The year is quickly winding down. Somehow Halloween is over and today is Thanksgiving. Both of these holidays just make me think of Roseanne. Most things I can somehow relate to some TV program! Roseanne is known for some fantastic Halloween episodes but they also have their share of great Thanksgiving episodes. I got to watch two of them last night before I dozed off to sleep on Thanksgiving eve. They showed the episode with the brilliant Shelley Winters as Roseanne's Grandmother. Her character pretends to be senile but everyone is on the joke except for her daughter, played by Estelle Parsons. Darlene gets out of coming home by pretending to have to go visit her boyfriend David, even though she is secretly already living with him. Jackie is about to have her baby and her mom is playing tricks on her by pretending to dislike the father of her baby so she might decide to date him. Dan is mad at Becky's boyfriend Mark for marrying his daughter when she was so young. We also find out a secret in this episode -- that Roseanne's mom got pregnant before she was married. Roseanne was one of those shows with an amazing supporting cast. I can't get through the holidays without my Roseanne. I really thought they would give us a Roseanne DVD box set by now but looks like I have to wait another year. We did get the Golden Girls box set this year, so I shouldn't complain. I still haven't decided if I need a replica of Sophia's purse in my DVD collection...but it might be too hard to resist! Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! Hopefully your families are as hilarious and welcoming as the cast of Roseanne and The Golden Girls. But if not, you always have TV to escape into.

I have had a long love affair with zombies. Since I can remember I have always been obsessed with them. There is just something about the undead! I have been a long time horror fan and zombie movies have always been my favorite within that genre. They are a bit scary but I always thought they were a bit hilarious as well. The original Dawn of the Dead by George Romero was released in 1978. The movie is nothing short of brilliant. It combines my two favorite things...shopping malls and zombies! It remains my favorite of all time. There were many great zombie movies throughout the 70s and 80s but I had pretty much given up on the zombie movie in recent years... That is, until Edgar Wright came around and released the brilliant Shaun of the Dead in 2004! This was my first introduction to Edgar Wright but he had already created the amazing British TV series Spaced. I highly recommend that you check out this DVD -- it is really some amazing stuff -- but Shaun of the Dead is really Edgar's masterpiece. I still don't think I have met anyone who doesn't love this movie. I just don't know how you can't. Comedy zombie films don't always work but Edgar Wright just got it perfect. I really can't ever get enough of this movie and I usually laugh throughout the whole thing! The movie stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. This was also my first introduction to them as well. Edgar's take on the buddy cop film came out a couple of years later in 2007. Hot Fuzz was highly anticipated for me. I couldn't wait to see what Edgar would come up with next. It was amazing, just as I had hoped. You can read my review of the Hot Fuzz DVD from a couple of years ago right here.

Both Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead are also now available on Blu-ray. I am huge fan of the director's and actors' commentaries. It was one of my favorite things about DVDs when they first started adding them to the releases, although some are, of course, better than others. Shaun of the Dead has an amazing commentary from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg together. I could really listen to this without even watching the movie! You will learn a lot about this movie but mostly you'll just laugh along with them as they laugh at each other. The Hot Fuzz ultimate edition Blu-ray actually comes with 5 commentaries! Both these movies are two of my favorites of the decade. I just can't express my love of Edgar Wright enough! I love horror movies and the buddy cop action movies of the 80s and Edgar Wright somehow managed to reinvent both of these genres and make them his own. He ended up creating two of the most hilarious dark sort of comedies of the decade. I really was not sure what Edgar could have done next to impress me. I was waiting in anticipation for his next move for what seemed like forever...

Until, of course, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World. This movie is Edgar Wright's take on the super hero / comic book / video game / fantasy film. It is a movie about a nerdy guy who must destroy his new girlfriend's seven evil exes. The movie is cast perfectly. It stars Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the happy couple. The evil exes are played by Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzmen, Mae Whitman, Brandon Routh, Satya Bhabha, and Keita & Shota Saito. Kieran Culkin plays Scott's cool gay roommate Wallace. Anna Kendrick is Scott's sister. Johnny Simmons plays his band mate, Young Neil, and Mark Webber plays his other bandmate, Stephen Stills. Finally, the brilliant Aubrey Plaza plays Julie Powers, Stephen Stills' ex-girlfriend. I fell in love with this movie right away. There had been attempts at video game type movies before but nothing like this. The movie is full of pop culture and video game references. It also has one of the best portrayals of a gay character that I have ever seen. Kieran's version of Wallace is probably one of the most normal characters in the movie. The gay character doesn't always have to be the silly or tragic character in the film! They can also be the sort of normal, down to earth character as well.

My first introduction to Roxy Music was Avalon, their last album as group from 1982. The title track, "Avalon," was actually played on adult contemporary stations, so I probably first heard it in my mom's car while she was dropping me off somewhere. Some of my favorites bands were near the end or their musical careers when I first heard them. It all just depends what age you are when you first hear a band. You can't help what year you are born and many of us end up liking music from past musical decades. Much of my favorite music comes from the 80's and early 90's but there is a good amount of music that I like that was being made when I was 3 years old back in the 70s too. I imagine it must be a little weird for somebody who is now 20 to only like 70s or 80s music -- music that was made well before they were born. A 20 year old could have been born in 1990! But I guess this is not any different than someone in the 80s being only into early soul music, or the millions of people who only listen to jazz or classical music made decades before they were born. By the time Roxy Music put out Avalon, I am sure they had lost many of their fans, or at least the fans of their earlier albums were not exactly jumping up for joy for the band's new softer, more adult contemporary sound. But I was not among them -- I loved Avalon. I loved the album cover. I loved the songs. When I was younger I was really drawn to album covers. They were much more important back then. It was often what first made me pick up certain albums. A really good album cover was really all that I needed to convince me to pick up an album. I probably didn't first pick up this album until the late 80's. The cover reminded me of some of my favorite movies at the time like Clash of the Titans or Ladyhawke. I was intrigued. Years later I would go back and discover the genius of early Roxy Music. The self titled album from 1972 and For Your Pleasure from 1973 are two of my favorites, and "Love is the Drug" from the 1975 album Siren remains one of my favorite songs of all time.

Bryan Ferry would go on to a very long solo career after Avalon and I have been obsessed with him ever since. Boys and Girls and Bete Noire are two of my favorite albums of the 80's. Brian Eno, on the other hand, worked on the first couple of Roxy Music albums but he has had an amazingly long career as a solo artist as well. Bryan Ferry has just released a new solo album called Olympia. This was initially going to be a new Roxy Music album and it really still sort of is one, even if it is credited just to Bryan Ferry. Former Roxy Music members Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera, and Andy Mackay are all featured on the new album. It features "You Can Dance," which I think is one of the best Bryan Ferry songs in a while. I actually heard it on the radio for the first time. I thought it was kind of appropriate since this is how I first discovered Roxy Music so many years ago. I am always excited to have Bryan Ferry back in my life. The man has an awesome voice and I can never get enough of him. He is one of those singers that I think can appeal to a teen into new wave music and a suburban housewife into Michael Bolton. There is really nobody like him and there is never any mistaking a Bryan Ferry song!

I love this time of year more than anything! I love everything about this Halloween month. I love the pumpkins and the costumes and the traditions. I love how Halloween seems to take over the month of October. But most all, I love all the horror movies! Every year I looked forward to the Halloween specials on TV. The horror movie marathons. The late Elvira movie nights. The midnight screening at the movie theaters. The horror movie remakes that are sometimes not as horrible as you would expect. The newest Saw movie! I also love the special Halloween episodes of my favorite sitcoms. Roseanne did a Halloween episode every year. Roseanne is now long gone but you can still catch it all the time in repeats on TV or you can get all the Halloween episodes together on one DVD. This is one of the many things that I watch every October. I also watch all the old Elvira Movie Macabre movies that were put out on DVD. Now Elvira is back with her show on TV! She looks exactly the same and she is just as funny as ever. Her show is on at midnight on Saturdays. And she was also nice enough to film a little episode of What's In My Bag. It just got put up on the website...so check it out here. I love Elvira and love just hearing that theme music! I remember watching Elvira as a kid late at night. I just thought she was the coolest thing. She for sure was instrumental in my love of horror movies....

October is always one of my favorite months. I love when summer starts to go away and it starts to get cold again. We have been having some October rain out here in Los Angeles that has been fabulous! This also means that Halloween is right around the corner! Many labels save their big releases for the end of the year, which also makes this time of year exciting for those of us that love music. October 12th is a big release day -- three of my favorite artists have releases on this date! It's almost too much to handle! Sufjan Stevens, Belle & Sebastian, & Antony & the Johnsons all have new albums -- all in one day! I have been patiently waiting for Sufjan to continue his series on all the 50 States. He gave us the brilliant Illinois and Michigan and then nothing else. I am of course wanting California and New York, but also all the States in between. I am hoping that he has actually been working on them in secret. He just continues to release these other albums to distract us, right? But then in a couple of years he will release a comprehensive 50 state box set. It will have an album for each state and also contain 2 7"s for the commonwealths and it will come with a puzzle. I could even be satisfied with an album of 150 songs with 3 songs for each state -- just give me something, Sufjan! A 7" for each state would also be amazing! His new album is called Age of Adz. I sort of had a strange reaction to it at first. It incorporates some electronics and at times sounds like a Lil Jon album...but it is still Sufjan, and I still love it. I just takes a couple of listens.

Belle & Sebastian's new album Write About Love also took a couple of listens to fall in love with. I was sort of still on my Belle & Sebastian high from seeing them in Vegas. And I do love the contest they ran to get fans to write about love. There are some great songs on Write About Love for sure but I really could have lived without the Norah Jones duet. I know this band is both easy to love and hate. Some people are very proud of their hatred of the band. I am one of the lovers of the band and I always will feel the same.