Twin Terrors Macabre Manor of Mead Metal and Mayhem

Welcome to the Manor!  Join us as we discuss if the lads and lasses from Halloween Town and their movie should be watched at Halloween or at Christmas.  We're sure the answer will surprise no one.  Next week's episode is about Algernon Blackwood's winter time spooky story "The Glamour of the Snow." Get in touch with us at Podbean:  https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-4pksr-a17e1a Or on Facebook...

Welcome to Thanksgiving at the Manor!  Pull up a chair and get ready to dig into popcorn, toast, and jelly beans (which is something we'll talk about next year -- foreshadowing, dun dun dun!).  I wonder what goes better with that repast, stout or mead?  Guess we'll have to find out within the next 365 days. But we digress (sorry for the tangent).  This year we're talking about the Arlo Guthrie son...

Welcome back to the Manor!  Join us as we discuss songs from the '70s, '80s, and '90s that are folk rock (it is Friday the 13th after all, heh heh heh), even though they weren't meant to be.  Yes, we'll get into our reasons, even giving some counter-examples!  Hooray! Next week's episode is a Thanksgiving episode on Alice's Restaurant and Charlie Brown/Peanuts. Get in touch with us at Podbean:  ht...

Welcome to the Manor, where the clocks and mirrors are draped with striped black.  A month ago today the world lost one of the greatest guitarists ever to grace its green face, when Eddie Van Halen passed away.  Join us as we pay tribute to Eddie and discuss what we loved about him and the band in general.  Cheers, Eddie! Next week's episode is "Unintentional Folk Rock." Get in touch with us at Po...

By the pricking of our thumbs... we have something to cure that.  Alcohol and talking about spooky, creepy carnivals!  Along with another "B Author" talk, where we get into Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes," we'll give other film, television, and musical suggestions for dark carnivals. So join us in the last Halloween episode of 2020!  Or is it?  MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! Next week's ep...

Welcome to the Manor's haunting Halloween happenings!  This special episode is just a nice stroll down the avenue of animated shows.  Halloween shows that we watch, whether annually, every few years, or even just once because they aren't out anymore. Next episode is about dark and creepy carnivals, including Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes." Get in touch with us at Podbean:  https:...

Welcome back to the Manor and to more Halloween haunted horror  happenings.  This time we get into Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," as 2020 marks the 200th anniversary of that great book.  We also discuss adaptations, such as the Disney/Bing Crosby version, as well as related music.   Plus, the overlap of the headless horseman with the Wild Hunt!  Hoorah! So go dance a jig with K...

Welcome back to the Manor!  Enjoy a special extra mid-week Halloween season episode.  Last year, Jody and I went to a wonderful place called Doughnuts and Dragons, where we played a spooky card game called Gloom and also enjoyed tasty doughnuts and wonderful brews.  We saved the episode for this Halloween season. It is the last of our live recordings and was taken on James' phone, so much like the...

Welcome back to the Manor!  Continuing with our annual Halloween spookfest, with this year's theme of authors, we present to you Algernon Blackwood and two of his quite spooky stories!  Enjoy!   Next episode is our review of the card game Gloom, a rather spooky game. Get in touch with us at Podbean:  https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-4pksr-a17e1a Or on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/twin...

Welcome back to the Manor and our October spookfest!  One of our last live episodes (at least until we figure out how to do them without all the background noise) gets into Fantasmagoriana, a collection of German ghost stories printed by the French.  Fun, huh!?  No, it's spooooooky... Next week's episode is about... ha!  This Friday's episode is about Algernon Blackwood and two of his quite spooky...

Welcome to Halloween Country at the Manor!  We're continuing our spooky author theme with Ambrose Bierce and five wonderfully spooky short stories.  Which ones?  Other than mentioning the word "toe," you'll have to listen and find out! Next week's episode is about... wait, it's October!  That means there will be a midweek episode and we'll be discussing the collection of stories in Fantasmagoriana...

Welcome back to the Manor!  This midweek Halloween special is on Waukegan, Illinois, birthplace of Ray Bradbury.  James took a trip to check out the Ray Bradbury Experience Museum, gander at the places that influenced Ray (including The Ravine!), and the local Ray influenced brewpub. Next week's episode is about... more accurately this Friday's episode keeps going with our spooky author theme as w...

Welcome back to the Manor and our favorite time of year!  It's time to traipse through the October Country and start this year's theme of spooky authors with Ray Bradbury's "The Halloween Tree," one of James' all time favorite books.   Next week's episode is about... ha!  It's October!  You don't have to wait a week.  We'll be back midweek with a small Halloween episode about James' Waukegan, Illi...

Welcome back to the Manor!  We hope you're enjoying the Led Zeppelin episodes, because we sure are!  We continue our look into their third album, particularly their writing and recording at Headley Grange and a few early shows in Iceland and at the Bath Festival. Next week's episode starts our Halloween blitzkrieg!  We start with an episode about one of our favorite books and favorite authors, "Th...

Welcome back to the Manor and welcome to our annual Hobbit Day episode!  (Which also marks our second anniversary!)  Each year we talk about Hobbits to celebrate Bilbo and Frodo's shared birthday of September 22nd.  This year, we get into how the movies made the hobbits, especially Merry and Pippin (but a fair bit of Samwise, too) the short shrift and how much more awesome they were in the books....

Welcome to a special episode!  We wish Elvira, that most gorgeous of ghouls, the mistress of the dark, she who put the "bra" back in bravo, a happy 69th birthday.  Well, we actually go into some detail about why we love her, too. Don't worry.  There's still an episode coming out tomorrow. Next week's episode is on Hobbits!  It's our annual Hobbit Day episode, celebrating Bilbo's and Frodo's shared...

Welcome back to the Manor and welcome to more Deep Purple.  To quote Dee Snider "You're Gonna Burn in Hell!"  Well, one of those words are correct for this episode.  We introduce the new bandmates into DP, making the mark III line-up and discuss their first album together, DP's 8th studio album "Burn."  It's good stuff! Next week's episode... we have two!  Thursday will be a special tribute to Elv...

Welcome to the Manor, where we come from the land of ice and snow.  We're continuing our Led Zep III arc, with more history and context than you can shake a dragon boat oar at!   Next week's episode is a tribute to that most awesome of horror hosts, Elvira, for her 69th birthday.    Get in touch with us at Podbean:   https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-4pksr-a17e1a   Or on Facebook:   https://w...

Welcome to the last of our folk music episodes (although we may do future episodes on specific bands), finishing with folk metal!   Grab some mead and prepare to delve into the musicology and history of the genre.  We start in the early 1990s and work our way to the present, examining the sub-genres of this genre of metal.  Slainte and wassail!   Next week's episode is continuing our arc on Led Ze...

Born August 22nd, 1920, Ray Bradbury has his 100th birthday tomorrow, albeit postmortem (June 5th, 2012).  Pull up a chair and enjoy a pint and pipe as we talk about our favorite stories from one of James' top five authors (and a general favorite of Jody's, as well).   We'll also get into more detail on the specific books "The Halloween Tree" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" when we get into...

Welcome back to the Manor!  Today, we're talking about another manor, that most wonderful of hunting lodges / fortified manors, Traquair House!    Why?  Because James fouled up a couple things in a previous episode and wanted to correct himself, the process of which created an entire episode on the history of Traquair, some history and context of Scotland, and the brewing that occurs at their mano...

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin III!  To celebrate, we're doing the usual multi-episode (3, 4, or 5 - you know how we are) arc.     So sit back with us here at the Manor and enjoy a pint and a pipe as we talk about the band and their writing, recording, touring, and more!   Picture courtesy of James' music collection.   Next week's episode is about Scotland's Traquair House an...

Occasionally, as we're sitting at the Manor, we'll just start talking about whatever stupid things come into our heads (rather than the usual specific stupid things about which we usually talk).   This one is on our favorite non-metal music.  There will be a few of these and they kind of, more or less, basically, go by decade and genre.  They'll also be used for when we are hard at research on oth...

Welcome back to the Python Series 1 arc!  More Pythonesque jocularity as we cover first series (what we'd call 'season' in the States), as well as what they were doing post-university that led right up to the show. Enjoy! Next episode: Led Zeppelin, the third album era. Get in touch with us at Podbean:  https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-4pksr-a17e1a Or on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/t...

Welcome to the second episode on Prohibition!  This time we're focusing on Clinton, Indiana and its general area.  Family lore, local lore, and more on the Slaven Prohibition Ale! Next episode: The second episode of Monty Python Series. Get in touch with us at Podbean:  https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-4pksr-a17e1a Or on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/twinterrorsmacabremanormeadmetalmay...