Halloween

Wow. I just realized that Halloween is almost here and this month has flown by. If I don't wake up, I'm going to miss it all. Usually by now I've carved my pumpkins, thrown a few parties, drank until the wee hours of the night and passed out more than once. I've missed out on all of the previous so far this year.

The season is one of my favorites before the dreaded holidays, where I usually find myself hoping that it will all roll on through, wishing I could be Rip Van Winkle and just sleep right through all of it. With my family, the holidays are hard to enjoy.
I do enjoy sitting by the fires, snuggling, and hot apple cider. I also enjoy wearing a big comfy jacket, cotton longsleeve t-shirts under my top shirts, ear muffs, hats, and slippers. That's all very attractive. This time of the year is my favorite...right after September when my birthday hits and the leaves start to change and October rolls through. Pumpkins are everywhere and there's an underlying darkness in the air. People have a different look on their faces, change is abundant, and spice is in the air.

I've been so pre-occupied with trying to figure myself out and just wanting to live in a dream, like Eleanor Rigby, that I've managed to slip through this entire month. I need to play catch up before fall runs and hides from me and I can't find it anymore. I want to be able to enjoy it and I'm going to try and do that this weekend as much as I can. I must laugh and have fun, it's a necessity.

It's crazy for me to think back to my younger days as a fan of Halloween. My mother once caught me in the basement with all the lights off watching The Exorcist by myself. I guess I was always a bit on the dark side, which can be confusing to a parent, I'm sure. I always did play with voodoo dolls, and I collected anything scary. Nothing ever scared me, ever. I still really enjoy skulls and skeletons but the scary movies of today, just aren't like my favorites from back then.




My favorite, well that's a hard question... probably the B-flick, Evil Dead II, one of the first movies directed by Sam Riami (of the current Spiderman flicks -- he's brilliant and this movie proves it)and not to mention Bruce Campbell, the most brilliant B-movie actor to never go mainstream. Campbell, of my all time favorite actors, plays the character Ash in the movie and second installment of the Army of Darkness series. A good guy that looses his own hand in a battle with himself and rettaches a chainsaw to fight off the evil powers that come out of the forest at night. It's more horror comedy and silly than anything, and you gotta love a guy that always gets the girl and fights evil to save everyone else.
Besides that, there is many soundbytes and famous quotes from that flick, that you probably hear all the time and have no idea about. The ever so famous "groovy" and one of my personal, sick favorites...

[to his freshly sawn off possessed hand] "Here's your new home."
[Ash places a bucket and a bunch of books on it to trap the hand underneath, the top book reads "A farewell to arms"]

I've forgotten how much I always loved good old crappy B movies.



In fact I just watched Attack of the Killer Tomatoes a few weeks ago with my nephew, he thought it was really funny. Giant tomoatoes attacking the US, steamrolling people at the mall, and flying through windows and not only that, it's a musical...what's not to love? Maybe I can take in another fun dark flick this season...like The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Labrynth, Tales From The Crypt, or a zombie flick, which I love.

So on the flip side of darkness, this time of year always reminds me of the singer Sarah McLaughlin strangely enough. It was about this time many, many years ago when I first fell in love with her, listening to her songs over and over again. She had this darkness back then that I loved about her and she really touched me and helped me keep the faith through some very hard times. I'm posting my favorite song lyrics of hers, Building A Mystery.

You come out at night
That's when the energy comes
And the dark side's light
And the vampires roam
You strut your rasta wear
And your suicide poem
And a cross from a faith that died
Before Jesus came
You're building a mystery
You live in a church
Where you sleep with voodoo dolls
And you won't give up the search
For the ghosts in the halls
You wear sandals in the snow
And a smile that won't wash away
Can you look out the window
Without your shadow getting in the way?
You're so beautiful
With an edge and charm
but so careful
When I'm in your arms

Cause you're working
Building a mystery
Holding on and holding it in
Yeah you're working
Building a mystery
And choosing so carefully

You woke up screaming aloud
A prayer from your secret god
You feed off our fears
And hold back your tears, oh
Give us a tantrum
And a know it all grin
Just when we need one
When the evening's thin
You're a beautiful
A beautiful fucked up man
You're setting up your
Razor wire shrine

Cause you're working
Building a mystery
Holding on and holding it in
Yeah you're working
Building a mystery
And choosing so carefully
Ooh you're working
Building a mystery
Holding on and holding it in
Yeah you're working
Building a mystery


Random scary movie notes: Did you know that the move Halloween was the first move to ever use the steady-cam...for the first person view of the killer, changing a perception forever in cinematic movies? And that the mask work by Michael Myers is actually the face of William Shatner... they just cut the eyes out a bit more, died the face white and pulled the hair back. Not so scary when you think of it in that sense.

Enjoy the rest of the month!