Happy Halloween! One of my favorite Halloween traditions is hearing Bobby “Boris” Pickett sing his 1962 smash THE MONSTER MASH, and this year I’ve discovered a real treat. Bobby doing a live performance at the Chiller Theater con in 2005 with none other than the late, great Zacherley! Enjoy!
Here’s a little horror anime music video to help decompress after last night’s very nihilistic and emotional draining season premiere of The Walking Dead.
It’s from amv creator Xophilarus and combines Halsey’s song “Control” with the horror anime Gakkou Gurashi (surprise it’s about zombies!). The series itself was reviewed by site anime contributor pantsukudasai56. Yes, for some the zombie subgenre has started to feel overplayed and overused. But if there’s one thing the two co-founders of this site never truly get tired of are good zombie fiction and Gakkou Gurashi is such a thing.
Anime: Gakkou Gurashi
Song: “Control” by Halsey
Creator: Xophilarus
Past AMVs of the Day
Before Alice Cooper brought his theatrical “shock rock” to audiences, before Black Sabbath sang hymns to Satan, there was Screaming Jay Hawkins! A blues belting maniac from Cleveland, Hawkins incorporated horror into his stage shows, the likes of which had never been seen. Crowds ate it up as Screaming Jay popped out of his coffin, dressed as a voodoo priest complete with cape, top hat, and a smoking skull named ‘Henry’ atop his staff, performing his best known hit, “I Put a Spell On You”:
The story goes Hawkins and his band originally planned “I Put a Spell On You” as a slow blues ballad, but they all got roaring drunk at the session, resulting in Hawkins guttural screaming, and turning the song into a frenzied rock classic. The tune has been covered by dozens of artists, from Creedence Clearwater Revival to Annie Lennox and beyond. Screaming Jay recorded many other horror-themed hits like…
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Congratulations to the latest Nobel laureate in Literature, Bob Dylan! After being twice considered, Dylan was finally honored this year “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
Dylan now joins such previous winners as Mario Vargas Llosa, Harold Pinter, Gunter Grass, William Golding, Samuel Beckett, and Saul Bellow.
In this scene from Bob Dylan’s directorial debut, the 232-minute long Renaldo and Clara, Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg pay a visit to Jack Kerouac’s grave.
WITCH!!!!!
It’s that time of the year when all things dark, terrifying and horrific invades the halls and corridors of Through the Shattered Lens.
While many who hear the term magical girl and colorful-costumed girls fighting evil won’t think dark and disturbing well they’d be dead wrong. The magical girl genre of Japanese animation have always had that undercurrent of darkness which makes these so-called kiddie anime series more adult than that many people realize.
In 2011, the magical girl anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica (aka Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica) came out and it finally explored that very undercurrent of darkness in the magical girl genre that people discussed about. The series was still cute, but also disturbing in how it explored the cost these teenage girls would incur in gaining magical abilities to fight evil.
The latest AMV of the Day takes Madoka Magica (especially the three films which followed the series) and it’s two lead character in Homura Akemi (girl with the dark hair) and Madoka Kaname (girl with the pink-hair) and their very complicated relationship that transcends not just their friendship, but time and divinity itself.
What better song to pair up with Madoka Magica but none other than “Seven Devils” by Florence + The Machine.
Anime: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica
Song: “Seven Devils” by Florence + The Machine
Creator: Kinnsao San
Past AMVs of the Day
Symphonic metal stalwarts Within Temptation was first introduced to me not by resident metal expert necromoonyeti, but through an anime music video first witnessed at Anime Expo 2010. The video was “Alchanum” and while the anime used, Fullmetal Alchemist, was entertaining enough it was the song used that hooked me in. That song and the latest “Song of the Day” is “See Who I Am” from Within Temptation’s full-length album The Silent Force.
From that moment forward I’ve been an ardent follower of Within Temptation. There’s just something about the melding of metal and that of an orchestral symphony that just makes perfect sense. I’m more than satisfied with the raw, brutal, speed and guttural melodies of what many outsiders consider heavy metal (how wrong they can be), but symphonic metal just does it for me.
And for those who think heavy metal (and all it’s many subgenres) are all about angry dues with long, unwashed hair or tatted up to no end should be surprised to see that Within Temptation’s singer is a classically-trained mezzo-soprano by the name of Sharon den Adel.
See Who I Am
Is it true what they say?
Are we too blind to find a way?
Fear of the unknown
Clouds our hearts today.
Come into my world,
See through my eyes.
Try to understand,
Don’t want to lose what we have.
We’ve been dreaming
But who can deny?
It’s the best way of living
Between the truth and the lies.
See who I am,
Break through the surface.
Reach for my hand,
Let’s show them that we can
Free our minds and find a way.
The world is in our hands,
This is not the end.
Fear is withering the soul
At the point of no return.
We must be the change we wish to see.
I’ll come into your world,
See through your eyes.
I’ll try to understand,
Before we lose what we have.
See who I am,
Break through the surface.
Reach for my hand,
And show them that we can
Free our minds and find a way.
The world is in our hands
This is not the end.
We just can’t stop believing
Because we have to try.
We can rise above their truth and their lies.
See who I am,
Break through the surface.
Reach for my hand,
Let’s show them that we can
Free our minds and find a way.
The world is in our hands.
See who I am,
Break through the surface.
Reach for my hand,
And show them that we can
Free our minds and find a way.
The world is in our hands.
This is not the end.
I hear their silence
Preaching my blame.
Will our strength remain
If their power reigns?
See who I am,
Break through the surface.
Reach for my hand,
And show them that we can
Free our minds and find a way.
The world is in our hands.
See who I am,
Break through the surface.
Reach for my hand,
And show them that we can
Free our minds and find a way.
The world is in our hands.
This is not the end.
It’s almost that time of the years when Through the Shattered Lens switches gears and goes into full dark fantasy and horror. While there will be the smattering posts that doesn’t dabble in all things dark and scary, it’s a month that’s become a yearly tradition and one that several writers on-site seem to enjoy. Though no one enjoys October at Through the Shattered Lens more than co-founder Lisa Marie Bowman. She’s the dark mother to all the writers at the site.
While it’s still not that month of darkness here’s a small taste of the sort of dark themes many of the posts will end up having during October.
The latest AMV of the Day comes courtesy of video creator Chiisus. The video manages to take the dark aspect of what too many outsiders to the anime scene as a light and kiddy cartoon: Sailor Moon Crystal.
This particular amv (anime music video) is titled Moonlight Requiem and combines the more dark fantasy side of Sailor Moon Crystal with the symphonic metal band’s Within Temptation and the melodic vocalizing of it’s frontman Sharon den Adel. The song chosen by Chiisus is one that many other amv creators have used in the past: “See Who I Am.” In fact, it’s the song to one of my all-time favorite anime music video: “Alchanum” by Rider4Z.
This time the song is used for Sailor Moon Crystal and, boy, if the song doesn’t fit in well with the scenes chosen for the video.
Anime: Sailor Moon Crystal
Song: “See Who I Am” by Within Temptation
Creator: Chiiisus
Past AMVs of the Day
Remember Toni Basil? She had a mega-hit record back in the 80’s with the infectious pop song “Mickey”. The multi-talented Miss Basil’s been around forever, known for her choreography on TV’s SHINDIG, the films THE TAMI SHOW and The Monkees’ HEAD (where she shared the spotlight with Davy Jones). She choreographed two David Bowie tours (Diamond Dogs and Glass Spider), directed videos with Talking Heads’ David Byrne (“Once in a Lifetime”), and has appeared as an actress in VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS, PAJAMA PARTY, EASY RIDER, and FIVE EASY PIECES, among others.
Recently the 72 year old, who co-founded the street dance group The Lockers way back in 1971, strutted her stuff at a Los Angeles dance workshop, and the crowd of young kids went nuts! The video has gone viral and in case you missed it, I’d like to share it with you now:
Yeah! You’ve still got the…
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“Sampling” in popular music today is as common as a cold, with hip-hop and electronica artists cutting in bits and pieces from other artist’s songs to create something entirely new. You could say Dickie Goodman was “The Godfather of Sampling” and not be far from the truth. Goodman and his partner-in-crime Bill Buchanan were the originators of “break-in” records, novelty discs that spliced snippets of contemporary hit tunes into comic scenarios, starting with the 1956 smash “The Flying Saucer Pts. 1 & 2”.
Goodman was born in Brooklyn on April 19, 1934. He was a struggling young songwriter when he and Buchanan came up with the idea of producing a comedy record based on Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” broadcast, using lines from rock records as answers to man-on-the-street questions. Goodman played the DJ while Buchanan acted as reporter “John Cameron Cameron”, a play on noted newsman and Timex pitchman John Cameron…
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