It’s the Great Hocus Pocus, Charlie Brown!

It has been one breakneck Halloween season, with numerous gatherings (and another one on the slate for this evening), movies, and outings for Ms. B. and me — all of which are mighty welcome. October is always a busy month, and we’ve been working overtime on this one. It sort of helps make up for the near-absence of the Halloween season for us last year; not that there is one complaint about that situation, since we were overseas, getting married, and all that kind of good stuff.

Last night, friends Terry and Beth hosted an outdoor movie night, as is their wont this time of year. Last year, we watched Hocus Pocus, which was a first for me. I hadn’t much expected to like it, but — au contraire — I found it an agreeable hoot. This time, it was Hocus Pocus 2, and I liked it a lot as well. It wasn’t the classic that many consider the original to be, but it was funny and hit plenty of the right notes throughout. Also on our docket was It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. This one is an absolute prerequisite for the Halloween season (and we actually watched it a week or so ago, just for good measure). The drinks and company were delightful; a couple of folks in attendance turned out to be hardcore horror geeks, so we had a ton of topics to yak about.

This morning, Ms. B. wanted to see some fall foliage, so we headed out for a drive. I picked up a couple of geocaches, and we enjoyed lunch at a sweet little Mexican place in Gibsonville called La Casa Dorada. Fantastic Tacos à Diabla — spicy-hot to enough to prompt a couple of good hollers from me.

Tonight, we have the customary Halloween-themed geocaching event at friend Natalie’s place to attend. In fact, it’s just about time to get into character....

Tomorrow... Halloween arrives at last. Then comes the fast train to Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and the eventual Final Chapter. Jebus, how time do fly.

A couple of wacky folk bundled up for Hocus Pocus 2

Lake view at Hagan Stone Park while geocaching this morning

The colours out of space

“It’s in the Trees! It’s Coming!”

The Halloween season at Casa di Rodan is officially underway, for the required annual viewing of Jacques Tourneur’s Night (Curse) of the Demon is complete.

It’s not as though Brugger and I don't watch scary movies pretty much all the time, but it is an unbreakable tradition to kick off the Halloween season with several of our favorites, such as John Carpenter’s The Thing; Trick R Treat; It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; and, of course, the aforementioned Tourneur classic.

Night of the Demon (to use its proper UK release title) remains my favorite horror movie of all time, and Friday night was its turn on the screen. It still gives me a case of the creeps, mainly from remembering how deeply the image of the critter scared me as a young ’un. And I still love that critter; whatever its imperfections, I don’t believe the movie would be the classic it is without the thing.

A few of the past week’s cinematic highlights (and low points):

Brugger and I watched Smile at the theater the other night. We both found it needlessly heavy in the jump-scare department, but it was at times wonderfully eerie, and we liked it overall. There was 1999’s The House on Haunted Hill, which we both enjoy quite a bit (I’ll play the heretic here and admit that I prefer it to William Castle’s 1959 original). We watched the new Hellraiser on Hulu. This one had some merit, particularly in its exposition about the Lament cube, yet it still felt unremarkable and ultimately disappointing. We followed that up with the original Hellraiser, which I appreciate on a deeper level than the new one, but I can’t claim that it’s ever been a particular favorite. And we took in the original 1953 War of the Worlds last week, which I have adored since the first time it thrilled me as a seven-year-old. On my own, I watched The Houses October Built, mainly because I remembered it featured some cool haunted attractions and very creepy haunted attraction personnel. My memory was pretty accurate, and I was not disappointed.

One evening this past week, Ms. B. had a hankering to watch The Haunting from 1999, as she finds it entertaining. I hated the movie when it came out, but I was fine giving it another chance, as I have not watched it since its original release. Sadly, my opinion hasn’t changed. It’s awful. Not to fault her enjoyment of it; I can hardly claim to have no affinity for some admittedly awful movies...

The first of the season’s Halloween parties went off last night, at our friend Margaret’s place in Rural Hall. And what an affair! Margaret brought in a caterer for the food, offered beverage selections customized to attendees’ tastes, and provided various favors for the guests (fairly expensive ones, at that, and even cigars for those who might be interested). So, yeah, I indulged in a cigar (I blame Tony Tremblay for stoking that long-dormant vice at Necon back in July).

Brugger and I will be having a little bash here at home later this month, as will friends Terry & Beth (who accompanied us to a pre-Margaret-party visit to Hanover Park Winery yesterday afternoon). There may be others.

I do have a very busy week coming up. There will be updates later, no doubt.

Boo!

As a hobby, Kimberly’s dad builds these lovely miniature houses, barns, and other town buildings, which she
displays before our fireplace. Now they’re lit by Halloween lights — as they should be. 

Found at Lowe’s Foods in Lewisville, NC, on our way to friend Margaret’s party. Wowz!

I blame Tony Tremblay for the cigar craving. Note the lovely wine glass, courtesy of friend Margaret.

Haunting Reidsville Again

This one is just a quick personal memoir. After returning to Greensboro from a nice visit with Mom yesterday, I set to work turning Casa de Rodan into a proper haunted house for the evening's supper club gathering — putting the jack-o'-lanterns (Ernst and Emilio) into their proper outdoor perches, laying out interior decorations to horrify the unwary guest, and getting dinner (authentic Mexican tacos with chicken and chorizo) underway. We ended up with the full gang in attendance, which made for a somewhat crowded house, but everything came together well enough. After dinner, we had the annual celebratory viewing of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which means that Halloween can actually happen now. It was clearly quite fun for Joe Albanese, who hadn't seen the show since childhood. Mortifying, I know.

After the gathering broke up, Ms. B. and I inaugurated the fire pit I had won at the office Employee Appreciation Day back in the spring. Very pleasant out there, to be sure, despite getting dribbled on by a bit of rain.

This morning, Bloody Rob and Bridget came round so that we could hit the road and snag a few caches up Reidsville way. I only needed three, which I found, but because I'm the nicest rotten bastard geocacher in town, I took them around to get a bunch of others I had picked up on past excursions. Happily, I was rewarded with a fantastic lunch at The Celtic Fringe, where I had chicken wings with their ultra-potent Welsh Dragon sauce.

Something tells me I'm going to be having leftover chicken tacos for dinner tonight.

Just a few goodies for anyone feeling peckish before dinner last night

Ernst, standing vigil as the guests began to arrive

A couple of ghouls searching for delectables around the old Governor Reid house in Reidsville