Das Ich and September Mourning

Posted by on Apr 20, 2009 in Dracula's Ball | 0 comments

Here’s the latest news from the Dracula’s Ball team… seems to just get better.  Wish I lived in the US sometimes!

Alan

To the fanged or the fang-friendly,

Our next Dracula’s Ball event will take place in just over 30 days on Saturday, May 23rd at Shampoo Nightclub, from 9pm-2am.  Our live performers for this event will be legendary German band Das Ich, and a promising new group from New York City called September Mourning.  Both of them are making their first appearances at the Ball.  DJs Spider from North Carolina and Addam Bomb from Massachusetts are paying us a return visit, and Ohio’s DJ Fallen will be making his Ball debut.  We’ll have three rooms open for your dancing pleasure, all night long (9pm-2am)

Tickets are $15 and are on sale now through IsoTank.com, Digital Ferret CDs, Ticketmaster retail outlets and Ticketmaster.com.  If you have questions about where or how to buy or pick up tickets, please visit the FAQ on our website.  In fact, visit the FAQ on our site anyway.

Our venue as once again our haunt of choice, Shampoo Nightclub, located at 7th & Willow Streets in Philadelphia, PA (Mapquest/Google Maps info can be found on our website).  As always, the Ball is open to all ages, but you must be 21+ with proper photo ID to drink.  There is a large, free, enclosed parking lot, but it fills up quick for the Ball. Personal photo cameras are welcome.  Large professional rigs with unpleasant flash bulbs are not.  Video cameras are not allowed.

Some more about our performers:

SEPTEMBER MOURNING:  If Emily “M” Lazar looks familiar to you, it’s probably because you’ve seen her in a magazine or on a billboard in ads for Draven, Manic Panic or Coffin Case, to name a few. If you’re expecting that her band does bland fashion-runway music, you’ve got quite a surprise coming. September Mourning is metal as hell, with a bit of electronics thrown in for good measure. Their demo was produced by guys who worked with Candiria and Lamb of God, just to give you an idea. They’re from New York City and this will be their first appearance at Dracula’s Ball.
STAGE TIME – 10:35PM
http://www.myspace.com/mlazar

DAS ICH: Getting respect for your studio recordings and getting respect for your live concerts are two different things. Das Ich has consistently had both. Celebrating their twentieth anniversary this year, Das Ich has performed their driving blend of industrial music and gothic themes in several dozen countries, many of which do not speak the band’s native language (German). A Das Ich show is no mere concert; it’s a performance. Expect to hear some of the band’s best-known club hits as well as some of their most recent material.
STAGE TIME – 12:05AM
http://www.myspace.com/dasich

MySpace has changed the way that their event invitation system works. If you’re one of our MySpace Friends (and if not, go fix that right away!) you’ll receive a MySpace invitation from us in the next few days.  With the new system, you can easily invite your friends to attend along with you.  We’re still learning this new system ourselves, but you can see the event page for our next Ball here:
http://ms.socialplan.com/Event/View/97402#

If you’re procrastinating about getting your tickets, here’s a good incentive to pick them up right now.  IsoTank is holding a special Spring Sale on the entire Dancing Ferret Discs / Noir Records catalogs. Most items are $5 off, some even more.  Albums by Corvus Corax, The Cruxshadows, Eisbrecher, Neuroticfish, Qntal and many others are heavily discounted ($8.99 is the average price per album).  Take advantage of the sale *now* (it only runs a few more days), and add your Drac’s Ball tickets to your order.

Finally, we’d like to ask you to visit our MySpace profile and take part in an important poll we’re conducting.  We are considering changing the timing of the Dracula’s Ball events starting in 2010 so that they will be more evenly spaced apart, and your input will help our decision making process.

We’ll see you next month!

Best wishes,
[Patrick] & DB Staff

==========================
Dracula’s Ball
Quarterly since May 1998

http://www.draculasball.com
http://www.myspace.com/draculasball
==========================
Dracula’s Ball
Quarterly since May 1998

http://www.draculasball.com
http://www.myspace.com/draculasball
~——–~

More information on Dracula’s Ball and what it’s all about, especially info for travellers, can be found at http://www.draculasball.com

Visit us on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/draculasball

Graveyard of the Dead

Posted by on Apr 14, 2009 in Horror Films | 1 comment
Graveyard of the Dead

Graveyard of the Dead

I’ve just been in touch with an upcoming film director from Spain called Vick Campbell (not a particularly Spanish name!) who is a director of horror films.

Vick was born in Barcelona SPAIN in 1980 and started filming in 1997 ( horror shorts, fantastic & gore).  In 2007 he  filmed his first feature GRAVEYARD OF THE DEAD aka El Monte de las Animas.  The film honours Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead series.  This film appeared on DVD in September of this year in Europe and USA & Canada.  His second film is “The Undertaker” aka El Sepulturero ( a history of the 1920 horror and fantastic film genre).  The film was completed in August 2009.  Next year he has plans to start two new films.  Busy guy!

His influences are Fulci, Corman, Schnaas, Jean Rollin…

Check out the Teaser of his first film: Tombs of the Blind Dead

Always happy to promote new talent in this genre.

Hmm… as I’m also a composer, I wonder whether he needs a soundtrack scoring.  Just a thought ;-)

Alan


Endeavour Wharf Cargo Shed

Posted by on Apr 5, 2009 in Whitby | 0 comments

This is going to be a long post and, I guess, of interest to all those folks who love Whitby and understand what a unique and precious town it is. If you have Whitby’s best interests at heart, read on…

I’ve just received an email from Nigel Ward, the chairman of WHITBY IN SHORTS INTERNATIONAL SHORT-FILM FESTIVAL.

Here’s what he had to say AND he’s asking for YOUR views and help:

Hi again,
I wonder if you could be persuaded to solicit your visitors (and friends) views on my Outline Proposal for the Endeavour Wharf Cargo Shed, which I submitted to Yorkshire Forward’s Andy Tordoff, Assistant Director Environment (Tourism and Rural Renaissance), in Whitby on Monday 23rd March.
Mr Tordoff has since emailed me to say that he finds merit in the proposal, and has asked for a week or two in which to convene a meeting of representatives from the relavent parties.
I attach a PDF of my Proposal for your information. I understand that the Whitby Gazette plans to publish a major story in next Tuesday’s edition, ahead of the Whitby Town Council Meeting. In the light of the recent dramatic increase in public criticism of SBC’s performance in Whitby, I anticipate that the Proposal is certain to ignite debate.
SBC’s Head of Technical Services, Mr John Riby, has made a ‘twin track’ recommendation to cabinet;
1) demolish the Cargo Shed, (thereby increasing the capacity of the Car Park – this, notwithstanding the go-        ahead for the Park & Ride, the specific purpose of which is to reduce the number of cars in the town             centre, income from which accrues to SBC.
2) whilst seeking avenues through which to impement the demolition, to simultaneously attempt to solicit         interest from commerce and industry to develop the site for private enterprise.
The new alternative presented in my Outline Proposal is to develop the Shed as a public amenity in the form of a cinema/theatre complex, with vocational-training facilities for Whitby’s youth – with emphasis on film, drama, the visual arts and the modern technologies that form an integral part of the media industries, as well as a large multi-purpose space to host indoor sports, live entertainment (a possible new venue for Musicport), plus studio facilities for visiting film and TV production companies, and an indoor local crafts-and-produce/Christmas market. The plan also includes a large balcony/viewing-platform to be built at the north end of the shed, overlooking the Grand Turk in the foreground, with the swing-bridge in the mid-ground, and the lower harbour and Abbey headland in the background. And a patio cafe at the south end to serve the Marina.
But the principal thrust of the Proposal is that the new facility should be under Whitby management, in the form of a charitable institution whose declared beneficiary is Whitby itself.
I would be pleased to hear your views, and those of the Whitby populace. I hope you will agree that by encouraging public awareness and debate we are inviting Whitby people to take a hand in the future development of our town.
Kind regards,
Nigel Ward
Chairman: ‘Wississiffi’
“WHITBY IN SHORTS” INTERNATIONAL SHORT-FILM FESTIVAL CIC (Reg.No.6845721)

So, there you have it.  Nigel’s proposal sounds great to me AND puts control firmly in the hands of Whitby folk with the benefits being ploughed back into Whitby.

Please let me know what you think so that I can get back in touch with Nigel and pass on your opinions.  This is a big issue for Whitby and I know that there are many readers of this blog scattered across the globe who passionately care about this area of the world.

Please let me know what you think by visiting the contact page and getting in touch.

Thanks for your help!

Alan