NIGHT FLIGHTS & FLASHES OF HONEY

That sounds dirty, doesn't it?

First off, I want to tell y'all about yet another piece of flash fiction I've posted, over at DZ Allen's "Muzzle Flash," a new pulp/ noir flash fiction page. My entry's entitled "Honey," and in keeping in the "pulp" spirit, it's a nasty piece of work. (As much violence as I could pack in 300 words or so.) It's also a stab at a "juxtaposition of horror and beauty," which is the best description I've heard of David Lynch's unique appeal. Not that this piece is particularly Lynchian (Lynchesque?) As always, I'd love for everybody to check it out and post all kinds of flattering comments.

I still haven't heard back from "Strange Horizons" about my sci-fi story, which is causing some anxiety. Their submissions page said they usually respond one way or the other after an average of 30 days. It has been 32. Not that I'm counting. Rejection I can handle, it's waiting for it that drives me crazy. Still, I persist in having high hopes. My first "real" publication would be one sweet Christmas present, let me tell you.

I had attempted to post an entry here a few days ago; a long, rambling history of the evolution of my filmgoing tastes. I started with seeing "King Kong" on TV when I was 4 or 5, and went all the way through my adolescence. Fortunately or un-, Blogger chose to swallow everything I had written. (It was probably my fault- I have a tendency to click when I oughtta clack.) I didn't have the heart to recreate the whole thing (sparing you the task of reading it,) but writing all that out did bring up one memory I would like to share.

There was a brief period back in the 1980's, after the advent of 24-hour cable channels, but before late night TV was completely overrun with infomercials. It was actually possible to see interesting things on TV late at night. I know, it's hard to believe now, but trust me on this one. I was a teenage insomniac with no social life, so I was in the right place at the right time to bear witness to this anomoly.

I had two favorites. The first was Cinemax's "Friday After Dark" offerings, which included such classics as "Young Lady Chatterly" and the "Emmanuelle" series. I won't go into any further detail except to say I always watched them with the sound turned WAAAY down.

My other favorite was the USA Network's Friday and Saturday overnight programming block, which they called "Night Flight." "Night Flight" showed all kinds of crazy stuff. Music videos, short films, full-length movies; all of it culty or fringy in nature. I've read fond internet reminiscences of people who recall coming home stoned from parties and stumbling upon some bizarre thing which fit very well in that frame of mind. I didn't do drugs back then (or go to parties for that matter,) but some of the "Night Flight" stuff could produce a contact high all by itself. Old silent movies dubbed over with Pink Floyd music. Black and white Looney Tunes and Betty Boop cartoons, including one where Porky Pig bashes his thumb with a hammer and actually says "son of a bitch." (I swear.) Many other truly strange and beautiful things.

But what influenced me most was an hour-long special on cult movies aired on "Night Flight," circa 1984. Prior to seeing this, I didn't even know most of these movies existed. They showed clips from: "Rocky Horror Picture Show," "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," John Water's "Poleyester," "Repo Man," ("the more you drive, the less intelligent you are,") "Forbidden Zone," (featuring Herve' [da plane] Villechaize as 'the horny midget king of the 6th dimension,') "Liquid Sky," (easily the best nihilistic no-wave aliens-seeking-heroin sci-fi movie of all time,) Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," "Reefer Madness," Jim Jarmusch's "Stranger Than Paradise," the films of Paul Bartel and Firesign Theater, "I Was a Zombie for the FBI," and many others.

Most significantly, this program introduced me to David Lynch's "Eraserhead," showing the nightmare comedy scene where the miniature chickens start oozing blood. The tagline, "If any movie can cause permanent brain damage, that movie would be Eraserhead," was irresistable to me.

I taped the special (on the family's trusty Sony Betamax, of course,) and watched it obsessively. Over the next few years, I made it my mission to watch every movie featured on the special. Some of them were hard to track down, but I eventually saw them all. I still have an affinity for bizarre cinema, and this is where it came from. One hour of television over twenty years ago impacted my filmgoing habits more than any other single influence. (Possible runner-up would be Fangoria magazine.)

After blogger ate my original post where I talked about not only "Night Flight," but every other influence, I told Lea about "Night Flight." God bless this woman. She immediately hopped on e-Bay, typed in "Night Flight," and found someone selling 12 hours of the show, transferred from old tapes onto DVD. (You really CAN find anything on e-Bay.) She won the bid, and that's going to be one of my Christmas presents. I love Love LOVE my wife.
Now if I can just get her to buy me "Young Lady Chatterly."