What staggers me is how the popularity of DS appears to be soaring.  Every month seems to bring a new bounty of press cuttings and pop culture references to the series.  And it hasn't been on any channel's schedule in several years now!

I would never have thought that something as lo-fi and "unique" as our beloved show would turn out to be the darling of the iWhatever age.

G.

I am LMAOROFL at the MB's brilliant caption about Barnabas agonizing that Jeb has cursed him to walk the night at Pepe LePew!  Hilarious!

And, I'm sure I'm the ONLY fan trashy enough to notice that in the 1841 PT lottery storyline, it truly does look as if Morgan has taken a leaf out of the "Spinal Tap" songbook and now has a cucumber wrapped in foil down his trousers... perhaps he's preparing to serenaade Catherine with "lick my love-pump, baby" in the drawing room later in the evening??

cheers, G.

I watched the final three episodes of season 1 of the Lair last night and there's even more plot stuff cribbed from DS, particularly in the final show.

I do hope that the quality of the Lair improves with Season 2, as reportedly was the case with Dante's Cove (there seems to be a feature film version of this show in the works?).

G.

In House of Dracula, the insidious Count (thesped by our beloved Uncle John Carradine) comes to visit a very odd sanatorium run by this mad doctor.  Dracula feigns remorse for the evil he has wrought and tells the doctor he is seeking a cure.  But it's all just a ploy to get his fangs into the inevitable ingenue also staying at the castle.

I think this movie dates to 1944 or thereabouts.  Although the script and direction are spotty, it's worth seeing for the classic Universal 1940s stylish cinematography and setpieces.

G.

A friend loaned me the miniseries from here! TV, "The Lair," yesterday, and my roomie and I watched the first three (of the total six) episodes last night.  This show is really the TV equivalent of junk food, but it's a fun way to put your brain on hold.  Each episode only lasts 25 minutes and the scripts are written like a vampire version of Mary Hartman! Mary Hartman! so it goes by fairly painlessly.

I was struck by a number of plot details and even some visual reminiscences that reminded me of DS.  The show also seems to owe a debt to Forever Knight (another favorite show of mine).  The only ref to Buffy tVS I could detect was the fact that one of the major vampires has a funny bleached-blond spikey hairdo but the guy is nowhere near as exciting as James Marsters' Spike.

For the record, in case it isn't glaringly obvious from the DVD art and promos, the show is aimed at a gay audience, and a lot of the strictly softcore sex is reminiscent of something directed by Chi Chi Larue, but there are very few instances of full frontal male nudity so far and the sex really isn't graphic enough to bother anyone who's reasonably open-minded in sexual matters.

Elements reminiscent of DS include the character of Damion, the leader of the vampire cult, who's brooding, conflicted, wears eyeliner, exudes an air of being powerful yet vulnerable, keeps a portrait of himself from the 18th century that he has to keep touching up because, like Quentin's portrait on DS, it changes to reflect the evil deeds his "curse" compels him to perform.
Then there's Frankie, who Damion always addresses as "Francis," who seems like Fred Olen Ray's take on the character of Willie.  The actor who plays Frnakie actually does a pretty good job with it.  There's a scene where Damion's hand is slowly reaching for Frankie's throat, and there's this ring with a very ornate bezel on the forefinger, that I found visuallly reminiscent of a shot in House of Dark Shadows. 

Another element coming up in the latter episodes is that the character of the protagonist, a reporter named Tom, turns out to be the reincarnation of Damion's lost lover from the 18th century.  The frame of the series is that Tom is being kept in a cell awaiting Damion's rising to come and claim him as his vampire consort--again, reminiscent of Maggie being kept in the basement cell in the 1967 storyline.

"The Lair" is probably too awkward and poorly-written to appeal to more than a very specific kind of audience, but I would be willing to bet that at least a few cousins on this board would have fun with it (I can imagine Penny Dreadful laughing her head off at some of the scenes).

G.

I'm looking at the article again and laughing--I would never use language such as "we get screwed in the end" in something meant for print publication, even in a draft.

Note to Joeytron:  do you own a copy of the zine itself?  I've never seen how it looked.

G.

One of my all time favorite moments on Strange Paradise that has a weird relationship to the culture of these boards is this week when a spirit winds up trapped in the body of a black rabbit. 

Cosette Lee is magnificent bellowing to her terrified hubby Quito:  "Quito!  You must find that rabbit!  It is EEE-vil!  And when you find it--you know what you must do!  CRUSH it!  Kill, Quito!  KILL!" 

This snippet of dialogue would make a fabulous voicemail outgoing message, IMNSHO.

G.

I'm enjoying reading this thread. Sweeney Todd from the reviews I've seen has the same gore quotient as The Texas Chain Saw Massacres and although I enjoy classic horror I really can live without the splatter biz, so I'll be giving it a miss.  But it's interesting to see all the comments about it.  I'm just a little disappointed that nobody thought it was a dud--there's usually at least somebody who proves to be the odd man (or woman) out in the group. 

Two very short responses to comments above:  I used to own the Original Cast Recordings for Mame and Dear World, and I saw Lansbury do Everything's coming up Roses (when she was doing her triumphal revival of Gypsy) at a Tony show back several decades ago, and I think that in her way, Lansbury may have had one of those archetypally golden Broadway voices.  I can't really say more about it than that, just my opinion.  Her singing on Dear World (a show that regrettably flopped) is particularly exquisite.  God, I need to get the CD for that show...

As for Johnny Depp, although he seems like a very likeable, wonderful fellow, I have yet to see him do anything that made me raise my eyebrows, much less knock my socks off.  (His stunt cameo as a prison drag queen in that Javier Bardem thing did amuse me, I'll admit.)  The MB advised me to hie myself to the video shop and check out Depp's thesping in From Hell, but I have yet to manage to do that.  I'm afraid all I can conjure up in the notion of Depp as Barnabas is a cartoon rendition of the character, although I do attempt to keep an open mind. 

I'm not sure who I would nominate as the greatest actor of our times.  Different actors show different strengths in different roles.  It would probably be someone like Viggo Mortensen or Ewan MacGregor, though.  I realized all over again today how little I know or comprehend about "the industry" nowadays when I read in an obit for poor Heathie Ledger that Ledger, who I regarded as a major box office draw today, was "not a marquee movie star."  WTF?

cheers, Gothique