I suppose you can consider the attached Merv Griffin clips where George and Kathy Lutz join actor Rod Steiger of the Amityville Horror movie, a Dangerous Minds “Halloween post.”  But I find them interesting for a reason beyond tomorrow’s holiday.

Without getting into the “truthiness” of the Lutz’s claims, and knowing this was obviously great publicity for the movie, they remind me of how seriously the television landscape back then treated matters of the occult and the supernatural.

In fact, as a kid growing up in the ‘70s, that’s exactly what made that decade, for me, feel so terrifying: even adults weren’t taking this stuff lightly!  Today there’s Ghost Hunters, sure, but that’s a self-contained show—a self-contained world.  And I can’t quite imagine the ladies of The View devoting an entire hour to a supposedly haunted house on Long Island.

As reads go, I remember Jay Anson’s Amityville Horror book being spooky and terrifying.  To my young mind, the demonic visitations that plagued the Lutz family felt entirely plausible.  Hell, even the cover announced it as “a true story.”  Not even “based on,” just true.  And it was happening to adults, authority figures—people in charge!  Like I said: spooky and terrifying.

But between In Search Of…, Night Gallery, and Ghost Story (both Sebastian Cabot‘s and Peter Straub‘s) that’s largely how I remember the ‘70s, anyway: far more spooky and terrifying than the decades that followed it.  And I don’t think this was entirely due to my young age, or some particular rise in darker shit going down.

The likelier culprit was that decade’s proximity to the one that preceded it: the nervous breakdown fallout from the ‘60s was still seeping and spilling under the floorboards of the ‘70s’ pop cultural landscape.

George and Kathy Lutz show up on Merv Griffin in Part IV.  Links to the remainder of the show follow below:

 
The Amityville Gang Does Merv Griffin, Part: I, II, III, V

 
If you’ve ever felt like working out the precise distance between Earth and Mars measured in AA batteries while lying on a beach, hiking in the mountains or sitting in traffic (you wouldn’t do that, would you?) then get thee to the iPhone Apps Store to grab a copy of the newly released Wolfram Alpha app.

The app is based on the “computational knowledge engine” Wolfram Alpha, launched in May, that allows online users to get accurate answers to computational queries. Think of it as a super-complex pocket calculator for extreme math, chemistry and science geeks, like its founder, Stephen Wolfram. Wolfram is the Illinois-based British mathematician, physicist, computer programmer, businessman and author of “A New Kind of Science” who has been compared to Issac Newton and Albert Einstein.

The Wolfram Alpha iPhone app is proving popular, indeed. After just a few days in release, the app has already made the Apple “Hot List” and is one of the top sellers in the App Store. Some tech writers have been critical of the app’s jaw-dropping $49.99 list price, but it’s important to keep in mind that the app is not just another way to access the Wolfram Alpha website, but a sophisticated, high-end calculator capable of supporting calculus, discrete number theory and function plotting, then spitting out graphics that illustrate the information like a fancy spreadsheet, all in a matter of seconds.

Cross posting this from Brand X

 
I’m not sure exactly what kind of digital voodoo LiveFeedVideoImaging applies to their historical footage, but the clarity of the following clips is pretty astounding.  In clip one, from ‘57, Billie Holiday performs Fine and Mellow from the Seven Lively Arts episode, “The Sound of Jazz.”  To compare and contrast the resolution, you can check out the extended YouTube clip here.

 
Even more amazing—in terms of clarity, anyway—is the following brief Beatles clip from ‘63’s Royal Variety Performance:

The Secret World is an upcoming MMORPG in which players join one of three secret societies and battle evil forces threatening to overwhelm the world by 2012. Something like this’s been coming for a while… let’s see if it lives up to expectations.

From IGN:

Last week, Funcom released the second teaser trailer for its highly anticipated MMO The Secret World. At the same time, an “initiation test” went up on the game’s website, classifying test-takers into three secret societies - the Illuminati, the Dragons and the Templars, providing a brief description of each with a promise of more information to be revealed at Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. If PAX attendees had hoped to catch a glimpse of some gameplay or anything other than the video, they would have been disappointed because the revelations were done behind closed doors. The good news is that we were there to see it.

Funcom’s Creative Director Ragnar T?ɬ?rnquist started off the presentation with a video that was shown at GDC in April, which was mostly about the game’s setting and its universe. The Secret World takes place in modern day cities all around the globe, but it’s a world where paranormal occurrences do happen. The designers have drawn upon various myths, legends and conspiracy theories to create a world where supernatural beings exist right under our noses, for the most part undetected or ignored by us. The player takes on the role of a hero with great magical powers who has to battle zombies, vampires, demons and other fell creatures in order to keep the rest of the world safe.

(The Secret World: Dark Days Are Coming)

The ether be abuzz with reports of two cons who covered their faces in black magic marker in an attempt to conceal their identities before robbing a liquor store, which proves that, yes, crystal meth does help clear your head before tackling stressful and complex activities like robbery, providing the mental boost needed to face challenges with clarity and panache. Also, I think this is my Halloween costume sorted.

WAtoday reports:

It’s been labelled the worst disguise ever - two men arrested over a burglary attempt in the US were found with fake beards and masks scrawled on their faces with a permanent marker.

Police stopped the car of Matthew McNelly, 23, and Joey Miller, 20 after it matched the description of a vehicle used by two men who allegedly tried to break into an Iowa apartment last Friday night.

When officers looked inside the 1994 Buick Roadmaster, they were surprised to find the men with masks, beards and moustaches painted on their face in some sort of rudimentary disguise.

Check out video at the link below.

(Huffington Post: Stupid Criminals: Burglars Use Black Magic Marker On Their Faces As Disguise)

 
Darth Vader conducts the Icelandic Philharmonic Orchestra as they play “The Imperial March” from “Star Wars.” Why he didn’t conduct with a light saber is what I want to know…?

Cross posting this from Brand X

 
Not content to put the mom and pop stores out of business, the Bentonville, Ark., behemoth now wants to bury funeral homes. This is not some kind of zany Halloween marketing hoax—at least that we know of. Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is now selling ... discount coffins. In the “For the Home” (?) area on the Wal-Mart website, feast your eyes on its entire line of inexpensive caskets and even urns, for all of your bereavement needs.

The prices of the Wal-Mart caskets are to die for. All but one of the coffins sells for under $2,000. The deluxe Sienna Bronze model sells for a still bargain-basement—in casket terms—price of $2,899. One of the least expensive model is the still lovely Lady de Guadalupe Steel Casket (see above) at $895. Another design sports a carving of “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci.

Wal-Mart will even deliver the coffins directly to the funeral home of your choice within 48 hours, but there is a catch: They won’t accept returns unless the product has been damaged in transit. So make sure your loved one is actually dead before you order!

Cross posting this from Brand X

 
Just two images from Swedish photographer Magnus Muhr who “takes the carcasses of dead flies, lays them on paper and imbues them with new life through a few strokes of his pencil.”   The bottom conversation, translated, reads something like, “Was it good??

 
Representing the probably fictional “Grilled Nation,” and lobbying for its recognition as a member state, this Harland Sanders doppelganger slipped into the UN yesterday and posed for a series of photos:

Dressed in the fast food icon’s familiar white suit and black bow tie, the actor evaded tight security to gain access to the restricted areas of the complex.  He even posed for a photograph with Ali Treki, the new president of the UN General Assembly, before the alarm was raised and he was ejected.  A spokeswoman for Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, yesterday said that an investigation had been launched into the security breach, which was dreamed up by KFC as a promotional stunt.  “It should not have happened ?

 
As someone who lives close to the hills in Los Angeles, this has been a concern of mine ever since reading that “Maneaters of the Sierra Madre” chapter in Mike Davis’ excellent City of Quartz:

Two coyotes have attacked and killed a 19-year-old folk singer in Nova Scotia, eastern Canada, officials say.  Taylor Mitchell, a promising musician from Toronto, died in hospital after the animals pounced as she hiked alone in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  Walkers alerted park rangers after hearing her screams.  The rangers shot one coyote, but were still searching for the second.  Attacks by coyotes on humans are rare; they usually prey on deer and hares.  Bleeding heavily from multiple bite wounds, the singer-songwriter was airlifted to a Halifax hospital, but died of her injuries on Wednesday morning, authorities said.

 
Via BBC News: Coyotes Kill Canadian Folk Singer

In the LA Times: Taylor Mitchell Dies After Coyote Attack While Hiking