and now the screaming starts

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Saturday, 6 November 2010

Books: "And right away, I was scared. We were all scared."

Posted on 08:41 by riya
In his new book, The Lampshade, journalist Mark Jacobson investigates the origins of lampshade made out of human skin: a lampshade that was purchased for $35 at a yard sale in New Orleans and may be one of the infamous lampshades that Ilsa Koch (inspiration for Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS) allegedly constructed for her husband out of the skin of Jews slain in Buchenwald. The majority of Jacobson's investigation focuses on the possibility that this grisly artifact was a product of the Holocaust, but he also investigates the possibility that it might be a native product of New Orleans voodoo culture. From gallery owner and "biological and transgressive" artist - meaning he makes art out of biological matter, including parts of humans left over from medical dissections and autopsies - Andy Antippas, Jacobson learns about the Ekoi, "a warlike culture from Nigeria known for painting large, flowery murals and making giant masks, often from human skin."

Armed with slender lead, Jacobson searches database of the Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy Project, which contains digital records of the French slavers that trafficked Africans through the bustling slave auctions of Louisiana from 1719 to 1820. He finds a record of just two Ekoi slaves sold at auction in New Orleans. One, a woman named Felix, was sold for $430 in 1792. The extensive records the French slavers kept contained the following comment on the sale: "Woman is pregnant."

Oddly, the name links with a story Jacobson heard from New Orleans music legend Dr. John. According to the good doctor, a Creole regular at the Saturn bar was a voodoo practitioner of sorts and he was well-known for making masks out of human skin. "Slip them right over your head, " Dr. John tells Jacobson. "Give yourself a whole new face." This strange character's name is, curiously enough, Cheeky Felix.

Could Cheeky Felix be the great-times-ten grandson of the slave woman Felix? Was there some bizarre family tradition of Ekoi flesh-mask making that was passed down from generation to generation for nearly three centuries? Jacobson's curious, if not totally sold, and he attempts to find Cheeky Felix. Dr. John tells him that the Neville brothers - yeah, believe it or not, the Neville "the Meters" brothers - might know where Cheeky Felix is.

This turns out to be a dead end for Jacboson. The Neville brothers are apparently not big flesh-mask types. But Jacobson's interview, in which the brothers Neville discuss New Orleans urban legends and the strange role horror cinema played in segregated New Orleans, leads to a surreal appearance by ANTSS's favorite monster: the Gill-man from the Black Lagoon. Here's Jacobson:

I gave Cyril the short version of the lampshade story and he was interested but again insisted that he had little to add. "Well," he finally allowed, "there was the Gown Man. If our mother wanted to keep us home, she'd tell us about the Gown Man. He was this big white guy in a hospital gown, and he'd snatch you off the street, put you under his arm, and take you over to the dissection room at Tulane University medical school. They'd pull of your skin and you'd get chopped up by medical students, practicing their autopsies."

"They had the Needle Man, too. Supposed to shove a six-inch needle in your eye, suck your brain right out from the socket," Aaron Neville chimed in.

Showtime was approaching and Cyril looked about ready to say good-bye when he said, "There is this one thing. Don't know if it helps you or not, but when we were kids our parents used to send us to this Boy Scout camp y the Lake. We'd play ball and that, but on Wednesdays we went to the movies because that's the day they set aside for black people to go to the movies.

"They always showed these horror movies, like Attack of the Crab People. Creature from the Black Lagoon. The usual shit, trying to scare us, but the movies were so corny, we'd just laugh. Then there was this one time the movie came on and you could tell from the first second this wasn't going to be the same old thing. The film was all messed-up-looking, with these scratches in it. At first you didn't see anything. It looked overexposed. Then you saw these people coming out of what looked like a giant hole. These skinny, skinny people, their eyes sunk deep inside their head. They were wearing what looked like striped pajamas. They showed these dead bodies, stacked up. And right away, I was scared. We were all scared. Because we knew this wasn't something fake. It was real. Remember that Aaron?"

He nodded.

"Then they had these other people, marching by. And I think I saw that thing you're talking about - a lampshade they said was made of human skin. That was really scary."

"You're talking about footage from Buchenwald. The Buchenwald concentration camp," I said.

"Some concentration camp, that was for sure," Cyril answered. "Long as I live I'll never forget those pictures. Give me the chills thinking about it even now. Because there are two things about seeing that movie that have always stayed with me.

"First of all, I couldn't believe white people would do that to other white people. But even more than that was the question about why they picked that particular Wednesday to show that particular movie to us - the kind of message they were trying to send."
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to Facebook
Posted in books, Jacobson, lampshade, Nazi, neville, voodoo | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Art: It's a gasser!
    Not so long ago, the fine gentleman behind When Is Evil Cool? posted an image of a small crowd of English bobbies in gas masks. I commented...
  • Meta: Awards season.
    Seems like everybody is giving everybody awards these days. And, as living proof that surplus drives down value, even I've received one!...
  • Movies: Fangbanging in the BK.
    Brooklyn's own BAMcinématek has come up with a pretty good alternative to roasting outdoors and sweating your way through the dregs of t...
  • Movies: There's two sides to every global nuclear holocaust.
    This week marks the anniversary of the first record death by robot. On January 25, 1979, Flat Rock, Michigan, autoworker Robert Williams was...
  • Meta: Watch us pull an upset!
    Screamer, Screamettes, and the curious passersby, lend me your ears! Long time readers have probably figured out that I'm not a big ...
  • (no title)
    Neo-folkie Madeline - who was not, I think, named after one of the cats I grew up with, but I like to pretend that she was - has a video tha...
  • Stuff: The Jess List
    In my review of I Sell the Dead , I mentioned that my wife generally hates horror films. When she doesn't find them boring, she finds th...
  • Movies: I want to play a game, Part 3 - Don't everybody all volunteer at once.
    In this last post on what game theory can teach us about the Saw franchise, we're going to cover traps that involve three or more playe...
  • Movies: The second worst thing Bin Laden has ever done to us?
    What hath Kickstarter wrought? It's possible that you were tiring of the zombie craze. Perhaps you've got no more energy for a fast ...
  • Link Proliferation: "To join a cuib, an initiate had to suck the blood from self-imposed slashes in the arm of every other member of the nest."
    I totally flaked on this last Friday, but I meant to hip you to a great post by Zoe, the amazing blogger of the high strangeness that is Zo...

Categories

  • 10 Rillington Place
  • 16 horsepower
  • 2001 Maniacs
  • 2012
  • 2UN
  • a dark matter
  • a reliable wife
  • A-bones
  • abby
  • abrams
  • abu tubar
  • ackerman
  • ackroyd
  • aesop rock
  • africa
  • after dark films
  • Aja
  • aliens
  • all american werewolves
  • Alligator
  • alvin sputnik under sea explorer
  • american psycho
  • american werewolf in london
  • amish
  • anatomy of fear
  • anderson
  • animation
  • antosca
  • apocalypse
  • area 51
  • Argento
  • art
  • arthur
  • as in free you cheap bastards
  • Attenborough
  • Attery Squash
  • Audition
  • audrey's door
  • austen
  • Avatar
  • award
  • Aykroyd
  • babysitter wanted
  • Bacall
  • bacon
  • bad dog
  • baget
  • Balaguero
  • ball peen hammer
  • bara
  • Barker
  • barnes
  • bateman
  • bathory
  • bats
  • Battle Royale
  • Battle Royale 2
  • bauhaus
  • Bava
  • bear in heaven
  • Beatles
  • bed bugs
  • bedbugs
  • bergen street comics
  • Big Alligator River
  • bigfoot
  • bilal
  • biology
  • bitch slap
  • black death
  • black heart procession
  • black history month
  • black moth super rainbow
  • black swan
  • Blackhawk
  • blacula
  • Blitzen Trapper
  • blood creek
  • blood monkey
  • bonnie and clyde versus dracula
  • books
  • Bowie
  • boy detective
  • bradbury
  • breathers
  • Brooklyn
  • Brooklyn Industries
  • brooks
  • Browning
  • Burroughs
  • Burton
  • cabin fever 2 spring fever
  • cabinet of dr. caligari
  • cabrini-green
  • cadence weapon
  • cameron
  • Canada
  • candyman
  • Cannibal Holocaust
  • cannibals
  • captain chaos
  • captivity
  • Carpenter
  • Carroll
  • carter
  • casebook of victor frankenstein
  • castle
  • Castle in Transyvania
  • Castle of the Devil
  • cave
  • Chaney
  • children of the corn
  • chilton
  • chinsang
  • CIA
  • civil war
  • clair
  • clark
  • class of 1984
  • class of 1999
  • clothes
  • Cloverfield
  • cody
  • Cohen
  • combat garters
  • comics
  • Coney Island
  • contest
  • cooper
  • Corman
  • cornered
  • cornish
  • Count Chocula
  • courtesans
  • crap
  • Craven
  • crawford
  • crazy ray
  • creature feature
  • Creature from the Black Lagoon
  • creepy old people
  • crocodile
  • crosley
  • crothers
  • crowley
  • cryptids
  • Cthulhu
  • Cunningham
  • curtis
  • cuthbert
  • D and D
  • d-war
  • Dante
  • danzig
  • Darabont
  • darbont
  • Dark Horse
  • darnielle
  • david
  • dawn of the dead
  • de Védrines
  • Dead Alive
  • deadgirl
  • death ship
  • debbie gibson
  • deed
  • del Toro
  • deluise
  • demon
  • Department of Crazy Crap You Didn't Even Know You Had to Fear
  • depp
  • descent
  • descent 2
  • devil
  • Devo
  • dexter
  • dexter by design
  • dexter is delicious
  • diablo swing orchestra
  • Diary of the Dead
  • dinosaurs
  • documentary
  • doghouse
  • dolphin people
  • dougherty
  • douglas
  • dowdle
  • Dracula
  • Dracula 3000
  • dracula pages from a virgins diary
  • drag me to hell
  • dragons
  • drive-by truckers
  • dungeons and dragons
  • Ebert
  • economics
  • eel
  • el-hai
  • el-p
  • elliott
  • ellis
  • Elvira
  • emerson
  • endo is the bomb
  • evenson
  • evil children
  • evil corporations
  • evil mind museum
  • Exorcist
  • famous monsters of filmland
  • fanaka
  • fashion
  • fear response
  • feminine hygiene
  • ferguson
  • fessenden
  • fever ray
  • fillbach brothers
  • Fleischer
  • flimes
  • food
  • fox
  • francis
  • Franco
  • Frankenberry
  • Frankenstein
  • freaks
  • free stuff
  • Freud
  • freund
  • Friday the 13th
  • fright night
  • from here to eternity
  • Frontier(s)
  • fugue state
  • Fukasaku
  • funerals
  • furlong
  • future of the left
  • Gaiman
  • ganja and hess
  • gas masks
  • gay for johnny depp
  • gay marriage
  • gein
  • genie
  • george washington
  • Ghastly Ones
  • ghost
  • Ghostbusters
  • Ghoul a-Go-Go
  • GI Joe
  • giant monster
  • giant robots
  • gibson
  • Gierasch
  • girly
  • gladfelter
  • glass
  • glover
  • Godzilla
  • Godzilla Raids Again
  • goolrick
  • gorsuch
  • goth
  • gothic
  • grace
  • Grahame-Smith
  • grant
  • Greutert
  • grier
  • grover
  • guest blogger
  • guitar wolf
  • gunn
  • guru
  • guttenberg
  • ha ha tonka
  • Hall
  • halloween
  • hallucinations
  • handsome furs
  • Harel
  • Haring
  • harmon
  • harold and the purple crayon
  • harpes
  • harpoon
  • harrington
  • harryhausen
  • hauer
  • haunt of fear
  • haunted house ride
  • haunted spooks
  • haunted vagina
  • hayward
  • Hellraiser
  • Henseigh
  • hickenlooper
  • high plains invaders
  • high tension
  • Hill
  • Hills Have Eyes 2
  • history
  • hitcher
  • hoax
  • hodag
  • Homecoming
  • Hooper
  • Horn
  • horns
  • Hostel
  • Hostel 2
  • houdini
  • hough
  • house of silent scream
  • house of the devil
  • howard
  • howell
  • hunchback of notre dame
  • Hurt
  • hypnosis
  • I Am Legend
  • I Love Horror
  • i sell the dead
  • i walked with a zombie
  • imp of the perverse
  • improv everywhere
  • Inglourious Basterds
  • insects
  • inside
  • iraq
  • J-horror
  • jack the ripper
  • Jackson
  • Jacobson
  • Jaws
  • jennifers body
  • jigsaw
  • jim carroll
  • joffe
  • johnson
  • Jonah Hex
  • Jones
  • joy division
  • Jung
  • kafka
  • keach
  • kemp
  • kidman
  • Killenger
  • kim
  • King
  • King Kong
  • Kitamura
  • kraken
  • krol
  • kubba
  • kubrick
  • kusama
  • laid to rest
  • lake mungo
  • lampshade
  • land
  • landis
  • Lang
  • Langan
  • Lansdale
  • Last House on the Left
  • Last Winter
  • laugier
  • laymon
  • League of Tana Tea Drinkers
  • lecter
  • led zepplin
  • lee
  • legend of hell house
  • lennon
  • lester
  • let the right one in
  • Lewis
  • lindsay
  • link
  • link proliferation
  • liquid television
  • lliadis
  • lloyd
  • local natives
  • loch ness
  • London
  • London After Midnight
  • Lovecraft
  • lucha
  • mabuse the gambler
  • mad science
  • mad science; hunger; hentges; cannibals
  • maddin
  • magazine
  • magic
  • manasseri
  • manson
  • marebito
  • Mareva
  • Martino
  • martyrs
  • Marvel
  • masque of the red death
  • Mastandrea
  • Masters of Horror
  • mata hari
  • math
  • Matheson
  • maze
  • mcdowell
  • McEwen
  • mcgee
  • mclaren
  • mcquiad
  • medak
  • medean events
  • mega shark versus giant octopus
  • melville
  • mermaid heather
  • meta
  • meteor
  • metropolis
  • Meyer
  • Meyers
  • michael jackson
  • midnight meat train
  • midnight picnic
  • Miéville
  • miike
  • Miss Bugs
  • miss derringer
  • mixel pixel
  • monae
  • money
  • mongolian death worm
  • monkeys
  • monster mash
  • monster squad
  • monte
  • Moore
  • moreland
  • morrison
  • Morrow
  • movie
  • movie news
  • movie posters
  • movies
  • Mulholland
  • Mum and Dad
  • Mummies
  • mummy
  • murakami
  • murderabilia
  • Murnau
  • murphy
  • museum of death
  • music
  • My Barbarian
  • My Bloody Valentine
  • myrick
  • mystery team
  • nanotech
  • Nazi
  • Neanderthal
  • Neanderthals
  • neville
  • news
  • nick cave and the bad seeds
  • night of the demons
  • night of the living dead
  • Nightmare on Elm Street
  • nightmares
  • Nightwatch
  • nine inch nails
  • ninjas
  • Noe
  • nosferatu
  • nova
  • noxon
  • numan
  • NYC Comic Con
  • o'connor
  • obama
  • obamacare
  • Offspring
  • Opera
  • Ott
  • outbreak horror
  • outpost
  • over there
  • paranormal activity
  • park
  • parker
  • peli
  • pengin homosexuality
  • perlman
  • petty
  • Peyo
  • phifer
  • pigeons from hell
  • pink noise
  • piranha
  • pirates
  • pissing blood
  • plague
  • plan 9 from outer space
  • planet of the vampires
  • play
  • Plaza
  • plimptons
  • plum island
  • Plumtree
  • pod cast
  • Poe
  • poetry
  • porter
  • predator
  • predator 2
  • prehistory
  • pride and prejudice and zombies
  • Primeval
  • psychic
  • pulp fiction
  • punishment park
  • pym
  • quarantine
  • radio horror
  • raimi
  • randian
  • random picture
  • rapp
  • raw meat
  • real estate
  • rec
  • red dawn
  • red sands
  • red. del toro
  • religion
  • renfroe
  • rescued from an eagles nest
  • resident evil
  • reynolds
  • reznor
  • richards
  • rines
  • Ring
  • Ring II
  • RIP
  • ripley's believe or not
  • rival schools
  • Rob Zombie
  • robots
  • Rodriguez
  • romance novels
  • Romero
  • rose
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead
  • Roth
  • run for your lives
  • RZA
  • sagoes
  • sala
  • sales
  • sand serpents
  • Sandman
  • santa muerte
  • santigold
  • Santo
  • Santo and the Border of Terror
  • Sariento
  • Sasquatch
  • satanism
  • Saw
  • saw 3D
  • saw 6
  • schorr
  • schrader
  • schumacher
  • sci-fi
  • scream
  • Screamin' Lord Sutch
  • scrotum
  • sea monster
  • sea wolf
  • seabrook
  • sendak
  • serial killers
  • Serrador
  • sex
  • sex pistols
  • shady
  • Shambling Towards Hiroshima
  • shark
  • sharktopus
  • Shimizu
  • shower
  • shutter island
  • Shwarzenegger
  • silence of the lambs
  • silent film
  • silent scream series
  • Simmons
  • sims
  • siouxsie and the banshees
  • Siouxsie Sioux
  • six string samurai
  • skeletons
  • skeptic
  • slang
  • slasher
  • slashers
  • Smith
  • smurfs
  • snuff
  • solet
  • solomon
  • Solomon Kane
  • Sondheim
  • soule
  • Southern Gothic
  • speed
  • Spotnicks
  • springsteen
  • stelarc
  • stewart
  • stick figure theater
  • Stine
  • stink ape
  • stocker
  • stockwell
  • stoker
  • strahm
  • straub
  • Stuff
  • Suicide Girls Must Die
  • sullivan
  • super 8
  • surf rock
  • survival of the dead
  • sweat
  • Sweeney Todd
  • t-shirts
  • Takami
  • Takeuchi
  • Tarantino
  • television
  • terminator
  • terri
  • Texas Chainsaw Massacre
  • the blaft anthology of tamil pulp fiction
  • the burrowers
  • the butcher
  • the cramps
  • the devil's daughter
  • the final
  • the fright biz
  • The Great Slasher Research Project of '10
  • the hills run red
  • the impaler
  • the mist
  • the new kids
  • The Number: 73304-23-4153-6-96-8
  • the objective
  • the roberts
  • The Ruins
  • the sadist
  • the screwfly solution
  • the shining
  • the South will sit tight again
  • the sprites
  • The Thing
  • the ugly
  • the walking dead
  • the washingtonians
  • the woods are dark
  • them
  • these united states
  • Thirst
  • tiger
  • time travel
  • to kill a mockingbird
  • torture
  • torture porn
  • Tourneur
  • Toxic Avenger
  • triangle
  • trick r treat
  • trigger man
  • troggs
  • troop
  • tru blood
  • true blood
  • true crime
  • true horror stories
  • turistas
  • Turner
  • Twilight
  • Unbelievable
  • uncanny
  • Uncle Strangley's Dark Mansion of Big Crap Scares
  • under-utilized nightmares
  • Unity Post
  • vamp
  • vampire
  • verne
  • Ving Rhames for Secretary of Pussy
  • vonnegut
  • voodoo
  • watchmen
  • waters
  • watt
  • we will bury you
  • welcome home brother charles
  • welcome to the jungle
  • weller
  • wereshark
  • werewolf
  • werewolves on the moon versus vampires
  • west
  • what horror movie are we today
  • where the wild things are
  • white
  • white denim
  • who can kill a child
  • wild zero
  • Williams
  • winters
  • witches
  • women in prison
  • won
  • woolite
  • World War Z
  • wrestlemaniac
  • wright
  • wrightson
  • x-mas
  • yeah yeah yeahs
  • yeti
  • you say party we say die
  • young
  • yuck
  • zombie strippers
  • zombie survival guide recorded attacks
  • zombieland
  • zombies

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (1)
    • ►  January (1)
  • ►  2012 (5)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  February (1)
  • ►  2011 (53)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  October (4)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (7)
    • ►  June (5)
    • ►  April (4)
    • ►  March (11)
    • ►  February (8)
    • ►  January (5)
  • ▼  2010 (172)
    • ►  December (4)
    • ▼  November (6)
      • Mad science: Body disposal pro tip.
      • Movies: Could Obamacare have prevented the Jigsaw ...
      • Television: "Your inner monologue is the conscienc...
      • Stuff: Don't ask me, I just roam here.
      • Books: "And right away, I was scared. We were all ...
      • Movies: Downward spiral.
    • ►  October (11)
    • ►  September (7)
    • ►  August (12)
    • ►  July (14)
    • ►  June (16)
    • ►  May (20)
    • ►  April (20)
    • ►  March (14)
    • ►  February (27)
    • ►  January (21)
  • ►  2009 (269)
    • ►  December (17)
    • ►  November (21)
    • ►  October (28)
    • ►  September (26)
    • ►  August (33)
    • ►  July (23)
    • ►  June (23)
    • ►  May (28)
    • ►  April (31)
    • ►  March (27)
    • ►  February (12)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

riya
View my complete profile