28 Days Army of the Dead Dawn of the Dead Dracula Dracula, Bride Of Dracula, Sin of Exorcist, The Fog, The Land of the Dead Serpent and the Rainbow Signs Village, The Village of the Damned (new and remake)
For your viewing chills this Halloween, herewith are Pig's favorite Halloween movies, in no particular order:
1. The Exorcist (based on a true story) 2. The Entity (ditto) 3. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (again) 4. Halloween 5. The Lady in White 6. Frankenstein (1931) 7. Bride of Frankenstein (1933) 8. Dracula (1931 with Bela Lagosi) 9. Pumpkinhead 10. The Serpent and the Rainbow 11. Psycho 12. Grave Secrets (aka The Black Hope Horror) 13. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1955) 14. Them (1955) 15. The Thing (original) 16. Village of the Damned (both original and remake, original is better) 17. Night of the Living Dead 18. Dawn of the Dead (remake is better than the original) 19. Day of the Dead 20. Army of Darkness 21. 28 Days 22. Target Earth (1955) 23. Rosemary's Baby 24. Psycho 25. The Ninth Gate 26. Godzilla (family fun) 27. Plan 9 From Outer Space (so campy, its funny) 28. Dracula, Brides of 29. Dracula, Son of 30. Dracula Rises Again 31. Frankenstein, Son of 32. The Abominable Dr. Phibes 33. Dr. Phibes Rises Again 34. The Fog (original with Adrienne Barbeau) 35. Shaun of the Dead (comedy) 36. Simpson's Tree House of Horror series 37. The House on Haunted Hill 38. The Evil Dead 39. The Hearse 40. Chucky 41. Stephen King's The Shining 42. Stephen King's Storm of the Century 43. Stephen King's Rose Red 44. Stephen King's Salem's Lot 45. Stephen King's Pet Cemetary 46. Witchboard 47. The Others 48. Blade 49. Blacula 50. A Haunting in Connecticut 51. Rod Serling's Night Gallery (series) 52. Stephen King's Creepshow 53. Tales From The Crypt 54. Friday the 13th (series) 55. Fright Night 56. The Keep 57. Stephen King's Cat's Eye 58. The Golem 59. Nosferatu 60. Silent Night, Evil Night (aka Black Christmas) 61. Alfred Hitchcock Presents (series) 62. Last House on the Left 63. Phantasm 64. Trilogy of Terror 65 The X-Files (earliest episodes) 66. The Creature from The Black Lagoon 67. The Wolfman 68. Dracula, Frankenstein Meet the Wolfman 69. Wolfen 70. American Werewolf in London 71. Willard 72. Ben 73. Tarantula 74. Earth vs the Spider 75. It Came From Outer Space 77 It (the Golem one) 78. Stephen King's It. 79. 13 Ghosts (original) 80 Stephen King's The Stand 81 I, Zombie 82. Hellraiser 83. Candyman 84. The Invisible Man
Alas, we have come to the end of our tour of the Haunted USA, with Haunted Wyoming. It was earily fun, wasn't it? Seems there are ghosts just about EVERYWHERE. BEWARE!
Two more days to Horrorween. Our trip around the Haunted USA concludes tomorrow. There have been a number of hits from all over the world, many from the US. But the last time I checked (Wednesday) most states have reported in, except the following: AR, DE, DC, HI, IA, KY, LA, NH, SC, SD, VT and WV. Don't be left out! Elk City, Oklahoma was the 500th hit for this blog.
Meanwhile, the state quarter isn't the only thing that's a little odd in Haunted Wisconsin.
Appomattox and other Civil War battlefields are considered somme of the most haunted places in America. So many young people were killed when they were not ready. This and other spooky sites are just a few of the 'must feel' places of haunted Virginia.
With a week to go before Halloween, our tour of Haunted America is winding down. Here's Haunted Vermont - its hard to believe that such a bucolic state of autumnal beauty, cozy country inns and the home of TVs Newhart would be so spooky.
When John Roberts was confirmed as Supreme Court justice, Republicans argued that religion would not and should not be used as a litmus test for judicial nominees. Now that Repulicans have 'reservations' about Harriet Miers, Bush is parading her to his Evangelical base that she is 'one of them' especially when it comes to Roe v Wade. My, my, how quickly the tune changes in the course of just 3 weeks. Has she become a liability for the Administration? Will she withdraw? It should be an interesting week...
I had an interesting dream last night. I dreamt I was on a road trip with Bruce and we stopped at a bed and breakfast that was allegedly haunted. The 'haunting' included a mirror that shows the face of a nineteenth century woman in period garb. I was eating a seafood salad sub and sat down at the little side table in front of the mirror and saw my own reflection and I figured that although Bruce has seen spirits, and although I may believe in them, I have yet to see one, and I laughed at the legend. I ate half the sandwhich and went into the bedroom to watch a little TV while Bruce loaded the car. When he came in and asked me if I was ready to leave, I said yes and went into the other room to retrieve the other half of the sub. That's when I looked in the mirror and saw the face of an older woman like that of a black and white photograph. I remember being very spooked and running down the stairs and out of the building. Then I woke up. A ghost story dream or a dream of a ghost story?
They say everything is big in Texas - lots of land, Ann Richard's hair and a long border with Mexico. Texas also executes more people than all other states combined (and most foreign countries) so I am sure there are a lot of disgruntled early arrivals to shadowlands. There is a bridge in Austin that attracts tourists to watch the bats fly out at sundown. Austin could be the beginning of your tour of Haunted Texas.
The countdown to Halloween continues with Haunted Tennessee. One story to watch out for is the story of the Bell Witch, about a family who was cursed by an old woman. Read about this and whatever is spooky in Haunted Tennessee.
Deadwood is an approriate name for an old Western Ghost Town. Now a tourist mecca, some residents think it is such a nice place to live, they refuse to leave! Here's Haunted South Dakota.
Many people claim that Charleston, South Carolina is the most haunted town in America. The ghosts of Confederate soldiers and other successionists are said to haunt the Capitol as well. Herewith, is Haunted South Carolina.
The setting for the movie The Sixth Sense where the kid says "I see dead people" was in Philadephia, as part of this week's countdown to Halloween, let's visit Haunted Pennsylvania.
The Sixth Sense was one of the better movies put out by M. Night Shamalyan (not sure of the spelling). Two other good Halloween flicks to see by him include Signs and The Village. Speaking of villages, two more good entries for the spooky genre include both the original and remakes of the alien children in the Village of the Damned.
While on the subject of remakes, have you seen the remake of The Fog. I think that one will be tough to beat, since the original was played so well by Adrienne Barbeau. But we'll see. Most remakes don't live up to the quality of the originals, witness all the Excorcist rehashes ad nauseum. But one makes the cut nicely, namely last year's remake of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. The orignal was too campy, but I think the remake was more nicely done. Add that one to your video library.
As the countdown to Halloween continues, let's visit one of my favorite states, the Pacific Northwest state of Oregon, where I lived for a few months in Portland in 1996. I enjoyed my time there, and I hope you do too, just try not to get too spooked in Haunted Oregon.
The countdown to Halloween continues with Haunted North Dakota. I've been through North Dakota when the weather is dreary and dark and it is a spooky place.
There are more signs of Halloween's approach. Not only are there pumpkins and witches in the stores, I am seeing homeowners begin to decorate for Pagan New Year. Here's haunted North Carolina.
And Happy Yom Kippur to all our Jewish readers. A little late, but, what, you want me to feel guilty?
Last week, the GAO found the Education Department broke rules by using taxpayer money to use Armstrong Williams as a conduit to pass pro-Administration propaganda. This, along with the Agriculture departments 'news briefs' that a disguised as local news stories are also used to 'advertise' the Administration's point of view. If there is good, there's good, but there should be critical content as well.
The GAO's findings come at a time when in the past weeks, Tom DeLay has been forced to step aside because of his 'ethical lapses' with golfing trips and cozing up to lobbyists, Bill Frist admitting he knew much more about a hospital conglomerate founded by his brother, Michael Brown's mess at FEMA as the result of him being a political appointee and Karl Rove being called in to testify in the Valerie Plame scandal.
And let's not forget Bush's Texas and family ties cronyism on the Supreme Court, in the State Department, like Condi Rice. She may be extremely well read and intelligent, but will she provide contrary opinions to the White House's foreign policy wishlist? And then there is Ken Lay, the former Republican Chief fundraiser who is going to trial for his part in the ENRON implosion and who may or may not had a hand in Dick Cheney's energy policy which the GAO has tried to get the records from to determine if there was a conflict of interest. One has to wonder if the Administration is above the same rules that lower government employees have to abide by, like the elimination or at least the minimizing of 'fraud, waste and abuse'. And then there is the Congressional 'get togethers' will lobbyists to dole out the spoils for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. I wonder how many contracts Halliburton will pick off thanks to having their former CEO as VP?
It is time for accountability for this Administration to put an end to their culture of corruption. The Republicans are acting the same way the Democrats did when they thought their era of power would never end. The Democrats may not do a better job in the long run, but in the short run, they've been out of power for so long, they'll keep their hands clean for a little while. If this country can't get a credible third party to keep the other two honest, then having good old fashioned governmental gridlock would be preferable to having one party running away with the cookie jar.
Its time for a change. Keep this in mind for the November elections and especially for the mid-term elections in 2006.
And now for the next chapter in our trip through Haunted America. Here's haunted New York.
Only a few weeks left till Halloween. I will be checking out all the haunted places throughtout the winter as time permits. You'll find a few ghosts of Tony Soprano's victims in haunted New Jersey.
Ah, my favorite state. Bugsy Segal allegedly haunts the garden of the Flamingo Hotel in Vegas, there is a haunted hotel in Tonopah and practically the entire city of Virginia City is a ghost playground including the Delta Saloon, the 4th Ward School and the Millionaire's Club just to name a few. There's also the Governor's Mansion in Carson City, which also has a haunted clock, the former US Mint, and now the Nevada State Museum has a few ghosts and there is also the Stewart Indian School where Native American were forced to learn the 'ways of the white man'.
Countdown to Halloween continues with haunted Mississippi.
While browsing ipodder.org (link to the right), I came upon 'Audio Obit' but didn't subscribe to it. Its a list of the 'daily dead'.
I love seafood, but lobster is usually expensive. This morning, while walking through my local Mall after breakfast, I saw the specials board at the midway pizza/coffee place: Lobster roll for $4!. I asked if it was real lobster and they said it was the same thing you'd get at Subway or D'Abgelos. She said 'People in this mall can't afford $8 for a sub, so we decided to cut our markups drastically and still make a small profit as opposed to charging the usual price and not selling any'. Thinking they'd be tiny, I said "I'll take two". These were regular size subs. I've seen the same things going for $9.99 at Papa Ginos or Subway for a 'regular', $13.99 for a 'medium' and as much as $16. for a 'large'. These were 'large'. Think about just how much markups some companies make. I don't begrudge anyone from making a profit, but wow. That's tonight's and tomorrow night's dinner.
