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10/17/2003: Giant Halloween Countdown Updatteeessss.

I’m baaack. We spent the last two days at the Milford Plaza (la la la lullaby of Broadway), basically just for a change of scenery. I was under the impression that I’d have a cable modem connection, but there waddn’t one, so I couldn’t update off the laptop these past few days. Sorry, forgive me, forgive meee. Anyway, we had fun. Got to see 1,000 lunatics watch the Yankees lose at a bar last night, leading to a seriously depressing scene that was straight out of a zombie movie, with everyone shuffling out to the sidewalk almost lifelessly save for the frantic rush to get their first drags in. The number of people pantomiming that newly infamous scuffle from the other day’s field brawl was pretty entertaining, too. It’s the first time I’ve ever appreciated much about baseball. Actually, couldn’t help but watch the game tonight. They won, so I guess that means skipping the Golden Girls rerun hour was worth it.

I spent tonight getting the Countdown up to date — check out the latest entries on Halloween pumpkin candies, Bleeding Head Man, Wax Lips, and “Mark of the Devil” Vomit Bags. We’ve still got a dozen or so days left, so keep on checkin’. The Texas Chainsaw remake hits theaters tomorrow, and despite not even being close to a diehard fan of the franchise, I haven’t been this excited to see in a movie in a long, long while. I’ve actually been meaning to review the mid-80s sequel for a while now, so maybe I’ll put that on deck for after the next article, which I’m about to start writing. No hints, but there’s a Webster cameo in it.


Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

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Discussion Thread: 30 comments

Could this be 1st post? yay!

Ghosted by sweepthelegjohnny @ 10/17/2003 1:08 AM EDT


sorry, that was kinda lame 1st post, but I got excited and flustered. A bong pull later, and I’m good now.
Anyway reading about wax lips reminded me I had some in my closet from 2 years ago. I put the fangs in and woke up my girlfriend, rather than a terrifying scream she just rolled over and went back to sleep. So now I’m chewing it. This is great way to build up those jaw muscles. I’m stoned and rambling. I really need a job. Good night.

Ghosted by sweepthelegjohnny @ 10/17/2003 1:19 AM EDT


Welcome back, Matt — I was starting to think that maybe you’d accidentally invoked some Hellish beasts while doing research for the countdown and that something decidedly unpleasant had happened to you. Glad to see that that’s not the case — I was already thinking of ways to contribute to the successful completion of the countdown so that your memory would live on FOR-EVAH, or at least until Oct. 31.

Oh, and I’ve been unable to find the Peeps cocoa bats ANYWHERE. Help?

Ghosted by Wes @ 10/17/2003 1:21 AM EDT


The day after reading your article on Dead Heads pops I stumbled upon some in the grocery store. I always loved getting these as a kid, and your article reminded me how cool they are so i picked ‘em up.
But mine are defective!! My mouth stayed it’s boring same ol’ color! Maybe if I eat more of them…

Ghosted by Schlitz @ 10/17/2003 1:25 AM EDT


boo yankees… sorry, I’m a Sox fan.

Glad to see you back though, I’ve been itching all week for my X-E fix. I started getting the shakes. Well worth it though.

Ghosted by tony @ 10/17/2003 1:42 AM EDT


I agree…somehow. I was missing my X-E for sooo long. and when I’m eating candy on Halloween, I’ll be thinking of Matt. For sure.

Ghosted by Omni @ 10/17/2003 1:56 AM EDT


i saw some peeps cocoa bats at the halloween club the other day. My friends and i went to get a jug of fog juice and they were by the registers.

BTW: Halloween club is a halloween store that is open all year. Not sure if this is the only location or not.

Ghosted by heeloyd @ 10/17/2003 3:27 AM EDT


Dawn of the Dead remake trailer:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/dawnofthedead/

Ghosted by ME @ 10/17/2003 3:53 AM EDT


I’m in awe. Bleeding head man touched me in ways few things have. Haven’t we all felt like that from time to time? Haven’t we all had Criminy Dog talk back to us on our bad days? And version 3.0 was a masterpiece on level with Dave McKean illustrations. What with Criminy Dog’s eyebrows and the upsidedown "Again." Reminded me of ee cummings:

l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness

And the falling blood background, how can you not be mesmerized? No seriously, I’m freakin’ impressed. I am. I really am. No, I’m not kidding. Stop looking at me like that. No you shut up.
I guess I don’t have anything more to say on this front. It’s sad having a Halloween without Joe Bob Briggs’ Monstervision. Damn you TNT, did we really need the Mary K. Laturna Story?

Ghosted by inkmage @ 10/17/2003 8:22 AM EDT


Seeing that comic made me crave a genuWHINE Matt artwork with a faux celebrity autograph. You still selling those bad boys?

Ghosted by spazzamatic @ 10/17/2003 10:55 AM EDT


Is that the dog’s arm holding the martini glass, or is it his pink thing? So much for being man’s best friend.

Ghosted by turkeys can't fly? @ 10/17/2003 11:50 AM EDT


Whew ! I thought we were going to have an Advent Calender moment there. Be careful Matt ! The Halloween gods may get angry and take away your Mad Matt powers and turn you into "Happy Cheerful Matt"

Ghosted by Gozer @ 10/17/2003 2:26 PM EDT


Bleeding head man rocked!

The third version sucked though. It was like a bunch of pretentious mimes reenacting the first version. Fucking MIMES!!!!! Not scary mimes, but very artsy self-involved ones.

Ghosted by sdfgrweth @ 10/17/2003 2:32 PM EDT


Would today’s tykes tolerate the classic games you grew up with?
http://www.egmmag.com/article2/0,4364,1338730,00.asp

Ghosted by ME @ 10/17/2003 4:50 PM EDT


Atari buried millions of unsold "E.T." cartridges in a New Mexico desert landfill.
http://www.snopes.com/business/market/atari.asp

Ghosted by ME @ 10/17/2003 4:52 PM EDT


ahh welcome back matt….whats this a webster cameo???? im intrigued

Ghosted by Scourge the pear avenger @ 10/17/2003 5:09 PM EDT


@inkmage: that is my favorite e.e. cummings poem. you made my day.

i haven’t seen the cocoa bat Peeps or the Dead Head pops… hmmmmmmmm i’d better look harder. those orange pumpkin Peeps are not gonna cut it.

Ghosted by zann @ 10/17/2003 5:31 PM EDT


welcome back matt and me by ondience we both left how funny.

Ghosted by pikachulover @ 10/17/2003 6:35 PM EDT


Just checked out the dawn of the dead trailer. Did I see what I think I saw? running and JUMPING zombies? I’m going to see texas chainsaw tonight, And I Pray Leatherface isn’t going to be hacking people up in bullet time. If George A. Romero was dead, he’d be turning in his grave.

Ghosted by naturekid @ 10/17/2003 7:15 PM EDT


Well, I know, when naturekid mentioned that "if George A. Romero was dead, he’d be turning in his grave", he was talking about the Dawn of the Dead remake, but if Leatherface hacks up people in "bullet time", then it would be Tobe Hooper whom would be turning in his grave, except Tobe Hooper’s still alive. And, since I mentioned Tobe Hooper, I may as well exploit this opportunity to ask Matt once again to review Lifeforce, the finest space vampire zombie movie ever made. I mean, if most people remember that movie at all, it’s because Mathilda May was wandering around clothes-free for the entire film, but the scenes of infestation on the streets of London are what left the biggest impression on me, since they freaked me out a lot when I saw it on video when I was 11 or 12. Most of the film is actually fairly boring, though you do get to see a pre-Captain Picard Patrick Stewart (whom really doesn’t look all that much younger than he looked in X-Men 2: Mutants United), but the part of the film from the encounter with the Prime Minister in the bunker ("Miss Haversham! Miss Haversham!") up to the climax in Saint Paul’s Cathedral is great, underrated creepy fun.

Also, Matt, if you get the chance, do download an episode or two of the new Japanese live-action Sailor Moon TV series from your favourite file-sharing program. Unlike some online Sailor Moon fans, whom were evidently expecting something full of angst and gravitas, I knew all along it would be cheesy, campy, goofy fun, and it’s even cheesier, campier, and goofier that I could have possibly even dreamed of.

Ghosted by Steve Brandon @ 10/17/2003 7:43 PM EDT


Ok, this is totally off-topic, but it’s so weird that I feel I must share. The 80s show on a local radio station is playing a vaguely dance-esque version of the theme to "Fraggle Rock." Talk about nostalgia. I nearly had kittens when I heard it.

Ghosted by starwenn @ 10/17/2003 10:33 PM EDT


Thank you for the Write Channel info Steve Brandon!
My neural transmitters have just experienced a massive kick in the ass…
I remember it all, even the boss. Ha!
Thank you.

P.s. Didn’t the lil’ guy live behind a grate below the house?

Ghosted by TheCleaner420 @ 10/18/2003 1:09 AM EDT


Umm… a grate? Now that I think about it… maybe. Please don’t think I remember every detail about the show equally well (I don’t have it on videotape and I haven’t seen it shown on TV for at least 15 years)… just the image of the bug asleep in his recliner as WORD-TV ended its broadcast day seems to be permanently etched in the hardest stone in my memory banks, as well as the State of Mississippi seal before and after the programme.

Ghosted by Steve Brandon @ 10/18/2003 4:14 AM EDT


The hell? >:[

What was wrong with the first Dawn of the Dead? I couldn’t get the trailer to work on my comp, but danggummit, you young whippersnappers always gots to have yer newfangled moving pictures when the old ones did us old-timers just fine.

All I’m saying is, it had better be better than that horrid 30th anniversary Night of the Living Dead edition.

Ghosted by Molten @ 10/18/2003 6:34 AM EDT


hey starwenn: i doubt if the Fraggle Rock song i heard is the same, but i heard a punkish version of the theme song by a band called Allister. isn’t nostalgia great?

Ghosted by zann @ 10/18/2003 9:07 AM EDT


First off, Steve Brandon is right, lifeforce is a good albeit, often overlooked zombie film.
Molten is also right. there really is no need to "remake" Dawn of the dead. especially when, from what I’ve read and now seen, the ONLY similarities is it takes place in a shopping mall. Texas chainsaw was HORRIBLE compared to the original, and I fear DOD will be the same. what’s next, a remake of the evil dead? the Excorcist? ( oh wait, there already is.)how about a remake of the remake of night of the living dead? allright, enough.

Ghosted by naturekid @ 10/18/2003 7:03 PM EDT


I don’t particularly have anything against the concept of remakes; if they’re successful, like the Mummy films (well, I liked The Mummy Returns even if Ebert and everyone else hated it), great, if they suck, well, I just won’t watch it again.

That being said, I am quite apprehensive with what I’ve seen of the Dawn of the Dead remake. I’m an unapologetic capitalist and I love the original even if I’m fully aware of the subtext poking fun at mindless consumerism. I think the concept of the "consumer" being a mindless automation easily manipulated by the advertising of major corporations is a leftist canard, but this is not the appropriate forum for me to go in-depth about such things. I just choose to ignore the subtext and enjoy the fantasy aspect of the premise of living in a fully-stocked shopping mall yours for the looting. One of the advantages of the original Dawn of the Dead as far as I’m concerned was that Romero shot it on a limited budget, so they had to shoot it mostly at a real mall and not on a soundstage, and, as a result, all the stores are real chain stores with real names. Since the remake has a much larger budget, even taking into account inflation, they can afford to build sets with fake stores, and these fakes stores, from the pictures I’ve seen, have "oh-so-clever" names like Promised Land, as in "The place is called ‘Promised Land’ like it’s Heaven but it’s really just a coffee shop. Capitalism sells false illusions."

I really do want to enjoy the remake if just because I am legitimately curious to see what Dawn of the Dead would be like if made with today’s special effects technology, being a person whom doesn’t particularly see anything inherently wrong with computer generated special effects (though usually they work better when they compliment and enhance traditional "practical" (physical) effects, not when they’re used in place of practical effects), I’m just hoping I am reading too much into the names of the stores and that whatever political subtext the film has is subtle like the original and not earnest and "in your face" like I fear it will be.

Ghosted by Steve Brandon @ 10/18/2003 10:14 PM EDT


Speaking of movies, has anyone seen Kill Bill? It totally rocked!

Anyway, about the candy, I would actually choose Reese’s PB Pumpkin as my favourite (or "favorite" depending on where you’re from). I mean, don’t get me wrong. I love Snickers, and I admire the fact that the pumpkin actually has a Jack-O-Lantern design to it, but nothing beats the peanut buttery goodness of Reese’s.

I’d also like to say something about the wax lips: I fucking hated them! They tasted like shitty toothpaste!

Ghosted by Nate @ 10/18/2003 10:16 PM EDT


Oh, and one more thing I must ask you, Matt. I noticed that in the final revision of your comic strip, you had the word "Again" written vertically and upside down. I was wondering if you were referring to Homestar Runner, in which you aften have the option of clicking "again" thus playimng the cartoon…well…again. Was that your intention?

Ghosted by Nate @ 10/18/2003 10:19 PM EDT


Oops… forgot to mention that my concerns about the Dawn of the Dead remake are based specifically on things Sarah Polley discussed in this interview, Sarah Polley being one of those celebrities whom wears her politics on her sleeves, and whom doesn’t comes across as being as articulate and well-informed about her side as, say, Janeane Garofalo, whom I disagree with but I don’t really doubt her command of the "facts" as she sees them nor does Ms. Garofalo come across as vapid like a lot of celebrities do when they talk about "issues and stuff". That’s all I’ll say about that, at least here.

Ghosted by Steve Brandon @ 10/19/2003 8:41 PM EDT


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