Merry Christmas, and a jolly Yule to everyone. It's been a very rough Yuletide around here, but we had a happy Christmas, with our strange little patchwork family all together for the holidays. We had a Christmas feast, and even a few Christmas presents under our tree this year.
This Krampus tree bauble came from my mother. If you can make it out, he has a rather chastened looking child in his krampus sack.
This baroquely ornamented dragon hourglass came from my dear father. The Christmas card there is of my own design. My brother and I are thinking of selling them next year.
Absinthe mints from my mother. People who have read this blog for a few years may know that I am a minor absinthe aficionado. I still haven't done a blog post on the subject.
And my mother also gave me this Guy Fawkes mask. After all, I did need one. He's looking suitably Anglophilic in my British pith helmet.
Another gift from my old man. He lives in southern Cali.
Anyway, these are trying times, but I hope that all of you have at least had a warm, comfortable, Christmas time. And to start the new year off right, I'll leave you with one of my favorite Yuletide carols:
Merry Christmas, and a happy, healthy, and bountiful new year!
I woke up to snow yesterday. More snow than we're used to here in Eugene.
I've just left this guy up since Halloween. I was going to stick a deer skull and some jingling bells to Creepmas him up a little, but I never got around to it.
Now he's a snow ghoul I guess. Snow Ghoul!
Also, I noticed that there appear to be two cloven hoof prints on our roof. I do seem to recall hearing something up there last night. I think the Krampus must have passed over our house in the night.
I know that some of the folks who follow this blog are into the paganism, wicca, kemetism, and other old time religions, so I thought I would ask if anyone knows how to invite a household deity into your home. Our poor house really needs a helping hand.
...Or the life and works of David Firth. Anyone who has been online for a span is likely to have encountered the work of David Firth, particularly his "Salad Fingers" series of cartoons. Firth's work have an unnerving, dream-like quality, surreal in the truest sense of the word. They are filled with images of bodily corruption, the madness of contemporary social mores, and the latent perverseness of human temperament. None of it makes any sense, but there is something chillingly relatable, in it. Firth's work is like a mish-mash of Edgar Allan Poe, Tim Burton, and William S. Burroughs.
I invite you to experience some of Firth's choicest bits:
Evening folks. Well the day has come and gone once again. I've taken down the haunt for the evening, and tomorrow I'll pack everything away again for another year.
Class of 2013
I was thinking back this evening to a summer afternoon when I was 8 or 9 years old, sitting at the drafting table in my father's studio. I was looking over a mask catalog, and calculating how many Halloweens I could have in my lifetime. 80, I thought, 80 is the average, probably somewhat less than that now, for my generation. 80 Halloweens. It seemed like such a meager number. I wonder how many Halloweens I have left now?
I was working out on a slip of paper what I would be for Halloween each year. Corpse, ghoul, alien, etcetera, trying to make it all fit.
Now, I don't know, sometimes I feel like I'm sleepwalking through that oh so ephemeral life time. The season comes, but I barely notice it, my senses are dulled to it. There is no time for it, or will to enjoy it properly.
Every so often I get a snitch of the old season, in the taste of a candy bar on a crisp day, in the familiar cadence of a well loved cartoon. But these are but reminiscences. It seems I am always chasing nostalgia.
But am I forging new memories? Do I sincerely enjoy each of these precious new Halloweens? Do I cherish individual moments from them, as I did when it was all new to me, when the shape of life, and indeed this Halloween thing itself was still a mystery?
Yeh, I know the equinox hit about a month ago, but yesterday the trees started dropping their leaves, so that, for me, is the official start of Fall. Just in time for Halloween.
I've been doing a little decorating, much more conservatively than in previous years.
Only my most absolute favorite of the paper decorations for the big front window.
I made this thing and hanged it in the tree out front. Here's a closeup of the face and noose.
A years worth of arboreal neglect makes for the perfect cemetery plot.
We don't have a lot of spare storage space at the house, so I have some of the boglights and movie props stowed in the carport. Soon this space will be cleared out and haunted.
I caught this thing lounging in the living room the other evening. It was gone by the morning.
Good evening, boys and ghouls. I'm sorry that I haven't posted an update in a while. I was trying to put together a little October treat for you, but alack, YouTube has not been cooperating with me. In the meantime, you may enjoy my haunt video again, heh heh.
Anyhow, this season is thick with content to follow as it is. We are the October people, this is when we are most active. Maybe it's a blessing to have one fewer blog cluttering up your blog roll with posts!
It's been a strange season. We're half way through October. It seems I'm always waiting for Halloween, and then it's here, and it doesn't seem real somehow. I'm so busy, I scarcely have time to acknowledge the passing of the season. More's the pity.
Sometimes one must simply slow down, and savor the season. To that end, I find there's no better way to slow oneself down and appreciate the moment, than to enjoy a cigar.
I know, I know, smoking is awful and bad for you, and all that, but a treat once in a while can't do me much harm, and might do a lot of good.
There is something, specifically, about good tobacco that forces one to be quiet, still, and observant. There is something inherently meditative about cultivating the ash on ones cigar, or tending the ember of the briar bowl; and the rhythmic breathing involved in the act of smoking. I urge you to try it! It's simple finding a good cigar, just visit your local tobacconist, the cigars will usually be sequestered in a climate controlled room. Just wander around, and when your eye falls on an interesting looking cigar, hold it up to your nose and sniff. When you find one that's really special, that's the one to pick!
I'm also enjoying a good apple cider, an appropriate beverage for the harvest tide. I usually go for Ace Hard Cider, as it's the tastiest and most affordable cider of my acquaintance. I am an epicure, rather than a connoisseur, I enjoy the simple pleasures. Tonight, however, I've found another equally affordable and very enjoyable cider, Crispin hard apple cider. Specifically, their "The Saint" which is sweetened with maple syrup.
And to occupy my auditory senses, I'm enjoying this wonderful recording of Vincent Price, relating the history and intricacies of witchcraft.
Witchcraft~Magic - An Adventure in Demonology
Anyhow, if I don't see you again before the big day, I wish you a happy haunting season, and a magickal Halloween!
