Guilty Pleasure 3: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (novels)

Vampires, ultraviolence and explicit sex.  Yup.  Sounds like a Guilty Pleasure to me. 

I picked up Laurell K. Hamilton’s “The Laughing Corpse” almost by accident at the local library.  I quickly followed that up with “Lunatic Cafe,” “Circus of the Damned,” and “The Killing Dance.”  And more followed.  Maybe when I have the chance to look at them again, I’ll actually read them in order.

The Blake series follows an “Animator” — that is, somebody who riases people from the dead for the purposes of gaining information, who moonlights as a vampire hunter.  I don’t know if Ms. Hamilton realizes she’s writing for post-adolescent boys in 30-year-old bodies, or if she honestly believes she’s writing for women — but it is just a damn cool series.

Speaking of Guilty Pleasures, that is also the name of Hamilton’s Anita Blake comic series, published by Marvel.  I also didn’t know this existed until today.  Frick.  ‘Cuz I have all kinds of disposable income. 

Guilty Pleasure, number 2: Zombie fiction

I’ve considered my reasoning for enjoying zombie fiction from every angle.  The truth is, I’m not that big a fan of gore.  There are plenty of gory movies I enjoy — but I don’t watch them for it.  In fact, I’ve often thought I’d have enjoyed George Romero’s “Day of the Dead” a little more had it been less gory.  Strange, considering the subject matter.  So, what, ultimately, is it about zombie movies (and books) that I find so fascinating?

Well, if I’m going to continue my self-psychoanalysis, I suppose I ought to also reveal that I don’t like movies or literature all that much in which the walking dead in question actually talk.  To some extent, I guess, this spoils the concept for me.  I think what it is, is that I find the concept of a soulless human interesting.  I believe in the human soul.  I think it’s part of what makes us who we are.  In fact, I believe it is who we are.  Without it?  Animals, giving in only to instinct.  Hence, the zombie.

 Plus, I just love the hell out of camp horror.

All that said, I am, as you can imagine, waiting with much anticipation the release of the latest Romero film, “Diary of the Dead.”  I still, oddly, haven’t seen “Land of the Dead…” maybe I can make it a twofer.

Guilty Pleasure I: Total Eclipse of the Heart

You may not expect a large, straight guy with a beard to admit this, but I love Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart.  I think it’s just a great song, amazingly well-done.  First of all, I love Tyler’s voice, for the same reason I like good hardcore, emo, screamo, punk, etc.  I just really enjoy raw vocals.  From a critic’s perspective, I’d say this has to do with the passion reflected in the voice.  Whatever.  I just really like it.  On top of Tyler’s enjoyable performance, though, you have the video.  If you haven’t seen this video, watch it.  It’s like a Meatloaf video, only (somehow) more surreal, and with flying choirboys with glowing eyes.  And dancing ninjas.  Really.  Ninjas.  Dancing.

 You have to be a special kind of cool to have dancing ninjas.

 By the way, Guilty pleasure 1(a): the Dan Band cover.  First off, in spite of the random obscenity, it actually is a pretty well-done cover.  But mostly, I don’t know why but there’s just something really very amusing (on an I-wish-I-was-still-13 kind of level) about semi-random and totally inappropriate swearing (and yes… that’s as opposed to “appropriate swearing”).