Mulliga's Tribute to '80s Horror Paperbacks (Part 3) - The Vampire Tapestry

Halloween is finally here, and this year Shangrila Towers is paying tribute to the gory, grotesque, and sometimes goofy world of 1980s horror fiction. For the last night of spooky season, let's dive into a book endorsed by the likes of Stephen King and Peter S. Beagle: The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas.

Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire launched a craze of vampire fiction that has arguably lasted to this day, and The Vampire Tapestry represents a thoughtful take on the vampire myth. It's a set of connected novellas (hence the title) about Dr. Edward Weyland, a centuries-old vampire trying to survive in 20th century America. Ironically, Weyland is an anthropologist, and he studies humans with the eye of an outsider (or, less charitably, a predator). Pure blind luck sometimes casts him as the hunter, sometimes the hunted, with the bloodlust always at his heels.

There isn't much action or gore to speak of, but the book is pretty well-written, and has some interesting thoughts about the standard tropes - the search for emotional connection, the burden of immortality, etc. Charnas's background in history and her Peace Corps work inform some of the book's comments on the human (and inhuman) condition, and her native New Mexico provides the backdrop for a vivid sequence in the Santa Fe opera house. If you're cruising for '80s horror books, you could do a lot worse than The Vampire Tapestry.

Music: Mulliga's Halloween Horrorfest (2024 update)

Happy Halloween everyone! Here are some of the latest tracks added to my master Halloween music playlist in 2024 - just in time for All Hallows' Eve:

"Halloweenie VI: Possess Me," Ashnikko

Ashnikko has released a Halloween-themed track every October for awhile now, but "Halloweenie VI: Possess Me" apparently marks the final release in the series:

"Batman, Wolfman, Frankenstein and Dracula," LVCRFT

Pop collective LVCRFT is a fixture on my playlist because they do a great job of covering novelty Halloween songs, such as this obscure 1959 tune from The Diamonds:

"The Ballad of the Witches' Road (Sacred Chant Version)," from Agatha All Along

By most accounts, the Agatha Harkness-centric spinoff Agatha All Along underwhelmed, but this track from the series seems pretty good:

"Fangtasy," Bambie Thug

I always struggle with including songs on the playlist that are ambiguous in their Halloween references ("haunted" by the ghost of your ex, "bewitched" by the magic of your love, etc.), but the music video for this one puts it over the top:

"Living Dead Girl," izzy reign

A good cover of Rob Zombie's classic track:

The entire 10-year-old playlist is below for your enjoyment:

Movies: Smile 2

I never saw the first Smile, but I had heard good things, so I went to catch the sequel in the theater:

Smile 2 follows new protagonist Skye Riley (portrayed with frazzled intensity by Naomi Scott), a troubled pop superstar embarking on a comeback world tour. As you might imagine, Skye comes across a malevolent entity, and starts seeing horrible smiling people everywhere she goes. Can Skye find a way to escape the entity's clutches before she goes insane?

Director Parker Finn has been milking the Smile premise since his 2020 short film Laura Hasn't Slept, and Smile 2 is a bigger, louder version of the first movie, with similar story beats and jump scares.  Sometimes the visuals are exceptional (there are memorable scenes of Skye being menaced by smiling fans and creepy backup dancers).

However, unlike other movie monsters, there doesn't seem to be any real way to resist the Smile entity, and Skye seems an easy target, already damaged by the pressures of fame.  That all brings an inevitability to the proceedings that dampens the fun...after all, music stars commit suicide or die of drug overdoses all the time, even without a demon hunting them.

Rating: 6/10

Tech: 2024 Tesla Model 3 Review, Part 2 - Adventures in Charging

One of the biggest questions a new EV owner has is, "How do I charge this thing?" It turns out there are a few options, all of which have pros and cons:

Level 1 charging: This is a fancy way of saying, "plug the car into a standard 120V outlet." While you can find such an outlet in almost every garage in America, level 1 charging is incredibly slow. Using Tesla's mobile connector, for instance, you will probably be relegated to adding only a few miles of range per hour of charging. 

I have never bothered with this kind of charging, but might be necessary if you find yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Level 2 charging: The main way most people will be charging their cars, encompassing both typical home charging equipment and most "destination" chargers at parking garages and municipal buildings. Level 2 charging is faster (for almost any EV, it can fully charge a car overnight), enough so that it makes sense to plug in whenever you anticipate spending an hour or two at a location. Some caveats: most destination chargers require payment, and the chargers can be occupied for a long time. 

I am lucky enough to have a level 2 charger at work, so I always leave the office with a full "tank," and I've also been able to charge for free at certain chargers (usually owned by the city).

Level 3 charging: This is DC fast charging, including both Tesla's famous "Superchargers" and chargers provided by other networks. Level 3 charging is orders of magnitude faster because it dumps power directly into your battery; it can usually add hundreds of miles of range in 10-20 minutes. There are a host of problems with DC fast charging, though - it costs more money (sometimes as much as gas), it's bad for the long-term health of the battery, and the charger itself is harder to maintain, meaning that non-Tesla DC chargers are often broken.

I've only used Tesla's Superchargers, which offer a very simple, user-friendly experience - no apps, no credit cards, just plug in, and your account is charged automatically.

Mulliga's Tribute to '80s Horror Paperbacks (Part 2) - House of Illusions

Halloween is coming, and this year Shangrila Towers is paying tribute to the gory, grotesque, and sometimes goofy world of 1980s horror fiction. Today's post will look at House of Illusions, a 1988 novel by Ruby Jean Jensen:

Killer clowns have been a staple of horror for decades, whether we're talking about Pennywise from Stephen King's It or Art from the Terrifier films. House of Illusions features a whole gang of them, who proceed to menace the inhabitants of a travelling carnival. Throw in a magician-who-might-be-a-demon, a mysterious house of mirrors, and a passel of picaresque carnie folk, and you have the prototypical '80s chiller, complete with an eye-catching all-hologram cover.

House of Illusions was published by Zebra Books, the paperback imprint of Kensington Publishing. Jensen was one of Zebra's most prolific writers, and she cranked out 20 books with the publisher, usually featuring evil children. In House of Illusions, the children aren't exactly evil, but they aren't safe, either; the story goes to some gonzo places that more mainstream horror novels would never touch. While the book is a bit light on plot and sags around the midway point, it does offer a few memorable images...blighted mirrors, shadows moving in the tents behind the midway, and clowns - so many clowns.

Tech: 2024 Tesla Model 3 Review, Part 1 - A Self-Driving Car?

With Tesla demonstrating its robotaxi tech to mixed reviews, I thought it was a good time to test out the "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" 30-day trial on my new Model 3.  Does it work? It sure does...mostly:

I've heard people describe FSD as being driven around by a 16-year-old who just got his learner's permit, and they're right.  FSD will amaze you with its ability to stop at red lights, signal lane changes, turn into shopping centers, and merge into light traffic. 10 seconds later, it might hit the brakes a little too early, misread a traffic sign, or "freak out" when confronted with a poorly marked road.  Like a novice driver, the system performs best on lightly populated highways, and worst in crowded, chaotic city streets.

Tesla would have gotten a lot less flak if they called the feature something else ("Driving Assistant"? "Ultra Autopilot"?), but FSD is still apparently the most advanced consumer self-driving tech out there.  Just keep a close eye on it.

Mulliga's Tribute to '80s Horror Paperbacks (Part 1) - Paperbacks from Hell

Halloween is coming, and this year Shangrila Towers is paying tribute to the gory, grotesque, and sometimes goofy world of 1980s horror fiction. Let's start with the book that inspired this series of blog posts - Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix with Will Errickson:

When I read horror novels growing up, they were usually in paperback form (picture a heavily creased, dog-eared, phonebook-thick copy of The Stand in my middle school backpack). Paperbacks from Hell is a love letter to that bygone era, a nonfiction history of the rise and fall of the mass market horror section.  This was a freewheeling time, when books featured everything from Nazi leprechauns to giant mutant cockroaches, with lurid covers designed to pull in curious kids like me. 

Written by author Grady Hendrix (with Will Errickson of "Too Much Horror Fiction"), the book does a good job of summarizing trends in the horror genre and highlighting the authors and publishers who made it happen.  Paperbacks from Hell is about as comprehensive as a book like this can be; for example, I grabbed a couple of random '80s horror paperbacks from my local used bookstore (which shall be revealed later this month...), and it turned out both were mentioned in the book, albeit briefly.

Tastes would change as the '90s came along, and so ended the heyday of trashy horror fiction. But if you want to re-live those days, Paperbacks from Hell is a fun way to do it.