"I got a rock"

Here we go, gang! Its Wednesday, October 20, 2010, and its time to get in the spirit of the holidays! Starting off with my favorite holiday, Halloween. This was always one of my favorites. What kids doesn't love the idea of running around the neighborhood in a fun costume and getting candy? It did used to be a lot simpler. You did your go around, and when you got home your folks gave the haul a once over to make sure it was all OK and that not one put anything weird in there. Now it seems more and more people have a beef with Halloween. Looking around over the years I see less and less people actually giving out candy to the trick-or-treaters. More parents are opting for the "safe alternatives". Giving out tooth brushes or little gift cards is now more acceptable and doesn't earn the house responsible a proper egging.

There's been a backlash against Halloween from many sides. Some groups say the holiday is Satanic. And then there's the people who want to research it to death and hunt down every last thing they can about any pagan tradition that might even remotely be related to Halloween. All these people can go soak their heads. There's a lot of things that are better just taken at face value. Halloween turned into a holiday where you got to go out and have fun in scary costumes and get candy. Where's the problem? Just let the kids have their fun and leave it be.

We used to have a Halloween party at my church growing up. It was great. We got the wear our costumes. There were plenty of games. The Pastor would judge the costume contest. Everyone would laugh and have a good time, as proper fellowship should be. Sadly the pastor got transferred to another church (no scandal involved, the Methodist church routinely transfers Pastors around) and the new Pastor was a stick in the mud. So on came the "Fall Festival" which displayed a stunning lack of costumes, scary stuff, and apple bobbing.

And then there's the dentists who will tell you how all that candy you haul in is going to rot your teeth. Well, this is true, so of course you have to be sensible about candy consumption. I advise eating all of it in one go. This way you only have to brush your teeth once. I hear that whole sugar rush thing is a myth anyhow.

Ah well. I'll actually be at one of those "safe alternatives to trick-or-treating" this year. I'm very torn by this. Part of my is a traditionalist and wants to take the loin-spawn around the neighborhood. The other half knows that the "trunk-or-treat" even where everyone fancies up their cars and the kids go around the parking lot is going to be a great time. And that's what its all about really, having a great time.

Well, that and Tootsie Rolls.

SPOOKY TV!!!

Growing up as a big ol TV watching goon I saw a lot of "Halloween Episodes" not to mention a few specials that would pop up to really get me in the mood. Here's a few that I really got a kick out of of over the years.

*Rosanne: season 1's Halloween episode. This was back when the show was really good. Dan and Rosanne trying to prank each other to determine who was "The Master" was a hoot. The haunted house they turned their place into was awesome. The best bit was Rosanne telling her daughter Becky that all the demons of Hell come to Earth on Halloween night to get candy because there is no candy in Hell.

*Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Halloween" "Fear Itself". Both of these were a lot of fun, and watching pretty much any of the series is some decent Halloween viewing. The writing was nice and sharp during those earlier seasons. There was some great thematic stuff about fear and wearing costumes. Good times.

*It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown! The classic of Halloween viewing. Remember when you could dress up in a scary costume, run around with your little friends in the neighborhood, get candy, and then repair to your friend's house to have fun and bob for apples? Yep, stuff like that used to really happen. Not a commercially licensed costume to be seen. No "safe trick-or-treating" alternatives. No one bitching about apple bobbing being unsanitary. All this and a World War One Flying Ace too.

*Garfield's Halloween Special. A bit of a sleeper because they don't seem to show it on network TV anymore. I loved this Halloween special. It was hilarious, and the musical numbers were a lot of fun.



Cripes, I haven't even thought about Binky the Clown in I don't know how long.

SPOOKY MUSIC!!

Because its not Halloween without this sound.



That's it for today! Friday will still have our regular comic reviews, but there'll still be plenty of Halloweeny stuff. See you then.

Worth 1000 thoughts

As we can see the above picture is obviously taken during a reenactment of this years comic series FINAL CRISIS by Grant Morrison as the Mandrakk the eeeeeevil vampire space god attempts to put the nom noms on Superman and Superman being Superman resists Mandrakk's power and triumphs. In a twist of Elizabethan dramatic conventions in which all parts, both male and female, are played by men all the parts of this FC reenactment are played by women.

Wait, perhaps this picture is a statement upon the state of comics in either disparaging the grim and gritty comic view of the 1990s in which comics were SERIOUS BUSINESS and as such had to be DARK AND EPIC; or even a view of the current state of comics in which guys like Geoff Johns and Dan DiDio are atempting to send the Silver Age, which they loved from childhood, through a 90s filter, because they're fanboys, and give us a lot of books I have no interest in reading.

Could it possibly be a portrait of the totality of the comic book sub-genre? We have representation of fantastic science fiction with a being from a doomed planet rocket to Earth where they have amazing powers and help people. We have an element of myth with the vampire (please note the lack of sparkling) representing the older tales elements of the supernatural. Finally we have the human elements with the eating of a pretzel and what human being doesn't love pretzels?

No, I'm not going to be going into 1000 different ways to look at this picture. It is one of my favorites that I've taken on my phone. The vampire is my wife, Meagan, who took great delight in scaring the neighbors with her fangs, and the little Supergirl is my daughter, Nicole, who wasn't scared of her mommy one little bit. Nicole's twin sister Rachel was dressed up like Spider-girl this year and unfortunately she was moving much too quickly with her little Spider-powers for be properly captured on film, but did run up to every little boy she came across dressed as Spider-man poked them in the chest and proclaimed "SPIDER-MAN!" before fleeing leaving the little boy usually quite confused.

Yep, it was a good Halloween in the Nozz compound.

Behold the family, worth 1000 thoughts with or without fun costumes.