Since the roots of Halloween go back as far as there were Pagans, lets look at what there was last year, as people prepped for their costumes, or did it late by the seat of their pants, literally. And what about this holiday?
Sam II, the sequel? Would that be Son of Sam? Sam at Green Mill said she (so daughter of Sam?) wouldn’t decide on a party until the-day-of-or-so, but it would include a superhero theme. “I’ll probably go downtown,” she said, a full week before D-Day. Her look must have took, as she’s now working up the management track at The Mill. And across the street, at BWW, someone with a similar server status described a similar outfit. Something with a shield of armor or such across the chest. Look for them on Sunday. But right before that, take in a shirt saying you can Rest In Pizza. In pieces? Or zest? Because pasta has holes.
However, this boat does not. Just before Lake Mallalieu is what looked to be, at first, another huge pumpkin, with the oblong and tapered appearance like that of a squash. But no, it really is an actual wooden (or least that’s what it looks like because of realistic detail) Pirates of the Carribean sendup, complete with anchor hanging at halfmast, all kinds of cool conquer-the-sea gear, and multiple creatures for crew, one of them waving his arms. In a landscape that has now valued the efficiency of fitting smaller creatures into a small space, rather than the old more-then-an-acre monstrosities in some yards, this is the most elaborate and creative display out there, and has got to be a breath of stale air (Addams Family reference).
Want more Austin, and are floating it past the powers that be, (and am I one?) I did my part to start by taking about an-up-and-coming guitarist by that name, see Picks of the Week, and now with costumes Being There, Here’s one more reference to Austin Powers, including someone whose an up-and-coming politician. In a big picture on her candidacy-for-School-Board-flyer, the big glasses and facial characteristics of Molly Powers looked just like Austin Powers, or vise versa.
He/they would get shagged to obtain a “flattened pumpkin” of a sports car’s front end, decked out with what looks like not only headlights but a grimace, just looked very demonic trolling down Trout Brook Road. In other places, other very early times, were a great big, great pumpkin at a nursery, befitting of a pathway that’s partway to Brooklyn Park, where they max out at around a half-ton. Not quite a wide as that specimen, pulling in at the size of a sports car, was another pasted to a chimney at second-floor level … how’d they get it up there?
And Austin as a car, beyond the theater, what is that I behold in front of me? Not my computer, these days, but past it a creature or two. A squirrel but with short and spike tail, and big catlike ears? So rather where they perch? And am I seeing what rodent I think I spy? Actually, just the top of a small stump. And below that, Joel’s Boulder, so named because that is where he would sit and hide on occasion in his part of spooking trick-or-treaters with me. A not-so-young man’s thoughts turn to … scaring not courting, and they get exaggerated by the motif.
Up the way, around the bend in the road, was that a man lurking and lurching in the woods through the somewhat barren trees, back and forth? Actually, he’s just taking out the garbage, and tripped a little … rumbling, bumbling, stumbling, do it again.
Down the block reside, and have now for more than one full moon, a trio of lighted pumpkins even glaring well after midnight, although plastic looking. (And it seems that overnight, they have shifted position). If they indeed are up all night, might they be the Dawn That Lights The Day? Or starts a fire?
So let there be light. Or its opposite. Or both. A red robin made like The Birds horror movie and cast a shadowy reflection across a sliding glass door, while feeding just inches away.
A long line of just inches ghostlets proceed up the edge of the driveway, or could they be those little do-not-dig-here signlets on a string. Across two lanes of concrete, a big bad bug with the devil horns has them spearing into the ground.
Along the lines of what will make your head bob: A fitting drink special at Pedro del Este is named, broadly speaking like a Speakeasy, Revive U 2, also referencing a warhorse band. This is what is needed to take the next step and become a zombie. That got a rise out of the bartender.
There of course would evenutally be such taverns decorating for Halloween, and bar none, it just takes time for them to get their game on. Like at Starr’s Bar, which had upside down (a theme?) on the bathroom door, police-line-do-not-cross tape, in an X shape almost in August. But when you have to go … And the prize for biggest and best use of spider webs goes to the Smilin’ Moose, which has them all along the top of their alloted five video poker machines, bending downward only on each and, as not too disturb the players. There is a decked out doorway, then a skull, and then more webs. And this isn’t even an online version. But the house prize goes to one with a full 30 feet of very full in white color web, between their home and the street reconstruction.
So this is my Halloween version of Deep Thoughts From Jessie, Ventura that is, in case you are missing that classic comic bit from the KQ morning show:
It’s tough being a Mongoose. You take your life in your hands daily to engage a King Cobra, just so you can eat, and have to swing all the way around the back of the snake, a full or should I say half 180, bite it from behin before it bites you, while finding its hood and hold that position until death, of either you or it. Then do it again for a karma-style meal. And Again. And Again. Just to eat. And you thought it was bad enough to have to settle for that mac and cheese. (And on these pages I will give you occasional tips to pump that up as well).
Where is that best tucked away but still in full sight, and remaining spooky, pumpkin patch? Find that and other Halloween finds that aren’t just costume parties for adults, in Picks of the Week.
Back To The Future for hallows past, as they play out over time, and the themes now include pumpkins that are actually pirates, and totally shipshape
Share the Post:
Related Posts
- Full metal jacket? Hey, I wasn’t exactly to the point of going Rob Halford. But tastes aside, there must be some reason why after 26 years I was shunned, like going Bob Daisley by Ozzy at his reunion? OK, I know, my style may not have fit with the packed crowd. And the last couple of times for this, I tried to do too much with ad-libbing. So yeah, I get that this time around, I was the somewhat unusual choice to be the one left off the set list, with singers clamoring to get up there. But seriously, just being analytical of strengths and weaknesses as a singer here, no hard feelings. I’m not Dio. (Or Traveling Wilburys, a when jumping inside, inside joke.)
It was clear to me at the most recent Jeff Loven music show in Hudson, for Memorial Day weekend, that there has been a changing of the guard. The sword has been passed. New blood, like Yungblud, has been brought in. And, I must say, loyalty — amongst the devotees who travel frequently and all across the two-state area to virtually all of Jeff’s shows — has been rewarded. They are the royalty, in what just makes good business sense that I can appreciate. In a significant but not unprecedented altering of course, I was not one of those asked...
- Songs by Napalm Death? A fire swept down my very street today, where the babies were burned. (But alas, a new A/C unit is on its way up the freeway.) The Stones did not leave these themes unturned, either, or should I say unrolled. Oh wait, this all was my cooker of an apartment, and we are not talking the kitchen. But all these matters will become more pressing, a pressure point, as the new normal especially in southern climes is temp well into the triple digits. It is these people, the third world, and their heat stroke not mine, that most concern me. (Another example of hellfire temps just added. Sin after Sin.)
Trial by fire. My broiling heart in my efficiency flat still beats a bit, in concern over those boiling over in worse apartments in a Chicago tenancy, or on an ocean island instantly-burn-your-feet beach or dessert, or forced to endure ice baths just to keep cool — or simply be offered no way to maintain an ice-dripping body other than also read a non-cookbook at the library, or select not a big steak you can’t afford but a 73/27 burger from a freezer and slap it on your forehead. Just not too hard. All these things are ones where you especially today either burn or...
- I had a dream … And out of it (re)sprouted an ancient spring fertility rite to save the world, or at least my apartment building, or at least my second story window, from a giant lizard peering in, out at T-Rex days of yore. This ritual requires copious amounts of consumption and goes from there to hobbits and lords who are not yet a-leaping, for reasons to be retold in this fanciful, twisted tale (of fiction?) Just watch the use of Why! The letter, that is. And try to catch on to the inside jokes. (Psst. Another tale inside. Or two.)
This is a truly awfuI, twisted tale of villains and heroes, powerful ale if used carefully, giant beasties and smaller hobbyts, but also renewal and redemption. I will ascrybe to an ancient rytual, back to when the tyme gyant lyzyrds peered into second story wyndows of apartment byldings and no amount of walls could keep them out of such urban non-placated places, save this practice that annually, about this tyme of three-day holiday, would save humanity for another year. So in this spryng fertility ryte, go consume copious quantities of hunhy grhym cr’krz and jinjer biyr, deprived of its alcohol as worshippers need to be sober-headed...
- And musings moreover —– A full list of the trios of triumph. The power of threes. A full dozen of these triads, oh make that 13 as we linger, that you will see listed as shopping promptings in three long blocks of store windows of downtown Hudson. Three’s company? Get it? Third time’s the charm. And this is a truism, the words, some of them three letters, chosen to depict their offerings show the diversity of, dare I say it, a Super WalMart.
Here goes the ultimate list of lingo, even if it languishes, in no particular long order, as we go at length into the different kinds of businesses you will find in this locale, starting the list and at its last, two of the many art galleries in our downtown: — Feminist power, love and generosity, and to double your fun, framing, art tchotchkes and earrings, all at the biggest little art and collectables gallery you will see mid-block. — Community, commerce and tourism, touted at the Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau, in a blatant suck up to...
- And musings moreover —– To skate or not to skate? Not on most Hudson streets and sidewalks, you don’t. Even though most users I’ve encountered have been courteous and safe — saying ‘on right’ as they go by on a fairly busy sidewalk, and not just barely edging past you — the city council in essance banned the usage last fall. I think this goes too far in what amounts to dare I say it, big brother-type stringency. I prefer a more ‘urban’ style ambiance, with a Twin Cities type of bustle. (For what of that is to be found, come Friday, ‘jump’ inside. That post now updated, for more weekend options.) I now start with a joke.
As far as, for starters, the old announcement, “passing on the right,” this was said to me just now by a beautifully tanked woman in a bikini, owning the downtown sidewalk. She was slightly gasping and moaning as she almost carressed my side going by. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to read anything into that … Spring has past sprung, we’ve finally had some really hotter weather, and a young man’s heart turns to thoughts of … e-cycling and skateboarders going past. In the last couple of weeks, you can see them again all around our sidewalks and byways, busy and not...
- And musings moreover —– Shoes and shirt are welcome, to be purchased along with other keepsakes at a new shop or worn in. At least soon while dining at new downtown Hudson eating opps. You don’t need an app, read on, as doors are flipped open … There are still other options and opportunities, after the Wild opted out as flipping goalies, with Filip, only worked for so long. (Not so big shoes to fill. Just flip-flops. See below and under The Headliner for posts on such sports bar shenanigans.) So for now, in a new post, we Rally In The Valley, with eight bands.
A door on the side of a downtown conglomerate of stores, the front not back door, has a sign telling delivery drivers to deposit items in back — but the sign is flipped upside down since the tape slipped. A blipped language I don’t speak. But that’s not the only thing that’s flipped in the downtown. Lots of stores are either open as we speak, or will be soon. We’re talking still in May, maybe, and mostly earlier than later. While we wait with baited breath for the full opening of Max’s Social House. And a pub or another hub...