Happy Halloween

I kinda like this song on its own merit, not just because it's Halloween. I always forget about it until a day or two before, and then I'll listen to it a dozen or so times.

This week I have watched Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, 1408, House on Haunted Hill, and American Werewolf in London. Tonight may or may not be Evil Dead. I think that was one I watched when I was way too young and impressionable, but I don't remember anything now. I didn't realize it was rated NC-17 for gore, so I'm a little nervous about it. My brother went through a horror/slasher movie phase when he was a teen and I was like eight, so I saw pretty much EVERYTHING growing up. No wonder why I'm so well adjusted.

Is there a better holiday than Halloween? No. The answer is no. I went to a super crappy haunted mansion last Friday. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to go to more. It made me miss Knott's Scary Farm. I don't care how crowded it gets, you basically get the benefit of going through like 10 different haunted houses for like $30, whereas here you get one for like $15 a pop. And every year they have at least one or two that are amazing.

Because I can't embed the video, here is the Thriller link, and below is a remake. I'll bet you can hardly tell the difference between the two:

Freakin' Indians. So weird.

I read Salem's Lot, and now I'm working on reading Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. It's what all the movies are based on, but it feels a little slow to be honest. Salem's Lot was pretty awesome though. Although this first paragraph from The Haunting of Hill House is pretty sweet:

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.

Here is one of my favorite ghost stories, The Upper Berth. I found it years ago in Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories. That's probably my favorite book filled purely with ghost stories that I ever read. Although in that book he doesn't author any, he's only compiling. Have you read any of his short stories? They're kind of twisted, and a lot of times have open-endings. They're awesome. Can't believe that guy was so successful with children's books.

And finally, let's close with this kind of odd poem by Wallace Stevens, The Emperor of Ice Cream. Give me some interpretations people, what do you think it's about?

Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Happy Halloween everyone.