Home Eclectic Stuff Sleep Tight: Top Horror Films

Sleep Tight: Top Horror Films

The T-Boy Society of Film and Music Selects Top Horror Films

The Horror Film’s roots lie in German Expressionism. When it moved to Hollywood, along with many of its directors, it was smart, scary and clever, but eventually evolved into camp, then cheap thrills trash. John Carpenter dominated the horror film for years, yet like most genres it has exploded with sub-genres of films that can still interrupt a good sleep. Holy Dracula, there are too many good ones out there! Our members’ lists offer a rare look at what is in their darkest dreams.

Top Horror Films

By the T-Boy Society of Film & Music
Curated by Ed Boitano

Psycho (1960) movie poster
POSTER DESIGNED BY MACARIO GÓMEZ QUIBUS. “© SHAMLEY PRODUCTIONS, INC.”, PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

From Ed Boitano:

Nosferatu (1922)
Director : F.W. Murnau
UFA made artistically outstanding and technically competent films during the silent era. Located in Berlin, its studios were the best equipped and most modern in the world. It encouraged experimentation and imaginative camera work and employed such directors as F. W. Murnau, Fritz LangErnst Lubitsch and G.W. Pabst; all pioneers in the expressive use of camera position, lighting, stylized art direction and acting, and editing techniques.

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#LETUSALLUNITE: A Global Campaign on the Occasion of the 80th Anniversary of “The Great Dictator”

The Great Dictator

To mark the 80th anniversary of “The Great Dictator,” one of Charlie Chaplin’s most iconic films, Chaplin’s World announced today that it is launching a year-long campaign with international partners. #LETUSALLUNITE, a human fresco on a global scale, will unite the citizens of the world around the universal values of the film.

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80-Year-Old Man Killed After Confronting Bar Patron For Not Wearing Mask

When an 80-year-old man at a bar near Buffalo, New York, noticed a fellow customer not wearing a face mask, he confronted him. The customer responded by swiftly pushing him to the ground, the police said. Five days later, the man was dead.

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Fall Foliage Trip Planning

Written by Kim Knox Beckius

fall colors, Hogback Mountain, Vermont
Hogback Mountain, Vermont. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHENSIYUAN, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 4.0.

The annual display of colorful fall foliage clogs scenic byways this time of year as onlookers travel for “leaf peeping” getaways. As the trees put on a memorable show for us, behind the scenes, it’s due to the slowing of chlorophyll production. That’s what’s going on, you see: an un-greening of leaves that unveils the true colors that have been masked throughout the summer. As underlying pigments pop, lighting up the landscape, mountainsides and roadsides truly do warrant gawking.

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The Radical History of Corporate Sensitivity Training

By Beth Blum

Don Draper at the Esalen Institute, Big Sur
The modern-day human-resources practice is embodied by the Esalen Institute, in Big Sur, which is best known today as where “Mad Men’s” Don Draper ends up. PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTINA MINTZ / AMC.

During these turbulent months, American corporations have responded to demands for racial justice by straining to showcase their sensitive sides. They’ve pledged, like Quaker Oats, to change offensive product names; they’ve scrambled, like Pradanascar, and Delta, to implement emergency sensitivity workshops; and they’ve opted, like most of the major publishing houses, to hire sensitivity readers to vet new manuscripts for racist representations. Not so at the Donald Trump White House.

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Amtrak’s New Fall Fare Sale Lets You Bring a Friend for Free

Riding the rails is the perfect way to follow fall down the Northeast Corridor

Written by Katherine Alex Beaven

Amtrak train

Summer may be officially over — R.I.P. — but Amtrak is already giving us reasons to get excited about celebrating fall. This week the national rail service announced a huge buy-one-get-one sale on Acela business class and Northeast Regional coach train fares. This means you can buy a ticket and bring a friend for free — or just split the difference and save 50 percent on ticket prices.

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The 5 Best Ways to Prevent a First Heart Attack

By Sharon Basaraba
Medically reviewed by Richard N. Fogoros, MD

heart attack

Whether your father, mother or siblings have had heart disease may seem like the most important predictor of your own chances of a heart attack. Not so — says a large Swedish study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in 2014. In fact, it showed that 5 specific lifestyle factors like eating right, regular exercise and quitting smoking can combine to prevent 80% of first heart attacks.

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Epiphany Central – 15 Lessons from the Pandemic

By David Erskine

Golden Gate Bridge at night

Dr.  Allen asked me to write a fourth blog yet again from just ten minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. If you read my last blog, you know that we experienced another COVID-19 surge a few weeks ago. The good news now is that California has flattened the  curve (for a second time) as I write this mid-September.

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The One Horror Film Stephen King Was Too Scared to Finish

Courtesy of Richard Evans

Stephen King
PHOTO COURTESY OF PINGUINO KOLB via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY 2.0

Stephen King has been responsible for many of our nightmares over the years. The prolific author has written a staggering number of terrifying novels and stories, many of which have been adapted into equally frightening films. But King is also a fan of the horror genre, and frequently recommends books, movies, and TV shows that have hooked him. In fact, he often showers them with effusive praise. In a new foreword for the 2010 reissue of his nonfiction book Danse Macabre, he called The Blair Witch Project the “worst nightmare you ever had.” Read on to find out why the movie spooked King so badly, along with his other favorites. And for more ’90s nightmares, revisit The Scariest Movies ’90s Kids Can’t Forget.

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You Might be an American Traveling Abroad if…

Inspired by Jeff Foxworthy with assistance from the Alot Travel Team

If you wear a Baseball Cap while traveling abroad you might be an American tourist.

tourist with baseball cap

Baseball is the American pastime, right? At least, it was at one point, and it’s still thought of that way, even though we watch more pro football than baseball at this point.

Still, we love the caps, and we carry them around with us everywhere — including overseas, where they immediately mark us as Americans.

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What Americans Abroad Should Not Expect

Pancakes

pancakes

The fluffy flour-based pancakes that American’s have come to love at breakfast time (or for brinner) just aren’t found abroad. French crêpes are too thin. The Japanese version (okonomiyaki) is too thick and most often topped with savory things like meat, seafood, and cabbage. Australian-style pancakes are too eggy and have sugar in the dough.

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5 Things Science Says Will Make You Happier

Research-backed habits that will improve your outlook and positive attitude

By Nataly Kogan
Medically reviewed by Daniel B. Block, MD

happy friends

It’s easy to assume that things like money and a luxurious lifestyle lead to happiness, but research shows that it’s the more simple experiences — like practicing gratitude or spending time with friends — that promote a sunny outlook.

Whether you need to shift from negative thoughts or want to continue a streak of positivity, here are five ways to boost happiness every day.

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The Future of History in the Pandemic Age

By Michael Creswell

Historians need to consider and prepare for changes to the profession that will follow the COVID-19 pandemic.

reading room of the Maritime Research Center, San Francisco
Reading Room of the Maritime Research Center, San Francisco. (NPS PHOTO/K. KVAM)

Attempting to predict the future is always perilous, and events frequently humble those who dare to try. Making predictions is especially hazardous for historians, who often struggle to explain the past. Peering into the future is not part of their professional training, and their efforts to do so are likely to fail.

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The Pentagon is Missing the Big Picture on “Stars and Stripes”

By Mark T. Hauser

The Pentagon’s plan to scrap funding for the Stars and Stripes newspaper isn’t just an attack on a historic military institution. It’s ignoring the lessons the paper’s history offers for efficient operation and integrating military operations with the economic life of the nation.

copies of the Stars and Stripes being delivered to Marines of Task Force Tarawa
Copies of the Stars and Stripes being delivered to Marines of Task Force Tarawa during Operation Iraqi Freedom, April, 2003. U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO BY 1ST SERGEANT DAVID K. DISMUKES, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

In February, the Pentagon proposed slashing funding for the famed soldiers’ newspaper Stars and Stripes, a story that roared back into the news in September after its publisher reported he had been ordered to halt publication by the end of the month.

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“Heroes of Our America”: Reading a “Patriotic” History of the United States

By Alan J. Singer

Not long ago, history textbooks were written as patriotic fables. Examining one offers a warning about the cost of putting mythmaking ahead of historical learning

Heroes of Our America

Heroes of Our America (1952) was a history book for fourth graders published by the Iroquois Publishing Company of Syracuse, New York. Its co-authors were Gertrude and John Van Duyn Southworth. John Southworth, with Harvard and Columbia University degrees, taught at a number of schools in the New York metropolitan area and was president of the publishing company. Gertrude Southworth, his frequent co-author, was also his mother.

I picked it off my office shelf after Donald Trump called for teaching “patriotic history” in American schools as a defense against a mythical radical “left” conspiracy and to ensure that  “our youth will be taught to love America.” Heroes of Our America is an example of the kind of “patriotic history” Donald and I were both exposed to as children in the 1950s. I grabbed the book when it was discarded from the Hofstra University Curriculum Materials Center only a couple of years ago.

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