Category Archives: Editorial

Happy Birthday, Arleigh!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today is a very special day as we celebrate the birthday of the founder of the Shattered Lens, the one and only …. ARLEIGH SANDOC!

Happy birthday, Arleigh!

Nearly 10 years ago, Arleigh founded the site that would eventually become the Shattered Lens.  He recruited our initial crew of four writers.  (We’ve obviously grown since those early days) and he asked me to come aboard as co-editor of the site.  Tomorrow is thanksgiving but I can tell you what I’m thankful for today.  I’m thankful that Arleigh took a chance and made me a part of this site.  I have grown so much as a writer, due to the opportunities and the freedom that Arleigh offered to me and every other writer on this site.

Next year, we’ll be celebrating the TSL’s 10th birthday all year long.  2020 is going to be all about celebrating everything that this site is about and I hope we’ll see each and everyone of you there.  Today, however, is all about celebrating Arleigh.

Happy birthday, Arleigh!

Lisa’s Week In Review: 11/18/19 — 11/24/19

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Everyone be sure to wish a happy birthday to my sister and the TSL’s Arts Editor, our own Dazzling Erin …. ERIN NICOLE!  Happy birthday, Erin!

Can you believe that 2019 is almost over?  Only a week a month to go!

Here’s what I did this week!

Films That I Watched:

  1. American Relapse (2019)
  2. Crawl (2019)
  3. Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops (2019)
  4. Frozen II (2019)
  5. Grambling’s White Tiger (1982)
  6. Judgment (2001)
  7. Left Behind: The Movie (2000)
  8. Left Behind II: Tribulation Force (2002)
  9. Left Behind III; World At War (2005)
  10. Roman Holiday (1953)
  11. She Gods of Shark Reef (1958)
  12. Tribulation (2000)
  13. Women of Valor (1986)

Television Shows That I Watched:

  1. 9-1-1
  2. Beverly Hills 90210
  3. The Brady Bunch
  4. Cheers
  5. Dancing With The Stars
  6. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
  7. M*A*S*H
  8. Mrs. Fletcher
  9. Saved By The Bell: The College Years
  10. Seinfeld
  11. Silicon Valley
  12. Survivor 39
  13. The Voice
  14. WKRP in Cincinnati

Books I Read:

  1. Final Analysis: The Untold Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case (2007) by Catherine Crier

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Avril Lavigne
  2. Big Data
  3. Britney Spears
  4. The Chemical Brothers
  5. DJ Shadow
  6. Flume
  7. Kedr Livanskiy
  8. Muse
  9. Patti Smith
  10. P!nk
  11. Regina Spektor
  12. Saint Motel
  13. Sia
  14. Terror Jr.

Links from Last Week:

  1. Kickin’ The Willy Bobo With…JOHN LINWOOD GRANT

News From Last Week:

  1. Chopping Mall streaming for 24 hours on Black Friday November 29th 2019
  2. Courtney B. Vance Named President of SAG-AFTRA Foundation
  3. Julia Roberts was suggested to play Harriet Tubman by studio exec, says Harriet screenwriter

Links From The Site:

  1. Erin shared The Crimson Clue, Special Detective, Uncle Dynamite, New Detective Magazine, Snappy Romances, The Woman is Death, and Love-Hungry Doctor.
  2. Jeff shared music videos from The Pretenders and David Bowie!
  3. I shared music videos from Terror Jr, Flume, Kedr Livanskiy, DJ Shadow, and Muse! I shared the trailer for Spies in Disguise and I also shared the Independent Spirit Award Nominations!  I reviewed American Relapse, Ernie & John, Crawl, The Kitchen, and She Gods of Shark Reef!
  4. Ryan reviewed 2016-1960, Forlorn Toreador, and Key West Diary, along with sharing his weekly reading round-up!

More From Us:

  1. On her photography site, Erin Shared: Third Floor, Bank, Basketball, Communication, Down To The Track, Eat, and A Flower For Me!
  2. For the Reality TV Chat Blog, I reviewed the latest episode of Survivor!
  3. On my music site, I shared songs from DJ Shadow, Regina Spektor, Patti Smith, Britney Spears, Britney Spears again, French 79, and Avril Lavigne!
  4. On Pop Politics, Jeff shared Boomer Biden Won’t Legalize Marijuana, That Didn’t Take Long, I’m Not Watching, and What if A Candidate Drops Out And Nobody Notices!
  5. Ryan has a patreon!  You should consider subscribing to it!

Want to see what I did last week?  Click here!

Lisa’s Week In Review: 11/11/19 — 11/17/19

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’m exhausted but at least I watched a lot of movies last week!

 

Films I Watched:

  1. Alakazam the Great (1961)
  2. Amish Abduction (2019)
  3. Apocalypse (1998)
  4. The Apollo (2019)
  5. Audrey Rose (1977)
  6. Blood Bath (1966)
  7. The Bronx U.S.A. (2019)
  8. Conspiracy (2000)
  9. Creature of Destruction (1967)
  10. Dark Victory (1939)
  11. A Daughter’s Plan To Kill (2019)
  12. The Devil Within Her (1976)
  13. Extramarital (1998)
  14. The Godfather, Part II (1974)
  15. High School Big Shot (1959)
  16. Jezebel (1938)
  17. Midway (2019)
  18. My Wife’s Secret Life (2019)
  19. Pale Blood (1991)
  20. Revelation (1999)
  21. Right to Believe (2014)
  22. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
  23. Very Ralph (2019)
  24. When Cary Grant Introduced Timothy Leary to LSD (2017)
  25. White Mile (1994)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. 9-1-1
  2. The Adventures of Sir Lancelot
  3. Beverly Hills 90210
  4. The Bold and the Beautiful
  5. Couples Court With The Cutlers
  6. Dancing With The Stars
  7. Days of Our Lives
  8. Dr. Phil
  9. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
  10. Jack Ryan
  11. Judge Jerry
  12. The Kelly Clarkson Show
  13. Lauren Lake’s Paternity Court
  14. The Love Boat
  15. The Mel Robbins Show
  16. Mrs. Fletcher
  17. Saved By The Bell
  18. Sherlock Holmes
  19. Silicon Valley
  20. South Park
  21. Survivor 39
  22. The Voice

Books I Read:

  1. Catch and Kill (2019) by Ronan Farrow
  2. The Most Fun We Ever Had (2019) by Claire Lombardo

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Amilli
  2. Big Data
  3. The Chemical Brothers
  4. Christina Aguilera
  5. DJ Shadow
  6. French 79
  7. Gloria Trevi
  8. Jackalope
  9. The Killers
  10. Liz Phair
  11. The Muffs
  12. Regina Spektor
  13. Saint Motel
  14. Shakira

News From Last Week:

  1. Ricky Gervais to host Golden Globes for ‘last time’
  2. Paul Thomas Anderson Is Making a 1970s-Set High-School Movie, Film Boys Frantically Call Agents
  3. ‘Days of Our Lives’ Entire Cast Released from Contracts, Show Goes On Hiatus 
  4. Broadway Star Laurel Griggs Dead at 13 From Massive Asthma Attack
  5. Team Behind Digital James Dean Forms New Company to Resurrect Other Legends
  6. Robert Pattinson Says Actors Only Go Method When They’re Playing A–holes
  7. Bestselling Authors Band Together to Dunk on a College Student

Links From The Site:

  1. Erin shared Service Series No. 20, The Best Go First, Nora Was A Nurse, Tonite, Early To Rise, Flee The Night In Anger, and Ladies They Talk About!
  2. Jeff shared music videos from Flesh For Lulu, Frank Black, and The Georgia Satellites!
  3. I reviewed Amish Abduction, My Wife’s Secret Life, Right To Believe, and A Daughter’s Plan To Kill!  I also shared music videos from French 79, Amilli, The Muffs, and Regina Spektor!
  4. Leonard shared the 2nd trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog!
  5. Patrick reviewed The Dwelling!
  6. Ryan reviewed One Minute To Wonderland, Tulpa, and Tad Martin.  He paid tribute to Tom Spurgeon and shared his weekly reading round-up!

More From Us:

  1. I reviewed the latest episode of Survivor at Reality TV Chat Blog!
  2. On my music site, I shared songs from The Killers, Liz Phair, Gloria Trevi, Shakira, Christina Aguilera, DJ Shadow, and Amili!
  3. At Pop Politics, Jeff shared Smart Politics in the UK, Deval Patrick For President?, Sanford’s Out and Bloomberg’s A Little More In, Deval Patrick Is Actually Doing It, and a review of The Delta Force!
  4. On her photography site, Erin shared Pearl Harbor Memorial 2003, Tracks, The Trees and the Wall, Clouds in Gray, Church Path in Black and White, Elephant, and Leaves!
  5. Ryan has a patreon.  Please consider subscribing!

Check out what I did last week by clicking here!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 11/4/19 — 11/10/19

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi, everyone!  Greetings from beautiful Lake Texoma!

Well, as you can tell it’s been kind of a quiet week around the TSL Bunker.  We’re all still recovering from October!  However, that quiet is about to end.  Not only is Awards Season rapidly approaching but my DVR has so many things recorded that it’s going to explode if I don’t start watching some of it.

In other words, starting next week, it’s going to be all about getting caught up with the films and recording of 2019!  As you can tell by looking below, I’ve already gotten off to a fairly good start.

Finally, my birthday was this Saturday.  A new year has begun.  Through the Shattered Lens’s birthday will be in December.  This site will be 10 years old!  I’m currently making all sorts of plans for how we’re going to celebrate being a decade old.  I promise you this: you’re going to love what we have in store for 2020.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s my week in review:

 

Films I Watched:

  1. The Apocalypse (2000)
  2. Casino (1995)
  3. The Dead Don’t Die (2019)
  4. Fast and Furious Presents Hobbs and Shaw (2019)
  5. Harriet (2019)
  6. Kindred Spirits (2019)
  7. The Kitchen (2019)
  8. Last Christmas (2019)
  9. Late Night (2019)
  10. The Lion King (2019)
  11. Ma (2019)
  12. Midsommar (2019)
  13. My Mother’s Split Personalities (2019)
  14. Rocketman (2019)
  15. Sleeping With My Student (2019)
  16. Stuber (2019)
  17. Victoria Gotti: My Father’s Daughter (2019)
  18. Yesterday (2019)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. 9-1-1
  2. Beverly Hills 90210
  3. Couples Court With The Cutlers
  4. Dancing With The Stars
  5. Days of Our Lives
  6. The Devil Next Door
  7. Divorce Court
  8. Doctor Phil
  9. The End of the Fucking World
  10. General Hospital
  11. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
  12. Judge Jerry
  13. Lauren Lake’s Paternity Court
  14. Seinfeld
  15. South Park
  16. Survivor 39
  17. The Voice

Books I Read:

  1. Verity (2018) by Colleen Hoover

 

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Adi Ulmansky
  2. The Beatles
  3. Big Data
  4. Bob Dylan
  5. Britney Spears
  6. Coldplay
  7. Don Henley
  8. Erin Anne
  9. Hachiku
  10. Haim
  11. Jakalope
  12. M4Sonic
  13. Magdalena Bay
  14. Public Image Ltd.
  15. Saint Motel
  16. Taylor Swift
  17. UPSAHL
  18. Zero 7

Links From Last Week:

  1. Twitter hates me. The Des Moines Register fired me. Here’s what really happened.
  2. Scorsese’s Marvel Critique Makes No Sense

News From Last Week:

  1. James Dean Reborn in CGI for Vietnam War Action-Drama
  2. Director of the CGI James Dean Movie is Somehow Shocked at the Backlash
  3. British Politician Drops Out Because of Her Views on Extraterrestrials in Government
  4. Woman Starring In Indie Horror Film Charged In Real Life Murder Day After Filming Wraps
  5. ‘Hollywood Superman’ Christopher Dennis, Longtime Walk Of Fame Fixture, Dead At 52
  6. Igo Kantor, Producer and Post-Production Executive, Dies at 89
  7. Woody Allen and Amazon End Legal Battle

Links From The Site:

  1. Erin shared Dead as a Dummy, Whiplash, Detective World, Black Jack, The Come On, Film Fun, and the Singing Widow!
  2. Jeff reviewed Dangerous Curves, Viva Knievel, and The Hard Way.  He shared music videos from Public Image Ltd, Don Henley, and Public Image Ltd again!
  3. I shared the trailer for The Invisible Man and reviewed The King, Victoria Gotti, Sleeping With My Student, and Kindred Spirits!  I shared music videos from M4Sonic, Magdalena Bay, Hachiku, and M4Sonic again!  I also tried to share the teaser for Tenet but YouTube took down the video as soon as I posted it, those bastards.
  4. Patrick reviewed The Tokoloshe!
  5. Ryan reviewed TrumpTrump Volume 2 and Blood and Drugs!

More From Us:

  1. Ryan has a patreon!  Please consider subscribing!
  2. On Pop Politics, Jeff wrote about Aaron Calvin, Jeff Epstein, and Michael Bloomberg!  He also reviewed Hooper!
  3. For Reality TV Chat Blog, I reviewed the latest episode of Survivor!
  4. On my music site, I shared songs from Haim, Zero 7, Coldplay, Erin Anne, Adi Ulmansky, The Beatles, and Saint Motel!
  5. On her photography site, Erin shared Turtle, Behind A Waterfall, More From Behind The Waterfall, Locked Door In Black-and-White, Church, Dallas, and Peaceful Fountain!

Want to see what I did last week? Click here!

Lisa’s Week In Review: 10/28/19 — 11/3/19

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Reset your clocks

Between the end of this year’s Horrorthon and the changing of the clocks on Saturday night, I’m exhausted.  So, I apologize for not even attempting to be witty before presenting this week’s list of things.

Films I Watched:

  1. Angel On My Shoulder (1946)
  2. Black Sabbath (1963)
  3. The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)
  4. The Craft (1996)
  5. Dead Night (2018)
  6. Get Over It (2001)
  7. Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell (1968)
  8. Halloween (1978)
  9. The Hitcher II: I’ll Be Waiting (2003)
  10. I Walked With A Zombie (1943)
  11. The King (2019)
  12. The Living Skeleton (1968)
  13. My Teacher, My Obsession (2018)
  14. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
  15. Quigley Down Under (1990)
  16. Vampire Over London (1952)
  17. Vampire’s Kiss (1989)
  18. Your Family or Your Life (2019)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. 9-1-1
  2. Dancing With The Stars
  3. Fear Thy Neighbor
  4. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
  5. Mrs. Fletcher
  6. Saved By The Bell
  7. Silicon Valley
  8. South Park
  9. Survivor 39
  10. The Voice

Books That I Read:

  1. Horror Hotel (1983) by Hilary Milton
  2. Nightmare Store (1982) by Hilary Milton

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. All Saints
  2. Big Data
  3. The Burning Hell
  4. Coldplay
  5. Crud
  6. Daemonia
  7. Goblin
  8. Haim
  9. Jakalope
  10. John Carpenter
  11. Lana del Rey
  12. Luna
  13. M4Sonic
  14. Rob Cantor
  15. Saint Motel
  16. Shakira
  17. Taking Back Sunday
  18. Thom Yorke
  19. Zeds dead

Links From Last Week:

  1. My Saturday of Books
  2. The Women Who Helped Build Hollywood
  3. A Little Tribute To Gary Loggins From The Cracked Rear Viewer Film Site

News From Last Week:

  1. Jordan Peele feels uncomfortable with fans dressing up as the Tethered from ‘Us’
  2. Black turtleneck shortage linked to Elizabeth Holmes Halloween costumes

Links From The Site:

  1. Leonard reviewed Doctor Sleep!
  2. Doc has a special Halloween message for all of our readers!
  3. Case reviewed The Last Halloween, The Bloody Ballad of Squirt Roberts, Night of the Slasher, the Halloween reboot, and an episode of Titans!
  4. Erin shared vintage Halloween postcards and The Covers of Adventures Into The Unknown!  She also wrote about the World Series and shared Image of Evil, To The Dark Tower, Strangers In The Night, The Rest Is Silence, The Big Binge, Frisco Dame, and She Killed In Cuffs.  She counted down the days til Halloween: 3, 2, 1, 0.  She wished everyone a happy Halloween and celebrated the end of the day!
  5. Jeff reviewed the debut of Man-Wolf, Night Trap, Bloody Wednesday, Lonely Water, Heavy Rain, Tale of the Vampire, Beyond: Two Souls, Absolution, the time Spider-Man met the Monster Maker, Ghost Watch, Detroit: Become Human, and The Good Son!
  6. Ryan reviewed The Ghost In The Darkness, One Winter Night, Malarkey, Rooftop Stew, and This Never Happened, along with sharing his weekly reading round-up!
  7. Because it was Halloween and all, I posted too much stuff to list here.  Feel free to search the sight and take a look though!

More From Us:

  1. At Days Without Incident, Leonard shared I Ain’t Superstitious!
  2. For Horror Critic, I reviewed The Craft and I Walked With A Zombie!
  3. For SyFyDesigns, I wrote Halloween Approaches!
  4. At my music site, I shared songs from Goblin, Luna, John Carpenter, Daemonia, Taking Back Sunday, Lana del Rey, and Coldplay!
  5. For the Reality TV Chat Blog, I reviewed the latest episode of Survivor!
  6. At Pop Politics, Jeff shared The UK Is Having A General Election, Beto’s Out, and Do Something With Your Clocks Tonight!
  7. On her photography site, Erin shared Dark Places, Signs of Life, Crowd, Winter Is Coming, Wall Snow, Morning At The Creek, and Isolated.
  8. Ryan has a Patreon! Please consider subscribing!

Want to see what I did last week?  Click here!

Another Halloween Has Come and Gone…

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Another Halloween has come and gone and with it, another Horrorthon.  Thank you to everyone who read and commented this month!  We hope you have had a wonderful October and that you’re November brings you much to be thankful for!

And remember, just because you didn’t see the Great Pumpkin this year, doesn’t mean that he won’t be there for you next October.  I think Linus can explain it best:

To all of our readers and from all of your friends at the Shattered Lens, thank you.

The Nationals Have Won the World Series

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

It took seven games but the Washington Nationals have won the 2019 World Series.  Being a Texan, I was cheering for the Astros the whole time but Nationals earned the victory and no one can take it away from them.

Congratulations to Washington for showing what can done with some talent and a lot of luck and also to the Nationals for not only going to the World Series for the first time but winning too!  My Rangers have gone twice and they still haven’t won.

(I’m not bitter at all, by the way.  If anyone needs me, I’ll be in a corner, crying and watching that clip of Rougned Odor punching Jose Bautista’s sunglasses off of his face.)

Here’s hoping that the rest of Washington D.C. follows their baseball team’s example, gets their act together, and concentrates on winning a victory for America.

And now, it’s time to start counting down the days until the start of the 2020 regular season!

And now, a word from Doc Bowman concerning Halloween….

Posted on by Doc Bowman

 

Hi, everyone!

Doc Bowman here with a very special holiday message!

Tomorrow is Halloween, which my owners — the flame-haired one and the nice one — says is the greatest time of the year!  It’s the time when kids get candy, horror movies are on TV, and my owners get to play dress up or, if it’s anything like last year, barely get dressed at all.

But it’s also a time when stupid people do bad things.  I’m a black cat so both the flame-haired and the nice-one say that I’m not going to be allowed go outside at all tomorrow.  They say it doesn’t matter how much I beg, I’m staying inside.  I know they’re doing the right thing but I’m still going to beg and knock things off of tables and counters because I’m a cat and that’s what I do.  And they’re going to hopefully give me a lot of treats and pet me to keep me happy, even though they’ll probably have to lock me in the flame-haired one’s room to keep me from running for the front door every time they open it for a trick or treater.  That’s just the way thing go at the cat’s house.

Tomorrow night, please make sure that all your pets are safely inside.  It may sound like a silly concern but not everyone out there is as nice and wonderful as my owners and the people who read this site!

Have a safe and happy Halloween everyone!