Horror Report

Tag: pop culture

  • HURRICANE PENNYWISE AT BOX OFFICES

    HURRICANE PENNYWISE AT BOX OFFICES

    I have a few ‘floating’ observations to make about this past weekend. Initially I fell victim to the hype..the overkill..the horror–from the news media!

    I have been in touch with some family and friends–a few haven’t responded yet–who live in the hurricane zone in Florida.. So far fine. Power is out for them, about over 3 million people. News media reports this morning indicate that about 5 so far have been confirmed dead because of the storm–a few from car wrecks while trying to evacuate..

    But last night while trying to sleep through some anxiety that has been increasing with recent weather conditions worldwide, I tuned in to hear Chris Jericho from the WWE during the initial minutes of Coast to Coast AM hosted night by Richard Syrett. I needed to hear it.. Jericho was in the Tampa area–the location where most damage was said to be coming. The eye wall..the horror! The misery! Jericho said he was busy watching Game of Thrones and, if he didn’t know Hurricane Irma was outside, may have just thought it was a rainstorm with wind. I was thankful to have heard this…

    I saw a few articles this week of people planning hurricane parties.. people saying ‘F IRMA’ online. Even a few that would have taken a really bad road and shot guns into the storm. Bad, bad idea people.

    There has been looting, yes. There is flooding.Some locations may be without power for days, weeks..or months. All of those dire warnings have come true for some. The storm surge isn’t done ravaging.. and yes, low line areas like Miama have been dealt a warning shot that, in case climate change continues to march ahead, they will have to deal with being at sea level. Maybe one day below.. All of these things are true…

    ….fear.

    With fear comes violence..with fear comes people making really awful choices. Distraught souls wandering in the land of fright .. their plight.. without might.. no fight.

    Fear takes away so much potential from people. Fear, heralded by the media so often as they hype storms for ratings, forces the human condition into a less than desirable state.

    Fear.

    It’s interesting that Pennywise the Dancing Clown made his presence known in movie theaters across America the same weekend we dealt with IRMA. The film adaptation of Stephen King’s IT was a remarkable success! $110 million domestically and the biggest horror release ever. A record setting film. Biggest R rates release .. the global box office has been rocked by a clown and the Loser’s Club facing their fears just enough to fight off the enemy.

    He thrusts his fists against the post but still insists he sees the ghost.

    Pennywise is a bit like Irma, isn’t he? The fear… so many are placed into a ‘holding’ position by fear..they get locked in the ‘dead lights’ of the media. We are rampaged mentally by media outlets showcasing the doom and gloom of the planet. Just as Derry is damaged permanently by a killer shapeshifter who utilizes the deepest fears of its prey in order to defeat them quickly.

    We cannot allow fear to overcome us.

    So often I think we have turned into a circus of ourselves. Social media is amazing..You can literally watch someone Periscope live from a hurricane half a globe away and chat. Amazing. The speed at which information is disseminated is unbelievable .. But so often we overhype things that shouldn’t be and marginalized amazing things that need to be known. The goodness of the world is sidelined … blistering headlines this morning showcase that: DOOM! HORROR! IRMA! MISERY! DESTRUCTION! And a sale on meat at the local grocery store. Sports in section b.

    Yes..Pennywise is the darkest horror figure in box offices perhaps ever. The remarkable film actually deserves an Oscar, and whether it’s the first to get one in the genre since SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, I don’t know.

    Pennywise is also a lot like the media tycoons that promulgate misery and fear.. Sex doesn’t sell nearly as much as blood. If it bleeds it leads baby. Pennywise is similar.. he will lurk in shadows and sewers and wait until the moment when your’e most afraid.

    When the Loser’s Club faces their fears, thrusts their fists against the post and stop seeing ghosts, they can overcome not only an outside presence of evil but also the darkest demons within themselves. We all should be a little more like the Loser’s Club from IT.

    We are all messed up. We are people. People filled with histories that keep us down and nostalgia that removes the darkest days from our past. Mixed up people who so often cannot express ourselves without medication or alcohol. We have fright when we look in the mirror, but only because we see what’s inside.

    So on this September 11–an anniversary of a day that also fills us with heartbreak and fear, I sa this: F Irma. And Jose too.

    F Pennywise, or whatever incarnation he takes on in the madness of your mind.

    Bravo Loser’s Club. We are ALL members, if we want to be..

  • Finding your best defense with someone else’s worst offense..

    Finding your best defense with someone else’s worst offense..

    Early in the week Kathy Griffin thought it would be humorous to be showcased in a photo shoot raising the severed head of Donald Trump.

    Later in the week.. Bill Maher uttered the N word during his HBO REAL TIME live broadcast..

    Anger online!

    Twitter repudiates!

    This morning, Bill Maher is facing widespread calls that he should be fired for his joke!

    Maher was talking to Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) about the senator’s book, “The Vanishing American Adult,” which explores why today’s young people are unable to survive in a competitive global economy. The conversation drifted to Halloween and how dressing up is no longer just a children’s tradition. Sasse said adults don’t do that quite as much in his state because it’s frowned upon. In response, Maher said he should visit Nebraska more.

    “We’d love to have you work in the fields with us,” Sasse said.

    “Work in the fields? Senator, I’m a house n—–,” Maher said, raising both of his hands up. “No it’s — it’s a joke.”

    At this time, there has not been a public response from Bill Maher. It will undoubtedly come.

    But we did have a response from Griffin, who late in the week blamed Donald Trump and family for attempting to take her career down.

    At this time, people including Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson and Jack Posobiec, a Trump supporter who writes for the right-wing site Rebel Media, have called for Maher to be fired. #FireBillMaher is circulating on Twitter.

    The rest.. rest.. the rest may be history.

    This has been an awful year for fake outrage over things that don’t matter. Like when the Late Show host Colbert had a nasty joke about Trump.. Or when people wanted Sean Hannity fired for being political opposed to them.. or when Steve Martin had to say sorry for calling Carrie Fisher beautiful shortly after she passed away.

    This is tiring.. This is getting to be a drag on freedom of speech. And unfortunately, as the whole mess of 2017 continues, this nonsensical tripe will most likely keep occurring.

    Should Kathy Griffin say sorry? Sure if she wants to. Same for Bill Maher. But should they be fired? ….I suppose the private companies who employ them can only decide after reading the tea leaves.. But my God.. my God.. jokes are over. In the new age, everyone can take offense at what they choose..demand repercussions for their agony.. and then at the end of the day still demand the termination of whatever person said something to offend them.

    Conservative.. Red states.

    Blue state liberals.. All the same.

    In the end, the middle of the roaders–all of us–have been forced into a giant mess of madness.

    Welcome to the modern age. Pop culture may have to slice and dice the MIC in favor of the duct tape. Over the mouth. Not a word to be uttered in the 21st century breakdown.

  • Politically incorrect or culturally inappropriate ?

    Politically incorrect or culturally inappropriate ?

    The latest from pop culture:

    Bill Maher, the HBO late-night host of “Real Time,” was criticized widely on social media after an interview with a Nebraska senator that aired Friday night where the host joked that he is a “house [expletive].”

    Maher was having a back-and-forth with Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., and the senator invited the liberal talk-show host to visit his state.

    “We’d love to have you work in the fields with us,” Sasse joked.

    Maher responded, “Work in the fields? Senator, I’m a house [expletive].”

    Some in the audience groaned and a few clapped. Maher appeared to quickly reassure the audience and said, “No, it’s a joke.”

    Sasse did not address the comment and the two moved on to another subject. Sasse faced some criticism on social media for not quickly condemning the host’s comments.

    The word was not cut from the Midnight rebroadcast on HBO..

  • KATHY GRIFFIN ‘ABOUT FACE’

    KATHY GRIFFIN ‘ABOUT FACE’

    PR stunt today attempts to turn tables as pendulum swung against her.. CNN fired her. And the President questioned her mental health.

    Today..
    Tears… for fears..

    “That apology absolutely stands,” Griffin said at the packed morning news conference held at her attorney’s office in Woodland Hills. “I apologized because it was the right thing to do and I meant it.”

    “Then I saw the tide turning,” she continued, adding that she has received death threats. “I saw what was happening. It was a mob mentality pile-on.”

    Public outrage over the photo was immediate on Tuesday, and Griffin apologized soon after, but the damage had already been done.

    President Trump and family speculated on Twitter about Griffin’s mental health, saying that she should be ashamed and calling for CNN to fire her from her New Year’s Eve hosting gig, which the cable news network did.

  • WIRED magazines opines: Discontinuing the NES Classic Is a Classic Nintendo Mistake

    WIRED magazines opines: Discontinuing the NES Classic Is a Classic Nintendo Mistake

    WIRED magazines opines: Discontinuing the NES Classic Is a Classic Nintendo Mistake:

    All of this written by Julie Muncy at WIRED:

    Considering the dizzying popularity of the NES Classic—Nintendo reported in January that they had sold 1.5 million units—it’s difficult to find the logic in ending production. The product’s entire brief life seems, in hindsight, to have been a rolling disaster: Product shortages popped up almost immediately upon release in November, and even now, four months after the holiday season is over, Nintendo still hasn’t managed to overcome the scarcity issues. Repeatedly, Nintendo has stated that they were surprised by the high demand for the micro console and their supply chains struggled to product enough units to accommodate it.

    It shouldn’t have surprised the company, though—and the fact that it did is awfully telling. Preloaded with 30 original NES games, the Classic offered an entire generation of Nintendo fans an easy way to play games that they hadn’t spent time with in years. It’s a different, broader audience than the type likely to buy a dedicated Nintendo home console like the Wii U or Switch, and it hit all the right buttons at a time when the availability of classic Nintendo products was at an all-time low.

    This points to an ongoing problem that has plagued the company for years: Nintendo doesn’t seem to understand, or be interested in, the ongoing interest and affection people have for their old games. People, whether they consider themselves gamers or not, want to play Mario games, want to remember what it was like to catch Pikachu for the first time, want to feel the thrill of getting the Master Sword in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and videogames in general are excellent at evoking it.

    And I couldn’t agree more.

     

  • THE EASTER EGG BOTCH AT THE WHITE HOUSE

    THE EASTER EGG BOTCH AT THE WHITE HOUSE

    This year’s annual Easter Egg roll may be newsworthy for all the wrong reasons.. Donald Trump is busy threatening war with Kim Jong UN and dropping MOABs on Afghanistan, and that is removing headlines from what would have otherwise been a large embarrassment for the Commander in Chief: The Easter Egg roll could shape up to be a hefty disaster..

    The White House, busy dismantling much of the administrative state that existed, forgot to order the eggs! Someone then must have realized that 35,000 people would be guests this weekend. Whoops.
    Then the rush order for eggs were places, but the White House forgot to send the VIP military tickets that usually are sent. Then they forgot to order up big named entertainers for the guests… Then they forgot to send out invites for the normal number of 4,000 DC children at public schools–ones that get the tickets yearly.

    According to published reports, last minute (holy crap moments) requests were sent to PBS KIDS for Sesame Street characters–something ironic given that the Trump budget would completely zero out the puppets from PBS..

    And finally…members of Congress and their families have yet to be invited.

    Making Easter Great Again.

  • South Koreans celebrate ‘black day’ with noodles while nuclear war threats get made

    South Koreans celebrate ‘black day’ with noodles while nuclear war threats get made

    REUTERS reports this interesting piece of information: 

    Many South Koreans marked “Black Day” on Friday, but it had nothing to do with concerns that North Korea may conduct a weapons test, or that the United States, the South’s main ally, may launch a pre-emptive strike to stop it.

    It had nothing to do with Good Friday or Black Friday either.

    “Black Day” in South Korea is a day for singles, marked by eating “jajangmyeon”, a noodle dish topped with a thick sauce made of black beans. It’s celebrated by singles as a response to “White Day”, an Asian Valentine’s Day which falls a month earlier, on March 14.

    If you lived under a rock for the past few days (I envy you to a degree if you did) North Korea tensions are potentially at the highest level in my lifetime.. even more so, the tension around the world seems to be duplicative of what happened during the Cuban Missile in the Kennedy era…

    But this story about South Korea’s reaction is what interested me more, at least culturally, than the threat of nuclear end times..

    You may recall that during the run-up to war in the Gulf in 1991, Kuwait was partying hard in the metro districts and eating fancy foods in the restaurants..  War broke out yet there was a peculiar distance so many had, even though they were close by. While I cannot say a comparison is appropriate between the Koreas and Kuwait, it certainly is fascinating to realize that the North’s Southern neighbors are living their single life the same way as they would have despite the Navy destroyers and special OPS threatening to doom the cheese-loving North Korean leader.

    More from REUTERS:

    As tensions grew to a fever pitch elsewhere over the likelihood of North Korea conducting a nuclear or long-range missile test, possibly this weekend, there was little sign of concern in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, which lies within range of the North’s artillery.

    “Outside South Korea, some people are worried, but we don’t feel like that in our daily lives,” said Choi Na-young, an office worker in central Seoul.

    “All I can do is just try my best and work hard,” said Choi, as she queued for noodles with colleagues. “So no matter what the outside world thinks, I came here to enjoy Black Day”.

    “Black Day” was trending on Twitter and was the leading news item on the Naver web portal in South Korea, which has one of the world’s highest percentage of Internet users as a percentage of population.

    The nonchalance about the possibility of conflict with the North has grown in recent years in the South, which remains technically in a state of war with its neighbor. The 1950-53 war between the two ended in an armistice, and no peace treaty was signed.

    And the rest is history.
    Or will be…
    Enjoy black day while you can. The darkness of war may threaten the land.

  • Reviewer writes that she is Haunted By ‘Get Out’ — But Not Because It’s A Horror Film

    Reviewer writes that she is Haunted By ‘Get Out’ — But Not Because It’s A Horror Film

    Reviewer writes that she is Haunted By ‘Get Out’ — But Not Because It’s A Horror Film:

    GET OUT continues to garner media praise and reviewer praise alike.. while not at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes at this point, the film is still scoring above 97% and is widely loved by professional and amateur reviews alike..

    The latest interesting perspective comes from Shira Hirschman Weiss. She wrote this in the HUFFINGTON POST, linked above:

    Without spoiling Get Out, I will say that as a woman whose skin is pale, I came away pensive. In the resulting week, I’m more perplexed. The movie was incredibly powerful, but it highlighted for me how we can all make buffoons of ourselves in the face of diversity. In an ultra-PC environment ― that Donald Trump notoriously seems to shun ― there are several types of Americans. Among them are the blatant racists and of the other extreme, those who want to prove how un-racist they are that they end up overdoing it.

    GET OUT is a prime example of horror done right: Elements of fear coupled with the modern societal horrors of a generation.. without being spoken, it can be a commentary on our world. Truly done well.

    Expect a long term ramification from GET OUT.. long term results with more movies like it to follow. Especially during the hyper-political era of Donald Trump..

  • Will SNL get old?

    Will SNL get old?

    coalspeaker:

    The NEW YORK TIMES has a good story about how, just maybe, the constant Trump humor on SNL will get to be overdone.. too much.. stale..

    FROM THE TIMES

    If President Trump’s shock-and-awe attack on truth, decorum and liberal sensibilities is intended to bludgeon his opponents into submission, “Saturday Night Live” felt like his latest victim this weekend.

    Not that the show, which has been one of his most outspoken and popular antagonists, didn’t remain on the attack. Melissa McCarthy reprised her savage impersonation of Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, and Alec Baldwin (in his 17th appearance as host) donned his flaxen wig and prosthetic jowls to play Mr. Trump in a “People’s Court” sketch mocking the president’s attempts to have his travel ban reinstated. Kate McKinnon — who, in a Tatiana Maslany-style tour de force, also appeared as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Senator Elizabeth Warren — played the presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway trying to seduce her way onto CNN in a “Fatal Attraction” spoof.

    And this

    Ms. McCarthy opened the show as Mr. Spicer, and the news-briefing sketch was again the high point. Its simple premise — take the thin-skinned, venomous attitude and brazen duplicity the Trump administration has exhibited and render them as naked, schoolyard-bully aggression — was still effective, coupled with Ms. McCarthy’s absolute commitment.

    But the sketch was even more underwritten than before, name-checking controversies rather than illuminating them, which has been true of most of the show’s Trump-related material. In the absence of new ideas, old ones recycled from last week’s sketch were simply amped up: The wad of chewing gum was bigger, the weaponized rostrum was now motorized. The physical attacks on reporters here included an assault with a leaf blower, which was jolting and kind of fascinating when the machine was pointed at the face of a reporter played by Ms. Strong, but not so funny when it was used to blow her skirt up over her head.

    A few points of fairness to be pointed out.. First of all, even George W. Bush did not face the lampooning of this nature like Trump. Obama? The most that Lorne Michaels gave him were jokes about his opponents or his ears.. It was lame. Eight years of really un-funny political parody. 

    The Trump material is funny and quite frankly putting a really pungently stale SNL back on the map again. But for how long?

    The NYT article correctly mentions that already the Spicer material is getting .. well .. old. Already.

    It was funny, sure. And actually the motorized podium was great. But it was simply copying off of what worked last week, and not what should work based on the lampooning.

    SNL does this a lot.

    Politics aside, Saturday Night LIVE has often become mired in its characters.. the cheerleaders.. the girl who smelled her armpits. They just used taglines and did tag-things for applause and cheap laughs. Funny at first but quickly stale.

    That is not being critical of the Baldwin portrayal of Trump (though I think Hammond is the most unfairly forgotten since his impression was almost 100% accurate and spot on) .. and certainly not saying Melissa McCartney didn’t already create a classic comedy character.

    But my point really is this: Politics, in itself, is getting to us.

    Before SNL began last night, the REAL Donald Trump appeared at a late Saturday night ‘news’ event with the Japanese prime minster. North Korea launched a missile and the US was forced to respond .. or at least let Japan respond and us support. Then the comedy of SNL began.

    Netflix has a new show about race.
    A new horror movie coming out about race..
    The Super Bowl and its commercials featured debates about politics and what team are friends with the Donald. It’s all too much.

    SNL is not unfunny but may become the victim of the over-doing of political comedy. Political nightmares. 

    And if SNL does what it has always done, it will do just that… overdo a character to the point of exhaustion.

    Until then, enjoy the show.

  • Horror movie fans celebrate Valentine’s Day too!

    Horror movie fans celebrate Valentine’s Day too!

    Marketing mayhem across America! Hearts and roses, flowers and dinners.. major nervousness starts to set in when you don’t have the perfect gift by about, oh… this weekend.. Valentine’s Day is coming fast. Pop Culture tells us that we need to have a gift in our back pocket at the ready for the special day.

    Horror movie fans can take comfort that there are some special gifts for them, too.. You just have to know where to find them.

    I have scoured the net over the past few days in the fleeting moments of free time I have to propose a listing of some of the better arrangements you can find for horror fans in our life..


    This is perfect for an Edgar Allen Poe fan in your life.. and it’s actually quite beautiful to behold. Edgar Allen Poe Quote Printed on Recycled Vintage Dictionary Paper .. the frame is not included but you can spice it up with a visit to your favorite craft store to find something authentic looking to match the idea..


    If you are not too creeped out by the prospect of a ouija board around your neck, this could be perfect. It’s a Ouija Board Necklace and it’s got 5 star ratings. But who moving it!


    I love this SHINING embroidery art.. This embroidery features the word “Redrum” from one of our favourite movies, The Shining, as well as a bloody axe underneath .. and it’s hand made.


    This seems very quaint and pretty.. Skeletal Flower “Anatommy” (Black and Red) ..


    This is actually quite beautiful … A Long Stem 24k Dipped Gold Trim Black Rose With Gift Box.. 11-13 Inches in Length.. Nothing says love like a gold trim black rose..


    Splendid Premiium milk chocolate Hollow Skulls 10.5 oz.. Really not completely crazy about it. Maybe I’d rather the Hersheys version:

    and if all else fails to impress.. maybe keep it simple. A dinner. And a movie: