My calendar changeth over.

Waiting on Guy Zombardo & the Orchestra to play in the new year...

A prosperous, joyous 2013 to you all!

DUMDUMSHREKPOPthechampagne!

Winter.

The solstice is here.

Winter rests her heavy hand on the shoulder of Autumn, and Autumn relents -- sad, relieved, anticipating the end of the next Summer.

And even with cheery songs, happy faces, gaily lit and decorated surroundings...

There is much in it of Hallowe'en.

This is because, like Autumn, a great part of the beauty of Winter is its darkness.

And, as in the season just ended, we celebrate as Autumn People -- chilling tales of chilling nights, howling winds, icy caverns; frozen bed chambers in forgotten manors; ghosts, mysteries, madmen and monsters.

Wendigo, anyone?

A thousand generations of long nights endured in the deadest, chilliest, hoariest time of the year have inspired the imaginations of artists, authors, musicians, tale-tellers all over the world to ponder how fragile we can be, how hardy and hale and so easily turned to children in the face of the Great Mystery -- the year's end, the land's seeming death that is Winter.

And still so much beauty in which to find warmth, peace and light.

It is good to be back here at the Skull & Pumpkin.

It has been some time.

I see that no one has disturbed the dust, the cobwebs... the darkness.

Thank you all.

In light of the coming Other Holiday, I thought it was time to change out the ol' jukebox and add a touch of yuletide tunage to our publy party.

Of course, we always begin our jukebox with The Great Pumpkin Waltz -- it is the official theme song of the S&P. We always end it with Pumpkintime, our official incidental music.

Tonight I have added a piano piece from my own repertoire, recorded with the help of violinist Bobby Tillery. From the Stage (L) wings between shows at the Welk Theatre in 1999, comes our short interpretation of Ryuichi Sakamoto's haunting theme from the 1983 film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.

A difficult film that still manages to end with a kind of smile.

The next song has been here before, and I will always add it in December -- the Joni Mitchell song River, performed by James Taylor, available free at his website as a Christmas gift for his fans back in 2006.

It is simple, elegant, and sad... and therefore delicious.

And then, something I just had to share with you all, and for which you will all be so grateful that I expect boxes of coal mailed to the house -- a truly glorious version of Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer which I knew was going to be on our player as soon as I heard it done by Taiwanese pop group Cai Mi Mi & Five Petals (or Mimi Chai & the Five Petals or just Mi Mi Cai or Chai Mi Mi or The Five Petals or just Five Petals but since there are SIX of them, who in hell knows?)...

Their version of Rudolph comes from a 1968 album and I wish I had the rest of that vinyl.

Still searching. Christmas is coming.

And not coincidentally, our jukebox says it is here.

Of course, we begin with a Peanuts tune, so I had to add Vince Guaraldi's ultra-classic, ultra-jazz-trio cut Christmastime Is Here from the so-famous-and-classic-it's-in-our-DNA-since-1965 holiday TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas.

And then, because I cannot shake the feeling that a deep, long winter is repetition of a nearly Zen-like scale, I felt I should end our jukebox additions the same way I began them -- with a piano and violin duet.

This time, it is Barbra Higbie and Darol Anger playing their beautiful dance True Story, from their 1982 album Tideline.

Falling, falling, falling...

I surely hope That Other Holiday treats you right this year. It's certainly bearing down quickly enough.

For now, a wintry nap is in store.

Do stick around and listen, read, dig through the archives.

Good to be back home.


DDSanta'sPrepping!

Autumn.

It has arrived.

As is promised every Winter, and remembered come Spring, and anticipated with sweat, longing and torment all Summer long...

Autumn is here.

And now you can listen to it.

On our jukebox, in two parts, I offer the entire George Winston solo piano masterpiece Autumn.

It is presented in two parts for two reasons:
1. The songs are listed as three September pieces, and four October pieces, and
2. The hosting site stopped letting paying users upload multiple files and I would not have otherwise been able to get it all loaded before, oh, April 27th, 2305.

Still, here are the songs in order on the album back...

It may not last long. Some non-understanding suit from Time-Warner or Sony or wherever may soon come calling with a cease-and-desist or something, even though you cannot download it from here and we are a free, non-profit, All Hallow's kinda pub.

So, like the Season itself -- enjoy, relish it, devour it while you can.

Like the last set of tunes from our jukebox occasionally remarked, it's our time to shine.

And shine darkly, shall we all.

Goodbye, Summer.

Happy Autumn 2012, dear friends of the Skull & Pumpkin.

DDSP!

Again, the 'embers.

Well, dear friends, it's happened.

It is September.

The end of Summer, the beginning of the greatest season of the blessed year.

And there is still just time enough to make a real Hallowe'en.

Not that a real Hallowe'en has to be made -- Hallowe'en happens all by its glorious self -- but for we haunting types, September is the deadline month, the time of do-or-die, of now-or-never, of damnit-where's-that-glue-gun-and-why-haven't-you-been-to-storage-yet?

But this year, I am sort of combining September with October... though I suppose for true Hallowe'en types they're sort of the same long, lovely month anyway.

I could call it 'Septober,' but that's kind of lame and besides, it's already a Martian word -- when it is December on Earth, it is Septober on Mars. Just ask Chochem.

Still, because I am making little distinction between the two, I am therefore not adding September-specific songs to the ol' S&P Jukebox. Instead, for the next two months, I am just going to keep adding and changing all of my favorite Hallowe'en music, the things I have in constant rotation while creating Hallowe'en here at the Skull & Pumpkin.

Of course, there are two songs on the S&P Jukebox that never leave, that always retain their opening and closing positions -- The Great Pumpkin Waltz (our official theme song) and Pumpkintime (our official incidental score).

But for the beginning of Septob -- ah-ha! almost got me doing it, darn you! --  September, I think a visit with dear old friends is needed.

For your enjoyment and edification, the Skull & Pumpkin presents the entire 1967 original motion picture soundtrack from our beloved Rankin/Bass favorite, Mad Monster Party!

 

Yes, every recorded note of composer/music director Maury Laws' greatest (don't argue) score is available for your creepy listening delight right here on that jukebox over there to the upper right.

Oh, such mad monstery music...

... just the thing to have blaring from your speakers while whipping up all manner of All Hallow's goodness, waiting for the gathering on the Big Night.

It's a classic, and a tradition, and even if you already have this in your collection, it's nice to have it all available as we commune at the S&P to share our Autumn People... uh, personhood.

Much like your very life, it won't be available forever, so enjoy it while you may.

And what's coming up next on the jukebox?

Much like your very afterlife... who the Hell knows?

So... enjoy.

There is more Hallowe'en-making mayhem to come.


DDSePtober!

Memorable things.

Hello again, S&P-brains.

August is dwindling away; Fall is tapping Summer on the shoulder with a knowing, pumpkin grin.

And at the S&P, we are preparing.

Ideas are forming, and inspiration is coming from all sides.

One inspiration in particular has been surefire, surely fired... and Shellie fired!

Folks, meet the newest member of our menagerie miniature:

Yes, this little goblin gourd was made by the amazing Shellhawk -- I've mentioned her before, her 'Shellhawk's Nest' has been in the links to the right almost from day one -- and I couldn't be more pleased with the piece nor proud of the procurement.

He looks pretty with green -- hey!

What's that inside there...?

 Could it be...?

 It is!

I guess my little Mini-Boo found this Shellhawk sibling and had to get in

on the photo shoot.

This is truly a fine piece, and Shellhawk has a limited amount of her handmade, Raku-process-fired jacks and other goodies at her Etsy store, Shellhawk's Creations.

I highly recommend a visit. I also recommend a purchase because not only will you own a one-of-a-kind piece of artful wonderment, but whenever she sends something, there are always a few extra goodies:

Spooky booty!

Thanks again Shell, your craft is truly impressive.

Another memorable thing. I couldn't let a post go by without mentioning today's passing of an entertainment legend, comedy genius and feminist hero (whether she ever knew it or not)...

Phyllis Diller

1917  -- 2012

I enjoyed every single film, TV appearance, game show, panel, talk show, anything I saw or heard her do -- especially her turn as the iconic Rankin/Bass character The Monster's Mate in their madcap Mad Monster Party (1967).

 "The LAST time you had a ROVING eye, I KEPT it in a JAR

for a WEEK, a-HAH-HA-ha-ha-hahaha!"

In her honor, I've added to our jukebox Diller's song from that film, the bubbly waltz You're Different.

You certainly were, Phyllis. 

I'm afraid we may never see her likes again.

Then again I'm afraid we might... a-HAH-HA-ha-ha-hahaha!

 (Come on, she would've said it herself).

A toast to Shellhawk, to Phyllis, and to the honest-to-goodness beginning of our Hallowe'en season coming so very soon.

DUMDUMSHREKPOP!

Summer Songs.

Welcome, friends, welcome!

A bit of work-related travel has kept me from stopping into this fine old establishment lately, and soon will take me away for a short while longer, but for now, I am so glad we can visit for a spell.

I am so happy to see you here, lounging about in the dim coolness of our little pub while the temperatures steadily climb outside... because even though the meteorologists say it's not officially due for another three weeks, there is no doubt that with Memorial Day just past, a new season has arrived for a hot, sunny, months-long visit.

Summer is upon us.

With a new season and a new month, the Skull & Pumpkin once again refreshes the ol' Hallowe'en jukebox with our usual flair for oddly appropriate musical diversion.

Let me offer for those S&P'brains who are relatively new to the ol' place a brief reminder that our jukebox (over there to the upper right) will always begin with the S&P's official theme song, Vince Guaraldi's The Great Pumpkin Waltz, and end with our official incidental music, the Anger-Higbie Quintet's wistful anthem to Autumn, Pumpkintime. These never change.

For the new additions, we begin with one of the catchiest, coolest pop treats I have ever heard and loved -- a sweet, sentimental and sexy little bit of funk called Summerfling, by the one and only kd lang!

First released on her 2000 album Invincible Summer, this version was taken from her Live By Request performance on A&E in 2001. It's about joyous days and nights with new, warm summer love, knowing all the while that such spark and flame is so fleeting. One of the most singable, hummable choruses in lang's long and unique repertoire.

Next up, another mote of S&P oddliness, a summery-swingin' bachelor-pad-era (1965) musical delight by Reg Tilsley's Orchestra called Red Bikini!

I know it's more pink than red but it was too good to pass up!

After such a groovy dance, I felt another 1965 touch of summery swing would fit perfectly.

From the same Vince Guaraldi who gave us our theme song, comes a tiny toe-tapper called Surfin' Snoopy!

Oddly, this song is featured briefly in A Charlie Brown Christmas, while Snoopy is decorating his doghouse for the "lights and display contest." Surfin' at Christmastime? Snoopy can do it all!

Then, because we're the Skull & Pumpkin and we know there's no celebrating any new month without a side of spooky, we give you a selection from John Harrison's chilling synthpad score for the 1982 horror anthology, Creepshow!

Something To Tide You Over is a classic tale of revenge from beyond the grave. That's Gaylen Ross and Ted Danson as the waterlogged undead lovers returning from the sea to wreak their revenge upon the spurned husband who killed them, played with perfectly smug villainy by the late, great Leslie Nielsen.

That smugness rapidly vanishes when he realizes what's about to happen to him. Better hold your breath, Leslie!

Then I thought I'd offer a somewhat obscure song from a somewhat obscure album which featured songs about childhood Junes and Julys in central California's rural wine valleys and beaches, written by Van Dyke Parks and sung by Parks' sometime collaborative genius, Brian Wilson.

From 1995's Orange Crate Art comes Summer In Monterey, a nostalgic remembrance of youthful joy and those endless teenaged summers when shorts and bare feet meant freedom, and the near-promise of a kiss from your crush was all it took to spend an entire summer waiting for the right moment...

And since we've now mentioned the musical genius of Brian Wilson, how can we possibly pretend to have assembled a Summery Song List if we haven't loaded up something from The Beach Boys?

All Summer Long is the infectiously happy 1965 classic about girls, cars, friends, and adventures in summertime fun, whenever and wherever it was found. You'll be singing All Summer Long all summer long, as you do your best to grab some sun-baked fun before summertime is through...

... all the while knowing with a secret smile in your Autumn-loving heart that when summertime is through, the best time of the year is coming soon. 

Even here at the beginning of Summer, we know Hallowe'en is just lying in wait along the shoreline of another season...

Happy June, and happy Summer, dear S&Pers.

DDSummermeansPlaytime!

Fools.

Aren't we all, at some point?

Sometimes, I feel like the king of the whole lot of 'em...

I suppose there are worse things to be than Fool Nobility. Being such a lordly fool, I am quite versed in spotting the foolishness in others. One might think this would help me avoid being fooled, but all it really does is help me make more friends and we can all sit around and enjoy our foolishness.

I think few changes of season bring about more lovely, blessed foolishness as does Spring; that the first of April is celebrated as a Fool's Day comes, then, as no surprise.

April awakens, arouses, and then perfectly befuddles the senses, so that perfectly sane people become insane with love, virile and passionate, in a dainty, pastel-colored madness to celebrate new life and the warmth of Spring.

And I love every bit of it.

How can I not?

So, new life and new music for a new month, fool that I am.

First up on the ol' player to the upper right over there, is a traditional S&P April offering, the classic ballad from Simon & Garfunkel, April, Come She Will, from their 1966 masterpiece album The Sounds of Silence. It isn't necessarily a happy first tune, but it's a good one.

Then, because I will be traveling soon, and because it means much to me to feel devoted to my love, I thought Joni Mitchell's All I Want (from her iconic 1971 album Blue) would be a nice dulcimer and voice addition to the player.

I wanna shampoo you, I wanna renew you again and again. Yep.

Next, from last year's April jukebox I give you the Paul Weston Orchestra's gorgeous, jazzy When April Comes Again, from his lush 1950 album Music For The Fireside. So pretty. So glad April comes again, every year.

Then I thought a little tribute to the sun rising on a warmer, livelier season was in order. Norah Jones' 2004 ditty Sunrise is a fitting tale of loving the lazy day with your lover, feeling the sun melt you together.

Of course, April is a month of changes, and it's not all sunlight and butterflies. From his gorgeous 1994 outing Bluesette comes the harmonica master Toots Theilmanns on the standard Here's That Rainy Day. "It's funny how love becomes a cold, rainy day," the song says. April can hurt, too.

Finally, I found a fun, flippant little waltz called simply Spring Waltz. I haven't any kind of information on this recording, save that it was part of a package of stock music from the '70s. It sure sounds like the '70s, with its electric piano, flute lead and three quarter wistfulness. I have always suspected it may be a Joe Raposo composition (he of so much wonderful music from Sesame Street and The Electric Company in the 1970's and early '80s) but I have no way of really knowing at the moment. All I know is that it just feels like a beautiful Spring day.

Well, we are halfway 'round the year from Hallowe'en, dear S&P-brains. And whether we are fools or not, we all need to celebrate and honor the renewal of life and love that Spring seemingly brings to all of Nature.

Blessed foolishness, indeed.

Monsterpalooza comes very soon. I'll keep you up to date.

Until then -- wait... the radio's crackling again...

DUMDUMSHREKPEEPS!

First of the Second.

Welcome, welcome, dear S&Pers, to the first post of a new month!

(source)

As we all learned last year, February is Runtmonth. My niece had been lamenting the seeming endlessness of January, and I suggested that perhaps February's great brevity somehow made up for it. She then mentioned that February was the runt of months -- hence, Runtmonth.

From such inauspicious beginnings come great traditions.

Today, of course, is Runtmonth the First, or simply Runtmonth's Day (or, as I was tempted to refer to it last year, the medieval vulgarity 'Runtmas').

In honor of the new, runty, monthy Runtmonth, we have yet again changed up the songlist for our player on the right. Some things are staying over from January, but there are five Februarial tunes to enjoy for now.

Now, we all know that Runtmonth's most famed association is the holiday (not ironically) at its heart: Valentine's Day.

Here at the S&P, we're not that big into Valentine's Day per se -- we've believed for a long time that one should express their love to the object(s) of that love more than on February 14th and on their birthdays -- but there's no denying that, for whatever reason (Hallmarkian or otherwise), February is the Month of Love in pop culture.

We certainly don't discourage  romance here.

We just light it with a little more orange and black than other pubs might.

First up on the ol' jukebox after our ever-present Great Pumpkin Waltz is another Vince Guaraldi waltz that has become Runtmonth tradition here: the Heartburn Waltz, from the 1975 special Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. It's light and jazzy and quirky like so much about childhood crushes can be... and two Guaraldi waltzes never hurt anybody.

Then, I felt like another waltz, because the waltz is the dance of love. Maybe.

I can't find real recording dates or tech notes for this next track, except to say it's from "John Leach and George Fenton" according to the Inter Webs. Nobody seems to have more information than that.

But if Paris is considered the city of romance, then its music must be considered the music of romance. Just think of a cafe, your true love, a sunny afternoon, and listen to Valse Moderne (Modern Waltz). It's short and sweet and oh so playfully romantic.

(source)

Then I thought, I've given them two waltzes, surely they couldn't take a third. So that's what I'll give them!

This one's a little slower but no less heartfelt and romantic.

A Penny For Your Thoughts is a sweet three-quarter ballad from the 1996 stage musical Red, White & Blaine. It is the song of Ima and her lover, Armani, as they spend the eve of his shipping off to the trenches of WWI-ravaged Europe doubting, dancing and ultimately declaring their undying love in spite of the question mark of his return from battle. 

It has also been suggested that the recording is actually of Christopher Guest and Parker Posey from Guest's 1996 mockumentary classic Waiting For Guffman, but that's totally not true.

And then I got tired of waltzes, but still felt like hearing the odd stage musical love song. Where was it? Where is love...?

Where Is Love? is the gorgeously sad interlude from the 1960 classic musical Oliver!, with music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. In this 1967 version, it is Leonard Nimoy who asks if love is underneath the willow tree he's been dreaming of. In outer space. 'Cause he's Spock.

And finally we feature another song from 1967 that used to be heard on this jukebox quite often, but is now returning to the S&P after a notable absence -- Francesca's ode to Felix on the shores of the Isle of Evil, There Never Was A Love Like Mine. 

Like the earlier A Penny For Your Thoughts, this song is often attributed to a satirical film, in this case 1967's Mad Monster Party, and sung by Gale Garnett (as Francesca) to Felix Flanken (voiced by Allen Swift but not heard in this song). 

Again, this is totally untrue.

I've left last month's Northern Sky, because it's good and it's a love song and it's my pub.

I did the same with the theme from Escape From Monster Manor because Runtmonth is still the off-season for me and I am still spending some time each week shooting ghosts. And it's my pub.

I sure wish everyone a fantastic Runtmonth's Day/Runtmas today, and a fine, loving Runtmonth.

Here's to romance, spooky or otherwise. 

And what is that crackling noise... ?

DDSP!