OLD SCHOOL APRIL WEEK TWO!

 WEEK TWO WAS A LITTLE SLIM FOR ME BECAUSE OF SOME ISSUES BEYOND MY CONTROL.

  That being said, this week's OSA is approved by the 'Old School Horror Posse'.  OK, so one of the reasons why I didn't get as much done as week one is because the evil overlords at my job poached an operator and we are now short-handed; consequently I got stuck working a double shift -- the second half being OVERNIGHT -- which means I worked from 2:30 in the afternoon until 7 am the following day.  Ain't like grand.  And very shortly, I will be stuck working 6 days a week until we get a replacement.  That being said . . . I'm gonna read books and watch movies while I'm at work, you SEE if I don't!!!  Now on to week two of OSA!

While I only managed to read two books in week two, I have some other books I'm reading but didn't finish yet.  The first book I read for week two was ANOTHER host rec:  GOOSEBUMPS:  THE BEAST FROM THE EAST and it was goofy and fun.  I liked it!  And while I didn't get many books read this week, BEAST FROM THE EAST fulfilled TEN count 'em TEN prompts:  Host Rec, Retro/Vintage, Neon, Time Warp, Free Willy, Goosebumps book, Fern Gully, Monster Squad, Goonies and Once Upon A Forest prompts!

After that, I only managed another of those 'WHO WAS/WHO HQ' books I'm currently obsessed with.  It's the one I told you about last week:  WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE LOCH NESS MONSTER? by Steve Korte.  I love how they STILL managed to do the cover art with a giant head on Nessie!  This book only fulfilled 5 prompts which only looks slim next to BEAST FROM THE EAST:  Free Willy, Fern Gully, Monster Squad, Goonies and True Life prompts.  

I managed to watch no nostalgic TV shows in week two; however I did knock off a few nostalgic movies -- all from the nineties -- THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, THE ROCK, PATRIOT GAMES and A FEW GOOD MEN.  RED OCTOBER also fulfilled an extra prompt:  watch a Tim Curry movie.  The great, magnificent Tim Curry is in that one!  It's funny because I never really liked RED OCTOBER much (I've seen all 4 movies before) and loved PATRIOT GAMES; I found this rewatch that my opinion of RED OCTOBER went up and PATRIOT GAMES went down a little.  THE ROCK, meanwhile, is the biggest turd I've ever seen and my opinion didn't change that much; other than to wallow in the pure stupidity of it all making it now a fun watch.  And, of course, A FEW GOOD MEN is A FEW GOOD MEN.  I hadn't seen THAT one is so long that I had forgotten the presence of three of my favourite actors in it:  Kevin Pollak and the late, great J.T. Walsh!

I had completely forgotten they were in this!!!  Speaking of which, I had also forgotten the great Tony Todd was in THE ROCK!!!  I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Mr. Todd at the Monster Mania convention several years ago and he was such a friendly, generous gentleman!  I love him to bits!!!!  He elevates any movie he's in! 

PATRIOT GAMES, on this rewatch, is still awesome during it's first -- oh, I dunno -- hour? -- but really lags in a way I never noticed before.  And even the slam-bang finale didn't hold up as I remembered it.  This is interesting because I just bought the JACK RYAN 5 FILM COLLECTION 4K box set and the next film is CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER which I remember hating back in the day.  I wonder if I'll suddenly like it if I do a rewatch?  So yeah, that's week two in the books.  I'm hoping to do better during week three.  

OLD SCHOOL APRIL: WEEK ONE!

 ALREADY WE'RE A WEEK DOWN!!! 

Time flies like the wind . . . and fruit flies like bananas!!!  The first week of OSA '24 is in the record books and have I been a busy lil blue barracuda {CHOMP CHOMP}.  I'm a little surprised at myself for having read this many books in the first week; granted some of them were thin.  And I even managed to cram in a few host recs;

First read was a short novel/novella called BELOW by Laurel Hightower which was a Mothman book (as evidenced by the cover) without the word "Mothman" ever having been mentioned in the book itself.  This was a book I'm pretty sure was already read by our BB team leader Kelsi; at least I saw it on one of her videos and decided to read it.  It was pretty awesome sauce and actually there are a lot of other nasty, scary creatures in this book that are the REAL threat here.  I would recommend this one very much because it manages to pack a lot of unexpected twists and turns in it's brief page count.  Fulfills 4 host prompts: written by a woman, monster on the cover and/or in the story, novella and a book that will give you nightmares.

Next we have two books from my newest obsession:  the "Who Was" series of middle grade/YA books which they have about practically everything there is to make a book about.  I mean, they have a book about Travis Kelce, fer corn's sake!!!  These a short non-fiction books for kids and the two I read this week are "WHERE IS THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE?" and "WHAT WERE THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS?".  Most if not all of the books have that "big head" artwork on the covers which I love but inside every book there are line drawings on almost every page which are by different artists but all of which are very nice and descriptive of what the book is discussing.  I have to tell you I've become so addicted to these books that I've boughted myself about THIRTY of 'em!!!  So it's safe to say you'll be seeing more during Old School April.  As a matter of fact, I'm already reading "WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE LOCH NESS MONSTER?" as we speak.  Both books fulfill the prompts for written by a woman, non-fiction, Middle Grade/YA Book and the Salem Witch Trial one also fulfills "a book with witches".   

FIVE-MINUTE MYSTERIES was next and this one I saw on Cameron Chaney's Library Macabre youtuber video.  Cameron pulled it from his shelf saying he was gonna read it so I decided to pick up a used copy and read it too because it's gonna fulfill a HELLUVA lotta prompts.  Kelsi also had the same idea because, after watching Cameron's video, she ALSO pulled this book off her shelf to read for OSA.  And since we're all on the Blue Barracuda's team, that's gonna mean a TON of points for us CHOMP CHOMP!!!!  I was actually surprised how well these were written.  I thought, being a bunch of short stories taking 5 minutes to read, would mean they were throw-aways but no indeed they're all pretty great!  This whopper fulfilled ELEVEN prompts, yo!  This is owing to each short story featuring a different kind of monster.

Speaking of Cameron Chaney, the next book I read was a host rec from Kelsi of Cameron Chaney's own novel AUTUMNCROW HIGH: FRESH HELL and I absolutely loved this one.  This one I gave 5 stars and it wasn't even because I've watched the guy's youtuber channel for years and was being nice.  No, this is one incredibly good book in the style of those YA horror series like FEAR STREET of POINT HORROR etc.  Seriously, this is one terrific book and I can't wait till Cameron comes out with the next volume in the series.  Besides being a host rec, it fulfilled 5 other prompts!

The next book I devoured was another host recommendation called SHIT, ACTUALLY by Lindy West.  This is a non-fiction book which is quite hilarious.  West, the author of SHRILL, evaluates a lot of big big BIG movies of recent decades including SPEED, TWILIGHT, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, FORREST GUMP, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and makes a case for why THE FUGITIVE is the greatest film ever made and there was no need to make any more movies after that because well they already made THE FUGITIVE.  This one fulfills 6 other prompts besides getting points for being a host rec.

Next is another book I read because I saw Cameron Chaney pull it offa his shelf in his "Shopping My Shelves" video for OSA.  It's a total GOOSEBUMPS knock-off called SPINE CHILLERS MYSTERIES:  PIZZA WITH EXTRA CREEPS.  Now this little puppy fulfills 10 prompts.  You heard me.  10 prompts in it's 116 pages and it's damn lucky it does because I hated hated HATED this one.  I wasn't paying strict attention, I guess, to Cameron's video because somewhere he must've said it's not only a GOOSEBUMPS knock-off but it's a CHRISTIAN GOOSEBUMPS knock-off.  So yeah, the main kid in the story -- the one who eats too much pizza with extra cheese which gives him an over-active imagination -- is constantly asking God what the Bible thinks about ghosts.  Now, this is not a problem in itself but the very concept of a CHRISTIAN kids horror book means that, by definition, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SUPERNATURAL can happen in the book.  The kid and his family move into a haunted house which used to belong to a witch.  But the Bible does not allow for the existence of ghosts or werewolves or any other type of monster which is the bread-and-butter of every single GOOSEBUMPS knock-off as well as the R.L. Stine series itself.  Therefore, the entire book is a series of "Oh, there's a sinister figure in the attic gonna get me . . . oh, it's a dress dummy", "Oh, there's a scary ghost materializing in the corner of the attic . . . oh, it's a window curtain blowing in the wind", "Oh, in the darkened room, something grabbed my arm!!!! . . . oh, it's just the girl standing next to me.", "OH, there's a terrifying creature with yellow glowing eyes that lurks in shadows of the coal cellar . . . oh, it's a cat."  Literally NOTHING AT ALL happens.  Every so-called scare is just a misunderstanding or a BOO prank played by one of the kid's friends.  This is tres tres weak and I advise you to stay well clear of this series.  Pick up a GOOSEBUMPS instead.  I'm tellin' ya, I nearly DNF'ed this one and it's only 116 pages of big print.  Thankfully, it earned my team a lot of points.  Sheesh!  Guess they can't ALL be winners!

Then we come to the movies and telly watched for OSA. 

So this week I watched 3 count 'em THREE host recommendation movies:  THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE! THE MOVIE and THE HIDDEN and all three of demz wuz 4 outta 5 stars.  Awesome sauce and totally tubular each and every one of them!!!!  And point points points!  Then I watched the 90's made-for-cable-TV adaptation of the Stephen King short story (which I read when it came out in the PRIME EVIL paperback in 1988) THE NIGHT FLIER and that was much better than I thought it was going to be.  I really enjoyed that one.  Next came 4 rewatches of old school 90's-early 2000's (all before the year 2005 per the rulez) movies:  the three Dark Castle remakes of William Castle movies HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1999), THIRT3EN GHOSTS  (2001) and GHOST SHIP (2002) -- all of which I'm a big fan of, you haters -- and the classic SPEED this time on a beautiful 4K.  Wow, remember when Sandra Bullock was so charming before she started taking herself too seriously???

And for the nostalgic telly, I watched 6 episodes of CHEERS, 4 episodes of CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL (Naaaaa naaaaa na naa naaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh), 2 episodes of TALES FROM THE CRYPTKEEPER, 2 episodes of DARKWING DUCK and 1 episode of FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES.

Oh yeah, I also fulfilled three activity prompts:  I attended 1 official OSA Sprint, I ate 4 Eggos (actually since I'm diabetic I ate high protein waffles which is allowed under the rulez) and I wore a nostalgic outfit (i.e. my Blue Barracuda T-Shirt, CHOMP CHOMP!).  So I'll see ya back here for week two.

MARCH 2024 Top Ten List

 HERE IS A LIST OF THE FILMS I WATCHED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN MARCH 2024.

1. CANDY LAND  (2022)
2. RED ROCK WEST  (1993)
3. THE KILLING FIELDS  (1984)
4. MOON GARDEN  (2022)
5. DEADSTREAM  (2022)
6. THE FACTS OF MURDER  (1959)
7. THE BOOK OF HARTH  (2022)
8. THE OFFENCE  (1973)
9. THE DRESSER  (1983)
10. SPOONFUL OF SUGAR  (2022)

In addition,  here is everything . . . and I DO MEAN EVERYTHING . . . that I watch in March 2024:

OLD SCHOOL APRIL: YEAR TWO FOR ME

 SO, IT'S A LITTLE OVER A WEEK UNTIL MY SECOND FORAY INTO OLD SCHOOL APRIL COMMENCES!!!!

  Last year, my Mom was really into my participation in Old School April as she was a fan of Kelsi's Slime and Slashers youtuber channel and watched it with me all the time.  She followed every book I read and movie/TV show I watched to complete the prompts and get points for my team the Blue Barracudas (CHOMP, CHOMP, BEEYATCHES!!!!).  Since my Mom is gone this year, I'm dedicating this year's Old School April to her memory because I know she'd love me participating once again. 

Of course, this year I am on the Blue Barracuda team (next year the "Legend of the Hidden Temple" teams will be gone in favour of an as-yet-undetermined theme and we hope to take it out in style!!!).  Of course, everyone and anyone is invited to participate and you can go to the Slime and Slashers youtuber channel and find all the prompts etc. right here. Kelsi has all the links you will need to participate in the comment section for this video.  I've been prepping for this since the beginning of March (or earlier) and these are the books I've put on my OSA TBR that fulfill prompts and will get me heaps of points for my barracudas:

I would also like to point out that those final four books are all written by David Sodergren and I don't into to try reading ALL FOUR of dem -- I'm hoping to pick one of them.  SATAN'S BURNOUTS MUST DIE and THE HAAR fill specific prompts so it'll probably be dem.

ADDENDUM:  After watching the new video on Cameron Chaney's Library Macabre youtuberz channel (co-host of OSA as well as fellow Blue Barracuda), I boughted 2 more books for Old School April:  POINT HORROR UNLEASHED: THE HANGING TREE by Paul Stewart & FiIVE MINUTE FRIGHTS by William A. Walker Jr. and you will see thei covers added above.  We'll BOTH be reading that one this OSA!

All the hosts for the OSA team (Silver Snakes, Purple Parrots & Blue Barracudas) also have host recommendatons for books and movies.  These are the host recs for movies which I will try to fulfill (because I own all of 'em already):

And these are the host book recs I will also try to fulfill since I own DEM already TOO!

  

Of course, there will be others added as I acquire more that fit the prompts.  So wish me luck and I will post in May with my results on what books I read and what movies & TV shows I watched that fit the nostalgic prompts.

MECHANICAL VIOLATOR HAKAIDER (1995)

 OR "人造人間ハカイダー" 

This mid-90's Japanese movie rips off more movies than I can shake a severed T-800 arm at!  Firstly, the events take place in a post-apocalyptic future where the government (called the Parliament) is a dictatorship that wants to bring peace and tranquility by preventing anyone from having free thought. 

King Gurjev . . . or is it Girjev?

But instead of Trump doing it, it's done by a weedy, white clad & feather-adorned fella called King Gurjev (Yasuaki Honda) -- interesting that his name is very similar to G.I. Gurdjieff . . . . who operates out of a completely white building and keeps an army of mind-controlled cyborg white-clad 'stormtroopers' in his capital of Jesus Town.  The wikipedia page for this movie says Jesus Town is built over the ruins of Jerusalem but I didn't get that from watching the movie.  Actually, I didn't get MUCH plot exposition from the movie until about halfway through when a group of rebels do a huge info-dump about what's going on.  Up until that point, there is only a tiny bit of dialogue and the movie just sort of begins and keeps barrelling along like a runaway train without explaining much. 

This, of course, is not meant to be a criticism as, by and large, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie.  But as you can see, it owes a LOT to a LOT of other movies such as any post-apocalyptic flick you can name as well as the white "stormtroopers" of STAR WARS.  But that's only the tip of the iceberg.  The movie starts with said band of rebels/criminals going through an abandoned underground system of tunnels looking for treasure. Instead they find a guy in black armor chained to a chair.  This is Hakaider -- a sort of Terminator-type figure -- who quickly breaks out of his chains and goes off blasting countless government 'stormtroopers' as the rebels tag along.  The TERMINATOR 2 vibes are increased by Hakaider's ownership of a motorcycle and the riding thereof.  When Hakaider is not wearing his full armor, he transforms instantaneously into a regular-looking guy named Ryo (Yuji Kishimoto) who one of the rebels/crooks Kaoru (Mai Hosho) immediately gets the hots for.  Meanwhile, King Gurjev (or Girjev, accounts vary) has his owner terminator-type guy (also in WHITE armour) named . . . wait for it . . . Michael (Toshiyuki Kikuchi but voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue)

Ryo and Kaoru

that he sends out to bash Hakaider to bits.  So the entire movie basically consists of constant action scenes.  It's kinda hilarious that the white stormtroopers constantly fire their guns at Hakaider to absolutely no effect -- and keep on doing it.  By this point, guys, you're just wasting ammo.  Be like Michael and use bazookas and stuff; that has a little more of an effect.  The gang of crooks turned rebels have the right idea since King Gurjev's idea of insuring a utopia is to lobotomize every citizen into compliance.  So we're definitely with the rebels and Hakaider/Ryo's fight against them (unless you're one of those idiots who think that's actually a good idea) and root along with them as they fight against that nasty ole government tyranny.  Now, as mentioned before, the inside of Gurjev's fortress is all white; white walls aplenty. 

Red Velvet Cake anyone???

The fun thing is that, when Hakaider gets inside and starts battling Michael and they shoot and/or are bashed into the walls, the interior is bright red so the walls look like they have open wounds!  All the interior wiring behind the walls is also solid red.  The wounds in the walls reminded me of a red velvet cake in some ways.  Really cool!  Besides the HEAVY 'borrowing' of ideas and styles from the Terminator movies, there are also some steals from things like the Mad Max movies including a camera shot barrelling down the road I swear is a direct lift!  Oh, and did I mention that the top of Hakaiders head (in the armour) is a clear dome with his exposed brain in it?  Noice! 

Michael

The design of Michael's armour does have something of a hint of "ULTRAMAN" to it and King Girjev's feathery get-up is very anime, unsurprisingly.  And there is one point where a character's severed head is attached to a mechanical monster which appears VERY Xenomorph-like (a la the ALIEN movies).  From a cursory look-around, I've seen a whole line of HAKAIDER action figures so this must be pretty popular in Japan.  It's fairly popular with me as it's a goofy good time.  I went into this thinking it was more like an ULTRAMAN ripoff with Kaiju monsters but it's not that at all; it's more of an anime live-action bang bang shoot 'em up and I'm good with that.

FEBRUARY 2024 TOP TEN LIST

 HERE IS A LIST OF THE FILMS I WATCHED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN FEBRUARY 2024.

1. NOTHING BUT A MAN  (1964)
2. THE BLACKENING  (2022)
3. ONYX THE FORTUITOUS AND THE TALISMAN OF SOULS  (2023)
4. TALK TO ME  (2023)
5. FORTY ACRE FEUD  (1965)
6. THE GREATEST NIGHT OF POP  (2024)
7. 36 HOURS  (1964)
8. BERGMAN ISLAND  (2021)
9. SOUTHERN COMFORT  (1981)
10. THE MYSTIC  (1925)

And here be EVERYTHING I watched (film & television) in the month of February:

RAMONA FRADON (1926-2024)

 WE'VE LOST ANOTHER OF THE COMIC BOOK GREATS. 

Making most of her mark at DC Comics in the Silver Age, Ramona Fradon was always a favourite of mine as well as being one of the few female comic book artists at the time working on 'superhero' comix such as her storied run on AQUAMAN (on which she co-created Aqualad),

the whimsical PLASTIC MAN comic in the mid-1970s,

the Saturday Morning staple comic book version of the SUPER-FRIENDS

and as co-creator of METAMORPHO THE ELEMENT MAN. 

Fradon's pencils were delightfully whimsical and were a perfect fit for lighter titles like SUPER FRIENDS and PLASTIC MAN but were also splendidly quirky which made interesting art on AQUAMAN, FREEDOM FIGHTERS and METAMORPHO. 

On hearing of her death a few days ago at the age of 97, I went and watched the documentary SHE MAKES COMICS (2014) about female comix creators through the years and Fradon gets a good chunk of screen time. 

As she says in the documentary, her first job at DC Comics was the SHINING KNIGHT (continuing after the departure of legendary artist Frank Frazetta!!!) but she also drew the Sunday funnies staple BRENDA STARR, REPORTER -- another bastion of the independent female.  She also happens to be the artist who first drew a Batman team-up story in the pages of THE BRAVE & THE BOLD:  the 59th issue featuring Batman & Green Lantern. 

Ramona Fradon was a trailblazer merely because she was a phenomenally good artist who just happened to be a woman and she made it in the male-dominated world of super-hero comix on her own terms.