Halloween

Sunday Musings At The End Of October

~ beetleypete ~ 52 Comments

The weather continues to act strangely in Eastern England. It has been unusually warm, reaching 22C on Saturday, despite cloudy skies. My shorts have been on since last weekend, and it seems as if Autumn is on hold for now. Maybe we will go straight into Winter?

The clocks went back one hour last night, so as usual I woke up far too early. When I realised that 7:30 was actually 6:30, I went back to bed. But I could not get back off to sleep, so it is going to feel like a long day today.

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Ollie’s ear infection cleared up remarkably quickly with the new treatment, and he was back to his old self in just over three days. It is always a relief to see our canine companion pain-free, and undisturbed by any medical issues.

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It is Halloween on Monday, but as usual I will not be celebrating it. I have no connection with this increasingly commercial imported festival of begging for sweets, and I am content to be very grumpy about it. As we do not leave out a pumpkin or show an outside light on the day, we will not be bothered by any ‘trick or treaters’. But for some reason, they have now decided to add fireworks to the event, so I hope that the many pets around here are not subjected to an evening of terror from the noise.

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My fiction serial concludes today, with the 30th episode. I am not sure when to start the next one, so will be consulting my notebook to decide which theme to expand upon.

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Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I wish you a happy and peaceful Sunday. And if you are enjoying dry weather, make the most of it.
It is raining in Beetley today.

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Halloween-Scmalloween

~ beetleypete ~ 57 Comments

This is a repost from October the 31st, 2012. With everyone suitably seasonally excited today for Halloween, I thought I would offer an alternative view, somthing of a rant, for the benefit of any new followers since I last reposted this in 2014.

What is all this fuss about Halloween? Does anybody remember when it all started here? Shops full of pumpkins, devil-suits, and tridents; parties with fancy-dress themes, gangs of kids wandering about, begging for sweets. I certainly have no memory of it in London at least, until about 1990. It is yet another unwanted American import, alongside baseball caps, (Who knows the rules? Come on, tell me.) rap music, and McDonald’s. Driven by the Marketing men, Supermarkets, and Television, desperate to fill the gap between Summer holidays, and Christmas.

Why do we always fall for this rubbish so easily? Is there no tradition that cannot be sold on, re-packaged for British taste, and successfully marketed, until nobody remembers a time before it existed? What’s next, Thanksgiving? That would fit nicely into the space before Yuletide, and would increase turkey sales even more. We could all wear stove-pipe hats, and big Puritan collars, trying to pretend it was OK to swindle the Red Indians out of their lands for a few beads and trinkets. It wouldn’t matter that there were no Red Indians here, we could just make that bit up. Or maybe we could call them ‘Native Americans’, to make us feel even less guilty.

Nothing has value anymore. There is no special time left. Hot Cross Buns are available all year, pancakes can be bought anytime, then microwaved to save the effort of making them. Tangerines are no longer a Christmas treat, any Tesco will have them in, anytime you want. We have slowly removed everything that we ever had occasion to anticipate excitedly, and to look forward to as the seasons changed. Once we had lost all that, we had to search elsewhere for something to plan for, and along came Halloween. We can now arrange parties, or the appalling ‘Trick or Treat’ parades (Ask them for a trick is my tip!), and have everything from themed burgers, to pumpkin socks. How did we ever cope before?

I would love to take you back in a Time Machine. You would relish the prospect of Buns at Easter, delight at trying to make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, and be unable to sleep on the night before Christmas. You would never have heard of ‘Grand-Parents’ Day’, and Halloween would be something that was ‘done’ in America. Brazil nuts and tangerines would appear in December, be enjoyed briefly, and would not be seen again until that time the following year. Baseball caps would be worn by baseball players, and some other people in The Americas, but not in England. If you wanted a snack, you would be happy with fish and chips, or pie and mash.

There is nothing wrong with American cultural celebrations. They even keep some European ones, like Christmas. But the newer ones should stay on that side of the Atlantic. That way those that seek it can travel there to enjoy it, and celebrate the differences in our societies and customs. We might even tell them that we used to celebrate All Hallows’ Eve as part of the Harvest Festival, and that Halloween is a Scottish corruption of that phrase. That would make it ours then, not American at all. Like most things, including many we have since discarded, they were taken to America by settlers. America is doing a fantastic job of re-exporting those traditions, whether we need them back, or not.

Surely it is enough to celebrate the difference in the various traditions and cultures of the many countries and societies in the world, without having to assimilate everything? As the French say- ‘Vive la difference’.

Season Of The SAD Lamp: Sunday Musings

~ beetleypete ~ 65 Comments

The clocks went back one hour here last night, so we got an extra hour in bed. The downside of that is that it will be dark by around 4 pm now, and the evenings will feel long and dull. My SAD lamp is already turned on as I write this, and it’s only 9:30 am. The rain is hammering against the window, and the grey skies look to have settled in for the day. Ollie was reluctant to venture out into the garden earlier, and I suspect he just hid in the side alley after I closed the kitchen door.

I don’t blame him.

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Today is Halloween Sunday. At least it is for those who celebrate it. That doesn’t include me of course. There was a party last night that went on until just after midnight. It must have been some distance away, but I could still hear the ‘thump’ of the sound system all evening.

In a quiet village like Beetley, that event was enough to get residents taking to the local Facebook forum by 9pm, (suitably called Beetley Busybodies) to complain about the noise and ask the people hosting the party to turn down the music. I am not on Facebook, my wife told me. But it did occur to me (though obviously not to those complaining) that anyone enjoying a party at their house was unlikely to be checking Facebook to see if anyone was complaining.

If this awful weather continues, I am wondering how many ‘trick or treaters’ will be venturing out later. We don’t put a pumpkin outside on the driveway, which is the signal to knock on doors in Beetley. That means we will hopefully not be bothered by anyone.

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My 35-part serial ‘Outside’ concluded yesterday. I have a new one in notes, and you can have a rest from fiction until I structure it. I will be posting an overview of ‘Outside’ soon.

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Many bloggers have had Christmas Countdowns on their blogs for some time now. A few of them started that in early September, before I had even taken my summer holiday. I don’t want to know how many days it is to Christmas thanks. It will come when it comes, and that always seems to be faster every year I grow older.

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We accepted the quote from the landscape gardener to do the front of the property, and we are just waiting for him to give us a start date. That will hopefully be before the end of December, but will presumably depend on weather conditions. No doubt contractors have to get used to working outside in all conditions. I remember having to do something similar when I was an EMT. Kneeling in pools of rainwater, or tramping through snow in unsuitable uniform, feet freezing, and trousers soaked.

So happy I don’t have to that any longer. Except on the daily dog walks of course. 🙂

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I hope you all have a great Sunday, and better weather where you live. And for those of you living in the in the far east, where it is almost Monday, I hope you have already had a great day.
Best wishes, Pete.

Merry Christmas

~ beetleypete ~ 98 Comments

Over the past week, I have noticed something happening around the blogosphere.

Early Halloween posts, to be exact. Whether they are already listing films or books with scary or ghostly themes, or talking about haunted houses and paranormal happenings, they are creeping in daily.

A reminder of the date.
It is the 19th of August.
Yes, it’s not even September, and some bloggers are posting about Halloween.

I am notorious for moaning a lot, and coming across as grumpy. But come on! Halloween in August? It gets earlier, and sillier, every year. I’m sure it won’t be long before we get Halloween posts in January, with a ten-month countdown to the ‘big day’.

So in the spirit that seems to be the way of things in blogging, I thought I would also get in early.

Merry Christmas, to all my friends in the blogging community.

There are only 128 days to go, after all.

Plastic Surgery: A Halloween Special

~ beetleypete ~ 67 Comments

I have never really been a fan of surgical alteration to the bodies we were born with, unless it is for genuine medical reasons, or to remove something unsightly. Years ago, it was suggested to me that I have the bags under my eyes surgically removed, as they are supposedly ‘horrible’. But I would sooner put up with them than face going under the knife around my eyes. Who knows what complications might arise?

In recent times, many women have taken the advantage of having their breasts enlarged, and even their bums made curvier. Men have had pectoral muscles enhanced, and some even endured the treatment for penis extensions. And both sexes have also had face-lifts. That’s up to them of course. It’s their body, their money, and if it makes them feel better, then I suppose that’s a good thing. Just not for me.

But the next time you are thinking about having your lips re-plumped with filler, or your wrinkles smoothed out with Botox, remember one thing. You eventually get old, no matter how much money you spend. Those years of looking your best now may come back to haunt you in your retirement. The silicone-filled boobs will seem out of place, and that alluring trout pout on your lips is not going to make anyone want to actually kiss you.

You might even end up looking like this.

Yes, that’s a real photo. She took a ‘selfie’ and posted it online.
Because she thinks she looks great.

Happy Halloween, to all of you who celebrate it. 🙂
I say ‘BAH!’.
There are no sweets at my house, so don’t bother to come knocking!

Seasonal Horror Films

~ beetleypete ~ 63 Comments

With everyone lining up their lists for Halloween, I thought about what makes a good horror film. Over the decades, tastes have changed a great deal, and what might have been scary once, is now considered to be almost comedy. Genres blur too. What might have once been seen as science fiction films are often marketed as horror these days. The plots are all but exhausted as well, making ‘psychological’ horror more important to attract a new audience.

Types of horror film are fairly easy to categorise. There are ‘Haunted House’ films, ‘Possession’ films, ‘Monster’ films, and ‘Slasher’ films. Modern variations include those involving artificial intelligence, body horror, stalking, and telepathy. In the mix are the old standbys of Vampires, Mummies, Werewolves, Fantasy beasts, and imprisonment and torture. The human appetite for being scared, repulsed, or downright terrified seems to know no bounds.

It is hard for me to comprehend now how I could ever have been scared by Christopher Lee biting the neck of a young woman, in one of his many portrayals of ‘Dracula’. In the same way, the giant ants of the sci-fi horror ‘Them’ from 1954 are now simply real ants, enlarged for effect. So not remotely scary. Phobias and natural repulsion play a large part of course. If you are afraid of spiders, then ‘Arachnophobia’ (1990) will be horrifying. But if you have no fear of those creatures, then you might wonder what all the fuss is about.

Psychological horror may be the most effective, as we can often imagine ourselves in the situations depicted on screen. It becomes a ‘what would I do?’ scenario, rather than an implausible fantasy. But with that sub-genre, as with all others, we face the danger of ‘overload’. Once a particular film becomes popular, (as with ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’ (1984)) the producers and directors hear the cash registers ringing, and decide to churn out more of the same, with the sequels becoming less and less scary, and more and more lazy.

If I am going to watch a horror film, then I expect a few things from it.
1) It has to genuinely scare me, at least once.
2) The cast should always believe the terror, and get that across to the audience.
3) It should not just rely on special effects to frighten us.
4) It helps if it is an original idea, or a ‘fresh’ reworking of an old one.
5) It should stand alone, and not just be ‘engineered’ for later sequels.
6) It should never be a poor scene by scene remake of a much better original.

After all that, I should make some recommendations of what I consider to be good horror films, so here are some. I will avoid science fiction, because of the old argument about what constitutes a horror film. So, if you want to watch something different for your Halloween fear-fest, try these.

Nosferatu The Vampyr. (1922)
This is the whole film. The silent original, in a restored print.

When A Stranger Calls. (1979) Make sure you watch this, and not the remake.

Ringu. The 1998 Japanese original only please.

The Blair Witch Project. (1999)

It Follows. (2015)

And saving the best until last.
Martyrs. (2008) Ignore the 2016 remake completely.

It’s starting already

~ beetleypete ~ 76 Comments

As everyone knows, yesterday was the first of October.

Of course, it immediately started with a vengeance. I received emails for Halloween ‘specials’. A flyer came through the door, advertising a local supermarket. Pumpkins were on sale, and already reduced.

Some bloggers were starting early too, mentioning special ‘scary’ film posts, building up to the supposed wonder of Halloween.

Then I went out late afternoon, to do my usual ‘big shop’. I could have been very confused. I may well have believed it was already the 30th, not the 1st. Costumes on sale, alongside socks with pumpkins on them, tights with skulls printed on them; witches’ hats, plastic brooms, and tubs of sweets for trick or treat. Once I got to the food aisles, I discovered a new phenomenon, ‘Halloween Food’. It seems that multi-packs of sausages, large boxes of oven-ready nibbles, and various designs of chicken bites, are all now required eating on the 31st.

The long confectionery section was also laden with ‘special’ boxes and packets. The same old sweets and biscuits, their wrappers in fancy dress, to cash in on Halloween. Obviously, a chocolate wafer biscuit is more appealing if it has a cartoon pumpkin on the wrapper, dressed as a witch. That makes them taste better, I’m sure.

OK, I am an old grump, and I hate Halloween. For someone of my age, in England, it is relatively new, and did not feature here at all, until I was in my late thirties.
But come on, consumers. Are you really going to keep falling for this crap every year?

Sadly, I suspect you are.

Surviving Halloween

~ beetleypete ~ 57 Comments

Well it is still the 31st of October, and we have survived Halloween in Beetley. Regulars will be all too aware that I do not celebrate Halloween. In fact, I regard it as an American commercial invention, and avoid it, at all costs.
https://beetleypete.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/halloween-scmalloween/

During all the years I lived in London, I had little or no idea about Halloween. For me, it arrived some time around 1990, with people knocking on the door after 6 pm, and asking for ‘Trick or Treat’. I had no treats prepared, and asked them for a trick instead. Some were flummoxed by my reply. Mums with small children called me a ‘meanie’, but older kids just threw eggs at our windows. By the time I was living in Camden, after 2000, older kids would knock up until 10 pm. They did not even bother to dress up, and never said ‘Trick or Treat’. They just wanted cash, which annoyed me even more.

By 2012, we were living here in Beetley. In a neighbourly spirit, we bought in lots of sweets and snacks, expecting better-behaved children to knock on our door on the 31st. But despite hearing them around on the nearby streets after dark, we didn’t get a single ring on the doorbell, or knock on the door. A few days later, we mentioned this to our neighbour. She told us that as we did not have a pumpkin outside, nobody would knock and disturb us. We had never heard of this tradition, but considered it to be admirable.

Since then, we have never put a pumpkin outside, and nobody has bothered us on the 31st. The same thng happened this evening. Despite crowds of noisy children traversing the local streets, nobody came to our door. Just as well, as we had no sweets ready, and Ollie might have barked. For us, this is an excellent way to celebrate Halloween, for those of us that do not want to celebrate it, and take part in the commercial excesses of this corrupted festival. Well done, Beetley.

We survived Halloween, and that made us happy.

A very warm walk

~ beetleypete ~ 26 Comments

I headed out with Ollie well before two today. With the clocks having gone back, it is almost dark by just after four, so our routine has had to change, at least until the end of March next year.

Earlier this week, they cut all the grass and plants down, on the centre of Beetley Meadows. This results in the whole area taking on the appearance of a flat field. Although many around here like this, I find it makes for a very dull walk. So, I headed off in the direction of Gingerbread Corner instead. I was dressed for anything, with big wellington boots to cope with the deep mud, and a long parka, in case it turned wet. Despite the sun and clear skies, I wasn’t about to take the weather for granted.

As often happens, I was soon uncomfortably hot. With the temperature approaching a very unseasonal 17 C degrees, and some very warm sunshine over by Goregate Farm, I realised too late that I should have worn much lighter clothing. Undaunted, we carried on, with Ollie enjoying rolling in the cool long grass next to the path, and lots of activity apparent in the surrounding fields. The farmers have been busy. The big field next to the pheasant hatchery has been replanted, and all the plum trees have been cut back, ready for the next fruiting season. Tractors were coming and going, with one being used to trim back the hedges that protect the pig farm from the wind.

I was surprised to discover that in the short time since I had been over there, the pig farm had been relocated. The vast area of tin huts that used to fill the space up to the Holt Road, is now an empty field. The pigs and their houses have been shifted across the path, to the double field in the western half. I know nothing about animal husbandry, but I am guessing that the soil might need a break from the intensity of pig farming, after all the years that they have been in the same place.

Up to the next two fields, and we found even more pigs. Ollie usually snuffles around the edges of these, looking for rabbits in the verges. On this occasion, I called him back, in case he upset the pigs by getting too close. Once at Gingerbread Corner, I rested in the shade of the wooded area, cooling down for a while by sitting on my favorite tree stump. Ollie scurried around, convinced he could hear squirrels. I knew that they were just wood pigeons, but I left him to it anyway.

By the time we got back to the Meadows, the sun was almost setting. Ollie jumped into the river, to cool off and have a drink. When we finally arrived home, I was still too hot, and glad to remove all my heavy clothes and footwear. Just after five, I heard the first small groups of children out trick or treating once it had got dark. We don’t put an illuminated pumpkin outside our house, so never get bothered by them.

One of the country traditions I like the best.

Halloween- Scmalloween

~ beetleypete ~ 54 Comments

What is all this fuss about Halloween? Does anybody remember when it all started here? Shops full of pumpkins, devil-suits, and tridents; parties with fancy-dress themes, gangs of kids wandering about, begging for sweets. I certainly have no memory of it, in London at least, until about 1990. It is yet another unwanted American import, alongside baseball caps, (Who knows the rules? Come on, tell me.) rap music, and McDonald’s. Driven by the Marketing Men, Supermarkets, and Television, desperate to fill the gap between Summer holidays, and Christmas.

Why do we always fall for this rubbish so easily?  Is there no tradition that cannot be sold on, re-packaged for British taste, and successfully marketed, until nobody remembers a time before it existed? What’s next, Thanksgiving? That would fit nicely into the space before Yuletide, and would increase turkey sales even more. We could all wear stove-pipe hats, and big Puritan collars, trying to pretend it was OK to swindle the Red Indians out of their lands for a few beads and trinkets. It wouldn’t matter that there were no Red Indians here, we could just make that bit up. Or maybe we could call them ‘Native Americans’, to make us feel even less guilty.

Nothing has value anymore. There is no special time left. Hot Cross Buns are available all year, pancakes can be bought anytime, then microwaved, to save the effort in making them. Tangerines are no longer a Christmas treat, any Tesco will have them in, anytime you want. We have slowly removed everything that we ever had occasion to anticipate excitedly, and to look forward to, as the seasons changed. Once we had lost all that, we had to search elsewhere for something to plan for, and along came Halloween. We can now arrange parties, or the appalling ‘Trick or Treat’ parades (Ask them for a trick is my tip!), and have everything from themed burgers, to pumpkin socks. How did we ever cope before?

I would love to take you back in a Time Machine. You would relish the prospect of Buns at Easter, delight at trying to make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, and be unable to sleep on the night before Christmas. You would never have heard of ‘Grand-Parents’ Day’, and Halloween would be something that was ‘done’ in America.  Brazil nuts and tangerines would appear in December, be enjoyed briefly, and would not be seen again, until that time the following year. Baseball caps would be worn by baseball players, and some other people in The Americas, but not in England. If you wanted a snack, you would be happy with fish and chips, or pie and mash.

There is nothing wrong with American cultural celebrations. They even keep some of ours, like Christmas. But the newer ones should stay on that side of the Atlantic, along with their terrible fast food. That way, those that seek it, can travel there to enjoy it, and celebrate the differences in our societies and customs. We might even tell them that we used to celebrate All Hallows’ Eve as part of the Harvest Festival, and that Halloween is a Scottish corruption of that phrase. That would make it ours then, not American at all. Like most things, including many we have since discarded, they were taken to America by settlers. America does not have a culture as such, just an amalgamation of many of the cultures of its numerous settlers, and more recent immigrant populations. However, it is doing a fantastic job of re-exporting those traditions, whether we need them back, or not.

Surely it is enough to celebrate the difference in the various traditions and cultures of the many countries and societies in The World, without having to assimilate everything? As the French say- ‘Vive la difference’.