Haunted by Skull

Haunted by the Screaming Skull
By John Taylor; 2007 July 12
In the past week I have discovered the power of Youtube, especially in summoning up old songs and movies. For example, I read somewhere that managers should watch "12 O’clock High." I had seen it but forgotten it. By typing that title into Youtube I found enough clips from the film to remind me why it is still used as an example of good leadership skills. I noticed that my collection of Beatles tunes did not include "Revolution." There it was, in several versions, on Youtube, including a 1966 television performance. I still cannot understand how they distorted the guitar for that song, and only that song. I talked to a guitarist yesterday, and he suggested they may have used what they call a "talent box" to do the distortion. It is considered cheating. Again, I had an old tune going through my head "a whiter shade of pale," and that too was there, in many versions. I especially liked the music video version by Sarah Brightman, as well as the ripped off Bach originals, including "sleeper awake." I also checked out Brightman’s Wonderful World and compared it with Louis Armstrong’s version, Armstrong’s Blueberry Hill, and compared that with Fats Domino’s version, and on and on.
If there had been a Wikipedia and Youtube when I was a kid, I would be a music expert and probably would know nothing of philosophy or Baha'i by now.
Many old films I liked tremendously and through the years have often made into bedtime stories for Silvie when she was small, and now, less often, with Thomas. One favorite was Monty Python and the Holy Grail, especially the killer bunny sketch and the "questions three." These I had expanded in the retelling, and now I find that they are on Youtube at the push of a button. I was pleased to review them with the kids, but also a little disappointed. I had improved the "questions three" I think, by making the line longer, and by making some of the tested knights foul up even on the question: "What is your name?" The kids were touched by the killer bunny, especially now that they have one, which they call Twitchy. Myself, I too wonder that nature could have created such a defenseless creature, and I appreciate the humor of this sketch all the better for that. Then Thomas, on his own, discovered an improved version of the Black Knight sketch, where Arthur lops off all his limbs and he defiantly fights on, only this time the Black Knight’s voice has been dubbed in with Darth Vader’s voice. Precious.
Another film from my childhood was a horror film called "The Screaming Skull." I remember my brother as a teen having several of his friends over for Buffalo television personality Irv Weinstein’s "Friday Night Fright Night" all night horror film special. I must have been younger than 7 year-old Thomas, and was certainly too small for such hair-raising fare, but I quietly sneaked into the room and watched secretly from a dark corner. To all those kids out there: do not do that. There is no way that you can scream or snuggle into a mother's warm arms when you are hiding, silently, in a dark corner of a dark room.
I have retold this story to them and to you so often that I forget now what is real memory and what is exaggeration. Certainly it scared the bejeebers out of me, and I have never allowed myself to get that scared again. They have made scarier films since, but they have also invented the fast forward button and I make liberal use of that when the suspense gets too much for me.
The other day I retold the Screaming Skull story, this time with my brother and his teen friends discovering me behind the couch in the morning with my mouth frozen open, my hair standing on end and in a comatose state for weeks after. Silvie and Thomas demanded a retelling of the plot of Screaming Skull, so I made up a version thinking it had little resemblance to the actual film. After I had told my tale, I remembered, this too is probably on Youtube. And sure enough, there it was, in several installments. Considering that four decades have passed I remembered its details fairly well. In fact, like the Questions Three sketch, in parts I had actually improved upon it. Not that it is such a great film that it could not be improved upon. Quite the reverse, as I found out.
Fortunately, the version of Screaming Skull that is on Youtube is the funny Mystery Science Theatre 3000 version, complete with witty comments and voice-overs from a guy and his two robot friends forced to watch all of the worst movies in history. The kids really enjoyed watching the movie, wondering at my stupid naivety at getting so scared at such clumsy special effects, poor acting, atrocious writing, and on and on.
What can I say?
Things were simpler in those days. You could not even see red when there was bleeding, it was all in black and white. And I was all alone in a dark room full of 1960's teenagers. Can you blame me for getting scared? Thomas, he will not go alone to the bathroom during a scary film without my accompanying him, and he laughs at me for being a coward at that age!
Anyway, most of my readers have come to expect Baha'i content every time here, so I will not disappoint. Here are some links that people have sent me lately. First, a video clip of the placing of the dome on the Baha'i Centre for Learning in Tasmania.
http://tasbcl.googlepages.com/
Second, a video about a Baha'i lawyer in the States,
http://www.doubletake.tv/cms/inspirationbeyondborders-english
She formed the Tahirih Justice center, at www.tahireh.org. Strangely, Silvie dreamed of becoming a lawyer lately. Lawyers and accountants, they should both hang out a sign: "genius needed." These professions need an Einstein or a DaVinci to enter their ranks and help them save the world by reforming law and finances for world order.
No fewer than four contacts sent one more thing to me, a quote from a book by Al Gore, so I will include that next time, along with my usual footnotes and comments.