The “Black Metal Warfare Tour” pulled into its final stop at the historic Fonda Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA, on the night of January 31, 2015. The tour, which featured co-headliners Watain and Mayhem along with Canadian opening band Revenge, was one of the most anticipated black metal jaunts in recent memory and that was evidenced by the mood in the air amongst the capacity crowd. Fortunate enough to find myself on Watain’s guest list, I was able to scope the festivities from my bird’s eye view in the balcony.

It was an amazing night as there was very strange vibe in the air. Black metal shows, in my experience tend to be a bit more somber, almost morose affairs in general. There was, however a certain (dare I say) excitement in the air for this particular outing. I’m not sure what it was; the beautiful historic venue, a nearly full moon or the sheer excitement of seeing this lineup with a sold out crowd of like minded black metal enthusiasts. But there was definitely an electric feel buzzing around me.

DVD (or VHS) cover art that misrepresents how much screen time a very well-known actor or actress may or may not have had in the film being promoted is nothing new, especially to the longtime home entertainment media consumer. Some of the more low-rent distributors will do just about anything to ship copies of the crappy flicks that have sitting around in their warehouse collecting dust, even if it means engaging in blatant false advertising. Honestly, what do they care? If burning off every last shred of moral fiber in their being means they’ll be able to move five more copies of some godawful public domain movie with video and audio quality that would be an epic overstatement to call sub-par off the shelves of Big Lots, then the only question they’ll ask is, “Got a match?”

To kick off their Halloween-themed “Weekends to Die For” that will run throughout October, the Travel Channel will premiere a new original miniseries called Making Monsters, and see the return of Ghost Adventures and the debut of the new original detective vs. psychic series The Dead Files.

The 4-part one-hour miniseries Making Monsters will follow Ed and Marsha Edmunds, the co-owners of Distortions Unlimited, a Mom and Pop store that specializes in the creation of animatronic beasties and haunted house designs for the amusement industry. Their creations include 8-foot Godzilla-like moving monsters, green-gook spitting aliens, and guffawing Santa Clauses. Assisting them in their work is renowned movie monster creator Jordu Schell, best known for his work as a sculptor and conceptual artist on films like Avatar, Predators, The Mist, 300, and Galaxy Quest to name but a few.

The release of the upcoming sci-fi thriller In Time has just come across an obstacle that no one in their right mind ever wants to encounter, and his name is Harlan Ellison.

The prolific, award-winning writer who has been working his literary majesty in print, film, and on television over the course of nearly six decades has filed a lawsuit in California federal alleging that the 20th Century Fox film, which stars Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried and is written and directed by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Lord of War), is an uncredited adaptation of his classic 1965 short story “Repent Harlequin! Said The Ticktockman”.

Many of us won’t remember this, but back in the ’80s, Ted Turner purchased the rights to libraries of old classic movies with intent to add color to the black and white films and re–release them to the masses.

This was considered an outrage by many, including some of the still–living directors of the films, but nothing could be done about it. So a group of spokesmen for Hollywood including George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Stewart, Woody Allen, and John Huston took it to Congress in hopes on instilling laws against the alteration of films in order to preserve their heritage.

But it was Lucas who took the floor and made the speech that’s more relevant today than anyone would have thought it would be. A speech in 1988 that stood strong for the preservation of original films that he himself has broken many times over since that time by changing numerous parts of his classic Star Wars trilogy, including most recently on the Blu–ray release.

Continue on to read the full speech from Lucas.