|
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Back in the early 80's, drive-in theater were still operating in my home, Hampton Roads. There were a few, but one of our regular stops was Thursday nights at the Anchor Drive-In, on Jefferson Avenue.
We went on Thursdays because it was the last night before the new ones opened on Friday night. Admission was only a dollar that night and the place was always jammed.
We saw some damned good movies out there: The Beast Within, Angel, Psycho 2, The Evil Dead...dozens of them. We saw some real stinkbombs as well: Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn in Best Friends and Miles O'Keefe of the Apes, with Blow Derek. Of course we preferred it when good ones ran, but we never let a bad one ruin our night.
We had a tradition. Me and a friend would go to a local park. We'd start drinking beer and we'd throw the Frisbee for an hour or so. Then we'd head to the drive-in and be there right when the gate was opened. Once in, we'd secure our place in the front row, center. And we would commence to drink more beer and throw the Frisbee some more. We'd also gorge ourselves on burgers, shrimp rolls and the like from the snack bar.
A bunch of us would usually turn up and we'd all line up in the front. I worked at this seafood/trucking company and almost the entire crew would make the Thursday night party. So much so that it became company policy that if anyone called in sick on Friday, they'd get written up. Which was a fucking joke. The pay was so poor that they were fortunate that they could keep people with all four limbs in working order there.
We always made it in to work the next day, even in the thick of Summer when the second feature ran past midnight. We were tough.
When the first feature began, the serious drinking would commence. Beers flew like the wind and jokes did too. We watched the movies, sure, but we also made a game of it. Of course, we were quieter when a decent film played and much, much louder when crap was rolling.
By the time the second movie would begin, the beer would be beginning to catch up with us. I always brought a large bag of peanuts in the shell. I'd break them out about the time when the second one started, which kept our hands busy and away from the beer cans.
All that drinking. It was crazy. Overeating and drinking up a storm. It's a wonder that we even survived. And it was customary to drive home drunk as a lord. That was bad shit. I didn't drive in those days, so I wasn't actually behind the wheel, but I was just as guilty. I often talked people into coming and I always bought a ton of beer, to 'make sure that we wouldn't run out'.
That was wrong. It's amazing that no-one ever got busted or had an accident. Dumb luck, but then we were young and all of us were hard workers and we played hard too. We had constitutions of steel.
I guess I should regret all the madness, but I don't. Not really. I treasure those memories today. Looking back, it was paradise. But I also remember the lousy jobs, the constant fear of maintaining a place to live. You can't stay young forever.
I look at the situation today and I pity kids. Where can they hang out? The mall? One is being built in our area and they have decided to not have a food court, in an attempt to keep the kids from hanging out. I think that sucks. The game/pinball parlors are all but gone too. Everyone has their complex gaming systems at home. There used to be a couple of hamburger joints where kids drank sodas and had fries and hung out, but they're all gone too. Nothing but plastic fast food dives left.
The drive-in theaters were the perfect place for kids to hang. You could bring your date or cruise the place looking for action. You could party all night and unless you were being really intrusive to others, you were left alone. The manager of the Anchor even requested that we leave our beer cans there, because he recycled them. I guess there wasn't a lot of money in the theaters by that time.
Now it's all gone and I can only hang on to my memories, which grow cloudier every year.
|
|
Monday, September 15, 2008
Chris Golden has just about done it all: Nonfiction, straightforward horror, dark fantasy, media tie-ins, YA Fiction, collaborations. And he is as talented as he is prolific. Golden publishes with alarming regularity, in a variety of types of books. One common thread runs through all of it: Excellence.
I first read Christopher Golden in his Cut! anthology. This was a cool collection of essays on horror movies, written by horror writers. After that I encountered his Shadows Series of vampire thrillers and I was hooked.
Since then I've tried to read everything I can by Golden. My favorite so far are the magical novel, Strangewood, and the brilliant horrorstory, Wildwood Road. Or perhaps The Shadows Saga, which begins with Of Saints and Shadows. And I can't forget his wistfully nostalgic The Boys are Back in Town. Truthfully, I could go on and on.
I've had the pleasure of meeting Chris Golden several times. The first time was well before I had made a sort-of name for myself with message boards. He was gracious and appeared to be genuinely grateful to meet a fan of his writing. I've met a lot of other professionals in the field. Many good people and some maybe not so good. But Christopher Golden is definitely one of the most decent individuals I've encountered. And that humanity shines through in his fiction.
Those that have read the work of Christopher Golden are probably agreeing with me. To those that haven't, what are you waiting for? Whatever your preference is, inexpensive mass market editions, deluxe collectible editions or lavishly illustrated stories, he has done them all.
|
|
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
 One of my favorite directors of all time. He did Hollywood Boulevard and Piranha for Corman, then he did a certified genre classic, The Howling. From there Joe Dante hit the big time. Gremlins was one of the biggest hits of its day and he had Spielberg backing him. After that?
Joe did a series of movies that were hit and miss with the pubic, but I liked them all. Explorers, The 'burbs, Amazon Women on the Moon (MUCH funnier than the over-hyped Lost Skeleton  of Cadavra), Innerspace and Gremilns 2 and Matinee.
Small Soldiers was a modest hit. And then?
Looney Tunes Back in Action, which was a huge flop. It's not really my bag, but I liked it and thought it was hip, sharp and funny. Very respectful of the old cartoons and SF movies. Personally I think the movie is too smart for the multiplex masses.
In Hollywood, you're only as good as your last film. I don't think Joe Dante has done a studio movie since Looney Tunes Back in Action. He did wraparound sequences for the long-shelved, mediocre Trapped Ashes. He did some Masters of Horror and some other television work. Danta has a website called Trailers from Hell, which is pretty cool. And there are some unpromising indie movies in various stages of preproduction for him.
It sucks. Joe Dante seems like one hell of a nice guy and he has proved that he can make a good movie that scores with genre fans and the general public. Good God, Gremlins was made for eleven million and it earned nearly 150 mil at the box office and that's not counting merchandising, home video and television.
It sucks that Spielberg doesn't give his old associate another shot at a real movie. It's not like he can't afford to take a chance.
There's one project that Joe Dante wants to make that would be a dream come true for me. It would have absolutely no commercial potential, but would be a great movie for us, the fans. It's The Man With The Kaleidoscope Eyes, and it deals with Roger Corman and the making of The Trip. Corman, ever the trouper, ingested LSD as research for the project. Tim Lucas, of Video Watchdog fame, has written a screenplay for The Man With The Kaleidoscope Eyes. Get down on your knees and pray to the Movie Gods with me that this will, somehow, get produced and distributed.
|
| |
|
