"1408"

When it was released on CD, I thought Stephen King's Blood and Smoke was pretty good. Only one story is bad, one is fairly good and the third is fantastic.

I previously encountered "Lunchtime at the Gotham Cafe", one of those horror stories that makes little sense both in print and in my ear. (Why did all the craziness start? I don't get it. I accept the idea of a normal, frequent experience shattered by the sudden bloom of violence, but there is no reason for the violence to occur other than "guy goes crazy". It's a lame reason, so I don't get it.)

"In the Death Room" is much better. A tortured man asks for a last cigarette before he is executed. Many interesting things ensue.

The best, though, is "1408", the story of a ghost hunter who investigates a haunted hotel room. The description that King presents to his reader is extremely descriptive. The story is intriguing and I predicted that someone will make it into a film after my first listen-through. My prediction has come true:

From Variety: Dimension Films has optioned Stephen King's short story "1408," teaming for the first time with one of the modern godfathers of horror -- a staple genre for the Miramax sister unit. Matt Greenberg (Halloween H20: 20 Years Later) is attached to pen the feature adaptation, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura is to produce.

The story would need padding in order to get it to feature-length. My mind's eye film is an arty short with lots of dialogue and Kubrickesque photography.

In Search Of

I need help finding a particular type of food. NO it isn't gross. Hehe.

I'm looking for Del Monte Chili Ketchup. My cousin and I love this stuff. When a relative vacations in the Philippines, she always gets the relative to come back with a crate of it for her. I want to be able to order the stuff online and get it delivered to my doorstep. I wrote an email to the people with listed on the site, but I'm not confident I'll get a good answer. I know this stuff would be a hit in the US, why isn't it here?