Well, we’re
getting closer to All Hallow’s Eve, so it’s time to get back into
posting about some horror movies. Today’s bunch is a random lot
from the 1980’s. I have a couple of more posts about a somewhat
beloved franchise coming up, so I wanted to get these added since
they don’t really tie in at all. The only hint I can give is that
this franchise involves cool ladies surviving the odds. Yes, that is
quite vague!
I’ve been
meaning to talk about a couple of these for years, so now
is the best time to do so. It’s a mixture of overall weirdness. We
got vampires, sexy were-cats, de-evolving scientists, and even more
sexy werewolves... the 1980’s were weird. First, it’s The Lost
Boys from 1987 because I might as well get the best out of the way.
Next is Altered States from 1980, a movie straddling the fence
between sci-fi and horror. Next is a new viewing for me. For some
reason, Cat People from 1982 piqued my interest. Finally, I save the
“best” for last with Howling 2: Your Sister is a Werewolf from
1985.
Who knew that struggling to get an old kitchen floor up would inspire this post? Maybe that crappy glue got to me or something. Anyway, we were trying to get our house together before our new son, “Baby A”, was born. Yes, that was his name until we centered on something more concrete like Alexander, Anthony, Aaron, or Thalmus... yes, that last one is made up. I don’t know how he would feel being named after a 70’s blaxploitation actor. Anyway, as I struggled to get that floor up, I started thinking about actors from Days of Our Lives. Then, that went to thinking about weird plots from the long-running soap opera. If you’re wondering why a black dude from the South knows quite a bit about the show, blame my grandma for that. So, here are some random thoughts on my time with the show.
“In the Beginning…”
For those who don’t know, Days of Our Lives is a soap opera that started in 1965 on NBC and is still running these days. They apparently switched to streaming on Peacock recently, so I hope the old ladies got a nephew who has some streaming knowledge. Days (or DOOL for short) was your usual soap opera. It revolves around a couple of families in the fictional Salem, IL. You get a whole lotta drama. This person is in love with that person, this person’s cheating with that person, someone wants to plot to get their love interest away from their true love, and all-around calamity ensues. Also add in assassins, evil business moguls with cool accents, Satan, plastic surgery, many cases of amnesia, hidden twin siblings, illegitimate kids, and a biiiiiatch named Sami.
This may be the first post where the video AND song are both
weird. Also, Hello there! Yeah, I been gone for a little bit longer than I
wanted. Life’s still going on, you see. The Lord has been good to us. We’re
even having another boy soon, so that’ll be two rascals me and Liz will have to
chase. So, let me talk about a Danish song that apparently hit the R&B
charts back in the 80’s… yeah. I think America didn’t know what to do with this
song.
“White Horse” was done by Laid Back, a Danish electric
group. While the song was released on the B-side of their album in 1983, it
somehow got a lot of traction over here in the US. I guess we really liked
those beats or something. I actually remember my first interaction with this
song from 1998. Me and my dad were driving down to Huntsville for Thanksgiving
and this song came on 104.3 WZYP during their 80’s hour. Even he was wondering what
was up with this song. He even brought it up to my cousin and great uncle who were
visiting from Chicago. Apparently, I talked about this song here years ago, so it may be time for a redo and something more detailed.
So, what was this song about? And what was up with the
video???
Shady Dancing Dude – We get introduced to some shady Danish
dude being followed by a shady Danish reporter who I guess wants to know about the white
horse. Shady Dude also got some dance moves, and I can’t blame him. That intro makes
you want to move. I see why this hit the charts over here.
This song makes no dang sense – After a pretty long, upbeat
intro, we learn a few things. First, if you want to ride, don’t right the white horse. Second, if you want to be rich, you gotta be a – uh, let’s say witch. You’ll
figure it out. Finally, and most importantly, if you must ride, ride the
white pony. Some say that’s about drugs which makes a lot of sense because they were
probably on drugs when they wrote this! I remember one commenter said that the
white pony is sex… Okay?
Cross-eyed Lady – During the video, we see a sultry lady
dressed in a suit with a short skirt. Why she has the captain sailor’s hat, I
have no clue. She also looks a bit-cross-eyed during it all which adds the
video’s weirdness. All I can say to that is “Anchors Away!”
David Hasselhoff?? – Look, when I first saw this vid, I was
like “Michael Knight’s in the house!” I know John Guldenburg (the guitarist)
looks nothing like Hasselhoff, but it stuck out to me. Maybe they have the same
vibe.
White Pony – The video ends… with a white pony in a hotel.
Don’t know what’s being said there, but at least the fun has ended.
………………………………………..
Le me guess... she hit up some of that White Horse before shooting this video, right?
In the end, this is definitely one of the weirdest 80’s
songs. That’s probably why it was such a hit. Even their other hit,“Sunshine
Reggae,” isn’t too bad. That’s all I know about the duo. They got a bit of a
discography, but I’m not too interested in it. Anyway, that’s all I got for
now. Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.
This may or may not be me dancing to "White Horse".
During a trip to Nashville back in
2023, I decided to stop by my old comic stomping grounds, The Great Escape, off
of Charlette Ave. Even though my comic buying has gone down in the last couple
years, I still try to make time for the hobby. Making time to read said comics
is another thing altogether. Anyway, I was perusing some of the new stuff, and
a recent Star Trek trade popped out to me. The hardcover had a few Trek characters, most
notably, Captain Benjamin LaFayette Sisko. You know I had to get this, man!!!
At the end of 2022, IDW started to release a new Star Trek
comic that featured a lot of notable characters from the franchise with Captain
Sisko being the lead. It even has a sister series called Star Trek: Defiant
which features a few other popular characters. Since Trek continuity is pretty
busy these days, they had it take place a couple of years after the end of DS9
and before Star Trek: Nemesis. “Godshock” contains the first 6 issues of the
series. It’s being written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing who I don’t know
too much about. The artwork is being done by a few like Ramon Rosanas, Oleg
Chudakov, Joe Eisma, and Erik Tamayo. So, what happens when someone is killing
“gods?”
Star Trek: Godshock
Writers: Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing
Artists: Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudakov, Joe Eisma, and Erik
Tamayo
Even though we have passed the spooky season, I still had a
hankering for some horror movies. After I finished a rewatch of Howling 2: Your
Sister is a Werewolf (yes, this exists and I will talk about this next time), I
got curious about the Phantasm series. The 1978 cult classic was on Prime, so I
thought I’d check it out. It’s actually not my first foray into the franchise.
I didn’t remember who it was (I thought it might’ve been Allison Pregler,
formerly known as Obscurus Lupa), but when Channel Awesome was on Blip.tv,
someone talked about the first four movies. In fact (just checked this), it was
Allison since she used to review cult horror at that time.
After my viewing of the first movie, I saw that Prime had
the rest of the franchise on there, so I decided to go down this weird rabbit
whole. Phantasm was released in 1979 and was written, produced, and directed by
Don Coscarelli. Even though it made some decent money for its budget, it didn’t
fare well critically. Luckily, the positive press came later, and it got
regarded as a cult classic. It took a decade, but it eventually got a sequel in
Phantasm 2. The next movie, Phantasm 3: Lord of the Dead, was released in 1994.
Phantasm 4: Oblivion was released in 1998. It would take almost two decades for
one more to come out, but Phantasm: Ravager was released in 2016.
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