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Desperate Living

@desperate-living.bsky.social

153 followers 52 following 307 posts

Cultural chaos and forgotten stories. Website: desperate-living.com. YouTube: www.youtube.com/@DesperateLivingVideo. Support us: www.patreon.com/desperateliving and www.buymeacoffee.com/reprobatepress

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Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I Float Alone: The Julee Cruise Story www.youtube.com/watch?v=in4p...

I Float Alone: The Julee Cruise Story

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Home video's greatest mystery - the story of Death Bed: The Bed That Eats, a movie so obscure that even its director had no idea that it had been released. It's also one of the most brilliantly bizarre movies ever made. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sxc...

Home Video's Greatest Mystery: Death Bed - The Bed That Eats

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Vote Binface!

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Some of you - perhaps the social nonconformists, malingerers, idlers, moral lepers, parasites, spongers, frauds, cheats and unrepentant criminals amongst you - may recall God's Cop, the infamous James Anderton. If so or if not, the whole sorry story is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJH...

The Awful, Pointless Life of God's Cop, James Anderton

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

You may have heard of this Count Binface fellow. But do you know his full story? It's one that reaches all the way back to Video Nasties like The Driller Killer, with twists, turns and (in classic superhero style) a change of ID along the way. Read with amazement: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HGE...

Vote! Vote! Vote! The Full Story Behind Count Binface, Lord Buckethead and the Gremloids

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Everyone knows that Airplane! was a remake of Zero Hour! - but what was Zero Hour! a remake of? A look into the many, many very serious versions of the story that eventually birthed a classic, groundbreaking comedy film. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUK6...

Flights Into Danger - The Many, Many Versions of the Story that Inspired Airplane!

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Given that people are banging on about Faces of Death, I should probably share this, which is my most popular YouTube post to date. Start here, go on to explore the rest... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi_0...

Beyond Belief: The Story of the Most Infamous Film Franchise of All Time

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

I have a lengthy documentary exploring the rise and fall of Soho as London's striptease and smut industry centre on here. I love Beat Girl so it was a pleasure to be a part of this collection (also includes the fantastic Virgin of Nuremberg, Hands of Orlac and An Arabian Adventure).

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

A Halloween treat from the Overlooked Hotel: a look at what might be the most terrifying video game ever released... www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yxZ...

Is This The Most Terrifying Video Game Ever Released?

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

No @mayhemfilmfestival.bsky.social for me this year. I'm stuck babysitting for the duration as Miss Yuki recovers from her op.

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

So pleased to be part of this epic exploration of destape-era Spanish exploitation - a wild, under-explored era of no-holds-barred sleazy cinema crossed with arthouse ideas. I do commentaries on three titles here that I think sum up the era's mad vibe, mixing gore, sex, politics and experimentalism.

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

New family member.

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

From the high seas to the high street - the Fighting Furies were some of the most impressive action figures of the 1970s, combining button-controlled sword fighting, extravagant costumes and a unique look. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EawJ...

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

New vital documentary study: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo2W...

Mail Order Monkey Madness!

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Reposted by Desperate Living

Eamonn McGuinness @emcguinness.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

If you enjoyed 'Space' on #TOTP 1977 tonight then the excellent @desperate-living.bsky.social has a insightful video on the real sound of '77 youtu.be/0LHfyY8pQTY?...

The Sound of 1977

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Incredible, isn't it? I'd predicted that this would happen, but I'd figured that they would wait six months or so before trotting out the 'loophole' nonsense. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Stop children using VPNs to watch porn, ministers told

The children's commissioner for England tells the BBC virtual private networks are a

Reposted by Desperate Living

Eamonn McGuinness @emcguinness.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

youtu.be/bBUquZZckFE?... from @desperate-living.bsky.social

The Story of Cyborg, Muton and Android

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Given that this was slapped with the YouTube X-rating, I've followed the grand tradition of American movie making by doing an R (or PG-13) edit. The unrated version remains available but people who can't/won't sign in to YT can now watch it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFtv...

THE SATAN SELLERS: the Rise, Fall and Resurrection of the Satanic Panic (PG-rated edit)

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Think of glamour girls of the 50s and 60s, and you might think of Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren or Diana Dors. But there was another household name of the era, now all but forgotten - Sabrina. www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8vd...

SABRINA - The Forgotten Blonde Bombshell of the 1950s

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Reposted by Desperate Living

Steven Sheil @scsheil.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Passes for this year's Mayhem Film Festival in Nottingham are now available to buy! 4 days of horror, sci-fi and cult cinema - premieres, previews, guest Q&As, archive screenings and other good stuff!

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

It's 2025 and I've just bought a VHS video recorder. And a cassette player. Of course.

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

Whoopee, we poor UK residents now have to start verifying our age to do all sorts of things online - including read messages on this site. Scammers and hackers must be over the moon.

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

While the Satanic Panic peaked in the 80s and 90s, it originated a decade earlier, with a backlash against the Age of Aquarius, RPGs and heavy metal, through a series of books led by a grubby work of fiction masquerading as a true memoir. www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6KP...

The Satan Sellers - Beatrice Sparks and the Birth of the Satanic Panic

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Jaws: A Personal History. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM70...

Jaws: A Personal History

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

There's a lot of competition out there for the worst piece of writing about video nasties, so kudos to The Guardian for stepping up and publishing a real contender. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ju...

theguardian.com

Was Thatcher right to ban ‘video nasties’? I binged Zombie Flesh Eaters and Slaughtered Vomit Dolls to find out

The ‘obscene’ movies once banned in the UK are now mostly freely available. Are these tales of cannibals and the undead antiquated schlock or genuinely repellent?

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

As great as Lalo Schifrin's scores were - and his music seems the very definition of 1970s cool - this remains my favourite piece of his. youtu.be/LKx15uDqtd4?...

Lalo Schifrin - Jaws (1976)

YouTube video by migno65

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Well, we did it.

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

It's a lacklustre Eurovision so far. But never mind. Thanks to The Overlooked Hotel, you can marvel in just how many past winners - more than makes any sense - were banned by the BBC during the Gulf War, lest they triggered radio listeners. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTz9...

Boom-Bang-A-Banned! The Forbidden Songs of the Gulf War

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Once upon a time, Reader's Digest regularly sent out flexidiscs promoting their latest record collections. Some of these discs actually played after negotiating the postal system - but not many. A tale of a lost world of hard sell and promotional ephemera. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Libc...

The Golden Hit Parade Of Reader’s Digest Flexi Discs

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Never mind the bollocks - of which there is plenty... it's

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

In 1980, a shady German geneticist was carrying out forbidden experiments in a mansion in Hertfordshire. On April 1st, early-evening magazine show Nationwide investigated, revealing startling - and frankly ludicrous - results in cloning. youtu.be/z5Pby3TyGLc?...

JURASSIC LARK: The BBC's Prehistoric APRIL FOOL'S Joke

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

The trend towards 'Dark Academia' as a look for trend-chasing dabblers is an annoying vacuous one, with a lack of sincerity and a disregard for the meaning and value of a library of books at its heart. www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1TY...

The Fraudulent World of DARK ACADEMIA: Instant Goth for the Dilettante

YouTube video by Desperate Living

Reposted by Desperate Living

Fred Bloggs @nude-lewd-rude.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

I bought some books and it's all the fault of @desperate-living.bsky.social #bookworm

Stack of henry miller books

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

In the mid-1970s, Britain was in the grip of monkey fever, with a fanatical Planet of the Apes fanbase unlike anywhere else in the world. Step forward a small fan club operator with big plans to take the film and TV franchise onto the stage. www.youtube.com/watch?v=isdC...

Where Apes Once Stood Supreme - The CURIOUS TALE of the PLANET OF THE APES Stage Show

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

PUMP ME UP! Cult movie icon and model Caroline Munro had a lesser known third career as a would-be pop star, recording several singles from the 1960s to the 1980s. Sadly, none were successful but they are a fascinating 'what if' aspect to her career. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC5Y...

PUMP ME UP: The Musical Happenings of CAROLINE MUNRO

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

From superheroes to celebrities to squirrels, nothing was left untried in the campaign to teach kids how to safely cross the road in the 1960s and 1970s. Anyone who ignored the ads must've been out of their tiny minds... www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmLl...

STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! SPLINK! The Odd World of Road Safety Advertising

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

At the height of the disco boom, two oddball cover version/tribute albums appeared that reworked the very serious work of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd into dance tunes, often bearing very little resemblance to the original tracks. This is their story. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Lbi...

DISCOSTELLAR OVERDRIVE: the odd disco tributes to PINK FLOYD and LED ZEPPELIN

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

No hanging around on this: I'm barely catching my breath from doing the commentary track and here is the announcement of this vital - yes, really - Jean Rollin softcore classic. Gird your loins in preparation.

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Make-Up effects maestro Dick Smith created a line of kits at the start of the 1980s, aimed at the teengage FX enthusiast, allowing them to become monsters, bloodied horror characters or even a ferocious gorilla! What could go wrong? youtu.be/pjQAEP7PIX0?...

FLEX FLESH! Dick Smith's HORROR MOVIE MAKE-UP Kits

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Despite being well into her Sixties, Dora Hall wanted to lauch a career as a pop star. Luckily for her, she was married to a wealthy businessman who could - more or less - make her dreams come true. The fascinating tale of a vanity recording artist. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhZa...

DORA'S WORLD: Exploring the Eccentric Career of Vanity Recording Artist and TV 'Star' DORA HALL

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

'Obscure creature features'. Y'know, like King Kong. I hope the writer of this piece is just as appalled by the headline as I am. theconversation.com/a-century-in...

theconversation.com

A century in motion: how stop-motion films went from obscure ‘creature features’ to winning Oscars

Stop motion has evolved monumentally since the first feature came out 100 years ago – yet it hasn’t lost its delicate charm.

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

The Purple Gang, led by masked singer Lucifer, released the single Granny Takes a Trip at the height of the psychedelic era in 1967. It MUST be an acid-soaked slice of hallucinatory madness, right? Well... the strange tale of a strange record. youtu.be/tIiedikKbg4?...

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Sometimes, interesting people pass on either unnoticed or overshadowed by more famous people or significant world events. Such was the case with director Jeannot Szwarc, who left us on the same day as David Lynch. youtu.be/hC0Ub9UDF34?...

Remembering JEANNOT SZWARC: an Overlooked Hotel Obituary

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

At a time when photography was new, expensive and time-consuming, many people would only be photographed once - and that might not be during their lifetime. A look at a strange memorial practice and the myths that surround it. youtu.be/LlMXX-j7KeQ?...

The MORBID and MISLEADING World of Victorian Post-Mortem Portraits

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Reposted by Desperate Living

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

"We have put her living in the tomb!" The first in an irregular series of reviews exploring Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations for American International in the 1960s. youtu.be/HIv3G61dZss?...

Reposted by Desperate Living

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

GHASTLY BEYOND BELIEF! Everyone knows about the comic book hysteria that gripped America in the 1950s. But in Britain, there was a similar, widely forgotten panic that led to new laws banning crime and horror comics - laws that are still in place today. youtu.be/ZnMW_d0TsTc?...

The GHASTLY Story of Britain's HORROR COMIC Moral Panic

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Reposted by Desperate Living

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

`It's Saturday Night and time to slip into your polyester John Collier suit for a night out to remember. Looking back at the days when every chap on the town was a well-dressed fellow - at a bargain price. youtu.be/tWVF8ZoQG7U?...

The Golden Age Of The Saturday Night Suit

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

`It's Saturday Night and time to slip into your polyester John Collier suit for a night out to remember. Looking back at the days when every chap on the town was a well-dressed fellow - at a bargain price. youtu.be/tWVF8ZoQG7U?...

The Golden Age Of The Saturday Night Suit

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

GHASTLY BEYOND BELIEF! Everyone knows about the comic book hysteria that gripped America in the 1950s. But in Britain, there was a similar, widely forgotten panic that led to new laws banning crime and horror comics - laws that are still in place today. youtu.be/ZnMW_d0TsTc?...

The GHASTLY Story of Britain's HORROR COMIC Moral Panic

YouTube video by The Overlooked Hotel

Desperate Living @desperate-living.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

"We have put her living in the tomb!" The first in an irregular series of reviews exploring Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations for American International in the 1960s. youtu.be/HIv3G61dZss?...