OLD SCHOOL APRIL: WEEK THREE!

 This Old School April seems to be flying by unlike last year when I joined it late but seemed to have all the time in the world.  I did manage to read two actual booky-books as well as three GOOSEBUMPS-sized books (including 2 actual GOOSEBUMPS) plus a comic book (vintage 1972) which Kelsi specifically mentioned on her video as counting for the "picture book" prompt.  So there we are.  

First up is my second FEAR STREET book of all time (last year was my first); the 8th in the series entitled HALLOWEEN PARTY by R.L. Stine.  This puppy fulfilled 9 prompts, baybee:  Retro/Vintage, Time Warp, Throwback, Goonies, Halfway To Halloween, Once Upon A Forest, Scooby Doo, Back To the Future and Nirvana/Grunge.  A new student in town and her Uncle buy the old, haunted house on Fear Street and she then throws a Halloween Party -- but she only invites a specific few with seemingly no rhyme or reason.  The kids are puzzled as some of them don't really know each other let alone the 'new kid in town' who invited them.  They show up and the party goes along swimmingly until the lights go out.  They come back on to reveal a partygoers with a knife in his back.  The party continues from there with rather dangerous and scary things happening.  I enjoyed this one for what it was but it didn't blow my hair back overmuch.  A good one not fantastic.

Next read, I knocked a GOOSEBUMPS prompt off with GOOSEBUMPS:  VAMPIRE BREATH.  This is the edition I read and, unlike me, I prefer this artwork to the OG cover.  12 year old friends Freddy & Cara are in Freddy's basement/playroom when they accidentally knock over a cabinet while roughhousing.  ("Mom always said don't play ball in the house!").  Behind is a door to a secret room; or rather, an entire secret tunnel which leads them to a secret room containing a coffin.  They also discover a blue bottle.  Inside the coffin is a vampire named Count Nightwing.  Inside the bottle is something called 'vampire breath'.  The menacing vampire WANTS the vampire breath so that he can remember where he left his fangs and can return to his own time.  This was a really fun one and on the sillier side of Stine's GOOSEBUMPS oeuvre.  Not one of his best but fun all the same.This sucker (pun intended) fulfills 7 prompts!

Next I read yet ANOTHER GOOSEBUMPS book:  this time THE SCARECROW WALKS AT MIDNIGHT.  I'm a sucker for scary scarecrows and sadly there aren't enough really good scary scarecrow media.  This one, however, was a winner and I enjoyed it even more than VAMPIRE BREATH.  A brother and sister go to spend a vacation at their grandparents' farm.  Their grandparents look older and more haggard and don't seem like their usual selves.  Oddly, the grandparents' cornfield now has 12 scary-looking scarecrows where they used to have just one.  And the scarecrows seem to be coming to life.  As I said, this was a great GOOSEBUMPS story and is a newer reprint edition with a pretty nice new cover.  This scalliwag scarecrow fulfills 8 prompts!

The next book is the 'other' non-GOOSEBUMPS book that's the same size as a GOOSEBUMPS book and is also meant for kids/middle grade/YA and that's yet another edition in the WHO H.Q. series of non-fiction books which I've become semi-addicted to:  WHAT IS THE STORY OF DRACULA? by Michael Burgan and illustrated by David Malan.  Even though these books feature illustrations on almost ever page, I'm not counting it as a 'picture book' so this one fulfills 4 prompts.  As always, I'm loving the 'big head' cover artwork and this is one of my faves; especially the B&W colour scheme with only the name DRACULA, his eyes and his cape lining in red.  Awesome (bloody) sauce!  Of course, this is an account of Dracula from the mythical vampire of various cultures' folk tales to the writing of Bram Stoker's book to the stage plays and films from Bela Lugosi (as well as 1922's NOSFERATU) on.  Of course, there's nothing new for me to learn in this book but it was all nicely told featuring more splendid line drawings to savour!

Now the second actual booky-book I read was another non-fiction book:  the second installment in Stephen R. Bissette's CRYPTID CINEMA series:  THE BOGGY CREEK PRIMER.  If you don't already know, Bissette was the pencil artist on the classic DC Comics' run of SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING written by Alan Moore.  Nowadays, he's got a whole 'cryptid' thang going and he's appearing on various horror movie blu ray "special features" documentaries as well as giving us a lot of cryptid books.  The first volume of this series was Bigfoot-centric while this one features 'The Boggy Creek Monster' a.k.a the Fouke Monster featured in the epoch-making LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK.  Other films in a similar vein are discussed as well including all those Schick Sunn Classics like BIGFOOT: THE MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS (remember that one, you'll be seeing it again in a minute).  The title world "primer" refers to the fact that this is apparently only the beginning chapters of a soon-to-be-published monumental tome.  This book fulfills 3 prompts.

And bringin' up the rear is that vintage 1972 comic book I mentioned:  THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY #13 from Charlton Comics.  I just snagged a copy of this on Devilzon since it's one I always wanted and, because Kelsi said comic books count as 'picture books', here it is.  Of course, I wanted it because it's an issue with a groovy 'spooky' vibe in the cover-featured story "The Cry in the Castle" written and drawn by Don Sherwood.  I can't recall if I ever had an issue of THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY comic book from Charlton but I have to say that Sherwood new how to churn out a comic book.  Sherwood drew HUGE panels (in this issue, at least) of just a single character's face i.e. a full page panel of David Cassidy with one word balloon.  I'll be this really cut down on his drawing time.  The stories themselves also are quite sparse in the writing category as I'm pretty sure I read the cover story completely in 3 minutes (and that's while pausing to admire the admittedly nice artwork which made each actor recognizable).  I wonder if Sherwood was copying from publicity photos?  Surely he must have been!  While there admittedly wasn't much content in the entire issue, it still had that wonderful early-70's look of Charlton comics (which I bought at the time) including all those Partridge Family adds for autographed photos of David Cassidy or Susan Dey's book on beauty tips and how to get boys.  In the mid-70's, when I went to the Pennsauken Mart with my grandfather, I would often pick up a paperback of THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY book series of mysteries often with heavy horror overtones such as TERROR BY NIGHT, THE HAUNTED HALL and MARKED FOR TERROR.  I still have them (the ones I got at the time, mind you, I didn't ever have them all) and should re-read one for Old School April but I fear it's probably a task for next year.  

Now it's on to the film watches.  First nostalgic watch was a documentary film I had back in the day on VHS called TWO ROOMS:  A TRIBUTE TO ELTON JOHN & BERNIE TAUPIN (1991).  This was back in the time when everyone suddenly realized how great Elton & Bernie were and made a tribute album covering their songs -- as well as this documentary about the whole history of the songwriting pair up until that time. 

Clips from this doc were Cerpts fodder back in the day and appeared on Cheeks' Video Cerpts.  This doc takes me right back to 1991 if, for no other reason, than what Bernie is wearing.  Holy crap!  A neon-blue do-rag and an open shirt, damn!  I thought YOU were the Brown Dirt Cowboy!!!  It's also a little sad to see the people in this doc who have since died:  Tina Turner, John Entwhistle, Sinead O'Connor.  This film only fulfills 1 prompt but it was a nostalgia bomb, I must say! 

The next film hearkens back to Stephen Bissette's BOGGY CREEK book up there and it's ...yes... BIGFOOT: THE MYSTERIOUS MONSTER aka THE MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS which I saw in da theater back in, I think, January 1977 (when Bissette mentions in his book the film was booked into Philadelphia and South Jersey cinemas).  The film itself was released in 1976 but I guess didn't get around to my wayz until January.  The poster image echoes the beautiful poster for LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK and it was definitely deliberate.  I can't remember if the same artist did both but I wouldn't be surprised.  You will note down in the bottom left hand corner of the poster is the paperback book which I also bought at that time (and still own) which had the same cover as this movie poster.  That's ANOTHER book which would be a great re-read for Old School April but I guess that's another one for next year.  Peter Graves hosts/narrates this film with all the weight and authority his voice can muster.  The film was apparently first a shorter TV special just focusing on Bigfoot but it was expanded to include the Loch Ness Monster and the Abominable Snowman for cinema release.  I just love these paranormal-themed Schick Sunn Classics films (which include IN SEARCH OF NOAH'S ARK) we saw a lot of at the time since real scientific collaboration of evidence didn't seem like a priority!  One re-enactment in the film lifts the same "hairy arm smashing through a home's window" scene directly from LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK.  Trashy pseudo-documentary at it's finest!  This one fulfills 2 prompts but it's nostalgia for me is on overload; taking me right back to my childhood years.  

This next film was on a Discord watch party but I was unable to watch it then so I watched my new 4K of Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST which, yes, I had NEVER seen before.  Hey, you can't see EVERYTHING.  But I have seen it now because of Old School April.  And I enjoyed it very much.  Not as much as everyone else seems to but it was a very good movie.  Not a classic but very good.  And thank God it's one of the last of it's breed: actual honest-to-God animation instead of CGI crap.  Sorry CGI artists, no matter how much work and talent you put into it, CGI animation is nowhere near as good as REAL animation.  And THIS is REAL animation.  

Last nostalgic watch in the film categary is MEAN GUNS; a 1997 action flick which came out a couple years after PULP FICTION is is suffering from -- indeed, overdosed on -- Tarantino-itis!  Damn, this flick wants to be a Tarantino film SO BAD!!!  I understand this was a very popular movie rental in the late-90's video store days and I can see why.  It's a helluva lot of fun!  Practically non-stop bang bang shoot-'em-up!  And when the shooting stops and characters start having conversations, they're going for Tarantino-style dialogue like it's nobody's business.  Also the self-consciously (to me) constant use of Perez Prado mambo music is meant to evoke the masterful use of music QT uses in his films.  But, for all you QT haters out there, this movie is a prime example of how most people cannot do what Tarantino does.  Whereas Tarantino's dialogue from "I don't tip" to "Madonna's Big . . . uh . . . Richard" to "Royale with Cheese" are all masterfully written and SOMEHOW work as relevant scenes in QT's movies.  It's not just quirky, nonsensical dialogue for it's own sake.  And here, it's just quirky, nonsensical dialogue for it's own sake.  Having said that, it's so RIDICULOUS and obvious that this is what the MEAN GUNS filmmakers are going for that it's face-palm hilarious and a hoot to boot!  Combine this with gunplay that, admittedly, isn't particularly well-shot or edited, but damn near continuous and you have a bad movie which is hella entertaining.  And it sure hits that late 90's vibe nostalgia-wise.  I had never seen this one but it was recommended as a stupid good time by a couple people whose opinions I respect and it sure was that!  Ice-T plays Vincent Moon who brings together about 30 or 40 (not the 100 criminals letterboxd says) criminal mob members to a newly built maximum security prison which will have it's grand opening the following day.  Turns out, everyone gathered here has 'betrayed' the mob bosses in some way so the mob decided to punish them this way.  They are all going to be locked into the prison until midnight (or some time limit, I forget).  They are given tons of guns, knives and baseball bats and told to kill each other and, the final three survivors will get to split $10 million!  With a synopsis like that, whaddaya think you're in for?  Wild and wacky nonsense and this movie gives it to you!  Christopher Lambert (Tarzan & Highlander guy) is a nutso psychopath, Michael Halsey (Blake's 7) is a cool-as-a-cucumber killer and Deborah Van Valkenburgh (Warriors, come out and plaaaaaaayaaaaaaaay) is a fish out of water in this cartoon of a movie!

Speaking of cartoons, I watched 7 LOONEY TUNES & MERRIE MELODIES cartoons:  I LOVE TO SINGA (1936), CHOW HOUND (1951), HAREDEVIL HARE (1948) with, I think the first appearance of Marvin the Martian, DEVIL MAY HARE (1954) with the (possibly) first appearance of the Tasmanian Devil (I can't remember fer sure), BOYHOOD DAZE (1957), A PEST IN THE HOUSE (1947) with the OG voice of Elmer Fudd and Doc Gamble from the old time radio show FIBBER MCGEE & MOLLY:  Arthur Q. Bryan, and BEEP BEEP (1952) {is this the first Road Runner cartoon???  Again, who can remember these things?!?!?!}

On to the nostalgic TV watching thang.  I watched 5 episodes of THE BOB NEWHART SHOW (which also fulfilled the LIQUID DREAMS prompt of watching a TV show with a nostalgic crush of mine -- that being Suzanne Pleshette), 10 episodes of CHEERS, 4 episodes of TAXI, 5 episodes of NEWHART and 3 episodes of LAVERNE & SHIRLEY (also fulfilling the LIQUID DREAMS prompt with Cindy Williams).