Anniversary

This was me, a year ago.

God is good.

Keywords

I was looking at the statistics for my blogs today and saw this on the Traffic Sources section:

I hope they found what they were looking for.

Insomniac Theater Presents: Blood on Satan's Claw (1971)

I am watching it now; the whole movie is available on YouTube

I didn't make it through last night.  I'll have to pick it up where I left off.

I first heard about this movie when I was a kid.  Channel 43, from Lorain, usually showed horror movies at 8 o'clock on Saturday nights and The Blood on Satan's Claw  was on once or twice a year (along with Don Sharp's Curse of the Fly, the Ishiro Honda's War of the Gargantuas).  Of course, since this was in the days of one television per household, we didn't watch many of these movies.  Curiously, Dad made an exception for Curse of the Fly. 

The Blood on Satan's Claw takes place in rural, 17th century England.  The tone is set early in the film when the Judge, played with extreme pomposity by Patrick Wymark, declares "Witchcraft is dead and discredited."  He quickly changes his mind when a series of bizarre and unholy events sweep through the shire.

My Scripture classes were never this interesting

Eighteen-year-old Linda Hayden gave a standout performance as Angel Blake, the leader of the nastiest church youth group since the Manson Family.  

Sometimes the pacing is a little slow, The Blood on Satan's Claw is an unusual and entertaining horror film.

Ciao, Oxford

Ciao, Oxford

I know it is a couple of weeks after the fact, but I finally got my farewell compilation to the place that had been my home for the last five years (almost to the day).

I started making mix tapes 30 years ago, when I was in college (coincidentally, that was also in Oxford).  Making audio compilations, whatever format, has always been something I have enjoyed to do.  I often listen to my favorite ones on my iPod.

RIP Amy Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011)

Amy Winehouse's "Love is a Losing Game" had just started playing on my iPod, in a mix that I was preparing about my recent departure from Oxford, when I read that she was dead.  Her songs were musically very rich and often quite fun.  She blended many disparate different musical styles into a melange and fired it in the crucible of deep soul.  Plus she had a knack for an amusing turn of phrase.