This has always been my favorite month, as the whole world seems to become drenched in melancholy while simultaneously liberating itself into a celebration of gallows humor. Halloween is that one holiday out of the year that says, "We're all going to die. Screw it! I'm going down happy!"
I'll get to the blog proper in a minute, but I want to draw your attention to the imaginary carnival I've been creating over the past two years, complete with games and a couple of spook houses. The place needs a name. I'm going to call it Annie's Acropolis, a tourist trap for all ages. There's some backstory behind the name, but no reason to bog you down in details right at the gate. For now, check out some of my past blogs: Decorating the Lawn serves as a decent welcoming, giving you a little personal background as to what Halloween means to me. I've got a soundtrack of ten lesser known Halloween-type songs playing in the background, and a Scooby-Doo pavilion for the kiddies if you were irresponsible enough to bring them (and when you're done watching the old stuff, be sure to pick up a copy of my original story Scooby-Doo's Unsolved Mystery).
A couple of other fun things you can do: check out my review of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as well as its awful remake (did I spoil it), the first seven Saw films, Alice Cooper's "Welcome to My Nightmare" album and its equally awesome sequel, and we can so a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror marathon. You can also join me in a couple of short stories for a haunted hayride with a few of my fictional characters, and see a recap of Zel's fortune booth from last year. Oh yeah (and this is real) I got to star in an independent horror film called The Ogre, and I wrote a review of it.
But the main draw of carnivals are the haunted house attractions, and I have some of those. If you want a light puzzle, try The Zodiac's Labyrinth for a casual distraction. For something a little more along the lines of a room escape game, visit The Twelfth Toll, my tribute to survival horror video games. I currently have two walkthrough haunted houses for you to enjoy: MTV's House of Horror is based on the golden age of music videos (be sure to count the shout-outs), and The Maul of America is themed after a shopping mall from hell, featuring appearances by many of Universal Studios' original Halloween Horror Nights characters.
Okay, extended commercial over.
One inescapable name in Halloween lore is Edgar Allen Poe (you may have heard of him). Among his contributions to modern detective fiction and literary criticism is the sort of Gothic horror alphabet that has influenced generations of writers.
Poe's monsters were all contained in the human mind, typical that of an intellectual who found himself in conflict with various mental disorders; well before they would be recognized as such. His body of work predated that of Sigmund Freud, but if you look at Poe's essays you can spot early traces of what Freud would later develop into his Id-Ego-Superego model; suggesting both men were driven by the same passion, albeit with very different outlets. I don't use the word 'genius' lightly, but I do believe it applies to Edgar Allen Poe. He had a grasp on language that I could never hope for, and his conclusions regarding the human soul are some of the most brilliant ideas I've ever read on the topic.
But it's also worth acknowledging that Poe was not without his flaws. Among the most easily recognized shortcomings (his essays seethe with arrogance) is Poe's handling of his interchangeably unremarkable female characters. In all of his talent as a writer, he never seemed remotely interested in exploring Morella, Ligeia, and Annabel Lee as anything more than the narrative's McGuffin.
With that notion in mind, I offer up my first official Halloween blog post of 2017. This idea is over twenty years old (yikes) but I decided to finally sit down and hammer it out. I've taken the classic Janet Jackson song "Black Cat" and rewritten it as a sort of ode to "The Raven" told from Lenore's point of view.
The Navajo suggest (assuming The X-files did the proper research) that someone continues to live as long as they're remembered. With that in mind I'm exploring the idea some ghosts may not haunt the earth by choice, but by the unfortunate binding of the living. And I imagine Lenore might have some strong feelings regarding her former lover's refusal to move on, as well as the effect it has on her. (And no pressure, but I've probably spent a total of sixteen hours working on this damn thing, so I expect to hear about all of your experiences performing it at your local karaoke clubs.) Happy Halloween!
Return to Nevermore
On a dreary night
You sit alone
Bathed in candlelight
Your love has flown
Always hanging on
Privo impune
Timbered latticework
Is your cocoon
Then a raven's call
Gives you commands
Busted palisade
Where it stands
I'm trying to tell you boy
It's a charade
You won't feel alive
'Til you've decayed
Don't understand why you exist
The praise you're giving is a primitive lie
I'm not the crime you feign -in vain
Who'll touch your soul, be your angel, and die
Blackbird, lionize
Midnight to sunrise
Gift of superstition
Esprit de corps
Heartbeat humdrum
Into the maelstrom
Using up the man
Lifted nevermore
You're sewn together boy
The sequins have split
You're the pendulum
That circles the pit
Fatal epigrams
With shadows beneath
So catatonic, it's like
I'm pulling teeth
You've been mesmerized
Found in the casks
Seven chambers of
Multiple masques
And you want me to say
Thou art the man
Like your make-believe
Orangutan
Don't understand why you resist
Your serenade is through your spectacle-sight
Sign of malign you take (awake)
The iron groan of a bell out of spite
Not to take my flight
-Lenore
Black bird...
-Lenore
Black bird...
Black bird, no dirge shall I upraise...
A paean of old days
Don't understand why you persist
Don't understand why you persist
My oval painting is a thing of deprive
Tied to your pride and hate, I wait
Just so you'll know I've been buried alive
Black bird's swan song
Heart shapen oblong
Banging on the bricks
From behind the wall
Cognac roses
Gold-Bug composes
Gold-Bug composes
Murdering yourself
And your house will fall
Take it all
Black bird's tether
Quoth Tarr and Fether
Take it all
Black bird's tether
Quoth Tarr and Fether
Living an offense
Through an evil eye
Browbeat wild hog
Torchlight from Hop-Frog
Sever the descent
That you glorify
...Black bird
Browbeat wild hog
Torchlight from Hop-Frog
Sever the descent
That you glorify
...Black bird
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