Before we get to November...

Well, November's already here, yes.

But before I get to any new jukebox tunage or waxing poetic about the end of Autumn and all that, I wanted to pass around a few pics of our 2011 yardhaunt, the 'Greatest Hits' display I was able to put together.

Yes, I was going to do a big tribute to the anti-genius of Edward D. Wood, Jr. But time... time not only slipped away, it was fairly torn from my daily schedule with alarming regularity all through September and October.

No complaints. I love working.

But I decided I had backlogged so many great props, figures, routines, music and decor that a greatest hits display would be perfect -- a kind of Hallowe'en version of a cheap TV clip show.

It worked just fine.

Now don't get up, I'll just pass a few around:

 Our 'graveyard' just before adding the animatronic characters.

 The lovely 'V' helping set up 'Boo Corner' (for littler spooks and scared grown-ups!).

 'Uncle Bill' setting up the stupendous 'De Witch Woman' display he built 

last year in honor of the family-favorite James Lewicki illustration 

(story and pictures from this post and this post, remember?)

Our cat Hallowe'en ('Halli') always helps us move the leaves around.

 She also spent a lot of time hanging out with Cap'n Lantern an Ficketts.

 The graveyard ready to go, seen through the web of a spider

that decided she had to set up shop here. 

(Sorry Frog Queen!)

 An angle I only get to see once a year: the business end of my

graveyard attraction.

 Cap'n Lantern, First Mate Ficketts, a tombstone-perched raven named Nevermore...

 ... and the Lean Bros & Ghoul, ready for spooky swingin' songs!

My one and only Ed Wood tribute piece.

 The completed Boo Corner...

... and guests.

'De Witch Woman' took the place of the usual Treat Room we have on

that side of the porch. That foot pumped, that spindle spun, and de ol' witch woman

sang  (in my Aunt Gail's voice) 'Turn an' spin, come off skin!' all night long.

The decade-old Great Pumpkin animatronic character, in his perfectly

glowy, perfectly plasticky pumpkin patch!

A blurry but colorful shot of the display from across the street. 

Of course, the Skull & Pumpkin has always been a Post-Hallowe'en Blues-Free Zone, as you well know. There is nothing about cleanup that saddens me -- not really -- and in fact it has grown to become a rather Zen-like ritual, at once cleansing and inspiring.

Besides, there simply isn't a reason for sadness.

For one, we had a grand time.

For another, it's still Autumn. I mean, look at the view I get to and from work every day...

Still very, very Fall.

I'll be back soon with new musical diversions for a new month.

In the meantime, I'll gather up the pictures and let you all get back to whatever you were doing. I hope you're all discussing your own amazing Hallowe'en 2011 stories!

Until next time!

DDSP!

Hallowe'en dreams.

It was truly wonderful, wasn't it?

All my creations recapturing my imagination, pursuing me like the Monster pursued Frankenstein across frozen floes.

All my fears riding to meet my giddy challenge, and sending me headlong across the bridge from October to November, like a headless Hessian soldier's flaming gourd to the back of my noggin -- beautiful, painful, spirited, brief, and final.

It was just wonderful.

Off now to dream black and orange dreams, with a real breeze blowing real leaves against my real window, and the warming sound of every voice that haunted my home tonight, still in my ears -- a last, thin-wick'd candle flickering in one last jack o'lantern.

Happy Hallowe'en.

Good night.

Dumdumshrrrzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Happy Hallowe'en.

It is here.

Our day, and most thrillingly, our Night.

It is the New Year celebration of an ancient world, and an ancient celebration of what has come and gone, what may lie ahead, and what our place will be in whatever comes.

It is the birthday of childhood fears, but the anniversary of casting those fears away, all at once.

Even as it changes with time and tide, it has never disappointed.

It calls us to come out and play again, to talk and laugh and scream and chase and run as the children we still are, will always be, no matter how we try to hide it.

It sets the sun a pumpkin orange, carries leaves on a woodsmoke wind to tap our windows, scratch our memories, to tickle and reawaken our love -- our need -- for the Tall Tale, the Scary Story, the Fright.

It is yours, and it is mine, and it connects us across miles.

It does not teach us to fear -- we already know fear quite well. It doesn't say 'See? Here are horrors you wouldn't know but for Me.'

No. Like all Fantasy, which is itself a child of our darkest primal nights, it does not teach children that there are dragons. They already know that.

                                             It just shows us all that dragons can be slain.

It is our secret satisfaction at the puzzle unsolved, our continuous joy at the Great Mystery, for it is the stating and confronting of our most primal fear... and because it is the facing of our own death, it boldly and blessedly reminds us to live while we are alive.

                                                                It is Hallowe'en.

It is today, and tonight. God, what a gift.

The Skull & Pumpkin wishes all of you a meaningful, magical, and mystical Hallowe'en, wherever you may be.

A toast, raise them up high now:

DUMDUMSHREKPOP!

Making Hallowe'en.

DDSProgress...

Diggin'...

Heading to storage today...

Now -- where's my Hallowe'en stuff... ?

DDSPrep!

A skull and pumpkin.

Yesterday was a bit of a Pumpkin Carving Day.

Kiara the Great was in rare form, using a Pumpkinmasters kit to whip up some design I'm still trying to decipher. But she loved every second of it!

The lovely V procured four or five excellent raw jack o'lanterns, and I chose the one I thought would make the oddest looking chap.

Here you can see I have already done the eyes, but I wanted you to see the warts and scars on this wonderfully warped little fellow. All of his odd features make for a glowering, grotesque but grand little gourd!

When I brought him to the S&P, he immediately began to grumble and shift, and leaving him to his own devices for a time, I eventually found him here:

... on the windowsill at the top floor landing. He obviously knew his place.

And by nightfall, well...

Now that's a skull & pumpkin!

I'm enjoying him immensely, and am quite certain the rest of our menagerie has welcomed him with open... whatever they may have.

Hallowe'en on the way... yikes!

DDSGrumble!

"Give this man satin undies...

... a dress, a sweater and a skirt, or even the simple lounging outfit he has on...

... and he's the happiest man in the world!"

Today we celebrate the birth of one Edward Davis Wood, Jr., the man directly responsible for some of the greatest film moments of my life. 

He challenged our notions of personal liberty and social acceptance as both Glen and Glenda. He turned the San Fernando Valley into spooky gator and octopus filled swamp land while giving the Monster a Bride. He bravely forsook exalted alien ruler tradition by jumping over Plans 1 through 8 and going right to Plan 9!

This was a great man. And there's not a statue, or a plaque...

Hey, he wasn't very good at what he did. 

That's not the point, though. He LOVED what he did, and LOVED what he tried to do, and LOVED that he even tried.

Obviously, he wasn't afraid to love, or to try. I think more people should live by his teachings. Well... at least what he taught before he became really sick.

Eddie, I'm going to do my best to tribute you this year. It won't look great, which will be just perfect. It will look spooky.

And hopefully, some guests will walk away realizing, as you did, that perfection is in the mind of the beholder.

Edward D. Wood Jr.

(1924 -- 1978)

And for everyone else following along, please head to The Ed Wood Project Fan Page on Facebook. We're trying to raise funds to give Eddie a cenotaph (that's a headstone or marker even if there's no remains) at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where his wife Kathy Wood is buried. The land has been generously donated by the owner of the cemetery, we just need to purchase/create the cenotaph itself. 

A toast... Happy Birthday, Eddie!

DDSP!

A (not so) brief rambling.

Welcome, S&Pers, welcome.

Thank you for coming to visit and enjoy our little pub, even though there hasn't been too much 'new stuff' to see, hear or ponder. So much work, so little time...

I finally had some time to come hang out at the S&P myself tonight, and wanted to just wax philosophical for a moment. No pics, no distractions, just my thoughts.

Don't worry, you can still listen to the music and the old radio -- never mind me, I'm just holding up the bar and thinking about Hallowe'en, and our devotion to it, and the remarkable restorative power of Autumn and Hallowe'en in our often busy, topsy-turvy lives.

As I've mentioned previously, this year I haven't had nearly the time to produce the kind of Hallowe'en display I normally do, and while part of me is truly panicked, I mostly feel sort of resigned and happy.

I know, weird, right?

But if you think about it logically, the panic is truly needless. I can't change the situation, and it's not like I'm not going to have a display filled with amazing homemade figures no one else in the world has, doing goofy things and being cool and spooky on Hallowe'en night -- so what if all my plans can't be accomplished? I still have a singing skeleton quartet. Two comical pirates and a raven straight-man.

My beloved Great Pumpkin, for the love of All Hallow's.


Maybe I'll have to just rehash last year's routines. Maybe I'll have to stick to a few songs and a few jokes and leave it at that.

Maybe I'll just put out everything, let it run until it all collapses.

Or maybe I'll just carve a gigantic jack o'lantern and set it in an empty yard with a big candle and a glass of wine and simply say 'I DO THIS FOR MY UNDYING LOVE OF THE SINGLE GREATEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR AND NOTHING I CAN OR CAN'T FINISH CHANGES ANYTHING."

Because how can life be difficult, how can I be sad, if there's still going to be an October 31st? The entire day will still feel as beautifully different as it has since I was a little child. The sunlight, the clouds, the air, everything will still be Hallowe'en.

And why should I compare what I do with what anyone else does, and find myself wanting? If all I ended up doing come the 31st is decorating inside with my family and friends, and running a few routines on the Pumpkin and playing a few DVDs, I would be just as happy, this year.

But the real point for me is this:

D'you know why we Autumn People 'do' Hallowe'en the way we do? With the passion, the magic, the fire for it, year after year after blessed year?

Because WE ARE HALLOWE'EN.

You, me, them, everyone who makes Hallowe'en... we are Hallowe'en.

It is us, we are it. There is no Hallowe'en without us.

Ponder it for a bit.

Rather than feel like we've let some external celebration pass us by, or that we've let someone or something down by not being able to give it everything we have before, we need to know that it's internal, that anything we do to celebrate Hallowe'en is in itself the prime creation of Hallowe'en.

We connect with the beauty of Autumn's leaves, the sun, the rain, the light and the dark, the smells and sounds and sights of our most loved Night, and that is the restorative power, the magic, the renewal, right there: we can always make it because we are made of it.

Ah, well... I ramble.

But if I somehow cannot do everything I thought would be cool, then I choose, here and now, to not only not beat myself up over it, but to laugh and enjoy the fact that life got in my way so much that it made me see the true depth of my love for Hallowe'en... and therefore my love for myself.

To just learn that lesson.

To just relax and be the Hallowe'en that I am.

Well... we'll see what happens, but I know one thing:

I'm alive to see another October 31st. And that's an excellent, excellent thing.

I propose a big toast -- to all of us who are not just Hallowe'en Makers, but who realize we are Hallowe'en itself.

DUMDUMSHREKPOP!

At last.

October has arrived, at last.

And I am posting about it... at last.

A lot of work, planned and unplanned, has taken me away from the S&P and other Autumn delights lately. But I'm not complaining about any of it, no sir. It's incredibly good to have gainful employment, especially these days.

I'm just glad I finally have a few moments to share a toast with all of you patient and loyal S&P'ers, to the greatest month of the year!

With each new month, of course, comes new music to our little jukebox over there to the right.

Now, we do our best to keep it stocked with Autumn goodness all year long, perpetually featuring our official incidental score, the beautiful Pumpkintime from the Anger-Higbie Quintet, and as ever the official theme song of the Skull & Pumpkin, Vince Guaraldi's The Great Pumpkin Waltz.

For the Hallowe'en Month, I thought a continuance of the 'theme' theme was in order.

First comes my solo piano version of Grim Grinning Ghosts, the theme to the greatest dark ride in the world: Disneyland's Haunted Mansion!

It's not as rockin' and swingin' as the ride's original soundtrack, but it's mine and I like it and I'm in charge so there.

Then we have to get back to basics with another Vince Guaraldi treasure...

Just think of your youngest trick-or-treat memories, the cloudy sky, the leaves, the pumpkins, always the pumpkins... and realize that the Opening Theme from our favorite Peanuts Hallowe'en special was playing the whole time.

Next up, a theme that is near and dear to my heart this year, in fact near and dear to the heart of any fan of Ed's... the Theme from Plan 9 From Outer Space!

 

Now, Ed Wood never had a professional composer or arranger for his films, and stock music from various libraries are a hallmark of his works. This piece was originally titled "Grip of the Law", and was composed by Trevor Duncan for his Impress Music company.

Then, we had to add a tune that's been on the player before, but never the worse for wear. A nod to the classic horror monsters of our Hallowe'en-lovin' childhoods, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, better known among Monster Kids as the Theme from Dracula, is always welcome in October.

Finally, another selection once on the player but too perfect for October not to repeat: Louis Armstrong's incredible number from the 1936 film Pennies From Heaven -- The Skeleton in the Closet! Satch just kills it in this bit of swingin' spookiness.

Man, now that's a Hallowe'en band!

That's it for now, but perhaps if time allows I'll add more before the Big Night.

Until then, enjoy your October. I'm not building much that is new this year -- I'm mostly dolling up my existing figures -- but I'll post what I can, when I can.

In the meantime, I'm hearing some crackling and humming from the ol' Hallowe'enith radio... 

A toast -- to all of us, a Happy Hallowe'en season.

DUMDUMSHREKPOP!

Plan '11 for Hallowe'en, pt. 1

"Alright Bela... action!"

"Lobo! You vill gather for me... de materials... to bilt a Hallove'en display! 

Do as I commant!"

"Bgaahaggghhhg!"

"Later -- that very evening..."

"Bgaahahaagggh!"

"Yessss! Dis vill be a Hallove'en display... vich vill conquer de vorld!"

"I sure hope they know what the hell they're doing..."

DDSPlan9!

A hard working human.

He was indeed a hard working human.

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó

 20 October 1882 – 16 August 1956

I know everyone else in the world remembers August 16th as the day Elvis died, but Lugosi has always meant so much more to me than any amount of hair grease, swinging hips and deep fried peanut butter-banana-valium sandwiches.

Not that Lugosi didn't have his own demons, but The King of the Vampires is, even today, no less a worldwide cultural icon, no less recognizably himself, than that other King, even if his funeral wasn't quite as large...

You can barely see, just to the upper right, that one of Bela's pallbearers was the one and only Ed Wood, another hard working human (and original writer of the phrase "hard working human").

I love segues...

Lately I have been a hard working human, it's true.

And unfortunately, none of that work has been here at the ol' S&P.

Oh, I'm not complaining. I'll take every cent I can get these days. But it leaves precious little time for relaxing with all of you fine Hallowe'en lovin' friends.

And Hallowe'en is indeed sneaking up on all of us, tapping at our nighttime windows, insinuating itself into our dreams...

It has been a little disturbing to me that I usually have my theme well in hand and half built by this time each year but for some reason, this year has been racing by so quickly, it nearly passed me by.

Not to worry, though.

You see, I did recently hit on what I think is a very fun and silly and wonderful Hallowe'en display theme, and it has everything to do with Bela... and Eddie.

Yes, for the dozen or so folks who will actually get every joke and reference, this year's display will be a loving tribute to that maven of movie mediocrity, the inept, inane, incomparable Edward D. Wood Jr.!

C'mon. More Bela and Ed is a good thing.

And can't you just see it? All the usual spookiness of my haunt endowed with Wood's mighty creations, speaking his jumbled wisdom, garbed in pink angora, reveling in the awful wonderfulness?

I mean, the Raven must be able to do a pretty fair Criswell...

And can't you just see Capt. Lantern loving this get up?

And how could Ficketts not get a kick out of being the screen's least amusing comic relief, Kelton the cop (to the right)?

And there are some other characters to play with...

And not a few amazing prop ideas...

I mean, it's not like it has to look good. And I already have the rotten cemetery anyway!

As I say, only about a dozen people will truly get every reference, every gag.

But they'll be the right people, so I don't find myself terribly concerned. I find myself happy.

Besides, I'm still going to have my Pumpkin, and the Lean Bros. & Ghoul, and all the other spooky delights I have every year.

You can't really argue with the idea. 

I mean, future events such as these will affect you, in the future.

Onward. 

Upward. 

Edwood.

DDSuPernaturalthriller!