Laser Skrillex Show

Be jealous people! Be very jealous! Down at the Carnegie Science Center, only a stone's throw away from where I live, is featuring a series of laser shows in their massive planetarium. And one of the shows they feature is one with lasers... A LOT OF LASERS... to songs from Skrillex! And they feature two of my favorite songs!

AND...

This is beyond awesome! If you're near the Pittsburgh, go and check this out asap! You can find show times here at the site for the Carnegie Science Center. Enjoy!

Song of the Day: "Blood" by In This Moment

This was a song that took a little time to grow on me, but now its an essential in my music arsenal. Not to mention I love Maria Brink! Enjoy my darlings!

Book Review: Bad Glass

I've read my fair share of "horror" stories, and honestly most of them haven't exactly left me cowering under the sheets or giving me nightmares. Are they creepy? Well, yeah, they're kind of designed to be. But a book that leaves a lasting impression on the reader even once you've put it down for the night or placed it back on the shelf is something you don't come across very often. Don't get me wrong, I love H.P. Lovecraft, he's utterly amazing and can send shivers up your spine better than any other writer I know. Bad Glass, however, brings something entirely different to the table.

Written by Richard E. Gropp, Bad Glass takes you into modern day Spokane, Washington. A young and aspiring photographer named Dean hopes to make his big break by photographing the goings on in the city. But what he plans to photograph has been the talk of nightmares to the world outside this city. For months, Spokane has been quarantined by the military, all communications have been practically shut down, and the city is now a dangerous place. What exactly is happening here, no one is really certain, all they know is it is terrifying. Hundreds still linger within its borders, but they struggle every day. Within a day of sneaking past the military barricade, Dean finds his mind unraveling under the influence the city has over its inhabitants. People disappear without any warning, there are living people merged with the buildings, buildings appear in the mist then vanish within the hour, and strange animals wander the streets. Dean's misguided dreams soon leave him at the mercy of the strange happenings of Spokane while he and his new friends attempt to survive in a city determined to destroy them.

Sound apocalyptic enough for you? It gets even better. I can safely say that no other work of fiction I've ever read has left me feeling the way I did after finishing it. During one of the final acts of the book, something occurs to a character that made me feel physically sick even as I read it. Most chapters I read left me shaking and unhinged for a while once I put it back down and went back to work. When a friend of mine asked me what made it so terrifying, I couldn't even tell him what exactly it was, only that it would give Silent Hill a hell of a run for its money. Even Silent Hill couldn't give me nightmares, and I vividly remember a nightmare steeped in the monsters and twisted happenings of Bad Glass. Now that it's done, this is going to be one of the books that will stick with me for a long time and that I will continue to recommend to my fellow horror lovers. Do you dare to read it yourself? Take a look and see...

Zombies on the History Channel?

I found it kind of weird myself to find some of our favorite shambling monsters on none other than the History Channel a couple days ago. Let's face it, when we think of history, the only zombies we think of are the stereotypical old farts that might teach at Harvard until they're leaning on a cane... Either that or the students around finals time. Yet, zombies were front and center for a special called "Zombies: A Living History." And of course I couldn't pass up an opportunity like this, so I recorded it and watched it later.

The two hour special went over not just the likelihood of a zombie outbreak, the likely outcome if a zombie outbreak ever did occur, but also the history of zombies! Yeah, zombies have a history! How wild is that? Honestly, besides the old school stories about the Haitian zombies who were more like zoned out house-workers and the classic Night of the Living Dead by George A. Romero, I never even knew that zombies could be found in other cultures. For being undead, these creatures know how to get around. They make appearances in Scandinavia, Saudi Arabia, China, and even England. Honestly me favorites were the Draugr from Norse mythology and the Ghoul from Arabic culture.

What was even cooler, was that the guests on the show even went into the history of the precautions that people took to make sure the dead stayed dead and buried. And this might seem the weirdest part of the whole thing, but think about it, even today the coffins that we carefully select to place our loved ones six feet under lock from the outside, and there is no way to unlock it from the inside. A moment of perspective here: You're going to be placing a dead body under six feet of hard, compacted earth, enough to crush a steel coffin, and we still feel the need to lock the coffin from the outside... doesn't exactly make sense when you look at it too closely. And get this, in some of the oldest burial sites, archaeologists found stones (big ones) placed in the mouths of the dead. Not mention the tradition of binding mummified corpses in layers upon layers of linen in Ancient Egypt. All seems pretty weird, don't you think?

Anyway, if you see this thing, definitely check it out. It has a fun "How to Defend Against a Zombie" bit before each commercial break too!

Movie Review: Hotel Transylvania

In a time where most monster movies have become the disappointment of the century due to misguided attempts to rework their stories (*cough* Twilight *cough*), I honestly wasn't sure what to expect out of Hotel Transylvania. The premise was simple enough: Dracula (played by Adam Sandler... Yeah! Adam Sandler!) decides to create a castle-sized hotel for him, his daughter (Mavis), and all their classic monster friends to ensure their safety from the humans who have persecuted them since their creation. This idea, while brilliant, doesn't seem to stand up to the modern human when a stray backpacker finds the hotel on the eve of Mavis's 118th birthday. Desperate to keep the guests from knowing a human has managed to find his safe haven, Drac decides to dress up the wayward kid (Johnny) as Frankenstein's cousin when he refuses to leave. Things get even more complicated when Mavis and Johnny start falling for each other.

Yes, its a kids movie about all those classic horror movie monsters that hit the silver screen before most of us   were born. You've got Frankenstein, the Wolfman (played by Steve Buscemi by the way), the Invisible Man, the Mummy, and a slew of other characters including an insane cook named Quasimodo. But its actually one of the better "monster movies" I've seen within the past year. It's flat out adorable in some moments, they openly mention Slipknot, its rife with great techno music, and it even makes fun of Twilight! I'm not kidding! At one point Dracula sees Johnny watching a movie that is painfully recognizable as Stephanie Meyer's historic flop of a story, hears Edward say "Have you ever dreamed of being a Vampire?", then groans and rolls his eyes and says "This is what we've been reduced to?!" Not to mention baby Mavis is the cutest little thing ever...

My official opinion, watch this movie!

Germaine Hates Tailgaters

Oh boy, can I relate to this. I despise people who feel the need to ride my ass while I'm driving. Especially when I'm already going about ten miles over the speed limit! I've already gotten rear-ended twice from stupid people who don't know how to pay attention while driving. And here's the kicker, both times, I was at a dead stop! Yeah! Ugh... people...

I'm Back!!!!! (Finally)

Hello all my little gothic darlings! I've missed you all so much! Please forgive me for being gone so long, but I only just now got internet access in my new apartment this very day... Verizon decided to take their sweet damn time figuring out how to install Fios out here... Anyway...

I return to you with yet another Foamy Double Feature! First in line is a subject that has been much talked about. And not always with the most common sense present either... Violent video games! Dun dun duhhhhhh! Yeah, we're still hung up on that good old excuse it seems. Yes, young children are all "monkey see, monkey do" but I would hope that parents are not stupid enough to allow young and impressionable children play such things without explicitly telling them that the things contained in the video games are bad! Seriously, how hard is it to parent your child and either disapprove of a violent video game and not let them play it or teach them the difference between fiction and reality?

And this other one is just for fun.
Warning: If you have an intense fear of squids or octopuses, are easily offended by sexual themes, etc. then why the fuck are you watching Foamy in the first place?