31 Days of Horror Movies: Dead Alive

I'm at a bit of a loss to adequately describe today's film, so I'll just dive right in and hope for the best.

Dead Alive (aka Braindead)

It is the case that an artist's work before they become big-time Hollywood movers & shakers is often some of their best work (or at least their most unique). Such is the case with director Peter Jackson. A good decade before he became a household name with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson helmed one of the quirkiest and most bizarre horror movies I've ever seen.

Dead Alive centers around Lionel, a grown man living at home with his overbearing mom. Lionel falls for a nice young lady and, in one of the first of many strange occurrences, the mother is bit by a Sumatran rat-monkey. This causes her to fall ill and die, then come back as a zombie. Lionel is unable to prevent his undead mother from infecting a number of townsfolk. Soon, there is a hilarious (yes, hilarious) outbreak of zombies.

Much of Dead Alive's humor is derived from its blood and gore. Unlike the more recent, sadistic efforts of Saw and Hostel, this twenty-year-old gem manages somehow to make its bloodiness amusing. It's an extremely gross, and extremely funny movie. It was a blast to watch but, honestly, I'm not sure I'm ready to view it again, at least for awhile.

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Orby-D

Twenty-four-years ago today, we lost one of the greatest singers of the rock & roll era. While Roy Orbison will be forever known in the pantheon of rock/pop legends, for me he will always be the voice that I melded with during turbulent high school years, and that I love to this day. Roy Orbison wrote and (more importantly) sang about love. Mostly, it was tragic love, not the happy-go-lucky love that so many of his contemporaries sang about. No one could do depressive songs better than Mr. Orbison. This is probably why I identified with his music so much. I mean, we all have had our down times but, during high school, I'd cornered the market.

Watching The Hours

A Twitter friend named Paula has asked for folks to submit ideas for a blog-a-thon about what we think will be the classic films of the future. In other words, what relatively recent movies (namely, from the 21st century), do we think will be considered classics in the decades to come, possibly airing on such venerable stations as Turner Classic Movies ? While a number of films come to mind for such a category, one in particular stood out from the rest, and thus is my entry for Paula's blog-a-thon.

The Year in Music

There are times in your life when you will read or watch something, stop for a moment, and think to yourself: "This is truth. This is gospel, right here." For some, it may have been the first time you read the Bible, the Tanakh, or the Koran. For others, it could have been when you read self-help books such as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , or Chicken Soup for the Soul . Still, for others, it's going to be this blog post right here. The truth is, dear reader, that 1993 was the best year for music. Full-stop. Some of you already know this. For others, it will be a revelation. Please, allow me to explain. Following are some of the albums released in 1993, with a bit of commentary from yours truly. During or after reading this, I think you'll agree that there's really no question anymore that 1993 was king. Ok, here we go.

Left to my own devices

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