IT HAS ARRIVED!!!

IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! IT'S OUT! I HAVE IT! ........

I haven't played it yet, but will start it up in the next 10 minutes. Reviews have been absolutely positive on it. Though it's been hailed as Oblivion with guns, I have the feeling it a whole other creature entirely. I'm sure I'll be blathering on about it in future posts.


Have you done something spooky yet? You only have a couple more days before the dead leave us. So do something creepy as soon as you can!

We'll talk later. I gotta go visit post apocalyptic Washington DC. See ya. Stay vertical!

Zangz.

Three Cheers for Halloween and All Hail Bah-Humbug!

Welcome back to the current spookfest that is Zangz's Blog of Geekdom! I'm your resident grave digger, Zangz.

One more fun filled week to go before the dead go back to residing in their crypts, graves and tombs until the next Halloween season comes to bless us with its supernatural presence. Be sure to enjoy it while it lasts, 'cause the crap pile that is the winter holiday season is waiting in the wings, ready to pounce with its cold weather, obnoxious people, crowded stores and malls and bank accounts with huge dents in them. First person to start singing "Jingle Bells" gets a grave shovel slammed to the side of their skull! I mean it! ALL HAIL BAH-HUMBUG!


Lets move on to happier, more harvest filled pastures, shall we? Last night I went over to my sister's house where my Bro-in-law and I went out on the front porch and enjoyed a nice big cigar and an Octoberfest and enjoyed the faux grave yard he has on his front lawn. While admiring the creepy little graves with store bought dummies popping out of the ground, we sat and talked about how Halloween decorations are coming very close to selling as much as Xmas decorations. Yet, we also noticed how many fewer yard haunts there are in our neighborhoods. I believe I brought this up last year on the blog also.

Outside of my Bro-in-law, there were NO other houses on the block that had any little set ups. You rarely have to build your own graveyards anymore as the Halloween decoration industry takes care of that for you. Fake gravestones have become more affordable. They now produce spooky, corpse like figures to stake into the ground. These are also at a far more reasonable price than they used to be. Halloween decor that used to be anywhere from $25 to $50 is now $10 to $20. So why aren't people taking advantage of this? Has there been a black hole of imagination of the people in our fair city. Let's get with it people! Get your lazy, unimaginative butts down to the local Walmart, Wallgreens or Target and pick some stuff up! The end of the season is nigh!


On to other Halloween related stuff. I went to my last Haunted Attraction of the season last weekend. I doubt I'll be able to fit in any others or drag anybody to them this season. So here's the review for...

Lister Effects Monster Mayhem - In a nutshell, this one was short but sweet. Imagine if you will a rather large, fun filled pizza parlor on the south side of Milwaukee. The inside has a nice little bar (however, they need to work on their beer selections) a game room and a big diner area with lots of cool '50's decor. And of course, the pizza is great! But, according to rumor and reports, the U.S. Government has installed a secret science base just below it. This particular evening we visited there was some sort of biological accident where most of the staff in the labs were turning into flesh eating zombies! Even though this haunt was pretty short it had a hell of a lot of charm. I think the best thing about this haunt was all the actors and actresses who were really heavily into their rolls. The whole thing was played off as an actual B-Grade zombie movie with lots of dark comedy mixed in to make it that much cooler. I don't know if this was a pre-fab haunt (one that was made by a company and then sold to the people ruining it) or if they put it together themselves. If they did, then I have to give them lots of extra props for being pretty frackin' creative! Could have been longer, but it was still fun as hell! I recommend it if you want to go out and have some good pizza and have some time to kill (pun intended) before you do so!


Let's close with some horror movie reviews....

Lake Dead - Maybe I'm getting a little too jaded, but I felt that Lake Dead was pure crap! It had EVERYTHING we've seen before in horror movies. The film fixates around a psycho family (very poor-man's Texas Chainsaw type group....without the chainsaws) who occupy a small inn close to a man made lake out in the woods. When a group of beautiful, young people arrive in a camper to claim the inn as their own all hell breaks loose and they become the hunted as the psycho family don't take too kindly to it. There's the usual torturous deaths of the young group, but what really bothered me was that the writers decided to use rape for shock value to an otherwise C-grade horror flick. Pinning people to trees or chaining them to the bottom of the lake is one thing, but when you bring up images of rape on women in a horror flick you've opened up a whole can of nasty shit. To put it bluntly, it was a very insulting and dumb thing to bring into an already schlocky pile of crap to begin with. Avoid this at all costs. (See trailer HERE).

Unearthed - To put it simply, this was Alien meets Tremors. A podunk town out west finds itself inhabited with some sort of creature that was accidentally dug up from an excavation site. The creature runs around tearing people apart. And who knew that alcoholic Sheriffs of such remote towns could be so hot. This one fairs slightly better than Lake Dead. Not the best, but I've seen far worse (Lake Dead). (See trailer HERE)

Dog Soldiers - If you're a fan of werewolf movies and you haven't seen this movie from England, you need to run out and rent this now. Though it won't go down in the pantheon of werewolf movies like American Werewolf in London, it's still one of the best I've seen. A bunch of British soldiers who are training with war games out in the dark woods of Scotland find themselves hunted by a pack of werewolves. They become pinned in a quaint little farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere. They're forced to fight for their lives against the beasts. Not only is this a very gory movie, it has characters you begin to care about. It may be a horror movie, but it focuses on the soldiers as a group and that is what makes it different. There's also a slight twist towards the end of it that I thought was kind of clever. It's a must rental for the Halloween season! (See trailer HERE).

Ok, I gotta go get some food then watch a few more horror flick and perhaps get going on Oblivion and finish up the Shimmering Isles' main quest so I can move onto Fallout 3 next week.

Your homework, until the next post, is to go out of your way to do something Halloween influenced and imaginative this week! If you don't come back with a report you'll fail the semester.

Stay vertical!

Zangz.

Halloween oozes from every pore.....

BOO Mutha Truckers!!!!

We are full force into THE greatest time of the year right now! The tree colors are vibrant, there's a nip in the air and many yards and homes are full of Halloween decor for all to gawk at and enjoy! I'm really hoping that all who read this (2.5 of you) are enjoying the season and letting your imaginations run full throttle. There are no age limitations to the magic of Halloween and the magic is certainly in the air this season.

We still have a good two weeks of Halloween to enjoy so make sure you do something Halloween influenced. Take your kids to a pumpkin farm or decorate your front yard to look like a graveyard or just sit back and enjoy one of the many wonderful Octoberfests or pumpkin ales that are out while listening to Midnight Syndicate or Type O Negative. Or, if you're really adventurous you could grab a group of friends and check out many of the local Haunted Attractions in your area. As a matter of fact, last Friday, a small band of our horde did just that.

Here are the ones we hit and what I thought....

Fin and Feather Haunted Trail - We went to this one last year and we were genuinely surprised at how much it scared us and how well it was put together. It's not a big, well promoted haunt like others. But it was still quite effective last time. This year was no exception. It's got everything from a pirate ship to a creepy little witch's hut in a graveyard. Sure there were a lot of the same effects and scenes that were there last year, but they still pulled it off quite well. This year they added on a second haunt called Lunatics Lodge. This indoor haunt has a lot of potential, but not a lot going for it quite yet. However, there's plenty of room to grow and get better in years to come. I'll keep an eye on this one.

The Dark Side - This is another haunt that we visited last year. Located on a farm, this event is three haunts all rolled into one all at one low price. This is nice since a lot of haunted attractions will have you pay additional fees per haunt. It's a pretty sweet deal!

1. The Haunted Mine Shaft - Though quick, this part of the attraction really made you feel you were in a creepy old mine shaft. Some good pop out actors and a few animatronics added to the fright factor.
2. The Haunted Ride through the Woods - This was probably the weakest part of the haunt as they fell into the same problem as last year, lots and lots of land to put up a lot of cool scenery and tableau's, but instead a lot of nothingness. Outside of a few small scenes, most of the ride was teenagers dressed in back, running up and climbing on the wagon and growling. That will work for a while, but gets stale after some time. The stereo effects and vibrations on the wagon itself were trey cool, though. They should research how to do it by checking out rides like THIS or THIS or THIS!
3. The Haunted Trail - This was just as good as the mine shaft! I believe they improved on it from last year as they had a very creepy graveyard and a rustic little cabin in the forest that has some unwelcome visitors.

The whole Dark Side event was quite lengthy which was awesome! However, they need to fill up a bit more of the event with actual haunted stuff. Every year they keep growing and learning more and more. Hopefully soon they will invest in some more scares in their haunted wagon ride.


Let's finish this Haunted blog with a few horror movie reviews.....

Boarderland - This is more of a gore fest-crime-thriller than anything horror related. Three high school grads (yet they all looked like they were in their young thirties) decide to go south of the boarder to party and whore it up before they go to college. Well, of course, they run into trouble with the local drug lords who are also part of a voodoo blood cult. There is nothing paranormal or spooky in this flick whatsoever. It's a movie where people are bullied, tortured and murdered by skeezy thugs. It made me more frustrated than scared. Not my cup 'o' tea, but if you're a fan of movies like Hostel, you may like it. (See Trailer HERE.)

Mulberry Street - This was an interesting twist on not only a therianthropy flick, it was also akin to many zombie movies. The story takes place in a post 911 borough of New York City where greedy land developers buy up the apartments and homes of the decent working class. Apparently there is a slight rat infestation problem with the area. Rabies is the least of any one's worries with these rats. Apparently people who are bit by them slowly turn into half rat - half human creatures who not only infest others with their rodent morphing curse, but also feast on the blood and guts of the living. Within hours of the first bite, much of New York is going mad with blood hungry rat people. This may seem like a cheap grade B horror schlock filled flick, but most of it is handled quite nicely as the characters all seem like very real New Yorkers. New York itself seems to be it's own character. I have to admit, I kind of liked this one. Not a repeated viewing type flick (like the original Halloween), but a good viewing for a dark night. (See Trailer HERE.)

And speaking of the movie Halloween...

Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN - I love the music and image of Rob Zombie, but I have yet to be overly impressed with his film work. House of 1,000 Corpses was pretty good, but not what I was hoping from him. It's sequel, The Devil's Rejects was another horror film that made me more mad than scared. I guess I'm sort of a pseudo fan of his films. I love a lot of the qualities of them and the actors he chooses for roles, but they're never a knock out of the park for me. When I heard that he was writing and directing a remake of one of my favorite, and all around greatest horror flicks, I cautiously anticipated the result. The film Halloween is hallowed ground to most Horror movie fans and shouldn't be trod upon likely. But, I knew Zombie was a huge Horror aficionado himself and hoped he would honor the core material. And after finally seeing his version, I have to say he did. Is it the perfect remake to a classic? Nope. But it has a hell of a lot of heart and soul....and blood. Lot's and lot's of blood! ...and boobs for that matter.

I have to admit I have a pro and con issue with how Zombie showed us how Michael Myers went from childhood to the grown up killing machine of today. I liked the way Zombie presented us with an interpretation of how it may have happened. It's his spin on the creation of one of filmdoms scariest killers. At the same time, I think portraying Myers as a cute little boy in his early days kind of took the edge off of "The Shape" we came to know and love from the original film. The fact that in the original film we only get a small brutal glimpse of him as a young kid left a good amount of mystery to the character that we could fill in with our own dark imaginations. That made Myers all the creepier! The fact that his whole childhood problems are revealed kind of takes the shroud of mystery off of the character. But still, it is an interesting interpretation of how things all went so wrong.

One thing I really enjoyed from Zombie was the casting. All excellent choices! Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Loomis, Tyler Mane as Michael Myers, and Scout Taylor Compton as the much younger Laurie Strode were all masterstrokes to the film. One of my favorites, Brad Dourif shows up as the town sheriff who's daughter is a target of Meyers. And speaking of his daughter, another brilliant little casting choice is that Zombie casts actress Danielle Harris as one of the hunted teens. Remember her as the little girl stalked by Michael Myers in Halloween 4 and 5? Well she's all growed up now... yep. All.......growed......up! (Roberto, rent this movie when Iris isn't home! Dirty ol' man portion of blog is now over). There are also a lot of cool cameos in this flick. Keep your eyes open.

Another plus to this remake was the many nods, tipped hats and homages to the original film that Zombie squeaks in there. I don't know if I consider this film as part of the original stories from the earlier Halloween movies, but it's certianly a very nice homage to them! I have to admit that I was kind of cringing about this flick before I saw it, but afterveiwing it, though I don't agree with some of the story choices, I really enjoyed it. I may have to pick this one up. (View trailer HERE)


Quick video game update: Fallout 3 shelves in 12 days. I can't wait! Yes, yes. I know Saints Row 2 and Fable 2 are also due soon, but those will have to wait a while as I'm really jonesing for the post apocalyptic, free roaming, blow it up extravaganza that will be F3!

That will be it for me today. There's a few more horror flicks and a few more video games and a few more beers for me to enjoy on my day off.

Just remember to have some creepy-ass, spooked up fun this weekend!

Zangz.

What a Whirlwind Weekend it has Been!

This past weekend has been simply ass-crackers crazy!  It was a cornucopia of ups and downs.  Here's the rank and file of what went on....

The Good:

• I took last Friday afternoon off and went to a cigar shop and enjoyed a nice modero and beer while watching a documentary on the sinking of the Lusitania on the military channel on the big screen TV they have in their lounge area.  Very soothing.
• We got to two haunted attractions on Friday night (see reviews below) even after running incredibly late.
• Enjoyed a really good dinner with friends beforehand.
• I got to see the Brewers actually win a playoff game live.
• I go to enjoy a good hot dog, a couple of brewskies, a ton of peanuts and a nice fine cigar while tailgating before the game.
• Officer Rusty from the Fond du Lac Sherif's department is not at all a hard ass and pretty easy going guy when giving you a ticket.
• I got to experience my first ever Packer game on hallowed ground, Lambeau Field, in a luxury box with lots of good food and drinks.
• The festival atmosphere that the area around Lambeau has is quite addictive and wonderful.  It's like it's own little Packer village where a wondering adventurer can trade in his +2 sword of green and gold and with some gold coins can get a +8 sword of Titletown Awesomeness! (That's gamer speak, folks)

The Bad:

• One of our friends didn't make it to the haunts due to rear ending a car and totaling hers in the process.
• We were incredibly late getting to the haunts since my friend Roberto DelAmorte was supposed to have the satellite TV installer come mid-afternoon to instal the new hook up.  But the installer, who spoke broken English, didn't show up until 5 pm that evening.  We didn't get out of the house until 7:30 PM and we had to trek about 35 minutes away for the diner!
• Had one headlight out and had a nail in my tire that had to be taken care of before going to Green bay.  After all, I didn't want to get a traffic violation!
• The Brewers lost the next playoff game the next day, blowing their chances to proceed any further in the series.  End of season.  Done.
• The speeding ticket I got on the way to Green Bay to see the game ($230 and 4 points).  Ewwwwwouch!
• The Packers losing the game I went to.
• The Packer traffic that went from Green Bay all the way to Oshkosh while trying to get back home.  It added at least 2 more hours tot he already 2 hour travel time.
• The torrential downpour on the same trip back home from Green Bay.

The Ugly:

• The "bathroom break" I had the day after indulging in too many peanuts.   Ewwwwouch!

So, yep, we had our inaugural visits to a couple of Haunted Attractions this Halloween season.  After the craziness of getting to the restaurant that evening, I had little hope that there would be time to visit any.  But, since one of our faves was literally right down the road, we gave it a go.  Sure enough, the haunt was still open....

Terror On Rural Street - I've said it time and time again, this is one of my favorite haunts to go to every year.  Last year it blew us away.  This year had some nice features as well.  The facade/queue area was completely revamped from last year.  It had a creepy old house facade that was surrounded by swampy, wooded area.  It also had a gated area where you could actually see people going through a part of the haunt.  Very clever!  The actors were pretty good, yet not quite as enthused as last year.  They also brought a lot of the effects from lastyear  back, but redecorated it to try and spice it up.  Though I was far more impressed with last year's show, this year still packs a creepy punch.

When we left Terror we looked at the time and saw that it was 10:30 PM.  There was noway we were going to get to another haunt.  But we said, "To frack with reality!" and decided to make a quick trip up the highway to see if we could get into....

The Hartford JC's Haunted House - These people were selling their last tickets to us.  So we lucked out there.  We also lucked out in the fact that this Haunt rocked our asses!!!  Years past I'd always felt that this haunt was pretty good, but no knock out of the park.  And it sure didn't start out that way.  The beginning walk through the outdoor wooded area was marred by some teenage boys portraying the spooks.  They certainly had the schtick down good, but the immaturity really shined through as they decided that the pass word to let us through to the haunted house portion of the attraction would be the "80's disease"... Aids.  If they wanted to be politically incorrect and edgy, the word "boobies" would have worked just as well.  Grow some pubes, you half wits!  But, things started to look way up once we got into the house itself.  These guys took detail to a whole new level!  Every inch of that house was decorated in pure spookiness!  There were also a tone of very well placed effects that had me jump more than a few times.  They also had some pretty nifty animatronic effects!  After leaving the haunt we decided that this one even beat out Terror on Rural street.  Not a very easy task to accomplish, I must say.  I will giver Terror some slack as it was their first night of the season.

A good spooky time was had by all!

Lets move on to some spooky movie reviews...

American Psycho - If you want to see the current Dark Knight, Christian Bale, play a role that lofted him into the A-list and you have an innate hatred toward the yuppies of the '80's, you may want to get a glance at this gem.  A wall street pretty boy who is as shallow and stuck up as can be has a secret life as a serial killer.  Odd premise for a film, but oddly enough it really worked for me.  Bale captures the greedy, I, Me Mine generation of the '80's perfectly.  It is probably the darkest comedy satire ever made.  You may not feel that it is comedic, but in a sick way, the whole thing is a parody of yuppiedom of a time past but an attitude that still exists today.  It is fun to watch bale hack and slash other yuppies while listening to the likes of Huey Lewis and the News.  If you like your comedy so dark and dry that it out ranks your favorite merlot, you have to check this one out. (view trailer HERE!)

George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead - This is a bit of a departure from Romero's last zombiefest.  The last one, Land of the Dead, had a boatload of Hollywood backing.  This one is definitely done on the down low in both scope and production value.  Instead of focusing on your typical fun zombie trappings, Romero makes this more of a trimmed down drama.  Gone is the bombastic, almost comedic, fun filled craziness.  In it's place are whiney, annoying characters that are always moping or arguing with each-other while trying to put together a Blair Witch type documentary as the world goes into hell in a hand-basket.  It also ends on a complete cliff hanger that makes you wonder if it was intentional or they just ran out of money (rumor has it, a sequel is being shot right now).  Certainly not one of Romero's best zombie flicks, but still worth watching if you're a die hard Romero/zombie film fan. (view trailer HERE!)

The Deaths of Ian Stone - It was quite hard to figure out just what the frell was going on at first.  But, as the story moved on, all was explained.  It deals with kind of a very dark vision of reincarnation and the nasties who may be controlling Ian's constant deaths.  Not a very frightening or spooky horror movie, it still had an intriguing story.  Worth the rental, but certainly not a classic.

Ok, kids.  I'm gunna grab some grub and a beer.  I hope to be back here at weeks end.  Please make sure you do something spooky this week.

Zangz.

This weekend is Jam-PACKED!

I knew the first weekend in October was going to be delightfully busy, but I didn't think that rather than it being filled with spooks, spirits and haunted attractions it would be filled with sports outings.

As you can tell, if you read my blog, I'm not exactly the most athletic or sports-worthy kind of fella. I'd much rather talk about things like collectible action figures, what's the better RPG, what video game should I get my hands on this fall or who's hotter, Eve Myles or Felicia Day? But, oddly enough, fate seemed to play a nice enough joke on me in the fact that I have unexpectedly scored tickets to both Saturday's Brewer playoff game and Sunday's Packer game up in Green Bay.

I've been to plenty of Brewer games, but never a playoff game! I've only been to two Packer games and that was way, way back when they'd play games in Milwaukee at the old County Stadium. So this weekend will be a real treat. I better get my dumb jock knowledge up to speed before the games. That Farve fellow doesn't pitch for the Brew Crew anymore, correct?

Oh crap. I'm sunk.

In other stuff.... My sister earned a bunch of money by running in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure last weekend. I'm very proud of her and helped sponsor her in the event. If you'd like to help in the fight against breast cancer be sure to click on the link for more information.


In a little crappy news, I found out that some greedy development company has gotten the go ahead from crooked local officials to build a big-assed monstrosity of a high rise/high rent apartment building just adjacent to my apartment building. Not only will it frell up traffic, it will also block the parking lot view of part of the lake and downtown area. Originally it was forbidden to build there as there is a historic mansion on the property. But, probably due to some money under the table dealings that a lot of these development companies gift unto the more skeezy city officials, they've been given the go ahead to attach the high rise to the mansion and wipe out the trees and parking lot that are there now. I fear it is only a matter of time that I will find myself living in a van somewhere due to the greed machine bulldozing my apartment building to make way for yet another yuppie nest. Dark times ahead, indeed.


Ok, on to more geeky schtick! Since I am celebrating the holiday of all holiday's this month, here are a few spooky movie reviews for you to ponder and rejoice in...

Monster Camp - Ok, this one isn't very spooky but MUST be seen by fellow geeks. This is a documentary on a LARPing group. A few times a year a group of imaginationally gifted people get together at a nature camp, dress up as fantasy characters and roll play the whole weekend through with nerf-type swords, spell bags and a pretty immersing, yet intricate game system. I found it inspiring and endearing! The only thing I didn't like about it was the yuppie couple who get interviewed after seeing the players and have to make snide comments about them. The guy is some sort of money management turd (AKA: Greedy cork-soaker) and the wife is a social worker (AKA: idealistic dink). They're quite dis likable. Thankfully, they're only in it for a few seconds. If you have a love for RPG's or LARPS or just the grand gift of the imagination, please rent, buy or see this film. (See Trailer HERE)

Ok, now on to the creepy stuff...

Day of the Dead - Not the best zombie movie, but still, a zombie movie! And that right there makes it a must see for us zombie movie fans. The story isn't that original, the effects aren't that good and some of the acting is just awful. But seeing Ving Rhames eat his own eyeball and crawl with severed legs through a ventilation shaft chasing after Mena Suvari is worth the price of admission right there! (see trailer HERE)

Catacombs - This movie really surprised the hell out of me. I thought I was getting a cheap-assed, straight to video, crapfest of a B-grade horror flick and what I got was a pretty decent and frightening thriller. The movie takes place in the infamous catacombs of Paris as one girl who attended a rave in the maze like halls gets separated from everybody and is left behind to survive on her own as a freakish inbred nut-ball stalks her. Trust me! This isn't your usual teen slasher type flick. It had a surprise ending that I found pretty morbidly cool! Definitely worth checking out. (View trailer HERE)

Stephen King's The Mist - Based on the short story by the renowned author, this thriller had me from the get-go and pulled me along through the whole ride.......up until the jarring ending. The short story doesn't have a real ending. So director/writer, Frank Darabont, decided the write one himself. I can't say the uber-depressing ending to the movie really matched the frightening thrill ride of the rest of the movie. I really found the Cthulhu Mythos inspired story quite... well..fun in an odd way. And to put that kind of an ending on it just didn't feel right at all. Perhaps if the whole movie was far more subtle and serious, it would have worked. But, this puppy had all sorts of creepy creatures coming out of the odd fog to do combat with a group of survivors trapped in a small local grocery market. The mind-frack of an ending just didn't match the cadence of the rest of the film for me. You leave the film not wanting more, but wanting to put a gun to your head. Id' say this film is a must see for the most part. But don't expect a happy ending after what all the characters go through. Just a notation: I loved the way Darabont had the artwork of Drew Struzan do a wonderful cameo, as well as King's epic character of Roland the Gunslinger! Very clever. For that one scene alone, Darabont get some serious Zangz Points. (View trailer HERE)

Rose Red - you gotta have a nice big dose of Stephan King for the Halloween season, don't you? King wrote and produced this made for TV miniseries that aired earlier this decade. It is the creepy story of a big haunted house that is very reminiscent to the old Winchester Mansion. A bunch of psychics spend the weekend there to try and reawaken the paranormal happenings that have been dormant for the last few years. They get a hell of a lot more than they ever bargained for. The back story to this house is pretty creepy, but the overall spooky stuff that takes place in the movie isn't that much more creepier than what we've all seen before in movies up there with The Haunting. I was hoping to be totally creeped out like I was for The Others or The Changling. Sadly, I was not. One thing that kind of jarred me out of the fear factor was the fact that rather than actors portraying the corpsey spooks, they used animatronic puppets that just looked a little too fake for my tastes. Don't get me totally wrong! I'd love to have one of those propped up againstmy apartment window as a Halloween prop. But, in a horror movie it no longer works that well. But, it still was a pretty darned good ghost / haunted house story and worth the rental. (view trailer HERE)


What am I listening to right now? Glad you asked. It's a band out of the UK called DragonForce. Their music is described as Powermetal. If you put Manowar, Slayer, Meatloaf and a touch of Journey into a big glass jar and shook the hell out of it, you'd open it up and pour out the bombastic goodness. Check them out if you want uplifting, loud and fast music!!!! (Check them out in a live jam right HERE)

Ok, that'll be it for now. Until next time... Stay Vertical and love the dead! Happy Halloween!!!!! Start enjoying the holiday RIGHT NOW!!!!

Zangz.

Robhain in Retrospect...

The air is slightly cooler.  The top of the trees are starting to change from deep greens to bright oranges and reds.  The sunrises invade the dark, blue,  morning skies with shades of purple and orange.  During the evenings I sleep well, dreaming of Jack O Lanterns, spooky old houses and spirits floating about the foggy graveyards.

God, I love this season!  It truly evokes feelings of magic and mystery.  My calendar is already starting to fill up for October.  I already have two parties to go to.  Of course there will be the visits to a few Haunted Attractions as well as many horror movies to rent.  I'll, of course, review them here.

But first, lets go back a few weeks ago when my good friend Roberto "Ranch on the Side" DelAmorte had his annual birthday bash, Robhain!

This year there wasn't an overall theme, but the contests were every bit as enjoyable as in years past.  Partygoers were separated into two teams.  We were given a bunch of wood, tools and other crafty things to use in our three objectives.

• Objective 1: Create a rocket/plane that would take off and sore into the sky.
• Objective 2: Create a giant slingshot to hurl apples for distance.
• Objective 3: Create an effigy to hurl water balloons at.

Though our projectile rocket had a potentially life threatening climax, the other team (Roberto's) shot straight up into the sky.  Our apple slinger/thingy did quite well.  And we moistened the crap out of our effigy (who resembled Roberto's teammate, Peej, a little too well).

The rest of the contest was an all out trivia-fest with one category that involved spinning the "Wheel of Shame".  After the weaker of the guests left the party, myself and Roberto enjoyed a nice bon fire that pretty much ended the cardboard effigies existence.  I smoked a nice big cigar as Iris VonBeaverhousen (Roberto's one true love and the person who planned this whole, incredible shin-dig!) joined us outside to cuddle up to the fire and snuggle Roberto.  Not soon after she started her snuggling did she start to freak out on how big the fire was.  Thus, romantic scene ended abruptly as Roberto spent the rest of the outdoor relaxation dousing. the metal fire pit with water.

Another successful Robhain was had by all!!!

On to other geek-filled endeavorers....

I recently rented a game that I had a bit of an interest in after I heard it referred to as "a potential Diablo killer".  Now, I absolutely love the addictive game play of Diablo!  When I heard that a '360 game was trying to one up the Diablo series I just had to check this baby out.  The game is called Too Human. (see gameplay HERE)  I rented it for a few days hoping to find the next '360 "Must Buy!"

I have to say that this puppy had tons upon tons of addictive potential.  It had a cool story-line, a cool world and motif (Halo meets Norse mythology), it had an cool RPG feel and wonderful weapons to trade in and out.  But sadly the pure crap-tastic control scheme destroyed any hope for me wanting to continue to play or even buy the game.  There's no way to truly lock on to the hordes of baddies they throw on you at once.  Plus, the camera views are absolutely unforgivable.   One of the control sticks controls your character's movement while the other controls your character's sword movement. There is no control of moving the camera around to see what's behind or at the side of you.  You're at the mercy of the game's cameras.  This leaves you horribly exposed for unfair enemy hits.  God forbid you're up against a sub boss, where you'll end up dying several time just to finally conquer them.

This could have been one of the best games I played this year, but the half-assed controls make it one of the worst and that's too bad.

But, one thing I'm loving is Monday night television as Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles airs before Heros. A very cool night to watch TV!!!

This past weekend I went over to Mad Mario's for his game of Call of Cthulhu RPG.  It was quite the nastiness as my character (a hard-nosed detective) was nearly stabbed to death and two other character's were horribly killed.  A good challenging game, indeed!

Well, that's all for this evening. I'm going home to have some dinner, a nice Pumpkin Ale and perhaps, later, a cigar.

Until next time, remember, the dead are coming for you, Barbara!

Zangz.

And the Dead Came Early ('cause I can't friggin' control myself!).....

I tried. I really did! I tried really, really hard. I did everything in my power to curb my enthusiasm for the coming of The Season of the Dead, HALLOWEEN!!! I told myself I was not going to imbibe any Octoberfest beers, buy any Halloween costumes or surf the net for any Haunted attractions any later than the 1st of October. Fer crissakes, I have to grow up sometime! (Probably, maybe not!)

Well, this week that whole theory went straight to hell in a hand basket! I sit here on a Friday night sipping away at an Octoberfest while looking over at a Halloween costume I purchased for A$50. $50 for a friggin' Halloween costume? WTF? Heck, I've already been invited to one Halloween party. For $50 bucks I better put a little effort into it! What can I do? The leaves are slowly changing color, the moon is bright and foreboding, the sunrises are a magnificent bright orange, it has that slightly spook filled chill in the evenings, the sunsets are a wonderfully cryptic purple, leaves are taking their time hitting the ground, decorations are already in the stores and good ol' Zangz is in full Halloween mode already.

It happens every year, earlier and earlier. What can I say? I'm weak... and proud of it. Very soon the ghosts, goblins and spooks will be walking the streets among the living, and I'll be loving every minute of it!!! Of course this blog will be filled with lots of Halloween fun and frolic for the next month or so. So check back regularly to what's going on in Spookville! Hopefully I can rouse some friends to join me in Halloween hi jinx and some Haunted Attraction fun! Any takers? Let me know!


In other geek-lovin' news.... I've put GTA 4 aside and have gone back to Oblivion. I've actually found a few areas that I have yet to explore. I still haven't finished the main quest for the add on The Shimmering Isles, but I plan to before Fallout 3 hits store shelves! In other geek filled endeavors, Sunday I'm going over to Mad Mario and Hope's new base of operations in South Milwaukee. I do miss them living very close to me on the East Side, but I think more gaming room will be quite welcome as we will be in full Call of Cthulhu mode (yep, yep, I know. I haven't run my own game in years. But Mad Mario doesn't have to deal with characters who are god like in percentage points - admittedly, my own fault as a lame game master- that are now hard to write for.) I still have pretty cool idea for a another scenario of my own with my own group, but making it challenging is quite hard to figure out. I'll let you now how it all goes.


This one's another "short and sweet" post as I have to get up early and put $500 into my car to get an exhaust problem resolved (god mocks me, I tell you!). So we go into onward and forward mode here in my Blog of Geekdom and I'll post real soon.

Zangz.

The Quantum of Awsomeness!

CLICK
WATCH
ENJOY
LOVE
EXCITE
AROUSE
ENGORGE
ANTICIPATE
WHOOPS
SUDDEN
MOISTNESS

Calm down and clean up after yourself. November 14th can't come soon enough!

Zangz.

The Coming of Robhain.

I'm popping in here real quickly with this message to all of humanity....

"And behold unto the masses
The dark times have approached us.
Time for the weak to cower in great fear
Pain and suffering shall commence at the 15th hour of the day of the 6th of September,
A September to dismember.
Bloodshed and bruising, imbibing and hedonism, self mutilation and dark joy.
Moistness!
The fires of Robahain shall burn hot and brightly.
The souls of the good and just shall perish.
Tis the celebration of Roberto turning 42.
Angel to some, Demon to others"

Unbelievably, this passage was found inscribed on a tablet found not 20 yards from where they found the Rosetta Stone. No Poop! I'm not kiddin'! It was called the Roberto Stone and it has been long lost for many years.

In any case, tomorrow many of us are celebrating Roberto's birthday that we call Robhain. If you want to learn more about Robhain, you can click HERE and see how the holiday has digressed into pure hedonistic debauchery throughout the years.

I'll blog soon as to how all things went.

Happy Birthday, Roberto!

Zamgz.

Pretty Frackin' Cool, Huh?

Do you want to know some things that are pretty frackin' cool?

How about the fact that I had a five day weekend and spent much of it enjoying the surroundings of Harley-Davidson's 105th anniversary since a few of the more busy, drinking hole streets near me had their own little Harley street festivals.  I enjoyed the sights, sounds, cigars and beer that the festivities had to offer!  Especially some of the sights.

Pretty frackin' cool, huh?

Then there was the fact that I got to hear The Foo Fighters, who were going to play the Harley Anniversary, do their sound check off of the stage Harley set up right by the lake front.  I could hear it crystal clear from the outdoor parking area of my apartment.  What was even better was that this past saturday night when I had come home from one of the street parties, I got to listen to the last 6 songs of Bruce Springsteen's Harley concert from my parking lot.  He ended the show with a cover of "Born To Be Wild".  Even though I was far away, he sounded a heck of a lot better and more energized since the last time I saw him.  I bet it was a phenomenal show!

Pretty frackin' cool, huh?

Then I finally finished the main story-line to Mass Effect, one of the largest action RPGs I've ever played.  I can find little wrong with the game.  The only nit-pic I can come up with is that a lot of the planet's you visit have similar terrain.  They could have differed a bit more.  But other than that, it was like playing an epic Science Fiction movie rather than playing just a game.  The rumor is that it is the first in a trilogy of games.  I'm hoping the next one comes quite soon!

Pretty frackin' cool, huh?

Speaking of epic video game RPGs, the next one that is on my list is Fallout 3, coming out the week of Halloween!  Check out the trailer HERE!  Better yet, check out an example of the gameplay HERE!  If it's good and big and epic as Bethesda's last entry into the RPG world (Oblivion), it's going to be mega-orgasmic!

Speaking of Halloween here's a big-ass sign that Halloween is right around the corner,  Halloween Express has opened up near a local mall!  I haven't checked it out yet as it's too early in the season, but I'm sure I'll end up visiting it in the not too distant future

Pretty frackin' cool, huh?

We'll, I'm going to put a finish to this silliness right now and end this post.

Pretty frackin' cool, huh?

Zangz.