New Gallery

I'm not using deviantART.com to host my art any longer so for now I'm using Picasa Web Albums. Go here to view: http://picasaweb.google.com/shanesemler

Lists I

I'm not a big horror movie fan. However, there are some horror movies I really dig. Here's a list of them, in more or less the order they came out. Some people may be annoyed at my lack of some obvious choices but these are mine, not yours. Make your own list. You'll notice a lot of old movies on this list and that's because I think the old movies were done best. New isn't always better.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Nosferatu (1922) - The blown-out, grainy, scratchy images accent the weirdness and horror. The first and the best. Fan-fucking-tastic.
Dracula (1931) - The 1999 video release with a Philip Glass score, performed by the Kronos Quartet is nice as well.
The Mummy (1932)
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Psycho (1960) - I know I'm in the minority here but I think the Gus Van Sant version is great and worth watching as well.
The Thing from Another World (1951) - surprisingly intelligent and has an unusually strong and smart female character for a movie from the mid-twentieth century.
Night of the Living Dead (1968) - This is a classic. I've not seen the remake and I don't care to.
The Legend of Hell House (1973)
The Fog (1980)
The Evil Dead (1981)
The Thing (1982) - a rare remake that actually improves on the original.
Demons (1985)
The Fly (1986)
The Hitcher (1986) - I can't fathom why they would remake this.
Evil Dead II (1987)
Paperhouse (1988)
Dracula (1992) - I can't adequately express how much I love this version of Dracula. It's campy, scary, beautiful, over-the-top and it has Gary Oldman! Also stars Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Richard E. Grant, Cary "As you wish" Elwes, Tom Waits (WTF!!!?? He's great in it but still, WTF!!!???) and Keanu Reeves with an entirely unconvincing British accent. It's awesome!
Frankenstein (1992 TNT TV version) Extremely underrated and faithful adaption of Mary Shelly's classic. It stars Randy Quaid as the monster!
Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
House on Haunted Hill (1999) - I love Geoffrey Rush in this!
Thir13en Ghosts (2001) - Mostly hated by everyone but I enjoyed it. Pre-Monk Tony Shalhoub!
Silent Hill (2006) - way way way underrated. I recall some moron on a random horror website berating the movie for the use of CGI monsters, which is idiotic considering that all the monster effects were done with practical makeup and costumes.

That's all I can think of atm.

Last Post

Two followers on my Shadowjack site. Other than that, I might have 3 (maybe a half dozen if I include family members) people in the world are vaguely interested in what I do. There's no reason to keep these blogs up.

Depression and My Art

I have serious problems with depression and have had them since at least HS. Every now and then, it creeps up on me and overwhelms me. The despair becomes incredibly intense and it's almost more than I can bear.

That said, I probably won't give up on my art and music. However, seeing as how few people seem to care about what I do, I don't know that I have much incentive to share it with anyone any longer.

The few of you that are interested, thanks. I hope you continue to visit these blogs and twitter. I can't make any promises about new news on my progress though. I doubt I'll be going back to deviantart so don't look for my art there. If there was more interest, I'd probably feel differently but this is the way things are.

I quit

At best my art and design is mediocre, it worst it's amateurish, irrelevant shit. I clearly don't have enough talent, skill, determination... whatever. I'm sick of trying to convince myself I'm an artist. I wanted to do work that was inspiring. It's not. I've been wasting my time for the last 20+ years. I quit.

The Fall of Man/Groovfuct Album Cover

I did the album artwork last night. It's almost exactly what I saw in my dream. I'm not sure I'm going to use it though. It's kind of a big ol' bummer, very realistic, especially in light of world events. The narrative of the album goes in a more sci-fi direction, though it starts out realistically. I just don't know.

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Have a great 2009!