As much as I hate to Collins out on you and whore my other web projects here, there's now officially a Tumblr annex to the ol' And Now the Screaming Starts. For folks who dig on ANTSS, but find it a bit trying on the attention span, management is proud to introduce Uncle Strangely's Dark Mansion of Big Crap Scares. It's ANTSS without all the jibber-jabber. It is not a replacement for ANTSS, but a supplement. Think of it as ANTSS that forgot to take it's medication, so it's now all fidgety like.
Showing posts with label meta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meta. Show all posts
Monday, 18 July 2011
As much as I hate to Collins out on you and whore my other web projects here, there's now officially a Tumblr annex to the ol' And Now the Screaming Starts. For folks who dig on ANTSS, but find it a bit trying on the attention span, management is proud to introduce Uncle Strangely's Dark Mansion of Big Crap Scares. It's ANTSS without all the jibber-jabber. It is not a replacement for ANTSS, but a supplement. Think of it as ANTSS that forgot to take it's medication, so it's now all fidgety like.Thursday, 17 June 2010
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
You might have theorized that the reason I hide my face behind a mask and communicate almost entirely through the written word is that my face is horribly mutated and my voice sounds like the churning of a million blood-gorged insects attempting to free themselves from a vat of semi-congealed KY jelly.
You can test half of your conjecture by clicking over to I Love Horror and listening to his inaugural Horror Round Table pod cast.
That's right, CRwM speaks! And speaks! And speaks some more!
The lovely and talented Brad, of I Love Horror, invited the lovely and talented Vardulon, of Castle Vardulon, and the lovely and talented Divemistress, of Zombots, (see the sidebar for all magical links to all this talented loveliness) to discuss the state of horror, remake madness, sexism in horror, and other topics.
And then Brad added me. Was it a mistake? Or did Brad do it to the Internet on purpose? You'll have to listen to find out.
In the interest of full disclosure, I was not actually sitting at a round table. In that sense, the title of the pod cast is deceptive and I apologize for that in advance.
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
So Mr. McHargue, of I Love Horror (see the sidebar for linking action) fame, apparently really digs on the blog. So much, he was even willing to face near universal public humiliation by publicly proclaiming his love over at Horror Squad. Seriously:
One of the first blogs I came across when I decided to start my own, ANTSS has remained, at least for me, the standard of excellence among horror bloggers.
That's a man kiss!
Thanks Brad and to any new friends who may have found the blog through his kind write up. I'll keep chugging along and, hopefully, I can keep it all interesting for y'all.
One of the first blogs I came across when I decided to start my own, ANTSS has remained, at least for me, the standard of excellence among horror bloggers.
That's a man kiss!
Thanks Brad and to any new friends who may have found the blog through his kind write up. I'll keep chugging along and, hopefully, I can keep it all interesting for y'all.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Seems like everybody is giving everybody awards these days. And, as living proof that surplus drives down value, even I've received one! That's right, loyal Screamers and Screamettes, horror blogger and nifty person Sarah, of the blog Scare Sarah, has awarded your humble horror host with the Kreativ Blogger award.Regular readers know that I generally don't get into the meme-award thing, but it seems like everybody's having a grand old time with these things lately and it's been some time since I've shouted out to some of the blogs I dig, so away we go.
First, I've gathered that I'm supposed to tell you seven interesting things about myself. I promise you that I can definitely tell you seven things about me. Whether they're interesting or not, well . . .
Thing the One:
I have this fantasy in which I go back to sixth-grade, but fully possessed of everything I know and have learned up to this point in my life. I know that I should use this foreknowledge to fight injustice, stop 9/11, and head off the AIDS crisis - but what I honestly imagine doing is learning guitar and preemptively stealing every song that I ever dug and condensing several decades of musical awesomeness into a single, unbelievable rock career that would make me the undisputed God of Rock. Aside from the sketchy ethics of stealing (even though, technically, these songs didn't yet exist when I stole them), the real flaw in this plan is that my musical tastes are pretty goofy, so the idea that anybody would somehow be more excited by my preemptive versions of, say, Daisy Chainsaw's "Dog with Sharper Teeth" or Left Lane Cruiser's "Big Mama" than they were when these songs first appeared and then sank into obscurity is wrong-headed at best.
Thing the Two:
I once started writing a novel that was about a quartet of custom-porno filmmakers who get hired by a cryptofascist multimillionaire to make large-scale hardcore flick set in the Holocaust. I got five or six chapters into it when my hard drive died and the novel was lost forever, which, considering, was probably not such a terrible thing to have had happen. It's working title was Camp Romance.
Thing the Three:
I have three tattoos. The first of which was inflicted upon me in a Richmond hotel room by a woman who actually went by the professional moniker Teddy Bear. Though Teddy Bear was quite lovely and talented, what she was not was fluent in Chinese. Consequently the Chinese figure I have permanently stained on my skin apparently means nothing. It's nonsense in a language I can't read. Despite this, I'm still quite fond of it.
Thing the Four:
When I was 17, I was briefly wanted by the FBI. As silly as this sounds, it was all a big misunderstanding and I was never arrested or charged with anything.
Thing the Five:
I once calculated the estimated number of books that I could read assuming I live to the average age of an American male. This was a massive mistake. For years I would avoid reading books that looked fun because I would think, "Is this really so great that it should be one of your remaining [fill in countdown number]?" Eventually, I got over this obsession. I'm glad I never did it for films; I probably would have never started a horror blog.
Thing the Six:
I wish the term "bedswerver" - a now neglected slang term for an unfaithful person - came back into common usage. It is so wonderfully descriptive.
Thing the Seven:
My wife and I once debated getting a cat as a pet. We brainstormed some names and we thought that they were all so good that we couldn't eliminate any of them. So we hit on this plan that we would give the cat a rotating name. We'd place a chalkboard in the kitchen and write "This week the cat's name is:" on it. We'd work through the names we already had and add new ones as they struck our fancy. We figured the cat wouldn't mind as it was unlikely to give a crap what we called it. (The same plan, we theorized, would not work for a dog.) We purchased a chalkboard and mounted it on the kitchen wall. But we never got a cat.
Okay, now on to who gets the award. Since this is the Kreativ Blogger award, I think it should go to a blog that goes beyond the standard "thumb's up/thumb's down" reviews, net trawled "coverage" of pop culture, and you're predictable "I Googled it, then wrote it" analysis. I'd also like to use it draw attention to a great blog I haven't really plugged before.
I give this to the Mark and ShadowBanker, the boys of Ecocomics. The vast majority of comics writing on the Web is little more than fanboy mash notes and poison pen letters. Admittedly, the quality of the material discussed might be a little more highbrow and the writing more nuanced or clever than the chatter on the floor of the NYCC - but really it comes down to the same thing: People telling you what they liked and hated, ad nauseum. Emphasis on nauseum.
Ecocomics instead takes familiar material and, by applying economics concepts to it in an accessible and entertaining way, actually opens up the material to fresh understandings. Instead of arguing about superhero decadence or lamenting some random creator's political biases, Ecocomics reminds me of the geeky joys of playfully overthinking the characters and concepts I love. Remember those silly/great arguments about who could beat who in a fight? Remember obsessing about continuity contradictions? Ecocomics manages to evoke the pleasures of that sort of active fan engagement without the normal schmaltz of dweeb nostalgia. It reinvests the comics with possibilities and a sense of pleasure.
There's a lot of great writers out there ready to tell you what they enjoyed. Ecocomics is one of the few comic blogs out there that invites you to enjoy comics with them.
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Screamer, Screamettes, and the curious passersby, lend me your ears!
Long time readers have probably figured out that I'm not a big "blog award" type of guy. It's always nice to know you're well thought of, but I don't tend to run long strings of blogger-gifted awards and the like on the side of my blog. It's just not my scene.
That said, B-Sol of Vault of Horror is running an interesting feature he's dubbed "Ms. Horror Blogosphere." Think of it as the Ms. Universe for women who have strong opinions about the film work of Paul Naschy or the have contributed to the Great Fast Versus Slow Zombies Debates of the '00s.
Breaking somewhat out of character for a second, I'm going to urge every single person reading this blog entry to go to Vault of Horror and vote for Heather Santrous, the blog mistress of ANTSS fave Mermaid Heather.
"But CRwM, why should we go so far out of our way - that's like two whole mouse clicks - to vote for Heather?" you may well ask.
I'll tell you why, my skeptical friend.
FIVE REASONS TO VOTING FOR HEATHER SANTROUS
1. If you enjoy ANTSS, you owe Heather a vote of thanks.
Heather's own blog was, a little more than three years ago, was what inspired me to start a horror-centric blog. She was an early supporter of my work and has been part of the ANTSS story ever since. So if my blog has even given you a chuckle, something to think about, a new band to listen to, a movie to check out, or just a way to waste the work day away, then please show a little appreciation by throwing a vote to the woman who, in a way, started it all.
2. Heather's made of awesome.
Before she got a gig, Heather posted a movie review on a near daily basis. There are blogs that have gotten famous boasting of their similarly prolific posting, but Heather quietly rocked that post-rate as a regular thing. On top of that, she posted regularly on a second blog. I don't know how. Just made of awesome, I guess. Admittedly, her posting has slowly slightly of late, but only because she's now working in a forensics lab. That's right, she's just slowed down a little bit so that she can WORK AMONG THE SECRETS OF THE FREAKIN' DEAD! That's called talking the talk and walking the walk!
3. Because rooting for the underdog is emotionally rewarding.
As of this writing, the candidate in the lead BJ-C, the woman who writes Day of the Woman. DotW is the "sister blog" of Vault of Horror, the very blog holding the contest! (Look below the poll and you'll see the promo link to her blog.) This isn't to suggest that there's any cheating or favoritism at work here. B-Sol and BJ are both stand up folks and they run a fair game. But let's be honest, Day of the Woman has a definite home court advantage. A vote for Heather is a vote for a dark horse candidate. When the dust settles and everything's over but the screamin', win or lose, won't you feel a little bit better knowing the your vote went for the scrappy newcomer that nobody thought had the heart to go the distance? Sure you will.
4. I wasn't going to mention it, but . . .
Given the current dust-ups about feminism and horror, I was kinda surprised to see that most of the candidate posts included glam shots. Will the Mr. Blogosphere contest have every spookshow-manfan posting shirtless beefcake shots? (Calm down Sean - we know.) But, since I didn't make the call to include them, I feel comfortable pointing out: She's a looker. Not only are you voting for a prolific, inspiring, genuine person; you're voting for swell-looking lady. You know, if that sort of thing matters to you. Which we know it doesn't. But if it did, you know, hypothetically matter. She is. Just saying.
5. Make your vote matter.
Horror blogging is a crowded field and there's a ton of good work out there. Many of the candidates on B-Sol's list have been doing great work for a long time and have justly earned themselves great reps in the horror community. A few could be called, without fear of exaggeration, major pillars of the horror blogosphere. But, our great numbers can also be a weakness. With so many of us, some bloggers just slip by the crowd. Wouldn't it be great if the "Ms. Horror Blogosphere" were used to promote a rising star. Instead of tacking yet another icon to the ever-growing sidebars of widely praised bloggers, let's turn this into an opportunity to get an under-recognized voice out there to the wider reading public. A vote for Heather will actually make a difference.
There you go. That's my pitch. There's more than 20 excellent candidates up for your consideration. So go, vote. And let's make Heather our Ms. Horror Blogosphere.
Long time readers have probably figured out that I'm not a big "blog award" type of guy. It's always nice to know you're well thought of, but I don't tend to run long strings of blogger-gifted awards and the like on the side of my blog. It's just not my scene.
That said, B-Sol of Vault of Horror is running an interesting feature he's dubbed "Ms. Horror Blogosphere." Think of it as the Ms. Universe for women who have strong opinions about the film work of Paul Naschy or the have contributed to the Great Fast Versus Slow Zombies Debates of the '00s.
Breaking somewhat out of character for a second, I'm going to urge every single person reading this blog entry to go to Vault of Horror and vote for Heather Santrous, the blog mistress of ANTSS fave Mermaid Heather.
"But CRwM, why should we go so far out of our way - that's like two whole mouse clicks - to vote for Heather?" you may well ask.
I'll tell you why, my skeptical friend.
FIVE REASONS TO VOTING FOR HEATHER SANTROUS
1. If you enjoy ANTSS, you owe Heather a vote of thanks.
Heather's own blog was, a little more than three years ago, was what inspired me to start a horror-centric blog. She was an early supporter of my work and has been part of the ANTSS story ever since. So if my blog has even given you a chuckle, something to think about, a new band to listen to, a movie to check out, or just a way to waste the work day away, then please show a little appreciation by throwing a vote to the woman who, in a way, started it all.
2. Heather's made of awesome.
Before she got a gig, Heather posted a movie review on a near daily basis. There are blogs that have gotten famous boasting of their similarly prolific posting, but Heather quietly rocked that post-rate as a regular thing. On top of that, she posted regularly on a second blog. I don't know how. Just made of awesome, I guess. Admittedly, her posting has slowly slightly of late, but only because she's now working in a forensics lab. That's right, she's just slowed down a little bit so that she can WORK AMONG THE SECRETS OF THE FREAKIN' DEAD! That's called talking the talk and walking the walk!
3. Because rooting for the underdog is emotionally rewarding.
As of this writing, the candidate in the lead BJ-C, the woman who writes Day of the Woman. DotW is the "sister blog" of Vault of Horror, the very blog holding the contest! (Look below the poll and you'll see the promo link to her blog.) This isn't to suggest that there's any cheating or favoritism at work here. B-Sol and BJ are both stand up folks and they run a fair game. But let's be honest, Day of the Woman has a definite home court advantage. A vote for Heather is a vote for a dark horse candidate. When the dust settles and everything's over but the screamin', win or lose, won't you feel a little bit better knowing the your vote went for the scrappy newcomer that nobody thought had the heart to go the distance? Sure you will.
4. I wasn't going to mention it, but . . .
Given the current dust-ups about feminism and horror, I was kinda surprised to see that most of the candidate posts included glam shots. Will the Mr. Blogosphere contest have every spookshow-manfan posting shirtless beefcake shots? (Calm down Sean - we know.) But, since I didn't make the call to include them, I feel comfortable pointing out: She's a looker. Not only are you voting for a prolific, inspiring, genuine person; you're voting for swell-looking lady. You know, if that sort of thing matters to you. Which we know it doesn't. But if it did, you know, hypothetically matter. She is. Just saying.
5. Make your vote matter.
Horror blogging is a crowded field and there's a ton of good work out there. Many of the candidates on B-Sol's list have been doing great work for a long time and have justly earned themselves great reps in the horror community. A few could be called, without fear of exaggeration, major pillars of the horror blogosphere. But, our great numbers can also be a weakness. With so many of us, some bloggers just slip by the crowd. Wouldn't it be great if the "Ms. Horror Blogosphere" were used to promote a rising star. Instead of tacking yet another icon to the ever-growing sidebars of widely praised bloggers, let's turn this into an opportunity to get an under-recognized voice out there to the wider reading public. A vote for Heather will actually make a difference.
There you go. That's my pitch. There's more than 20 excellent candidates up for your consideration. So go, vote. And let's make Heather our Ms. Horror Blogosphere.
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Next month, ANTSS will be celebrating its third anniversary and you're all invited to attend!
Long time readers may already know that this means we'll be running our annual tribute to frights and fantasy in the silent film era. The first year we called it "The Silent Scream Series." Then, "The Son of Silent Scream Series." This year you're all cordially invited to swing by "The House of Silent Scream Series."
This year, not only will I be doing my regular reviews of genre classics from the dawn of the film age, but I'm bring along a whole bunch of friends to lend a hand.
Guest bloggers and I will be sounding off about sexy robots, scandalous vamps, mad scientists, famous surrealists, secret societies, fantastic monsters, and more.
Do come. We're all so looking forward to your presence.
For those who want to play catch up, here's look at what we've done in the past:
Silent Scream Series 2007
Waxworks, dir. Paul Leni, 1924
Frankenstein, dir. J. Searle Dawley, 1910
The Bells, dir. James Young, 1926
Eyes of the Mummy, dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1918
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, dir. John Robertson, 1920
Son of Silent Scream Series 2008
Au secours!, dir. Abel Gance, 1923
The Man Who Laughs, dir. Paul Leni, 1928
The Lost World, dir. Harry O. Hoyt, 1925
The Penalty, dir. Wallace Worsley, 1920
Call of Cthulhu, dir. Andrew Leman, 2005
Friday, 21 August 2009
Team ANTSS pulls out a win! For nearly three years now, ya'll have been supporting me as I ramble on about movies, books, comics, and random weirdness. Together we've made the site popular enough to rate inclusion in Ilzoc's "Meet the Horror Bloggers" series on his excellent Zombo's Closet of Horror site.The closest thing to a "who's who" of horror blogs, compiled by the tirelessly dedicated Ilzoc, and we made it.
Tired of hearing me pompously pontificate about movies, music, comics, books, and random weirdness? Click on over and hear me pompously pontificate about me! It's navel-gaze-tastic!
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Pictured above, standing in front of the art section of McNally Jackson: SoHo's finest source for vendible books, are me and my lovely wife. She's the one on the right. No, your right.
While I'm normally one to avoid this sort of self-display – after all, you didn't come here to read about me – I have to mark the occasion of our anniversary.
Thanks Jess. I love you.
As for the Screamin' fancy, come back tomorrow. We'll, um, I don't know, do Jeepers Creepers 2 or something.
Monday, 23 March 2009
Hey kids, you may or may not have noticed a slow down here at ANTSS. Basically, my high-tech home wireless network, which I made primarily out of stolen alien technology, the parts of dead criminals, and nearly 500 rubber bands, utter collapsed about a week ago.
I've been stealing work time, making pilgrimages to the library, and so on if an effort to work around the increasingly less temporary problem. I fancy I've managed to keep the posts pretty regular, but if you've noticed a lag, I apologize.
Though I owe a special apology to both Mermaid Heather, bloggeress extraordinaire and one of the formative influences on this very blog you're reading, and Curt of Groovy Age of Horror fame, who is the very image of a modern major horror blogger. These two fine folks both selected me to receive the award/meme Premio Dardos and I, in my mind-boggling laziness, have not responded to either of them.
So, first, some thanks.
The lovely and talented Heather is not only a movie reviewing engine – her blog features full reviews of feature flicks four or five times a week – but her willingness to review anything, from the grimmest new fare to the dustiest of classics, makes her standout from a horror fandom that seems increasingly obsessed with jealously guarding ever-narrowing fiefdoms of subgenre appreciation. I started this blog after following her and a few others around and seeing how they did things. In a way, this blog is partially her fault.
As for Curt, anybody reading this blog is probably already familiar with Curt's work. Driven bloggers tend to be a bitter breed, their boundless energy a facet of their seemingly limitless stores of distain. Curt, on the other hand, is one of the most expansive, curious, and demanding horror bloggers pounding a keyboard. He roams wider than most bloggers and, in his searching, asks better questions. Not even the academic horror bloggers I follow tend to chase down topics with the vigor Curt musters.
You can find links to both blogs on the sidebar.
In appreciation I dedicate this posting of Plumtree's "Scott Pilgrim" (the source of the famed comic character's moniker and an insanely catchy song) to Mermaid.
And Curt gets this slice of retro-groovy: "On roule à 160" by Mareva.
Now, who to pass this thing on to . . .
We've got to save that for another post.
I've been stealing work time, making pilgrimages to the library, and so on if an effort to work around the increasingly less temporary problem. I fancy I've managed to keep the posts pretty regular, but if you've noticed a lag, I apologize.
Though I owe a special apology to both Mermaid Heather, bloggeress extraordinaire and one of the formative influences on this very blog you're reading, and Curt of Groovy Age of Horror fame, who is the very image of a modern major horror blogger. These two fine folks both selected me to receive the award/meme Premio Dardos and I, in my mind-boggling laziness, have not responded to either of them.
So, first, some thanks.
The lovely and talented Heather is not only a movie reviewing engine – her blog features full reviews of feature flicks four or five times a week – but her willingness to review anything, from the grimmest new fare to the dustiest of classics, makes her standout from a horror fandom that seems increasingly obsessed with jealously guarding ever-narrowing fiefdoms of subgenre appreciation. I started this blog after following her and a few others around and seeing how they did things. In a way, this blog is partially her fault.
As for Curt, anybody reading this blog is probably already familiar with Curt's work. Driven bloggers tend to be a bitter breed, their boundless energy a facet of their seemingly limitless stores of distain. Curt, on the other hand, is one of the most expansive, curious, and demanding horror bloggers pounding a keyboard. He roams wider than most bloggers and, in his searching, asks better questions. Not even the academic horror bloggers I follow tend to chase down topics with the vigor Curt musters.
You can find links to both blogs on the sidebar.
In appreciation I dedicate this posting of Plumtree's "Scott Pilgrim" (the source of the famed comic character's moniker and an insanely catchy song) to Mermaid.
And Curt gets this slice of retro-groovy: "On roule à 160" by Mareva.
Now, who to pass this thing on to . . .
We've got to save that for another post.
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