On this day in 1926, Harry Houdini died of a ruptured appendix after blows to the abdomen delivered by J Gordon Whitehead. It’s also possible he had appendicitis at the time. Along with his famed escapes, Houdini claimed to be able to take any blow a man could deliver to the stomach. So after a show one night, in front of two other college student witnesses, Houdini endured blows from the challenger, but apparently didn’t have time to “properly prepare himself”. He never sought medical attention and kept performing, even with a raging fever. But after passing out during his final show in Detroit, he was admitted to the hospital and eventually died.

For 10 years afterward, on Halloween the anniversary of his death, seances would be held in an attempt to contact him. Ironic as he was a devote debunker of spiritualism, which is part of a rift with his one time friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who believed in contacts with the spirit world. His wife Bess took part in her last seance attempt to contact him, held on the rooftop of the Knickerbocker Hotel, after failing to receive a pre-arranged code she and her late husband had designed. But others continue the seances even to this day…

Voted early today. Wait in line out in Cobb where I am still registered: 1 hr 45 minutes. My advance condolences to McWar and his Superstar Bulldog…

But now I’m sort of cringing as this charismatic and likable guy steps to the plate:

-the fragile state of the Pakistani govt. and it’s nuclear weapons, discussed here, among other things.

-a sense that the “economic woes” are just in the first minute of a three day hangover

-a re-examination of race relations in America. It’s an important thing, but I sense lots of ugly things are about to be said on many sides.

-and more trouble and stink bombs left by the current administration. Remember when Clinton went out and aides pranked the White House, taking all the W’s off the keyboards among other things? Well, it wasn’t as bad as violating the solidarity of Syria…

“Hope” vs. “Doom and Gloom” – we shall see.

1934 Fetiche Mascotte is one of Terry Gilliam’s fav’s from Ladislaw Starewicz.

When I was traveling in Northern Italy in ‘04, I came across a great used bookstore in Venice. There were all sorts of prints and small press comics among the books displayed on tables spilling out into the piazza. Typical of the city, the “courtyard” was entirely in stone – lots of marble and slate, this one centered around a church. But such a contrast between the events going on inside those walls and those depicted in these cheaply printed pages! Since they were used and fairly inexpensive, I picked up several to give away as gifts.

The stories were simplistically drawn, and while my lack of understanding Italian prevented me from really judging the quality, there was no doubt I was in possession of smut. But a style of smut one finds themselves challenged to find elsewhere – sexy horror, boobs with zombies and vampires. I have since learned the genre to be referred to as fumetti neri. The French and Spanish have their own versions of such books, but the Italians seem most over the top.
Though the artists often shamelessly steal source material and images, it is the covers of these little gems that are the most intriguing. The Groovy Age of Horror has done some great analysis and archiving of various examples, including more Zora La Vampira and so I will refer you there.

This is an engrossing, but long, French psychological thriller adapted from the Harlan Coben novel. The many twists and turns keep the pacing taught, and though you may get lost once or twice, everything is essentially wound up at the end. The was one shot with a “shaky cam” that nearly made me nauseous, but it was quickly followed by one of the greatest multi-car pile ups I’ve seen in film. If that was CG, consider me completely fooled. I also loved the sympathetic gangster thug angle, a homely organ grabbing interrogator, and soundtrack with included 60’s soul, ambiance and Sigur Ros style instrumental drama ballads. A great foreign film to see!

The best part was when they destroyed everybody in sections A through F.
Special thanx to Kafkaesq.

It’s the 51st anniversary of the Sputnik I launch, setting off the space race, and America’s eventual walk on the moon, certainly one of the greatest achievements of humankind. These days America focuses on it’s sickly economy and “fighting terror”, leaving the space race to other nations.

Although it didn’t happen on that first flight, I also want to take a moment for Laika, who was the first terran being into space. I am a dog lover and she was a good looking dog, it makes me sick to imagine how stressful her final hours must have been. What I don’t get, even if you suspend all ethics, is why you would send a dog into space in such a way that you had no hope of studying the effects of the voyage upon it? Why include any organism, destined only to burn up?
The USA, USSR, France and Argentina also tortured several kinds of monkeys over the years in the name of their space programs. It seems doubly insulting now that the focus has been greatly reduced on these sorts of projects, expensive though they may be.