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Okay, folks, in case you haven't heard this before (or missed it from last Halloween), this is the time of the year when my artistic/dramatic/set-dressing talents really get a chance to stand out and creep someone out. As a matter of fact, I've coined a new faux-Japanese term for the occasion -- karipibana (say it fast)...which would of course be the art of arranging flowers, leaves, branches and other live/dead vegetation to create as sinister an effect as possible. :D
My older sister was saying that I ought to have more of a care for the delicate sensibilities of all the families with VERY YOUNG CHILDREN on the block, because Lavinia and my masks are so macabre, but personally I don't give a rat's ass -- if they ain't old enough to deal with the equation "Halloween = scary stuff", then they shouldn't be going out trick-or-treating in the first place. And coming by daylight doesn't help either, 'cause it's an insult to all my hard work -- look, people, there is a social contract involved in this thing, little as mothers and municipalities may care to respect it.
* Nightfall is the official time to begin the rounds and ritual. The time before that is for getting dressed up if you haven't had the chance already, and/or for putting the finishing touches on house decor and lighting the pumpkins.
* If a house has its porchlight off, that means the residents are either not playing the game (esp. if said house is totally undecorated) or have run out of candy. Egging and TPing are still technically vandalism, no matter how pissed you may be at not getting a handout.
* If a house is decorated/rigged particularly well, show some appreciation (instead of coming in day and not letting it be seen to its best effect). Discerning trick-or-treaters prefer to be seen at houses that look as "good" as they do...:P
* Conversely, do not go trick-or-treating without a costume if you want your treat -- and that includes parents and tagalong-babies too. "High school/college student" is not a costume....show a little imagination, 'kay? It doesn't have to be much (I'm certainly no commercialist consumer here), but if you can't use it now, what does that say about the rest of your daily existence?
* Do not expect candy without asking for it in the traditional formula, and the "smell my feet" version is best left unsaid as it's damn annoying and rude. In Scotland it used to be traditional to sing/perform for your treats, so consider yourselves let off easy.
* If you're not old enough to deal with the dark, then you don't go out trick-or-treating, because trick-or-treating with any fairness requires that there be a mutual opportunity to scare/impress and be scared/impressed in return. You don't deserve free candy for not havin' the guts to come up to the door of a possibly-strange house at night, of your own volition/courage and get it.
And on the shadowy lane to that candy-token in the token-economy of misrule, I will make every attempt to creep you out and make your mind hold onto these images a lot longer than you may find comfortable....
Not that I'm waiting in ambush with a chainsaw, people -- I have to clarify, I'm not out to give people heart attacks with ultra-realistic shock-and-gore, just...warp their imaginations a bit and give 'em interesting things to play with. Lavinia, for example, is really a very beautiful lifesize hanging dummy with a paper-mask face, who just happens to have a gaping chest wound (okay, that bit is an effect I'm rather proud of, as it looks extra-juicy...>:)) --but these are quietly shocking scares that blow in the wind rather than jumping out at you, and not so much malicious as pained and agonized and/or dead, paper and cardboard death-masks that therefore look real and artistically-stylized at the same time. And the orange lighting helps. And the beasty silhouette up against my bedroom window...and the headless baby doll hanging from the tree over the driveway....
Yeah, I get a kick out of it. My season, my month, my holiday...and I don't like people mounting a cultural war against it, as it serves a purpose no less kathartic and socially-significant than does Mardi Gras. Which I could write a thesis on....but I got better things to do today/tonight.
Happy hauntings.....>:)
My older sister was saying that I ought to have more of a care for the delicate sensibilities of all the families with VERY YOUNG CHILDREN on the block, because Lavinia and my masks are so macabre, but personally I don't give a rat's ass -- if they ain't old enough to deal with the equation "Halloween = scary stuff", then they shouldn't be going out trick-or-treating in the first place. And coming by daylight doesn't help either, 'cause it's an insult to all my hard work -- look, people, there is a social contract involved in this thing, little as mothers and municipalities may care to respect it.
* Nightfall is the official time to begin the rounds and ritual. The time before that is for getting dressed up if you haven't had the chance already, and/or for putting the finishing touches on house decor and lighting the pumpkins.
* If a house has its porchlight off, that means the residents are either not playing the game (esp. if said house is totally undecorated) or have run out of candy. Egging and TPing are still technically vandalism, no matter how pissed you may be at not getting a handout.
* If a house is decorated/rigged particularly well, show some appreciation (instead of coming in day and not letting it be seen to its best effect). Discerning trick-or-treaters prefer to be seen at houses that look as "good" as they do...:P
* Conversely, do not go trick-or-treating without a costume if you want your treat -- and that includes parents and tagalong-babies too. "High school/college student" is not a costume....show a little imagination, 'kay? It doesn't have to be much (I'm certainly no commercialist consumer here), but if you can't use it now, what does that say about the rest of your daily existence?
* Do not expect candy without asking for it in the traditional formula, and the "smell my feet" version is best left unsaid as it's damn annoying and rude. In Scotland it used to be traditional to sing/perform for your treats, so consider yourselves let off easy.
* If you're not old enough to deal with the dark, then you don't go out trick-or-treating, because trick-or-treating with any fairness requires that there be a mutual opportunity to scare/impress and be scared/impressed in return. You don't deserve free candy for not havin' the guts to come up to the door of a possibly-strange house at night, of your own volition/courage and get it.
And on the shadowy lane to that candy-token in the token-economy of misrule, I will make every attempt to creep you out and make your mind hold onto these images a lot longer than you may find comfortable....
Not that I'm waiting in ambush with a chainsaw, people -- I have to clarify, I'm not out to give people heart attacks with ultra-realistic shock-and-gore, just...warp their imaginations a bit and give 'em interesting things to play with. Lavinia, for example, is really a very beautiful lifesize hanging dummy with a paper-mask face, who just happens to have a gaping chest wound (okay, that bit is an effect I'm rather proud of, as it looks extra-juicy...>:)) --but these are quietly shocking scares that blow in the wind rather than jumping out at you, and not so much malicious as pained and agonized and/or dead, paper and cardboard death-masks that therefore look real and artistically-stylized at the same time. And the orange lighting helps. And the beasty silhouette up against my bedroom window...and the headless baby doll hanging from the tree over the driveway....
Yeah, I get a kick out of it. My season, my month, my holiday...and I don't like people mounting a cultural war against it, as it serves a purpose no less kathartic and socially-significant than does Mardi Gras. Which I could write a thesis on....but I got better things to do today/tonight.
Happy hauntings.....>:)
