Tag: horror

About Edgar

This evening I had the pleasure of attending a lecture about Edgar Allan Poe by Amy Branam Armiento, Ph.D., professor of English at Frostburg State University and immediate past president of the Poe Studies Association. Titled “The Macabre Poe,” the lecture is part of the annual October run of spooky, horror, and dark talks hosted by Profs and Pints, which brings college faculty members into bars, cafés, company offices, and other off-campus venues to share their knowledge.

Dr. Armiento gave a great presentation and I picked up a few tidbits about the great Poe that I didn’t know before. For example, he had something of a contentious relationship with his foster father, John Allan, so if you have a signed collectible and Poe’s signature spells out “Allan,” there’s a very good chance the signature is not authentic. I couldn’t blame Poe if he was resentful. He was taken in by John and Frances Allan when he was three years old and they never officially adopted him. Harsh.

So much for naming my bookends Edgar and Allan. Out of respect they are now Edgar and Lenore. See also, I’ve always thought it would be fun and rather metal to have two Vasa parrots and name them Edgar and Allan.

A black Greater Vasa Parrot in a palm tree.
Greater Vasa Parrot. (Image: Wikipedia)

I doubt I’ll ever have Vasas though. If I ever spy a pair at Phoenix Landing, I’ll be there, but they’re hard to come by on the adoption circuit.

A woman in the audience tonight was involved in naming the current Baltimore NFL team, and thank goodness she’s a Poe fan. Otherwise, the Ravens might have been named the Blue Crabs or the Lighthouses. I’m sure both the team and whoever designed the Ravens logo appreciate that. Too bad this audience member wasn’t also involved in renaming the D.C. team, which used to be called the Redskins and now goes by the Commanders. My guess is no woman was involved in that nonsense, or at least no one who ever read or watched The Handmaid’s Tale and doesn’t hate women.

Joseph Fiennes as Commander Fred Waterford in The Handmaid's Tale.
Joseph Fiennes as Commander Fred Waterford in The Handmaid’s Tale. Now we know where JD Vance gets his make-up ideas.

I picked up a copy of More Than Love: The Enduring Fascination with Edgar Allan Poe, a collection of essays edited by Dr. Armiento. In the essays, writers, poets, actors, visual artists, musicians, tour guides, teachers, and others describe how Poe has influenced their careers. I can’t wait to read it–but first, I will have to dig into my Barnes & Noble’s collector’s edition, The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe for a refresher on some of the tales Dr. Armiento discussed tonight.

A book titled "More Than Love: The Enduring Fascination with Edgar Allan Poe."

And now for today’s candy, Necco wafers. These hardened discs of sugar and flavoring could have been made yesterday and they would still taste like they came into the world the same day Poe did.

No Home Runs Here

Ended up watching The First Omen last night. Or, I should say “watching,” because my laundry was more interesting and a far less ridiculous. The soundtrack clobbered everything. Too much old-school warbling, like a 90-year-old woman doing her best impression of a theremin, “oooooOOOOOoooooo.”

It was clownish, although not as clownish as all the heavy breathing, as though Nell Tiger Free spent half the movie running uphill with a vibrator in her underwear.

The whole thing was too much cliche, not enough suspense and build-up. I don’t know why so many people on Reddit thought it was great. Does Reddit skew young these days? I do feel that Gen Z and Alphas are more easily frightened than I was at that age, so if Reddit has passed to the younger generations, it would make sense if they found The First Omen scary.

Tonight’s flick, Late Night with the Devil was much better, although that wouldn’t have been too difficult. Great concept: A talk show host brings on a psychic, a possessed 13-year-old girl and her parapsychologist, and a skeptic. Demonic mayhem ensues. There were some good moments, but the ending jumped around a bit too much for me and the whole thing left too many questions unanswered.

However, they did mention Reggie Jackson and the Reggie candy bar, so here’s tonight’s candy, named after the famous baseball player after he hit three home runs in three swings and had five home runs in the 1977 World Series. These were pretty good, like a softer version of a basic turtle candy.

It’s not even 10:00 p.m. yet. Maybe I can still find something that will creep me out. I’m off tomorrow for Indigenous People’s Day, formerly known as Columbus Day. I keep telling everyone that if we still want to celebrate Italian heritage and Italian-Americans, October 21st would be a good day. Nothing to do with me wantind a parade on my birthday. Nope. No siree.

Bad horror fan! BAD!

Would you believe I have not seen one horror movie this month yet? Sacrilege! My excuse is that I finally got around to watching Mayans and that was five seasons so I didn’t have time.

But now I’m ready and I have a few on my list based on what I’ve read around the internet. In no particular order:

Late Night With the Devil: A talk-show host releases evil into the world through his viewers’ living rooms.

Oddity: A psychic tackles the mystery of her sister’s murder.

The First Omen: The prequel to the 1971 classic.

Abigail: A kid held for ransom turns out to be evil. Not sure I’ll get to this one. I’ve heard it’s good, but after the Sinister series, very few “evil kid” movies impress me.

Longlegs: An FBI agent chases a serial killer with ties to the dark arts. I’ve read some critical reviews saying that it didn’t live up to the hype, but I don’t watch much TV with commercials so I never saw the hype.

Beau Is Afraid: I am so torn on this one. I love pretty much everything Joaquin Phoenix does, but man oh man, I cannot stand Ari Aster’s penchant for idiotic climaxes. (Midsommar and Heredity, I’m looking at you.)

I did happen to catch a couple of horror flicks in September, though. First was The Black Phone. It was short and ye gods, were the kids in the film violent and foul-mouthed, but the plot was pretty interesting and I appreciated the 80s vibe. The second was Nope, about two ranch owners, a brother and sister, who try to capture video evidence of a UFO after things start falling out of the sky. Somehow Jordan Peele manages to make what looks like a mutant weather balloon unnerving, while also imparting a bit of social commentary.

And now for today’s candy, which is often found at movie theaters but also comes in small, “fun size” boxes for Halloween: Junior Mints! I loved their ooey, gooey minty freshness, except for that one time I got them at the movies and apparently the candy had been exposed to a good bit of heat because all of the pieces had melted and rehardened into one giant Junior Mint. That didn’t keep me from eating it, though.

If you have a movie recommendation, kindly do drop it in the comments. Much obliged!