off from the madness of daily headlines to focus on some other aspects of the planet earth worth mentioning..

    Creepy.. strange.. and bizarre things. The planet is a collection of that. From the people gazing at a don’t walk sign at a stop light all the way to the people who run our open and shadow governments.

    And in that vein, here is something awfully creepy. Or perhaps just sad..

    Have you ever heard of the valley of the dolls in Japan?

     Nagoro is a slowly shrinking village located in the valleys of Shikoku, Japan. Populated by creepy dolls, it might make you question the reality. Its inhabitants left the village in a search of employment or died. Eleven years ago, Tsukimi Ayano returned home to Nagoro. Faced with loneliness, she has populated the village with dolls, each representing a former resident. About 350 life-size dolls currently reside in the village.

    The photographs taken from the village are strange.. dolls emulating people in various walks of life.. Like construction workers on highways..

    ….like mischievous children.. 

    …like classrooms of people.. 

    The entire thing is unique .. and uniquely sad. Perhaps sad more than anything else..

    [vimeo 92453765 w=640 h=360]

  • FOURTH OF JULY FOLLIES: 240 years of stories to warm the heart

    FOURTH OF JULY FOLLIES: 240 years of stories to warm the heart

    America’s birthday!
    Fireworks galore.
    The United States..
    240 more.

    On holidays like today, traditions reign supreme. Cookouts are the thing. Americana, right?
    Though yesterday I read an interesting LA TIMES editorial piece describing how, according to the author, barbecues have been ruined by vegetarians and lactose, or wheat intolerant guests. Everything is touchy, now. Including big fires to cook slabs of meat.

    Along with that, we always seem to be more divided by the day. Or at least that is what the media tells us. A few days ago on this site, I wrote about how we really were always divided, always uncivil, and often much worse in history compared to modern day life.

    All that being said, there are traditions and beliefs when it comes to the Fourth of July.

    How many of those beliefs are incorrect, however? How many are just extended by people to live longer through history despite the fact they are factually wrong?

    LOTS.

    America’s independence was actually declared by the Continental Congress on July 2, 1776.. just took two more before an act of Congress justified the paperwork done on the 2nd. It took several more weeks for news to spread around the colonies. London did not find out until the end of August that year.

    Most delegates signed the Declaration of Independence a month later on August 2.

    The Liberty Bell was not made right, therefore the crack. It didn’t ring in freedom. It probably never did much at all besides eventually become a symbol for abolitionists in Pennsylvania and therefore freedom around the nation .. But it’s sure a good story.

    And Betsy Ross? She probably did not sew the first flag. But if you go to her house near Philadelphia, you can hear lots of old fun tales of her heroic nature and how she communicated directly with General George Washington.

    But all those myths aside, there is still something mighty special about the Fourth of July. Something very nostalgic kicks in.. with each burst of bright fireworks in the sky, the years are notated by the mind and a sense of ideal is born in your heart..

    And then it’s the Fifth of July before you know it.