HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM URANIUM WILLY and THE URANIUM CAFE
I was browsing some of my favorite blog sites a little while ago looking for new films or inspiration when it dawned on me suddenly that today is Halloween. I am in China and Halloween actually occurs here almost a day earlier than in the States but I had no inkling that Halloween had finally arrived since the holiday is not recognized in any form here. Why would it be I guess. There are no Jack-o-Lanterns or spooky cardboard monster on doors. The idea of Trick-or-Treating here would probably be as alien as a two party political system. From what I understand they had a party at the school I work for last year and some students said that they invited me to go but I do not remember. I do not usually do school events anyway. I asked my students if they would like to see a scary movie for Halloween and they almost all said no. They are around twenty years old but the idea of sitting through a scary movie is more than they can handle. There is no spirit for the day here and so it is easy to overlook I guess though inexcusable ultimately for a horror blogger. I am truly ashamed.
Well I did not want the whole day to go by without wishing my readers a Happy Halloween. I am not running any special themes here since the primary theme of the blog is horror movies and so it is Halloween all year long here at The Uranium Café. A lot of other blogs are doing great Halloween themes and Gilligan over at My Retrospace has outdone himself this year and I recommend heading over there and checking out what he has put together in the form of lists and themes from over the past month. Since the list of sites I like to visit would be too long to mention here one at a time please check my Blogroll and there you will find many nifty horror sites to idle away your Halloween evening with. Here are few cool spooky gif animations I found online to share with you as a Halloween treat.
MY NECROTIC CINEMA BLOG 
MY PHOTO BLOG @ TUMBLR
YOUTUBE VIDEO CAVALCADE
YOUTUBE UCAFE PODCAST
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Well, China doesn’t have a cultural background of horror to begin with. Being a horror fan in China means you are isolated from all the zines, dvd labels, rare dvd-r/vhs market or whatsoever. Anyway, wonder how did you get hold of all the cool stuff here?
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:20 pm
I do hope you had a great Halloween. I spent mine at a party with my family. We ended up watching Halloween & A Nightmare On Elm Street.
November 4th, 2009 at 9:33 am
The last week or so I watched the 1st five Freddy films. I could not find the original Halloween here. May find that one online. The wife and I watched 28 Weeks Latter and The Strangers for Halloween.
Take care
Bill
November 4th, 2009 at 9:47 am
David
I get all of this from online. All my movies, comics and graphics. I have gotten pretty good about searching and a lot of it came form places like Demonoid (which sadly has been down for a long time now). I can find some DVDs here but it is hit and miss. Usually new releases only and all pirated of course/ Can find some oldies sometimes. For example a few weeks back I got a three DVD set of the original Fly films and the Hammer film One Million years B.C., but typically is newer releases only here.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I can imagine that, Bill. Just to let you know, I’m a local Chinese living in Beijing, and like you said the pirate dvds here is hit and miss. You can find almost all the stuff that Criterion put out and yet very little from blue underground/anchor bay. Guess we don’t have many horror fans in China. I usually hang around Cinemageddon to find rare stuff, it’s a great site and you should definitely check it out if you haven’t.
November 4th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
David
Great to hear from you and I lived in Beijing for 2 1/2 years. If I am ever back maybe we can have a lunch together. I may need to fly back just to do shopping for clothes since KM has nothing in my size. There are horror movies here to be sure but not a ‘horror culture’ as you said. I watched the recent film Orphan with my class today. They selected it from the choices I brought and they enjoyed it over all. I have a membership at the fantastic CG and usually have to watch my downloading as my uploads go so slowly to there and I do not want my ratio to get below 1.5. I use Rapidshare, the paid version, and have gotten lots of stuff from there. I understand Demonoid will evetually be back. I also use Horror Charnel but the ratio stuff is a problem there. Uploads are so slow.This site is good, and free, no ratio hassle:
http://tracker.zaerc.com/
I do get a lot of Criterion stuff as well and like mainstream movies, but for this site I have to search the net. Could never find most of this stuff here.
Stay in touch
Bill
November 4th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Cool, thanks for your recommendation and stay in touch.