Happy, Little, Time Wasters

 

Danse Macabre

Deb, I found this on YouTube. Is this the other skeleton dance you were thinking of? I only remember seeing the Disney one.

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I took a class to better understand the Next of Kin box. A place to leave information for whoever is to handle your estate

2. Himself had been talking about going to Douglas Orchards to get Apple Cider Donuts. No donuts were available, but he had put the craving in my head. I bought some at the grocery store

3. Himself tuned the car radio to my favorite station when I took the car to my class.

4. Chatting with the Young One, she told me about getting an eggplant Parmigiana meal in her meal kit. She said she knew it would taste like sadness and not the eggplant Parmigiana that Himself and I make.

5. Today, would have been Ink's 28th birthday.

How was your week?

Throwback Thursday - Dracula

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Dracula

Andy Fish over at Fishwrap has posted a page from his upcoming graphic novel, Dracula. Andy's post reminded me of something that happened shortly after I was married.

During the late 70's, the vampire myth enjoyed a resurgence in pop culture with a remake of Dracula starring Frank Langella. Stephen King's novel Salem's Lot spun off a made for tv movie. I had seen both movies and thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Flash forward to the mid-80's. When I glanced through the TV Guide (yes, we actually had a small book to look through to choose our viewing pleasures back in the olden days) and saw Nosferatu was going to be on. I couldn't resist. I was home alone one night as Himself was teaching. Had nothing better to do, so I settled in. I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast the Hollywood version with this different looking version of the myth. (I love horror films. Not the gratuitous slasher junk of today's features. But thrillers. The movies that give you the heebie-jeebies because you don't really see any gore or violence, but fill in the details from your own overactive, fertile imagination. I digress..)

In a dream, I told Nosferatu I thought he was incredibly ugly. I told him though Bela Lugosi as Dracula was charming and elegant, Frank Langella as Dracula was stunningly handsome. As you can imagine, Nosferatu took exception to my audacity and as dreams sometimes deteriorate into nightmares, Nosferatu began to chase me. My arms were pumping like steam engine pistons, and my chubby little legs were churning up the ground as fast as I could go. I glanced over my shoulder and could see Nosferatu gaining on me. I turned and ran full steam. Nosferatu reached his bony hand with its horrendously long fingernails and grazed my thigh. I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a high-pitched, blood curdling scream.

Then there was laughter. Gales and guffaws of someone busting a gut a with laughter. My legs were still churning. I was breathing heavily. Great gasps as I tried to fill my aching lungs with oxygen. My mouth, a gaping maw. I felt the blood pounding through my ears in time to my heart pounding in my chest. I felt my eyes, huge and round ballooning out of their sockets. I came to a dead stop on top of the bed. Himself sat on the edge of the bed. He was the source of the laughter.

"Ha.." he tried to speak, but words failed him as he was laughing so hard. "Ha, that..that is...is.. the funniest thing I've ever seen. You were dancing on the bed!" Another wave of laughter shook him.

At first, I was a little put out. To think my husband who was supposed to be my protector, my shield, my knight in shining armor was an unsympathetic clod! But no matter how fetching one looks standing in the middle of the bed and wearing a pale blue, Christian Dior nightshirt, the reality is one looks ridiculous running in place on the bed. And never miss an opportunity to keep your mouth shut. I sat on the bed and laughed with Himself.

I still think Nosferatu is one fugly dude. I'd take Bela Lugosi's charm and Frank Langella's dark looks any day and twice on Sunday over Nosferatu. I'd even gravitate towards the sparkly vampires of Twilight though I could do without the teen angst. On another tangent, I'm grateful that Stephenie Myer's vampire romance caught the imagination of The Young One. The Young One is not much of a reader. She burned through the pages of the series and is reading the entire series again.

Do horror movies make you dance on the bed?

Doodling for Stress Reduction

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away. 

The suggestion for this class was to trace a circle and fill it with wavy lines. You could add doodles in between the lines or words.

I was in a Halloween mood and also practicing the lettering from the Rennie Revisited class I took. I wrote out the Scottish prayer:

From ghoulies and ghosties and long leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night, good Lord deliver us.

T Stands for a Relaxing Cuppa

 

There's nothing better than a relaxing cup of tea after roaming the art galleries and viewing The Art of the Macabre, the spooky community art show now on view in the Higgins Education Wing of the Worcester Art Museum.

Monet and Me

 

are admiring a Halloween card sent by blogger buddy, Anne from Anne's Creative Cornucopia

Here's a better image of the card front. I love the Ghost font. Also, it looks like Anne's assistant, Teddy hijacked addressing the envelope and signing the card. He's styling himself as Theodore, The One and Only. He signed the card from Team T (HT and Minnie T) and Anne. As an after thought, he added "the cat". Teddy, you gave me a good laugh.

Anne, your card was a delightful surprise. Thanks for thinking of me.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Look at all the Widowmakers! Those are broken branches waiting to fall

Like this one that planted itself in the ground! I thought Himself had transplanted one of the pear trees

Bird feeder filled

Nuts and seeds scattered on the ground for the ground feeders

A stack of pumpkins and sperm ghost lights.

"Come let's stroll, stroll across the floor. Yeah, come let's stroll, stroll across the floor. Hey now, turn around, baby, let's stroll once more"

Bolger got relocated

Samwise charging up with the leaf blower attachment

Milkweed pods exploded

Some flowers still hanging on. A cosmos

and aster and a little cosmos

Sunlight on the Japanese maple makes the leaves look very red

A hydrangea head

Red leaves on the blueberry bush

Houdini. She followed me out to the front porch the other day. I didn't notice her until pulling out of the driveway. 

How does your garden grow?