Cartoon Sunday: Christopher Christensen's The Stone Wall

How's it going my gumdrops? Since so many of you enjoyed those Animated Horror Shorts that I shared 2 weeks ago from Axeman Cartoons, I have another creepy short to share with you all. 

In case you missed 10 Two Sentence Horror Stories for Cartoon Sunday, you can check it out right HERE.

Today we have Christopher Christensen's poem, "The Stone Wall." "The Stone Wall" was illustrated by YeahManTV, while Let's Read narrated this creepy piece.

If you have an appreciation for Textured Art with abstract spirals, Dr. Seuss, and Edgar Allan Poe, "The Stone Wall" may be right up your alley. I'll admit to being automatically biased, when it comes to abstract spirals in the animation.

The spirals remind me of some of the work I did in high school for Art Class. Also, I did something similar to this type of Textured Art, when the band, KoRn held their album cover contest before releasing their 4th album, Issues in 1999. 

It sucks that I didn't win the the album cover contest. Then again, Issues wasn't that great of a KoRn album. The first 3 will always be their best albums as well as their 5th album, Untouchables. Well, I digress.

As I watched "The Stone Wall," it reminded me of Dr. Seuss meets Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask Of Amontillado" and "The Tell-Tale Heart." This is along with a SMIDGE of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown."

If you never had the opportunities to read any of these short stories in high school or in college, you should read them now.

Listening to Christensen's "The Stone Wall" made me notice, that the protagonist in this creepy poem has a serious drinking problem. 

He drank an entire bottle of wine and is probably using some kind of a hallucinogenic drug.

If mixing hallucinogenic drugs with wine is NOT  the problem, the protagonist must be drunk from trying to drink away his guilty conscience about something. 

The Goat Man must represent his guilty conscience, possibly about his alcoholism, which he chooses to deny.

As far as the stone wall goes, it could POSSIBLY represent the protagonist's alcoholism which is acting as a barrier between issues he has and the fact that he chooses not to acknowledge them. Anything is possible at this rate with this poem.

"The Stone Wall" is the type of creepy poem, that really makes you think hard. The animation, illustration, and narraton for this poem, helped to add character to the protagonist, The Goat Man, and the overall story being told in the poem.

Some of you might be irritated by my psychoanalysis of Christopher Christensen's "The Stone Wall." I can't help paying attention to both the narration and illustrations for this poem. Both have this ability to make us really think.

Rather than explaining my perception of this creepy poem, I highly recommend watching "The Stone Wall" for yourself and judging with your own conclusions. 

Anyway, here is Christopher Christensen's "The Stone Wall" for today's Cartoon Sunday.

Christopher Christensen's "The Stone Wall" (2016)

Song Saturday: Chris Cornell Tribute Block

How's it going my gumdrops? Wow! Like many other fans of Grunge Rock, I was in complete shock and disbelief about Chris Cornell's death. Right now, I am still reeling. Honestly, I did NOT see his death coming. 

The death of a talented Grunge Rock vocalist like Chris Cornell was something TOO unexpected and sudden.

Most Gen Xers, who were familiar with Grunge Rock, during the early to mid-1990's already knew that Chris Cornell was the frontman of Soundgarden. Not only was Cornell the lead singer of Soundgarden, but also the frontman for Temple Of The Dog and Audioslave.

Temple Of The Dog, which formed in 1990, was a Grunge Rock Supergroup, in tribute to his dead friend, Andrew Wood. Wood was the frontman of Mother Love Bone, who died from a heroin overdose.

Temple Of The Dog consisted of Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, Matt Cameron, and Mother Love Bone's Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament.

Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam's frontman) was also featured as the background vocalist on the song, "Hunger Strike."

Meanwhile, Audioslave formed in 2001, which was shortly after Rage Against The Machine (a politically divisive band I STILL hate over 2 decades later) disbanded. 

Audioslave was a Hard Rock Supergroup comprised of Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello, Brad Wilk, Tim Commerford, and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell.

On Thursday, MTV Classic aired a tribute block of the late Chris Cornell's music videos. It's very strange that he is NOW having tributes done for him.

Cornell was the frontman, who usually performed tributes, after singers ranging from Pop to Rock died. He did Whitney Houston, Scott Weiland, and Prince tributes soon after they died.

Now, the situation is unexpectedly reversed. I may have never been a diehard fan of Chris Cornell's, however it is shocking as well as heartbreaking learning, that another talented Rock singer has suddenly died.

Cornell is another talented lead singer from the Grunge Era, who is now dead. There are NOT  very many of those frontmen left, when it comes to Grunge. 

Candlebox's Kevin Martin and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder are most likely the final 2 vocalists, that are still alive from Seattle, WA's Grunge era.

Most Millennials 30 years old and younger never had the chance to experience growing up, saving an allowance to buy their favorite singers or groups' songs on vinyl, tape, and CD's. That's not including having to rush to hear their favorite songs being played on the radio.

Younger Millennials and Generation Z especially don't have the experience of watching music centric channels that genuinely care about airing music videos 24/7. 

Generally speaking, if you do NOT  have a cable or satellite provider, you are definitely unable to watch music videos 24/7 on MTV Classic.

Like the way I grew up watching MTV during the 1980's and '90s, I am spending MORE time offline watching MTV Classic as an escape from the Internet, Reality TV Shows, and politics.

Sometimes retreating to my old ways of enjoying music television makes me feel a little depressed. Because I am older now, I am watching blocks of old music videos with a hefty portion of dead celebrities within those music blocks.

MTV Classic will do a block of music videos of dead Pop and R&B singers, Rappers, Rock Stars, etc. I cannot speak for others watching, although it does make me say:

"There goes another talented singer, who is dead or has a dead member from the group."

This Song Saturday, some of you will be in for a grim treat. I am sharing a few music videos featuring Chris Cornell in Soundgarden and Temple Of The Dog. 

Some of you should really enjoy a more recent Soundgarden music video ("Black Rain").

The music video for Soundgarden's "Black Rain" was directed by the creator of Metalocalypse's Brendon Small. 

In addition, the animated Death Metal band, Dethklok was featured in this Soundgarden music video.

Watching some of these Soundgarden music videos feels nostalgic. This can especially be said about "Black Hole Sun." Listening to the song instantly makes me think about an old high school crush/secret admirer. 

Anyway, let's all set aside a moment to remember another talented Grunge Rock lead singer for today's Song Saturday.

1) Soundgarden "Loud Love" Louder Than Love (1989)

2) Soundgarden "Jesus Christ Pose" Badmotorfinger (1991)

3) Temple Of The Dog "Say Hello 2 Heaven" Temple Of The Dog (1991)

4) Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun" Superunknown (1994)

5) Soundgarden "Spoonman" Superunknown (1994)

6) Soundgarden "Blow Up The Outside World" Down On The Upside (1996)

7) Soundgarden "Black Rain" Telephantasm (2010) 

 

[BONUS: Chris Cornell's Prince & Whitney Houston Tributes]

1) Chris Cornell [Prince Cover] "Nothing Compares 2 U" Sirius XM Live (2010)

2) Chris Cornell [Dolly Parton/Whitney Houston Cover] "I Will Always Love You" Live (2012)

Do you have a favorite song(s) by the late great Chris Cornell?

Early Cartoon Sunday: Axeman Cartoons' 10 Two Sentence Horror Stories

How's it going my gumdrops? Like yesterday's Song Saturday, this is an early Cartoon Sunday blog. 

Considering that next Sunday is Mother's Day, I will probably do next weekend's blogs early, too.

Don't forget to watch Tokyo Ghoul at midnight on Adult Swim's Toonami block. That's if you are a Tokyo Ghoul fan, as well as a Horror Anime fan. 

Today I am taking a break from Supernatural and Horror Anime for today's Cartoon Sunday blog. Things have to be shaken up a little bit.

In fact, it has been a while since I last shared any Horror Shorts for Cartoon Sunday. Today's short is brought to you by Axeman Cartoons. 

Yes, I know. I could not pass up the opportunity of sounding like an announcer, since I used to read PSA's on the air at WIPZ, years ago.

As I was saying, today's short is quite freaky. Axeman Cartoons has a series of Horror Animated Shorts. 

Let's Read, Axeman Cartoons, and Eden collaborated together for the short, 10 Two Sentence Horror Stories.

10 Two Sentence Horror Stories is a compilation of 10 Short Horror Stories, which are supposedly 2 sentences long with creepy narration. The animation for these 10 short stories is scarier than the narration to them.

Eden featuring Let's Read narrated the final short, "I Heard It, Too." 

Maternal Wraith and Sarah and Elizabeth Mahoney voiced Sarah, her mother, and that creepy-looking, shapeshifting monster.

"I Heard It, Too" is without a doubt, the best short out of this compilation of Horror Animated Short Stories by Axeman Cartoons. 

I may go as far as saying this short is probably 1 of the best shorts I have seen, since Stalker From The Cornfield.

"I Heard It, Too" actually feels like you are watching a Horror movie except it is an animated short. In this Horror Animated Short, Sarah hears her mother calling her from downstairs.

As Sarah leaves her bedroom to go see what her mother wants, Sarah's mother pulls Sarah into her room, saying, "I heard it, too." 

They are soon attacked by this creepy-looking, shapeshifting monster. I have no exact idea what the monster is, however it looks like some type of an insect, that resembles Sarah's mother.

Be prepared to be disturbed, if not creeped the fuck out for this Cartoon Sunday, 1 day in advance.

Axeman Cartoons' 10 Two Sentence Horror Stories (2016)