The Reckoning of the Shire.

Had to pop in here and make mention of a horrible occurrence in the making of The Hobbit movie(s). It appears as though New Line Cinema, the movie company who were revitalized from it's stagnant, post Freddy Kruger state by Peter Jackson and his Lord of the Rings trilogy (which brought New Line boatloads of cash and nearly saved the pathetic movie company) has made the catastrophic decision to oust Peter Jackson and all involved in creating one of the greatest movie trilogies known to movie history from any sort of inclusion in the making of the proposed prequel to the trilogy, the Hobbit films.

It seems to be a matter of New Line trying to shill Peter Jackson out of some money it still owes him from The Lord of the Rings movies. Mr. Jackson feels that there may have been some questionable practices when it came to the accounting of the money owed to him by New Line. So he enacted a clause in his contract with them to audit their financial agreement from the trilogy.

Since he did so, New Line has taken offense and told him that he and his creative forces would not be asked to have anything to do with the Hobbit project(s).

It's interesting to see how many people in Hollywood are making career ending decisions lately. Whether it be Michael Richards and his racist diatribe in response to a couple of A-hole hecklers at a stand up gig or Mel Gibson and his drunken anti-Semitic babbling while being arrested for drunk driving, it appears the powers that be at New Line want to join the tardling party (yes, that is a word, not the most politically correct, but a word).

Anybody born with a brain and soul knows that Peter Jackson and his team are the only ones who can truly bring the works of JRR Tolkien to the big screen without if being pure crap. But New Line, under the spell of pure greed, think otherwise.

You can read about the whole silly debacle HERE with a letter Mr. Jackson wrote to a Lord of the Rings fan site.


On to more pleasant avenues.....

If you haven't seen Casino Royale yet, get off you lazy butts and do so! It is the best Bond movie to hit the silver screen in a long time. Don't get me wrong, I loved Pierce Brosnan as Bond and am saddened he won't return. But, the reinvention of the series is really a good booty-kickin' event and Daniel Craig delivers!!! I'm going to see it again this weekend when I drag my Mom to go see it.


You'll be seeing a new Podcast uploaded in the not too distant future. There are some scheduling glitches, so we may not be as prompt as we usually are. But, rest assured, a really cool Zangz's Pod of Geekdom will be up soon featuring a heated review of the new Bond pic, Casino Royale!


You know who's a real cool, out of the closet Geek? Wil Wheaton! A lot of fanboys gave him flack for playing the role of Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the guy is real down to earth and not afraid to "come out" on his love for geeky stuff like being a gamer. Might I direct you to a recent column he wrote about a recent gamer convention? Click HERE! Now, he's not refering to the REAL Gen Con I used to go to yearly when it was located in Milwaukee. He's reviewing a mere shadow of that con that's held in California and is related only by name (yes...still bitter). But, it's still cool that he's attending and enjoying himself. Very cool dude. BRING GEN CON BACK TO MILWAUKEE YOU GREEDY CORPORATE WHORES!!!!!!


Speaking of gaming, I've got another really cool session on the Star Wars Role Playing Game coming up this Saturday. There was a tense moment there when the game master, Mad Mario, was thinking about ending the game and starting something new. Though, I'd like to try out some new RPG in the near future, I'm way too addicted to my rogue character of Jodz Burdoz (imagine Kurt Russell from Big Trouble in Little China) to give it up just yet. Mad Mario decided to continue on with his Star Wars scenarios for a bit more. Huzzah!!!!!


I'm hoping everyone reading this will have a really good Thanksgiving and be able to cram as much food into their craw as humanly possible without any digestive catastrophes including regurgitation or a good long sitting on the porcelain god.

On that note, everybody have a great and festive Thanksgiving!

I'm outta here, like Michael Richards' career and New Line's IQ!

Zangz.

Scratching That Itch!

I've just arrived home form one heck of a fine and enjoyable evening! It involved some Guinness, a cigar and most importantly the new James Bond flick, Casino Royale!

After the producers over at Eon Productions turned the Bond franchise into a cluster-frack of a mess by unceremoniously ousting one of the best James Bonds since Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, we Bond fans had a major itch we needed scratched. We all heard rumors that they were going to reinvent Bond for the video game generation and get someone much younger. Names like Heath "Cowboy in Love" Ledger and Tom"Couch Jumper" Cruise were rumored to be possible replacements. Horrible images filled our heads as we saw our beloved 40+ year spy movie franchise crumble into fragments of rotting rubble and dust.

After what seemed like years, they finally announced a little known actor, Daniel Craig, as the new James Bond. A lot of Bond fans were repelled by the idea of a blond, shorter and "not as handsome" actor taking on the roll. Add to that the fact they were going to take the continuity of the series and frell it all up by starting the James Bond story all over while it still would take place in modern day times. I had my doubts, but instead of acting like a childish brat and threatening to boycott the movie, I decided to be a bit optimistic and took the "wait and see" point of view. Hey, I of all Bond geeks, understand that the 86ing of Brosnan was quite uncalled for and that he should have done one last Bond movie before they rebooted the series.

Well, I gotta tell you, I saw the movie tonight and must say that those stooges who've decided to boycott the movie are missing out on something quite wonderful. Casino Royale will go down in history as one of the best Bond flicks of all time. For me, it's right up there with Goldfinger and GoldenEye! Craig ROCKS HARD as a rougher, grittier Bond! There's far more characterization of the main characters (something Brosnan was fighting for while they were giving him invisible cars to drive). And the action sequences are less cutesy clever and far more brutal and all out balls to the wall kick-ass!

Let me break it down for you....

The story and plot work well as a way to show us how Bond became the double 0 agent he is. Though there is a little dragging here and there the story is put together well. However, the pace of the movie isn't as smooth as other Bond movies. But for those that have read the Ian Fleming novel, Casino Royale, you'll understand why they paced the movie that way. They tried hard to follow Fleming's novel as best they could while still providing us with something that's worthy of a good action / spy movie for the entertainment factor.

As I've said before, Daniel Craig makes a fine fledgling James Bond. He's far more ruthless and roguish than any other Bond before him. Both him and Connery are the only two Bonds you wouldn't want to find yourself in a bar fight with. With the other guys you'd think that maybe there be the off chance that you could maybe take them. But with Craig, you'd know you'd be in for a serious ass whoopin' followed by a hospital stay. Craig also plays it cool throughout the movie, even though his Bond makes a few mistakes here and there. He's classy yet rough. I'm gald I took the "wait and see" approach with him, otherwise I'd be eating crow like all the nards on the "I Hate Daniel Craig" message boards. I'm hoping he'll do more than the two or three he's contracted to do. And hopefully Eon productions won't treat him the way the treated Brosnan at the sudden end of his tenure.

All the other performances are top notch also. Eva Green (Vesper Lynd) is not only naturally beautiful, she's also got the acting chops to not be another Bong Girl ornamentation. Mads Milkensen is creepy and weasely as the bady, Le Cheifre. Dame Judy Dench is once again wonderful in the role of Bond's superior, M, even if it is a bit of a continuity glitch having her be M again. Not one sole in this movie had a bad performance!

I was quite a bit worried that I wouldn't enjoy this Bond movie when I heard that a lot of the usual trappings of a Bond film were omitted from Casino Royale. I always loved a lot of the gadgets and gizmo's he used in past movies. There's also no Q, no Moneypenny and no opening sequence where we see the white dots float across the screen. But after viewing this movie I understood why. This is Bond's first assignment becoming a double 0 agent. Perhaps we'll see a bit more of the Bond mythos revealed in the next couple of movies. As for the gadgets, there is a bit of techno coolness to this movie, but without the invisible cars, mini-copters and submersible Lotus Esprees.

There's also quite a few cool as frack action sequences that will have you holding on to the edge of your seats. All were excellently executed. I just wish the last big bruahah would have been a bit longer.

There's also a torture sequence that is quite graphic in Fleming's novel and I was surprised to see that they had the balls (pun intended) to actually portray it in the film. (Scratch that itch, buddy!)

Oh, and here's a pretty geeky observation I made. Towards the end of the film Bond is recuperating at some villa in Italy. If you are a die hard Star Wars geek, like myself, you should recognize the setting right away. It's the same place that Anikan Skywalker and Padme Amadalla get hitched at the end of Episode II. GeekGeekGeekGeekGeekGeek!

After the movie me and my friend, Spanky, sat and discussed our love of this movie over a good dark stout and some fine cigars that smoked quite smoothly. Hopefully you'll be hearing the two for us rave over the movie on my next podcast.

All in all, weather your a Bond zealot like myself or just someone who wants to see a great spy thriller, go see Casino Royale. They really did pull it off quite nicely!!!


In other geek news, I saw in the media the release of the new Playstation 3. Once again Sony was pulling the ol' "Lets under ship the amount so we can fail at satisfing everyone at launch time" game which of course created a frenzy. People were camping out days in advance of it's release. In some places there were riots and shootings in the lines waiting for the system. One person in my state got trampled underfoot for crissakes! What idiots! By summer they'll have more than enough of these things on the shelves. On top of that Sony has out priced itself by loading on a hefty price tag of $500 to $600 per system. Youch!

I, myself, am waiting to get my paws on an Xbox360 before I even start to think about purchasing a PS3. So for those of my friends and family that actually read this blog and have a vested interest in my happiness, you may want to band together and make a donation to the "Zangz's Needs a '360 Cause", since Xmas and my B-day are right around the corner. Hinty hint hint!


That's it for now. I'd link up all of this but it's nearly 1am and I still want to get a little snack in before I hit the hay.

Zangz .

Popping in Quickly...

Just popping in to make my usual announcement that there's a new Podcast of mine up at the AZCast.net site. It can be downloaded HERE.

This podisode's about enjoying the three Lord of the Rings movies. Not my best 'cast as I was slightly unprepared due to recovering from a nasty head cold. Hopefully the next one will be far better and less snott filled.


To be brief, here's a couple of points I'd like to catch you all up on.....

- I saw Borat last weekend. It's friggin' hysterical!!! If you go see it, I hope you don't have an aversion to scenes involving male genitalia.

- This Friday is the opening of Casino Royale. Though, it won't be the pulpish romp that I thoroughly enjoyed during the Connery, Moore and Brosnan years, I'm still really looking forward to it and seeing what Craig can bring to the table.

- I still haven't taken all of my Halloween stuff down yet. Consider it an act of defiance upon the upcoming crap-fest that is the holiday season. In reality, it's because I'm quite lazy.

- Lost is off the air until February! What da....? Do networks believe in full seasons any more?


Ok enough of that silliness. Here's another edition of.....

ZANGZ'S WEBSITE OF THE MOMENT

007 Bond Supplement
Here's a near daily update on what is going on in the world of James Bond. Whether it be the books or movies, there's news on it here at this blog-like site. The site master scours the press for anything Bond related, so it's updated quite nicely.

That's all for now. They'll be more general bafoonery later in the week, I assure you.

Zangz.

The Downward Spiral Into the Realm of Dankness Known as the Holiday Season.

Aww poop! Halloween is now done and over with. So, I'm currently coming down off of my spookosity high and it's a real nasty crash, I must tell you. No cold sweats, shakes or vomiting, but a hell of a lot of woefulness. The only things I see ahead of us are overly expensive holidays and a long 6 months of the freezing cold tundra taking over our weather system. This blows!

There's very little to look forward to, with the exception of the next James Bond movie, Casino Royale. Other than that, the holiday season always breaks out the saltiness in me. As I've mentioned before, the holidays always bring out the worst in people, especially the Yuppies. It's always the @#$%! in the BMW who is either moving at a snails pace in front of you or right on your tail behind you. An then when he/she drives by they have their cell phone in their hand without a care in the world.

Let's move on to some other nicer subject before I become all maudlin and snarky, shall we?


The news just broke that the Brothers Walchowskis (who brought us The Matrix and V for Vendetta) will be the ones to bring historic japanimation cartoon, Speed Racer, to the real life big screen. I remember originally Tom Cruise was interested in doing this movie as the title character. Thank god that fell through.

I have very fond memories of being a young lad and coming home from kindergarten and watching that cartoon on the local independent station while eating oatmeal with a boatload of cinnamon and sugar on top of it. I had weird food hang ups as a kid. What can I tell ya?


Sadly, the movie based on the uber popular video game Halo is on indefinite hold for now. Too bad since Peter Jackson was involved as a producer. The movie companies buckled like a bunch of wimps when it came to financing the project.


Speaking of man/god Peter Jackson (The man has a haunted attraction in his own house, thus he is of the god like echelon), there may be, not one, but two movies based on the J.R.R. Tolkein book, "The Hobbit". Please, please, please, please let Peter Jackson have a major power in these films. They shall be shat on form a very great height by us fan boys if he doesn't have some artistic say in how these movies are made. These could be something to really look forward to!


I played a bit through Evil Dead: Regeneration for the Xbox and thought it was quite enjoyable. A lot of the dialog is hysterical and the general creepiness of the settings were quite nice. Sometimes the game got a little frustrating, though. If your a big Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi fan, I truly recommend it. Hopefully, I'll rent it again soon so I can finish it.

On a last note, before I check out the latest episode of Dr. Who, I want you to peruse this cute picture.....



This is a picture of one very happy child that I shall dub Solo Van Halen, son of my best friend, Goof. Ya see, already Solo Van Halen has delusions of his manly prowess as he is happily set all snug between two female newborns. Evidently, he's already plotting his adventures into puberty.


Ok, kiddos. I've got to get something into my system before the good Doctor appears with his buxom sidekick, Rose.

I'll find something to harp about later.

P.S. Look at my last blog entry as I was FINALLY able to upload a nice graphic with it. When I originally tried, Blogspot seemed to be having some issues with uploading pictures.

Zangz.

'Tis the Season.....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I hope the ghoulies, goblins, spooks and spirits helped you all have a wonderfully creepy Halloween season this year. I'm already making plans for next year!

Here are the counts...
Jack-O-lanturns carved: 3
Haunted Houses attended: 5
Octoberfests consumed: too many to count
Paranormal Encounters: none sadly


If you find yourself with little Halloween fun to do this evening, pop yourself open a good Octoberfest lager or a pumpkin ale and head on over to ....

http://www.azcast.net/menu/radio/zangs/zangs100.htm

...where the latest edition of Zangz's Pod of Geekdom Podcast will put you into the spirit as it is the last of a three part series on Halloween and Haunted Attractions!

Enjoy the rest of the holiday! It's one of the few really good ones that we have all year.

Zangz

Crap! It's almost over.

Well folks, were in the last days of my beloved Halloween season. I know, it's sad to say. This fall started out pretty nice with the leaves changing color and the sky being sunny. But, the last few weeks have been unseasonably cold and rainy. This has put a big damper on the season of the dead.

But, there are a few Halloween-esqe things for me to still look forward to.

#1. I'm off tomorrow! Whoo-hoo!
#2. I'm going out tomorrow night to see the psycho-billy band Pychomania play a show.
#3. Though, my friends are completely sick of having to be dragged to local Haunted Attractions, we're still going to celebrate the season on Saturday with a huge inflatable haunted house for youngin's to play around in while we all drink and feast completely ignoring their futile screams of terror as the house deflates on top of them. Good times...good times.
#4. A pumpkin carving party on Sunday night!
#5. Diner at my sisters while watching a good ol' Hammer Horror movie. Can you believe that my sister (who is void of any sense of geekiness) is into the Hammer Horror movies more than I am. Jeeze, I need to catch up!

I also think that I shall indulge in a bit of Halloween movie watching tomorrow. I think Sleepy Hollow and The Others will be on the bill. Perhaps even The Haunting may make it's way to my DVD player if I'm feeling that kitschy tomorrow. We'll see.

After that it's all downhill with the crappy holiday season. Bah Humbug, Bah Humbug and Bah FRACKIN' Humbug!

Oh yes. I'll warn you all now that another wonderful episode of Zangz's Pod of Geekdom should be up this coming Monday evening. It is the last of the Haunted Attraction/Halloween shows and once again features my good friend and fiend, Dr. Roberto Del Amorte! So check it out, won't you?

I finally got to see the video game based movie Silent Hill. I have to give props to the production designers as the first part of the movie really captured the feel of the video games quite wonderfully. It was the plot and story line that went south as the movie ran on. It's not a total waste if you're a fan of the video games and the Horror genre in general. There is some really creepy imagery in this as there is in the video game. It's also cool that Sean Bean has a bit role in this movie.

I'm still a bit peeved that I have yet to see any real excellent and imaginative Halloween displays or yard haunts out there this year. There's a lot of cutesy crap up, but no huge gothic graveyard with rotting corpses rising from the grave. Sigh. I guess my home town is void of any sense of imagination.

What am I listening to right now, you ask? Well, I'm still in the Halloween mood so it's Wednesday 13's "Transylvania 90210, Songs of Death, Dying and the Dead"". A fun little rocker that's sounds like Alice Cooper on acid. It's nice to know that the whole grunge scene didn't kill off the creativity and imagination of Rock'N'Roll like it almost did. Check them out, won't you?

I think that that's about it for this evening. I may pop in once more during the Halloween season. Or, I may not. Who knows at this point.

Until next time, life's a grave... Dig it!

Zangz.

Another Haunting Podcast!

Yep. A new podcast is up at Zangz's Pod of Geekdom, and this one is part 2 in a 3 part Halloween series that focuses on Haunted Attractions. This time around I have my fellow haunt buddy, Roberto DelAmorte, with me as I ramble on about haunts that we've visited in past Halloween seasons. So, by all means, check it out. You can download it either flash, MP3 or iTune. And you can find it right HERE.


In other quick news, a group of us haunt fans traveled over hill and dell to find some killer haunts. First we checked out the return of Terror on Rural Street. In a nutshell, this haunt was pretty good with a really creepy facade, some good art direction and a few good scares. I'm not sure that is was as good as it has been in years past, probably due to the fact that it just overcame a huge legal battle and a last minute "go a head" to proceed. But it was still worth the visit!!!

Then we creepedt our way over to the Meadowbrook Farm's Haunted Cornmaze Adventure. Even though it was really friggin' cold, we still had a great time traversing the huge stalks and constantly running into creepy tableau's during our half our journey. The pirate ship was a highlight. However, some of the set ups our getting a little old. But I still marvel at the amount of hand made props and the length of the attraction.

The next evening we headed up to Green Bay to visit Terror on the Fox. We'd heard quite a few ravings about this place and were excited to finally get to see it. Let me tell you, this was the
most visually intricate haunt we visited this year and in a very long time! From the facade to the cave dwellings inside, the artistry that is put into the sets out rank the mass majority of local haunts I've ever visited. The only major complaint was that it was a little on the short side. I was trying to pace myself so I could see all the incredible sets and props, but it still seemed to be over just as things were getting started.

I'm hoping Roberto and I will get a chance to babble about it in the next Podcast of Geekdom which will be the last of the 3 part Halloween/Haunted Attraction series.


I'm taking a sabbatical this weekend, so sorry kids, no haunts this week. But, I'm hoping to do something Halloweenesqe by the end of this month. So we'll see what we can do and let you know about it.

Until next time, make sure you do something spooky this week!

Zangz.

Flakes of the Dead!

Ungodly, I tell you!!!! A basephemy and a pox upon the season, it is!!!! What I saw and bore witness to as I left work today was the truest of proofs that there is no god and that Mother Nature is a sadistic wench, indeed! Flakes of snow flew around my head at a time where we should still be bathing in the beauty of Autumnal bliss. At the very least we have yet to be cursed with the snow actually accumulating. But, after listening to the local media within the last few days, you'd think that the artic glaciers themselves were moving toward my hometown.

Bleh....

Well there are a few things to look forward to this weekend. I'll be visiting some excellent Haunted Attractions this weekend. First, tomorrow night, a bunch of us will be visiting an old favorite that was shut down last year due to an ugly legal battle that I mentioned here on the Blog of Geekdom. Terror on Rural Street has reopened its doors this season and I'll be fracked if we don't go up and pay the ghouls and spirits there a visit. From there it will either be a visit to the Meadowbrook Haunted Corn Maze, pending we're not in blizzard mode, if so then we head to the Hartford JC's Haunted House.

Saturday is also quite an adventure.... OF THE DEAD! We spook hunters will be making a pilgrimage to one of the 10 best Haunted Attractions of recent years in North America. Not far from the home of the Green Bay (Can we actually lose any more games this season?) Packers is a place filled with so much darkness that few can utter it's name... Terror on the Fox! This baby was voted one of the 10 best haunts to visit during Halloween season and has been featured on Nikolodeon as well as Haunted Attraction Magazine.

Next week, I'll let you all know how it goes down. So keep an eye out.

Last weekend we visited our first haunts of the season. Three in one night, actually. The Lindner pumpkin farm provided us with both The Corn and Scream Reapers. We went through the haunted house (Scream Reapers) first. I was pretty impressed. Though there was no cool facade to the place (it was held in a big white tent), you could tell that there was a lot of work put into the detail of the rooms. A lot of creepy imagery was implemented to give you that feel of being in an old dilapidated house. One room was a huge gallery of spooky old photos that just gave you the creeps. Pretty chilling. The length was pretty decent also, as it felt like a good 20 minutes or so. There were a lot of rooms to go through. The actors were pretty good, though, a few of them were either caught off guard or gave us the slightly empty and flat, "Rarrrr" which scares no one. But, I was pleasantly surprised with what the Scream Reapers attraction delivered.

The Corn was a different ball of wax. The first haunted corn maze I ever went to was the Lindner farm before they dubbed it The Corn. Back then, there was no haunted house, just a huge corn maze that had a simplicity that lent itself to quite a few unexpected scares. Unfortunatley they have since shortened it and have subtracted many actors form it's arrey of spooks and ghouls that would wait in the corn for us hapless victims. Even though there were a few times we jumped when the dead would pop out at us, there was far more corn than there was ghosties. I was hoping for something more like the way it used to be. It was an ok effort though. I guess I liked the Scream Reapers haunted house quite a bit better. The Corn was a bit anti-climatic.

The other Haunt we visited was the Bear Den Haunted Woods. We first visited a couple of years ago and then it was one of our favorite haunts. A real sleeper attraction that got it's popularity through word of mouth. It doesn't rely on huge effects or animatronics, but what it does have is a real rustic feel to it. Kind of a Texas Chainsaw massacre flavor is embibbed into it, whether it's meant to or not. The woods are filled with ramshackle shacks that visitors are forced to crawl, creep or traverse through. Most of these dwellings have dead bodies and the undead to occupy your visit there. Other features are a trip in an actual hearse (where my friend Iris Von Beaverhousen molested me), a creaky rope bridge, something that flew over me that made me nearly wet my pants, many bon fires, ramps, mud, and a disturbed young girl... in a cage... tearing appart stuffed animals. Creeeeeeepy. Another good showing from the people at the Bear Den Zoo. I only wish they could make it a bit different from years past. It tends to get a bit repetitive from year to year.

Me and my good friend Roberto DelAmorte will hopefully go into more detail of our visits to these haunts in the next Zangz's Pod of Geekdom.


I'll be back soon with more musings on the wonderful season of Halloween and it's living dead that wander about and watch you from afar when you think you're alone. Are you alone right now? Take a look around the room you're in. There's something dead in there watching you as you read this. Maybe you can't see it, but it sees you! I shat you not! Don't you feel it? No? Well, maybe it will appear to you when you to go to sleep tonight. Brahahahahaah......

Pleasant dreams, SUCKA'S!!!

Zangz.

Where are all the Undead in the Front Yards?!

Ahhhhh.... The Season of the Dead is kicking off quite splendidly! Just last night I recorded my second Pod of Geekdom, with my special guest, Roberto DelAmorte, on the subject of Haunted Attractions as well as other spooky stuff. Then tonight there are plans to explore a Haunted Corn maze, a Haunted House AND a Haunted Trial! Add to that the fact that moon shall shine brightly this evening! We'll surly be tempting the living dead and lost souls this evening. Bruahahahaha.....


And speaking of the Halloween season, one thing a love to see around this time of year are the wonderful and creative yard haunts that pop up all over the nation. Sadly, within the last few years, good yard decoration sightings have been slim to none around my neck of the woods. Either people are becoming less and less creative and imaginative or perhaps people are afraid of what the neighbors will think. Either way, this town needs a good Halloween filled enema to flush out the mediorcre mentality.

On my ride to and from work, I pass plenty of houses that could do a wonderful job of putting up some undead fun in their front yard to give trick-or-treeters, or passers by, a good laugh or scare. If you're not sure as to what I'm babbling on about, I'll spell it out for you. In years past, during Halloween season, I'd tool around the local neighborhoods and always come across at least two or three front yards where the home owner would put up a fake graveyard with ghosts and ghouls and all sorts of cool spooky stuff. So far this year, I've seen bupkiss, nada, zero, zilch. The coolest thing I've seen so far this year is a circle of ghosts standing around a tree. That's all.

Where are the haunted graveyards with corpses coming out of the ground? Where are the homes with fake facades to look like a castle, or a haunted house? Where are the multitudes of grim grinning Jack-O-Lanterns? Nowhere, I guess. Has something evil come over the neighborhoods of my town and sucked all the imagination out of the brains of the local yard haunters? What's going on?
Perhaps they need to step back in time and remember an era where the yard haunt was a thing of dark beauty to treasure. I can recall a huge yard haunt not too far from where I lived. The front of the house had a fake facade that looked like an old gothic castle. Within it's front door, there was the head of a giant, animatronic dragon that would interact and talk to those that visited at night. That's not all, there was a dangling corpse hung from a tree, a giant spider that would jump out at visitors as well as an undead soul rising from the grave. I haven't seen that set up in a few years.

Then there was an entire street on the southwest side of my town where most of the neighbors put on an entire avenue of terror where nearly every other house had some big Halloween display or yard haunt. I believe it was called something like, Halloween Hollow or something similar. I remember there was one front yard there that had a couple of hearses set up and some "dummies" of ghouls standing in front of them. When spectators would move in for a closer look, the dummy would suddenly reveal itself to be alive and jump forward. This would cause a lot of underwear to be stained. This was over a decade ago and, as memory serves, I believe that salty, soul less neighbors, along with a few corrupt law makers and ignorant local aldermen, put the old "We Hate Everything Good and Fun" keebosh on the whole haunted block party. Sons of beeeeotches!

When I was a young lad, I'd usually do up my family's front yard to look like a small grave yard during the trick-or-treat hours.. The very early incarnations of it were pretty pathetic with cardboard cut out monsters and bright white foam gravestones. But, over the years it got slightly more sophisticated with dummies that had cool corpse masks for heads coming up out of the ground. The gravestones got a decent paint job with spooky inscriptions on them. Spooky music would come out of a hidden boom-box. I'd always try and do a little something. How could I not?

And that's the question running through my mind. There are a lot of creative people out there who love Halloween. Where are they and what are they doing to their front yards this year? C'mon, people! Let's get the undead party started already!!!!!


Hey, expect some reviews of the Haunts I go to tonight being posted here soon. Also listen for the next Zangz's Pod of Geekdom (now with a Flashplayer option!) to be posted within a week or so. It features more on Haunted Attractions PLUS a special guest. One of my Haunt-going friends, Roberto DelAmorte!

Until next time, "There coming to get you, Barbara."

Zangz.

Podcast of the DEAD!

Hey, I nearly forgot to tell you all that my 3rd Pod of Geekdom is up and running. You can download it HERE! This 'cast is the first in a 3 part Halloween inspired series that focuses on Haunted Attractions from the perspective of a fan and patron of many of them.


In other geek-o-rific news, tonight was a great night for TV! First of all, we had the premier of the 3rd season of the wonderful mind-frell of a show, LOST. More answers and more questions. Gotta love it. Then after that I caught a bit of the newest episode of South Park that was soley dedicated to the massive multiplayer on-line role playing game, World of Warcraft!

Though I've never gotten a chance to play the game I've heard many stories about it. It looks as though those South Park people have the game and its players pegged! Quite hilarious! Ok, then. I'll return here later in the week for more stories of Halloween chills and thrills. So stay tuned.

Zangz.