I woke up and there was a big ugly fly walking around in one of my slippers

And I thought, Yep, it's my birthday. >_<

Anyhoo, here's the GUN CLUB doing their awesome "Texas Serenade". It's from the "Miami" album and the uploader obviously used the old LP version. Unfortunately "Miami" never got the attention it ought to have had simply due to a terribly weak production. When Sympathy For The Record Industry re-released it on CD a few years back they remastered it and the album finally got the power it ought to have had from the beginning. I know-I know, the CD is a victim of the Loudness War and the music is compressed too much or whatever. But it STILL sounds better on my cheap ghettoblaster with its more powerful sound than the MUCH too weak vinyl version. If I had expensive stereo equipment then it might be a problem. As it is it isn't. So sue me. xD

I can't even think of a headline...

It saddens me deeply to forward this: Turkish film director Kunt Tulgar has been to see BILL BAROUNIS (aka Vassilis) in hospital in Greece and according to Turkish film journalist Ali Murat Guven he said:

"Unfortunately Vassilis is dying step by step. He was sleeping deeply."

I'm still hoping for a miracle. :-(


Here's Ali Murat Guven's email in full. It was posted on Cinehound forum today (Friday):

"Dear friend Miltos,

Mr. Kunt Tulgar just arrived to Athens today early in the morning and he didn't want to disturb to you, directly went to the clinic.

He saw Vassilis, Julia and Vassilis' parents. He spent a few times at the hospital and gave Vassilis' honorary prize from Ankara Fantastic Film Festival to Julia.

They called me from the hospital, both of them were so sad. Tulgar said 'Unfortunately Vassilis is dying step by step. He was sleeping deeply. I kissed him and whispered to his ear 'As the Turkish filmmakers, journalists, film fans, we will never forget you and your efforts for us dear Greek brother'.

It was a very tragic moment for me. Kunt and me were crying on the phone.

Mr. Tulgar will return to Turkey on Friday.

I thank you for your friendly informations and helps. We really will never forget our Greek brother and from now on, we will remember him in every fantastic film festivals in Turkey.

Unfortunately, I could only have done this for him. I go on praying for my lovely friend.

Regards,

ALI MURAT GUVEN"

You can read the original posting (including Miltos' comments) here.


Like Kurt said, wish you were here now, Bill. :(

This is the best toon ever recorded!!!

This is THE FABS doing "That's the bag I'm in" from 1966. It's on BACK FROM THE GRAVE, VOLUME ONE (from Crypt Records). You should own that record!


Every morning when I wake up
I burn my fingers on the coffee pot.
My toast is cold and my orange juice hot.
I could start over but I'd really rather not
'Cause it would only happen over again.

Well, yeah!
Well, that's the bag I'm in.
That's the bag, that's the bag, that's the bag I'm in.
That's the bag, baby!
That's the bag I'm in.
Well, that's the bag I'm in.

I never met a girl I thought could be my friend.
The only money I got is Chinese yen.
They'll probably drop the bomb the day my ship comes in.
I want a steady girl who could be tall and thin.

Well, that's the bag I'm in.
Well, that's the bag I'm in.
Well, that's the bag I'm in.



The lyrics are courtesy of the YouTube uploader.

All hail our king

Gee whiz! During my five year mission thru Cyberspace I've just stumbled over a Bruno Mattei fan site, THE HELL OF BRUNO MATTEI. Another fellow Mattei worshipper!! I have no idea if the site is any good but here is a link anyway. And I don't know if it's still being updated (or who's behind it). The front page was last updated in 2006 but there might be newer reviews.

KOLCHAK: the night stalker (USA, 1974-75)

I received the KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER complete series boxset today. Yay!! Spiffy!!! I've wanted this show for years!! But there's too many movies in this world so that's why I haven't got around to ordering it until now. Now it's here and whoo-hoo for that.

I've never watched any of the episodes before but I've watched the telly movie and the pilot that preceded the show and found those two to be really good. KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER ran over the US TV screens in 1974-75. Twenty 60 minute episodes! Maybe 20 episodes doesn't sound like much compared to other shows but even so it became a cult show that people are still talking about. I watched episode #1 tonight and I look forward to the remaining 19!!

The basic plot: Carl Kolchak is a newspaper reporter and for some reason he usually runs into unusual cases. In the first episode he's up against "the ripper" (who happens to be Jack the Ripper hisself who has survived since 1888!!). Some of the other episodes are called: "The Zombie", "The Vampire", and "The Spanish Moss Murders"!

As I said there are two TV films that were made before the show; THE NIGHT STALKER from 1972 and THE NIGHT STRANGLER (i.e. the pilot) from 1973.

The two TV movies are released on a reg. 1 MGM DVD but unfortunately it's out of print and it's now so expensive it's ridiculous!! Fortunately I bought it years ago and probably paid something like 10 bucks for it.

The complete TV show (which doesn't include any of the two TV films) is out on DVD in both the US and the UK. Both sets are complete and if you need subtitles (Spanish & English) you'll need the reg. 1 set but otherwise I'll recommend the UK set at it contains the original versions of all episodes. The show's original title in the first four episodes was "The Night Stalker" after which they changed the title to "Kolchak: The Night Stalker". When the show was re-run in the US they changed the title card in the first four episodes and the reg. 1 carries the altered versions. The UK set, on the other hand, uses the original versions. I know-I know, not much of a difference but, hey, THIS SHIT IS IMPORTANT to film geeks like you and me. lolz.

Also, the reg. 1 box presents the 20 episodes on 3 flipper discs whereas the UK set has 5 ordinary discs. There's no extras (and do notice the UK set isn't subtitled).

There was a remake a few years back but I haven't watched it and I seem to remember it bombed.

I got the KOLCHAK set from Amazon UK where it retails for around £10. The video company Playback/Universal have released it in two different cases; the one described on Dvdcompare.net is different to the one I received (one plastic box, not three slimline cases in a cardboard slipcase) but I believe the discs are the same.

It was a goood Friday!

In addition to the films in my last post I also received these flicks:


This is the Mexican horror movie ALUCARDA (or in Turkish: Alucarda Seytanin Kizi) which I already have on a spiffy DVD from Mondo Macabro but I really love the film and couldn't let the chance to get this Turkish video release pass me by. It's bloody Betamax even!!





This is the Turkish movie ASKIN KANUNU which is directed by legendary cult director Cetin Inanc (who did tons of cool movies like LAST WARRIOR, DEATH WARRIOR and not least TURKISH STAR WARS). I thought I'd include the original cool poster as the cover for the video-cd is atrociously bad.




Woo-hoo! I finally got hold of the DVD re-release of the original VHS release of THE CHARLES BUKOWSKI TAPES. The DVD is listed on eBay all the time but even so it took me months to get hold of a copy. The one seller who had it listed simply wouldn't ship outside of the US. Go figure. >_<
Anyhoo, the 2-disc release looks great and it's got a 36 page booklet included with interview and shit. :D

And finally, this rare Danish BLACK COBRA 2 VHS arrived a few days earlier (courtesy of Mr Mads Jensen og tak for det):

Received yet another small parcel from a Chinese gent in SF...

And what can I say other than arrrrrr [i.e. Homer Simpson drool]

11 laserdiscs and 4 video tapes of Hong Kong films. 6 of the LDs are in plain white covers but I wanted to get them anyway as they're very rare; One of them is the rare version of DEVIL FETUS which is identical to the (also very rare) Ocean Shores VHS and which is an alternative print with some different footage (alternative to the DVD and VCD releases). Oh, and one of the other white sleeve laserdiscs is Tsui Hark's DANGEROUS ENCOUNTER - FIRST KIND!!!

Check the first parcel here.








LEOPARD HUNTING (HK, 1998, s: Jade Leung, Roy Cheung, Yukari Oshima). And yes it's one film on two video tapes! This used to be common practice in HK (and thus also the US Chinatown tapes). I have no idea as to why they did this.



WAY OF THE LADY BOXERS



ANGEL'S PROJECT



THE HAUNTED MADAM



DEVIL'S WOMAN



DEVIL RETURNS (not to be confused with SATAN RETURNS)




SALLY YEH (Sally Yip) live in concert 1991





CRAZY SPIRIT

The remaining white sleeve laserdiscs are: FRIENDLY GHOST, THE FIRST VAMPIRE IN CHINA (which I have on a Japanese VHS but I'm informed this LD is subtitled in English!!!), NEW MR VAMPIRE (!!!), MISS MAGIC.

All in all a very good parcel with 13 rare HK movies (and one Sally Yeh concert). There was a lot of rare stuff I couldn't get because, well, I'm not made of money. LOLZ.

Clean cut bearded man makes lame excuses

This afternoon, and completely by chance, I discovered that old Ninja Dixon and En Lejemorder Ser Tilbage friend Patrick, author of Tales of a Bearded Movie Aficionado blog, has recently made an update.

Unfortunately, it's not to tell us he's making his long awaited return to the blog world but actually to tell us he's not making a return. Patrick's lame excuse for not making any more fun posts is a lack of money! He can't buy rare tapes and shit so obviously he can't blog. What drunken babble is this!! Hmm, come to think of it Patrick is probably a lot less drunk these days as he's (apparently) sobered up. Also, back in the day Patrick was messed up on mescaline and what-have-you shitty drugs that floated around but a couple yrs back his mum had him committed to some clinic for drug losers - or some such.

Anyhoo, to make a short story excruciatingly long Patrick is now living the life of a poor artist! Well, good luck with that, Pattie boy, I wish you the best. But I don't see why you can't blog about films and shit just because you can't afford expensive video tapes!? Collecting expensive stiff doesn't mean shit. Just write about old stuff you've got sitting on your shelf or bought cheap or taped from TV. It ain't that difficult. >_<

Terrible-terrible-terrible news about Bill Barounis!!!

Miltos in Athens posted this about our friend on Cinehound forum yesterday afternoon (Friday):

I'm affraid the news are just terrible. I tried to phone Bill but nobody picked up the phone...This afternoon my wife communicated with Julia -Bill's wife - and she told that Bill is in a clinic, in the emergencies. He is unconsious and intubated and the cancer has been spreaded around...

I don't know what to say. This is just awful. I sincerely wish Bill gets well again but it's certainly looking grimmer than grim right now. :-(

Miltos continued in his post:

No more hope? I guess there is always hope. There must be hidden somewhere.

I spend my night drinking and thinking all the adventures we had together all these years, the video huntings, the screenings, the theaters, even our dream to open a cult theater together some day...Out travels to the edge of Greece for some videos. And some talks we had about more personal matters and thoughts and feelings.

We live in an unfair and cruel world, don't we?

You can follow the thread here.

THE RAMONES - Pet Semetery

Here's a HD copy of the mighty RAMONES' theme song from PET SEMETERY. It's an uber-fun video!! So sad they're dead and gone now (both Dee Dee and Joey Ramone passed away a few years back).


PS: Gee, I want a leather jacket again!!! (and just WHEN did rock'en rollers stop wearing leather jackets??? Nowadays it's, like, bikers have a copyright/owners' right on that!) >_<