Greetings, fans,

Mario Bava's 1960s films may not have directly influenced DS, but they were very much in the background of 1960s artists reworking classic horror myths and supernatural motifs.  (Some images and aspects of BLACK SUNDAY may have influeced one of the storylines in Parallel Time 1970, but I'm not prepared to try arguing that here at the moment.)  Anyone in LA this month may want to take advantage of the Mario Bava Film Festival being mounted at the Egyptian Theatre:

http://egyptiantheatre.com/archive1999/2008/Egyptian/Mario_Bava.htm

Sounds like fun!

G.

Good grief!  Glad I've held on to my VHS tapes my friend made for me from the Laserdiscs.

G.

Joan Bennett as a Madam ... WOW!  That, I would love to see.  Maybe this show will be one of the vintage series up for DVD release later this year. I know I'm excited about VCI's plans to release Honey West.

I hope that there can finally be a screening this year of Grayson Hall's Playtex commercial to placate members of Her Legion.  I know that there must be a copy of it on one of the 1970 DS Master tapes because they contain all the commercials, and the spot was aired more than once during DS.

They'd better plan to repeat the commercial at least once because you know there will be screaming, stampeding in the aisles, etc. as soon as it starts!

All in all, it sounds like a fun Festival.  AND, it's all happening in Beautiful Downtown Burbank!  Will Ernestine be on the phone lines reminding us that somebody or other is "omnipotent"?

cheers, G.

I watched The Governor and J. J. frequently but must have missed Miss Bennett's appearance on it. Of course, I last saw it IN 1970, so ...

G.

There's a decent Wikipedia article about Blu-Ray that I skimmed through over the weekend.  From what it says, it appears likely that Blu-Ray players WILL be able to play older tech stuff (i.e. the older recensions of DVDs).

It will be interesting to see what develops from this point on, and whether the Industry will be able to coax consumers down yet another yellow-brick road of upgrading any and all movies and shows they own to the new format.  I'm not holding my breath.

G.

One thing I tried to do in that article was to pull apart the whole notion of "Camp" and DS--I thought Sontag's work pointed to a way of thinking about the over-the-top semi-demented proceedings on the show that captured just how magical it all was.  And the innate poetry of some of the most extreme scenes and moments on DS and how this fits into the notion of "gay sensibility" which can be seen as a strongly creative force (albeit often underground) in the arts scene of the 20th century.

All rather a heady brew to bring to the table with our favorite show, perhaps; I'm not sure the result is a success. I have only vague memories now of what was going through my head when I wrote this (it was nearly 15 years ago), but I do remember that I wanted to tighten it up a bit.  I also wanted to write more about Julia ... writing this article probably did lead me to take on the Grayson project.

cheers, G.

Good Golly Miss Midnite, did you TYPE that with your own fair hands???  You deserve a golden Naked Selby award for such lioness-worthy efforts!!

One mistake I spotted which I presume was in the original was that I know I described myself as a "budding ten year old" in 1968, not 1966, because I was about to turn ten when I started watching DS back in June of '68 (now THAT feels like another country).

I think the address of the studio got scrambled, too--presumably in the printed text.

Nancy, if you see this, I'm very sorry about the mean things we've written about your friend. I obviously never even met the man, and I do feel compassion for him based upon what you have written.  I'm glad he's in a happier place now in his own life.

cheers, G.