October is here, and that means that my favorite holiday, Halloween, is approaching fast! I'm not the type to wear costumes and such, but I do like the atmosphere of the holiday; a certain amount of decadence mixed in with childhood nostalgia, such as horror movies, haunted tales, and fear mixed with kids trick-or-treating, gorging on candy and 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'.
To get you in the Halloween spirit, check out the website of author Norman Partridge for some great short stories of the horror variety. A different short story will be posted every week from now til Halloween, so keep checking back for more great stories. Also check out Norm's latest book, Dark Harvest, which happens to be a Halloween themed book. It won the Stoker Award and is currently nominated for both the World Fantasy Award and the International Horror Guild Award. Dark Harvest was originally published as a signed, limited edition hardcover by Cemetery Dance, and has just been released as an affordable trade paperback by Tor. Definitely one of my favorite books to come out in a long time!
This year, I'm spending my Halloween a little differently from the last few years (i.e. getting drunk). Japan's horror-punk legends, Balzac, will be doing a week-long North American tour with The Misfits, and they are playing in NYC on October 31st at BB King's Blues Club and Grill. Since they are not playing anywhere near Chicago (and doubt I'll have many opportunities to see them in the US), I'm flying to NYC that afternoon, so that I can finally visit Toy Tokyo, go to 'The Beast Within' art show (that features artwork by Pushead, Mike Suftin, Usugrow, etc), go see Balzac and [the band trying to be] The Misfits. After the show, I will be searching for food from shady street vendors (a personal favorite of mine) and working my way back to the airport for my 5am flight back to Chicago. I'm too old to be doing stuff like this, but it'll definitely be worth it.
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As far as new acquisitions to my various collections, today was a great mail day:
I got a package from Super 7 today that contained the newest Gargadeath figure (white/gray version) by Gargamel x Napalm Death, and the chrome version of the Frankenghost figure by Secret Base x Super 7. These two figures are great additions to my hodge-podge collection of Japanese and Designer toys, but I need a new Detolf case from IKEA , since the two that I have are pretty much full.
Also in the package from Super 7 were two books: The first is Usugrow's amazing hardcover art book titled 'Love Hate From JP', published by Upper Playground/Fifty24SF Gallery. If you love art, you need this book! The second book is a fun 'travel' guide for locating toy shops in Tokyo, titled 'Tokyo Underground' written by Brian Flynn, Joshua Bernard and Jeff Dey, and published by Super 7. I vow to utilize this book before I die...
I also received a package from Subterranean Press that contained the signed/limited hardcover reprinting of Charles De Lint's early novel 'The Harp of the Grey Rose'. Originally published in 1985 (and long out of print), this release is the first hardcover edition of this title. Got some reading to do...
On the music front, I received my most recent eBay win: Balzac's 'Came Out Of The Grave' LP (on purple vinyl) released by G-Force Records from Germany. That completes my Balzac 12" vinyl collection (not including test presses, ridiculously rare special pressings, etc.). To see my Balzac 'nerd' page, click here.
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The last movie that I saw in theaters was David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, which is absolutely fan-freakin-tastic! Viggo Mortensen never ceases to amaze me. If this movie is playing in your area, go out and see it!
Earlier today, I stopped by my neighborhood Best Buy and picked up 2 of today's new releases on DVD: The first is the two-disc version of 'Transformers' (the live-action one, not the cool 80's animated movie). Many of you are probably asking "Why the hell did you buy that!?!". Well, the answer is that I kinda' liked it. True, it isn't a great movie...Hell, I admit, it isn't even a good movie, but it is a lot of fun (in a "giant robots beating the crap out of each other"-kinda' way). Besides, Megan Fox is really nice to watch...
The other DVD is 'Planet Terror', the Robert Rodriguez half of last year's 'Grindhouse' Double Feature. Because I am a nerd, I picked up the limited two-disc version with the metal packaging that included a bonus DVD. I enjoyed Grindhouse when I saw it in theaters, something people's opinions were very mixed about, but I definitely like Rodriguez's movie more than 'Death Proof', Tarantino's half of the double feature.
That's all for now. I'll post again soon, I swear!
I also added the bones on the sides of the arms and legs. I decided to copy the cartoonish bones similar to the Balzac Bearbrick figures. I still have to add the bones of the ribcage on the front of the figure's chest, but I'll do start that tomorrow.