Getting harder to find any Halloween or horror-themed Shoegaze, and anytime I find a Darkgaze or Blackgaze song I think I like, the Cookie Monster Metal vocals come in to ruin it.
So here’s Sleep Party People, who seem to be at the intersection of post-rock, chillout, prog rock and Shoegaze, and the bunny masks on display here in “I’m Not Human at All” make it just odd enough to use for the Halloween offering.
I always thought this musical number from Corpse Bride was pretty cool, and I still do. It also has more than enough dancing skeletons for Halloween:
In lieu of some real Halloween links, here’s a quickie: Places on earth that are supposedly gateways to Hell.
And here’s another video on the same subject:
A new job and a new dog have been eating up a lot of my time, so I’ve fallen down on my regular Halloween posts.
But here’s a nice video of the latest Halloween scare props. All these seem to be from the same company. Sadly, I doubt I can afford any of them…
I try to collect at least one signature for every writer I seriously collect. I have signatures for H. G. Wells, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Tom Reamy, to name a few.
I also have a few books signed by C. L. Moore, but not (until this item) any by her husband, Henry Kuttner, who were both behind the Lewis Padgett pseudonym. Kuttner, a first rate writer, died in 1958, and works signed by him seldom come on the market. However, I found the following first edition online, and not only is it signed, it’s an inscribed association copy.
Padgett, Lewis (Henry Kuttner and possibly C.L. Moore). The Brass Ring. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946. First edition hardback, a Very Good+ copy, with uneven fading to the spine (looks to be lightening in relation to the dust jacket) and age darkening to pages, in a Good+ dust jacket with a 1″ chip to bottom front and 1/4″ chipping at head and heel. Not a great copy, but it does have a great inscription on the front free endpaper: “For Bob —/In memory of a happy childhood at the old Basutoland reformatory,/now dust./Hank/(“Lewis Padgett”)”. It also has Bloch’s signature at the top of the page. Currey, page 291 (which says this was in collaboration with C. L. Moore). Hubin, Crime Fiction: 1749—1980, page 309 (which credits this to Kuttner alone). Bloch and Kuttner were friends and collaborators, making this a very important association copy from one SF giant to another. Bought, after much haggling, for $500 from a dealer online.
Here’s an unusual Harlan Ellison indie comic:
Ellison, Harlan (art by Larry Todd). Harlan Ellison’s Chocolate Alphabet. Last Gasp Eco Funnies, 1978. First edition comic book original, a Fine copy (or “Mint” in comic parlance) save slight age darkening to pages, signed by Ellison. Graphic novel version of a short story that appeared a few years earlier in F&SF. Bought off eBay for $18.96.
Picked these up direct from Tachyon, along with some copies for the Lame Excuse Books catalog.
For your Sunday dose of Shoegaze, here’s The Denzels “Self-Talk”. They sound a bit like classic-era Jesus and Mary Chain, with maybe a bit of early U2 thrown in.
L.W. Currey had another sale, and I found three books signed firsts by A. E. van Vogt, who I previously had no signed books for (plus one other).
