Weekly Briefing from the North Texas Apocalypse Bunker, 10/30/23
The Eve of All Hallow’s Eve Evening Edition
The Witching Hour at the Bunker has been filled with treats, tricks, an ill-fitting Cthulhu mask and the viewing of a number of high-quality horror films and projects. Time and the sudden unexpected appearance of the Second Season of Shorsey on Hulu prohibits me from making a comprehensive list, but I would like to offer one special, somewhat rare treat. Many of us were rocked to hear of the passing of David McCallum last month at the respectable age of 90, leaving behind a distinguished and beloved body of work and not one but two iconic fan-favorite characters on popular TV shows. We should all be so blessed.
This offering comes from a rare spoken word album, now rendered an irrelevant collectible thanks to the permanence of digital media: It’s a reading of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror” (one of my favorite Lovecraft stories) read by McCallum.
Please enjoy a little theater of the mind this Halloween, compliments of all the staff here at the North Texas Apocalypse Bunker.
I would also like to congratulate the N.T.A.B. Division of Media Review for their commendable job in keeping the Top 5 Lists on time and under budget (well, mostly). Their five offerings as of this writing include:
Top 5 When Insects Attack Movies
I was well aware that there would be bleed-through on both Lugosi and Karloff’s lists, since they appeared together so often and so memorably, and also on the Folk Horror and Christopher Lee lists. If you’re reading one of the above lists and think to yourself, “I can’t believe he was so stupid as to forget the movie (fill in the blank)!” Please assume that the omission is on another Top 5 List (as is the case 90% of the time).
The inclusion of the above lists means that the project is moving into a manuscript format. There will be a few lists left to write, but they are afterthoughts rather than essential components. A lot of those decisions will be meted out during the crowdfunding phase. The updated list from the previous blog have not yet been added to the NTAB site, and those will trickle in as time permits. Please feel free to add the site to your blog roll or subscribe so that you don’t miss an opportunity to lambast me for my choices or my apparent omissions.
Thoughts on the Best Holiday of All Time
Halloween is the only time of the year when Parents are so concerned about the safety and welfare of their children whilst Trick or Treating that they will send them into a church parking lot to collect candy from strangers out of the back of their open trunks.
I love that the build up to Halloween starts in September now, but I hate that it’s followed on a retail level immediately by Christmas, which we will have to endure from October 30th to December 23rd.
Don’t misunderstand me; I’m no hobgoblin. I love Christmas just fine...as long as it starts after Thanksgiving. I’m not asking for a lot, especially since the four day slog following National Turkey Coma Day has been chopped up into a gauntlet of political and socio-economic thirst traps and virtue signal opportunities for the free market: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and also Sunday, with an emphasis on Museum Stores and other local boutiques, and of course, Cyber-Monday. Where you spend your money, and also what platform you showcase it on, matters greatly.
Christmas isn’t the only holiday that gets a six-week build-up, either. I’m looking at you, Valentine’s Day. I can’t think of anyone (well, except for those people who have made Christmas their identity, like people who own monitor lizards and take them for walks) who thinks the constant reminders of the obligation to buy stuff don’t spoil whatever meager joy we might have wrested from these annual public tithings to the Corporate-Run-Military-Industrial Machine. I hate that so much stuff gets made, gets extruded from the plastic ass of Chinese factories, that we have to buy, either at full retail, or in some ever-decreasing stair-step down into some rock-bottom price that is probably still ten times what it cost to manufacture in the first place. And how much of it is any good, really? When’s the last time you enjoyed anything out of a Whitman’s Sampler? They’re making Stunt-Flavor candy corn now because regular candy corn is so, what? Blah? Sugary? Not-sugary-enough? Do I or anyone else NEED Christmas Oreo’s?
There’s too much wrong with the world right now. And the crap we are psychically pelted with every day like a Russian Mind Control attack from Cold War Sleeper Agents isn’t helping anyone get to sleep better at night, or helped them come up with a good answer for why everything is so skewed.
Some Dog Thoughts
I’d like to thank everyone who replied, locally and otherwise, with a kind word or a thought about Sonya. It was comforting to know how many people noted what a gentle and sweet soul she was. Lots of former employees and staffers, theater regulars, and extended friends and family all paid their respects.
Unsurprisingly, her absence is felt at the weirdest times. I kept hearing her all weekend, barking to let people know she was not getting the attention she required. That messed with me. Last Thursday, I took part of an eggroll wrapper I’d torn off to get to the cabbage and, without thinking about it, dropped it in her bowl as I walked by. Even as it hit the empty bowl, I got choked up, literally, and ended up spitting the whole thing out in the trash. Didn’t feel like eating any more.
My brain keeps turning to her. It’s like a weird form of phantom limb syndrome. I want to reach out for assurance, and there’s nothing there to touch. Of course, then I feel relief at not needing to give her pills anymore, followed by that throat-punch of guilt because I felt relief for a second.
The only thing that has gotten me through last week was the overwhelming number of positive and happy and funny memories I have of our life together. She was a funny dog, with a great personality and a lot of goofy charm. There’s videos, tons of pictures, and so, so many stories and moments and good times that keep crowding out the last year of her life.
That’s how long I’ve been fretting over this. Over her. I have been able to sleep this week, and it feels like catching up on weeks of unrest. Both Janice and I were worried sick about Sonya and we were internalizing it, taking it into ourselves rather than talking about it. For the last year, every decision I’ve made has gone through a filter of What To Do About The Dog before I thought of anything else. It was more exhausting than I realized or cared to admit.
I still miss her, though. I’m still getting up every day and looking for her. I’m still stopping myself from checking on her. And God, do I miss just being with her, having her near me, laying on my feet, rolling over so I can scratch her tummy. It’s gonna be like this for a while.
100%, and thank you for your erudite (as always) summation of the holiday realities!
I remember how hard it was coming downstairs , coming home after we lost Corey , who was nearly 16 , although we hadn't planned to get another dog so soon after , the house felt so empty and quiet Barney really helped us when he arrived. Logan arrived a couple of years later and it's _never_ quiet now LOL!