Stuart--what you say about the DS pilot sounds like Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, with a Dario Argento edge in the visuals.

I personally find this very different from DS, which I thought had a more muted quality to it, despite the occasional forays into the realm of Grand Guignol (Garth Blackwood--arrrrghhhh!)

I wish I had the chance to see the pilot and judge for myself.  I'll be surprised if it isn't eventually released on home video.

Steve

Hi Vlad,

actually, the idea of a color corresponding to a specific "level" in an initiatory progress seems to me to have its roots in Magickal techniques for working the Tree of Life in the Qabalah.  I recommend this site for more details:

http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/

(Note:  Christian mystics spell this word cabala; Jewish scholars prefer kaballah; and Pagans and Witches like myself prefer Qabalah or Qabala.  I don't know how people who normally can't agree about anything managed to agree to keep these spellings separate.  I suppose it has to do with the source materials used by people in the various traditions.)

The use of Color in mystical and magickal symbolism has a far ranging application.  When Poe was writing, French mystic Eliphas Levi was publishing books that recorded his experiments with the occult, which were to have a far-reaching impact upon what eventually became the modern Occult movement.  In fact, I believe it was Levi who came up with the idea of using the word "occult" the way we use it today.

It sounds to me as if you need to get your Masque of the Red Death DVD exchanged.  As for Giuliana's dream, the motif of ritual death and rebirth is central in virtually ALL initiatory traditions.  A persistent bit of lore states that full initiation into the ancient Egyptian priesthood involved lying for 3 days and 3 nights in a sarcophagus.  There's a much more elaborate version of this in which the initiate survives several near-encounters with a spectacular painful and messy death during his ordeal

Best,  Steve

That's a great montage.  There are some wonderful shots of Barbara Steele in there.

G.

Connie honey, don't you know the rule about "never apologize and never explain"!  so, so sorry to hear about the Lyme disease taking a bad turn and the crap with the meds.  I will send you some distance Reiki tonight... hope it helps.

I had you quite strongly in my thoughts this a.m. on the way to work, so I'm not surprised to find such a nice note from you today.  I only wish the news were better.  I wish life would allow me to travel to your home and spend a week as your personal maid, cooking up lovely soups and breads to help heal you, acting out my favorite scenes from Satan in High Heels and performing the Mad Queen's Scarf Dance to "Theme from Exodus" by F & T to help cheer you up.

big healing hugs,  Steve PS my regards to your son.

Oh my sweet Goddess!  DS to DA, I *adore* it!!!

giddy minx in Boston,

Gothick

These are *beautiful* captures for these two shows.

I really need to get these out of the vault and watch them again.  I'd forgotten about Mrs J attending the seance.  I just watched the shows about the seance in the Laura Collins '67 storyline and Mrs J's disapproving comments about the whole thing had me in stitches!

G.

Strangely, one of my all-time favorite moments on DS is the series of shots establishing Julia's time waiting in the cottage at the start of this second episode.  It's just so well done, with such simplicity of methods.  And Grayson is quietly brilliant, too.

Darren, did you ever turn up any more leads on the stories of home movies taken by a fan on the set of hoDS?

I was wondering whether the fan(s) who did those movies might have been the same folks who had the home movie footage of Grayson that was used in the DS 30th anniversary tape from MPI.

Wouldn't it be great if there was a shot of Denise and David at the filming of the party sequence in that footage?

G.