calliopes_pen | Entries tagged with dark shadows

Christopher Pennock has passed away, at the age of 76, following “several days of hospitalized care.” May he rest in peace. I first heard the news via an e-mail from Shadowgram, and waited to find something to link to before I posted.

I will remember him best as one of his many characters on Dark Shadows. He played Jeb Hawkes during the Leviathan storyline, as well as Gabriel Collins (in 1840; in 1841 Parallel Time; in Night of Dark Shadows), Cyrus Longworth (and his version of Hyde in his alternate personality of John Yaeger), and astrologist Sebastian Shaw throughout his tenure there.

Diana Millay has passed away at the age of 85. May she rest in peace. I first heard the news via e-mail from Shadowgram.

For Dark Shadows fans, she will be best remembered as Laura Collins, the Phoenix. I have never had a chance to view her original storyline where she came after David, but I have seen her reprisal of the character during the 1897 storyline.

Another incarnation of Laura Collins, which bore no relation to the Phoenix, can also be found in Night of Dark Shadows (1971).

Ben Cross has passed away, at the age of 72, following a short illness. May he rest in peace.

I’ll always remember him best as Barnabas Collins, from the short-lived 1991 remake of Dark Shadows. I have it on DVD, so I may be rewatching a few episodes later. I also recall him as Prince Malagant in First Knight (1995).

I was not aware he was in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) as Sarek. I do need to track down a vampire movie he was in, called Nightlife (1989). The summary I read said he played a vampire named Vlad, tracking down his lost love...by the name of Angelique. Naturally, given I’m a Dark Shadows fan, I sort of need to see this no matter how bad it is.

(The icon is Barnabas Collins, too. I think that's actually the image they used on the DVD cover that I own.)

Bob Cobert passed away on February 19th, at the age of 95, as a result of pneumonia. May he rest in peace. I heard about this earlier via Shadowgram, but have yet to find a news article that mentions it; if I do, shall edit one in.

For fans of the original Dark Shadows, he was a composer of the music (including Quentin's Theme and Shadows Of The Night). Along with the original series, he composed the scores for House of Dark Shadows (1970), Night of Dark Shadows (1971), and the short-lived 90’s revival series.

As a result of his association with Dan Curtis, his work popped up in many places, including (but not limited to) these: The Strange Case of Dr. Jeykll & Mr. Hyde (1968, the Jack Palance version), Dead of Night: A Darkness at Blaisedon (1969), The Night Stalker (1972), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1973), The Norliss Tapes (1973), Frankenstein (1973, Bo Svenson version), Dracula (1974, the Jack Palance version) The Turn of the Screw (1974), Trilogy of Terror (1975), and Burnt Offerings (1976).

I suspect I'll be rewatching the Palance Dracula or The Turn of the Screw later, as I have that on a DVD set. I know I've got House of Dark Shadows somewhere on the external hard drive, too.

John Karlen passed away yesterday, at the age of 86, as a result of congestive heart failure. I found out through the Shadowgram newsletter earlier this morning. May he rest in peace. He will be best known to Dark Shadows fans as Willie Loomis, along with Carl Collins, William H. Loomis (from parallel time), Desmond Collins and Kendrick Collins.

I loved watching him on the original Dark Shadows, back in the 90’s, when it aired on The Sci-Fi Channel. I have yet to see Dan Curtis’ tv movie of Frankenstein (1973), so I’ll see about finding that one.

I have also yet to watch the Master of Dark Shadows documentary, so I evidently need to track that one down. I might see about also rewatching House of Dark Shadows (1970) or Daughters of Darkness (1971) in his honor.

I don’t have an icon of one of his characters, so here’s one of Angelique from the original Dark Shadows.

Denise Nickerson has passed away, at the age of 62, after being removed from life support. May she rest in peace. I had been following the news of her stroke and accompanying issues via Vampires.com since shortly after they began discussing her declining health.

A lot of people remember her fondly for her role as Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory. I was never a fan of that, and preferred her roles as Amy Jennings, Amy Collins (the parallel time version of Amy Jennings), and Nora Collins on the original Dark Shadows.

Freddie Jones has passed away as well, at the age of 91, following a short illness. May he rest in peace. I didn’t think I had heard of him before, until I started reading his IMDB filmography. He was in the Granada Sherlock Holmes series—in particular, the episodes of The Last Vampyre and Wisteria Lodge. He was in the film Young Sherlock Holmes, as Chester Craigwitch; he was Professor Julian Keeley in The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973); and he was Ynyr, The Old One, in Krull (1983).

I Hear Of Sherlock Everywhere remembers him here.

I also spotted that he was in three episodes of Mystery And Imagination back in the 60’s. Two of them have been lost to time; the third, Sweeney Todd, I have on my external hard drive thanks to

thisbluespirit. I had not yet gotten around to watching it, so I’ll be doing that later.

The Fire And Blood Of Memory Were Swiftly Stoked (11651 words) by calliopes_pen
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Dark Shadows (1966), Dracula - Bram Stoker
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jonathan Harker, Quentin Collins, Arthur Holmwood, John Seward
Additional Tags: Temporary Mental Collapse After Harrowing Events, Vampires, Supernatural Elements, Bonding Over Strange Lives
Summary: Shortly after Jonathan escaped from the castle, as his mind collapsed, he wandered into a bar and obtained assistance from a stranger in reaching the train station to Bucharest; years later, he meets the stranger again. Quentin Collins and Jonathan Harker exchange tales of the events that make up their strange lives.

Yesterday, the bill arrived for Comcast. We expected this month’s bill to still reflect things from before we cut out watching cable due to whatever reason, but no. It’s better than that. This month, we seem to owe nothing, and we have been credited $65. So…next month the bill should be $5 once that's subtracted, until this returns to the expected $70 in November, I suspect.

Odd, but nice for once.

Meanwhile, as I hunt for a new computer, I realized that just in case of any emergency that requires me to go—either due to being forced to travel out of state again, or not—it might be best to search for laptops. So I’ve been looking at the HP* Pavilion 17 inch sort, since that’s held up well for Dad. He hasn’t had any problems with his, since he got it in 2013.

And since I prefer Windows 7, I purchased an OEM for Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, which should arrive sometime next week. I’ll use it once I have an appropriate laptop actually in my possession. I have also done in depth research of the Intel CPU, which one would allow an installation of 7 over 10, and which ones wouldn’t. I think I’ve figured that one out. I have far too many links gathered for all the steps to everything, so that’s what I’ve been doing this week! I also gathered all relating links to drivers that still support Windows 7 in either the CPU of Intel or AMD.

I also asked questions at Reddit, Seven Forums, Tom’s Hardware Forum, and Bleeping Computers so that I would have everything straight. As a side note, from one of those I gained the alternative of the Acer Aspire desktop, should other ideas not work. So that’s why I’ve been a bit quiet—research!

And on a non computer note, The Collinsport Historical Society has their round-up of everywhere that Dark Shadows can be found this Halloween season. If only I had Decades and TCM, I would be so happy on October 28th.

*We have a local place that works on all things HP, so if anything happens, straight to the manufacturer it can go.

Crossposts: https://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/1021766.html

I am truly beyond thrilled with all that I received for

fandom_stocking this year.

To sum up, I received:

-Two beautiful banners/book covers from

lost_spook, for the Yuletide story I wrote for her, as well as two icons (and two others to share because they’re fantastic) for Dracula (1968). I’ll see if I can put the second banner in without wrecking anything on Ao3 once I figure out the coding and upload it elsewhere. I'm not sure about creating a third chapter over there just to show them off, but it's an option.

-17 Supergirl icons from

medie, and 2 Supergirl related icons from

tarlanx.
-3 Dark Shadows icons from

liadt.
-A great Methos centered Highlander drabble from

misbegotten.
-A book recommendation (which I’ll track down soon) from

john_amend_all.
-A massive helping of book recommendations from

rebecca_selene. I will be tracking down a large amount of them, if not all of them, in all likelihood.
-Links to Halloween focused stuff from

valarltd
-Happy New Year from

falcon_hours,

bererjs and

twinsarein.

I’m uploading as many icons as I can to Dreamwidth, and saving others so I can switch them out at another date if I want. To all that are on my circle/friends list and provided something, thank you again.

I’ll look through the collection further on Ao3 in a little while.

Crossposts: http://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/990388.html

Yuletide is coming earlier than expected this year. Nominations begin on September 9th; sign-ups begin on October 1st.

I’m currently watching numerous episodes of the original Dark Shadows, after stumbling across four DVD sets purchased in 2003, but never opened. I’m filling in the gaps by watching what has been uploaded to Youtube by various people. I rewatched all of the 1991 version for the Into A Bar story. (Which is sort of still in progress, but on hold for right now as I work on a bit of a plot issue.)

I know that I will definitely nominate Crimson Peak. The story I wrote last year was so much fun for me to write, even if it grew to almost impossible lengths and became rather dark. I will likely nominate Dark Shadows (1991), and hope that someone else nominates the 60’s version of the show.

My 'Read/Watch Before Yuletide' list is rather long, but here are the highlights.

✔Penny Dreadful (found the series on Putlocker)
-The Conjuring 2 (2016)
-Kolchak: The Night Stalker (the original series; I think I spotted it on Youtube)
-Insidious (2010) (all three movies)
✔The Skeleton Key (2005)
-Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter (1974)
✔The Innocents (1961)
✔Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (2010)
✔We Are Still Here (2015)
✔The Spiral Staircase (1945)
✔The Woman In Black (2012)
-Prince of Darkness (1987)
✔The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James
✔The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

(A checkmark is for my own sake, as I get through each on the list.)

Crossposts: http://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/977071.html

Well, that certainly took a dramatic turn. I was trying to write the Bar Ficathon story, and seem to have fallen over an actual plot, instead of just Edith and Victoria sitting in a bar talking about ghosts, with Alan wedged in there for his continued support. The Dark Shadows portion seems to be overwhelming the Crimson Peak part and traumatizing those characters, but that’s okay. They fit together nicely.

And there goes Angelique, still body hopping in 1991, seeking more vengeance and dropping revelations on people in an oddly disturbing moment for everyone that formed by accident. Alan and Edith just wanted a quiet night before they tried to get back to their own time. At least nobody will be falling off of Widows’ Hill? At least Edith doesn't have a Collins in her family tree?

Crossposts: http://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/974746.html

Humbert Allen Astredo passed away on February 19th, at the age of 86. May he rest in peace. To fans of the original version of Dark Shadows, he will be best remembered as Nicholas Blair. That warlock was one of my favorite characters on the show; Astredo also played Charles Dawson, as well as Evan Hanley during his time on the series. He appeared in House of Dark Shadows as Dr. Forbes.

Crossposts: http://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/973854.html

Abe Vigoda has passed away at the age of 94. He died in his sleep. May he rest in peace. I have never seen The Godfather due to a lack of interest, so I mainly know him from Barney Miller. I only got around to watching that show in the last year or so--it’s on Antenna TV and FamilyNet almost every day.

I didn’t realize it when I first watched the original 60’s Dark Shadows when it aired on The Sci-Fi Channel in the 90’s, but he also appeared (in two different roles) there, too: He was Ezra Braithwaite and Otis Greene.

Crossposts: http://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/973773.html

Yuletide fandom nominations are closing in less than 48 hours. For House of Dark Shadows (1970), I nominated Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, Barnabas Collins and Maggie Evans. Is there anyone in particular someone might want to see added into the fourth slot?

(Victoria Winters and Angelique are out, as neither appeared in the film.)

Crossposts: http://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/968054.html

Since I just opted to rewatch House of Dark Shadows (1970), I now have yet another possible fandom that I want to see get a Yuletide nomination. For someone that may not have the time to rewatch all the episodes from the original series, it’s a good alternative universe.

So now I’m torn between what won the poll—Suspiria—and House of Dark Shadows. Whichever I choose, the other will be nominated next year. Either way, it’s a horror related fandom that gets the slot, so there’s that.

Crossposts: http://calliopes-pen.livejournal.com/967713.html

Sam Hall has passed away at the age of 93. May he rest in peace. He was a writer for the original Dark Shadows, House of Dark Shadows, and Night of Dark Shadows, as well as the short-lived 1991 version of the series.