No kidding. Calling the writer a "creep" for some perceived snub is immature and undermines any credibility the poster might otherwise have.

(You should have heard some of the crap I got from overly rabid fans because Julia Hoffman didn't appear in DREAMS OF THE DARK. Hoo boy.)

However, any writer whose work is put in front of the public must be prepared to take what comes his way. It's part of the job...

You know what, Mark, I'm as rabid a fan as anyone, but I never even noticed that Julia wasn't in your novel until you just mentioned it now.  That's because I enjoyed it immensely and if somebody wasn't there, it went right past me.  That's how good I thought it was.

Gerard

Happy Halloween!  We had trick-or-treat on late Sunday afternoon.  It was a gorgeous day.  I had purchased four bags of candy.  Not one trick-or-treater rang the doorbell.  Not one.  Not a single one.  None in the neighborhood got a trick-or-treater.  I've placed the candy in the basement freezer to keep temptation away and to preserve it for Christmas.

Gerard

How interesting!  Our beloved show had made the list of things-to-do again!  I found one error elsewhere in the article.  The "zombies" in 28 Days Later (one of my recent favorite spooky movies) were not zombies; they were real, live humans who were simply afflicted with a virus called "rage" that sends them into a killing "rage."

Gerard

I vaguely remember an article that appeared in the TV-Movie section of the Sunday paper called something like "Why Is Everyone Screaming?"  It had a still not only from "The Screaming Woman," but also from "Night Gallery," the episode in particular about the earwig.  Apparently, both the movie and the episode aired at around the same time.  I don't recall much from the article anymore, other than the stills from both programs and the author's commentary on horror as it was being portrayed on television.

Gerard

HODS seems like Curtis' chance to break off from the perceived "kiddie audience" that watched the series and start running with the adult crowd who had to be over 17 (or with a guardian) to see the film in all its bloody glory.

The ironic thing is that when I saw it in the theater that Autumn day in 1970, virtually everyone in the audience were kiddies.  I stood in line with scads of them for two hours to get in.  Of course, it was a Saturday matinee, so that would make a difference.  All those kiddies, like me, were fanatical lovers of the series.  When the opening credits began to roll with that familiar theme, everyone jumped up and down, applauded and screamed.  In that particular audience, everyone was familiar with the characters.  As they appeared, voices shrieked out:  "There's Liz!...There's Roger!...There's Maggie!...There's Carolyn!...There's Willie!...There's you-name-'em!"

It would've been interesting to go to an evening viewing when the film-goers were undoubtedly of a much older species and see their reactions.  But then, my mom would've never allowed that.  It exasperated her enough that I went to a Saturday matinee to see the big-screen version of the show, which she called "that spooky crap," that destroyed her ability to watch Art Linkletter's House Party on another channel.

Gerard

Fantastic, Bob!  Beautiful tribute!  That should be played at a Festival; many would undoubtedly be very moved!

Gerard

Now, I don't know if this would apply; probably not, but maybe something along the lines can be accomplished in a roundabout way, so here goes.  I've been involved in, or participated in, cruises that were done as fundraisers for non-profit groups, such as church groups, charitable groups, etc.  The entire ship wasn't booked, but a certain portion of a particular cruise would be allocated for the organization's participating passengers.  When this was done, the cruise lines (everything from Princess to Celebrity to others) was very receptive.  Apparently, many of the lines do this.  The cost of the cruise was very inexpensive, much lower than what the other passengers paid, and a percentage went to the non-profit group sponsoring it (it was, after all, a fund-raiser).  There were many perks, such as having some public rooms, or sections of them, reserved for the participants at certain times for various activities.  The main organizers received their cruise for free (or, in one case, I and a friend who coordinated a fund-raiser cruise were given the option of getting the lowest grade stateroom for free, i.e., a free cruise, or pay the lowest fare stateroom and get upgraded to the one of the highest - we did that on that particular cruise and got a suite with separate bedroom, living room, dining room and marble-lined bathroom with its own jacuzzi...wow!).  There were some stipulations, the main one being that there had to be a minimum number of people participating and this flucuated with the cruise lines; one required a minimum of thirty, another required more than a hundred.  The thing is with that, the "kick-back" of money going to the non-profit only started with the passengers over that number.  If thirty were required and only thirty sailed, the non-profit got zilch.  If ninety went with a thirty minimum, then a chunk of money from the sixty-more passengers went back to the group.

I doubt if that would work with a DS cruise (saying it was to raise funds for homeless vampires probably wouldn't cut it), but maybe a cruise line would still offer a discount, such as when a hotel has a conference rate, maybe not as much if it were a fundraiser.  Who knows?  It would be worth looking into.

Gerard

Quote from: Gerard on September 01, 2007, 02:49:39 PM

Get the patch!  I use it all the time when I'm at sea.  Despite my fanatical love for being on a ship, I am one of the unfortunate ones who gets mal-de-mar when I stir my coffee too fast.  With it, I've never experienced a moment's queeziness, and I've been through some rough waters (including one transatlantic crossing with 40-foot waves).  It works perfectly at exorcising that demon in the inner ear!

Had it at the time. Didn't work. Perhaps if I had wound myself in them as though I were a mummy . . . 

I'm surprised it didn't work for you, Crisey!  Like I said, I'll get sea sick watering my lawn, but when I put the patch on, I'm good as gold.  One time, while crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth 2, we hit that storm with forty foot waves and the ship pitched like a bucking bronco.  I had the time of my life.  I had supper in the dining salon with only 50 other passengers (it seated over 1,000 in two sittings) and then went to a "pitching party" in the ship's disco and had a blast.  My friends who were in our shared cabin ended up in the hospital getting a shot in the poop deck with hundreds of others.

Try the mummy treatment with the patch!  You can be like Krusty the Klown on The Simpsons who tried using the nicotine patch to quit smoking.  He had them all over his body and had to keep licking them!  (Hysterical scene!)

Gerard