Daphne and Charlotte took a girls' trip to Minneapolis last summer to shop at the Mall of American and IKEA. They returned with new clothes and new room decor items for Charlotte. I helped with mounting Char's new white IKEA shelves on her wall, so I knew exactly what I was looking at when I found a black IKEA shelf at Goodwill.
I mounted it in our basement so I can display the sleeve of whatever record is currently playing and what record is up next.
Last week I was looking at my different collections and thought it would be fun to also put movies and books together on the shelf. I put eight displays together, and now I want to see if I can get to 31: a different display for each day of October. I'm going to take a picture of each display, and write something about what is on the shelf. I'm not writing reviews, just random comments.
I think the Local H concert poster sets the tone nicely.
October 1
This is where it all starts for me.
In the fall of '83, the TV was running commercials that proclaimed, "FROM THE MIND THAT GAVE US 'SALEM'S LOT, AND THE VISION THAT BROUGHT US HALLOWEEN, COMES FEAR ON FOUR WHEELS: JOHN CARPENTER'S CHRISTINE!" Man, I wanted to see that movie! A high school kid who fixes up a really cool old '50's car and uses it to get the girl and get revenge on his enemies? I was in!
Too bad Mom was out. I was 13, the movie was rated R, and there was no way my mom was going to let me see it. She did buy me the book instead, and that's it on the right. It was my first time reading a Stephen King novel, and it was longer (and thicker) than anything I had tackled before. I was really proud of myself when I finished it, and I think that's why I've kept it for so long. When I finally did get to see the movie, I realized that the book was way scarier, and way raunchier. Yay! (sorry, Mom).
The soundtrack for Christine was the first album that ever I bought. My sister and I had a small stack of 45s to share, but this was my first LP. Pop culture circles back about very 30 years or so, and the record is full of songs from the 50's which my friends and I thought were cool. I bought the soundtrack at the Musicland store in the Empire Mall in Sioux Falls, SD.
I might get rid of the Christine DVD. The Blu-ray is an upgrade that I just purchased last weekend. I'm glad I had the DVD for this display, though.
October 2
Another first. The Night of the Living Dead VHS tape was the first actual movie that I owned. I bought it new in 1984 at the Walmart in Sioux Center, IA.
Due to a missing copyright notice on the title card, NOTLD has been in the public domain since it was released in 1968. Finding a cheap, scratchy transfer on DVD was easy, and the "Millennium Edition" on the left was a revelation when it came out in 2001. The movie looked good for once, there were all kinds of extras, and Stephen King wrote the liner notes. As you'd expect, the Criterion Collection's Blu-ray release on the right is far superior to the DVD. The DVD has different extras, so I'm hanging onto it.
In the middle is the colorized DVD edition. It's interesting, but the added color is not my thing. Mike Nelson of MST3K fame does a commentary track. Meh.
Inside DVD was a monthly publication that only came out on DVD. One side had trailers, movie shorts, interviews, and other promo materials. The other side had a full movie that was either an indie film or a movie that was in the public domain like NOTLD.
October 3
October 4
In the early 2000's someone donated a collection of movie novelization paperbacks to the Animal Lifeline Thrift Shop in Des Moines. I bought quite a few of the horror books for a quarter each. Here's three novelizations of Amicus horror anthologies. Tales from the Crypt has a segment that's fun to watch during the Christmas season if you like seeing a deranged killer in a Santa Claus suit. I have no problem with that.
October 5
Some more novelizations with their DVD brethren. If I remember correctly, in Blue Sunshine, Billy Crystal's older brother Richard runs out of from a party screaming when it's discovered that he's wearing a wig. Then he returns screaming and pushes a woman into a burning fireplace. Say no to drugs, kids.
October 6
Whew. That's a big jump in quality. I went from having a 80's track team slasher movie on CED and jumped right to the same movie on Blu-ray. I guess I couldn't find it on Betamax.
If you don't remember what CEDs were, you can click ----> here.
October 7
Speaking of Betamax tapes, there's Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge on Beta. It's on DVD there, too. I'm not a huge Freddy fan, but I'll pick up a film if it's in the wild (cheap in a thrift store, I mean). The novelization is interesting as it's a combination of the first three films. It also has a bonus chapter: "The life and Death of Freddy Krueger." I don't know if the book is any good. To paraphrase Rob Gordon, "I haven't quite absorbed that one yet."
October 8
The Return of the Living Dead on Beta tape, DVD, and Blu-ray. All three were found in thrift stores over the years. I'd have a pretty hard time replicating that today.
Okay, that's eight displays. I'm all caught up. Let's see what I can come up with for tomorrow.
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