calliopes_pen

Alex Karras has passed away, at the age of 77. He had been dealing with a variety of health problems, including dementia, cancer, and kidney failure. May he rest in peace. I may have been one of the few to never watch Webster—instead, I remember him from an episode of Faerie Tale Theater.

Inspirational links for the Spook Me ficathon.

31 Days of Horror: Psycho/Freaks.

Vampires 101: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Carnivàle Creator Dan Knaufto Head Up NBC’s Dracula

TV Tango updates Halloween On TV: 262 Halloween-Themed Movie Marathons, Episodes And Specials.

Shock Till You Drop’s 10 New Halloween Classics To Check Out This Season.

Official Synopsis For Grimm’s Halloween Episode.

Rare Halloween Videos: 1987 Werewolf- All Hallow’s Eve.

The obscure 1980s horror film that Joss Whedon wants you to watch.

Show Your Best Imaginary Selves In io9’s Annual Halloween Costume Show.

Catwoman Then And Now: How Much Has Changed?

DC Histories: The Joker.

P:R Approved: Chito Arellano’s Batman Beyond.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 Trailer.

Interview: Scott Snyder On The Return Of The Joker In Batman #13.

A Fossilized Scene of a Spider Attacking A Wasp, Preserved For 110 Million Years.

Little Shop of Horrors’ original ending is unearthed.

Grace Randolph’s Stacktastic: The Jean Grey Non-Tribute.

Marvel’s Bottom Line.

2012 Top 100 Comic Book Runs #100-91.

Stan Lee’s Rants: Birthdays.

Cocktails With Stan Lee: Seth Green, Extended Cut.

Stan Lee Media sues Disney for Marvel characters.

Release Date And Story Revealed For Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean At The End Of The Lane.

Scott Allie Promoted To Editor-In-Chief At Dark Horse.

Abandoned concept art for Jurassic Park 4.

Science Just Killed Any Hope You Ever Had Of Jurassic Park Being Real.

New Zealand is now minting Lord of the Rings money.

You can watch both the Evil Dead and Carrie panels from New York Comic Con live via streaming, courtesy of Bloody Disgusting on the 13th.

From Cracked: 8 Movies Made Possible By Incompetent Background Characters.

Trailers From Hell: Dan Ireland on The Dead.

My Little Pony Jason Voorhees.

From Think Geek: Chocolate Gaming Dice Set.

Watch Jimmy Kimmel pitch Joe Quesada new heroes and villains.

Amazing Predator Pumpkin.

Dr. Horrible TV ratings kinda horrible. Whedonesque discusses it here.

Psych Season 7 Premiere Date Revealed.

Fourth Doctor Robe.

Ten Things To Look For At New York Comic Con.

There’s a new Hello Kitty sofa. It costs over $2,000.

Bizarro Back Issues: The Strange Amnesia of President Superman (1969).

DC Announces New Action Comics Creative Team.

Earth Station One Podcast, Episode 131: Hammer Horror Films.

Horror Etc Podcast, Episode 269.

Now Playing Podcast: Never Say Never Again (1983)

Forgotten Flix Podcast #82: Pumpkinhead (1988)

Department of Justice Seizes Domains Over App Piracy For The First Time Ever.

This Is The First Website Ever—Rebooted.

How It Should Have Ended: The Dark Knight Rises.

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1996 would include Dana Scully and Zack Morris. I desperately want this come Yuletide—or fanfic involving the cast seen in the posters behind them. Since that one would be Egon, Max Headroom, Jem, Connor Macleod, Teen Wolf, someone from Tron, Carmen Sandiego, KITT, and a few others I cannot identify. (Hey, someone wrote this for me one year, I’d love to see either of these, too.) So I may just end up nominating both, if I’m able and don’t have any other prompts. If it weren’t 1996 and therefore pre-season 1, I would agree with the comments to add Willow or Buffy.

Kerrith Johnson’s Superhero Series

Nintendo Power magazine to cease publication.

Catching Up With Armin Shimmerman and Kitty Swink.

The blooper reel for season 3 of The Vampire Diaries.

New VOD Title From Rifftrax: The Revenge of Doctor X.

Reach Out To The Doctor Who-Deprived

Big Finish: October Releases.

Michael Strahan will be Kelly Ripa’s new co-host. My first choice would have been Nick Lache, but he’s done well, too, from what I’ve seen of him.

Who do you think should direct the Justice League of America movie?

Kat Dennings returns for Thor: The Dark World.

Huntress joins Arrow—she will be played by Jessica De Gouw.

Your Daily Dose of Nightmare Fuel: A Newly Discovered Type of Cave Spider—With Claws.

9 Wonder Woman Villains (That Explain Why Nobody Talks About Wonder Woman’s Villains)

The Evil Dead Remake Is At Least An R.

An interview with Sam Raimi.

An interview with Neal Stephenson

10 things to love about Jaws: The Revenge.

China Miéville: the future of the novel.

Spider-Man has spun his web for 50 years.

Toronto Batman does not like the Hyundai. He interrupted a filming of an actual commercial, and they just rolled with it wonderfully.

9 Toylines From The 80’s Based On Unusual Gimmicks.

‘Lost’ Jack Kirby comic unearthed…in France.

Plush Hobbit Slippers.

Avengers vs. X-Men Hardcover Trailer.

25 Minutes of Avengers Extras.

Val Staples explains life as a freelance colorist.

Robot and Frank: Science Fiction at its Absolute Best.

Once Upon A Time Season 2 Promotional Posters.

Sam Claflin joins The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Joss Whedon discusses The Avengers, Its Sequel, Marvel on TV, and more.

Cookie Monster Slayer Cosplayer.

Rocketeer Cover By Alex Ross.

Now Playing Podcast: You Only Live Twice (1967)

Comic Issues Podcast #80: Marvel then and Now.

Here’s a round-up of Jonathan Frid focused items: Fangoria has a lovely write-up of his life. Big Finish offers their condolences. Johnny Depp says he was “elegant and magical.” A beautiful, classy open letter of love from David Selby. Lara Parker shares her memories of the man in her blog. Found this out via this ShadowGram post: Donations may be made in Jonathan Frid’s memory to “Hillfield-Strathall College, the school where he got his first taste of acting.”

And a couple more clips: Quentin helps Barnabas escape from Edward. Barnabas, back when he was trying to drive Julia insane (ignore the annotations, funny though they are).

FBI seizes server providing anonymous remailer service.

Dimestore Dames spotlights Jane Foster.

Bryan Fuller Says Hannibal Is Planned For Seven Seasons.

The Weekly Geek: Xena Was Real. Or, at least, female gladiators were.

An upcoming Batgirl bust.

The teaser for Beware The Batman.

The Batman Musical Is Here.

Centaur Anatomy Revealed: Two Hearts, Six Limbs, One Brain.

Dawson And Rourke In For Sin City 2.

How The Hunger Games Should Have Ended.

Theatre Converted To A Bookstore. Impressive.

Baltimore will host the next North American Discworld Convention in 2013.

Doctor Who: a celebration of the Cybermen.

Bram Stoker Centenary: Grimwood On Dracula.

Avengers Additional Shooting: Not A New Scene, But “One Little Change.”

Lionsgate Offers Catching Fire Directing Duties To Francis Lawrence.

Read an excerpt from Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron, by Kim Newman.

Worst Heroic Lead Characters.

Japanese Brave Poster Contains New Story Elements.

53 Reasons Why We Need A New Star Trek TV Series.

Luca Pizzai’s redesign of Banshee, Siryn, and Black Tom.

5 Reasons MST3K’s Joel Is Better Than Mike…and 5 Reasons Mike Is Better Than Joel.

This photo of a spider eating a 1.5 foot long snake will burn into your brain. Those with arachnophobia, steer clear.

Frank Miller’s 1994 speech on Jack Kirby and creators’ rights.

Incept yourself with lucid dreaming goggles.

Should you check your e-mail?

Calvin McFly and Doc Hobbes.

Marvel’s Avengers Come To Life At New Madame Tussauds New York Exhibit.

14 Freaky Sci-Fi And Fantasy Prisons.

Community: Subverting The Genre.

Lego Catwoman And Lego Wonder Woman.

Spock Through Time.

Lost In Space Robot Cake.

I found an impressively large spider in the bathroom before I went to bed day before yesterday. Years ago, there was a giant spider in the shower curtain (while I was in the shower that time, it slowly revealed itself) that got away, and never returned. This looks like a vaguely smaller (but well fed—this one was fat) relative of that. When I saw it it was spread eagle, all legs out. Yes, I fled. When Dad got in there seconds later, it was scrunched up preparing to flee--he thought for a moment it might jump, but it didn't. Took a minute and a half to properly kill it by beating it down, before it was thrown in the toilet and flushed when it twitched and tried to crawl again. We cleaned up the legs littered around the bathtub at that point.

We’re now trying to figure out what the type of spider was. Thanks to this site having an identification section, there is a chance it was Loxoscelidae. That’s the brown recluse family, but it was too big for a brown recluse, and was black instead of brown or tan. Size of a half dollar—not the body, just when the legs aren’t completely spread. Body size of a dime. Solid black, no identifying marks. The legs were hairy, and thick—I don’t know how many eyes it had. Does anyone on my friends list know what type that could be?

The good news is that Dad had taken a shower approximately 20 minutes prior to me finding it, so the tub was just slick enough with a few droplets that the thing couldn't escape faster. The bad news is Dad was probably showering with it, and didn't realize it. Now he understands my horror.

I have my suspicions that it came indoors because of all the flooding, but there's no way to be certain if it was that, or if Dad vacuuming prior to the guy from Comcast showing up just disturbed it.