Stratovania

Is it just me, or do I look deranged here?
Beth and I have been pretty busy as of late. On Wednesday, we saw Neko Case at the Beacon Theater.

The last time we saw her, there was some issue with the opener, and she was really irritated. This time, she seemed pretty enthusiastic. She introduced "Baby, I'm Not (a Werewolf)" as being about menopause, which she had a surprisingly positive attitude about. And "That Teenage Feeling" was inspired by the guitar player, Paul Rigby, whom she considers one of the most un-jaded people she knows. She did the drum solo during "Oh, Shadowless." I mentioned to Beth that her sets generally don't include anything from her first three albums, and she thought it was because she hadn't really developed her sound back then. The opener was a band called Des Demonas, and they were all right, but I had trouble understanding the lead vocals. EDIT: I forgot to mention that the pre-show music included "The Rhythm Thief" by Sparks, "Melt the Guns" by XTC, and "Green Green" by the Young Fresh Fellows. I wonder who chooses those. Neko did not perform her Sparks cover in the show, however.


The following day was Kevin Geeks Out at the Nitehawk in Prospect Park, and the subject was John Carpenter. We've seen several of his movies, and not surprisingly, there was a good amount about Halloween, including a guy playing Dr. Loomis undergoing an ethics board review. Another was a discussion of how Michael Myers seems to like clean laundry and hate messy sheets. One presentation was a supposed defense of Ghosts of Mars that turned out to be anything but, as it's a film that takes place in a matriarchal society, but isn't actually that progressive in its treatment of women. That's a movie we haven't seen, and I'm not sure we need to. At one point, Kevin Maher asked whether The Thing was a hangout movie, while admitting that he's not entirely sure what one of those is. I don't think I'd ever even heard the term before, and it's not clear whether it's the audience or the characters who are supposed to be hanging out. Maybe both? Somebody made the point that it might be more of a workplace movie, since it's not like the characters were at a research station in Antarctica just for fun. The Kindest Cut was of an episode of Star Trek: Voyager that was basically a take on Christine, but with a spaceship that had a psychic link to its pilot instead of a car. And Cece Dynamite did two burlesque performances, one as Michael Myers and the other as one of the ghosts from The Fog.

We drove to Pennsylvania on Friday night to visit Knoebels on Saturday. The park didn't open until 2 PM (except for some kids' activities), and we had to check out of the motel at 11 AM, which meant we had time to kill. Beth found a place in the area where you could ride a cart into a defunct coal mine, so we did that.

The mine cart thing was interesting, if rather bleak in its discussion of mine work. The guide talked about how dangerous it was and how the mining companies arranged things so the workers had no real take-home pay.

He also said his son worked in the mines (they're still in operation in the area, although that particular one isn't), and while I'm sure it pays better and has more safety precautions now, I still wouldn't want to do it. We saw a petrified tree, which was where the coal came from in the first place, and part of which had been donated to the Smithsonian.

And fortunately, we didn't have to jump from one cart to another because the tracks were broken.

No bananas, either.
They also had a steam train people could ride, but we didn't have the time. As it was, we didn't get to Knoebels until around 3:30.


This weekend was the last one for the Hallo-Fun event, and it was probably the most crowded it's been while we were there.

There are two rides that have total makeovers for the season, the train and the antique cars, and both have long waits. We missed the train ride both last year and this one. They stop the line when they think people will no longer be able to get on before closing, but if you're not there, there's no way to know that they're doing so. We did ride the cars, however, and several other things besides. The Whipper had some flashing lights for the occasion, and the Phoenix had some Halloween decorations as well. I appreciated that they had skeletons set up next to the pool, which was obviously not open.


We often go to Dorney Park after Knoebels, since it's basically on the way home. The route the GPS told us to take this time was mostly back roads that were quite dark and winding. It did give me the occasion to learn that my car has a setting that will turn off the brights automatically if it senses another car coming. What can't modern cars do? Set the clock ahead for Daylight Savings Time, apparently. I guess it will be correct again soon.

The park was open until 11, but we didn't stay anywhere near that long. I think we were both pretty tired after everything else.

There are a few things I would have wanted to ride if I'd had the energy, but I'd ridden them all before, so it was no big deal. One of them was Steel Force, which was temporarily closed when we got to it, and didn't reopen until we'd gone to a different area. We didn't do any of the mazes they had set up Halloween, as they cost extra. We watched a performance by the Spectral Sisters, and while I think it was the same as last year, we missed the beginning that time.

A bee joined us for part of that show.

And we got a picture of Beth with the puking pumpkin, which has become a bit of a tradition.

I posed in front of a witch's house and a pumpkin dwelling, which I don't think was Jack Pumpkinhead's.

I believe Dorney might have the only Ferris Wheel I've been on that had seatbelts. It really seems like the rules for safety restraints vary a lot. I noticed in the early 2000s that carousels started getting belts, although they don't always seem to be enforced.

We're back from California, and I'm rather exhausted. We flew in very early on Sunday, and spent the first few nights there with Stephanie. On Monday night, we went to the LA Haunted Hayride, which included several mazes as well as the hayride itself.

They played clips from Elvira throughout, many from her Mistress of the Dark movie, and there was a haunted house devoted to her. Another was Monae Manor, which had clips and samples of Janelle.

There's a video where she's beheaded. I wonder if there's any connection between the two of them, aside from being queer and glamorous. The other maze was some hillbilly thing. And the Scary-Go-Round was a carousel with flamboyantly attired bone horses.

They had hay bales to sit on, and in one area they were made into chairs, which of course made me think of the Scarecrow's straw throne at the Tin Castle, because I'm like that.


On Tuesday, we saw Sparks at the Greek Theatre.

Fortunately Russell Brand wasn't there, at least as far as I know, but Russell Mael definitely was.

I don't think that, when that movie came out, I even knew the Greek was the name of a venue, although it didn't take me long to figure it out. I also didn't notice any Dionysus or comedy and tragedy masks, so should they really even get to use that name? We were in the standing room area in the front, and I don't really mind standing during a show, but I do mind when WAITING for the show. This was the last show on the tour, and the setlist was the same as all the others. I did notice that Russell waved his finger while singing the chorus of "Reinforcements."

Ron was wearing bright red Air Jordan shoes, and he actually talked a little bit towards the end.

His dance during "The Number One Song in Heaven" wasn't as long as it was last year, but he is eighty now.

That said, I have no idea how they stay in such good shape. Is it really just diet and exercise? Beth and Stephanie showed up in the picture the band took after the show, but I'm obscured, probably somewhere behind Ron's arm.


We rented a car on Wednesday and drove out to Santa Clarita so we could go to Six Flags Magic Mountain the next day.

It was fun, and not very crowded. There was only a short wait for most of the rides we went on. We rode on Goliath, which was closed the other time we visited; and on the Teen Titans Turbo Spin, which is like a Gravitron that tilts.

The Riddler's Revenge is a standing roller coaster that seemed similar to Green Lantern at Great Adventure, which was taken out last year. It kind of hurt my head, and wasn't too comfortable in the crotch area either.

The swing ride was called Swashbuckler, which is confusing, as that's the name of a totally different ride at Great Adventure.

This looks like it's from a Decemberists album cover.
You'd think they'd at least keep these things consistent across Six Flags parks, or at least I would. They did Fright Fest at night, and one of the scare zones was sort of a steampunk dark Wizard of Oz kind of thing.
They had creepy Winged Monkeys and some factory-themed stuff, as well as a Wicked Witch on stilts.

I do seem to recall they had a lion with an axe, though. Isn't that mixing characters?

There was also what seemed to be sort of an Alice in Wonderland area with scary playing cards and chess pieces.


The next evening, we went to Knott's Scary Farm, the Halloween event at Knott's Berry Farm, which we could walk to because our motel was very close by. The motel had some interesting garden statuary, a combination of (what at least I thought was) traditional Indian stuff and more modern things.

Maybe the owners are Buddhist, although my mom also had a Buddha statue in her garden and she wasn't. As opposed to the previous evening, the park was very crowded, and it's probably just going to get worse as the season goes on. The waits for Xcelerator and Ghost Rider were well over an hour, although the one for the mine ride wasn't that bad. The haunted walkthroughs were included in the admission, and we went to two of them, one Old West themed and another based on slasher movies and theaters.

The latter kept playing that "let's all go to the lobby" jingle. And we saw a show, Le Magnifique Carnaval di Grotesque, which was mostly dancing and circus-style acts, but there also seemed to be a bit of an attempted story about a girl trying to find the ringmaster's magic staff. That bit wasn't even introduced until after a harlequin had danced and silently (well, mostly) joked around, though.

The show also included a guy balancing on a gradually increasing pile of stuff, which Beth said stressed her out.

The meal we got at the barbecue place was a surprisingly large amount of food. I had rotisserie chicken with macaroni and cornbread, and I didn't finish all of it. But then, the sides weren't really that good. Still, it definitely filled me up.

On Saturday, we met Paul and Carolyn to visit the Medieval Torture Museum on Hollywood Boulevard. It has both models of torture implements and graphic depictions of their being used on dummies. There's also stuff you can interact with, like some kind of morbid Franklin Institute. One of the first things we saw there was an iron bull that, according to legend, was heated up to torment a person inside. The model, at least, is surprisingly intricate. If all you're going to use it for is to kill people, why bother giving it such detailed features?

But then, a lot of this kind of thing was spectacle. I can't even imagine watching a public execution. The late Charlie Kirk apparently thought children should see them. Even the stocks, which are pretty minor as far as these things go, seem incredibly hateful. Why would I want to ridicule someone because they broke the law?

It was probably mostly just people who didn't like the prisoner for some other reason, but the authorities encouraged it. Along the same lines, the museum had a weight that went around a person's neck and a barrel that people would have to sit inside for a while, both punishments for public drunkenness.

My gut reaction was that the star was some kind of antisemitic thing, but I guess not.
The informational plaques did say that the pendulum like in the Edgar Allan Poe story was probably not really used, and that the iron maiden (also called, as I found out at the museum, a Nuremberg Virgin) didn't exist in the Middle Ages.

There was an exhibit about execution by saw, which was what happened to the prophet Isaiah according to apocryphal sources, as well as something Art the Clown did in the first Terrifier movie.

These scales were based on the idea that anyone who weighed less than a certain amount was a witch. I think the other categories are just fun additions, although I'm intrigued by the idea that angels are particularly heavy. Maybe it's like how Rosalina is a heavyweight in Mario Kart. I guess this must be where Monty Python got the idea for the bit about a witch weighing the same as a duck. And there were these face hole cutouts of a sexy dominatrix and a slovenly man with his gut hanging out, which I think says something about sexism in society.

I won't say they weren't funny, however.

Our plane was scheduled to leave before 9 at night, but it ended up being delayed. The particularly annoying thing is that we didn't find this out until after everyone had already gotten on the plane, and there were announcements that there was a malfunction with a fire alarm, and it would have taken hours to fix it. Obviously I'm no expert, but doesn't this seem like the kind of thing they'd find out before letting anyone board? I normally don't even mind airports or flying that much, but I hate how slow everything is. And someone said something about having to exchange our tickets for new ones, which ended up not happening, but it made me feel helpless and trapped. I also kept getting updates on my phone giving new departure times, which would come and go with nothing really happening. Can't they wait to make these announcements until they're certain, instead of constant guessing? It would still be frustrating, but less confusing. Anyway, we're back at home now, and went back to work today. Right now, I'm doing the laundry.

So far this month, we've seen a concert, gone to two amusement parks, and done a few Halloween activities, so I might as well write about them now. We also got stuck in traffic a few times and got COVID and flu shots, and I had bad side effects from medication. Those aren't as enjoyable to reminisce about, however.
On the first Sunday of the month, Beth and I went to Tarrytown to see Neko Case, which ended up being a strange and kind of disturbing experience. The opener was Amaad Wasif, who, during one of his songs, apparently decided it would be a good idea to go into the audience and sit in people's laps. I didn't see any of this from the balcony, but from what we saw online afterwards, one guy objected to it and pushed him away. He then returned to the stage and said someone punched him, which the guy and other people sitting nearby insist he didn't. I don't actually know what happened, but he left after that, and Neko didn't come on until about an hour after she was scheduled to do so. She was angry, and while she still did the show, she never explained what was actually bothering her. I'm sure it had to do with what happened to the opener, but neither she nor the venue provided any details, and the guy who pushed Wasif had already been kicked out. Is the whole audience being punished, like some kind of Full Metal Jacket crap? She still performed well, and seemed to calm down a bit over the course of the set, but it ended up being quite short. They apparently had a fill-in bass player who didn't usually play that instrument, and this was the first time we saw her with a saxophone player, although he mostly played keyboard. Somehow we ended up sitting in the exact same seats as we did when we saw Ben Folds at the same venue. Since it's October, they had a lot of Halloween decorations up in town.
We had some pizza before the show, and the window of the place had this monster slice on the window.

The following weekend, we traveled to Pennsylvania to visit two amusement parks, and a lot of stuff went wrong. Knoebels was doing Hallo-Fun, and we left home later than we'd wanted to. Then there was a long line of cars just to get in, as it didn't seem like the traffic lights were set up to handle that much traffic. We were there for two hours or so. It was pretty fun when we actually got inside, but we didn't have time to do that much.

We rode the Rock-O-Plane, an old sort of ride that was new there this year. It loads sort of like a Ferris Wheel, with only a certain amount of cars low enough at any time for people to get in and out of them. The cars rock around, although you can stop them from doing so with a brake.

I believe it was also the first time we rode their Tea Cups, which were the same sort of ride that Beth knew as a Crazy Daisy.

And the line for the Phoenix had this graveyard for old rides.

We didn't get a chance to go on the Haunted Pioneer Train, which had a really long line.


Dorney Park, which we visited on Sunday, has Halloween Haunt, and I took another picture of Beth with the puking pumpkin.

They have a new ride, the Iron Menace, a roller coaster with a straight vertical drop.

The park has a backstory for this ride involving the fictional McTavish Steel, whose owner died under mysterious circumstances and went on to haunt the old mill. There actually is a McTavish Steelworks in Manitoba. To fit the theme, they also redesigned the nearby glider ride and changed the name to MT Buckets.

We also rode the Cedar Creek Cannonball, which last year we hadn't realized was going to close early for the Halloween events.

And it was the hundredth anniversary of the Thunderhawk. We visited two of the temporary haunted houses, Blackout and Blood on the Bayou. The former was introduced as a candy factory, but was really just a bunch of dark rooms. I guess the introduction was just misdirection, although a candy-themed haunted attraction could have been interesting. The latter was based around a pop culture representation of Louisiana that's probably nothing like the actual place, including alligators and fortune tellers.

And we saw part of a show by a group called the Spectral Sisters, who were pretty similar to the Puppini Sisters, doing swing versions of pop songs, including 10,000 Maniacs' "Because the Night," Heart's "Crazy on You," and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising."


Thursday the seventeenth was Nightfall at Green-Wood Cemetery, which includes a mix of things, both displays and performances. It seemed like there wasn't as much as in previous years, although that could have just been our timing or the paths we took. The ways through the graveyard are marked off with lights, but some of them do branch off. There were performers from the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, a one-man band who played "Tequila" and a sword swallower.

Morbid Anatomy did a series of lectures, of which we heard the one about Ra's journey through the underworld in Egyptian mythology, as told in the Amduat; and another on symbols of time and mortality in funerary decoration. And a band was playing songs from the earlier part of the twentieth century, the ones we were there for being from the 1910s and 1930s, with a different lead singer for each.


We visited South Jersey this past weekend, and did a few Halloween-related activities while there.

On Friday, we went to the Creamy Acres Night of Terror, which consists of a hayride and three walkthroughs. From what I remember, it was pretty much the same as last year.

There was a drive-through called Glow in Washington Township, which was a bunch of light displays loosely themed around old Route 66, although some of them didn't seem to relate to much of anything.

It had monsters and other seasonal stuff, but wasn't scary in the sense of people jumping out at you or anything; you just drove through and looked.

And that night, we went to Terror at the Junkyard for the Scullville Fire Department in Egg Harbor, which involved driving along a lot of dark roads, rather scarier than the maze or hayride, but obviously not as theatrical.

One performer seemed particularly into his role, stomping on the wagon and singing a song about waking the dead. And that's about all that's worth writing about for now, but there should be some more later in the month.

Halloween is over now, and I hope you're enjoying all the saints and all the souls. It's gotten cooler after some really warm days for October. I like not having to wear a jacket, but eighty degrees (Fahrenheit, of course) is just too much at this time of year. Anyway, here are a few things Beth and I went to recently.


On Friday, we visited the Queens County Farm Museum, which is not just a museum but an operating farm in Queens, dating back to 1697.

They had a few fall events, including a hayride and a corn maze. The former was short, and not haunted or anything, just a ride around the farm. The latter, known as the Amazing Maize Maze, was only the second one we'd been to, the other a smaller one in Delaware.

The way it was set up was that there were nine different mailboxes to find, each of which had a piece of a rough map of the maze. It was frustrating, because I could sometimes see the boxes, but not know how to get to them. Don't kids do these sometimes? We started around 4:30, and it officially closed at 5:30, at which point we'd only found maybe six of the mailboxes. While trying to make it back out again, though, we somehow came across the remaining ones. I suppose the trick is to not look for them. We saw several animals, too.<
I also bought two apple cider doughnuts while there, and was hoping to get a small bottle of apple cider, but we didn't have time after the maze. I did already buy some cider at the grocery store a few days earlier, though.


On Saturday, we saw a Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra performance. We had season tickets to these in the past, but this is the first one we'd attended in a while. It was called Eerie Happenings, and had spooky music, including Mendelssohn's Chorus of Druids and Witches from Die erste Walpurgisnacht (which is actually at the end of April), Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," and several Dies Irae pieces. The conductor joked that he couldn't mention Mickey Mouse or Fantasia by name. The Dies Irae is a Gregorian chant about the end of the world quoted in a lot of other stuff, and they played versions by Mozart and Verdi. Beth asked which one I liked better, and I preferred the latter, as it was more exciting. Liszt's Totentanz also uses it, but in a different style. After the show, we went to a place called 8-Bit Bites, of which there are a few locations in the city. It has a fun aesthetic, with lamps shaped like Super Mario question blocks, and a door that makes the sound of Mario growing bigger when it's opened.

There are a few different machines with multiple games on them, but we didn't play any. I had a chicken sandwich and a berry milkshake with pieces of Crunch Berries in it.

On actual Halloween, we saw a comedy show at the Bell House hosted by Joe Pera and Dan Licata. I didn't know what to expect from it, as all I really knew was that Pera was a comedian known for his slow, sincere delivery. Dan's style was rather more abrasive, and they did several bits together. I think interesting delivery was kind of a theme with some of the other comedians as well, although I'm not sure if that's part of the act or just how they talk. Joe dressed as Black Adam, and Dan wore a witch's hat. A few people in the audience for both this and the concert wore costumes, but neither of us did. Joe had a fairly lengthy discussion about lamb meatballs with a guy dressed as David S. Pumpkins. Before the show, there were kids going trick-or-treating at various businesses, which I knew was a thing, but it just wasn't what my neighborhood was like growing up.

On Saturday, 16 September, Beth and I made our third annual trip to Dorney Park, where they had just started their Halloween thing. None of the waits were bad, but they did close some of the rides early, and we hadn't been aware of that ahead of time. They also closed off some of the paths through the park after dark, and there were a lot of kids running around recklessly. I don't think we rode anything new this time, except for the Cedar Creek Cannonball, which wasn't running on our previous two trips.

I might have ridden it as a kid, but I can't remember for sure. The park has two train rides, but I've never been there when both were operational. I did get a little sick, not seriously so, but my stomach felt uncomfortable. I think one of the worst rides for my general health is the Revolution. They had a lot of advertising for the Iron Menace, which is scheduled to open next year.

Last Saturday, we visited the Creamy Acres Night of Terror again.

The Moon was pretty cooperative. I understand we missed the Harvest Moon by one day.
It was mostly the same as last time, with a hayride and three walkthroughs, including one with 3-D glasses. The ground was muddy, but that wasn't anyone's fault. They had a flood warning in New York the day before, but fortunately Beth and I were both working from home. We posed for some pictures with a skeleton, who was pretty big, but not quite in Gashadokuro territory.

We also went to a Spirit Halloween, where the main things I wanted to photograph were costumes with off-brand names.

I don't even really understand the Serpent Queen, since I'm pretty sure "Medusa" and "Gorgon" aren't trademarked. We bought some T-shirts there, but haven't worn them yet.


Monday was Kevin Geeks Out at the Nitehawk in Prospect Park, which is a lot easier to get to than the one in Williamsburg. It was on fast food, and included a good mix of stuff. Emily Menez talked about vegetarian options at fast food places (there aren't many) and compared them to ones in fiction. Michael Williams did a pre-recorded bit on Australian fast food, and how it's common to have beetroot on burgers there. Sounds gross to me, but I usually get fast food sandwiches without any of the vegetables anyway. KFC in Australia tried having cartoon mascots for a brief time, a fox and a chicken hawk with Southern (American) accents.

And I really don't know why Burger King is called Hungry Jack's there. Audrey Lazaro discussed Jollibee's and its mascots. Mr. Yum struck me as being similar to Wimpy, with his suit and tie and association with hamburgers.

They kept the character, but made him younger and less formal.

Wimpy does have his own restaurant, although I've never been to one. Popeyes, the chicken place, was apparently not named after the sailor, but did use him in advertising up until 2012.

Co-host Camila Jones did a match-up between pizza chain founders. Burlesque dancer Perse Fanny did a McDonald's themed striptease. And Max Bank did a bit as advertising executive Donny Deutsch, whom I'd heard of because he used to have a talk show on CNBC for some reason, which included a part about coming up with Uncle O'Grimacey. The Kindest Cut this time was the 1978 movie Starhops, which not only has a title presumably inspired by Star Wars, but even opens with a parody of its crawl. There was a bit about how Clara Peller from the Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" commercials did a rap with Coyote McCloud that seemed very similar to an earlier song using Rodney Dangerfield clips, and Adam Bernstein recorded his own parody for this show. And Kevin made a non-canonical but valid point about how Ronald McDonald is Grimace's best friend, but Grimace isn't Ronald's. The Grimazuzu picture is from a bit that was never fully developed, but I have written about both Grimace and Pazuzu pretty recently. We didn't actually eat fast food that day. The grilled cheese sandwich I had at a nearby café was made pretty quickly, but I don't think it counts. But then, Pizza Hut qualifying must be a pretty recent thing, as I remember having pretty long waits there when I was a kid. Or maybe they just felt long because I was impatient.

In an attempt to remain somewhat current on writing about seasonal events, I'll start this with what Beth and I did the Saturday before last. There's a Halloween event called Halloween House set up in malls around the area, and it's advertised as being not scary. Of course, what's scary is very subjective, but there's no one jumping out at you or anything. See, this guy is just chilling on the couch.

And this witch looks friendly, right?

We went to the one at the Menlo Park Mall, and walked around for a while before we found it. It has several rooms, each decorated in a different spooky theme. One had witches and potions, others were themed like a pumpkin patch and a graveyard, one was based on Stranger Things (which I haven't seen, but Beth has), and another on The Nightmare Before Christmas.

It didn't take long to see everything, but you could throw bean bags at targets.

There weren't any employees in the individual rooms, just at the entrance, so I have to wonder if kids are touching stuff when nobody is watching. Maybe they have cameras or something. The mall also had a store with Batman holding Pikachu in its display window. Has that crossover happened yet?

And Wonder Woman was getting in on the Halloween spirit.


On Thursday, we went to Green-Wood Cemetery for their Nightfall event, which was pretty similar to Moonrise last year, although we didn't get tote bags and they didn't have any food. While there were lanterns lighting the paths where stuff was happening, it was still kind of confusing to figure out which way to go, and to make sure we weren't just passing the same stuff over and over again.

One person was giving a lecture about ancient Egyptian beliefs on the afterlife, and comparing it to going on vacation. The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus was there again, and we saw a magician, jugglers, a tightrope walker, and a guy on stilts playing the ukulele.

I also went to the eye doctor that day, and it turned out my prescription hadn't changed. That's good, as I only just got new glasses a few months ago.


Friday's activity was the Haunted Junkyard for the Scullville Fire Company near Egg Harbor, New Jersey, which had both a maze and a hayride. What was kind of interesting about the maze was that the way through, while it twisted around a lot, was pretty obvious, except for one dead end near the exit. One thing they did quite a bit in it was to have colored lights to make your eyesight go wonky. There were costumed people sneaking up on customers in the maze and in line. The hayride was fairly standard, except with more old cars and trailers along the route. And this wagon had actual hay in it. Some kid sitting near us kept pointing out that he didn't find it scary, which is annoyingly common on things like that. What, do they expect people to be impressed? That happens at amusement parks, too. Anyway, we went to a Spirit Halloween for the first time this year on Saturday, although we didn't get anything. I noticed they're still really emphasizing creepy clowns. They had several of this guy, whom we saw outside a grocery store in Brooklyn a few days earlier.

Anyone want to stand under a clown crotch? Beth tried it, but the pictures didn't come out well.
And quite a few costumes were identified as "union suits," which really just means it's a one-piece outfit, but some of the labels made me think that maybe animals are starting to participate in organized labor.


That's it as far as actual activities, but I will mention that we've eaten at Panera Bread three times this month, once before Dorney Park, once at the mall, and once yesterday. Beth hadn't even been to one prior to last year. They're kind of pricey, but I do like it. The past two times, I had flatbread pizza and chicken noodle soup, kind of a weird combination, but it worked for me. I remember Panera having annoying commercials where they said it had "good, clean food," as if implying that the food was dirty elsewhere. There's also a billboard on the New Jersey Turnpike (I think) that says "Eat clean, bro," although I can't remember what it's actually advertising. I guess I kind of see it as a combination of shaming people for liking unhealthy food and accepting that something IS healthy because the people selling it tell you it is. But plenty of things are much better than their advertising would suggest.

Today is Beth's birthday, but we're not doing anything special today. We do have a lot of stuff planned for this week, though. I think it's going to be exhausting. My birthday is coming up on Thursday, and again, no particular plans for that day, aside from my weekly guitar lesson. We didn't do anything on Halloween either, although we did go out the night before to see the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra perform at a church. They played the fourth movement of Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique (the march to the scaffold), Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre, Liszt's Totentanz, and Boito's "Prologue in Heaven" from Mefistofele. The last one was accompanied by a chorus, with the bass singing the lead part of the Devil. We got tickets to see some other performances by the orchestra.


This past Saturday, we went with Beth's mom and uncle to Cape May to ride the Revolution Rail. They have these in other places as well, pedal cars that run on abandoned railroad lines. There was a lot of wind, so it was pretty chilly. Apparently there's sometimes wildlife, mostly birds, that can be seen from the tracks, but we didn't see any.

We stopped at a nature preserve along the track, where they had an insect hotel and lots of milkweed for migrating butterflies.

They also have bald eagles there, but again, we didn't see them. At the terminal where we boarded the cars, Beth and I posed in a face cutout thing that was clearly made with smaller people in mind.


After the ride, Beth bought some stuff at a peanut butter store, and we had dinner at a diner that was also a pizzeria, although none of us got pizza. I was considering having stromboli, but instead I chose a pizza steak, and Beth's mom and uncle also had cheese steaks. I remember the grocery store nearby having good stromboli, but we haven't been shopping in a while, at least not properly. I mostly get stuff from bodegas and drugstores these days, and that's probably more expensive.

Beth and I went to the Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze last night, which has become an annual thing for us. The past three years, we also did other stuff in the area. Due to the pandemic, however, it was more difficult to get tickets, which is why we ended up going on a weeknight. It was much like last year, although I think the First Responders display was new.

I noticed a few rotten pumpkins in the planetarium, but they might well have already been switched out by now. I can hardly imagine how difficult the whole thing is to maintain, as not only do they have to carve the pumpkins and make the elaborate designs with them every year, but also constantly make replacements.

Not all that much else has been going on recently. Last weekend, I wanted to visit a Halloween store, and there's a Spirit not too far from home. I noticed there's a lot of focus on evil children and clowns. There was one clown yard decoration on display that was way too loud. We didn't end up getting anything, even though I have a few ideas for costumes I want to put together. Of course, they often tend to focus on complete costumes rather than parts that you can mix and match, which you pretty much have to do if you want to dress as an obscure Oz character. There's a Halloween-themed virtual OzCon this Saturday, and they're encouraging people to dress up, but I don't have anything prepared. I did think a good costume would be King Harum Scarum from Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz, who's described as having a horn for a nose, a lion's mane, pig eyes, donkey ears, and billy goat whiskers.

I looked a little online, and while most of those things are available as parts of masks or headbands, I'm sure I'm not crafty enough to get them to work together. I'm also not sure how to attach a party horn to my nose. Having a vivid imagination and no practical abilities has been the bane of my life.

I've also started taking guitar lessons recently, at a music school near where I live. I got an acoustic guitar for my eighteenth birthday, and every once in a while I'd take it out and practice a bit, but I usually gave up due to lack of direction. I'm hoping a teacher will be able to identify my problem spots. I know some difficulties I've been having are getting the fingering wrong when I'm not looking and covering extra strings when I try to play chords, but I'm sure a lot of that comes with practice. I should probably get the strings changed soon, since I've had them on there for twenty-four years, and it even came with replacements. Any advice any of you might have? I know I have some online friends who are musical types.

Halloween is coming up, and we're in the midst of a pandemic, and there's still an inexplicable amount of support for our dangerously destructive president. Like Milhouse Van Houten said, I only like it when I'm pretend scared. But anyway, Beth and I went to the Creamy Acres Night of Terror on Friday night.

They had the haunted hayride, but I feel they didn't really maintain social distancing. They didn't pack people onto the wagon like they usually do, but it was still pretty crowded. The ride itself had some neat creatures and effects, including one part where you ride through a giant beehive. There were also a corn maze and two haunted houses, one pretty typical and another with a lot of creepy clowns and 3-D effects. Walking around wearing 3-D glasses is already difficult, and it's even harder while wearing a mask, as that can fog them up. And for some reason, I'm much worse than children at finding my way through what are supposed to be pretty straightforward mazes. I accidentally went through the wrong door at some point, and ended up in a back room, with nobody stopping me. It was a while before someone showed up to direct us back to the maze. Neat effects, but not all that well implemented. I think this was the first year they did this one, though, so maybe they haven't worked out all the bugs.

We've watched a few Halloween-related things on TV recently. I've written about a few of them on WordPress already, and will continue to do so. I've also written about my initial thoughts on Dragon Quest XI for the Nintendo Switch. I've recently finished with the tournament in Octagonia. And I've received my copy of the 2020 Oziana, which includes the first part of a story I co-wrote. I wonder if I should review it now, or wait until it's publicly available. I'm sure it doesn't make much difference overall, but I don't want to annoy the few people who might actually want to read about it. There's an online Oz event coming up on the twenty-fourth, which includes a costume contest. I haven't worn a costume in years, but I always used to like to. I do want to go to a Halloween store soon and get some accessories and such for costumes I've been wanting to do, but I don't know if I'll have anything ready by then.

We sent away for a DNA test for our cats, and fortunately they don't have any of the genetic diseases they tested for. I was hoping the results would be a little more elaborate, like how the 23 and Me results say whether you're genetically predisposed to like sweet or salty snacks. I guess with cats, it could be something like a preference for fish or chicken. Actually, Wally will sometimes lick salt from crackers and chips, and we still don't know why. We're taking the cats to the vet tomorrow. We changed from the pills we'd been giving Reagan to a liquid, which is easier to give her, but she still often tries to spit it out afterwards. I hope she's getting enough of it for it to help.

My grandmother died on Friday night. She was ninety-seven, and hadn't been doing well. I'm never sure of the best way to announce sad things, and putting it at the beginning of a mostly unrelated post is probably not it, but that's what I'm doing anyway. I don't know why, but I've never really been someone who cried at death, and it's not because I don't care, and I'm pretty sure it's not because men are taught by society not to show their feelings, because I'm generally open about them. Maybe it would be different if it had been unexpected. She's being cremated, and I don't know when the funeral is yet.

I'm going to write about stuff Beth and I have done for Halloween in the past month, but for some reason I can't transfer my pictures from my phone to my computer in the way I have before. They come up as an unreadable format, even though they're all JPGs. I guess I'm going to have to rely on my Facebook uploads for this post, although I understand they're lower quality.
Our first Halloween event was actually at the end of September, the Night of Terror at Creamy Acres, to which Beth's cousin Dorothea accompanied us. We got a few pictures taken against their backdrops.This was a few different events, albeit fewer than last year, when I believe they had two different haunted houses. The hayride was the last one we did, and it was fun, except for the obnoxious teenagers who seem to be a staple of such events. This time, there was a white girl who used the N-word for no apparent reason.

Last weekend, we went with Dorothea and Uncle John to another hayride, this one at Miller's Mulch, which has been running for years. They always have a hearse blasting music near where you line up. I'm not sure what else to say about this one, but it was fun. There's a maze as well, which is always really dark. Then we brought Uncle John up to Brooklyn that night, and went to Governors Island on Sunday. Beth and I had just been there the previous month, just to see it, but this time was the Night of 1000 Jack O' Lanterns. It was also raining, which sucked. This has been a particularly rainy October, I think. I don't think there were anywhere near 1000 Jack O' Lanterns, although there were a lot of smaller ones, so I guess I couldn't say for sure. Many of the larger ones were depictions of licensed characters, many but not all of them Disney.

Beth thought there were too many of these. I did like the ones with cute versions of horror icons.

Other themes included optical illusions and tributes to celebrities who died this year.




Finally, on Friday, we went to Sleepy Hollow with Tavie and Stephanie, like we had last year. This was the first time Beth, Tavie, and I had been to the storytelling at the old church, where a guy told an embellished version of the Washington Irving story, complete with voices and sound effects. It was pretty fun. Then we walked through Horseman's Hollow, where what I remember most is a part where all these webs and other things were hanging from the ceiling where you'd bump into them. I really think they overdid that. The Jack O' Lantern Blaze was largely the same as before, including the sea serpent and the Pumpkin Zee Bridge, although they don't call it that anymore since they changed the name of the Tappan Zee Bridge.One thing I think was new was a recreation of famous paintings in pumpkins. There was a Frida Kahlo (interestingly enough, there was a Frida pumpkin at Governors Island), Rene Magritte's The Son of Man, Edvard Munch's The Scream, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, one of Andy Warhol's (Warholloween?) soup cans, and another I couldn't place.We ate at a nearby diner on the way back to the city, got back late, and Beth and I got up late on Saturday. And really, that's about it. I should probably mention that we took our cats to the vet a few weeks ago, and they hated it, although Regan was pretty subdued. Oddly, at home, it's usually Wally who's the calmer one and Rea who's loud and complains a lot. Their bloodwork was good, but we do have to take Rea back in November for dental surgery.