Halloween is here, a liminal time when the boundary between this world and the nether realms can more easily be crossed by all manner of evil spirits. Lest one be carried away by them, tradition dictates that we mere mortals disguise ourselves to fool the spirits into believing we are one of them. It was part of a tradition the Scots called “guising.” And while...
I love Halloween. Ever since I was a kid, Halloween has meant an exploration of my most personal Jungian archetypes wrapped in a gloomy shroud of adventure. All the tropes of gothic horror and Halloween – haunted houses, gothic cemeteries, werewolves, ghosts, vampires – have tapped my subconscious in ways I’ll probably never fully understand. Of course, I didn’t know that when I was eight....
After Playboy magazine made its mark in the early 1950s, imitators of all kinds sprang up with titles like Sir, Knight, and Gent. In 1957, one publisher took a devilish bent and called its new magazine Satan. Satan was little more than a Playboy clone. Both magazines had pin-ups, articles on the urban bachelor lifestyle, a jokes page, and an iconic anthropomorphic mascot. But maybe...
Being a big fan of horror films and organ music, I present my film suggestions for your Halloween viewing pleasure. Carnival of Souls (1962) Carnival of Souls features young Mary Henry as a wayward organist. Mary doesn’t fit in well with her congregation, so she drives aimlessly from her home in Kansas to the Western United States. On the way to nowhere, she has visions...
To kick off things for Halloween in a ghoulish way, this old piece of 1973 wax will most likely do the trick (…or treat). Doctor Druid’s Haunted Seance is sure to scare and entertain everyone in the family, especially if used with one speaker hidden in the ceiling for the proper “stereo spirit” effect. Heck, even I am a bit freaked out by this old...
Halloween is coming up and to give you some ideas for your costume, contributor Cam presents a couple of retro themed suggestions. All you need is to pick your favorite classic movie character and you are almost set to go! Some possibilities for the ladies could be the eternal style icon Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the sensual Jane Fonda in...