#Mark Chaney

[thealanwrightblog]

Four new albums, soon to be released, that I’m looking forward to hearing.

[fuckyeahvanhalen86-95]

David Lee Roth was back on stage last Thursday (March 23rd) as he joined the all-star cover band The Royal Machines for a performance of Van Halen's "Panama" in Las Vegas.

The concert took place at the Michelob Ultra Arena at the Mandalay Bay as part of a corporate event for Home Depot sales managers. Roth joined a lineup of stars including Billy Morrison, Mark McGrath, Donovan Leitch Jr., Chris Chaney, Josh Freese and Billy ldol guitarist Steve Stevens. Dave made his presence known donning bright yellow pants and delivered his signature ad-libs during the performance, that you can watch here, which was posted to Facebook by Grant Caruthers.

Morrison also posted a pic of DLR's performance with the band on Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Billy Morrison (@billymorrisonofficial)

[moviesandmania]

WATCHDOG (2023) Reviews of home invasion horror plus trailer

‘Be careful who you let in’ Watchdog is a 2023 home invasion horror film thriller film. After narrowly surviving a violent mugging, Travis Wilkes invites the drifter who saved him back to the isolated home where he and his girlfriend reside, not realising that he’s opened the door to a night of terror and bloody revenge. Written and directed by L.C. Holt (Time’s Up; Spiritus). The movie stars…

[joe-spookyy]

asks you about american werewolf in london

hoooly shit it’s finally happened. someone asked me The question. thanks anon.

i am now going to try and sell you all on this movie cause i can’t recommend it enough and i think everyone should watch it. so: let me tell you a thing or two about hit 1981 horror comedy an american werewolf in london!!! and this is off the top of my head so if any of it is slightly off numbers wise im sorry. if you like 80s horror, men, queercoding, re-animator, the thing, jaws, saw, the lost boys, or just werewolves in general. hear me out on this one. link included to watch.

The Premise:

fresh off the heels of his cocaine fueled jazz musical masterpiece The Blues Brothers (1980), director john landis decided he was going to cook up the greatest film ever made. and he did. he was actually gonna have john belushi (jake blues) and dan akyroyd (elwood blues and yes the ghostbuster) play the two main characters, david kessler and jack goodman. now, who are these fellas? well i’m so glad you asked. david (played by david naughton) and jack (played by griffin dunne) are two dear pals from new york on a cute little backpacking trip across europe. david's the tall one. he's silly and gleeful to be out and about. jack is the short one. he's very much not gleeful about the fact that they're on the rainy moors and wishes they were in rome. together they find their way to a cute little pub and go inside, looking for hot drinks. the locals do not love this. they also do not love when jack asks them why there's a five pointed star on the wall (since lon chaney and universal studios assert that that's the mark of the wolfman!) it gets awkward. so they leave, with nothing but the warning to stay off the moors, stick to the roads, and beware of the moon. obviously, they do not follow this. wouldn't make for a very interesting movie if they did. and, as i'm sure you've assumed, they encounter a werewolf, leaving jack like this (dead):

and david, who survived the attack, with the curse of the werewolf. but fear not! david is transported to a hospital where he makes a lovely recovery, and jack um. well he stays dead. but he comes back to haunt david! he shows up a few more times in further states of decay to tell david that he really ought to just kill himself so that the curse is broken, jack and all the other werewolf victims can rest in peace, and david won't accidentally maul any additional civilians as a werewolf. hey while we're talking about jack heres me when i dressed up as him at a horror con. and the man himself.

anyways. hijinks ensue, and you're taken on a delightful romp across 97 minutes of fun as david tries to navigate life as... you guessed it. AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON!

why it rules:

in my opinion, that's enough to make this movie flames as fuck. but if you're not convinced yet? let me tell you some more. first off. the practical effects on this bad boy are straight up excellent. they're done by my personal favorite vfx artist rick baker (who also worked on star wars, men in black, videodrome, king kong and more!), and he does not hold back. the picture of jack shows how nasty and detailed the wound is pretty well, but in action it's even better with all the nasty fleshy bits dangling and wiggling and eugh. it's gross. but it's so well done. and he does a terrific job showing how jack decays throughout the rest of the movie. but of course, what really matters is the werewolf. it's not called an american dead guy in london. which is good. cause that would be a dumb name for a movie. anyways. if we’re going to talk about the werewolf, we have to start with the iconic transformation scene. sped up.

wow! pretty impressive stuff right? it’s all practical, no cgi, and i think the way it’s almost drawn out and the relative silence of the scene adds to the impact it has, since it sort of forces the audience to sit with and feel just a little bit of the discomfort that david seems to be feeling. we just have to watch him scream in pain and beg for mercy. yeesh. now, the transformation scene is hard to top. but i think the final werewolf design is actually pretty solid. it’s distinctly not man, but it’s also distinctly not wolf. i would include a picture, but i feel like part of the allure of the film is how it (jaws style) doesn’t really let you get a good look at the monster itself until the end of the movie. it’s a great way to build the tension and leave a little bit up to the audience’s interpretation. and the audience will always imagine something way more horrible than you could have ever created. which is kind of beautiful. the first time i watched, i found myself kind of disappointed in the werewolf’s appearance - its face seemed to be stuck in a sort of permanent scowl. i was kind of lost, because i couldn’t imagine why a static face had won out over whatever the vfx team was clearly capable of making. but Oh. dear reader. when nurse alex price, david’s dear love, who cared for him in the hospital, allowed him to live with her, and even banged him, approaches the wolf. when she tells david she loves him. the wolf’s eyes soften. it begins to drop the snarl. see. i lied here’s part of the wolf. all snarly like and scary. before it melts at three simple words from alex. god.

it hits me like a huge truck every single time. rick baker never misses and this movie was certainly not an exception. he got an academy award for it and it was well deserved.

not so into the technical stuff? that’s okay. i have more to praise about this movie. it is one of the best blends of horror and comedy that i’ve ever encountered. although some of it looks a little dated, i do think it maintains its fear factor. it’s plenty gory, and in my humble opinion, the subway scene (you’ll know it when you see it) is one of the most effective bits of horror i’ve ever encountered. even when isolated from the film, it still packs a punch. but i’m not gonna put it here because i want you to just watch it with the rest of the movie. sorry. and on top of the horror, it’s honestly hilarious. if you don’t think seven dead people ganging up on one dude and listing ways he should kill himself in the middle of a porn theater while a porno plays very loudly in the background. well. i don’t know what to tell you. you probably won’t like this movie that much. also, the final needle drop over the credits at the end is so abrupt and so funny. love it.

and of course, being an 80s horror movie with two male leads. i’m sure you can guess what i’m going to say. it is not hard to read jack and david as friends, but it’s also not very difficult to read them as having a little something going on. like love. fellas is it gay to go on a little trip across england with just yoh and your best bro? hard to say. textually, i do think it’s kind of telling that every time jack shows up, it’s either right after or while david is having a heterosexual experience (flirting with alex, banging alex, watching straight porn in the porn theater.) it’s almost like… something other than jack… is haunting david. i dunno. i’m not a cop. but it’s interesting. seems like something the average tumblr user might like to keep an eye on, so i’m letting you know. also they have a conversation while david is completely naked which is like. hello. plus the inherent queerness of the werewolf narrative is something i could talk about for HOURS and was especially prevalent, alongside vampire movies. in the 80s during the aids crisis.

also, there’s a classic john landis third act car crash scene, where, in the same vein as the blues brothers, an obscene amount of cars are absolutely demolished.

also also, the muppets make a brief appearance in this movie. this made me jump for joy, because i love the muppets. and you should too.

fun and true facts

still not sold? well, check out this last ditch effort in the form of fun facts. or, if you just want to know more, read on.

micheal jackson was so impressed by the effects in this movie, particularly the transformation scene, that after seeing it, he promptly hired rock baker (vfx guy) and john landis (director guy) to work on the music video for his hit song thriller. you’ve probably seen it, but if not, go watch it. tbh, even if you have seen it before, go watch it again.

david naughton was a doctor pepper spokesman before the filming of this movie. he was in at least a few bits of promotional material, including at least one commercial. unfortunately he lost the job because of the amount of time he spent dick out in this movie. doctor pepper did not want that to be the representation of their brand. cowards, the lot of them.

speaking of his dick, you actually never fully see it at any point in the movie despite the fact that it seems they never felt like telling david to wear pants on set. there is a reason for this! david (character) is jewish and canonically circumcised (dunno how else to put it) and david (actor) is neither of these things. so, to avoid ruining the realism in his. werewolf movie. john landis took great care to never show the whole thing.

the american ambassador who visits david in the hospital is played by frank oz, who also voices miss piggy. because of her brief cameo, he technically plays two different roles in this movie, although miss piggy is simply credited as “Herself” in the end credits of the movie. he also voices yoda which isn’t relevant but it is really funny to me.

see you next wednesday, which is the name of the porno in the movie, is actually a fun john landis easter egg! many of his movies include the phrase “see you next wednesday.” it’s also seen on posters in the subway scene.

in the scene where jack first visits david in the hospital, he was supposed to take a bite of david’s toast, after which it would immediately fall out of his ruined and torn to shreds throat. however, it was cut for being too gross. which is sad i feel like it could have been funny.

when david calls home to talk to his parents, he mentions two siblings: rachel and max. these are the names of the directors children in real life.

griffin dunne, who plays jack, also appears as the family therapist in a season 2 episode of succession. this was a jumpscare.

while they were filming the naked in the zoo scenes, they were unable to actually close the zoo, so when filming carried on past the opening time of the park, they just kept going and allowed butt naked david naughton to run loose around the zoo. they did, however, succeed in closing piccadilly circus for the car crash scene.

in the beginning when jack is being attacked by the werewolf, it was in fact half a wolf prop on the front of a wheelbarrow. this is a very funny vision for me.

jack is right - the five pointed star is considered the mark of the wolfman, according to 1941’s The Wolf Man, played by lon chaney junior and produced by universal pictures. the guy knows his stuff. interestingly, rick baker did the makeup for the 2010 remake of the wolf man as well. he did pretty good, i think.

this isn’t even about this movie but blues brothers is an awesome film too and a fun fact about that one is there was a whole part of the budget devoted to buying cocaine. and you can tell. great movie.

director john landis did in fact kill three people the year after this movie came out. so. i do feel a little bad promoting it because jesus christ. but. no harm no foul in pirating it. it’s one easy internet archive search away. and sometimes it’s on tubi. but just in case, here’s the internet archive link. https://archive.org/details/an-american-werewolf-in-london

so. anyways. please check out this baller ass movie and talk to me about it. thank you so much to whoever asked this. i love you. thanks for reading. bye.

[blimbo-buddy]

It's been a while since I sent an ask.

Out of everything, how've you been doing? Want a sandwich? It's uhh toasted peanut butter and jelly.

Hope you been doing well! Catching up on what's going on your blog and I already love "Horizon of the Wild" xD

Have a design interpretation of Unicorn :D

Made her a ragdoll and I'd fucking love her and she is done dirty and I will fight Gerald Ivy! UNICORN DESERVED BETTER!!

WOAH first fanart of the fake ass bad xenofiction novel holy shit. I’m honestly surprised that Horizon of the Wild not only fooled two people into thinking it was real but now prompted it’s own very fanart lol

really dig what you did with Unicorn’s design I’m gonna be real I never thought of any of the characters physical designs in terms of their markings, mainly breeds but that’s limited to the dogs (Chaney and Bethany) and I agree Unicorn deserved better (said as if she’s real)

[amongthestackspodcast]

Among the Stacks is officially 1 year old today!

And what a year it's been! 4 preludes, 10 Tales, and 2 special episodes. We know it's been a bit rocky, but we thank everyone for sticking with us that far, and we really hope you stick with us as we do bigger and better next year

While we're here, we want to thank everyone that's made this possible so far.

@hangingslothcentral for producing our first ever episode and being the voice of X. Libris.

@reefsharkivist for making our ending theme.

Morgan Champine for doing our early transcripts

Maty Parzival for doing the rest of our transcripts and production assistance

@alexyquest for being our director, the writer of Tale 4 and being the voice of Luna Tom Chaney for being the voice of Blaise

@pentoll-meh for being the voice of Endo

@inkathebadger for being the voice of Claude

@swiftlymurmurs for being the voice of Mark

Melissa Bowens for being the voice of The Pilot

@monstrousproductions for being the voice of Dr Walker and script editing

@clansocreations for doing all our episode art and writing Tale 6

Neo Upod for being the voice of Emmett

Jeremiah 'Jokr' Rendr for being the voice of Aisosa

@thestoragepapers for being the voice of Balam

Jesse Syratt for being the voice of Nora and for helping write Tale 5

@kirstywoolven for being the voice of Maria

Kanin Donattelli as the voice of The Guardian

@penofsteele for writing Tales 2 and 9

@bullshotuk for being the voice of Mr Phillips Alex Nightingale for writing Tales 3 and 8

David Ault for being the voice of Lan

Nooria for being the voice of Zaida

Cameron Weldon for being the voice of the Master Fisher

Rhys Subitch for being the voice of the Street Musician Ben Meredith for being the voice of Marvin

@ratgrimes for doing all our monster noises

Oliver Graham for being the voice of Luke and The Cat

Alasdair Stuart for being the voice of Brother Dust

Mary Catherine O'Harte for being the voice of Rose

Michelle Kelly for being the voice of Pop

A J Fidalgo and Ray O'Hare for being the voices of Cultists

@jomendacium for being the voice of The Hierophant

@thecellarletters for being the voice of Dr Nocebo

@wakeofcorrosion for being the voice of Dr Erebus

@taytayheyhey for being the voice of Dr Arawn

Polybrow for production, sound editing and music going forward

@ghostwaxpod for doing the special guest artwork for our World Audio Drama Day Special

Candace McAfee for being the voice of S., and narrating The Raven for our Halloween special

@somewhereohio, Quest of Ruin, @transmissionfolklore, The Lost Power, The Strange Garden, @hellgatecity, @thenightpost, Super Suits, @howitendsstudio, The Godfrey Audio Guide, and @knaveofheartsad for letting us include their trailers at the end of our Tales

@strongbranchpro, @careandfeedingofwerewolves, @surceasepod, @ghostwaxpod, @hoteldaydream, @room56pod, @tranthologies, @jarofrebukepodcast, and Regina Prime for letting us do feed drops of their shows on out feed

Alright, I'm going to go cry over this now. This is incredible and I'm having trouble processing it all.

Thank you,

Nigel

[black-rabbit-razumikhin]

Books, So Many Books

The Bedside Pile

~ Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Physical TBR

~ The Mammoth Hunters by Jean Auel

~ Plains Of Passage by Jean Auel

~ Shelters Of Stone by Jean Auel

~ Land Of The Painted Caves by Jean Auel

~ As Long As We Both Shall Live by Joann Chaney

~ Incendiary by Chris Cleave

~ Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

~ Silas Marner by George Elliot

~ Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks

~ On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks

~ Here I Am by Jonathan Foer

~ A Killer Choice by Tom Hunt

~ Cold Heart by Linda LaPlante

~ Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

~ Brothers by Bernice Rubens

~ The Hickory Staff by Robert Scott

~ The Farm by Tom Smith

~ The Master Of Ballantre by Robert L. Stevenson

~ Gulliver's Travels by Johnathan Swift

~ Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

~ The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Storygraph TBR

~ The Lord Of The Flies by William Golding

~ Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

~ Animal Farm by George Orwell

~ Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey

~ Sea Of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

~ Blood In My Eye by George Jackson

~ Escape Routes by Naomi Ishiguro

~ The Gospel Of The Eels by Patrik Svensson

~ The End Of Loneliness by Benedict Wells

~ Orlando by Virginia Woolf

~ Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie

~ Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie

~ Unexpected Vanilla by Lee Hyemi

~ The Ritual by Adam Nevill

~ Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns

~ Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park

~ The Last Tale Of The Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

~ Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H.

~ Battle Royale by Koushin Takami

~ What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher

~ The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

~ American Prometheus by Kai Bird

~ Lie With Me by Philippe Besson

~ The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn

~ Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

~ Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck

[ausetkmt]

As they sat in the lobby of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Washington, D.C., last month, Garnell Whitfield Jr. and others who have lost relatives nationwide to gun violence listened as U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland helped dedicate an exhibit honoring those killed.

Garland spoke of some of the victims on the new "Faces of Gun Violence Memorial" wall, including Whitfield's 86-year-old mother, Ruth, describing her as a "mother, grandmother and great grandmother whose door and pantry were always open to family and friends." He said the wall will serve as a reminder to ATF employees of who they are fighting for each day.

In this May 15, 2022, file photo, police sit in front of a Tops Grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

"That in and of itself is progress that they would understand the need to be more empathetic and to realize the impact of gun violence on the people that they're trying to protect and serve," Whitfield, the retired Buffalo, New York, fire commissioner, told ABC News.

This week marks two years since a self-described white supremacist killed 10 Black people at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo. In addition to Whitfield's mother, the other victims were Roberta Drury, 32; retired Buffalo police officer Aaron Salter Jr., 55; Heyward Patterson, 67; Pearl Young, 77; Geraldine Talley, 62; Celestine Chaney, 65; Katherine "Kat" Massey, 72; Margus Morrison, 52; and Andre Mackniel, 53.

"I will always carry the scar of 5/14 and what happened to my mother. I'll always miss her. So, I don't expect to be healed," Whitfield said. "I know that's something everybody talks about. I think that's kind of an unrealistic expectation."

Garnell Whitfield Jr. has dedicated his life to fighting white supremacy in honor of his 86-year-old moth...

Malik Rainey for ABC News

One of the major hurdles to overcoming his grief, he said, is that such racially motivated killings and other hate crimes targeting Black people continue to rise across the country.

An ABC News analysis of the most recent FBI data shows that of the more than 8,500 hate crimes reported nationwide between 2020 and 2022, Black people were targeted in 52.3% of the offenses. Between 2021 and 2022, the numbers rose from 2,217 to 3,421, making Black people four times more likely to be targeted than the overall U.S. non-Hispanic Black population.

Hate Crimes Against Blacks in America 2020-2022

ABC News Illustration / Federal Bureau of Investigation

Among the hate crimes committed since the Buffalo mass shooting was a racially motivated attack at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, that left three Black people dead on May 26, 2023. On Nov. 22, 2023, a white gunman wounded two Black and two white shoppers at a Walmart in Beavercreek, Ohio, in what police said was a racially motivated shooting. The gunmen in both rampages died by suicide, according to police.

In February 2023, a Florida man and a Maryland woman, both alleged to be white supremacists, were arrested and accused of plotting to attack multiple energy substations with the purpose of destroying Baltimore, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Officials said the pair was fueled by a racist extremist ideology as they "conspired to inflict maximum harm on the power grid" and "lay this city to waste." Both suspects have pleaded not guilty to the charges and are awaiting a trial

"Honestly, we shouldn't even have to look at the FBI statistics to know that Black people in America are still victims of subjugation, of discrimination, of racism, of hate," Whitfield told ABC News. "The fact that's still the case all these years later tells you a lot about this country and what its intent is for us."

'It was a modern-day lynching'

About two months before the massacre at a Tops store in the predominantly Black East Side neighborhood of Buffalo, President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching law, named after a Black teenager who was kidnapped, beaten and killed in Mississippi in August 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman. The law defines lynching as a hate crime and increases the maximum penalty to 30 years imprisonment for anyone convicted of conspiring to commit a racially motivated crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury.

To date, no one has been charged under the law.

"There was a reason why it took nearly 200 years to pass an antilynching law in Congress. It's because the power of lynching is so much embedded into the society," Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, a professor of law and Africana studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told ABC News.

Browne-Marshall said lynchings were committed to strike fear in Black communities, to "send a message to the community that white men are in charge."

Browne-Marshall described the Emmett Till Antilynching law as "powerful," but said prosecutors have been reluctant to apply it to criminal hate crime cases.

"So few prosecutors are doing their jobs when it comes to lynching. We as Americans have ignored the power of the prosecutor to bring charges," she said.

Gloria Brown-Marshall is a professor of law and Africana studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

ABC News

"Without protest, the prosecutors are sitting back and allowing these cases to be put under the rug," Browne-Marshall said.

But federal prosecutors countered they are using an arsenal of federal hate crime laws to seek justice for victims of racially motivated crimes.

In the Arbery case, the defendants -- Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and a neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan -- were convicted on state charges of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, aggravated assault with a shotgun, aggravated assault with a pickup truck, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony. They were all sentenced to life in prison, the McMichaels without the possibility of parole. They were also convicted of federal hate crime charges, including using violence to intimidate and interfere with Arbery because of his race and because he was using a public street. The McMichaels were given additional life sentences, while Byran received a 35-year prison sentence.

“Protecting civil rights and combatting white supremacist violence was a founding purpose of the Justice Department, and one that we will continue to pursue with the urgency it demands," Attorney General Garland said following the sentencing of the McMichaels and Bryan.

"Racially-motivated acts of violence are abhorrent and unlawful, and have no place in our society today," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said earlier this month after a 52-year-old North Carolina man was sentenced to 41 months in prison and three years of supervised release for an unprovoked attack on a Black motorist he shouted racial slurs at and physically assaulted. The attacker, who prosecutors said displayed a Ku Klux Klan flag at his home, was also convicted of physically assaulting a Hispanic neighbor in a hate-filled assault.

"The severe sentence imposed for these vicious hate crimes should send a strong message that perpetrators of hate-fueled violence will be held accountable," Clarke added. "The Justice Department is steadfast in its commitment to investigating and prosecuting hate crimes wherever they occur in our country."

Payton Gendron, the gunman in the Buffalo massacre, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to 15 state charges, including 10 counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate. In January, federal prosecutors announced they would pursue the death penalty against Gendron.

A federal grand jury indicted the Buffalo gunman with 27 federal charges, including 14 violations of the Shepard-Byrd Act, a landmark anti-hate crime law signed by President Barack Obama in 2009. The law was named after Matthew Shepard, a gay student who was tortured and murdered in Wyoming in October 1998, and James Byrd Jr., a Black man killed in 1998 by white supremacists who abducted him, beat him and dragged him by a chain from the back of a pickup truck.

Garnell Whitfield and Browne-Marshall argued that the Emmett Till Antilynching law should be expanded to include racially motivated mass shootings.

"It was meant to strike fear into our communities, to start a race war and further subjugate us, keep us in our place. So, yes, it was a modern-day lynching," said Whitfield, adding that the only difference was that the killer used an AR-15 rifle instead of a rope.

While the antilynching law requires proof of a conspiracy, both Whitfield and Browne-Marshall alleged that some social media companies facilitated the teenage killer's white supremacist radicalization by allowing racist propaganda to fester on their platforms.

"This is a conspiracy. It's the oldest conspiracy we know – white supremacy," Whitfield said.

But no precedent has been set for criminally charging a social media company as a co-defendant in a mass shooting, and prosecutors have found no evidence the Buffalo shooter entered into an "agreement" with any social media company to carry out his attack, a requirement of federal conspiracy.

In May 2023, Whitfield and other relatives of those killed in the Buffalo attack filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Buffalo in an attempt to hold several social media companies responsible for aiding the killer in his attack.

The gunman was "motivated to commit his heinous crime by racist, anti-Semitic, and white supremacist propaganda fed to him by the social media companies whose products he used," the lawsuit argues, adding that the teenager did not appear to have been raised in a racist family, did not live in a racially polarized community and had no reported personal history of negative interactions with Black people.

Some social media companies named in the lawsuit denied the allegations it is aiding the indoctrination of users of their platforms in white supremacy. Twitch, the Amazon-owned social media gaming site the Buffalo gunman used to live stream the shooting, said in a statement that it closely monitors its site and took down the livestream of the Tops rampage in two minutes.

"We take our responsibility to protect our community extremely seriously, and trust and safety is a major area of investment," Twitch said in its statement in response to the lawsuit, adding it was continuously examining the Buffalo shooting and "sharing those learnings with our peers in the industry to support a safer internet overall."

Google, the parent company of YouTube, which was also named in the lawsuit, also issued a statement denying the allegations, saying, "Through the years, YouTube has invested in technology, teams, and policies to identify and remove extremist content. We regularly work with law enforcement, other platforms, and civil society to share intelligence and best practices."

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, said on its website in February, "We define a hate speech attack as dehumanizing speech; statements of inferiority, expressions of contempt or disgust; cursing; and calls for exclusion or segregation. We also prohibit the use of harmful stereotypes, which we define as dehumanizing comparisons that have historically been used to attack, intimidate, or exclude specific groups, and that are often linked with offline violence. We also prohibit the usage of slurs that are used to attack people on the basis of their protected characteristics."

MORE: Buffalo mass shooting suspect 'radicalized' by fringe social media: NY attorney general

The Buffalo lawsuit followed the release of a scathing report by New York Attorney General Letitia James' office, alleging several online platforms played roles in the Buffalo mass shooting by radicalizing the killer as he consumed voluminous amounts of racist and violent content and allowing him to broadcast the deadly attack.

The KKK is 'alive and well'

The 64-year-old Shepherd, who describes himself as a "reformed racist" and now advocates against racial hate, said he also felt guilt.

He said many of the same practices he used to recruit KKK members are still being followed. But instead of rallies and cross burnings, white supremacist groups today use the internet to grow and indoctrinate their ranks, Shepherd said.

"It's not the robes and hoods, it's the mentality. And that mentality is what we've got to address," Shepherd said. "As I've said before, the internet is a great thing. But that's one of the tools that's being used to radicalize these kids."

'There's nothing special about this day'

On Tuesday, a monument titled "Unity" will be unveiled outside the Tops store where the Buffalo mass shooting occurred. A moment of silence will be held at 2:28 p.m. ET marking the time the massacre unfolded followed by a tolling of the bells, officials said.

The 5/14 Memorial Commission will also reveal the design picked for a second monument to be erected in Buffalo that is being funded by the state.

But Whitfield said that for him, the day will be no different from any other.

"So 5/14 may be significant for some, it's two years now since then. But it's no more significant on 5/14 than it is on 5/13 or 5/12, or today. I have to live the rest of my life without my mother and with what happened to her," Whitfield said.

Whitfield said he'll continue to speak out against white supremacy and is motivated to be as "consistent and determined" in that work as white nationalists are in their deeds.

"Every day since then [5/14] and for the rest of my life, I will honor my mother by doing this work," Whitfield said. "There's nothing special about this day coming up because I've tried to live according to these principles every day. That's how I'm going to honor my mother and my ancestors."

[night-unfurls-its-splendour]

When the Longing Returns (Phantom of the Opera, 2004 Fanfiction) || Erik x Christine

Ch. 2 Author's Notes

Read the Fic here on tumblr or on AO3

◇ Erik strove not to remember the surge of jealous rage that had overtaken him as he had watched the Chagny boy put his dolman around Christine and hold her as she rested her head against his shoulder.

Military fashion is not my area of expertise, but a dolman is the outer jacket part of the uniform that Raoul wears draped over his shoulder for the masquerade.

I can also tell you that it's a Hussar uniform.

Why is Raoul wearing a Hussar uniform when he's not apparently tied to the military in any meaningful way? No clue. Couldn't tell you, you'd have to ask Maria Bjørnsen.

Even more baffling is the fact that Raoul's uniform in the musical is based off of the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars. That's right, Raoul is wearing a British inspired Hussar uniform.

My best guess is this is a reference to the Raoul of the 1925 Lon Chaney film (played by Norman Kerry), who is the "Debonair lieutenant and Beau Brummel of the Second Chasseurs",

OR to Anatole Garron, one of the Raoul-type characters in the 1943 Claude Rains film (played by Nelson Eddy), who is also an opera singer, and who plays (I think) a Napoleonic Hussar of the 1st Regiment in the main opera set-piece of that film.

My best guess for an in-universe reason for Raoul to be wearing this uniform? Well, it is a costume ball, so ~shrugs~ it's just a costume?

Now at this point I'm sure the burning question on everyone's tongue is 'What is a Hussar or a Chasseur and what is the difference? '

Well, Hussars (Hussards in French) and Chasseurs (or, more properly Chasseurs á Cheval) were both light cavalry. The difference is that Chasseurs á Cheval were also expected to act as infantry if the situation called for it. Both Hussards and Chasseurs á Cheval had dolmans as part of their uniforms.

What I find quite funny about all of this though is the fact that in the book, Raoul is actually a sailor lad.

◇ "I will tell you all, Christine," his even tone trembling a little. "I only ask that you.... that you try to be gentle in your judgement of me."

Leroux Reference: Erik's History

Erik's whole backstory in this chapter is heavily adherent to Erik's life-story in the book as told in the Epilogue and the Persian's narrative.

Erik's birthplace of Rouen, his father's profession as a mason, his running away from home at "an early age"; his traveling to India, being discovered in Russia, being given immense power by the Shah, committing political assassinations, the "Little Sultana's" gladiatorial matches, the torture chamber, and of course the Daroga saving Erik's life from an order of execution following the completion of the trick box palace, are all detailed in the book, though of course I made some embellishments and alterations to fit Erik's characterization in the movie.

◇ "... and my mother [...] gave me a mask so that she would not have to..."

Leroux Reference: Chapter 13, "Apollo's Lyre"

"Why did you want to see me? Oh, Mad Christine, who wanted to see me! When my own father never saw me, and my mother gave me my first mask so that she would not have to!"

◇ "There was always a week in early August when she... was worse than usual... and I came to assume that these bouts must mark when I was born."

I don't put any stock in astrology in real life, but it is useful for choosing character birthdays.

Christine's generally agreed to be a Libra and that's about as bang on as you can get (though I could also see her as a February Pisces, if the Christine in question has the freaky energy of, say, Meredith Braun).

But Erik a character has about five signs that would suit him with equal perfection. He has the pride and flair for drama of a Leo, the aloof, ruthlessness of a Capricorn, the vicious sensuality of a Scorpio, the enigmatic, dark emotionality of a Cancer, and the violent passion of an Aries. How do you pick just one? I decided on Leo for Gerik specifically. Why? I can't say.

And if anyone is curious, Meg is a Sagittarius and Raoul is a Virgo.

◇ Her tears, warm and sweet, dripped onto his skin and trickled under his mask.

She, Christine, the true angel—who had sought after his kisses, when his own mother had never even tolerated them—she was weeping for his sake.

Her blessed tears mingled with his under his mask, and they flowed down to his lips.

Leroux Reference: Chapter 26, "The End of the Ghost's Love Story":

"And I fell at her feet, crying... and I kissed her feet... her little feet, crying [...] and she cried also... the angel cried!

[...]

"I felt her tears dropping onto my forehead--my forehead! They were warm, they were sweet! They flowed under my mask. Her tears! They mingled with my own tears in my eyes and they flowed into my mouth.... Ah! Her tears, on me!"

◇ Masonry, carpentry, joinery, metalwork; whatever I set my hands to seemed to come naturally, and so skilfully.

Carpentry and joinery, while both aspects of the woodworking trade, are separate skills. In this time period especially, carpentry referred to cutting and rough-work (including building construction), while joinery refers to assembly and fine-work.

◇ "I was brought down from Ninji-Novgorod, in Russia..."

Nowadays transliterated as "Nizhny Novgorod"; the sixth largest city in Russia, located on the Volga River in Western Russia. It is an important transport hub, as well as an economic and cultural centre, to this day.

◇ "as an entertainment for the Shah's favourite who was 'withering away' of boredom"

Leroux Reference: The "Little Sultana"

It was thus that his reputation reached the palace at Mazenderan, where the little Sultana was bored to death.

The "Little Sultana" is a vague but brutal female figure that is mentioned by both Erik and the Persian. In Leroux's epilogue she is called "The Shah's Favourite", almost certainly meaning a favourite wife or mistress. According to the Persian, she took delight in watching Erik kill prisoners in gladiatorial matches, and even persuaded him to teach her how to wield the Punjab lasso herself, using it to indiscriminately murder her own ladies in waiting, and occasionally even those of visiting friends.

M. Grant Kellermeyer speculates the "Little Sultana" to whom Leroux alludes to be based on Jeyran Khanom, the seventh wife of Nasser al din Shah, whom he first took as a mistress in around 1850 following a chance encounter during which he apparently fell in love with her on sight. One story of their meeting even asserts that she was one of his mother's servants.

Jeyran was a formidable figure, and enjoyed many masculine pursuits including hunting and shooting, and not even the Khanom (the Dowager) was able to dissuade Nasser from conferring her the title of Forough ol-Saltaneh, or from naming her son the crown prince (though this decision was stuck in political hell for years because of Jeyran's lack of influential bloodlines). She was the Shah's favourite wife until her early death in 1860 at the age of 29.

It's my feeling, however, that, though likely inspired by Jeyran (and also by her successor as the Shah's favourite, the even more formidable Anis al Dalweh, pictured below)

the "Little Sultana" is an entirely fictional character created by Leroux as a device to instil a deep sense of unease and horror in the reader; a monstrous young woman with bloodthirsty proclivities that stoked Erik's own growing disregard for human life at a time when he was particularly susceptible: best not to associate her too strongly with any real historical figure.

I was particularly eager to explore on this character, having recently read (and despised) Susan Kay's novel Phantom, in which this character is presented, not as the Shah's wife or mistress, but (rather incomprehensibly) as his mother.

◇ "By the time I had finished, the Shah had given me a nickname: 'Derb Mekhefa Met'eseb' which, roughly translated, means 'Trapdoor Lover'."

Leroux Reference: "Trap-Door Lover"

We have it from the Persian in Leroux's novel that this was a nickname of Erik's during the "Rosy hours of Mazenderan".

I have long wondered exactly what that would actually be in Persian. I determined that I wanted Erik to actually say it in the language, rather than just the translation, but reverse translating it has proven difficult. With no knowledge of Farsi as a language myself, I resorted to online language converters and translators, and this seems to be the best I can come up with. I believe it more accurately translates as "Hidden Door Fanatic", but I'm sure there are probably huge contextual problems with this attempt at translation. If anyone reading this speaks or has an understanding of Persian language, or knows someone who does who can give me a better translation, please let me know, I want this to be as authentic as possible.

◇'There, now! you are quite the Don Juan I would say. Any woman that ever saw you would be yours forever.

Leroux Reference: Chapter 13, "Apollo's Lyre"

This particularly cruel blow on Erik's self-esteem from the Shah was directly inspired by one of Erik's own comments during the aftermath of his Unmasking by Christine in the book (one of the most genuinely terrifying moments of the novel):

"He burst into a harsh, rumbling, powerful laughter, repeating the words: 'oh you women are so curious!' And then he said, 'Well, are you satisfied? I am a handsome fellow, eh? When a woman sees me, as you have, she becomes mine! She loves me forever! I am a kind of Don Juan in that way, you know!'"

This is the kind of line that sticks with you. This sarcastic comment is a horrible glimpse into just how deep Erik's self-loathing goes.

It occurred to me that, in my story, this may have been something the Shah might have sarcastically said to him that stuck with Erik, and inspired Erik's Don Juan comparison (and the work into which, as Leroux's Christine says, Erik "poured all of his bitter misery"). The betrayal of a tenuous, but much craved-for paternal figure would be deeply scarring to a young Erik, so it's little wonder he would try to turn the Shah's comment back on itself, to reclaim it.

◇"Daroga helped me to escape—I suppose in return for my once having saved his life—but on one condition. 'No more murders.'"

[...]

"I had never believed in making or keeping oaths and agreed to this one without much real intention of putting any stock in it."

Leroux Reference: Chapter 22, "Interesting and Instructive Vicissitudes of a Persian in the Cellars of the Paris Opera":

"Erik, you promised me: no more murders!"

"Have I really committed murders?" He asked, taking on his most amiable expression.

"Ah, you wretch!" I exclaimed. "Have you forgotten the Rosy Hours of Mazenderan?"

"Yes," he sighed. "I prefer to forget them, though I did make the little Sultana laugh."

[...]

"Erik... Erik swear to me..."

"What for?" he interrupted. "You know I never keep my oaths. Oaths are made for catching fools!"

◇ "I had returned to find the Opera Populaire under new management and it was not long before I observed that the new directors, Debienne and Poligny were far less competent than those who had advanced real talent and taste. Not unlike our present management,” he added under his breath. “In addition to that, I soon discovered that Poligny had, for some time, been defrauding Debienne in their private business ventures, among other... shall we say 'indiscretions'. I was fortunate to also discover that he was quite superstitious."

Book Characters!

Debienne and Poligny are the out-going managers of the Opera in the novel; their counterpart in the play would be M. Lefevre.

The lengthy timeline gave me some room to work. I figured Lefevre wouldn't have lasted a full thirteen years under the Opera Ghost's thumb, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to introduce these two as his predecessors.

Exactly what Erik was blackmailing Poligny over (because this detail is true to the book), is never explicitly stated, but it is implied to regard numerous proclivities, both moral and financial:

" 'Poligny was superstitious and Erik knew it. Erik also knew much about the public and private affairs of the opera.'

"When Poligny heard a mysterious voice whispering to him about the use he had made of both his time and his partner's confidence, he did not question it."

◇ "I worked by fits and starts, composing for weeks at a time during which I hardly ate or slept and lived only on my music."

Leroux Reference: Chapter 13, "Apollo's Lyre"

"I sometimes compose for fifteen days and nights together, during which I neither eat nor drink, and live only on music..."

Depeche Mode References, for those looking for them…

◇ “Did he have any choice but to go down on his knees and pray that she would have the strength to forgive all the things that he'd done?”

From "One Caress" off of Songs of Faith and Devotion:

"Well I'm down on my knees again

And I pray to the only one

Who has the strength to bear the pain

To forgive all the things that I've done"

◇ “A moment of silence as Erik gathered his thoughts, steeling himself against the heavy sense of trepidation that threatened, like a disease, to take hold of his tongue.

Doing his level best to shake it away, he said…”

From “Shake the Disease” off of Black Celebration (Deluxe Edition):

"Here is a plea, from my heart to you

Nobody knows me as well as you do

You know how hard it is for me

To shake the disease

That takes hold of my tongue

In situations like these"

[daggerzine]

Magic Fig- S/T (Silver Current)

Man, you never know what’s gonna come out of the San Francisco indie pop scene these days. Seems like a real golden age out there (and has been golden for quite some time).

This band features a few folks from other bands you’ve heard of (and probably love) like The Umbrellas, Whitney’s Playland, etc) who probably got together, well, just because. I mean, why not, right?

They sort of describe it as dreampop meets…..uh, prog and I can certainly see that. Some of the songs take some meandering turns and a few top the 5-minute mark. Inna Showalter’s vocals are really a thing of beauty while you have thee Muzzy Moskowitz on guitar, John Chaney on keys/synth; and the rhythm section is Matthew Ferrera on bass and Taylor Griffin on drums.

The first cut, “Goodbye Suzy,” just soars from the get-go, and on “PS1” I swear I heard a bit taken from The Yes Album (my favorite Yes album, btw). By song number three, “Labyrinth,” the keyboard has fully taken over and the spaceship is taking off. The other three songs are worth your time too (6 songs in just under a half hour including the nearly 7-minute “Obliteration”).

Admittedly, I was never much for prog, but these folks putting this new 21st century spin on things (minus the Rick Wakeman robes and overall bloat) are pushing me in a new direction!

www.magicfig.bandcamp.com

www.silvercurrent.bandcamp.com

[taylorhawkins]

ok gang I took the set list from the tribute concert in LA last night and compiled a list of videos

(full disclosure I have not watched all of these… it’s too painful for me… I kinda just skimmed through them so if you have better footage I will be happy to update the link)

additionally links are missing for videos I couldn’t find so if anyone has a link to anything that you don’t see here please let me know ❤️

VIOLET GROHL:

1. Hallelujah

JOAN JETT + FOO FIGHTERS:

2. Cherry Bomb

3. Bad Reputation (with Travis Barker)

CHEVY METAL:

4. Riff Raff

5. Owner of a Lonely Heart (with Jon Davison)

6. Heroes (with Kesha)

THE COATTAIL RIDERS (with JUSTIN HAWKINS & JOSH FREESE)

7. Range Rover Bitch

8. It’s Over

9. Something About You

10. I Believe in a Thing Called Love (The Darkness cover)

JAMES GANG

11. Walk Away

12. The Bomber: Closet Queen / Bolero / Cast Your Fate to the Wind

13. Funk #49

MARK RONSON/ANDREW WYATT/DAVE GROHL

14. Right Down The Line

THEM CROOKED VULTURES

15. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

16. Dead End Friends

17. Long Slow Goodbye

WOLFGANG VAN HALEN/JUSTIN HAWKINS/JOSH FREESE/DAVE GROHL

18. Panama

19. Hot for Teacher

DEF LEPPARD/FOO FIGHTERS/PATRICK WILSON

20. Rock of Ages

21. Photograph (with Miley Cyrus)

NIKKI SIXX & TOMMY LEE/DEREK DAY/FOO FIGHTERS

22. Live Wire

23. Home Sweet Home

ELLIOT EASTON/JOSH HOMME/FOO FIGHTERS

24. Shake It Up

25. Just What I Needed

PINK/NANCY WILSON/FOO FIGHTERS

26. Barracuda

STEWART COPELAND/FOO FIGHTERS

27. Next To You

28. Every Little Thing She Does is Magic (with Jon Davison)

ALANIS MORISSETTE/FOO FIGHTERS

29. You Oughta Know (with Chris Chaney & Chad Smith)

SEBASTIAN BACH/GEEZER BUTLER/LARS ULRICH/FOO FIGHTERS

30. Supernaut

31. Paranoid

GEDDY LEE/ALEX LIFESON

Jack Black intro

32. 2112 Part I: Overture (with Dave Grohl)

33. Working Man (with Chad Smith)

34. YYZ (with Danny Carey)

SOUNDGARDEN/TAYLOR MOMSEN/NIRVANA

35. The Day I Tried to Live

36. Black Hole Sun

QUEEN/FOO FIGHTERS

37. We Will Rock You (with Justin Hawkins)

38. I’m in Love with My Car (with Rufus Taylor)

39. Under Pressure (with Justin Hawkins)

40. Somebody to Love (with Pink)

41. Love of my Life (Brian May acoustic) (alt angle)

Somebody to Love tribute video

FOO FIGHTERS

42. All My Life (with Josh Freese)

43. The Pretender (with Jon Theodore & Pink)

44. Walk (with Travis Barker)

45. Low (with Matt Cameron)

46. This is a Call (with Brad Wilk)

47. The Sky is a Neighborhood (with Patrick Wilson)

48. Creep (Radiohead cover) (with Dave Chappelle and Patrick Wilson)

49. Run (with Omar Hakim)

50. Best of You (with Rufus Taylor)

51. My Hero (with Shane Hawkins!!!!!!)

52. I’ll Stick Around (WITH SHANE HAWKINS!!)

53. Everlong (with Chad Smith)

[tipsywench]

What I love about the Becoming Dracula books is the authors like to discuss the unknowns of Bela's career and life

Like this story, about how someone who knew Lugosi and saw his personal scrapbooks swore he saw an image from the Lon Chaney film He Who Gets Slapped in a scrapbook about Bela's career:

And here's photos of the scene where Sheffield believed that's Lugosi as an extra in the background (in the front row of the background, 2nd from the left)

I can kinda see how the first image looks like Bela, but then in the second photo it doesn't look like him at all.

The film is on youtube and the scene starts at around the 6:30 mark. I circled who Sheffield was convinced is Lugosi:

And after watching it I'll admit at some angles it does look a lot like him, then he'll turn his head and it won't look like him at all so...dun dun dun unsolved mysteries I guess lol

[ronmerchant]

the MARK OF CAIN (1916)

starring Lon Chaney!

[silverscreenprincess]

Of Heavenly Songs and Moonlit Monsters

‘You – You are the Phantom!’

‘If I am the Phantom, it is because man’s hatred has made me so!

If I shall be saved, it will be because your love has redeemed me.’

The 1925 silent adaptation of Gaston Lerroux’s classic novel The Phantom of the Opera is one that belongs no more to its time than to ours. Among its delicious costume design and glistening ghosts, Rupert Julian’s silver picture is one that continues to make audiences marvel at its expertise. Watching it a little under a hundred years later, one easily finds that it almost perfectly mirrors our own era, our own leading ladies, and our own monsters. This film, like countless others before it – and countless after – employs the narrative technique of the madonna-whore character(s). Narrative, of course, because it shapes every facet of the Phantom’s tale in every possible way. 

At the fifteen minute mark, Christine Daaé makes her appearance in a Heaven-white gown, holding an angel’s hand. It is revealed, through hushed dialogues in the velvet box-seats of the Paris Opera House, that she is some man’s favourite, and his favoured. No viewers are yet aware that the man is a monster, and that he holds her pale hand, too. The Phantom has not only been teaching her how to sing in private, but has called for the prima-donna, Carlotta, to be removed from the lead role for the sake of Christine. A rotten woman for an angel. Carlotta is entitled, selfish and spoiled. Rolling pearls around her fingers, wrapping them around her devilish neck and shaking her blonde braided hair, she taunts and defies – and smiles, and laughs. In a monster movie, it is best for a woman not to laugh. 

Carlotta, of course, is swiftly punished.

The horror begins to settle. Christine discovers the Phantom’s lair in the torture chambers under the Paris Opera House, and faints upon seeing him. The Phantom takes care of her, and warns her – she must never look beneath his mask. The angelic Christine, with an innocent heart and puckered, playful lips, removes it from his face while he plays the organ. The classic scene unfolds. Lon Chaney plays Erik, the disfigured Phantom – the Monster – looming over a screaming Christine. Having famously created his own makeup, Chaney excels in the role of a tortured and frightening Phantom, his face contorting as he laments his fury. The scene’s dialogue, rumoured to be penned by himself, is haunting.

The Monster Movie unfolds. The audience knows what might happen next, with near certainty. Christine’s pure and feminine love will either heal Erik, or the monster will be punished. In some sense, both happen. 

Though the ending is predictable, it is not a bad one. Christine’s tenderness is crystallised within a kiss on the cheek, which makes the monster weak, and gentle. The monster lets the good guys go. He is punished, chased under the glowing moon, and thrown into the Seine. Predictable, but thrilling. But I do not really care for monsters, or rather, the monsters within men. Throughout the film, it is Christine’s tenderness that arguably keeps the viewer watching. Whether it be for the sake of seeing if her sweet love will redeem the terrifying Phantom, or seeing if she ends the movie with the kind and rich Vicomte Raoul (as any good woman would) – or the monster. 

The Phantom of the Opera is yet another one of the countless films that present women strictly as either angels, or vipers. Naive, pale skin glistening under the spotlights of their silver picture, ripe for the taking; or cruel, too-loved, too-aware. This tired trope, though we like to think we’ve forgotten it, has not been done away with – not in the silents, nor the talkies, nor the modern-day blockbusters. And if we want to resolve this, where better to look than the beginning?

[markredfield]

IT’S A DATE: My new novella “The Chaney Murder Case” will debut with copies available at PulpFest, in Pittsburg, August 1-4, 2023.

https://pulpfest.com/

The novella will be available in hardback, eBook, and audiobook formats.

Pre-orders will be shipped that weekend. Thank you for your great support for this little mystery fiction about the marvelous actor, Lon Chaney…

~ Mark Redfield

14 March 2024

TheChaneyMurderCase.com

(The website will be frequently updated until the novella’s debut…)

[brightbeautifulthings]

The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar by Robin R. Means Coleman & Mark H. Harris

"Black horror's triumph is its ability to reflect more deeply on the ways in which Black history has been and continues to be Black horror. Black horror points a finger at evil because those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, just like those who forget the rules of horror are just plain doomed. When the twenty-four hour news cycle moves on to some Insta-influencer, and names like Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Atatiana Jefferson, and Botham Jean become fading memories for some, Black horror steps up to remind us that, like the vengeful dolls in Tales from the Hood, the past is never 'history.'"

Year Read: 2023

Rating: 4/5

Thoughts: It took me all damn year to read this book, through no fault of its own. I received an invitation from the publishers to read it through NetGalley, got about a third of the way through, and decided I couldn't take the kind of notes I wanted on my Kindle. By the time my ordered copy arrived, enough time had passed that it seemed best just to start over. Then cue the Great Summer Reading Slump of 2023! I refused to start over again, and it still took me until December to finish. May I reflect on this before I decide to accept nonfiction again, even if it is about horror. But then, as my favorite professor always liked to say, "Struggling is productive."

This is all no reflection on the book itself, which is an in-depth look at the history of Black horror cinema. I'm an avid horror fan, and I still learned a hell of a lot, including where to fill in the gaps in my viewing (although… I'm still probably going to skip Spider Baby (1967), sorry. Even my boyfriend, Lon Chaney Jr., can't make that sound appealing). Seriously, adding films to my watch list was some of the most fun of this book, and I've already started chipping away at those by continuing with The Purge series. I gave up after having lukewarm feelings about the first, but in a weird twist, the series actually gets so much better. I'm planning to watch Event Horizon (1997) and Spiral (2021) at some point too, among others.

The writers are incredibly knowledgeable about the topics, one a scholar in the field and the other having had a hand in a number of popular culture projects centered on horror film. I think this combination is what really sets this book apart from others of its kind and gives it a more unique voice. The two of them balance the in-depth theoretical and social commentary with witty, sardonic asides. Horror has a long history of going hand in hand with comedy (horror hosts like Svengoolie are case in point), and they go well together here. Despite the fears in the acknowledgements section that the book comes over "too complainy," I didn't get that impression in any sense. A critique by definition should be critical, and it is. It spares no feelings in calling out the hugely racist film industry which, despite major strides forward, still has a long way to go. However, it's also clear throughout that the writers really love the genre, and there are points of borderline gushing over films like Get Out (2017), which had a revolutionizing effect on social-political horror in general and Black horror specifically.

The chapters are neatly broken up by Top Lists on various topics, from Frequent Dier Awards and Terrible Hip-Hop Theme Songs From Horror Movies to 10 Horror Movies About Black-White Race Relations Not Named Get Out. These work better than the sometimes long lists of films inserted into paragraphs, and are often quite funny. The first half of the book is very strong on the history of Black horror film, even to the point of feeling a bit repetitive at times, which I think is a byproduct of the essay-ish/doctoral thesis quality of some of the chapters. (We can credit academia with a lot of things, but being concise is rarely one of them.) It expertly links Black horror trends with long-held racial stereotypes and charts the often dismal numbers of Black actors, actresses, writers, and directors in horror film, and the (again, often dismal) quality of that representation.

The second half dips into the intersection of Black women and Black LGBTQ+ representation, and it's not quite as comprehensive there. In part, this is because there just isn't as much rep out there to write about, but my sense is that this is more like an overview of these topics. A dedicated scholar could spend an entire book delving into each one of those and still have more to write. The final chapter pulls together a moving rumination on how Black horror, like most media, is ultimately a reflection of the world we live in. Any minor quibbles aside, this is extremely well-done and a must-read for anyone with an interest in the history of horror film.