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Tuesday, October 30, 2012 10:43 PM
Happy Halloween
 by Fëanor

Poppy and I are watching monster movies on Halloween. A great tradition. We caught Devil Bat earlier, a pretty hilarious movie featuring Bela Lugosi as a bitter, vengeful scientist who uses "shaving lotion" to mark people for a hideous death from his giant (rubber) pet bat. Then we caught the end of Frankenstein, and followed that up with Son of Frankenstein.

I tend to think of Bride of Frankenstein as the only truly great Frankenstein movie, but the sequel, Son of Frankenstein is also pretty fantastic. The cast is amazing, first off. It's the last movie with Karloff as the monster, and he gives the character all the pathos and power he always has. Basil Rathbone plays the title character, a prideful scientist and aristocrat with no idea what he's really getting into. Bela Lugosi turns in a truly amazing performance as the sinister, manipulative, and seriously creepy Ygor. A surprising stand-out is Lionel Atwill as Inspector Krogh, the one-armed, monocled character that Mel Brooks so successfully makes fun of in Young Frankenstein (it's actually amazing how many elements Brooks lifted whole from the old Frankenstein movies for his parody). Though the monocle and false arm could so easily be ridiculous, Atwill manages to make Krogh a believable, sympathetic, and even rather complex and interesting character.

The sets are almost their own, extra character, wonderfully surreal and nightmarish, and they remind me of nothing so much as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - everything is wild angles, yawning spaces, secret crevices, and impossibly tremendous doors. There's also a really great scene where Frankenstein's cute little boy tells a story about a giant he met, and you, his father, and the inspector slowly realize who he's really talking about, while the other characters just laugh at how imaginative the boy is. Rathbone's character finds himself at harder and harder pains to hide the truth about what he's doing and what's really going on around the house, to the point where it actually gets rather funny.

Anyway, check it out. It's worth a watch.
Tagged (?): Frankenstein (Not), Halloween (Not), Movies (Not)
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Friday, November 5, 2010 02:11 PM
Halloween
 by Fëanor

I'm a little late with this, but I wanted to do a quick Halloween recap post. This Halloween was the first one we spent at home since we've been in this house. It was also my son's first ever Halloween. The three of us hung out and watched monster movies (Ghoulies and Ghoulies II are hilarious and fantastic, btw) while I manned the door. It was good times. We got a lot of trick-or-treaters - the most I've seen since I manned the door at my parents' house years and years ago. I was rather surprised. We almost used up every piece of candy in the three bags that I bought that morning.

I decided to give out the candy by just holding out the container and letting the kids take whatever they wanted, which was an interesting sociological experiment. Some kids would take one piece, then hesitate as if they wanted another but didn't feel right taking it, and then they'd walk away. In one case I encouraged the kid to just take another. Sometimes the parents were waiting on the sidewalk and would call out to their children to, "Just take one!" In one of these cases, the little girl in question took three pieces anyway. I thought this was hilarious, and totally did not tell on her.

I almost wish I'd had a good enough memory and enough patience to record exactly how much each kid took. I could have written a paper! As it is, I did make a go at recording what everyone was dressed as. The list is below, if you're interested, with genders included when I could remember. For some reason a lot of kids only went to the houses on the other side of the street and never made it over to ours, but I did see somebody over there dressed as an iPhone, which I thought was pretty great. Overall, a lot of classic costumes, which was kind of nice to see. The old traditions live on!

Great white shark (girl - this was one of my favorites)
Princess Leia (girl - she had fake buns on the sides of her head, but was also carrying a lightsaber, a non-canonical addition I enjoyed)
Robin Hood (girl)
Chef (boy)
Soccer Player (2 or 3 boys - I was pretty disappointed in these; it looked like they'd just put on the soccer uniforms they already owned)
Cowgirl (girl)
Bee (girl)
Sheep (girl)
Princess (girl)
Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz (girl)
Hamburglar (girl - this one pleased me. I didn't know kids today were even aware of the Hamburglar!)
Ghost (boy)
Pirate (boy)
Fireman (boy)
The Mario Brothers (boys)
Skeleton (boy)
Soldier (boy)
Wolverine (boy)
Woody from Toy Story (man)
Jesse from Toy Story (1 woman, 1 girl)
Sweet Tarts (baby - this was totally cute)
Caveman (boy)
Astronaut (boy)
Girl Scout (girl)
Zombie Cheerleader (girl)
The murderer from Scream (boy)
Scientist (boy)
Hobo (boy)
Darth Vader (boy - he wasn't wearing the mask, probably because it would have been a pain in the ass)
Anakin Skywalker, circa Episode II (boy - oddly he and Darth were traveling together. They were kind of like a before-and-after trick-or-treat team)
Harry Potter (boy)
Vampire
Dinosaur
Iron Man (boy)
Death (boy)
Wonder Woman (girl)
Batgirl (girl)
Supergirl (girl)
Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (girl)
Tagged (?): Halloween (Not), Personal (Not)
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Friday, October 8, 2010 10:28 AM
(Last updated on Friday, October 8, 2010 10:30 AM)
Recyclotron
 by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

Tagged (?): Art (Not), Books (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Costumes (Not), Drink (Not), Firefly (Not), Halloween (Not), Holiday (Not), Links (Not), Mario (Not), Mashups (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), Narnia (Not), News (Not), Nintendo (Not), Photography (Not), Products (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Science (Not), Shirts (Not), Star Wars (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Wii (Not)
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Monday, September 20, 2010 10:52 AM
Recyclotron
 by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Art (Not), Cartoons (Not), Cats (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Frank Quitely (Not), Fringe (Not), Grant Morrison (Not), Halloween (Not), History (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Movies (Not), Neil Gaiman (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Science (Not), Star Trek (Not), Star Wars (Not), Street Fighter (Not), Toys (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not)
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Friday, October 30, 2009 11:32 AM
The Hulk Thought of the Day
 by Hulk

Hulk looking forward to Halloween, when Hulk can walk down street and hear puny humans shout, "Hey, great costume, man!" instead of, "OH DEAR GOD WHAT IS THAT THING?!"
Tagged (?): Halloween (Not), The Hulk Thought of the Day (Not)
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009 03:08 PM
Recyclotron
 by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

By the way, beware clicking through to io9 today. They have a really evil ad for the video game Fairytale Fights on the site that repeatedly opens a pop-up window, whether you have a pop-up blocker on or not. To stop the ad, right-click it, and uncheck "Play." I was actually vaguely interested in Fairytale Fights, but now I hate it on principle.



Tagged (?): Aliens (Not), Animals (Not), Art (Not), Books (Not), Buffy (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Costumes (Not), Craft (Not), Dinosaurs (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Dollhouse (Not), eBay (Not), Gadgets (Not), George R.R. Martin (Not), Halloween (Not), History (Not), Internet (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Lovecraft (Not), Mario (Not), Microsoft (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Science (Not), Sherlock Holmes (Not), Shirts (Not), Song of Ice and Fire (Not), Star Trek (Not), Technology (Not), Toys (Not), TV (Not), Twitter (Not), Vampires (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Warren Ellis (Not), Web comics (Not), Wolverine (Not)
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Friday, October 23, 2009 12:16 PM
Recyclotron
 by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

Tagged (?): Art (Not), Batman (Not), Books (Not), Business (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comic books (Not), Costumes (Not), Craft (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Dollhouse (Not), Facebook (Not), Food (Not), Fringe (Not), Gadgets (Not), George R.R. Martin (Not), Google (Not), Halloween (Not), Joss Whedon (Not), Legend of Zelda (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Microsoft (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Products (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Robots (Not), Science (Not), Shakespeare (Not), Song of Ice and Fire (Not), Space (Not), Star Trek (Not), Star Wars (Not), Superman (Not), Technology (Not), The Dark Tower (Not), The Prisoner (Not), Toys (Not), Transformers (Not), TV (Not), Twitter (Not), Vampires (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Zombies (Not)
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009 03:57 PM
Recyclotron
 by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.



Tagged (?): Aliens (Not), Animals (Not), Art (Not), Bacon (Not), Books (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Costumes (Not), Craft (Not), Disney (Not), Dollhouse (Not), FlashForward (Not), Food (Not), Gadgets (Not), Graffiti (Not), Halloween (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Mortal Kombat (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Products (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Science (Not), Space (Not), Star Wars (Not), Technology (Not), Terminator (Not), Thor (Not), Toys (Not), Transformers (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Wolverine (Not), Zombies (Not)
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009 11:53 AM
(Last updated on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 02:51 PM)
Recyclotron
 by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.



Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Art (Not), Battlestar Galactica (Not), Books (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comic books (Not), Costumes (Not), Craft (Not), Dinosaurs (Not), Dollhouse (Not), FlashForward (Not), Fringe (Not), Gaming (Not), Ghostbusters (Not), Green Lantern (Not), Halloween (Not), Joss Whedon (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Lovecraft (Not), Mario (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Products (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Science (Not), Shirts (Not), Simpsons (Not), Space (Not), Star Trek (Not), Star Wars (Not), Tattoos (Not), Thor (Not), TV (Not), Twitter (Not), Video games (Not), Web comics (Not), X-Men (Not)
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Friday, October 16, 2009 01:08 PM
Recyclotron
 by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Art (Not), Books (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Cosplay (Not), Costumes (Not), Food (Not), Gadgets (Not), George R.R. Martin (Not), Halloween (Not), Links (Not), Mario (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Products (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Robots (Not), Science (Not), Song of Ice and Fire (Not), Space (Not), Star Wars (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Zombies (Not)
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Welcome to the blog of Jim Genzano, writer, web developer, husband, father, and enjoyer of things like the internet, movies, music, games, and books.

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