October 1, 2010

October is here.

People started asking me about October Thoughts sometime in June. I love you guys. I really, really do.

October is so many things to each of us. October to me is a series of memories from my childhood. It is the fragrance, a flavor, a sight that triggers those memories.

October is family and friends, pumpkins and apples, the swirling hem of a black cloak and Lon Chaney.

October is when I settle in and write something after months of thinking I need to write something and finding myself unable to come up with the words.

And October is when I reconnect with all of my October friends.

Welcome home.

A cymbal-ic wooden spoon

He handed me a wooden spoon. I took it and just looked at him, dumbfounded. What was this all about?

And then he picked up the cymbals.

Oh. Wait. How..?

How did he hear me say it, from across the room, when he was involved in another conversation, with kids running around making noise? Does he have some magical sense that makes it so he hears every word I say if I'm within fifty feet of wherever he is? Is that possible?

Was this a peace offering? Was it the world's strangest form of an olive branch?

Or was it me just trying to make something out of nothing?

ha!

Turns out I can blog from my phone. This is a whole new world.

October 31, 2009

October is coming to a close again. We have but hours left until the dreaded November arrives.

What is October to us?

October is...

falling leaves and changing colors

the change of the seasons

the end of the harvest

hunting season

football season and the local high school homecoming game

the World Series

an abundance of candy

orange plastic pumpkins and the enormous effort it takes to shove candy through the tiny hole in the top

little kids dressed up as ghosts

Mary Shelley and Frankenstein

Peter Boyle and Young Frankenstein

Ichabod Crane and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin

Apple pie

Apple sauce

Apple cider

the orange of pumpkins

the search for the perfect pumpkin

and the perfect pumpkin patch

Pixie Stix and Bit'o'Honeys

Concrete Blonde

Rocktober

Dracula, Bram Stoker and Anne Rice

Family and friends and time shared together

Warren Zevon and the Werewolves of London

Van Morrison's Moondance

George Romero and his zombies

The Mummy

Elvira

the unmistakeable voice of Vincent Price

wool socks

superstition and Superstition

black cats

spiders

plastic spider rings

the school carnival

trick-or-treating

my grandmother in a pirate costume and my mother as a witch

the Frankenstein coat rack

strangely enough, donuts

corn mazes

that East wind out of the Gorge

Sarah Winchester

Haunted houses - real, imagined or created

the spooky graveyard and the wandering spirits once housed there

Disney's Haunted Mansion

Chex Mix

Martha Stewart

Caramel apples

bats

witches and our misunderstanding of Wicca

Galena, Ill., and Ashland, Ore.

pumpkin-flavored anything

and so much more...

Happy Halloween, all.

And Happy October.

October 30, 2009

The race has begun.

Do you have your costume yet?

I got all ambitious after Halloween last year and I ordered one online. It's a super-cute costume and an incredibly good idea. However, it made me look like an ass so I sent it back.

So no, I don't have a costume.

I have a couple ideas, but it might be too late to assemble the pieces needed. Ahh, well. The best laid plans...

When I was little, my grandmother made costumes for me. They were wonderful costumes. I was a genie and a ballerina and a black cat and a white elephant. 

And then for a few years, I didn't dress up. But then I started working at my current job and ran headlong into a group of incredible costumers. 

I arrived one morning at 6 a.m. to find one of my coworkers dressed as a giant carrot. The year after that, the sales office dressed as the seven dwarves. We're still removing fake blood stains from when the restaurant servers were an ER crew. And the Elvises, oh, the Elvises. And really, can anyone ever forget the year that Rocky, who is lily-white, transformed himself into Mr. T?

It's estimated that we Americans will spend $4.75 billion on Halloween this year. I'm guessing the majority of that is on candy and costumes. 

As for me, I think I still have my devil horn barrettes from last year.

Cheers!

Oh, click here for the first ever recorded use of the word "hauntrepreneuers". Happy Rocktober.

October 29, 2009

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I share a birthday with Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

That's right, Mary "Frankenstein" Shelley.

Mary's little story, written on holiday near Geneva, Switzerland, has become one of the greatest monster stories of all time. For nearly two centuries, Mary's "Modern Prometheus" has captured our imaginations both on the page and on the screen. 

Frank has never been as popular as, say, Dracula, but he's had his fair share of the spotlight. Boris Karloff's 1931 screen portrayal is credited as being the key to Frank's longevity and popularity. 

But I think it was Peter Boyle who pushed him over the top.

Please see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu1DMSqTLyk&feature=related

And, my personal favorite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lojDOBX8BY

I swear, I don't know how they ever made it through the filming of "Young Frankenstein", but I am so very glad they did.

How is this not the funniest stuff ever put on film?

October 28, 2009

What are the traditional symbols of Halloween? The pumpkin, the ghost, the full moon, the witch's hat, the black cat.

The black cat. What is it about the black cat that links it so inextricably to Halloween?

Here's a great article from the San Fran Chronicle about the phenomena of the black cat. Are black cats good luck or bad omens? Read and discuss. 

Edgar Allen Poe wrote about a black cat he befriended (or who befriended him, I'm not sure). You can find his story here. 

And, if you can't click the links, I hate this treat for you:

Janet Jackson's "Black Cat"

All the lonely nights I spend alone
Never around to love me
You're always gone
Cause you're hangin out
Breakin' the rules
Oh the man has come
Looking for you
You're a rebel now
Don't give a damn
Always carrying on
With the gang
I'm trying to tell you boy
It's a mistake
You won't realize
Til it's too late

Don't understand
Why you insist
On ways of living such a dangerous life
Time after time you stay away
And I just know that you're telling me lies

Black cat
Nine lives
Short days
Long nights
Livin on the edge
Not afraid to die
Heart beat
Real strong
But not
For long
Better watch your step
Or you're gonna die

You're so together boy
But just at a glance
You'll do anything
If given a chance
Scheming, plannin lies
To get what you need
So full of promises
That you never keep

Don't you tell yourself
That it's okay
Sick and tired of
All of your games
And you want me to stay
Better change
Makes no sense to me
Your crazy ways

Black cat
Nine lives
Short days
Long nights
Livin on the edge
Not afraid to die
Heart beat
Real strong
But not
For long
Better watch your step
Or you're gonna die