Scarlett Letters

The to-do list: I made a "To do" list this morning. It has 16 things on it. I've done four. They were time-consuming, but they are done. I still, however, am staring 12 things to do in the face. I am comforted by the fact that some of these things are things I can't do on a Sunday. Some require leaving the house (I'm still in my nightshirt and sweats [see time stamp]). And apparently I needed an epic nap today (three hours). So of the things that require neither leaving the house nor doing on a Sunday, that leaves only eight things. I, um, ought to get right on those.

Halloween: Attended the one and only Halloween party to which I was invited last night. (Well, two, actually, but the first one was more of a stop-and-hop.) It was . . . not quite what I expected, but that's OK. I wore the black leather halter top with a white peasant shirt, black leggings and black leather boots, and called myself a generic fantasy villain. If I work in the office tomorrow, I have a different costume planned. Will I do my annual Halloween post here? We'll see. I don't believe I did one last year. Hm.

Sophie: Sophie has developed some unfortunate bathroom habits. I'm going to call the vet on Monday to get her checked for UTI and possible referral to a behaviorist. This CANNOT go on. At the same time, I find myself wondering if she is keying off of my own personal distress. If that's the case, this might go on for a while.

Exercise: This weather (dark, cold, rainy, wolves) is not encouraging me to exercise. Tonight, I'm going to try on every piece of workout clothing in the house, pack my gym bag, and hit the gym at the office. The price is right (free) and it's stupid not to take advantage of it.

David Delamare: My friend WI has made it public, so I wanted to make a note of the passing of her incredibly gifted husband, artist/musician/writer David Delamare. Wendy, David and I have been acquaintances for years, but we'd only begun to really get to know each other in the last two years or so. I was one of the proofer/editors on their Alice in Wonderland project, something I was delighted to be a part of. When I learned of his death about a month ago, it was a shock because it was so completely unexpected. My prevailing feeling is one of disappointment because, as we'd been getting to know each other, I was discovering how much we had in common and how wonderful it would be to get David's perspective on things we both enjoyed. Wendy's mourning for David has in many ways been more of a celebration of his life, and so I am following suit, remembering our brief friendship and trying to pursue my own arts in whatever way I can to honor him.

Ah, one of my favorite days and nights of the year--Halloween! This year's link list is below, and you can find all previous years' links list at the Halloween tag.

A Walk in the Dark
Last night, after a delicious dinner at Trace (taking advantage of Seattle Restaurant Week--$30 for three courses at some of the schmanciest places in town), varina8, my friend SA, and I went to see "A Walk in the Dark," a play put on by Seattle Radio Theater at Town Hall. What great fun the show was! Set in 1941 on the night of an air-raid black-out drill, it told the story of Jack Riley, a Philadelphia radio man who lands in Seattle on Halloween to start a new life and a new career as one of the announcers on a local radio station. Riley is in for an . . . interesting, ghost-story-filled adventure. Chock full of Seattle history and starring local on-air personalities (at least two of whom were recognizable to anyone who has lived in Seattle for any length of time--John Curley and Jim Dever), it offered a lovely spookiness perfect for the night before Halloween.

And you can hear what we saw right here online. Turn down the lights, cuddle up with some cheap Canadian whiskey, and enjoy!

I ended up taking my own walk in the dark afterwards. I took a bus that I thought I knew the route for, and ended up walking about a mile home because it didn't stop where I thought it did. Still, it was a lovely evening, dryer than it's been in a while, and I enjoyed the darkness and the quiet.

Traditional Halloween links
This makes the eleventh year I've posted a Halloween links list on LJ. There's always good stuff online for those who know where to look.

National Geographic offers a slide show of the Top 10 Ghost Towns. I've been to Bodie in California, but this list gives me places all over the world to visit.

The American Folklife Center offers an essay on The Fantasy & Folklife of Halloween, a scholarly take on the holiday.

Halloween creeps in where local tradition rules the living and the dead: How Halloween is changing Day of the Dead festivals.

If Jews celebrated Halloween: Brilliant, funny, loving extrapolation on keeping a kosher Halloween.

Five ways Halloween has changed since you were a kid: I knew about most of these, but a couple were new and disappointing to me. Give me a good scare and a good, carved jack-o-lantern any day.

We ain't afraid of no (Chicago) ghosts: From the City of the Big Shoulders, WBEZ in Chicago offers up two ghost stories (article and audio file).

And then there are the ghost stories offered by Snap Judgment, one of my favorite storytelling features on NPR. Check out Spooked V: Innocence Lost for great storytelling and screams in the night....

A good Samhain to all who celebrate, and a happy, fun, spooky Halloween to everyone else! BOO!

I'm late in posting about this, but I wanted to be sure to chronicle it just the same. Every year, EB and I try to do something in the spirit of Halloween because we both love the holiday and the season. It's been suitably gloomy around here for at least part of each day the last couple of weeks, so we were in the perfect mood for a Halloween celebration. That being the case, on Sunday we attended a concert at Benaroya Hall presented by the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra called "Music's Darkest Harvest". I got the tickets via one of the crowd-sourced discount programs--LivingSocial or AmazonLocal or something like that. Anyway, the program was full of seasonally appropriate music, including:

• Rachmaninoff"s "The Isle of the Dead"


• Herrmann's "Concerto Macabre" (from the film "Hangover Square")


• Liszt's "Totentanz"


• Chopin's "Funeral March"


• Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain"

The encore turned out to be delightfully familiar: "Funeral March of the Marionettes" (also known as the theme from Alfred Hitchcock Hour).

The soloist was the marvelous Peter Mack on piano who gave a theatrical and energetic performance.

We stayed for the Q&A with the director and soloist after the concert. Both men answered questions with generosity and enthusiasm, the director with an almost manic, obsessive energy.

We had a delicious, decadent dinner afterwards at The Brooklyn, a steakhouse within a couple of blocks of the concert hall. It couldn't have been a nicer afternoon, with more than a touch of the haunting spirit about it.

1) I committed to wearing a costume at work on Halloween. What was I thinking? ::headdesk::

2) Took a class in metal stamping at Fusion Beads on Tuesday evening. All that hammering was quite therapeutic! I came away with a couple of pieces for myself and at least one, possibly two gifts. It's fun to learn new techniques and I liked this one a great deal, but the start-up cost to move into this area of jewelry making seems prohibitive to me--hundreds of dollars to set up a proper workbench, though you wouldn't guess it by just looking at the tools. I'll dabble here.

3) When I work at home, Sophie has taken to curling up under the desk. But she's also taken to trying to nibble on my toes while she's there. I need to address this somehow.

4) I'm working on a Sekrit Projekt. More when it concludes and isn't a sekrit anymore.

5) Lighting a virtual candle in remembrance of Janet Berliner-Gluckman. My heart goes out to robertlfleck and all those who knew and loved Janet. I knew her in the early years of my publishing career, and saw her once or twice when I moved out west. I remember her as a smart, sly, funny presence at conventions and at dinners, sharp as hell, supportive of the writers around her, ambitious and talented.

I Can Has Cheezburger has stolen my heart with today's Meowloween Kitty:

Yesterday, I cooked up some mostaccioli (managing to burn my hand pretty well in the process--I ended up with Mummy Hand). I took the yumminess (which ultimately needed a little extra something--maybe parmesan or more tomato-ness) over to West Seattle last night to join e_bourne and markbourne for some holiday festivities. We had dinner, then drove off to see Skeleton Theater. Unfortunately, some of the animatronics were knocked out by the weather. Still, it was entertaining enough. As markbourne said, we had to credit their ambition which, if the script was any indication, included a pirate cannon fight and a kraken--neither of which we actually got to see, unfortunately.

We went back to the house, where we watched some Twilight Zone episodes, an Outer Limits episode, and Tree House of Terror III (because what's Halloween without the Simpsons?). mikigarrison joined us later in the evening in a scary blond wig, really, the biggest spook of the evening. ::grin:: Over all, a pleasant evening.

Today, I spent playing "Stay in the House," since that seems to be my most effective means of not spending money. I worked on the photo album a bit, and probably watched far too much TV. But it was rainy and cold; even if I hadn't made a deliberate choice to stay in, it would have been a good day to do so.

Tomorrow, I have errands to run, and then suricattus returns for one more night's stay before heading back to parts east.

It's that time again: scarlettina's Halloween link round-up. This year, it was tougher than usual, as I expended a lot of my best material on my article for work, but I've managed to scrape up some interesting seasonal stuff regardless. I've decided to include a couple of highlights from the article because, well, it's my LJ and I can. ::grin::

This year, rather than linking to my usual history of Halloween source (oh, okay, fine, here's the link--the History Channel rocks!), I want to post something new: a nice, fairly balanced video on the holiday's history, now that online video is finally worth watching.

I've got stories of hotel ghosts for you.

Here's a comprehensive list of phobias, A-Z, for your entertainment.

Next, let's go international: The Australian Ghost Hunters Society has one of the most well-put-together sites I've seen in its category (its category being ghost-hunting organizations). It's clean and well designed, well organized, and it seems to have a sense of humor about itself, which is refreshing.

From the other side of the spectrum, a ghost hunter tells you what's not true about ghost hunting.

If you're a fan of the radio, then you might want to check out the Paranormal Perceptions Radio Blog, where they interview psychics, ghost hunters, and more.

You might also want to check out Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater on the Air production of “The War of the Worlds” (MP3| RealAudio) for its sheer period wonderfulness.

The New York Times came up with some good stuff for me this year:

Ghost stories from the New York area. Some eerie stuff.

A profile on a pair of ghost hunters in Katona, New York who look like they belong in Seattle's upscale Kirkland neighborhood.

This lovely essay about a writer's remembrances of the haunted home in which she grew up. She returns as an adult for a little investigating.

If you want to see entries from previous years, follow this link to all the entries tagged "Halloween".

Happy Halloween, folks! And to those celebrating Samhain, bright blessings!

PS: Seen at work so far today, please dressed as:

The Jolly Green Giant

Trinity, from The Matrix

Julius Caesar

Kali (with, yes, many arms)

Dee Snyder

Good times.

Yep, it's Halloween once again, and for the third year in a row, I'm making my annual Halloween links post. Mustn't let the day go by without assuring my readers that I'm on the supernatural case.

I'm on a bit of a ghost kick this year, so here are some resources for ghost hunting, should you be so inclined.

First and foremost, to properly ghost hunt, you need to belong to some kind of ghost hunting society. Once mustn't roam about in the dark by oneself. And one does need another witness should one encounter the unexplained. Find a ghost hunting association somewhere near you with this state by state ghost hunters listing.

Next, you must be properly equipped. That being the case, stop by the Ghost Hunters Store for electromagnetic frequency meters, flashlights, motion sensors, dowsing supplies, and much more.

To learn from the pros, you can watch Ghost Hunters on the Sci Fi channel or Most Haunted on the Travel Channel. You can purchase The Ghost Hunters Bible if you feel so inclined. You might try Basic Ghost Photography.

Me, I'm going to the gym this evening, then I'm turning into a pumpkin. Because really, after working out, that's all I'm good for.

Happy Halloween!

I love this time of year. I love it for the changing colors of the trees and the touch of the chill in the air and the smell of the leaves all around.

I also love it because, well, I love Halloween.

And I love it because the networks all dig up their spookiest stuff to air.

Today, after spending from 8:30 AM-Noon with my workshop writing, I came home to take a nap and then spend far too much time curled up on the couch with Merlin watching the Travel Channel and their British series Most Haunted. I've always been interested in the paranormal—ghosts, psychic phenomena, that sort of thing—and this show (as well as Ghost Hunters on Sci Fi) is just my speed. So I had a little wallow this afternoon, watching investigation after investigation of haunted locations. The part of me that wants to believe really digs Most Haunted. The part of me that needs to be a skeptic prefers Ghost Hunters; their methods are more scientific, more scrupulous. But I get a kick out of it all.

I got very little done today (though the writing session was good), but I had a great time doing it.

It's Halloween...or, in deference to my pagan or Celticly-inclined friends, Samhaim, when the walls between the worlds grow thin and creatures of the Otherworld roam the night.

In celebration of the dying of the old year and the birthing of the new...or in celebration of the middle of autumn...or in celebration of fabulous costumes and spooky stories, I offer the following for your education and entertainment. Happy Halloween!

Samhain: the Celtic new year

Nancy Pearl's list of recommended ghost stories and hauntings

The International Ghost Hunters Society

A list of GhostCam sites from GhostStudy.com

Seven Jack-o-lanterns: a puzzle for Halloween

And for the literarily inclined: The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe (all Poe, all the time...)

BooooOOOOOoooooOOOOOooo!