How the Brits see the America zombie craze

Halloween is over.. Of course for those who read this website, you’ll know that the spirit of Halloween lasts all year regardless of the calendar.. 

In the light, I was perusing some British fishwrappers and discovered some interesting commentary from Donald Macinnes in the UK INDEPENDENT and some not so kind words about America’s craze with zombies–and how dislike of the British culture being so accepting of it..

From the article,

I first noticed the bloated US obsession with the 31st day of October many years ago, during one of my annual trips to visit my sister in Florida. I tended to travel there in late autumn, mainly because the climate is at its most tolerable then, with the late summer hurricanes having abated and the mosquitos taking a breather from all the raging sucking.

Every year, I got more and more amazed at the scale of the American approach to Halloween. Unlike in this country, where it took a distant back seat to fireworks fight, the Guy Fawkes-free calendar in the US meant Halloween was the be-all-and-end-all – certainly until the next holiday, Thanksgiving, trundled into view in late November.

It’s gets meaner. Really. Written as only a Brit could write,

And things didn’t end with ringing someone’s doorbell. Now kids get a handful of responsibly sourced tofu treats just for turning up, but we had to do something to earn our fun-size Mars bar – maybe sing a song or tell a joke. I would tend to have one joke ready that I would trot out at every door.

And while this incarnation of Halloween may not have swollen the coffers of Tesco or Aldi quite as much, at least we had our dignity. I’m joking, of course.

A big giant ouch.

Of course cruel or not cruel, it does not matter.

As a matter of fact, right now as I write this brief post, my personal Facebook feed is filled with my friends’ photos of their barhopping.. adorned with the most ghoulish of attire, sexualized in nature, they are gratifying themselves at a watering hole of their choice and carelessly drinking the night away. Their makeup is running but that’s the point: It’s the makeup of blood, zombies, and gore. 

Yes, America is filled with the nightmares of Elm Streets around the world. But most of those pastimes of Halloween are borrowed. Let’s not forget where bobbing for apples comes from..where Samhain comes from..where all of the customs and traditions come from. Not America. We’re the melting pot. We get them from everywhere else. 

Including you Britland.

So don’t let your tea run cold. And we can have our zombies.

After all England.. you have your problems, too.

Cleaning the Halloween table off for the family picture. It’s November after all.. 

Vatican exorcists have condemned the celebration of Halloween saying the festival is the equivalent ‘of singing hosannas to the devil'. Rome’s chief exorcist, Gabriel Amorth, has warned of a danger to young people at Halloween, because of the increase in occult activity, which fuels insomnia, mental illness; depression and suicidal thoughts in children, he claims.

While there is lots of the Church can focus on.. they are paying attention to this..

Be back later. I have to try to get my son’s DARTH VADER costume on without ripping.. I will attempt go sing hosanna while I do.

Vatican exorcists have condemned the celebration of Halloween saying the festival is the equivalent ‘of singing hosannas to the devil'. Rome’s chief exorcist, Gabriel Amorth, has warned of a danger to young people at Halloween, because of the increase in occult activity, which fuels insomnia, mental illness; depression and suicidal thoughts in children, he claims.

More on the live Blumhouse Periscope Halloween movie..

Apparently for some, it was too hot to handle and too scary to hold on their mobile.

From PC MAG: (note: This was written October 30 during the actual live scope)

Oscar-nominated horror producer Jason Blum, known for films like Insidious and Paranormal activity, is taking his talents to the small screen this Halloween. And, we’re not talking TV — he’s bringing his brand of horror right to your computer, tablet, or smartphone via Periscope. Blum on Thursday night debuted his latest project, a horror film called Fifteen, on Twitter’s live-streaming platform, and it was apparently way too scary for some people.

The film — Periscope’s first-ever live horror event — was briefly taken down after being flagged, but Blum just announced on Twitter that it’s back up for us to enjoy this All Hallow’s Eve.

The 20-minute flick follows a masked serial killer who broadcasts his crimes via the Periscope app. Sounds pretty grisly and awesome, right? You can watch ithere.

Flagged..
People scared.
Too much for a venue where most film themselves talking way too close to their faces.

Love it.

More relics of my childhood and Ayden’s new *old* toys acquired..

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3vE0xkyl0g?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]

HORROR AND PERISCOPE MERGE!

This is the first LIVE PERISCOPE horror movie.. Blumhouse presents ‘FIFTEEN.’

And this, my friends, is the future of horror.. movies.. streamed live. I hope to theaters though eventually. I still enjoy a larger screen for my frightful delights..

This is how THE VERGE described the short SCARE-I-SCOPE: 

What’s most clever about Fifteen is that it blurs the line between fiction and reality by making Periscope a plot device unto itself. In the world of the film, Truman is a serial killer that live streams his crimes, and what we as an audience watch as Fifteen is actually his ninth broadcast; he’s become so notorious in the fictional world, that a radio station in the short actually breaks into its broadcast to inform listeners that he’s begun streaming. Of course, given that it’s all coming from the Periscope account of a prominent movie production company there’s some awkward references to passwords being easy to hack to justify it all, but it’s nevertheless an intriguing (and somewhat disturbing) experiment for horror fans — even if Truman comes off a little hammy at times.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Halloween terror: ISIS claims responsibility for Russian plane crashing in Egypt’s Sinai desert with 224 people on board!!

A developing story

Halloween terror: ISIS claims responsibility for Russian plane crashing in Egypt’s Sinai desert with 224 people on board!!

HALLOWEEN WHITE HOUSE TAKEOVER..

President Obama and First Lady Michelle look like they had an amazing time giving out candy to trick or treaters.. And a mini-pope

Now could be a fun time to visit the DESTINATION AMERICA Facebook page..

The amount of comments on various threads about last night’s botched live EXORCISM tells the story.. there is anger, “lols” .. all of the rest. Read away and enjoy this Halloween day: https://www.facebook.com/DestinationAmerica/

I still can’t believe in my right mind that the station billed this for a year, plugged it hardcore for months, and for the past 2 weeks, we were even greeted with religious folk who came and said beware watching the show live because you too can conjure demons. Was anything conjured? Anything more than advertisements each and every 5 minutes? It was unabashedly ridiculous.. and I will stop giving it air time on this website now, too.

DESTINATION AMERICA: LIVE EXORCISM. Now joined in the Geraldo Rivero LIVE TOMB UNVEILING annals of broadcast botches..

Today, Halloween, another day when life as we know it could have ended.. changed.. potentially would have been the start of a mass extinction event.. and in another timeline or multiverse, a parallel place, that could be happening.

Luckily here in this timelime, the dead comet with the skull face is narrowing MISSING Earth instead of hitting.

And you read that right. A dead comet. With a skull face. For Halloween and space standards, that mixture can’t get creepier.

From the AFP:

A massive space rock that will shave by Earth on Halloween looks like a dead comet with a skull face, NASA said after gaining a closer look at the spooky space object.

Astronomers initially thought the object was an asteroid when they spotted it in early October, and named it Asteroid 2015 TB145.

But using the US space agency’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, experts “have determined that the celestial object is more than likely a dead comet that has shed its volatiles after numerous passes around the sun,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement late Friday

Scientists have also spotted an eerie skull-like resemblance on the face of the rock, based on radar data from the National Science Foundation’s 305-meter (1,000-foot) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

No danger of hitting earth.
But maybe this should perk us up a bit, if not scare us. We should start getting to know the unfriendly skies more than we do.. we should get to know the threats that lurk. One day, perhaps on a Halloween of the future, a skull faced-dead comet could slam into our lives..

REVIEW: 'Exorcism: Live!' fails to drum up demons

The ST LOUIS dispatch writes the review that I failed to have time to write.. but I concur with the words of Gail Pennington:

“What you are about to witness is a live presentation that may contain graphic and disturbing scenes,” Destination America warned. “Our experts are trained professionals equipped to deal with dangerous situations. Do not attempt this at home. Viewer discretion is advised.”

The only disturbing scenes, though, were cheesy re-creations. And although some viewers, following along on Twitter, reported being frightened, any real tension was quickly diffused by repeated commercial breaks.

Members of the Tennessee Wraith Chasers team from the channel’s “Ghost Asylum,” asked how the “Exorcist” house ranked among “scariest places in America,” declared it “No. 1, especially with demonic activity. We’ve never experienced this level of demonic hopping.”

“We’ve rassled with some demons before, but this is the Devil,” one said.

But the special was all talk and no action. Viewers were asked to believe that Wraith Chasers felt the presence of evil and heard a female voice in the attic. Psychic medium Chip Coffey, who entered the house with a Ouija board for a seance, reported “fast communication” with the spirit world, and a flickering candle flame. He shut the seance down just as it might have become interesting.

There was one personal reason I stuck with the show until the end.. The priest from the ‘Old Catholic Church (not the real Catholic church, FYI) looked a lot like a friend of mine. It was a stunning replica of him, actually. 

That enough held my interest. Besides that, I felt bored beyond belief.. there was nothing scary, nothing creepy, and nothing at all entertaining about the show, save a couple of strange wide-eyed one liners from Chip Coffey. Otherwise.. a failure. 

REVIEW: 'Exorcism: Live!' fails to drum up demons

PASSENGER PLANE CRASHED IN EGYPT//
BODIES BEING RECOVERED//
NO SURVIVORS//

[gallery]

IT’S HALLOWEEN.

EVERYONE’S ENTITLED TO ONE GOOD SCARE.

Destination boredom

Without question, tonight’s DESTINATION AMERICA live exorcism was the biggest bore and waste of time I have ever sat through.. pitiful.. poor.. awful.. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh0QZvHdSKo?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=375]

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7-uC0LDllM?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=375]

IT’S ALMOST TIME KIDS..

GET YOUR MASKS.

IT’S ALMOST TIME.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJqFeWQGs3w?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=375]

There is something really creepy about songs from 1915 around Halloween.. especially when you really, really listen to the words of GASLINE GUS AND HIT JITNEY BUS..

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Mystery bright spots could be first glimpse of another universe

This could be the beginning of everything strange and bizarre, wonderful and amazing. From the NEW SCIENTIST report,

THE curtain at the edge of the universe may be rippling, hinting that there’s more backstage. Data from the European Space Agency’s Planck telescope could be giving us our first glimpse of another universe, with different physics, bumping up against our own.

That’s the tentative conclusion of an analysis by Ranga-Ram Chary, a researcher at Planck’s US data centre in California. Armed with Planck’s painstaking map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – light lingering from the hot, soupy state of the early universe – Chary revealed an eerie glow that could be due to matter from aneighbouring universe leaking into ours.

This sort of collision should be possible, according to modern cosmological theories that suggest the universe we see is just one bubble among many. Such a multiverse may be a consequence of cosmic inflation, the widely accepted idea that the early universe expanded exponentially in the slimmest fraction of a second after the big bang.

Read on if you comprehend.. 

Some people I speak to about these subjects, particularly those who don’t take well to science ruining certain religious principles they have grown up with, hate the concept of multiple universes. But regardless of our acceptance or not, certain truths still exist. 

There have long been many people who have believed in such things. And these strange and spooky things…? Well they come closer to being true..

Amazing times.

Mystery bright spots could be first glimpse of another universe

Destination America: An exorcism

Some are opposed… others are non-believers. Regardless, the live television exorcism set to premiere tonight–Halloween Eve 2015–is making a number of headlines.

The WASHINGTON POST profiled hell night 

 in an article about the DESTINATION AMERICA live show..

Emily Yahr wrote,

All reality TV producers have to prepare for worst-case scenarios when they air a live event. Jodi Tovay’s worries are a bit more unusual, because she is sending paranormal investigators into a house they believe is infested with demonic spirits.

“The worst-case scenario is that one of these entities will attach to someone,” Tovay said. “It is dangerous.”

Luckily, Tovay says, the physical symptoms are usually obvious when an evil spirit attaches itself to a person: nausea, scratches, superhuman strength. A team of paramedics will be on standby, as will police. She’s ready.

But if you believe that exorcism is real, that demons are not just imaginary devils of our wild antiquated religious imagination, then how can anyone be ready? How could one prepare for the battle against evil. All while the rest of the world watches..

More from the POST report,

Welcome to “Exorcism: Live!” airing at 9 p.m. Friday on Destination America, a cable channel owned by Discovery Communications. The two-hour telecast tasks a clergyman, a psychic and the team from the network’s “Ghost Asylum” series to go into the spooky suburban St. Louis home that inspired “The Exorcist” book and movie. Ghost hunters insist that the house is filled with a dark, sinister energy, and “Exorcism: Live!” is determined to cleanse it.

DESTINATION AMERICA’s website

 prepares witnesses to the live event for the story.

Maryland’s famed Roland Doe–the subject of reality who was played by the fictional Linda Blair’s Reagan in THE EXORCIST horror movie–traveled back and forth between the state and St. Louis in the 1940s. The house Doe stayed at in Missouri is the house where Destination America will attempt to propel out demons tonight. Even more, Doe underwent an exorcism on the second floor of the home. The rumor, the legend, the story: The house has been possessed every since then by an evil entity..

The Washington POST story points out something that many have thought of–and something Destination America has bragging rights about:

The most thrilling aspect for Tovay is that this will be live. No one can accuse them of manipulating anything, she said — a criticism often leveled at paranormal shows.

“We can’t fake it on live TV. We can’t fake evidence or pump in sound effects. The drama is unfolding right in front of you,” Tovay said.

But what about the people (okay, lots of people) who believe that this is all completely made up? Long, the clergy member who will accompany the group, is used to that. He just doesn’t have time to worry about it anymore.

“I’m not here to prove that demons exist. I am here to help families who know they do,” Long said.

The St. Louis DISPATCH gave an interior look into the house. 

 Peeking into the hallways and lighted home, it’s actually remarkably lovely.. Even the aged basement and attic are both well maintained. A visual peer would prove no spirits, no devils, and no darkness besides the normal shadows that would accompany any sundown.  The exact opposite of what we are being told by psychics and priests, ghost hunters and television executives.

But some are not so kind.

Pre-reviews are coming in. Without the event able to have taken place yet, we are relying on the mystery that will unfold. VARIETY for one is not impressed..

Columnist Brian Lowry labels the event a stunt.

 From his article:

Discovery group president Henry Schleiff, who counts Destination America among the networks he oversees, along with the higher-profile Investigation Discovery, has a bit of P.T. Barnum in him, but he’s much too polite to ever suggest that those people tuning in expecting to see glasses fly around the room might be suckers.

As for the likelihood that “Exorcism Live!” will deliver anything dramatic enough to require steam-cleaning the carpet, he says, “I don’t think we will have Geraldo Rivera and the empty vaults,” referring to the much lampooned but highly rated 1986 special devoted to opening Al Capone’s “secret” vault, which spurred a wave of copycats before the trend cooled. “The people we’re working with really believe in this,” Schleiff adds, noting that much of the public does as well.

Not kind words. There are equally unkind words from other pundits in the online peanut gallery.

The truth is, we don’t know what will happen until tonight. If producers are planning up some trick to ensure we get our money’s worth, then it’s yet to be seen.. Or on the other hand, if reality will prevail and either nothing at all (if that’s your reality) or something strange (if that’s your reality) then we will have something to talk about on Halloween morning.

And if nothing else, Destination America has already won.  The buildup has been spectacular–almost a year long, I heard about this first months ago back in the spring time warmth, long before the leaves changed to their vibrant colors of death.  The network has conjured up attention from mainstays of media and alternate sources as well. They won. Even if they don’t conjure demons or ghouls..

An Unknown Manmade Object Is Headed for Earth's Atmosphere

“Earlier this month, an object called WT1190F​ was spotted on a trajectory that will bring it right to Earth. It came here from far beyond the moon, and its hollow nature and cylindrical shape suggest that it’s not an asteroid of meteorite, but human-made. It won’t cause any major problems on the ground, but there’s still something troubling: Astronomers don’t know what the heck it is, or why it’s only now coming up on their radar. ”

But it is almost certainly human made .. Maybe a remnant of an old rocket or the Apollo missions. And soon it will hit the planet earth..

An Unknown Manmade Object Is Headed for Earth's Atmosphere