10/23/2006

It’s another Monday- all together, say “Booo!” ( I mean, in the jeering, unhappy way- not the Halloween ghost way…) –next Monday should be a little more upbeat, since it will be the day before Halloween- “All Hallow’s Eve EVE”, as it were…as we all prepare for the big day. I’m sure, as we’ve said before, there will be fewer parties, at least adult-wise, on Halloween, with it being on a Tuesday this year. Most of the big people parties will be on the previous week-end. Among the most memorable Halloween parties I’ve been to- the one with the best costumes has to be those thrown by famous comic artist Alex Ross (“Kingdom Come”, “Justice”, and “Marvels”, just to barely scratch the surface)- some of the most detailed and incredible costumes I’ve ever seen have been at those events, with superheroes, monsters, and cartoon characters looking JUST like they do on the printed page! My all-time favorite was a guy who was “Bender” from the “Futurama” series- a robot that looked just like the cartoon image, made entirely out of metal! Another fun one was last year’s WBBM-fm “B 96” Halloween party, with a lot of great costumes (some of which wouldn’t pass the censors here at “the U”) and a great time hanging with the deejays. Then, there’s the one I mentioned yesterday- the WCKG party at Navy Pier back in 1989, with special guest Paul Shaeffer. I was the morning deejay back then for a brief while, and they brought in Dave Letterman’s musical director as the party’s special guest. I hadn’t done a Sven (then Son of Sven) Halloween appearance tied in with a broadcast program for about ten years, and we had a great time- I was supposed to do the Contours’ “Do You Love Me?” as a special number with the band that night- and Paul graciously agreed to play keyboard! Imagine- ol’ off-key Sven –accompanied by Paul Shaeffer! He said, “well, in honor, of your return after 10 years, I can hardly say no…” He was very kind, and we made each other laugh plenty of times while judging the evening’s costume contest!

Here’s today’s “Countdown to Halloween” scary movie pick- and we’re going to the classics- the 1941 Lon Chaney Jr. “Wolf Man!” Always a part of the Universal “Big 3” (with the Frankenstein Monster and Dracula)- Lon’s portrayal of the miserable Larry Talbot, whose fondest wish is to die and never become the beast again, shows the true acting power that Chaney could display. Also memorable are Maria Ouspenskaya as the gypsy woman whose son (Bela Lugosi!) bit Talbot to transform him into the werewolf- and former “Invisible Man” Claude Raines as Larry’s father. The transformation scenes were the benchmark of monster transfornation for many years.And, yes- we WILL be getting this film as part of our Universal deal!

I’ll make a deal with you- I’ll stop now, if you’ll come back tomorrow for more blog blather…unless there’s a full moon! AwoooOOOooo! (Was that a wolf cry or my car alarm?) # # #