Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive...

I've made this spiel in the past and I don't want to beat a dead horse, so I'll keep this brief.

/me stands on his soapbox

During the month of October, Turner Classic Movies airs a bevy of amazing horror films! Check your local listings!

And yes, yet again I have tabulated a handy spreadsheet with all of the films on the schedule.

I still try my best to use broadcast TV and, honestly, some of the movies that TCM plays this time of year are hard to find even on DVD or Blu-ray, let alone on streaming. Heck, there are some films I don't even bother trying to buy, because I just sort of rely TCM to play them for me every Halloween.

So dust off your DVRs if you have 'em or just make sure you tune in! Here are all the films I deemed spooky from TCM's October 2024 schedule - all times in Eastern (with all the colourful Excel flair from prior years!):

I'll take a moment to highlight some of the programming blocks I think you should look out for.

Unfortunately, since I'm posting this a few days late, it looks like a Bela Lugosi block aired on October 2nd. I'm willing to bet, however, that most of those films get a second airing later in the month.

There's a short back-to-back Roger Corman block with Little Shop of Horrors and A Bucket of Blood airing early on October 6th, starting at 7AM.

There's an English horror block airing in the wee hours of October 18th that looks really interesting, which includes The Wicker Man, The Lair of the White Worm, The Reptile, and The Plague of the Zombies. It starts at 12:45AM!

I'm mystified by this block, which has some more contemporary stuff, but only airs once starting at 12:45AM on October 25th. You'd think these flicks would air during primetime, but you'll either have to be a night owl or set these for record: Demon Seed, They Live, The Hidden, and The Shout.

On the 27th, there's a short Val Lewton block starting at 7AM, with Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, and then a documentary on the man himself, Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows.

There's another solid English horror block with some Amicus and Hammer films starting at 8:15AM on Devil's Night, October 30th, which features From Beyond the Grave, Dracula A.D. 1972, Frankenstein Created Woman, The Mummy, Horror of Dracula, and The Curse of Frankenstein.

This is followed up closely with a serial killer block, starting at 9:00PM on October 30th with Psycho, Peeping Tom, Blue Velvet, and The Strangler.

Then on Halloween, you can enjoy lots of classic Universal horrors, like The Bat, The Wolf Man, The Black Cat, Dracula, Frankenstein, and Bride of Frankenstein beginning at 12:30PM.

There you have it! If you're into old black and white scares, TCM has your back this Halloween. I always suggest you check out the Hammer and English horror films they feature every year. They are excellent and I find those in particular are difficult to get on physical media for a decent price.

So, instead of staring at Netflix for an hour trying to pick something to watch, pop the popcorn and let your TV take the wheel for a change! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

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Play the five tones.

This is kiiiind of a weird post for October 1st, but I think it fits.

I ran into something I just had to share. This is a news program produced by CBC Saskatchewan in 1996.

I just love any sort of paranormal TV show from back in the 90s. I started watching shows like In Search Of... well before The X-Files first aired, but you can't argue that the popularity of the latter resulted in UFO and alien specials being produced en masse by just about every network.

What I wanted to point out is that you couldn't even escape these sorts of reports in the news! Just throwing on your local TV station on a random weekday would lead to a spooky little story, complete with eerie music and sound effects! And especially leading up to Halloween.

So, if you're into this sort of thing I'd suggest you give the video a watch. It's a trip! I do want to warn you, though, there are some images of mutilated animals that could be disturbing to some viewers. Viewer discretion is definitely advised!

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You stole fizzy lifting drinks!

Well lookie here! I made another video!

I scored a bottle of Mountain Dew VooDew and the new Oreo Coke about a week ago and they were just sitting in my refrigerator, so I thought it might be fun to record a video trying them out!

Check out the video, if you're so inclined:

Also, now that it's official I hope you're enjoying the fall! I've managed to watch some of my favourite classic horror movies so far, but I haven't had an opportunity to do anything that really suits the season. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify that soon.

I guess VooDew counts, right?

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Just keep swimming.

It's mid-September as I write this and, for me personally, it might as well be fall. The leaves are already changing, the nights are getting cooler, and the PSL is available at Starbucks; it's a beautiful thing!

All that said, I felt remiss just moving on and not acknowledging some of the great summer snacks and promotions I've enjoyed over the last few months.

In my last post, all the way back in (checks notes)... June, I was begrudging the lack of summer promos I was seeing from the usual suspects, like Lay's, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola.

What I would say is that instead of going for the usual fare, there were some weird swings this summer, but overall it actually ended up pretty okay!

This is just going to be a photo dump of junk I enjoyed over the summer months, but I'll add some commentary.

McDonald's Summer 2024!

McD's never fails to disappoint and I must say, they've been showing Canada some serious love lately. First, we finally got the Grimace Shake, which dropped in the US last year. It didn't knock me out colour-wise, but it tasted great! They also brought us the Orange Cream Pop Shake, which tasted like a Buried Treasure and was a serious highlight.

Finally, I have to mention the Throwback Meal, which came with three retro dipping sauces, Garlic Parmesan from the 80s, Szechuan from the 90s, and Jalapeno Cheddar from the 00s. The Szechuan sauce was amazing - I didn't try the others - but the retro packing that homaged all three eras was the highlight, honestly. It was serious trip!

This was also topped off with McShaker fries, which offered a variety of different flavours over the summer. I only tried Tzatziki and Ramen, but they also offered Masala and Churro. They were kinda messy, but delicious! I hope we get more of these in the future!

Soda Pop!

I think I've gushed about all of these on my social accounts, but at a high level: Sprite Chill Zero Sugar was amazing and was very short-lived. Sprite Chill is still in stores, I believe, but the Zero Sugar (which was far superior to the full sugar version) disappeared quickly.

We got Mountain Dew Summer Freeze! This dropped in the US last year, but we finally got it and it was amazing. I think my favourite of the summer, however, was the Dr. Pepper Strawberries & Cream. This also dropped some time ago in the US, and I actually imported it months ago, but it was nice having it as a regular offering for a while.

I still missed seeing Pepsi Throwback on shelves, but Peach Pepsi was a nice distraction, even if I only tried it the one time. It was tasty, though! I saw the Zero Sugar version once, but didn't buy it and I never saw it again. I would've liked to have tried it!

More Chips!

Doritos dropped a trio of Late Night flavours, which is something they've done in the past. I feel like I've had all these flavours before, but it was nice to have something different on shelves, as least! I think Fully Loaded Nachos was my favourite, but there was also Sizzlin' Cheese Burger and Creamy Jalapeno Popper.

Ruffles dropped another KFC collab! They've offered KFC flavoured chips for a few years now as the occasional promo, but this year they added a Zinger Sandwich flavoured chip, which was just a spicier version of the old flavour, but on a double crunch chip! It was meh.

Miscellaneous!

Wendy's had an orange cream milkshake thingy of their own this year. It was simply white Frosty mixed with orange soda, but it was tasty!

I don't talk about Smarties enough. I know they're only in the UK and Canada, but they are the superior candy-covered chocolate. That's right, I said it. This summer they had a strawberry variety, which was just okay, but I just like to see Smarties taking the occasional swing!

That's probably not everything, but I think it's the big hitters (what's up with the sudden baseball references). All-in-all, it was an okay summer!

I posted a video earlier this week about the return of Hostess potato chips, which although it technically dropped in the summer season, I'm not considering a summer promo. Especially, as it appears that they're here to stay. You can check that video out here, though, if you're so inclined!

Anyway, here's to the autumn proper! It's less than a week away. As I mentioned, I've already started my usual traditions, which includes lots of tiny sized junk food and horror movies, but it was nice to cap off summer and put a bow on it.

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Cheese Squeeze makes my eyeballs itch!

I'm still kind of in shock about all this, but last night I was stunned to find out that my favourite potato chips - a snack I absolutely adored as a kid, but was lost due to a corporate takeover in the 90s - had returned.

That's right, Hostess Potato Chips are back!

Now branded Munchies, the greatest potato chips of all time are back on store shelves in Canada and I'm over the moon!

I think this video says it all. I'm sorry for the poor quality. I slapped this thing together pretty quickly and didn't test any of my equipment first, but I just had to document this moment.

In the video description you can also find links all sorts of blogs I've written over the years gushing over Hostess Potato Chips, if that's your sort of thing.

Anyway, if you're in Canada, get to your local grocery store and snag you some Munchies! And tell 'em RyHo sent you!

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Media Log | Secrets of the Unknown: Bigfoot & Witches

Secrets & Mysteries was an American television series that syndicated from 1987 to 1989. It was a paranormal magazine show, often compared to In Search Of... which ended it's run five years before Secrets & Mysteries premiered.

Although the topics were similar in nature to In Search Of..., and Secrets & Mysteries certainly released around the same time, it appears great lengths were taken to separate the two shows. Secrets & Mysteries incorporates bumpers hosted by Edward Mulhare, which show him using all sorts of gadgets and pseudo-futuristic technology to help display information throughout each episode.

I'm not certain what TV stations aired Secrets & Mysteries during it's syndicated run, but the show appeared to make its money on video. Tapes were sold in different formats from the late-80s all the way to the early-2000s. Each episode was released individually, there were several sets that had four episodes to a tape, and there were even two Blockbuster Presents editions, each with two episodes on each tape (one of which I'm highlighting here). The show was never released on any other format, nor is it available on streaming.

During its video run, it seems the title of the series was changed to Secrets of the Unknown. This isn't entirely consistent, though. For instance, on the Blockbuster Presents: Secrets of the Unknown: Bigfoot & Witches tape, the "Bigfoot" episode is presented as Secrets & Mysteries on the intro and outro, however the "Witches" episode uses the Secrets of the Unknown title for the intro (which interestingly runs at a different speed than the Secrets & Mysteries introduction) but then uses the Secrets & Mysteries title in the outro. Having watched a few different episodes of this show on tape, there seem to be all sorts of inconsistencies with how the episodes are presented.

You can find out more information about the series on Wikipedia.org.

You can find video clips of the intro and outro segments on my video archival channel, VHYesterdayS.

I've also uploaded the full videos for both the "Bigfoot" and "Witches" episodes on the Internet Archive for archival purposes.

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Here come the chips! I've got Cool Ranch and Barbecue! Ow!

The first post I made on this new site was - not shockingly - about potato chips (a personal passion of mine) and since it's been just about a full revolution around the sun since then, I figured it was time for more.

So, I hope you like reading way too many words about junk food, because I'm back on my bullshit. Let's talk about the Lay's Canada Flavour Icons summer promo for 2024!

I'm not going to lie to you, this year's promotion isn't a complete knock out. One of the flavours is recycled from last year, Miss Vickie's Spicy Dill Pickle, and the other two offerings, although new to Canada, are frequently flyers in the US: Cool Ranch Doritos and Cheetos Lay's.

Out of last year's offerings, I really enjoyed the Spicy Dill Pickle. As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't really dig it on the actual Miss Vickie's chips, but it somehow jives better with the classic Lay's potato chip.

As for the Cool Ranch Doritos flavour? Something just isn't clicking. I think there's something to say about texture when it comes to eating Doritos and maybe I've just had my brain wired to expect a corn chip, but whatever it is, I didn't dig Cool Ranch on a Lay's potato chip. Nothing wrong with it, just not for me!

And then finally the Cheetos Lay's; I really liked these. Last year, I loved the Nacho Cheese Doritos Lay's and this year the cheese flavour takes the cake again. In 2022, Lay's did Flavour Mashups in Canada and they had Cheetos Puffs + Lay's Ketchup chips that I really didn't like, but it must've been the combination of the two, because Cheetos dust tastes delicioso on a standard chip.

So, overall I'd give this year's Flavour Icons a big meh. It's just okay!

I've decided to practice brevity on this post, even though I did what most sane people would consider far too much research about the Lay's summer promos of yesteryear, but I will save you all that.

What I will say, is that this year's promo being recycled kinda tracks with PepsiCo (owner of Lay's) this year. Usually, Pepsi would have multiple pop offerings in the spring and leading into early summer. Although it has been somewhat spotty, we've pretty much had Pepsi Throwback (a.k.a. Pepsi Real Sugar) every summer for a long while, and then also periodically there's been Crystal Pepsi and even Pepsi Blue!

This year, however, there's really nothing I'd call a standout promo. They are pushing the zero sugar varieties of Wild Cherry and Lime pretty vigourously, but they're always on the menu. In the US they at least have full sugar varieties of Pepsi Lime and Pepsi Peach! Not here, though.

I keep hoping for Lay's Canada to reach deep into their back catalog and come out with a Hostess potato chip summer promo. I've even written to them - yes, I am that lame. And here we are again, no dice.

Here's hoping for next year! And I'm still holding out hope that Pepsi Throwback graces our shelves in the next few weeks. You folks in the US who have access to Pepsi Real Sugar on the regular don't know how good you have it!

Anyway, keep on crunchin' and cheers to summer!

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