Today, November 10th is the birthday of my favorite author Neil Gaiman!

(click on image to see a more realistic, scruffy Neil)

As I’ve mentioned before I was first introduced to the genius of Gaiman’s work through his epic comic series The Sandman on one of my first solo trips to visit Scott in NYC. The depth of literary and mythological references in his work hooked me instantly and I became “a fan”. Soon after this I was in Border’s Books in Tulsa, OK and saw that Neil had written his first novel:

Despite enjoying all of Neil’s works Neverwhere has always been my favorite. The story of a young man in London who discovers the world of London Below, a world existing between the cracks of our reality, really resonated with me. There is an Alice in Wonderland quality about the book that reminds me of daydreams I used to have as a child. It is a magical, whimsical, fascinating story with a great hero and heroine, wonderfully entertaining bad guys, and inhabits a world that brings my imagination to life. I try to read Neverwhere at least once a year…great book!

Stardust would be my second favorite and is arguably his most well-written novel. I like both the novelization and the illustrated version with art by Charles Vess. If you like fairy tales at all this is one of the best. Terrific, terrific story!

Neil is frequently trying new things in the literary world and Coraline was his first children’s novel. The story of a girl who finds a dark mirror world behind a locked door in her house is one that adults have reportedly found terrifying and children have found fun. It was a creepy little tale but not scary in the traditional sense of what one thinks of as horror. Coraline is reportedly in the works as a film by the producer of A Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach.

Wolves in the Walls is a short tale written for younger children in which young Lucy hears wolves in the walls but cannot get her family to believe her. Eventually they come out and take over the house, watching television, eating popcorn, and making a mess with the strawberry jam. This tale is illustrated by Gaiman’s usual artist Dave McKean and the images are at once wonderful and scary.

In addition to these and several other novels and short stories Gaiman and McKean have recently come to the big screen with their movie Mirrormask. A collaboration with the Jim Henson company this is a film that I’ve been dying to see and probably will not be able to until in comes out on DVD. Shame on Kansas City for their lack of foresight in not scheduling this film.

Neil Gaiman is an interesting cultural phenomenon. You’ve either heard of him or you haven’t, but if you know him at all you are aware of the interesting, entertaining and inspiring universe that his talent has created. Each work is different in its own way and yet is uniquely Neil Gaiman. He is a master with words and has a seemingly boundless level of creativity. If you aren’t reading Gaiman’s blog on a daily basis you are missing out on interesting articles, links, and any number of bizarre and fascinating things that his myriad fans send him. You don’t have to be a Gaiman fan or even a book lover to find any number of fascinating things on his website. His Sandman graphic novels were part of a movement that saw comics lifted out of the realm of geekdom to be considered serious literary works. The Endless characters and their tales are responsible for my discovery of how amazing comics can be…not to mention they spawned groupies who show up at his signings dressed as the various characters:

Death

Delirium

If you haven’t been introduced to this amazing world I encourage you to go pick up a copy of Neverwhere or Stardust and dive in. Reading will truly never be the same.

Happy Birthday Neil, you are one of a kind and are an inspiration in so many areas of my life. Thank you again Scott for the introduction and thank you Neil for all you do….write faster!!!

I welcomed in the month of November with a 101 degree temp which changed to 102 on the second. Hooray for me. Maybe this means my fall/winter sickness has just gotten itself out of the way early. November is one of my favorite months for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that towards the end I add another year to my age. Then of course there is the feast of food that is called Thanksgiving…this is also the day that my family traditionally puts up the Christmas tree and turns on the Christmas lights for the first time. I love the feeling as November winds bring crisp, chilled nights and the spirit of the holiday season begins to permeate the air. Yes, November is a great month.

In Ireland November 1st is the first day of Winter, so to Fence, “happy winter”!
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As I lay home sick yesterday I was flipping channels and saw that Sci Fi was showing back to back episodes of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. I hadn’t seen that show since its original run. It was fun to watch. I found it less hokey than I thought I would despite the fact that it is obviously very dated. In at least one episode it was obvious that mini-skirts were the uniform-de-jour of the 25th century as that is what all the female crew were wearing. I remember really loving this show as a kid and I enjoyed the trip down memory lane yesterday.

I met Erin Grey at a Star Trek convention in Tulsa a few years back and was stunned at how little she appears to have aged. The couple in front of me in line commented on this to her and she talked for awhile about her exercise program, etc…it obviously worked for her. She was very nice.
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As I mentioned earlier, Thanksgiving is fast approaching. It is traditionally a time of massive overeating due to wonderful quantities of food being laid out in front of you. With this in mind I leave you this warning to be prepared and to lay off the left over Halloween candy in preparation for upcoming holiday gorging:

Happy November everyone!

Well it is here…Halloween…All Hallow’s Eve…the last day of October. Could a month have went by more rapidly? I don’t know. This post will be predominately pics so bear with me. Although long it should be a quick read.

My wife and 3 of her friends from work meet monthly at one or the other’s home for a get together. They adopted the name Dancing Tarts from the title of this post. Mary knew that I would appreciate the opportunity to do a Halloween-themed Tarts party and thus the invitations went out last week:

(Alex Raymond illustration for envelope)

(cover of tri-fold card)

(World series was over, of course…and vampire hunting proved unsuccessful)

(need to have at least one ‘tart’ on the invitation!)

The party kicked in gear Friday night. I decorated the kitchen table with this centerpiece

and each lady had their own grave marker treat bag

complete with really bad macabre poetry by yours truly. Each one reflects something about the Tart in question and I reprint them here for you to moan and groan at my poetic terror:

Mary (loves dessert):

Mary, Mary…quite contrary,
She was as a matter of fact.
Insisted on eating one last dessert
and she died of a tart attack.

Dominique (has an impending stray cat problem):

Curiosity drove Dominique to grant a reprieve
To every cat she discovered outside.
When she ran out of room she asked them to leave
Curiously they stayed, and she died.

Carrie (likes, and reportedly frequently sings, showtunes):

Carrie was quiet fond of her karaoke,
showtunes she like to sing.
‘Memory’, ‘Fame’, and “the hills are alive”
were a few of her favorite things.
One rainy night up on the roof
“the sun’ll come out tomorrow” did ring.
As she slipped and fell to the solid ground
she felt the wind beneath her her wings.

Laura (world champion knitter):

All the danger aside, a mob knitting job
was what our Laura did take.
A sweater for Nick, one matching for Pearl
she was now ordered to make.
She knitted all night but it wasn’t right
one was pink, the other blue.
They started to fight, Laura died that night
because Nick won (and) Pearl too.

There’s a bad knitting pun in that last line…really bad, I admit!

and Tori (my daughter…teenager…shopper):

Tori shopped and spent, purchased and bought
at the mall though she had not a need
Piled with bags, looking not as she ought
a ‘watch your step’ sign she did not heed.
Tumbling down to the floor below she thought
“Shop ’til you drop, indeed!”

Sorry, but I had to share. We ate delicious vegetarian chili, grilled cheese and apple sandwiches on sourdough bread, and had a cream cheese and chocolate pie for dessert. We roasted pumpkin seeds and the girls carved pumpkins:

We took them outside and lit them up and I played with various settings on Nick’s digital camera:

The long faced guys are squash that I had carved earlier in the day.

These are some pics of pumpkins and lights I took with the camera set on the ‘fireworks’ setting:

The party was alot of fun and I enjoyed being an honorary tart for the evening.
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Saturday afternoon the Smith family came over to carve pumpkins for the first time. Although I had cleaned out the inside of the Tart’s pumpkins the day before I thought Jeff needed to dive right in to get the whole effect.

We (the royal ‘we’…meaning ‘Mary’) baked cookies and we all sat around decorating them.

(Zach “the Fonz”, Tori, and Ashley)

Keri arrived and we carved pumpkins…the kids helped some but mom and dad got to do most of the work.

(Zach “the Fang”)

(Ashley, “the demure”)

Zach picked out a wolf pattern that Keri carved for him which turned out great

And Ashley wanted a combination of a horse and some stars and lightning bolts from 2 different patterns which Jeff mastered quite will for his first carving experience.

(taken with ‘fireworks’ setting)

Tori found a really cool pattern of the face of Chicken Little from the upcoming Disney flick. It turned out really cool but I didn’t get a good picture of it.

We played games and ate pizza and had a really terrific time.
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All in all we had a wonderful Halloween weekend and look forward to the trick-or-treaters tonight…especially James and Jules’ brood who always look adorable in their costumes. One year…was it last?…the three oldest dressed in matching pink 60’s go-go dancer outfits…it was super cute!

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe and happy Halloween! I’ve enjoyed sharing predominately horror based posts with you and there are more to come over the coming months as there are things I didn’t have time to post. Thanks for reading.

Lisa Snellings-Clark, one of my favorite 3 dimensional artists whose praises I sang in this post here (Lisa is a fantastic artist…you should read this post and if you already have, read it again!), recently had a rat sale. I discovered Lisa through Neil Gaiman who has written several short stories based on Lisa’s sculptures. Many years back Neil called Lisa a ratbag and the idea for the Neil Rat was born. More rats soon followed. Lisa recently had a sale and her rats left her studio like…well…rats from a sinking ship. And some found their way to my home. I picked up the Neil Rat, of course:

Neil’s regular mode of dress is black with a black leather jacket and it will be no surprise that I also couldn’t resist the Poe Rat:

In fact I bought two of those so I could give one to my baby sister for a much belated birthday gift!

Soon after this sale she unveiled the Grim Ratter, pictured at the top of this post, who arrived just the other day in time to preside over the Halloween festivities. Each rat is hand painted and the Neil and Poe rats are individually numbered, part of a limited set. The are wonderful little things and so very fun. I’m very happy to have these small pieces of Lisa’s art. Her website is a great place to follow the creative process. She often shows pictures of works as she is creating them…currently she is working on a very large rat sculpture for the front yard for Halloween. Lisa will be having a sale very soon for the coming Christmas season. I encourage you to visit her site often.
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As we ramp up to Monday’s celebration of All Hallow’s Eve there are some potentially interesting things to watch on the old television this weekend. The History Channel is showing:

On Saturday evening at 8/7 central and again on Monday evening as part of a Halloween day extravaganza that features:

12/1cHistory’s Mysteries: Amityville: Horror or Hoax?
1/2cHistory’s Mysteries: The Real Dracula
4/3c Time Machine: Bloodlines – Dracula Family Tree
5/4c History’s Mysteries: Ancient Monster Hunters
6/5c Haunted History Of Halloween
7/6c Haunted History Of Halloween
8/7c Houdini: Unlocking The Mystery
10/9c UFO Files: Russian Roswell
11/10c Weird U.S. Creepy Curses

The Discover Channel has Twisted History: Vampires on Sunday at 10/9c

The Learning Channel (TLC) has Possessed Possessions on Sunday at 8/7c

and The Travel Channel has Most Haunted: Live beginning today with rebroadcasts throughout the weekend in which the team goes on a search for Jack the Ripper.

Looks like some fun, spooky stuff for the weekend!
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This weekend I will be posting some pictures this week of the Tarts‘ First Annual Halloween Party as well as pre-party pics of my decorating and the party invites that I made a few days ago. Its some fun stuff so check back in if you have time. Have a wonderful Halloween weekend everyone!

Ingrid Pitt is the unequivocal Queen of Horror. In a time when few if any women gained the genre notoriety that Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, or Vincent Price enjoyed, Ingrid Pitt attained cult status with her roles in Hammer and Amicus horror films and that cult status continues to grow to this day.

It is no startling revelation to regular readers that I am enamored of the classic films in all genres and that I have a particular fondness for classic horror. I feel especially drawn to the work of Ingrid Pitt because we share a special bond: we have the same birthday!

Ingrid Pitt was born Ingoushka Petrov in Poland to a German father and Jewish mother on November 21st, 1937. Her early life was every bit as tumultous as that of the scream queens she has portrayed in film. Pitt entered the world on a train in Poland as her parents were attempting to flee the growing Nazi threat in Berlin. Her early years were spent with her parents as they stayed with various family members. Ingrid’s father was a top designer of lighter-than-air aircraft and the Nazi’s eventually caught up with him. Ingrid Pitt and her mother began three years of internment being placed in the Stutthof Concentration Camp. The camp was eventually liquidated and Ingrid and her mother fled to the woods and lived with partisans. This was not to be Pitt’s last experience with dictatorial government.

She was living in Berlin when the wall was erected and her outspoken criticism of the East Berlin government brought her to the attention of the Volkspolizei. In true dramatic fashion while fleeing from them she dove into the River Spree and was rescued by “a handsome U.S. Lieutenant”. She eventually married him and came to America. After her marriage ended she traveled to Spain and was “discovered” while watching a bullfight. She did numerous Spanish films and then traveled to Hollywood. After small roles in films including Doctor Zhivago and The Omegans she got her break out role in the Clint Eastwood, Richard Burton film Where Eagles Dare.

Where Eagles Dare is a WWII film about espionage and killing Nazi’s that has gained cult status of its own over the years. After spending time in a concentration camp as a child, killing Nazi’s in a film must have been oddly cathartic for Pitt.

(Pitt in Where Eagles Dare)

Pitt’s exotic looks and eastern European accent brought her to the attention of Hammer Films executives and they cast her in the role of Mircalla in Vampire Lovers, the film loosely based on J. Sheridan le Fanu’s classic short story Carmilla.

Vampire Lovers also starred Peter Cushing and it established Ingrid Pitt as a bona fide horror queen. Hammer films was going through a period in which they were introducing more flesh and blood into the horror genre so there is a bit of inexplicable (silly) nudity in the film. While somewhat convoluted at times the film maintains a nice creepy atmosphere throughout. Both Pitt and Cushing are fantastic and the film was a box office success but it pales in comparison to what it could have been had they followed the story more faithfully.

Ingrid Pitt’s next vampiric role was in the episode “The Cloak” in Amicus Productions film The House That Dripped Blood.

The House That Dripped Blood is an excellent horror anthology with an ensemble cast that features both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as well as other quality actors and actresses. This film also enjoyed box office success and it is much deserved as it is a great anthology film, I highly recommend it.

Pitt continued in the vampire vein with a return to Hammer Films to star in Countess Dracula. Ingrid Pitt played the titular role in this film loosely based on the legendary exploits of 16th century Transylvanian Countess Elizabeth Bathory. It was thought that she killed upwards of 600 young women and bathed in their blood, believing that this was they key to eternal youth and beauty. This is another very good classic horror film made all the more eerie because of its inspiration in true events.

These three movies as well as a role in the lesser know but equally good film The Wicker Man firmly established Ingrid Pitt as the undisputed Queen of Horror. During the 60’s and 70’s both Hammer Films and Amicus Productions created many lasting classic works of horror starring a multitude of memorable, beautiful actresses but none has made as lasting an impression and garnered such a strong following as Ingrid Pitt. In addition to her classic beauty the quality of her performances caused her to rise above the rest to the role of Queen.

In addition to her film work Ingrid Pitt is an accomplished author of novels and her more well known Bedside Companion series: The Ingrid Pitt Bedside Companion for Vampire Lovers and The Ingrid Pitt Bedside Companion for Ghosthunters. She is also a regular columnist for Shivers Magazine and maintains contact with the public through her website (I have been a proud member of the Ingrid Pitt fan club…geek!) and by touring the convention circuit.

In 1999 Ingrid Pitt’s autobiography Life’s A Scream was released and it is a wonderful book chronicling her harrowing childhood and eventual emergence to scream queen cult status.

It is a fitting time of year to celebrate this wonderful horror film siren and I will no doubt be wishing her a ‘Happy Birthday’ come November 21st!