Perham, MN Author Talk, Nov. 3rd!

Visit My Amazon Page

What's Happening!!

– or –

The Day I Lost My Innocence and Realized We’re All Just Shills for the Man...

I had to check out IMDB to find the date, and according to it, the day I lost my innocence and realized we’re all just shills for the man was February 4th, 1978. It was the day that the popular television show What’s Happening!! aired the episode “Doobie or Not Doobie, Part 2”. I was nine years old at the time. It was one of my favorite sitcoms in which “A trio of black youths learn about life, love, friendship, credit cards, gambling, and a variety of other things while growing up in an inner city.” I was a white kid growing up in mid-America suburbia, but didn’t really see much difference between me and them, other than that they lived in apartments and had a different skin color. And that Rerun, despite his obesity, could really dance. I didn’t get out much.

So this particular episode was the second of a two story arc in which the stars of the show, Roger, Dwayne, and Rerun, really, really, really want to go see the Doobie Brothers in concert at their school. But it’s sold out. But luckily they’re approached by a seedy character who will give them free tickets if they just sneak a tape recorder into the show. At the time, I didn’t know a lot about the Doobie Brothers, other than that they were one of those bands that appealed to the peace and love and long hair and everyone getting along crowd, which was fine with me. I liked – still like – a lot of those bands. Anyway, where was I?

I don’t remember a whole lot of the details. Rerun knows that what he’s doing is wrong, but the bad guy and his henchman threaten him with implied violence. Again, it’s kind of hazy. So they’re in the front row at a Doobie Brother’s concert and Rerun is getting into the music and starts dancing, and then oh-oh! The tape recorder falls out of his trench coat. And apparently the band sees this and all stop playing at the same time. And everyone gasps.

Then we cut to the Doobie Brothers themselves interrogating Rerun and his friends about the incident after the concert. First of all, the Doobie Brothers can’t act their way out of a paper bag. Second, even as a very naive 9-year old, I thought what the fuck, man? Hey, Doobie Brothers, are you trying to tell me that you multi-millionaires faux-hippies are so strapped for cash that you actually give a rat’s ass about poor Rerun, Roger and Dwayne ripping you off? Fuck you!

Okay, maybe those weren’t my exact nine-year old thoughts, but you get the gist.

It would have been understandable if the band’s management went after the kids for bootlegging, but the actual band? No! They’re supposed to be all about peace, love, understanding, and marijuana euphemisms.

My innocence was irretrievably lost. At least until the next time it was irretrievably lost. Happened to me a lot.

* * * * *

Visit My Amazon Page

Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein Double Feature

Last night I attended a double feature of Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein on the big screen. It was a special one day only event put on by Turner Classic Movies. Very cool. I’d seen both movies before, but never one right after the other, and I hadn’t realized how very different they are from each other. Yes, you have Boris Karloff as the monster in both, Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein in both. Both were directed by James Whale. Both were from Universal Pictures. And in my opinion, both are great works of art. However, the first movie plays as a tragedy; very atmospheric and moody, and the monster is not really a monster at all. He’s misunderstood and trying to figure out this world he’s been brought to life in. It’s most of the rest of the characters in the movie that are the real monsters.

Were the original audiences of Frankenstein actually terrified of the “monster?” Or were they terrified of the way the monster was treated because he was so different?

To go a little off-topic – one thing that got to me was that as the parent of a son with autism, I couldn’t help but see autistic characteristics shared by the monster – his trouble with communication, his way of perceiving the world, his “differentness.” Were people with autism treated in a similar way back then? I shudder to think of it. Anyway...

In contrast, The Bride of Frankenstein is played much more as comedy. Many supporting characters are cartoonish and played for laughs. Karloff’s monster in this one is also more thuggish, especially in the second half of the movie. His monsterish qualities are emphasized. The character Dr. Pretorius is such a cartoonish villain, and the experiments in the jars that he shows to Dr. Frankenstein – just plain silly. That being said, it’s also a great movie. There are so many classic/iconic scenes in this one. There’s the beautiful sequence where the monster comes to the house of a blind man and befriends him (wonderfully parodied in Young Frankenstein) and Elsa Lanchester’s Bride is great, too, although the bride is only in the last handful of minutes of the movie. Having watched Metropolis not too long ago, you can certainly see that movie’s influence on her character.

"Might I recommend something with cocoa butter?"

Fun fact – Elsa Lanchester also played ‘Katie Nanna’ many years later in Mary Poppins.

Elsa as Katie Nanna

I wished that there were more people in the theater. It was about a third full, which isn’t bad for a Wednesday night, but since this was only showing this one day in selected theaters around the country, you’d think more people would want to experience these classics on the big screen. Ah well...

* * * * * 

Visit Joel's Amazon Page!

It's Alive!

At first there was Bedtime Stories for the Apocalypse – a collection of stories to keep you entertained while the world falls apart around you. Now there is More Bedtime Stories for the Apocalypse – a new collection to keep you up at night as chaos engulfs the planet!

With ten brand new stories (and three rarely seen reprints) you’ll read about:

A drug mule carrying something far more dangerous than drugs across the Rio Grande.

A teenage girl wondering if her stolen ticket will admit her to the afterlife.

An old break room calendar portending doom.

A woman making a stand in an outhouse against a knife-wielding maniac.

A macabre opportunity for a couple stranded upside down in a snowstorm.

A ringing coffin bell that signals much more than a premature burial.

These and other stories by Joel Arnold, the award-winning author of Northwoods Deep, Death Rhythm, and the original Bedtime Stories for the Apocalypse, will keep you reading late into the night.

But wait – there’s more!

As an added bonus, the brand new steampunk ghost story “Rerun” by Daniel Pyle, author of Freeze, Down the Drain, and Dismembered is included for your apocalyptic reading pleasure.

Available on Amazon

Available on Smashwords

Available on Barnes & Noble

The New Collection

Coming very soon!

With 13 stories by me, ten of which are brand-spanking new, PLUS a brand new bonus story by Daniel Pyle.

Forget my crap, Mr. Pyle's story is worth the price of admission alone!

* * * * *

Visit My Amazon Page