More Sunday Blather

God, what a stunning day outside here in Marlboro -- and warmer here than it is in either Wilmington (due west, just over Hogback Mountain) or Brattleboro, which is unusual. We're higher elevation than Brat, must be a nice thermal layer lingering at our level. The early AM drive up to meet my parents, sister Kathie and her husband Jim for breakfast at our fave local diner (Dot's) revealed that, while we were frost-free this morning, the Wilmington side of Hogback was thickly blanketed. We noted a ten-degree difference between the two towns, though it's only an eight-mile drive. Ah, autumn in Vermont.

Marge and I have been multi-tasking all day, too, with as much outdoors activity as we can manage between the inside and/or driving chores today. Heavy workload, twixt my prep and packing for three days at CCS this week, and an obligation for every day thereafter (speaking at Keene State College -- twice! -- on Thursday, CCS again on Friday, CCS prep for next week on Saturday, and co-manning a table at the Worcester MA Rock'n'Shock Show with Marty Langford, Mike Dobbs and others on Sunday), and all Marge is juddling, too. I'm doing laundry, too, per usual (my basement rooms are such a disaster area, only I can make it to and from the laundry room). We're also prepping for dinner with the extended family tonight, which will be fun.

In any case, we've kept it as evenly paced as possible. Amid this, and to keep vibes blissful, I've been spinning some old LPs and recording some music for myself (for the long drives and for my CCS office space, where I've no CD player, only an old radio/tape player) and for my son Dan, who's joining us tonight for dinner here.

Dan's quite the vinyl explorer and collector, and among his discoveries is a favorite for both of us now: Don Cherry and The Jazz Composer's Orchestra's February, 1973 recording of Cherry's Relativity Suite. I'm taping this for both of us, back-to-back with the rare Alejandro Jodorowsky soundtrack LP for El Topo, which I've held on to since 1972, still in excellent shape.

Why the double-bill? Dan, bless him, identified the Don Cherry gem correctly as a partial soundtrack for Jodo's The Holy Mountain, his extravagant midnight-movie successor to the grandpappy of the '70s midnight movies El Topo. Good score, Dan, and quite the ear!

My heart swells with pride.

(PS: He's currently savoring my Moondog 2 LP, and already tracking down Moondog music new to me -- ah, the unexpected joys of parenting.)

Some Sunday Announcements...

Despite the resounding impact of this morning's startling revelation (see below, 10:45 post), I have recovered sufficiently to add the following semi-revelatory tidbits and nibbles.

The new Marvel paperback Doctor Strange Vs. Dracula: The Montesi Formula with an exclusive signed art print by comics great Gene Colan is ready to ship from PaneltoPanel.net,

and that seemed worthy of attention for any and all horror comic fans. This, as you may recall, is the final chapter of the original Colan-delineated Dracula saga under the ol' Jim Shooter Marvel regime, which in fact concluded with a "Death Certificate" signed by Shooter declaring all vampires dead, forever, from the Marvel Universe! Well, sorta forever -- that lasted until Shooter's reign ended and vampires were hot commercial properties again (in typical Marvel and capitalist entertainment industry fashion).

Anyhoot, in honor of this new collection in trade paperback and Gene Colan's recent announcement of retirement, John Rovnak and Panel to Panel.Net is offering this signed b&w print featuring all-new Gene Colan artwork with every copy of The Montesi Formula. This print is available only at Panel to Panel.Net, and is in limited supply.

Also available are exclusive signed bookplates and prints by Rick (Can't Get No) Veitch and Bob (Recess Pieces) Fingerman, with more exclusive bookplates coming soon for Rob Walton's Ragmap (highly recommended!), Rick Veitch's brand-new collected edition of his first-ever graphic novel Abraxas and the Earthman (I've held a copy in my hot little mitts, and it's also highly recommended and blows the old Epic serialization production and printing out of the proverbial water!), and Mirage Studios' Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Collected Books Volume 1, as well as the Panel To Panel.Net exclusive Runaway Comic #2.1 by Mark Martin.

So what are you waiting for? All this booty and more awaits you

right here!

See you there!
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The new issue of Donato Totaro's excellent online zine Offscreen

Featured this all-Chinese cinema issue (and good reading, all) is:
* The 4th Life by Donato Totaro
* Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy by Daniel Garrett
* And Always Searching for Beauty: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Daniel Garrett
* The White Countess: Merchant and Ivory’s Final Film by Guan Soon Khoo
* James Marsh's The King by Ben Dooley
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As promised, Jason Whiton sent along this link for The Brattleboro Film Series,

including info on my October 18th intro for The Bride of Frankenstein and October 24th intro for the seminal Hammer classic The Horror of Dracula.

More info on the sponsoring theater space, too,

here.

Sunday Morning Revelation

An answer to an age-old question:

Does the bear shit in the woods?

No, on my lawn.