Children of the night. What music they make...Dracula
I guess I'm a horror aficionado. From the time of my youth I loved the supernatural. I devoured horror novels and loved horror movies. At dear old Walnut Park Elementary School in Gadsden, Alabama we would get a little publication called The Weekly Reader. I would order books from it. They were often the Ghost Story books. Kid friendly however writers from way back in the day. Still, I loved it. I found some old ghost and horror comics and devoured those. Now, as I've gotten older my love of horror has changed. I don't like to linger in the darker depths of fiction or movies as much as I once did.
As a matter of fact I like a good old Film Noir these days with good guys and dolls. An action western especially the Clint Eastwood kick butt type. I also have found that watching or reading horror doesn't really mix well with my end of the day meditation. But, still there is something about the horror section at a book store or the online Amazon Prime or Netflix video's that still draws me.
I am...Dracula. I bid you...welcome. (Dracula)
I don't read as much as I used too. I have to admit that if I try to read on my Kindle Fire I keep checking facebook or links or twitter. I don't have the attention span that I once did. But, sometimes I'll pull out the Kindle Paperwhite and it's mainly a reading device. That helps me to concentrate.
I'm not being fancy. I would love to read the old fashioned way like I did in my youth. The heft and smell of a new book or even a musty old library book. But, my aging eyes appreciate the ereaders. The ability to adjust the font or the lighting on my Kindle. The ability to carry the equivalent of a small library in my pocket. These days I find myself reading more non fiction than fiction. I read for knowledge of a subject or a biography of a rock star or the paranormal, religion and even politics.
But, when it comes to my favorite books and movies and memories of my youth it's horror and a little sci fi that I think about. We had an actual drive in theatre in my neighborhood when I was a kid. Around Halloween they would have a "Dusk till Dawn" horror marathon. My mother would make and pack the popcorn and hotdogs and off we would go to the drive in.
You would play your brains against mine. Against me who has commanded nations?...Christopher Lee Draula A.D. 1972
Boris Karloff and Vincent Price in the old Hammer Horror Movies. Christopher Lee as Dracula. I still remember being transfixed as a 8 to 10 year old as Dracula was finally killed in living technicolor. As I munched my popcorn and bit into the ketchup of my hot dog the vampire would draw blood out of the neck of the young heroine. But, finally as the hero's fought the vampire and right before the vampire would have won. The sun is coming up. All of a sudden Dracula's skin is sizzling. He's turning to dust. Right on the giant screen he starts to shrink. You see his hands turning to dust. His face then his skeleton and finally...finally...nothing. Just a pile of dust where the monster was just standing a few moments ago. As you can see I never forgot that scene.
That brings me to my all time favorite novel. "Salem's Lot." by who else? Stephen King. Now, I had grown up with ghost stories and old horror movies. But, by the time I was in my teens and getting towards the end of my teens. The horror section was getting kind of tired. Still, I was in a bookstore in the old Gadsden Mall when I came across a paperback. The blurb was something about a small Maine town and hearing sucking sounds in the night. It was a simpler time in some ways so as corny and even mildly lewd as that might sound today it was a spooky teaser back then.
You'll enjoy Mr. Barlow. And he'll enjoy you...Mr. Straker "Salem's Lot."
So, I'm looking at the blurb on the back and the little blurbs from newspapers and other authors praising the book and this young author Stephen King and wondering if I should give this one a try. A clerk comes up and says "you will really like that one." "The young writer is named Stephen King and he's going to be good." So, I gave it a try and devoured it. Then I of course was thrilled to learn that he had written a previous novel called "Carrie." I quickly read that one and the rest is of course Constant Reader History. Stephen King calls his lifetime readers "Constant Readers" and I guess I'm one of the early members of that club.
Anyway, I loved vampires. I always thought they were cool. First they were always young. They could get any girl they wanted and they could turn anybody they wanted to be with into a vampire. Now please understand. I'm talking about a young kid and so please don't get offended. In this day of political correctness some of the old ways of thinking are not considered proper conversation. That's not always a bad thing. Because some of the old ways of thinking were really bad. But, in this case I'm just talking about youth and fun so chill out.
I always hated zombies. Now full disclosure. The original George Romero movie "Night of the Living Dead" is a classic and I did enjoy that one as a ten year old. I know it's a little intense but drive in night in Walnut Park was easy to get into with parents and my mother was not a helicopter parent. She loved us but she didn't coddle or overly worry about movies or TV shows. In later years I also liked "The Walking Dead." on AMC. But, I also quickly tired of it and found it to be depressing and after all how many ways can you stomp a friggin zombie. Enough already.
"I happen to like vampires more than zombies. A vampire quite honestly, you could have a conversation with. He has a sexuality...Martin Scorsese.
So, yeah I hated zombies and I really hate zombies now. I'm so tired of hearing about the Zombie Apocalypse. Especially these days. I don't even want to read Stephen King's "The Stand" right now. At least vampires had personality. Dracula was smooth and debonair and could entertain guest. Zombies are brain dead and just ugly pac man like creatures with no soul and no personality and no reason. They are just boring. I can't imagine a young person with a fantasy to become a zombie or make the object of their affection a zombie. So, I hate zombies man.
"I hate the f...ing Eagles, man....The Dude "The Big Lebowski."
I'm always reminded of the Dude in The Big Lebowski. Now I love the Eagles. They wrote the soundtrack of my youth. But, in The Big Lebowski the Dude hilariously doesn't share that opinion. So every time he's a little hung over or irritated it seems like an Eagles song comes on and he is always saying "I hate the f..king Eagles man."
That's how I feel about zombies. I hate fu...ng zombies man. I loved Salem's Lot and at the time I was living with my grandparents in Altoona, Alabama. Very small rural town in Northeast Alabama. An old coal mining town. The characters and small Main town of Stephen King's Salem's Lot reminded me so much of the little town in Northeast Alabama that I was drawn into the story. The really smart hero who comes into town and doesn't really belong. But falls in love with a town beauty. Yeah I identified. The town constable who warns him to keep straight. The guy who care takes the town dump and shoots rats with his gun and cusses and keeps score. The town employee who care takes the grave yard and finds the dog killed and butchered on the cemetery fence and the dark satanic minion of the vampire reading and saying the rites in the graveyard at midnight to raise the vampire and prepare the sacrifice. It was intense and I knew this guy could write.
Evil is away's possible. And goodness is eternally difficult...Ann Rice "Interview with the Vampire."
Not very long after that I picked up a book called "Interview with the Vampire." by Ann Rice. Now she went on to write a series of the books and a movie was made starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. But, it was the first book "Interview with the vampire" that was the best. I felt it went downhill from there. But, anyway again you have the intelligent thinking vampire. The female vampire in a young girl's body but a grown woman's point of view. After all she was ancient but trapped in the youthful body that she was turned to a vampire in. No idiot zombies with no personalities and no pac man type eating everything in sight.
So this generations fixation on zombies is a major weakness as far as I'm concerned. This "lets run to our safe places and eat gluten free snacks and shut out all debate that we don't want to hear." I mean you can say "Okay Boomer." But your movies and music is still lame and I lived in the greatest era in rock and roll and horror movie's and books history.
"You may scream all you want, but no one will hear you...Barnabas Collins.
Of course I also loved the old soap "Dark Shadows." Barnabas Collins was a smooth operator. He had this cool cane and an English accent and a very expensive flashy ring. He had an eternal love that he was able to go back in time and be with. The sexiest witch this side of Samantha Stevens in my opinion Angelique was in love with him and of course the huge family home was totally haunted. Ghosts and Werewolves with personalities. Not idiot zombies.
I hate @#$%&@# zombies man.
But, I am not going to read a lot or watch a lot of horror right now. The real world is depressing in so many ways at the moment. I'm going to look for the sun to come out sooner or later and melt all the monsters. Until that happens I hope to take it one day at a time and not take myself too seriously.
"So this is how it ends. Your beautiful face. How quiet, as if you were asleep.Am I never to see your eyes again? So often, they looked at me with love, and I returned nothing but hatred. I was blinded by my fury that my rejection of you caused. And so, through the years, we battled and fought. And I never guessed that beneath my rage. I felt a love as strong as yours...Barnabas final farewell to Angelique.
Now try those lines with a brain dead zombie.
So, if the final Zombie Apocalypse is upon us. Just remember.
They can chew ya up. But they have to spit you out..."The Wire."
Peace.
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