Ghost Upon the Floor

 This morning when I woke up, the view from my window was cold. Barren trees, patches of snow and a sky a single shade of white dirtied with bleak grey.

Fall is over. To try and combat the coming months of this cold lifelessness outside, I thought I would finally post some photos from my October cemetery outing.



 You can see my album here:

Forest Lawn, October 2010

... as only The Addams Family can.

 This just might be my favorite post-big day clearance purchase. I give you, Kmart's Totally Ghoul Musical Eye Lights. They play "Somebody's Watching Me," by Rockwell and Michael Jackson. I do have to say, I'm glad that this lesser appreciated 80's Halloween tune is becoming more and more a staple of the season it is so perfect for.

 If only there had been more. I was able to pick up this last box for half off, only about 6 dollars.

 For the night after All Hallow's Eve, here is a delightful short that asks the age old question: Are there monsters under my bed?



YouTube User: DayWaltFearFactory

 In less than two short hours, another All Hallow's Eve will have come and gone. Personal highlights for this night include parents taking pictures of their children on my setup and bales of hay, being told more than once I had the best candy and watching kids take my setup up in so they seemed more interested in the fog and pumpkins and flashing lights than the candy I was giving them.

 As always, there are regrets. Life took over more time than I needed to get everything out and go through all the things I have for the day. The Grim Reaper, Scarecrow and other props I had planned on making remain works in progress, and I'll have many ideas I'm sure I won't even have done by this time next year. Or the year after.

 Watched several of the staples-- "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad," "Halloween" and the remake of "Dawn of the Dead."

And I carved a pumpkin, which never fails to put me in the mood no matter what else is going on or trying to distract me. Giving credit where it is due, I found this design after a Google Pictures search of "Ichabod Crane pumpkin," which took me to this photograph.

 Wishing you and yours the Happiest of Halloweens.

 Halloween. The season when we celebrate the end of the harvest, the end of summer, the end of life as the cold sets in-- and the fear which accompanies.

Last night, a friend and I went haunted housing, at Frightworld Screampark in Buffalo, New York. I always forget how much I love to be scared. On the perfect, breezy leaf falling October night, there is nothing like going to your local obstacle course of fear. I love to be jolted by a costumed performer jumping out from a corner, unexpected, screaming and making my heart jump.

 I'm always surprised when there is something in one of these houses that genuinely scares me. As we came to the end of one of the first houses at Frightworld, we walked from darkness right into what can only be described as blown up plastic, on both sides, that we had to walk through. Think of two big, black bounce house walls pressing at you from both sides, taller than you are, making you push through in the dark.

 And it kept going. There was nothing but darkness, and just when you thought it would let up, and you would walk out into light-- it kept going. To the point where the claustrophobia makes irrational thoughts leap around your head, and you begin a light panic, thinking that if this keeps going on any longer, you won't be able to breathe. You won't be able to breathe, and you will be stuck in this painfully cramped space...

 When I came out, I knew I'd gotten my money's worth. And that's what Halloween is all about, Charlie Brown. Fear.



YouTube User: holysoldier456