The Shape

Sported my new Myers mask (Cemetery Gate Production's WARLOCK) this Halloween and I'd have to say that I've never felt more like him.  People seemed extra unnerved.  One child was shouting up from the sidewalk asking Michael Audrey Myers if he was going to kill him.  I did the Myers head tilt and his family laughed and screamed.  They eventually came up, and I could tell they were really creeped out and uncomfortable.  So after handing them candy, and as they were leaving, I stepped out onto the porch (something I rarely do).  They definitely weren't expecting that and the mom shrieked.  This caused the child, and his family, to run towards the sidewalk.  In what seemed like a moment from a Scooby-Doo cartoon, one of the handles on his trick-or-treat bag caught onto the foot of the staked corpse at the entry to the porch.  He didn't know what snagged him, but I could tell he thought it was me, as he wasn't looking back.  He screamed and left the bag dangling from the corpse's foot.  Michael Myers silently removed the bag, straightened the corpse, and looked up.  The boy was coming back.  I handed him his bag and he whispered "Thank you, Michael" and ran off.

It was one of those incredible Halloween moments that make this holiday so absolutely wonderful.

What a night.

Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders

Watched this unsettling documentary tonight and it reminded me of this old blog post about the time I saw a guy, RIGHT after the murders occurred, dressed as a Tylenol pill on Halloween night, back in 1982.  After all these years, I still can't believe he did it.  

The documentary is pretty chilling.

Click below...

It Wouldn’t Be Halloween Without Pipkin

It was a small town by a small river and a small lake in a small northern part of a Midwest state. There wasn’t so much wilderness around you couldn’t see the town. But on the other hand there wasn’t so much town you couldn’t see and feel and touch and smell the wilderness. The town was full of trees. And dry grass and dead flowers now that autumn was here. And full of fences to walk on and sidewalks to skate on and a large ravine to tumble in and yell across. And the town was full of… 

Boys. 

And it was the afternoon of Halloween. 

And all the houses shut against a cool wind. 

And the town full of cold sunlight. 

But suddenly, the day was gone. 

Night came out from under each tree and spread.

- Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree

Trick R' Terror

More images here.

Harvest Chews

You know what's amazing?  These guys:  Caramel Apple, Candy Corn, Pumpkin Spice, and Cinnamon.

That Cheese Plate

Cheese is a glorious thing in this house (and the Universe).

Really neat seasonal pairings below:

Blue + Twix

Brie + Candy Corn

Manchego + Reese’s

Aged Gouda + Caramel Popcorn

Triple Crème Brie + KitKats

Goat Brie + Crunch Bars

Sharp Cheddar + Butterfingers

Gruyère + Snickers

Chèvre + Twizzlers

Click here for her IG.

The Order Of The Halloween Tree

A photo series tribute to Ray Bradbury's classic tale.

This series comes to an end with Chapter 6:  Ralph Bengstrum 

Ralph stood in his Mummy costume, stunned, watching the last shadows go.

“Is that why I’m dressed like a mummy?” He fingered the bandages. He touched his clay-wrinkled ancient face. “Is that what my part of Halloween is all about?”

“All, boy, all,” murmured Moundshroud. “The Egyptians, why, they built to last. Ten thousand years they planned for. Tombs, boys, tombs. Graves.  Mummies. Bones. Death, death. Death was at the very heart, gizzard, light, soul, and body of their life! Tombs and more tombs with secret passages, so none might be found, so grave robbers could not borrow souls and toys and gold. You are a mummy, boy, because that was how they dressed for Eternity.  Spun up in a cocoon of threads, they hoped to come forth like lovely butterflies in some far dear loving world. Know your cocoon, boy. Touch the strange stuffs.”

 

“Why,” said Ralph the Mummy, blinking at the smoky walls and old hieroglyphics. “Every day was Halloween to them!"

The Order Of The Halloween Tree

A photo series tribute to Ray Bradbury's classic tale.

Chapter 5:  Hackles Nibley
 
“Mr. Moundshroud, is that you!” cried Tom.

For towering forty feet above them in the sky, an immense scythe in his hands, was this cowled figure, its face in midnight fogs.

The blade swung down: hisssssss!
 
“Mr. Moundshroud, let us be!”

“Shut up.” Someone knocked Toms elbow. Mr. Moundshroud lay on the earth beside him. “That’s not me. That’s—”

“Samhain!” cried the voice in the fog. “God of the Dead! I harvest thus, and so!”
Sssss-whoooshhhh!
 
“All those who died this year are here! And for their sins, this night, are turned to beasts!”
Sssssswooommmmmmm!

“Please,” whimpered Ralph-the-Mummy.

“Sssssssttttt! The scythe zippered Hackles Nibley’s spine, ripping his costume in a long tear, knocking his own small scythe free of his hands.

“Beasts!”

And the harvest wheat, flailed up, spun round on the wind, shrieking its souls, all those who had died in the past twelve months, rained to earth.

The Order Of The Halloween Tree

A photo series tribute to Ray Bradbury's classic tale.

Chapter 4:  The Devil Boy

"But, let me introduce myself! Moundshroud is the name.  Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud. Does that have a ring, boys? Does it sound for you?”
  
It sounds, the boys thought, oh, oh, it sounds … !

Moundshroud.

“A fine name,” said Mr. Moundshroud, giving it a full sepulchral night-church sound. “And a fine night. And all the deep dark wild long history of Halloween waiting to swallow us whole!”

“Swallow us?”

“Yes!” cried Moundshroud. “Lads, look at yourselves. Why are you, boy, wearing that Skull face? And you, boy, carrying a scythe, and you, lad, made up like a Witch? And you, you, you!” He thrust his bony finger at each mask. “You don’t know, do you? You just put on those faces and old mothball clothes and jump out, but you don’t really know, do you?”

“Well,” said Tom, a mouse behind his skull-white muslin. “Er—no.”

“Yeah,” said the Devil boy. “Come to think of it, Why am I wearing this?” He fingered his cloak and sharp rubber horns and lovely pitchfork.

A Pope And Some Pizza

Growing up in a suburban area packed with row homes, apartments, and strip malls meant a windfall of candy every Halloween night.  Heavy pillowcases FILLED with the stuff.   

At the end of our night of begging for candy, we'd drop off our trick-or-treat bags and walk a couple of blocks to a strip mall with a pizza shop at the end of the long row of stores. Each Halloween they gave out free slices of pizza. That's a pretty cool thing to do (though they were about half the size of a standard pizza slice [I don't blame them as there was a perpetual line of local kids stretching out the door and winding around the building]). One year, as we got down there, my brother's Pope costume got the attention of some older kid dressed as a police officer. Gun pulled; he started yelling "IT'S THE POPE! LET HIM THROUGH!!!  LET HIM THROUGH!!!!"  My brother in his cardboard Mitre got an escort and a lot of attention.  Me, in my would-never-do-that-today costume, received no escort at all. Thankfully, I still got pizza.

Now this is the neat part.  As part of this ritual of dropping off our candy bags at home and getting free pizza, we would then head off to a neighborhood near that strip mall for what I can only describe as a Halloween variety show.  To this day I have no idea who organized the event (or who built the massive wooden stage in the center of a terrace).  But we all knew it was going to be there... when trick-or-treating was over.  When Halloween was ending.  

I recall lots of lip-synching routines, mostly from teens dressed as their favorite heavy metal bands or singers like Mick Jagger or Tina Turner.  I can recall a magician at one point and maybe a comedian.  We stood in the audience in that cold October 31st air clapping and cheering and laughing.  After it ended, the pack of friends with whom I trick-or-treated would head back to our homes on near-empty streets.  Walking past darkened porches and jack-o-'lanterns with dying flames, as each of us parted ways (to be reunited with our candy loot and to head off to bed).  Going to a Catholic School meant that the day after was a day without school... making the Halloweens of my youth even MORE glorious.  

I haven't thought of that Halloween concert in a long time.  I wonder who organized it... and who took it all down after. 

Here's a previously-posted photo of us on that incredible night of faux police escorts and wonderful Halloween pizza (just ignore my costume).

The Order Of The Halloween Tree

A photo series tribute to Ray Bradbury's classic tale.

Chapter 3:  Henry-Hank Smith

Fires burned all over Europe. At every crossroad and by every haystack dark forms jumped in cats across flames. Cauldrons bubbled. Old hags cursed. Dogs frolicked red-hot coals.

“Witches, witches, everywhere,” said Tom, amazed. “I never knew they were so many!”

“Mobs and multitudes, Tom. Europe was flooded to the dikes. Witches underfoot, under bed, in the cellars and high attics.”

“Boy oh boy,” said Henry-Hank, proud in his Witch costume. “Real witches!

Brach's Mellowcreme Autumn Leaves

We found these over the weekend and I'm happy to report they're really great and packed with flavor (Caramel Apple, Pumpkin Spice, Sweet Maple, Salted Butterscotch, and Spiced Cider).  A nice addition to the annual Brach's candy corn and mellowcreme pumpkins candy.

Party City

Had a nice day of Halloweening.  Started out with some pumpkin spice coffee on the road and ended up at a Party City which was fully decked out for the season.  Ended the day at a cozy place in Lambertville, NJ...

The Order Of The Halloween Tree

A photo series tribute to Ray Bradbury's classic tale.

Chapter 2:  George Smith

In the west, the sun, smothered and dying in clouds, sank. Moundshroud hooted his delight:

“There it goes, boys. The heart, soul, and flesh of Halloween. The Sun! There Osiris is murdered again. There sinks Mithras, the Persian fire. There falls Phoebus Apollo all Grecian light. Sun and flame, boys. Look and blink. Turn that crystal spyglass. Swing it down the Mediterranean Coast a thousand miles. See the Greek Isles?”

“Sure,” said plain George Smith, dressed up as fancy pale ghost. “Cities, towns, streets, houses. People jumping out on porches to bring food!”

“Yes.” Moundshroud beamed. “Their Festival of the Dead: the Feast of Pots. Trick-or-Treat old style. But tricks from the dead if you don’t feed them. So treats are laid out in fine banquets on the sill!”

The Order Of The Halloween Tree

A photo series tribute to Ray Bradbury's classic tale.

Chapter 1:  Tom Skelton

Tom Skelton shivered. Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows’ Eve. Everything seemed cut from soft black velvet or gold or orange velvet.  Smoke panted up out of a thousand chimneys like the plumes of funeral parades. From kitchen windows drifted two pumpkin smells: gourds being cut, pies being baked.  

The cries behind the locked house doors grew more exasperated as shadows of boys flew by windows. Half-dressed boys, greasepaint on their cheeks; here a hunchback, there a medium-sized giant. Attics were still being rummaged, old locks broken, old steamer chests disemboweled for costumes.

Tom Skelton put on his bones.

He grinned at the spinal cord, the ribcage, the kneecaps stitched white on black cotton.

Lucky! he thought. What a name you got! Tom Skelton. Great for Halloween! Everyone calls you Skeleton! So what do you wear?

Bones.

Give Me Something Good To Eat

We found these at Michael’s today.  Huge fan of Mike and Ike’s, so it was great to see a seasonal sour version in the colors of Halloween.

Looking SOOOO Forward To These

Halloween Underground

Halloween Underground is the culmination of twenty years of photographing people dressed up in fantastical, outlandish costumes against the backdrop of the drab, gritty reality of the New York subway. Seymour Licht captured revelers preening in their outfits as the prelude to the largest Halloween parade in the world - or some private night out where creativity is the currency and mystery and flirtation the prize.

Click below for more info... 

Halloween III Candy Pails

Praying I see some kids carrying these around next Halloween.

Very cool designs from Trick or Treat Studios.

Click below...

Memorial Cards

Handing out candy and memorial cards on Halloween felt like a weird social experiment.  I had heard so much about those religious tracts being secretly slipped into trick-or-treaters bags and now here I was doing something similar.  And dressed as Michael Myers no less.  

I would scoop up some [world class] candy and pluck a card from the inner bowl and try to do all of this inconspicuously.  Kids are smart.  They knew something out of the ordinary was happening.  And the ones without masks absolutely looked confused and on alert.  One kid even asked "WHAT'S THAT?!"  Thankfully Michael Myers is a quiet man.  

Since Halloween, I have occasionally found myself wondering where those cards are. We easily had over a hundred kids come for candy, but I never count, and I had ordered 150 cards, and they all went.  Initially I was giving out one per child, but then started to spread them out as my supply dwindled.  I really hope as those bags and plastic pails got poured out at home or sifted through in the days that followed, that those kids, and their parents, got a kick out of seeing our weird funeral cards for our dear uncle Morris.