Category Archives: horror
Random Awesomeness (part 2019.12)
- Dean Cain writing Lois & Clark ‘idea’ exploring Superman’s parenting skills [SyFy Wire]
- Henry Cavill to Play Sherlock Holmes Opposite Millie Bobby Brown in ‘Enola Holmes’ [Variety]
- The Black Keys and Raconteurs Take Rock Back to the Future [Rolling Stone]
- Victoria Pedretti To Headline ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’ Netflix Series [Deadline]
- Sir Elton [Phantom Cardboard]
- The True Story of How Toy Story 4’s Forky Was Conceived, Written, Voiced, and Animated [Vulture]
- He-Man and She-Ra Little Golden Book interior preview images are here! [He-Man.org]
Purchase Let’s Rock by the Black Keys!
30 Years Ago Today: The Crypt Keeper begins to tell his tales on HBO
Tales from the Crypt, the horror anthology television program, debuted on HBO on June 10, 1989. I did not have HBO growing up, so it was not until much later that I saw a few episodes. As a youth, I was more familiar with George A. Romero’s syndicated Tales from the Darkside.
Tales from the Crypt was based on a series of comics produced in the 1950s, and most of the storylines came from those books. The program lasted for seven years and resulted in many related projects, including feature films, a Saturday morning cartoon, a game show for kids, and three music compilations.
The first album is a soundtrack from the series, including music from Danny Elfman, Jan Hammer, and Ry Cooder. The second is Christmas-themed, called Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas, with inspired music such as “Deck the Halls with Parts of Charlie” and “‘Twas the Fright Before Christmas.” The third—Monsters of Metal—featured a mix of hard rock favorites by bands such as Black Sabbath, Pantera, and Dio.
The television series is not currently included for free on any of the major streaming services, but you can buy the complete series from Amazon. If you prefer to read the comics that inspired the show, there are several anthologies available as well.
Random Awesomeness (part 2019.10)
- Scaring Your Readers 101: 8 Tips for Writing a Great Horror Story [Writers Write]
- The Guilty Pleasures of Procrastination [Fiction University]
- Unearthed Photos: Van Halen 1979 Record Store Signing at Peaches Records & Tapes [Van Halen News Desk]
- The year was #1987 [PAINTinMANning on Twitter]
- Reds legend Eric Davis talks Tony Gwynn, pulls off a great trade [Old Baseball Cards by Yahoo! Sports on YouTube]
- Disney Plus: Every show and movie that will (or may be) available to stream [CNET]
- Custom Cards: The Next Generation [The Shlabotnik Report]
What I’m Reading Right Now: Supermarket by Bobby Hall.
Random Awesomeness (part 2019.9)
- The New June Netflix Titles Are Here And There’s So Much Great Stuff [BuzzFeed] (JT sez: Spider-Man Into The Spiderverse is coming June 26!)
- Kiefer Sutherland & the ‘Designated Survivor’ Cast on a ‘180-Degree Shift’ in Season 3 [TV Insider]
- These Posters for a Vampire TV Show Erupt In Flames When The Sun Rises [Adweek]
- You Can Rent the Spice Girls Bus on Airbnb [Apartment Theory]
- The 1954 Topps Guide to Life [SABR’s Baseball Cards Committee]
- The Pete Alonso / Jeff McNeil Collection [Mets Baseball Cards Like They Ought To Be!] (JT sez: I love the ’86 Donruss-style “The Rookies” cards Warren posted!)
- The Inside Story of Jimmy Page’s Led Zeppelin Guitars [Guitar.com]
What I’m Reading Right Now: Almost Yankees: The Summer of ’81 and the Greatest Baseball Team You’ve Never Heard Of by J. David Herman.
Purchase “Bullet Holes” (from John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum) by Bush!
Random Awesomeness (part 2019.8)
- These Should Exist: The Karate Kid Edition [Branded in the 80s]
- Kentucky Is Home to the World’s Only Ventriloquism Museum [Mental Floss]
- Joe Schlabotnik: My Favorite Player [Infinite Baseball Card Set]
- The Art of the Trim: Practice of Cutting Baseball Cards Began Earlier Than You Think [Pre-War Cards]
- What if? A look at Eric Davis, Nomar Garciaparra and Grady Sizemore, three Cooperstown careers cut short [Sporting News]
- In Classic Children’s Books, a Window to Childhood in Past Centuries [The New York Times]
- Sony Pictures sets a March 2021 release date for Masters of the Universe! [He-Man.org]
What I’m Reading Right Now: Almost Yankees: The Summer of ’81 and the Greatest Baseball Team You’ve Never Heard Of by J. David Herman.
Purchase Reckless & Me by Kiefer Sutherland!
(Yes, that Kiefer Sutherland, a.k.a. Jack Bauer,
a.k.a. President Tom Kirkman, a.k.a. David Powers.)
Random Awesomeness (part 2019.7)
- 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings Event Schedule [1869reds.com]
- Celebrating Cincinnati Baseball: 150 Years of the Cincinnati Reds [The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County]
- The 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2019 [The Write Life]
- Lego haunted house MOC 🎃👻🦇 [kreimkouk’s YouTube]
- Nick Senzel Rookie Card Primer [Beckett]
- Musical Chairs [Night Owl Cards]
- #129T – Earl Weaver [1985 Topps] (JT sez: It makes me sad that the 1985 Topps blog is almost finished. The first card was posted way back in 2012, and it has been great following along with Greg as he wrote about every card in the entire set and now the Traded series. Only three more cards to go!)
What I’m Reading Right Now: The Message of Psalms 73-150 by Michael Wilcock.
Purchase Living The Dream by Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators!
Random Awesomeness (part 2019.6)
- Vincent Price’s Supper Casserole! [Dinosaur Dracula]
- A Babe Ruth Rookie Card Found in an Old Piano Just Sold for More Than $130,000 [Mental Floss]
- Beasties [Phantom Cardboard]
- Cody Bellinger PC [Baseball Card Breakdown]
- 1971 Alt-Topps Requests [Cards That Never Were]
- Violent Femmes announce new album, Hotel Last Resort, share title track: Stream [Consequence of Sound]
- Here’s why Richard Dawson started kissing female contestants on ‘Family Feud’…And why he stopped during his second stint on the show [WCVB]
What I’m Reading Right Now: Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe written by Tim Seeley and illustrated by Freddie Williams III.
Random Awesomeness (part 2019.5)
- Meet Ray Lamb, the last Dodger to wear Jackie Robinson’s No. 42 — by mistake [Los Angeles Times]
- Report: Arrow Season 8 Will Feature Smallville Alum Tom Welling [CBR.com]
- Of Myths and Men (pt. 1) [SABR’s Baseball Cards Committee]
- Neil Young and Crazy Horse set to record their first album in seven years [Consequence of Sound]
- Bootlegging Dreams Into Reality [Branded in the 80s]
- 8 Silent Films Every Sci-Fi and Horror Fan Should See [io9]
- Reflections On Worship, From A-Z [Preacher Pollard’s Blog]
What I’m Reading Right Now: Firefight: The Reckoners, Book Two by Brandon Sanderson. (Yes, still working on it.)
Purchase Feral Roots from Rival Sons!
(Greta Van Fleet is great, no doubt, but Rival Sons rocks harder for my money.)
The Return of Random Awesomeness (part 2019.1)
It has been nearly three years since my last “Random Awesomeness” post. Partly because I don’t blog as much as I used to, and partly because I don’t spend as much time on the internet as I used to. But there is still a lot of cool stuff to be found around the web, and things that I want to share with you that don’t naturally fit into my own blogposts. Each “Random Awesomeness” entry will feature seven or more links to some pretty rad stuff, so (obviously) I recommend checking them out. I usually include a music video of some sort and a link where you can buy the music (or something related to the video). New in 2019 is “What I’m Reading Right Now.” No spoilers, just a link to where you can buy the book I’m reading.
I don’t know how often I will publish a new list “Random Awesomeness”…maybe weekly? I’m really not sure. Be awesome, and you’ll probably end up on the list. Since this is the first post in almost three years, I decided to change up the top-of-post image as well, so without further ado…
- Rock star Jack White is helping restore a Detroit-area Negro Leagues Stadium [Cut 4]
- Luke Perry was in a Twisted Sister Video that MTV Banned [Ultimate Classic Rock]
- 1979 Alt-Topps [Cards That Never Were]
- We Got Our Hands on 73,000 Never-Before-Seen MLB Scouting Reports. Here’s What We Learned. [The Ringer]
- 2019 Donruss Baseball Checklist, Team Set Lists and Details [Beckett]
- Baseball Cards of Spring Training Celebrities [Beckett]
- Bryce Harper Phillies cards by Gummy Arts and The Phillies Room (1), (2)
- Uni Watch Readers Catch Flaw in Bush Memorial Patch [Uni Watch]
- Mark Hamill Once Again Expresses Unhappiness With New ‘Star Wars’ Sequels [/Film]
What I’m Reading Right Now: Steelheart: The Reckoners, Book One by Brandon Sanderson.
Blog Bat Around: My Card Collecting Projects
I’m not sure if I have ever participated in a Blog Bat Around before, but this one might help me organize my thoughts on collecting. Thanks to Night Owl Cards for starting the topic. Here goes…
MY CARD COLLECTING PROJECTS
Cincinnati Reds: I know I will never own every Cincinnati Reds baseball card, but that doesn’t stop me from attempting to create a master checklist. It’s an ongoing project, as new sets are released every year and I discover older sets I never knew existed until some kind soul sends me a card from the set. I’m still working on crossing out my recent acquisitions, and I found a shoebox that had several other needs that have not been inventoried yet.
Kurt Stillwell: The former second-overall draft pick of the Cincinnati Reds has right around 100 cards. At one time, I had a good checklist and kept up with the collection. I was close to completion, and something went off the rails. I have several empty slots in the binder, and the checklist has disappeared, and I really have no idea which cards I still need. It’s not a huge project, and so close to finished, I really need to figure out where I’m at with it.
Shawon Dunston and Doug Dascenzo: As a baseball fan in the mid- to late-’80s and early ’90s, I saw a lot of Chicago Cubs baseball on WGN. I loved watching Dunston fire the ball to first base, nearly breaking Mark Grace‘s hand. I loved seeing Dascenzo hustle around the bases and take the mound on occasion. Both were fantastic “through the mail” signers to boot, so I have quite a few autographs of each. I would like to eventually acquire, at a minimum, all their Cubs cards from their playing days. Both moved on to other teams, and I do have some cards from those later years, but I remember them best as Cubs.
Reggie and Bo Jackson: I think Reggie was my first favorite player. Or at least my first favorite non-Reds player. I don’t have a huge number of his cards, but one of my prized possessions since middle school has been his 1973 Topps card. I recently came into possession of his rookie card, which is now the pièce de résistance of my small Reggie collection. These are not organized at all, and I have no idea what I might be missing. Bo was an amazing athlete. For those who never saw him perform live—even if only on television—you truly missed out. Acquiring his cards from his playing days, even if including the football issues, seems a little more doable than Reggie.
Non-Reds cards of Eric Davis, Chris Sabo, Buddy Bell, and Dave Parker: Davis and Sabo had their best years in Reds uniforms, while Bell and Parker were better known for their time with other teams. I don’t have checklists available for these collecting goals yet, but I like to pick up cards I don’t think I already have occasionally.
Stars and Famers: I used to hoard cards of Hall of Famers. I didn’t care how many 1986 Topps Ozzie Smith cards I had, they were never available for trade. Until recently. The cards were just taking up so much space, and I didn’t ever look at them. A much more manageable project is to keep one or two favorite cards of these guys. The rest have been shipped off to team collectors. Likewise with the likes of Don Mattingly, Ken Boyer, Dale Murphy, and a few guys that aren’t really should-be Hall of Famers, but once seemed to be on the right track, like Darryl Strawberry and Will Clark. Same rule as HoFers: one or two favorite cards of each is enough for me.
Horror-related cards: “Cereal Killers” is one of my favorite horror sets of all-time. I only have a handful of other horror-related cards, such as Eddie Munster and Freddy Krueger.
Music Cards: Pro Set Musicards, Yo! MTV Raps, Donruss KISS cards, and a very small selection of other brands. I have nearly the complete set of Musicards (missing only a handful of cards). Two of my favorite music cards came from Steve over a year ago, when he had Topps make custom cards of Vivian Campbell and John Sykes for me.
Miscellaneous: Here is the catch-all. If it’s something I like, I’ll collect it. Be it He-Man cards, Dukes of Hazzard cards, Star Wars cards, Superman cards, you name it. I may never chase the entire set, but I like to have a few cards of pop culture awesomeness in my possession. Come to think of it, I might be close on that He-Man set. No closer than I was 15 years ago when I first bought that wax box, mind you, but close still.
I look forward to reading all the other bloggers’ various card collecting projects.
