I love metal and I love the holidays. Put them both together, and I am in all my glory.

And glory be, because Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford has just released a holiday album with his solo project Halford!

Halford III: Winter Songs is a collection of classic holiday songs given a heavy metal arrangement, like on “Oh Holy Night” and “What Child Is This?”, along with new holiday songs written and arranged by Halford (”Get Into the Spirit”).

Seriously, do I need to explain any further why this album is a must-have? I didn’t think so.

I’d say this is going on my Christmas wish list, but I can’t wait that long. I’m buy it right this minute on MP3 [...]

We’ve all seen it before, whether it be on purpose or while flipping thorough channels: a daytime TV show has a holiday special where they present fun and helpful tips on decorative ideas, crafty party/hosting tricks, and unique food and snack recipes.

The Today Show held one of these special shows recently (which you can see much more of in our recent post) for Halloween, and they went all out, complete with a full Star Wars theme. Hosts Al Roker and Ann Curry dressed up as Han Solo and Darth Vader, and they even brought in a couple of little Ewoks to set the perfect mood! Unfortunately, this backfired on them a little; it didn’t take long before the Ewoks took over the show. It starts off light with a little playful talking, food throwing, and stealing the Halloween cocktails, but the more reactions they got, the more they feed off of it, and that prompts them to start dancing and moonwalking, fighting each other, and humping Mr. Roker’s leg. Yes, you read that right: an Ewok humps Al Roker’s leg. [...]

On The Today Show this morning, New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza outside of NBC Studios was transformed into a Star Wars spectacular for the show’s annual “Halloween on the Plaza” holiday broadcast.

The cast of the morning show donned costumes from the Star Wars saga with Kathie Lee Gifford as C-3PO, Natalie Morales as Queen Padme Amidala, Hoda Kotb as Yoda, Ann Curry as Darth Vader, Meredith Vieira as Princess Leia, Matt Lauer as Luke Skywalker, and Al Roker as Han Solo. Star Wars creator George Lucas and his people at Lucasfilm provided real props from the films, including an X-Wing fighter and the Emperor’s chair.

We also found out that Friend of Doom Lou Platania, a member of the 501st Legion, was one of the Stormtroopers on the elaborate Today Show set and that he was the trooper next to the X-Wing in the first video embedded here below. (Go Lou!)

Check out more video from the show here below, including a behind-the-scenes look at the planning and prepping for this special Star Wars-themed episode [...]

What happens when the most powerful man on the planet in President of the United States, Barack Obama, meets the most “explosive” director in cinematic history, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen director Michael Bay? Does the universe implode? Does God shoot off some fireworks synchronized to an Aerosmith soundtrack to set the mood? Maybe we just get an innocent and amusing little story and quote.

While at a press conference recently, Bay was asked about why he chose to use President Obama’s name in his Transformers sequel instead of a fictional presidential figure. Bay went on to tell the story of his meeting Obama in an airport in Vegas right after the start of his presidential campaign. The entertaining part of the story comes when Obama found out Bay was a director and which movies he had made, he humorously corrected him by saying “So you’re a big-ass director,” to which Bay surely takes pride in.

Obviously this is more just a fun little tid-bit and not that important. But while the story is entertaining, the original question is a bit odd. [...]

Disney has put together a fairly interesting little promotional venture which will involve a train making its rounds on a United States tour for the upcoming motion-capture rendition of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, which stars Jim Carrey in many of the roles.

The tour will span 40 cities with a four-car museum-like exhibit along with mood-setting additions to surround it. To find out when it will be in a city near you, check out the schedule at USA Today.

When you arrive, there will be a portable theater where you’ll be able to see early footage of the movie. You’ll then walk into a Christmas world with carolers, decorations, and even artificial snow. When you get inside the actual exhibit, you’ll find all sorts of cool things, including: digital portraits of the characters that begin from the concept and morph along to the finished character; a display that teaches people about how motion-capture technology works; interactive games with a photo booth that allows people to become Scrooge; and even some artifacts from the Charles Dickens Museum, including a copy of one of the first editions ever printed of A Christmas Carol. [...]

The latest Doom Delivery sure does live up to the name, as it’s an invitation to a Valentine’s Day dance which will surely lead me to my doom. It arrived via FedEx (not so doomy) and was very lightweight, so I couldn’t imagine what was in it. I opened it to find an artificial black rose (which I dig) and a small card with a drawn red heart on it that read…

YOU’RE INVITED!

WHAT: THE ANNUAL VALENTINE’S DAY DANCE
WHERE: VALENTINE BLUFFS
HOSTED BY: HARRY WARDEN

Uh-oh! As soon as I saw the name of the host, I knew that this was no innocuous Valentine’s Day dance! I knew this was a test! On the other side of the card was the message “Happy Anti-Valentine’s Day From Lionsgate” with an image of their recently released special edition DVD of the 1981 horror flick My Bloody Valentine.

In My Bloody Valentine, the miner Harry Warden was the sole survivor of a cave-in on Valentine’s Day at the Hanniger Mines in Valentine’s Bluffs [...]

Valentine’s Day as a geek can typically be described in one of the following ways: 1) A second Christmas in which both people get a present that can only be found inside the pages of a Previews catalog or 2) A somewhat to extremely lonely night of rereading Twilight* for the umpteenth time.

SoulGeek aims to eliminate fanboy (or fangirl) loneliness by offering a dating site specifically tailored for geeks, according to founder Dino Andrade, who started the network after discovering how difficult it was to meet people in his own experiences.

As a seasoned voice actor of many cartoons and video games, it was only natural that Andrade would fall in love with Mary Kay Bergman, famously known for creating and performing all the original female roles on South Park (including the Blame Canada song!!). When she tragically passed away in November of 1999, the two had been married for over a decade.

It took years to recover from the loss, but eventually he decided to get back on the saddle, according to Andrade, who said the most difficult part about it was being a geek [...]

Happy Holidays Readers of Doom,

Wow! This has been an amazing year for Geeks of Doom. Together, our team of selfless contributors has helped us publish over 1,750 articles this year — reviews, features, news items, and opinion pieces from every corner of the geeky spectrum.

Our team of contributors has grown exponentially. So many AWESOME people have decided to freely pitch-in and help make Geeks of Doom what it is. We’re nothing without our contributors and you all help create a fresh and interesting place for geeks like us to hang out and opine off a cliff. Thank you, guys and gals of DOOM! I mean it. THANK YOU!

We made a lot of great new friends in the film blogger community as well. Thank you all for your friendship and all the help along the way: David, Devindra, Adam, Peter, Alex, Kelvin, Vic, Neil, Mike, Wil (please forgive me if I left someone out. I’m still rockin’ a pretty big Francis Ford Coppola wine hangover). You each rule mightily in your own way. Thanks for being both friends and examples to us. Every day is a learning experience and you all make learning waaay more fun then school ever did…

Moon Knight. Marvel’s hooded man in white isn’t exactly stable. In fact, he is officially insane. He is also officially a Jew. Turning his back on his rabbi father to slaughter people as a solider of fortune, Marc Spector ended up being a multiple personality suffering insufferable a-hole generally disliked by the hero community. But we love him! And Hanukkah! And presents!

In honor of the festival of lights, we are taking a trip down Moon Knight’s crazy memory lane, recapping eight of his more awkward and completely bat-shit insane moments. Moments so crazy, they will get him denied from the dreidel party with The Thing and Shadowcat (both Jewish!) [...]

If you’re having trouble figuring out when you’ll have time to take ridiculous holiday pictures for use in our first annual LOLsanta Picture Contest then fear not (just this once) Geek brethren. This past weekend myself, an epic professional photographer and Metromix Nashville contributor Erin Cubert attended the Santa Rampage 2008. There was a Santa marching band, Santas dancing on a bar at Coyote Ugly…

This year we are proud to announce the first annual LOLsanta picture contest. So basically what that means is:

1. Find a bunch of people dressed as Santa, Elves, Will Ferrell Elf, Reindeer, Snowmen, and Snowomen, etc. and take a picture of them.
2. Add your own LOL-cat-like tag line to it
3. Send a link of the picture over to @geeksofdoom on Twitter or submit a link to your LOLsanta picture in our shiny contest application below after the jump.

Prizes: Holiday Booty (not that kind)
A chance to win comics, EXCLUSIVE Geeks of Doom gear, DVDs, other stuff, and some eggnog that will not taste good by the time we ship it to you. (Seriously.)

RULES: The contest rules are pretty open to anything as long as it’s essentially not illegal (or morally wrong) and can make us laugh. We’ll post the winner, as well as many honorable mentions, on Christmas Day. All entries must be in by Tuesday, December 23, 2008 at 9pm EST. This contest is only open to residents of North America. No international entries will be accepted. Winners will be chosen by select Geeks of Doom staff from valid entries and will be notified by email and/or twitter.com. Void where prohibited. NOTE: We will not sell your contact info into spam slavery. Enter with confidence.

As one of the lucky few on this sad planet who rank among the undead, I consider myself thankful for so many great things this world of clueless meandering flesh-bags has to offer — Slow-moving victims who always seem to trip and fall at the most inopportune times, meat-lockers at the morgue with cheap locks, royalty checks from the continual demand for my appearance in the hottest video games (thanks Left 4 Dead, CoD:W@W), and HD motherfcukin TV, my people. Are ya with me?!

Well, today I intend to curl my undead ass up with a nice glass of blended brains and give thanks for all these great things and more, all while watching endless hours of grue and gore on Monsters HD. They’ve got a marathon of me and my peeps running rampant on the silver screen going on all goddamn day, and I couldn’t be happier. Check out the skinny on this succulently screamin’ screen schedule right here [...]

Last Sunday, Comedy Central aired the Stephen Colbert holiday special A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All!”, which featured musical appearances from Elvis Costello and Willie Nelson and several other special guests. The special has now been released on DVD and we here at Geeks of Doom have 3 copies to give away to our readers!

Three (3) winners will each receive:

– (1) A Colbert Christmas DVD

For more info on the DVD see the About section below and our previous coverage for video clips from the special.

TO ENTER: Fill out the form here and submit.

RULES: One entry per person. All entries must be in by Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 9pm EST. This contest is only open to residents of the United States. No international entries will be accepted. Void where prohibited. Winners will be chosen randomly from valid entries and will be notified by email.

Another year, another ABC 25 Days of Christmas event where, in conjunction, we here at Geeks of Doom are once again giving one lucky reader a related prize pack!

From December 1 through December 25, ABC Family channel will air over 200 hours of holiday-themed programming including two new original movies, A Miser Brothers’ Christmas and Snow 2 Brain Freeze. Click here for the full event programming.

One winner will receive the following prizes:

– (1) 25 Days of Christmas programming guide, with tree ornament
– (1) 25 Days of Christmas Reusable Shopping Tote
– (1) 25 Days of Christmas Poster

TO ENTER: Fill out the form below and submit. Entry form is here after the jump.

RULES: One entry per person. All entries must be in by Monday, December 1, 2008 at 9pm EST. This contest is only open to residents of the United States. No international entries will be accepted. Void where prohibited. Winners will be chosen randomly from valid entries and will be notified by email.

ABC Family is gearing up for their 11th annual 25 Days of Christmas event, which runs through Christmas Day.

From December 1 through December 25, the network will air over 200 hours of holiday-themed movies, specials, and the return of Christmas favorites during primetime, as well as weekend holiday marathons every Saturday and Sunday.

The event will include two new original movies, A Miser Brothers’ Christmas , the all-new sequel to the classic Christmas animated tale The Year Without a Santa Claus, and Snow 2 Brain Freeze, starring Tom Cavanagh and Ashley Williams.

Also, ABC Family will also air their holiday movie Christmas in Wonderland starring Patrick Swayze and Carmen Electra, as well as host the basic cable premieres of CARS, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and A Garfield Christmas.

It’s been a long while since a new Christmas special aired on TV and became a classic along side Rudolph, Frosty and The Grinch. Now there’s a chance that a new one may be on the way. The only thing is, this one sounds a tad… different.

This coming holiday season will include Gotta Catch Santa, a new special being aired on one of the major networks. The special will apparently be animated and even delve into the naturally cheerful world of quantum physics and how jolly St. Nick (voiced by William Shatner) is able to pull off his miraculous one night gift run among other logical question marks. Some children try and win a contest by getting the elusive proof of Santa’s existence via photograph, but eventually have to team up with him to defeat a threat to the world we live in that’s described as “Frosty meets Cthulhu.”

Writing and directing this unique new Christmas tale is veteran writer Steven de Souza, whose credits include the screenplay for the first two Die Hard films, 48 Hours, and Beverly Hills Cop III [...]

Legendary horror director Wes Craven has taken over the front pages of Google and YouTube for Halloween!

Google’s home page today features a Halloween-themed logo designed by Craven (see it here at right). It’s a much different style than most of their themed “doodles” with its computer-animated look, but it’s definitely fitting for the holiday.

Craven — best known for his A Nightmare on Elm Street film series, as well as the Scream trilogy — has also been given free reign over YouTube’s front page today picking out a few videos that are spooky and funny take-offs of popular horror flicks and other Halloween-related topics. A few of his choices are “Scream Bunnies, a 30-second recap of Craven’s own Scream made with bunnies, and “Trick or Vote” where classic horror monsters talk about voting [...]

The entire month of October is more or less devoted to doing something that is perceived as frightening, which it usually fails to do. As a child of the Internet age, there isn’t much I haven’t seen in terms of horrific, mind-numbingly evil fiction or “realistic fiction” (fake is fake is fake).

So instead of going down the a-typical list of things you should do as a horror geek, I decided to dig up real things that are way creepier than Halloween and the entire month of October combined. Actually, this stuff is so twisted, you should probably click the little “x” in the corner and call it a day. You don’t want to read this. (I’m F&#^$ serious, look away.)

But if you must, here are four real things that beat Halloween’s scare factor…

THE CREEPY AND CRAWLY LURK AROUND EVERY CORNER IN ABC FAMILY’S 10th ANNUAL ‘13 NIGHTS OF HALLOWEEN’

For the tenth year in a row, ABC Family brings viewers fright-full evenings during its 13 NIGHTS OF HALLOWEEN programming event. The ABC Family premieres of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III” and “The Addams Family” will join other Halloween themed programming airing the 13 nights leading up to Halloween (October 19 – October 31).

Following is a listing of programming thrills and chills taking place October 19-31 during ABC Family’s 13 NIGHTS OF HALLOWEEN.

Vile. Repulsive. Remorseless. These are just a few of the words that come to mind when watching this independent horror film from Chad Ferrin, now available exclusively online for download.