brendan halpin

What to do when the world falls apart? Watch horror movies, of course! I wrote about Ghoulies here, and apparently this kicked off a spree of Funny Little Guys Wrecking Stuff movies.

I am old enough that to have watched countries that once existed simply stop existing. I’m not talking about countries from my youth like Rhodesia and Zaire and Burma that changed names. I’m talking about countries that just stopped existing in the form in which I knew them: The USSR. East and West Germany. Yugoslavia. Czechoslovakia.

What a strange, beautiful, creepy movie this is!

A powdered, bewigged French nobleman gets stuck in the Serbian countryside and shelters with a family whose father comes back changed from a mission of revenge.

Last night I ventured to Deep Cuts in Medford to see Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol. Their most recent album is called Big Dumb Riffs, and, I mean, talk about delivering what’s on the label. It’s a really fun, gleefully stupid record.

Is there a better balm for the soul in troubled times than watching people get suplexed, dropkicked, and clotheslined? I think not!

In case you’ve missed it, Brookline resident/nepo baby Josh Kraft has filed paperwork to run for mayor of Boston.

Given that Kraft didn’t even own property in Boston until 2023 and seemed confused as to where he lived in campaign finance filings through the end of 2024, sometimes listing his Brookline address, sometimes listing his Boston address, it’s worth asking why he wants to be mayor of Boston.

I wrote this nearly nine years ago for my mailing list, and I think it’s one of the best pieces of nonfiction I’ve ever written. I also think it unfortunately remains relevant.

Content warning: depictions of violence, discussion of sexual assault.

Tubi turns out to have a pretty extensive lineup of B, C, and lower grade horror movies. And they’re all free to watch with commercials. The only downside is that the commercials ALWAYS stall, so every commercial break is at least two minutes longer than it’s supposed to be because you’re staring at an unmoving screen halway through a Nissan ad. Weird because the movies never stall. And annoying to boot! But still I watch, so joke’s on me, I guess!

I recently saw a clip of Moon Zappa being interviewed about her memoir. I found her funny and charming in the 80’s, but, more importantly, we’re roughly the same age and I too grew up in an unconventional home in the 70’s and 80’s (though my home was Ozzie and Freakin’ Harriet compared to the Zappa household), so I decided to listen to the Audiobook on Spotify. (Which is something you can do, apparently!)

Chaotic Wrestling got the new year off to a fantastic start with a show at the Irish American Club in Malden that really had it all. Let’s dive in to the recap, shall we?