Blogging Bits and Other Nibbles...

Bad blogging queen that I am, it's been a few weeks since I highlighted some of my favorite blog bits from around the virtual universe.

Before we grab our virtual surfboards and hit the blogs, my fellow brothers and sisters of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers (check out the spiffy new look of the group's homepage) recently offered up another insightful roundtable at Blogcritics Magazine. The topic this time around is the allure of of evil in horror.

Now here's a look at some of the more marvelous morsels that I've stmbled upon in recent weeks:

• Over at The Vault of Horror, the topic of children watching violent movies is discussed following a recent study published in the August issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of the Academy of Pediatrics. The study documents widespread exposure of young US adolescents to movies with extreme graphic violence from movies rated R for violence and questions the effectiveness of the current movie-rating system. So how old is "old enough" to see the likes of Saw and Hostel? Jump into the Vault and discuss. (There's also a fun little poll about the hottest scream queen and a nice chance to vote for Jamie Lee!)




• Pax Romano over at Billy Loves Stu (quickly becoming a favorite blogger of mine alongside the kiddies of Kindertrauma!) has a fun item or two that gave me more than a few gay giggles. First up is his lament over the cinematic demise of Glen Lantz. the character played by one-time teen heartthrob-turned-marauding pirate Johnny Depp in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Those old images of young Johnny boy in his clingy gray sweatpants and teasing half-shirts caused a reminiscent sigh as I remembered late nights, cable TV, and the fantasies of a teenage slasher geek(!). A few more belly laughs followed with his examination of a dozen other lesser-know Camp Crystal Lake denizens. From grabby-hands Enos, the truck driver, to sassy Sandy, the diner waitress, you'll never look at Friday the 13th the same way again.




• My favorite playmates over at Kindertrauma offer up a side-splitting take on some fantasy film casting. This time, it's Janet Leigh who's thrown out of the shower and replaced with...well, you just have to see it to fully appreciate their genuis.




• Mark your address books because John Moorehead has moved his thought-provoking TheoFantastique to a new location. While you're there, I'll call your attention to a retrospective John did on the creepy 1981 film Dead & Buried a few weeks ago.




• Over at Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire, hostess Tenebrous Kate delves deep into the camp-tastic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. She had me at the Josie and the Pussycats analogy and Wikipedia link(!).




• The refreshingly cerebral Kim Paffenroth (that's Dr. Paffenroth to you!) posted the intriguing prologue to Valley of the Dead, his latest zombie-fied historical re-creation. This time he's visiting Dante's circles of hell where he finds cannibalism among the Christian discourse. And you know the old expression: Where there's cannibalism...




• CRwm over at And Now the Screaming Starts visits Mulberry Street and Stuart Gordon's take on Poe's The Black Cat.




• Finally, Final Girl offers up the latest installment of its popular film club, with a look back at 1977's The Car. Dinner with Max Jenke and Evil on Two Legs go along for the ride.

Nothing else doing. Finishing up editing and formatting the Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet anthology and getting ready to announce Dark Scribe Press' next project. Think non-fiction and feminine(!).