H A P P Y H A L L O W E E N !

Happy Halloween everyone. May it be blessed for you with clear skies, crisp leaves, grinning jack o lanterns, and many, many, trick or treaters.

A Weird Way of Invoking The Spirit

I love Halloween, don't you? I knew you did, we're so alike that way.

But as much as I love Halloween, sometimes I have a hard time getting into the Halloween spirit, especially living here in the Pacific Northwest, where the climate is quite different from the coastal California autumns I grew up with, and Halloween is so often wet, cold, and rainy.

So, I was delighted to find that adding my favorite Halloween music to Grand Theft Auto Online's "self radio" and cruising the streets of sunny "Los Santos" is a perfect simulation of one of my favorite October pastimes; driving around California while enjoying some classic Halloween tunes!

How do you like my ride?

This neighborhood in South Los Santos even resembles the place where I grew up.

There are other Halloweeny things to do too:

 

You can go for a stroll in famous Vinewood Cemetery. Keep an eye out for moldy celebs!

Or travel up the coast and go for a nocturnal moonlit stroll through the scenic Mt. Chiliad State Wilderness reserve. Look out for bigfoot!

You can even hunt an actual ghost if you so desire... and take a selfie. No that's not sacrilegious at all...

But best of all, with a quick visit to Vinewood Movie Masks at Vespucci Beach...

You can dress up in costume for Halloween! I opted to go as The Wolfman, but with a little creative wardrobe finagling...

You could be Frankenstein's Monster, Nosferatu, and more!

You can even go trick 'r' treating...

...after a fashion,

Here's the trick...

Now gimme dat bag o' treats!

The mask comes in handy for situations like these.
Grand Theft Auto is a big open playground, so just run around, go wild, and howl at the moon!

Okay, it's not full, but you get the idea!

Overall I'm surprised by how nostalgic it can be, just driving around and listening to my favorite Halloween tunes.

O' Goddamn Ninkase

Sigh...

Ninkasi released a Halloween beer...

I really don't like to promote Ninkasi beer, because they're gentrifying our beautiful anarchist neighborhood, but damn it, they brew a good beer, and I could not resist trying their Halloween brew. Even if it's $9 bucks a bottle. Darn it.

Close up of the label art. It's so good. Look at dat headless horseman. He's throwing up' devil horns!

 

Imperial Dark Double Alt Ale, with Pumpkin and Brown Sugar. It was really rich and smooth, almost syrupy, on account of the brown sugar I guess.

 

But there was like no  pumpkin flavor, or at least very little. Very disappointing.

 

 

I just sat in the yard and watched the autumn breezes gently caress the local flora. The gradually sere-turning leaves rattling faintly on the wind.

Followed up with a few Obsidian Stouts from Deschutes Brewery. Much more my speed (let them gentrify some other sucker's neighborhood). A tasty stout, almost an espresso flavor.

Just enjoying Fall.

October is Here!

So soon? Time flies.

I wanted to share this great illustration, that captures the spirit of the season so well.

 

The artist, Double Maximus Art has a ton of great work, with lots of witchy themes. Go check it out!

And happy October everyone!