Thursday, December 31, 2015

NEW YEAR'S EVE IN A HAUNTED HOUSE - 2015 INTO 2016 EDITION!

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Hmmmm…. Father Time is kinda’ scary, isn’t he?

Speaking of time, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for making the past few years so much fun for me. Thank you to all those who have tweeted about my blog, chosen to “follow” the blog, have left comments on posts and told others about the project. I am especially grateful to all the blogs and websites who have publicized this wacky endeavor over the past 12 months.

Special thanks goes to Ken Mandel of the West Orange Classic Film Festival who invited me to be the guest speaker at a special screening recreating a classic movie matinee at their 2015 festival early this year. It's always great to have an opportunity to be a guest-speaker at screenings of classic films, and this year's program, with a Popeye cartoon, Flash Gordon serial chapter and the Laurel & Hardy classic, The Flying Deuces was a real crowd pleaser! (Teaser: watch this blog for a special announcement about my next guest-speaking gig which is happening very soon).

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I also want to give special thanks to Colette Joel and David Key, the owners, CEOs and Executive Producers at Handshake Away Productions, who, after seeing my work on this blog brought me on board a special documentary about the Bowery Boys as a fellow Executive Producer, Writer, Creative Consultant and Music Supervisor. The Bowery Boys' films are among my favorite classic comedies, and they did make several notable horror-comedy films, all of which will be reviewed in the Scared Silly book.

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As for the documentary itself, this was an amazing year for me as I participated in the filming of several interviews (many of which I wrote and some which I conducted) with such luminaries as Alec Baldwin, Jamie Farr, Pat Cooper, Bob Burns, Dennis Diken, Saxon Sitka (Emil's son!), Adam Ferrara, Daniel Roebuck and more! I was particularly thrilled to film special segments with friends including Alex Simmons (writer, and founder of Kids' Comic Con), Denny Daniel (founder and curator of The Museum of Interesting Things), Jack Kirby historians Rand Hoppe and Jon B. Cooke, and The Bowery Mission's Jason Storbakken and James Macklin.

This was a particularly busy year for me with personal appearances at both comic shops and and comic conventions. Special thanks goes out to Spiro Ballas of Superheroes For Hospice, Alex Simmons of Kids' Comic Con, Jeff Beck of East Side Mags, and John Paul of NJ Comic Book Expo. Thanks to all the wonderful comics creators who I was able to appear alongside this year as well - too numerous to name. To them and to all all those who made those appearances happen, I say "thank you!"

Of course, there's no blog without you readers out there so thank you to ALL SCARED SILLY FANS! (And if I’ve left anyone out please know it wasn’t intentional)!

More so than any previous year, I must say thank you also for bearing with my erratic schedule – due to other commitments I can’t always post on a regular basis. Please hang in there and keep checking back… you’re bound to see a new review every now and then.

Until the next review, here is Vagabond Opera performing “New Year’s Eve in a Haunted House,” composed by avant garde jazz legend Raymond Scott, the man behind many of the melodies heard in Looney Tunes cartoons - enjoy your New Year's Eve!

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