Me and the Devil Blues
Facts are facts, there’s only one surefire shortcut to fame and riches if you don’t feel like putting your nose to the grindstone and risking never being successful. But there’s a price, one that bluesman Robert Johnson paid allegedly after his own deal at the crossroads. This short film set to Johnson’s Me and the Devil Blues goes out to all you big timers looking over your shoulder, waiting for that day to come:
Cajun Sexy Cooking? (Plus Swamp Monsters!)
I was enjoying a repast at Chops, one of my favorite local eateries which happens to be Cajun themed when I thought to myself it’d be nice to have a Cajun cookbook in the house so I could maintain my hermit like existence and still enjoy the finer things in life like crawfish ettouffe. It also wouldn’t hurt if the book was full of scantily clad women.
That’s when I remembered Dana Holyfield, the Russ Meyers of the swamp and all round decadent woman after my own heart. Way back in the year 2000 (the dark ages) Dana had published a just such a cookbook which is now something of a collectors item. It was called Cajun Sexy Cookin’ and surprise! There’s a promotional video for it:
Like I said the books have become a collectors item so you’ll have to purchase yours from private sellers. Right now there’s still two on Amazon, but otherwise you’ll have to luck into one in a used bookstore.
Cryptomundo ran a piece on Dana a few years back about her documentary The Legend of the Honey Island Swamp Monster. Seems like great diner viewing while enjoying some gator medallion shiskabobs:
Awesome. My weekend plans are set. Dana has a website here. Apropos of nothing in particular we here at the Hellfireblogs office sometime do website design, for the right price.
Zombie Dogs Created-in Pittsburgh
Scientists have created eerie zombie dogs, reanimating the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop suspended animation for humans.
US scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years.Pittsburgh’s Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject’s veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution.
The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity. But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are brought back to life with an electric shock.
Plans to test the technique on humans should be realised within a year, according to the Safar Centre.
Sounds like a great idea.
An Evening With The Undead: Romero and Bava
An Evening with the Undead was a 1968 drive-in double feature of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace. The promo ad warned that before you could be admitted to see “The 8 Greatest Shocks Ever Filmed,” you would be required to sign your own death certificate.
Over at Scenes from the Morgue (where they’ve uploaded tons of retro pulp movie ads), The Beerman says he’d probably have given his left nut to see a first run of these flicks. Being of the XX chromosomal persuasion, that’s not a sacrifice I’ll ever be called upon to make, but I’m with him in spirit.
The History and Lore of Ouija Boards
As the Internet becomes increasingly cluttered with accumulated pop cultural detritus, it’s refreshing to rediscover a site like The Museum of Talking Boards that stands the test of time (even with it’s very 90s looking mouse-trailing planchette.)
The online museum chronicles the history of talking boards, also known as ouija boards, spirit boards, witch boards, and channeling boards. While the history presented on the site is fascinating and well-researched, the Museum’s pièce de résistance is the gallery of nearly 100 lovely examples of talking boards, both vintage and modern.
Also delightful is the page of ouija board superstitions which includes gems like this:
A Ouija Board will scream if you try to burn it. People who hear the scream have less than thirty-six hours to live. There is only one proper way to dispose of it: break the board into seven pieces, sprinkle it with Holy Water then bury it.
And don’t forget, there are three things you must never ask a ouija board:
- Never ask about God.
- Never ask when you are going to die.
- Never ask where the gold is buried.
The Victorian Romantic Tarot
It’s been a while since I posted and I almost gave up on this blog all together but I keep running across the most fascinating things on the web. Like the Victorian Romantic Tarot deck put out by Karen Mahony and Alex Ukolov. The deck is a nod not only to the lost Victorian aesthetic but to the growing neo-Victorian art scene of today.
Visually stunning and with a hint of fin-de-siecle sensibilities the Victorian Romantic Tarot makes a decadent addition to your divination collections.
There’s a YouTube video that shows most of the cards in the deck if you’d like to take a look before purchasing a set for yourself. You may want to turn the volume off though.