Welcome to the Taboo Costume Ball

Halloween is on Thursday. Have you picked out your costume yet?

This weekend and next weekend are the defacto days to celebrate the season. Right after we get to skip Thanksgiving and go straight into Christmas decorating (as long as we are going by the decorations in the stores). However, for this last week, I get to bask in the creepy, macabre, and darkness of the season and no one can question me about it.

Halloween is one of the few times where it's okay to wear whatever you want...within reason. (Here's your annual PSA: Don't wear the clothing of another culture and call it a costume). You want to be a princess, be a princess. You want to be a witch, be a witch. You want to dress up as a slutty version of Crowley from "Good Omens", Neil Gaiman might retweet your costume on Twitter.

Don't think too hard about that last sentence, but yes, I really did come across that on Twitter earlier today.

I've never made it a secret that I love this season. I think it's the reminder that life eventually comes to an end and that there is a new beginning waiting for me when that happens, this year more so than most. I love the atmosphere, the sights and smells and tastes are all unique, but fleeting.

I don't really enjoy being scared, especially not in haunted houses, but the decorations and aesthetic are intriguing and different. It's a time for us to embrace the parts of life that we don't always want to acknowledge.

One of those things is the taboo.

Is it any wonder why sexy or slutty costumes are popular among some circles? Americans in particular continue to have a more conservative perspective on sex and sexuality. Not all Americans, but it is a distinct, if occasionally subconscious part of our culture. Halloween is one of the rare acceptable times that people can explore what titillates them and not be ridiculed for it.

This does sometimes go too far. I didn't need to know that a sexy handmaid's costume existed and sexy or slutty costumes depicting another culture should not be considered (PSA: please for the love of all that is sanity do not turn another culture's dress and make it a costume). Also children's costumes with the word "sexy" should not exist.

There are some things that should probably just not be done.

However, an adult expressing their sexuality is perfectly okay and Halloween provides a safe space for some people to do that.

I'm not one for sexy or slutty costumes. I prefer dressing up as something "dead" like a zombie or vampire. Death and the dead are another taboo topic that Halloween exemplifies.

Everybody dies.

It's what makes life worth living.

I prefer to spend the Halloween season acknowledging this part of the human condition. I like watching atmospheric movies and reading scary ghost stories. I don't really like being scared myself, I do not like haunted house attractions for example. I like being reminded that life eventually does end.

Halloween allows me to celebrate life while also acknowledging death.

And there's a certain amount of humor that goes with that. Horror and comedy are often two sides of the same coin. It's why movies like "Dale and Tucker Versus Evil" and "Scream" work so well as both horror stories and comedies. Sometimes we need to laugh in the face of what horrifies us.

One of my favorite actives during this season is to listen to spooky old jazz music from the early 1900s. A lot of the recordings are distorted and a little off putting. The songs about dancing with the dead or making deals with the devil can be both funny and spooky. But what really creeps me out is the idea that the people who I'm listening to, their recorded voices and playing instruments, they're all dead. Every single person in those recordings died years ago.

Yet, I feel connected to them. I feel like they could manifest themselves out of the music to dance with me in my living room. We dance together like in the "Danse Macabre".

Life is short, so around Halloween, I take the time to be myself as much as possible. I wear my favorite goth clothes and steampunk jackets. I wear make-up that distorts my face and do my hair a little different. I express myself how I want to without worrying about society judging me.

So enjoy Halloween . Take the kids out trick or treating. Go to a party. Watch a scary movie or explore a haunted house. Find a costume and be the person you never thought you'd be for a night.

It'll all be over come November 1st.

But seriously, don't dress up as someone else's culture.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to Eternal Autumn of My 20s

Autumn is beautiful. As I've said many times in past blog, I love this season. Especially if I've been eating nothing but pumpkin food for the entire month of October (which I might have been doing).

It's also been an odd autumn for me this year. 

After getting laid off and attending my sister's wedding, I found myself trying to figure out how to structure my day. There are times when I feel like I have too much time on my hands and I have no idea what to do with myself. However, more and more, I find that I am super busy.

Weekends were the only days during the week where time was my own. They were structured as well, but always filled with things to do. They were rarely ever restful and I often (ironically) would wake up Monday morning wishing I had an extra day to actually rest and stay in bed all day.

I now have that Monday, and Tuesday, and every day through Sunday, and back to Monday again. 

I never stay in bed all day, no matter how much I sometimes want to. I'm usually busy with my future job prospects, keeping my home clean, and trying to keep my mind from getting too wound up. 

I started mentally referring to this time as The Eternal Weekend. 

And though I've been able to get a lot of stuff I want to do done (art, writing, and cooking), I've also been constantly stressed about my future. It's a tough balance.

As I stated when I first got laid off, I have some of the greatest friends and family. They've kept me from isolating myself while job hunting and given me a lot of moral support. This past weekend, my sister came for a visit. Every day that she's been here we've done something fun (and we didn't even go into New York City).

Horseback riding in the fall is amazing!

Corn mazes, horseback riding, and (tonight) a pumpkin blaze in Sleep Hollow. We've watched movies and had fun making pumpkin themed food while drinking pumpkin themed drinks. We've hung out with my friends and gotten lost in the mountains of New Jersey. I've even finally found the infamous Clinton Road (a famous scary road without street lights in northern New Jersey).

I'm glad that it's autumn and that I get to savor every minute of it.

I still want this Eternal Weekend to end.

It will end (hopefully sooner rather than later).

The waiting, the uncertainty, the anxiety are the hardest parts.

I don't know how I'll reflect back on this time in my life. I know that it's been a learning experience, though I'm still not sure yet what I'm learning. But I will take each day as it comes - with one foot in front of the other.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome to that One Movie Obsession

If there’s one movie that I have un-ironically fallen in love with in recent years, it’s the 2006 “The Woods”. I have no idea if this is an obscure movie or one that fell to the wayside because audiences didn’t like it (but critics mostly liked it -it’s fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), however I love this movie.

And not just because Bruce Campbell has a minor role.

“The Woods” is one of those quasi horror movies that isn’t so much scary as it is a fairy tale with horror elements. Much in the same way that the original 1977  “Suspiria” or the more recent “Pan’s Labyrinth” and "Sleepy Hollow", it’s a mix of terrifying concepts, beautiful imagery, and dreamlike storytelling.

Fairy tale elements can be found throughout the movie. The setting is at an all girl’s school located deep in the woods (hence the  title) in the 1960s. There’s a sense of mystery, some of the girls start to go missing, there’s a mean girl who bullies our protagonist, and there are witches. 

If the location weren’t enough to indicate that we’re in a fairy tale, the music certainly does. It’s haunting, a little off putting, and at times down right creepy. However, I do like the use of “You Don’t Own Me” peppered throughout at key moments. It helps reinforce the overarching themes of individuality and rebelliousness that embodies the protagonist.

However, I can see why movie goers might not have been drawn to it. The story is a little confusing and inconsistent at times. Motivations aren’t always clear outside of the protagonist. And some characters seem to know more than they should (though that could be because of their undefined “gift”).

Yeah a lot of the girls in these films are “gifted” or, in lame man’s terms, psychic, telepathic, or otherwise magically inclined. How do these gifts connect to the larger world? Never explained, they just have them. It’s established early that the protagonist, Heather, has some sensitivity to psychic phenomena, but her real talents are revealed during an emotionally charged scene between her and the headmistress.

Honestly, I love picking a part this movie. The ending, though entertaining, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Some of the earlier information is contradictory to what ends up happening, but it also isn’t clear who is a reliable source of information and who isn’t. Furthermore, the inciting incident of the course is a little confusing and not explained well.

These issues could easily turn off the average movie goer. 

I freaking love them. All of the ambiguity has the wheels in my head turning over and over. I’ve got a few theories and ideas. Personally I think the woods the school was located in were always evil and possessed the witches or acted as their puppet masters. I also like to think that they only needed to “feed” the curse at certain times. Then again, “feed” probably isn’t the right word, but provide new hosts to continue what the woods want. 

And my favorite theory is that Heather from “The Woods” is Sarah’s deceased mother from “The Craft”. They have some similar powers and ticks that make me wonder if the actress who played Heather was a fan of “The Craft”. Plus the timelines for the character’s ages align.

All the proof I need that Heather is Sarah's mother

Seriously, check out this movie and tell me that Heather couldn’t potentially be Sarah’s mom. It’s on Amazon Prime right now.

I love fairy tale dreamlike quality of some movies. There’s a reason I go back to “Suspiria”, “Sleepy Hollow”, “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Woods”. They remind me of a time when the woods were filled with imagined monsters and there were still mysterious places to be explored with danger around every corner. They transport us from reality and into a realm where anything is possible.

This is also likely why I enjoyed “Sleep No More”.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to an Interactive Dream

Recently I went to an art performance in New York City called "Sleep No More". In essence it's an interactive play. A sort of choose your own adventure story that you get to live instead of read (or play as a video game).

It's a very individual experience and I don't necessarily recommend sticking with a group or even following a crowd (though you'll likely see more of the main scenes this way). It's also nearly impossible to have the same experience twice.

My time at the McKittrick Hotel, which hosts "Sleep No More", began with my arrival at 6:00pm for a 7:00pm entrance. I was quickly checked in and told to walk through a nearly pitch black maze until I reached a small lounge and bar set in 1939. Though the show itself isn't scary, it's set up to be disorienting.

Lights are low and it's a little difficult to see inside unless a spot light comes down on a performer. Even then, some of the actors are out of sight and are only seen when they want to be seen. At 7:00 I was called to a small room, where I was given a mask, which I was told to keep on at all times "for my protection". Suddenly I was thrust into the movie "Eyes Wide Shut" and I became a voyeur to the activity in the hotel.

Voyeur is one of the words I'd use to express my time at the McKittrick Hotel. It was voyeuristic, dreamlike or better yet a nightmare, erotic at times, and perverse. We, the attendees in the white masks, weren't supposed to speak, but we could rifle through papers, open drawers, and even get a lot closer than I normally would to the performers.

The majority of the performance is silent - told in dance and wild gestures. Occasionally there is dialogue. In fact, I was lucky enough to be chosen for one of the coveted one-on-one scenes. During one of the major scenes in the ballroom, the Matron character asked me to come with her to a side room. She took off my mask and that's when I jumped from voyeur to character. I was now a part of the experience I had only before been casually observing.

The Matron took my hand and told me that she'd been waiting for me. She said that she, another woman (though I never discovered who), and I were in a lesbian relationship. She gave me a white box tied with a red ribbon. Slowly we opened the box and as we did, she described how the gift was meant to symbolize me. Inside was a rose. She made me promise to look after the third mystery woman, then kissed my forehead, and put my mask back on. She led me back out to the ballroom, which is where we parted.

It was an intense, intimate, and very unexpected series of events.

Most of my time was spent wandering around the many sets that are located throughout the five floors you're allowed to explore. Occasionally I'd stumble upon a scene and I might follow one of the actors to another area.

That was how I ended up seeing one of the most disturbing scenes in the whole show. It was basically an orgy with witches and the devil - who was wearing a goat's head - scene. There was a strobe light that distorted the dancer's movements and reminded me of stop motion animation. It was amazing and highly disorienting.

I also wasn't ready for the extreme nudity.

There are a lot of naked people in this performance. Some of it is like the orgy scene I described above. Other times it's someone taking a bath, trying to wash blood off their body. There was one moment where the person was simply changing their clothes.

If you want to experience this performance, be ready for a lot of full frontal naked people.

You guys might have noticed that I haven't mentioned what the plot is. That's because the plot is incredibly confusing if you go in without doing any research beforehand. All I knew going in was that it was largely based off of Du Maurier's Rebecca (as well as the Hitchcock adaptation by the same name) and Shakespeare's Macbeth. I was only able to discern certain scenes because of my familiarity with both sources.

However, there were some scenes that I got an entirely different vibe one. There's a pregnant woman (Lady Macduff) who becomes obsessed with drinking milk from a maid. From the descriptions of the characters I was able to find, the maid is trying to poison Lady Macduff and her unborn baby. I, however, got a creepy "Rosemary's Baby" vibe from the dance scenes. It was super creepy.

There also were characters that I saw maybe once for half a second before they disappeared from my experience. In fact, I'm not even certain I met all of the characters present that night. A few times I didn't even notice that I was standing in front of or behind a character until the light fell on them or they turned around.

The performance goes in three hour long cycles until the finale, which I will not be spoiling. It's an intense scene and I somehow ended up right in the very front of the ending performance. My only reaction was to gasp, though a few people did scream.

We were then ushered back into the bar area where there was live music. If you had wanted a table, you had to pay for a reserved seat - not worth it in my opinion - and though the drinks were cool sounding, they were also expensive (but what isn't in New York City). I don't drink, so I can't judge their taste.

The commitment to atmosphere and time period is on point. The actors, dancers, and helpers make certain that audience members are kept safe without breaking character. The audience is also just as important as the performers and our commitment to not speaking is very important. I did see one or two people take off their masks, if only because it was hot at times and the masks caused some of us to sweat.

Do I recommend "Sleep No More"? Yes if you're ready for an experience most people only have in video games. You are not a character, you are a voyeur, an observer, the fly on the wall, unless otherwise asked. Be ready to enter a dreamworld that is stranger than reality.

And there will be naked people.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.