happy halloween!

For some bah humbug reason (I'm not sure which one), I wasn't going to carve any pumpkins this year -- but then around 3pm I was OVERWHELMED with the need to make a jack o'lantern, so I ran around and found some pumpkins, came home and made three.



I'm a traditionalist. I love looking at the beautiful and/or elaborate pumpkins out there, but when it comes time to make my own I like triangle eyes and a wide gappy grin. They're so jaunty. (and easy!)



Happy Halloween from the 70s! I'm pretty sure that this was taken just prior to going out trick or treating, and I'm similarly sure that the cat was not too thrilled with the whole program. (This is a picture of a picture, since I couldn't find the original. My dad used to take a lot of b/w photos and developed his own film/photos.) I only recently saw a color photo of this costume -- my face was green and the yarn trim on the cape was ORANGE -- mom always made great halloween costumes for me and my sister.

One of the trick or treaters tonight was in a homemade pirate costume. She had a drawn-on eye patch and a scimitar made from cardboard and aluminum foil. MY FAVORITE! She was only about four, but sang the whole trick or treat song (although her mom had to prompt her to get started). Her mom was dressed as a hippie in a caftan with a Make Peace not War sign and a painted daisy on her cheek, the pirate's dad was also dressed as a pirate, but he had a baby strapped to his chest which just made it funny.

In short, I love halloween, I'm sorry that I almost let it go by without doing ANYTHING I solemnly vow that next year I will get with the program earlier. But better late than never!

Here are a couple of halloween videos -- the first one is a recitation of The Raven by Christopher Walken, with lovely creepy illustrations by Gustav Dore. (via: Bookshelves of Doom)



and then this silly/funny robot horror film from the Obama campaign.