Be My Guest!

I'm not going to do all my usual entries, instead here's what I watched today, starting at midnight last night.

First up: "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!" Do I need to elaborate? I got a rock.

"The Devil and Daniel Mouse." Great memories of watching this Nelvana toon back in the 70s.

 

I seem to recall having a crush on the Jan Mouse. Great tunes and narration by John Sebastian.

"The Flintstones meet Rockula and Frankenstone." Cheesy Flintstones episode with Ted Cassidy as Frankenstone! Lots of cliches and a few laughs. Still lots of fun.

"The Halloween that Almost Wasn't." wasn't very good. But it has a great cast including Judd Hirsch, Mariette Hartley, Henry Gibson, and Jack Riley. On the plus side, it reinforced my origin stories of wearing costumes and All Hallows Day Eve.

"Disney's Halloween Treat." You can watch it on vimeo but you're better off seeing the clips in their entirety. From Wiki:

• "Madam Mim" – The Sword in the Stone (1963)
• "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence – Fantasia (1940)
• Clip of Pluto's Sweater (1949)
• Clip of Mickey's Parrot (1938)
• Donald Duck and the Gorilla (1944) – Donald Duck and his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie
• "Pluto's Judgement" sequence featuring three Pluto cartoons assembled together:
  • Puss Cafe (1950)
  • Cat Nap Pluto (1948)
  • Pluto's Judgement Day (1935)
• "Captain Hook" – Peter Pan (1953)
• "Cruella de Vil" – One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
• "The Evil Queen" – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
• "Si and Am" – Lady and the Tramp (1955)
• "Ichabod Crane and Headless Horseman" – The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
  

Tough to pick a favourite. Probably Ichabod.

Next up was "The Jetson's Haunted Halloween." which I don't ever recall watching before. I liked it except for their pet, Orbitty. It's probably easy to locate elsewhere, but try here for quick access.

"The New Misadventures of Ichabod Crane." was next. Worth watching if you're hard up for entertainment, otherwise stick with Disney or "Sleepy Hollow" (I plan to show my students Sleepy Hollow this week. They loved it last year, this year's class is less enthusiastic about English.)

I'd finished five beers by then and it was getting late, so I ignored "Witches Night Out" because I watched it last year. ZZZZZZZ

Today, I watched "Gargoyles" that great TV movie with Cornel Wilde from 1972.

And most of "Planet of the Vampires" AND "The House on Haunted Hill" AGAIN.

All of the above is courtesy of a Twitch channel. Just search for Daikaiju TeeVee. Trolls is on right now!

What follows is a friend's video. We were housemates 25 years ago when I lived in Tokyo and worked for NOVA. (NO VAcation!) Nice to see he's made something of himself.

 

It won or was nominated for a ton of awards including the following:

Winner Best Thriller Short - Prague Underground Film Festival April 2023 Winner Best Horror - London International Filmmakers Festival 2022 Winner Best Horror - Florida Shorts Festival 2023 Official Selection - Monster Fest Melbourne 2022 Official Selection - Diabolical Horror Film Festival 2023 Official Selection - LA International Horror Film Festival 2023 Official Selection - A Night of the Horror Festival 2023 Semi-Finalist - Dark Veins Horror Fest 2023 Semi-Finalist - Tokyo Shorts Festival January 2023 Semi-Finalist - Paris International Short Festival November 2022 Semi-Finalist Best Short Horror - San Francsiso Arthouse Short Festival 2023 Best Horror Nominee - Nicomedia Film Awards Winter 2023

I enjoyed it, how about you?

Back to normal entries tomorrow...

Merry Birthday!

This was the first Christmas that I had off in decades. Santa duties dry up on the weekdays and especially Mondays so I had nothing to do all day. Oh right, I did spend all afternoon at the Pension office to see whether I qualify. I do, but the news isn't great, I have a few more hoops to jump through and since Canada Pension is mostly in slumber mode until next year, it'll be a while before I get any definitive answer. So I'll continue doing what I've been doing which isn't as much as I wish I were doing.

I received a care package from my fellow Santa on Saturday and took the time to peruse it today. Most of it is stuff he asked if I'd like him to purchase it for me, though there are a few surprises. (Also I had forgotten about the stuff so, even then it was unexpected.) First up, a Justice League BluRay.

Although I already own this movie, he noted that it was only 220 yen, so would I be interested. I was and am glad he bought it. FIVE BluRay Discs(!), including 3D if I ever get such a player. 

I only noticed three discs when I opened it, there are two more hidden as inserts.

A nice little folder showing posters and ads.

Hey, I've been there!

Compare this to the disc I already own.

I just noticed something. NO JAPANESE! No wonder it was so cheap! This is a disc probably from Canada, for it has English and French only.

So why was the 5-disc set sold so cheaply? Someone bought the mega set that included a figure and kept it (or sold it at a profit) and then just trashed the discs.

It was going for 35000 yen, which is a substantial mark-up!

I also scored a Movie Monsters Servum, from one of the Godzilla Anime I think?

And a couple of イラストボード, Illustrated Boards.

And a Pencil case.

Not a bad haul at all.

What did you get for yourself, Michael? 

A pair of socks and a Scarlet Spider Bearbrick that almost completes the set.

A low-key Birthday indeed. 

Still, I also watched several Christmas specials that I'd never seen before. About the only one I liked was the BC one.

I won't bother reviewing them, suffice to say, they won't be getting a rewatch anytime soon.

I'll end the day with the true meaning of Christmas. Kaiju!

Mi Kasa es su Kasa.

I planned on writing a long post all about my Saturday adventures. Instead, I watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922), Frankenstein (1910), Thirteen Ghosts (1960), Don't be Afraid of the Dark (1973), Witch's Night Out (1978), Disney's Halloween Treat (1982), and It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (1965)! Needless to say, I didn't get too creative and now it's minutes before midnight yet again.

Here's a quick Yokai to whet your appetite. I saved this one for a rainy day.

Probably one of the more famous Yokai, Kasa-obake (Ghost Umbrella?) He's a relatively friendly Ghost, friends with kiddies and may prank you by floating you up in the air in a strong wind.

For example...

I'm going to save my long elaborate post for tomorrow. So here's a tidbit from when I went shopping.

 

Or Donuts.

A Venom, this is from a Gatcha and as you can see, the collation in acquiring a full set is tough.

The end result is pretty cool. I only have one Carnage, so I'm saving assembling him until I have shelf space.

If you fancy yourself a chef, try out some recipes at Ghoul at Heart.

I think I'll watch the finale of Darryl and the Walking Dead before I go to bed. I hope the last one makes up for the previous five stinkers.

What are YOU Thankful for?

It's Thanksgiving in Canada and Sports Day in Japan so each of our countries has a long weekend. I spent today NOT playing or watching Sports and I'm thankful for that. I also caught up on some non-Halloween television and I'm grateful for that as well. I'm thankful that the Walking Dead Daryl spinoff only has one more episode to go, because it is really dull!

Even the Maggie/Negan show was better though Maggie irritated me constantly.

I saw the last two episodes of Only Murders in the Building and it actually wasn't easy to guess who the murderer was. I would definitely watch that musical.

Bring on Season 4!

I viewed John Oliver's return. Episode One was better than Two. Both good...

He IS a good looking Muppet.

(I also watched a bit of Bill Maher. Only reason to do so is New Rules. I'm not going to dig up a photo.)

I caught the latest Simpsons, a rare Marge-centric episode. One gag made me gag and chortle. That's more than enough for me.

While organizing some movie pamphlets, I had Family Guy on in the background. Now I remember why this show is best in 30-second bits on YouTube. 

I have a few hours before bedtime, so I may find a horror to watch. If not, I still have two episodes of Star Trek Lower Decks to catch up on.

So ignoring the Tube for a moment, here is our latest Yokai, Me-Hitotsu-Bou. 

This Cycloptean Monk is a boy that dresses as Monk or a boy-sized Monk. I'm not really sure.

Here's a Venom for your perusal. Happy 80th Marvel!

 

I haven't seen It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown yet this season. If it weren't so tough to catch, I would definitely want this.

Not exactly identical to his gear, but you get the gist.

I got a Rock!

These are the latest Halloween flavours from 31 (Baskin-Robbins). I'll get more details next time I have a craving.

Check out Zombie Crossings for a dose of other Countdown to Halloween goodies including some music. 

That's it for now. Stay tuned...

Happy Thanksgiving (and Sports Day!)