Give me a break?

NO, I say!

I'm just busy.

I know, dear S&Pbrains, that I have been markedly absent from this humble little place for a while, but it really is strictly about my workload and my mind being... well, my mind!

I do want to assure you all -- if it's at all important to you -- that I am not "taking a break from blogging" or "going through a rough patch" or even "reevaluating my life".

I'm just... busy. And a kind of busy that keeps me from fully immersing myself into the darker -- and way more fun -- side of my life.

I can also assure you that come Christmas, everything will get back to what passes for normal around this spooky ol' place.

(I am also trying to locate a better audio hosting site for our jukebox and radio, which should explain why there has been no change to either for some time -- Podbean has decided my paid account no longer merits uploading multiple files at once, and adding five or ten mp3s one at a time? Yeah, not going to put up with that when I have paid to not have to hassle with it).

The Skull & Pumpkin, like all aspects of our Hallowe'en and Horror love, is always alive and well, even if your humble pubkeep has vanished for a time.

More posts to come, promise.

I mean... hell, Monsterpalooza's coming in April... and I have this feeling that Ray Bradbury and Uncle Forry might be having a nice chat together somewhere in that Museum...

I  hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving.

Please keep coming in, relaxing, perusing the library.

See you very soon.

DDSPatience!

The Hallowe'en Tree, pt.6

Good day to you, loyal S&P-brains!

I imagine you are all quite full of Hallowe'en and are ready for a brief stretch of holiday-free weeks before the end of the year madness overtakes us all.

I certainly could use it.

But I did want to show off some of our fantastic fright night scenes from last week.

It was a beautiful night, the weather was perfectly Hallowe'en. Not too cold, not too warm, no rain, slight breeze, cloudy skies with a nearly full moon. Just beautiful.

First to enjoy the weather and the night's festivities, our animatronic graveyard group.

Capt. Lantern, Ficketts, Nevermore the Raven, and

the Lean Bros. & Ghoul swing quartet.

Some tombstone detail. We sure lost some greats this past year.

Our kid-friendly Boo Corner, showing Mad Monster Party (along

with The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Legend of Sleepy

Hollow, It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, and other

Hallowe'en specials all night long).

But the real attraction for just about everyone who visited that night had to be our amazing

Hallowe'en Tree.

It really turned out to be something special...

Almost 100 pumpkins, carved and sent from family and friends all over the country, to honor the passing of Ray Bradbury, and celebrate our love for All Hallow's Eve.

Just stunning.

At the base of the Tree was our longtime 'host' of the haunt, the Great Pumpkin.

And just around the tree trunk from him stood the brooding, ancient and wickedly wise ol' being, Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud.

I'd like to think ol' Ray would've loved it.

Just above and beyond our Tree, in a dormer window, floated one of many wandering revenants...

... and in the same window, not long after, could be found our little black kitty, Hallowe'en herself, watching our goofy goings-on in the yard below.

Yes, she's wearing a little orange/black jester's collar.

No, she's not summoning Satan.

As far as I know.

The next day, I had to get a good sunshine shot of our Hallowe'en Tree.

Just beautiful.

Hallowe'en 2012 is in the history books, and I had a fabulous week.

I hope each of you enjoyed your Hallowe'en.

Still cleaning up...

DDSP!

After.

Happy Hallowe'en.

It happened again.

God bless it, the day is here.

I think what I wrote last year is so apt that it bears repeating. And since Hallowe'en is a day that takes place outside of time, I feel like every Hallowe'en is part of the same long, wondrous day and night, like we're just picking up from where we left off the year before.

Friends, family, all Autumn People... this is for us.

Always...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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!

The Hallowe'en Tree, pt 5.

 

"The pumpkins on the tree were not mere pumpkins. Each had a face sliced in it, each face was different. Every nose was a weirder nose, every mouth smiled hideously in some new way. A thousand grimaces and twice-times-a-thousand glares of fresh cut eyes. Each blink held the remnant holiday spirit of years gone by."

Ray Bradbury, The Hallowe'en Tree, 1972

Until tomorrow...

Tick, tick, tick...

Two days.

Eek.

 "Oh God... give me time!"

Actually, I'm having a ball. The set up, the anticipation, the anxiety and giggling and enjoying...

As Ray Bradbury wrote in his October 1975 essay in Reader's Digest, Tricks! Treats! Gangway!:

Amen.

And as for tradition, I'm living up to that too...

It's magic time.

I sure hope every one of you is enjoying their Hallowe'en week.

Two days.

Eek!

DDSProgress...

Sincerity.