Every so often, little bits of synchronicity happen around Afterhell. One such happened yesterday, when we made the big announcement about “Bloodbath at the Giallo Hotel” going out on our podcast feed.

The Ask Yahoo! question for the day was “Who invented zombies?”

We certainly can’t claim to have invented them, but we hope you enjoy what we’re doing with ’em, anyway.

In case you haven’t already, you can check it out here (if you have iTunes) or here (the direct RSS link).

New installments to come through the summer!

Born defeated, died in vain
Super-destructive, you were hooked on pain
And though your music lingers on
All of us are glad you’re gone
If I could live my life half as worthlessly as you
I’m convinced that I’d wind up burning too

Paul Williams
“The Hell of It”
The Phantom of the Paradise

Maybe it’s a tenuous horror/dark fantasy connection.  A tie to Cinco De Mayo is just plain weak.

Know whut?  We’re posting it anyway.

Mexican Wrestler Goes to the Mat for Endangered Sea Turtles

Hijo del Santo!  I-am-glad-you’re-here!

Oh bite me, it’s fun.

Another good news/bad news posting.  Our podcast feed is back online.

But while we were fixing that, there is one less person working in the lab.  Bobby “Boris” Pickett died yesterday.  Long live Boris and “The Monster Mash.” 

My first memory of “The Monster Mash” might make you laugh.  And maybe it should.  I was about five or six years old.   One Saturday morning, the day’s joyful shockwave of cartoons had played out.  I was basically flipping channels and landed on KNTV-11, one of the local stations in San Jose.  The screen was dark.  A single beige rectangle framed an antique gramaphone.  Then a guy in a gorilla suit stepped into view.  A sensitive and sheltered child, I feared for that gramaphone’s safety.  But the gorilla put the needle down on the record.  And to my innocent horror, the gorilla started dancing to “The Monster Mash.” 

It was the opening for a monster movie show.  I don’t remember what it was called.  It scared the bejeezus outta five-year-old me.  And it just seems funny now.

When Halloween comes around, raise a glass to Boris and tell ’em Gorey sent you.

We have a good news/bad news entry this time.   The good news:  We have a one-minute promo for Volume 3.

The bad news:  We’re experiencing technical difficulties.  The Afterhell website is still live, but our updated pages and links including the podcast feed aren’t behaving.

But while we’re banging on that problem, you can still hear the promo.  You can go to our MySpace page, click on the promo, and listen to the stream.  (Come to think, did we ever mention our MySpace page?  I mean, if you’re reading this on MySpace, mentioning it there would’ve been pointless, wouldn’t it?  But if you’re reading this from our website or the LiveJournal feed….  Okay, I’m confused and tired and my wrist is still smarting from that lame-a$$ spill I took days ago…  Come to think, did I ever mention that?  I’m not pain-killers, I swear.  Wait, where was I? )

If streaming on MySpace doesn’t work for you, we have a very enthustiastic friend coming to everyone’s aid.  Dani Cutler, she of the Truth Seekers, has a copy for download on the SFF Audio website and her own Sonic Society fansite.

Meanwhile, technical difficulties to fix.  Off we go.

So, um… beeeeeeeep.

Here’s a little synchronicity, in light of what we’re working on now.  Amidst all the mobsters and walking dead, we have a couple of washed-up rockers made an appearance in Volume 3.

So imagine my dark bemusement when I saw this:

Keith Richards Snorted Father’s Ashes

Here’s something you haven’t heard in a while:

Principal recording on the next Afterhell is complete.

The story is “Bloodbath at the Giallo Hotel,” written by DJ Chiles and Joe Medina (yup, dat’s me, dat’s me).  It’s twice as long as the average episode, so it’s going to comprise all of Volume 3.  But before the CD release, we’re going to podcast it. 

People keep bugging us about podcasting.  We keep meaning to do more of it.  Some have gone as far as saying that any hope of success — nay, the very fate of the cosmos — depends on it.  Well, if a podcast is all it takes…  And hey, it’s a lot less complicated than all those blood sacrifices my ancestors used to make… mostly.

Anyway, a download-friendly mixdown of “Giallo Hotel” will be sliced into ten parts and podcast for free.   Look for it in a few months.  That might seem like a long wait, but we’re juggling a few other things at the same time… including Volume 4.

It’s only going to get darker.

While ago I got to read a script for the upcoming volume 3 (awesome), and got to work on tossing around ideas on the look for the next CD’s art. I love playing around with reality gone askew, and this one’s working up to be a real laugh! If you enjoy seeing this peek, I’ll be sure to post more work as I can.

A quick rearing of the head. We’re not dead, just feeling halfway there.

I wanted to thank Dani Cutler for her kind words on the last entry. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but yeah.  We felt sucker-punched.

I exchanged a few e-mails off and on with a production assistant on the radio show in question. While she was sympathetic and actually rather nice, all things considered, she didn’t explain until much later, several days after the hatchet job on us was already done, the real point of their Podcast of the Week segment:

“I hope it will make you feel better to know that it is just the style of the programme, and that a lot of people actually have the piss taken out of them!”

A line from the film All The President’s Men seems appropriate:  “In my day, we used to call it a double-cross.”

Anyway, apologies to everyone who’s tried to stay in touch with us.  The last month or so has been rough going.  We’re juggling several different things at once, trying to keep all those plates a-spinning.  We had a recording session for the next episode a few weeks ago.  This weekend is the next one.

So yeah, we’re still at it.  We just smolder a bit more.

Well, the “Saturday Live” folks had us on, all right. 

Wow…so that’s what fondue forks feel like.

A forty-second clip, taken out of context.  And boy, did they have a laugh at our expense.

Well, I walked right into that propellor, didn’t I? 

Anyway, I’ll keep my personal copy…a little reminder to watch my nose.

Very little.