FOURTEENTH ANNUAL RONDO HATTON CLASSIC HORROR AWARDS!

The calendar says March so it's that time of year again! Yes, it's time for the Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards! This is the 14th year of the award and, as usual, the ballot is a lengthy one full of laudable efforts in the preservation, appreciation and amplification of the Classic Horror genre in any and all forms. If you needed a reminder to cast your vote for the various categories consider this a poke in the ribs to motivate your fingers to tap on over and help decide what the best additions made to the field were in 2015. Or, as I do, just choose what were your favorites!

In past years Troy and I have been lucky enough to have our podcast NaschyCast nominated but this year I was sad to see we didn't make the cut. This isn't much of a surprise as we have scaled back production in the last two years and shifted our focus to The Bloody Pit show to widen the scope of our monthly conversations. But I was quite surprised to see that this very blog was nominated instead under section 16 - BEST WEBSITE OR BLOG OF 2015! Wow! I'm stunned and a little self-conscious about my humble scribblings being considered worthy of award attention. But, maybe the nomination is for my meandering writing as well as the two podcasts we produce through the site? Yeah! I feel that has to be the idea. That's pretty cool. So - if you enjoy this blog and what we do on the shows please consider casting your vote for The Bloody Pit of Rod.

But that is hardly the only category I want to talk about! Let me point out the nominations of several talented friends whose work is very much worth you time and attention. First, podcasting buddy Mark Maddox is up for the amazing Rodan cover he did for the magazine Mad Scientist #30. As you can see it's a beauty that captures the color and grandeur of the monster in action.

My longtime friend Larry Underwood is up for multiple awards this year (having taken home a few in the past!) with his column for Scary Monsters magazine 'The Doctor is In-Sane' nominated in the Best Columnist category. Of course, I'm also a fan of Larry Blamire's Video Watchdog column 'Star Turn' so I'm not sure how I'll decided between them! This choice might be made easier by the fact that I could vote for Larry in the category of Best Multimedia Horror Site for his excellent series The Fantastic Films of Vincent Price. But in the same category is my beloved darling from Madrid, Mistress Elena, with her phenomenal podcast Horror Rises From Spain. Elena is a regular contributor to the Naschycast and has always jumped in to help us understand the stranger aspects of Spanish horror so maybe I should vote for her. This is more difficult than I expected. And also nominated in the same list is the fun and informative podcast from Derek M. Koch, Monster Kid Radio! Dammit! Is it possible to vote more than once? We certainly live in a time of Classic Horror podcasting awesomeness. 

Luckily the choice for Best Commentary is a little easier for me because, even though my buddy Tim Lucas is nominated for his BLACK SABBATH and BLOOD AND BLACK LACE tracks, I intend to write in a vote for his excellent effort on Jess Franco's EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN instead. Rarely do I feel the desire to listen to such a track a second time but I ended up revisiting Tim's informative run-through of this odd monster mash just to soak up the stories again. Great stuff!

And one final suggestion. When I first complied this list of friend's efforts that are up for Rondos this year my eye spied what I thought was the great podcast The B-Movie Cast listed under Best Multimedia Horror Site. Indeed, I composed a loving recommendation for that fine show in the hopes of pointing more folks toward Vince Rotolo's crew, not just for the sake of this award, but to get more attention to this very long lived podcast. The B-Movie Cast has lasted for years amusingly covering every kind of B-Movie they can think of and doing it very well. Host Vince, his put-upon wife wife Mary, semi-pro plot explainer Nic and movie nut Juan make their way through 50's monster films, 60's biker movies, psychedelic art flicks and incomprehensible ninja epics all in the name of enjoying B-Movies. And strange cinema. But the fact that this podcast was not nominated only means one thing! Well- two things, actually. One - you can still vote for it because the Rondos allow write votes to be cast! OR - and this is where I think we should concentrate our efforts - We can take the opportunity to name Vince Rotolo - the tireless podcaster with nearly a decade of shows behind him - as a new inductee to the Monster Kid Hall of Fame! That's right! The final category on the ballot is Monster Kid Hall of Fame and it is open for any and all suggestions. The idea behind the award is to induct ".. fans, pros, writers, researchers, horror hosts or others (who) should be inducted into the Rondo Awards Monster Kid Hall of Fame". I can think of no one more deserving than Vince! And to that end I ask that when you cast your ballot you give serious thought to naming him for this honor. It's past time he and his co-hosts were recognized for their fine work making fans of these film laugh as they find others like themselves by way of the B-Movie Cast! So, with a major hat-tip to Derek Koch for this fine image - 

So there are a few ideas for you to think about as you construct your 2015 ballot. Reward the writers, artists, filmmakers, horror hosts, interviewers, podcasters and magazines with a little recognition of their hard work. We all do this out of a love of Classic Horror and the joy we all share in these wonderful movies. Let the people that put a smile on your face last year know you appreciate their efforts. 

GO VOTE!