Kristen EckDAY-21: The 31-Days of Halloween
Happy Sunday! I have a couple of events to share with you as we wrap-up Week-3 of the 31-Days of Halloween. Today marks the 35th Anniversary of the film adaption of Stephen King's "The Dead Zone." Christopher Walken starred as Johnny Smith, a Maine schoolteacher, who falls into a long coma following a car wreck. When he awakens five years later, he has psychic abilities that allow him to see a person's future just by touching them. "The Dead Zone" was one of the more highly acclaimed adaptions of Stephen King novels.
The movie eventually spawned a TV series in 2002 (starring Anthony Michael Hall) and Christopher Walken would parody his character in a 1992 guest appearance on Saturday Night Live (one of seven guest-hosting stints on the show,) in which he memorably warns someone he's just touched that they're going to get an "ice cream headache."
We also have a birthday today. Erick Lee Purkhiser, better known as Lux Interior, lead singer of punk rock band, The Cramps would have turned 72-today had he not died of heart failure in 2009. Along with his wife, guitarist Poison Ivy, he moved from California in the mid-70's to join the emerging punk scene at CBGB in New York. Combining punk, surf, rockabilly, and creepy themes, they are credited with creating the "Psychobilly" genre.
Sounds like a song is in-order to me, so let's go to their 1980 debut album, "Songs the Lord Taught Us," for a tune called "I Was a Teenage Werewolf." It's waiting for you now on the 31-Days of Halloween playlist. Happy listening! -Kristen
#TheCramps #StephenKing #TheDeadZone #ChristopherWalken #Psychobilly