This morning Gilligan at Retrospace, the best blog for looking at the world of my childhood, published another fantastic post called 1970s Grindhouse: You Can't Go Home Again. In between the newspaper ads for horror and sexploitation double and triple features, he speculates on the demise the genre and reasons why it has not experienced the renaissance many thought it would.
“ So, with Machete, Piranha 3D, and Drive Angry tanking at the box office, can anyone out there deny that the public at large does not want this kind of smut? Don't blame Hollywood. When it's offered in the theaters, no one goes to see it. It's a sad example of how you may want things to be as they were, but you can never go home again.”
I opened a door into my past when I wrote about The Kids are All Right, the 2010 tale of lesbian love, lust and infidelity in sunny California. While Juliane Moore has herself quick one while she's away, I found myself missing the music I listened to and loved when I was a teen-ager
Queen of Blood, Planet of the Vampires, and Life force are the three that immediately came to mind. I am sure there are plenty more out there (please feel free to add to the list in the comments).
I had to respond, but could not come up with anything more intelligent than my paltry list and that her mother smells like elderberry wine. To add insult to injury, she also made me a mix CD that is pretty rocking. I seldom get mixed CDs so it was a real pleasure to recieve it, but again, it left me creatively stymied.
Then I had an idea, solve both at once. Cheap, easy, and with a little luck, she would be pleased to have a CD that is the soundtrack for her own space vampire movie!
Laure und der Raum Vampire is a startling and original film. German science fiction films from the late sixties, especially with vampires, are a rarity, but writer and director Reid Hotz managed he create such a film
And what a movie! Visually rich in that mod sixties, won't the future-look-really-cool style and a swinging soundtrack by Clause Harmony (the Mozart of Porn), Laura and the Space Vampire is worth watching just for those alone. But has plenty plenty more to recommend it.
Starting off with an explosion on a space station at the edge of the Solar System the action doesn't let up until the breathtaking, for 1968, special effects blow out at the end of its 99 minute running time. Hotz's iconoclastic view of the future turns several genre conventions on their side. For example, the men are not square jawed, karate expert intellectuals and the women aren't, well, space stewardesses whose major purpose is to get rescued in the final act.
Even though I have been blogging for a year, I am still a newbie. One place that I wish I knew more about was how to make my sites more interesting and appealing to visitors. I also would like to knoiw more about how to use advertisements. Also, how about the...
I am not putting this here to ask a bunch of specific questions. I want to ask only one: could you please tell me what resources were particularly helpful in creating you magnificent page? Websites, books, 1-976 number?
As I posted to Cyberschizoid this morning, "It would be great if the Google had a hand book for blogging, instead of insisting that members should simply Google their questions to get answers." I have been very frustrated with mining the blogger forum for answers; mostly I find other posts asking the same question I am asking, unanswered.
This the biggest problem I have with the Open Source philosophy; the learning curve for support is pretty high. This isn't supposed to be a complaint, I am enjoying what I am doing and hope to continue.
Turkey's 1972 thriller, Thirsty for Love, Sex, and Murder (aka Aska susayanlar seks ve cinayet, directed by Memet Aslan) is a pleasurable novelty. It is a thrill to see another country's take on familiar genres and formats, adding their unique cultural stamp. The fact that Thirsty for Love is from a country that I know so little about makes it especially delightful. I know nothing about the Turkish film industry's output form the early 1970s.
At heart, it is a melodramatic, giallo, from Turkey.
Last night my wife and I watched The Kids are All Right, the one without Keith Moon. I am talking about the 2010, Lisa Cholodenko drama with Juliane Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Annette Bening. Even though I was thoroughly prepared to scream out "Long Live Rock!" in full mod regalia, I was surprisingly not disappointed by the family drama we watched instead of the 1977 documentary about The Who.
"Psychadelic at times, this unusual and memorable movie version of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" has some creative details, and although it is one of the more obscure versions of the story, it offers a distinctive look at a couple of its many interesting aspects. The style is deliberately murky, and it has not so much as an inter-title, so that you do need to know at least the basic plot in order to understand what is happening. Check out the Jean Epstein version, too (also 1928).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018873/"
To celebrate my return home, Olivia insisted we watch something together so I pulled Queen of Blood (Curtis Harrington, 1966) from my Netflix streaming queue.This low budget movie from American International Pictures influenced Ridley Scott's Alien. Director Curtis Harringtonused footage from two Soviet Union science fiction films to upgrade its visual style. Set in 1990, the future never looked to fantastic.
I am trying something new tonight; posting one of my mixed CDs on the internet for anyone to listen to if they wish. Chances are, if I know you, at some point I have given you music to listen to.
I am too tired to type anything else tonight. Sorry, no song list or description. Movie soundtracks, some jazz, a little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down you pants...
Let me know if there are difficulties with the downloads.
The most special thing about this post is I have nothing to say; I am going on vacation soon, first time in over two years! Preparations are a little over whelming, so tonight's post is mostly screen captures from The Blood Drinkers, also known as Blood is the Color of the Night, original Filipino title Kulay Dugo ang Gabi.
