A Simple Ghost Story

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I generally try to avoid presenting others' content on this blog, but I felt that this was such an effective story, I really ought to share it.

It's a moderately long comic, so I recommend scrolling with the keyboard arrow keys, rather than the mouse wheel, or navigation slider.

I've always felt that really excellent horror stories show you that which you least wish to see. And this is an excellent example.

Bonfire Night

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Hello all, Happy Guy Fawkes Day! Though most people in the Americas seem to know Guy Fawkes from the comic, and later the film, "V for Vendetta" where the Anarchist terrorist protagonist adopts the iconic Guy Fawkes mask as a uniform, I was first introduced to this slightly obscure English holiday via the excellent film "Hangover Square". Part gothic horror, part film noir, the film describes the fate of a talented but moody up-and-coming composer who is subject to curious blackouts. He begins to suspect that nefarious deeds are done during his spells, and indeed, a few bonfire related atrocities are committed. I definitely recommend it, if only for the excellent soundtrack by influential composer "Bernard Herrmann" (Psycho anyone?)

As I said, I think that most Americans know Guy Fawkes from "V for Vendetta" though this is a highly subversive interpretation of the character. I have a friend who was under the impression that Fawkes was sort of an English folk-hero, though actually the opposite is true. The man is burned in effigy every year! Guy Fawkes gained his infamy for his part in the "gunpowder plot" to blow up parliament during the time of conflict between the protestant reformation and catholic church. Alan Moore (writer) and Dabid Lloyd (artist) apparently felt that Fawkes should be lionized rather than condemned, and hijacked the mythos so effectively that the iconic "Guy Fawkes" masks of bonfire night have become the contemporary representation of protest and rebellion.

This is an interesting foreign holiday for us Americans, and I would love to find a way to bring the, much older, bonfire tradition to our shores.

I'll just leave you with an interpretation of V's song from V for Vendetta "Vicious Cabaret". I would prefer to share a nice reading of V's televised speech from the book, but no one seems to have recorded one yet. Sounds like a job for Mr. Calaveras.

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Pumpkins (2011)

What a beautiful couple of post-Halloween days it's been. Clear blue. Yesterday we sat out on the porch with a cuppa, talking about the movie and watching them yellow leaves just coming down. Very Zen, you dig?

Got some fresh candles to keep our Jack o' Lanterns lit. It's been so cold, they haven't even started to fuzz yet.

Left-most two are mine, and the chipper little fellow on the right is B's. I always envy J's jack o' lanterns, he seems to possess an intuitive pumpkin carving genius, so this year I really worked hard to get mine right. I like the middle one the best great wild expression and weird unconventional design. Next year, next year.

J did the cyclops on the left, and the Meatwad in the middle, and the classic fellow on the right is Carly's. The cyclops was originally going to be King Harkinian in bas relief, but he encountered vexations.

Bats-BATS

I loved how this guy cast shadows on the night. I think I'm going to start carving faces on the back of my jack o lanterns from now on, so that they cast faces on the walls.

Witching Hours

It's late now, dark, cold, still, and silent. The very witching hour of the night. The night.

I take apart some of my props, the ones that can't stay out overnight. One last bog-light, candle-lit, struggles on, against all odds. All alone now.

The jack o' lanterns wink out one by one, as night-creatures begin to creep over their thin orange flesh. The cold air is redolent, vaguely, of charring pumpkin. A burnt offering.

I can hear things out there, stirring through the darkness. I think, I understand why this holiday came to be. The only things abroad now are night-things, traversing a dark country.

Because, Halloween is not a time of year, it is not a day or date. It's a territory. And for brief spells we get to visit there, like bad tourists, cloaked in the symbols and costume of the local culture.

We breath the same air as the denizens of Halloween, then part with them for another year.

Tonite

Cool and clear, right on the money. Haunt is in operation. The moon is a crescent and my powers are at their height. It's quiet now, no trick or treaters yet.

Happy Halloween everyone.

Some pics of the evening

A bog light in action. I'll have to see if I can get some decent shots of these for you.

Last minute Halloween mask, Jack Carver, the Jack o' Lantern that carves you back.

Some of our Jack o' Lanterns this year. The two left-most are mine.

Fogging devil was a gift from my Dad. It reduced a toddler to tears.

Another bog-light. He seems to have gone out.

Pumpkin Time

So super happy. This is the least-rushed Halloween I've had in years. Sure, props are still hanging to dry, but the carport is cleaned up beautifully, we've got our pumpkins together, our Halloween candy waiting in the cupboard. We had an excellent Halloween thirsty Thursday.

Tomorrow we carve.

Now, we're just waiting for the wheel of weatheric fortune to land on "cool and clear".

ψ What is it Ώ

This was made from the shattered remains of that big lots skull. Must be cursed, because it kept taking a header to the pavement last night whilst I was applying creepy cloth. I hung it up in the sun this afternoon, and really liked how this shot came out. So another, this time inadvertent, teaser.