GHOSTBUSTERS PORN! Now that I have your attention... and hopefully lots of Google hits. With a title like that, it should come as no surprise that this post will be about adult subject matter. Although all human nudity has been censored or obscured where possible or necessary (anything that shows nudity will be labeled as such), and you will not find any uncensored hardcore sexual imagery involving real people in this post (only drawings), this is NOT A POST FOR THE KIDDIES. Since outside links may contain uncensored hardcore content, you are advised to only click on links pointing to pages outside of this site if you are willing to possibly view uncensored adult material. By clicking on the link to view this entire post (or reading any further), you hereby state to me that you wish to read about and view such content and will not hold me libel for any damages that may occur to your psyche or anything else if you proceed any further.

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I am now officially starting a recurring, but not necessarily annual, tradition here at Spook Central of posting one or two holiday songs that aren't quite your normal holiday songs. I unofficially christened this new feature back in 2005 with the posting of two Rugrats holiday songs (I retrofitted that post to be part of this new series), and sewed the seeds of it about ten years ago with this year's songs, which I sent around via e-mail at that time to my friends. I could have sworn that I also posted them here, but since I apparently didn't, they become the official first in the new tradition.

I currently have enough material for several more years of holiday song posts. After that....well, I'll just have to see if I can find anything - assuming the Mayans are wrong and we're all still here after 2012. Maybe I'll take user submissions to help make this a continual annual tradition. I guess I'll see how this goes and what the reception is from you guys to this being a recurring feature.

We start with two oldies but goodies that demonstrate the special bond between Halloween and Christmas (and New Years). They come from the 1994 album Tales From The Crypt: Have Yourself A Scary Little Christmas, which is available for download at RapidShare, Megaupload, Rapidshare, Megaupload, and Rapidshare. (links courtesy of Vinnie Rattolle and the Universal Horror Sounds blog).


If you want something that's also humorous, but less creepy, to listen to tomorrow, check out Frank Welker's A Totally Ridiculous 12 Days of Christmas from 1986. Also, Amazon has many free MP3s available for download, including 25 special holiday ones which you can find via the banner link below. Please note that not all of the free holiday songs are on the 25 Days of Free page, so use the link in the previous sentence to see everything that's available. I personally recommend Rasheeda Azar's "Eight Days of Hanukkah", Sara Groves' "Toy Packaging", Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's "Mr. Heatmiser", Los Straitjackets' "Deck The Halls", Keyshia Cole's "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", Sixpence None The Richer's "Silent Night", and if you don't mind something overtly sexual for the holidays Lady GaGa's "Christmas Tree".

[UPDATE 1/1/2010 - Click to page 2 for an article and videos about the closing.]

The legendary restaurant Tavern on the Green, where Louis was refused entry because they don't allow pets, will have its last seating on December 31, 2009 after 75 years of service. In September, the LeRoy family, who has owned the restaurant since 1974, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, due to the financial crisis and New York City's decision to give the Tavern license to a new operator, Dean J. Poll. As reported by the New York Times, the LeRoys' license has been extended to February 14th to allow the family enough time to remove the items it owns and to conduct an auction of the restaurant's famous interior and exterior fixtures and topiaries. The auction, which will be conducted by Guernsey's auction house, will be held on-site in the Crystal Room on January 13th and 14th (though you can also bid in absentia via telephone, e-mail or internet). Previews will be held on-site January 6-12 from 12-8 PM each day. Poll, who takes over in February with his new 20-year license, plans to renovate with green technology. However, he may not be allowed to use the Tavern on the Green name. The LeRoys and the City are embroiled in a trademark dispute over the name, though Poll has registered Tavern in the Park as an alternative.

It is unknown when Poll's new Tavern will open, but even if it retains the name, it certainly won't be the same place that everyone has known and loved for the past 35-75 years. So if you want to celebrate the real Tavern's last Christmas or New Years, make your reservations right away.

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Thanks to the generosity of the folks who run On Location Tours, I am pleased to offer you a special discount of 10% off the ticket price of any of their New York City tours, which includes locations used in Ghostbusters, as well as other movies and television shows. Just go to their website, select the tour you want to buy tickets for - New York TV and Movie Tour, Sex & the City Hotspots Tour, Sopranos Sites Tour, Gossip Girl Sites Tour, and Central Park Walking Tour - then enter promo code SPOOKCENTRAL to nab your 10% off discount. It's as simple as that.

Jason over at Ghostbusters News has just concluded his list of the Top Ten Ghostbusters Villains of All Time, as chosen by the fans.

1. The Boogieman
2. Gozer/Stay Puft
3. Samhain
4. Vigo the Carpathian
5. The Sandman
6. The Peoplebusters
7. Cathulhu
8. The Anti-Ghostbusters
9. The Grundel
10. Ivo Shandor

He's also started up a countdown of a dozen sexy Ghostgals to keep you warm this Christmas season.

1. Izzy
2. Erica
3. Jessica
4. Vanessa
5. Brandy
6. Courteney
7. Amber
8. Rayne
9. Gina
10. Stephanie
11. Michelle
12. Kendra

And if that's not enough sexiness for you, go grab the Sexy Ghostbusters Calender: December wallpaper featuring the oh-so-gorgeous Kimberly Balevre (aka Midori Kai) dressed as the Spider Witch from Ghostbusters: The Video Game. If you'd like to see more of Kim - and who wouldn't? - be sure to check out the other pics of her as the Spider Witch here and here; as Real Ghostbusters Janine; and because she apparently wants to fulfill every fantasy I have, as Jessica Rabbit. I think I just found the woman that I want to marry.

Dear Sony

Like millions of Americans today, I watched Macy's annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, which runs through the streets of New York City. As I was watching the parade run down Central Park West, right past #55 where the Ghostbusters fought Gozer, and through Columbus Circle, where Stay Puft made his grand entrance, a thought occurred to me. A thought that obviously did not occur to you: Where's the Ghostbusters? Why has there never been a Ghostbusters balloon?

Since the start of the parade route runs the reverse of Stay Puft's walk towards Dana's apartment building, a giant Stay Puft balloon would be appropriate. If the balloon could be flown in a standing position, it would actually look like he was walking down the street. The closest thing there was to a Stay Puft balloon in the parade was a Pillsbury Doughboy balloon. When the freakin' Pillsbury Doughboy has a balloon and Mr. Stay Puft doesn't - in a parade that runs through New York City - you know something's wrong!

If a Stay Puft balloon was not feasible, then a Slimer balloon, or even a No Ghost Logo balloon would do. You could have the balloon in the parade every year, which would keep Ghostbusters fresh in the minds of young and old alike. Heck, at the very least, you could have gotten the refurbished Ecto-1 out to New York and had it in the parade with Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis, and Hudson inside it waving to the fans. I don't know about Murray, but I'm sure the other three would have gladly said yes. It's not like this idea hasn't been "done" before. The Real Ghostbusters episode "The Revenge of Murray the Mantis" features the Ghostbusters, Ecto-1, and a Stay-Puft balloon (technically the real entity pretending to be a balloon) in the Thanksgiving Day parade.

All of the "iconic" parade floats - Spider-Man, Snoopy, Garfield (who was absent this year), etc. - are from properties just as old, if not older, than Ghostbusters; and aside from Spider-Man, none of them are associated with New York like Ghostbusters is. And the parade follows Stay Puft's walk down the streets (albeit in reverse), and goes right by Dana's apartment, so it's SO appropriate that it's scary! Ghostbusters should have had a balloon in the parade since 1984 (or at least the late 1980s when the cartoon series was big). It should be one of the parade's iconic balloons.

Having a Ghostbusters presence in the biggest parade of the year helps to keep the franchise alive in the minds of the general public - which helps leverage the franchise so you can make more money off of it, be it on merchandise or a new movie. Keeping Ghostbusters in the minds of the general public, especially with the HUGE audience the parade generates, is a VERY good thing for Sony.

You know, on the Ecto-1 Restoration featurette on the Ghostbusters Blu-Ray, your executives claim that Ghostbusters is one of your biggest properties, and that you restored the Ecto-1 in part because of the fans, but I didn't feel that love coming through in the parade. Sony, in conjunction with Sierra (and later Atari), paid to have the Ecto-1 displayed at events throughout the country, all of which are not nearly as big as the Thanksgiving Day parade. It's really sad that you'd have the car out at events where, in comparison, very few people would actually see it; yet leave it out of a big event that millions of people across the USA (and maybe worldwide) watch every year.

Consider this: When a Ghostbusters balloon or the Ecto-1 is shown on television, the parade commentators will talk about Ghostbusters, the Blu-Ray, the interest in a third movie, and so on. That's HUGE money-making buzz right there. There was so much potential for you to please the fans and make a huge amount of money, yet you wasted it because you probably never thought of doing it. If Sony ever wanted to test the waters for interest in a third Ghostbusters movie, having Ghostbusters represented in the parade would have done it.

To put this into perspective, the Mach 5 from Speed Racer was in the parade, even though there's no movie or cartoon out right now related to it. The feature film and new cartoon came out last year, and the original series is MUCH older than Ghostbusters. Speed Racer sure as heck didn't have a high-profile video game release this year, did it?

This year was the 25th anniversary of Ghostbusters, and as such, was a perfect time to premiere a Ghostbusters balloon in the parade. You know, to make up for not having one the past 25 years. It would have also given you great publicity for the Blu-Ray and video game...and the third movie that you're interested in making. The only time I heard your name mentioned during the parade was in connection with The Smurfs float, as you are apparently making a feature film based on that property in 2011. It's not like anyone has been pushing for a Smurfs movie to be made, yet everyone wants a third Ghostbusters movie. And the Smurfs didn't get a video game revival this year, like Ghostbusters did. Considering that you own Ghostbusters, and are only licensing The Smurfs, this really shows us Ghostbusters fans how much love you have for one of your biggest money-making franchises.

Yours Truly,
Paul Rudoff
(a Ghostbusters fan since 1984)

Wrestling personality and pop culture icon Captain Lou Albano passed away this past Wednesday at age 76. If you grew up in the 1980s, you probably remember him from his trademark Hawaiian shirts, wiry goatee and rubber bands hung like piercings from his cheek. He was all over the pop culture landscape during that decade, appearing on World Wrestling Federation television programs, several Cyndi Lauper music videos (most notable as her scruffy, overbearing father in "Girls Just Want To Have Fun"), episodes of the TV series "Miami Vice" and "227", the 1986 movies "Body Slam" and "Wise Guys", and even an issue of Triad's "The Honeymooners" comic book.

He is also well-known for portraying, in voice and live-action, the video game icon Mario in "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show" from 1989 to 1991. One live-action segment of that series featured a Ghostbusting appearance by Ernie Hudson. In the segment entitled "Slime Busters", which aired on September 8, 1989, the Mario brothers suspect that a ghost is haunting their home. So who do they call? Ernie Hudson, that's who.

This isn't the Captain's only pop culture connection to Ghostbusters. The animated series "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling" (where his character/persona was voiced by George DiCenzo, but he played himself in some live-action segments) contains an episode entitled "Ghost Wrestlers" in which Hulk Hogan and his crew help an old wrestler rid his retirement home of ghosts. Yes, the wrestlers use Ghostbusters-style weapons. What's rather surprising is that the actual Ray Parker Jr. song is used, but only the instrumental intro portion of it. Even though his vocals aren't used, Ray is listed in the end credits: "Ghostbusters, performed by Ray Parker, Jr., Courtesy of Arista Records". The series was produced by DiC, who also produced The Real Ghostbusters. The episode is available by itself on SP-speed VHS and is supposedly included with "Superfly Express" on WWF's EP-speed "Vol. 4" VHS release.

MORE CAPTAIN LOU ALBANO LINKS
* IMDB
* Kevin Eck's Remembrance
* Phil Reisman's Remembrance
* Funeral Remembrance

I have been asked numerous times where I got the Ghostbusters 25th Anniversary logo you see on the right. That's the official logo created by Sony, but they never bothered to release a high quality version of it to the fans. You'd think that they would have put some 25th Anniversary logo wallpaper on Ghostbusters.com, but they didn't. The white background with shadow version you see here was nabbed from Fangoria's website, when they used it in conjunction with the Blu-Ray release party they had with Sony back in June. However, thanks to their European contest with Brother, Sony released some high-quality versions of the 25th Anniversary logo. They were put inside PDFs and placed upon a slime background, but I released them from their PDF prisons and put them onto solid backgrounds. You can thank me later.

White BG
* 1700x1700 (taken from the slime background version below, manually cleaned by Paul Rudoff [me])
* 2708x2149 (logo with title below) (taken from the slime background version below, manually cleaned by Paul Rudoff [me])
* 250x250 (with shadow) (cropped by Paul Rudoff [me] from Fangoria's banner)

Black BG
* 1700x1700 (taken from the slime background version below, manually cleaned by Paul Rudoff [me])
* 2708x2149 (logo with title below) (taken from the slime background version below, manually cleaned by Paul Rudoff [me])
* Buy It On A Shirt

Here are the original images that were stuck inside the PDF Posters on the Brother UK and Ireland sites. I used a PDF image extraction program to set these puppies free. The images below are 4961x2539 and are roughly 6-7 MB each. Click to view inline (will be scaled down to fit your monitor), right-click and select Save As to save to your hard drive.


By the way, there's a neat little Flash game on the Brother site, too. It's part of the European contest, but anyone can play it. You just won't be able to submit your high score for inclusion in the contest. (Here's Ireland's version of the game.)

Doreen Mulman, of the Ghostbusters Fan Forum sent me the above photo which she found as the default photo on Pauly Shore's Facebook profile. Mr. Shore may not be the most liked of comedians, but I love the stylish way he combines his political views with pop culture references. (Photo also courtesy of CelebrityWeek.com)

By the way, I've been informed of an ongoing layout problem with this blog in Internet Explorer v7, where the individual post pages are super wide. I can't see it for myself because I have IEv6. The problem doesn't affect IEv6, FireFox, or SeaMonkey - and hopefully not Opera or any other browser. I'm trying to get the problem resolved as quickly as possible. In the meantime, if you're using IEv7, please bear with it or use a different (read: real) browser. Many thanks to AJ Quick for his help with the layout and in finding this glitch.

Someone by the screen name Smwance (aka Scottmw1971) recently posted a collection of Ghostbusters Successories. What are Successories? Well, it's a company and a name to describe an iconic product that company produces. Successories is a producer and retailer of motivational office decorations, mostly featuring photographs paired with sentiments about motivation, teamwork, and perseverance.

You can find all 18 of Smwance's Ghostbusters Successories at Flickr (extremely large) and LiveJournal (medium at best). The extremely large images are desirable if you want to print them out and put them on your walls.

Scottmw1971 made a lot more Successories than just the Ghostbusters ones. You can find them all at Flickr and LiveJournal.

Oh, and if you'd like to make your own, go to Despair.com. I've made one so far, but it's not suitable for family viewing :-)

[UPDATE - 2/29/2008]
Spengs from Ghostbusters International wrote in to let me know that there are other Ghostbusters Successories out there. More serious, motivational posters were created last year by a fan whose name he does not remember. These 17 Ghostbusters Successories, which were originally posted to Proptopia, were archived by Spengs and can be downloaded from his site.