“You have to be sentimental to be sensitive to impressions of terror, mystery, or the occult. After all, sentimentality is nothing more or less than an overactive imagination, a tendency to try to dramatize impressions.”- FREAKS director Tod Browning, quoted in BELA LUGOSI: DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES by Gary D. Rhodes with Richard Sheffield (Collectables, 2007)… Read More »03 JULY ’07
I’d rather take a chance on being called cornball than to die a wise ass.” — Jim Harrison The other day, my webmaster and older son (not necessarily in that order) told me that it was past time to update my website, reminding me gently that it was easier to do it now that he’d shown me how I didn’t have to go… Read More »Cornball
“You either have too many gigs or not enough.” – Just About Every Musician I’ve Ever Talked To Well, here’s the Halloween ’06 website update, and for those of you keeping score, it is indeed not the quarterly update I said I’d try to start doing in my last entry. In fact, it missed being… Read More »You Either Have Too Many Gigs or Not Enough
“An artist is his own fault.” — John O’Hara If you think you haven’t heard from me in a while, you’re right. I’ve been off paving the road to hell with good intentions, which is a dirty job, and pretty hot as well — not to mention clichéd. The good intentions here refer to my… Read More »An Artist Is His Own Fault
Well, as the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers used to say, a year passes like nothing. (For you youngsters not hip to the underground comics of the ’60s and ’70s, the Freak Bros. were characters created and drawn by the great Gilbert Shelton, who also gave the world Wonder Wart Hog.) Actually, it hasn’t been quite… Read More »A Year Passes Like Nothing
One of us, one of us, gibble gobble, one of us . . . The wedding chant of those lovable circus freaks in the greatest horror film of all time — that would be Tod Browning’s Freaks from 1932 — once again welcomes you to the John Wooley website. This is the spring-summer 2004 edition,… Read More »One of us, one of us, gibble gobble, one of us . . .
You may recognize those lines as part of the welcome given the haughty trapeze artist (played by Olga Baclanova) in the classic 1932 movie Freaks. And while that particular welcoming didn’t go all that well, we’ve appropriated those lines to introduce you to our website, where you’ll find news about new John Wooley books and… Read More »One of Us #4
You may recognize those lines from the wedding feast in Freaks, the 1932 Tod Browning masterpiece that happens to be one of my three favorite films of all times. (The other two? White Christmas and Grapes of Wrath. Glad you asked.) We appropriate those timeless words as a way of welcoming you to the John… Read More »One of Us #3
Once again, those lines from what may be the greatest horror movie ever made, 1932’s immortal Freaks, welcome you to the John Wooley website. We (that’s not the royal or editoral “we,” but my webmaster son Jonathan and I) appreciate all of you who’ve visited since our last update, back in January. Thanks also for… Read More »One of Us #2
The wedding chant of those lovable circus freaks in the greatest horror film of all time — that would be Tod Browning’s Freaks from 1932 — welcomes you to the official (come to think of it, as far as we know, there are no unofficial ones) John Wooley website. This is the late fall-early winter… Read More »One of Us #1