Halloween 08

Halloween came again
days of pumpkins
horror films
and sugary treats



a quiet evening for me
a little warm here in hell
but look!
another pumpkin here
the '4734'



next to the 4734 is an little artifact made out of a pumpkin too
an Argentinian Yerba Mate drinking cup
the 'straw' is made out of metal (silver, i think?)
talking about art made out of pumpkins
as for misses 4734
once opened showed was no cooking material
it was a little old for that so, so...



so a 'modernist' mini Jack-O-Lantern became


my carved pumpkin, Jack-O-Lantern - day 1

and Turner Classic Movies selections for the night
Horror films based on books by H.P. Lovecraft
a long time preferred author of mine

The Shuttered Room (from 1967)



Die, Monster, Die! (from 1965)
(the original name of the book
was "The color of out of space"
a delightfully creepy reading



so with devilish horns
and an old dried Jack-O-Pumpkin
after a couple of days


my carved pumpkin, Jack-O-Lantern - day 3 (premature aging?)

i spent a sugary scary night
have a good Halloween too
and let the witches and ghosts
go merry around you

tomorrow and Sunday
will be for me to celebrate the mexican
Día De Muertos

the little refugee

again tonight
little time set aside
and write here about
an outdated date
'cause tonight i write not
about today's date
but about Monday's

too tired to work
took a Monday off
just sat around and watch old Horror movies



1st I watched a very young Humphrey Bogart
he was the infamous Doctor X
in The Return of Doctor X (1939)
a lip-less pale make-up doctor with a
stroke of white hair, and glasses
who holds & strokes a
little white rabbit
and runs experiments with synthetic blood
mmm? even though, he's not the main character in the film
and this was his 1st and last appearance on a horror film
still rather recommendable film
little quirky, but it was just 1939!
better plot and script and surely grammar
than we get in many now-a-days films

and then I watched this exquisite suspense movie
a ghostly woman in white, but not quite a ghost story
but a great thriller
The Woman in White (1948)



this wonderful film was based on an epistolary novel by
Wilkie Collins
and it is considered the 1st official and precursor
of the genre of mystery novels!
now I am looking for the book...

so Monday was and
I did lost of seating around
and movie-watching
and TV-picture taking



as for this Wednesday
I wish it was Monday again

[random* notes on old-film watching]
and the moral of the post
just now & then, take a day off
and watch some old films
but truly old
something before the 60's

I feel old-films truly detach you from reality
there are no cell phones ringing on the films
they didn't existed yet
and everybody smokes, apparently lung cancer
wasn't 'invented' yet either
they drank whiskey at 10am
and true men wore hats
but also knew when to take them off
and women ran with very high-heels
without getting their hair messed-up
while
hiding from fictitious monsters or
very real gangsters

and if the film is in black & white
even better!
you get to exercise your imagination
and color yourself the film
you get to decide if that pale shade of gray
on the heroin's dress
is either a light blue or a soft orange

old films are the only cinematic art
that i can think of as the closest thing as reading a book
is it rather refreshing!

go and rent an old film
you'll learn so much!

* as if the rest of this blog is not random

Le Mystère Picasso

tonight i found on Turner Classic Movies
and as a tribute to 60 years of Cannes Film Festival
(ah! wish i was there...!)

this piece of film
the name is Le Mystère Picasso
a film from 1956
with Picasso painting on the canvas for the camera

rumors say that Picasso and
the director of the film Henri-Georges Clouzot
destroyed the pieces of art after the film was done
in sort of a ritual to make a piece of art of the film itself
yet... other rumors say that the pieces still exist
as part of private collections...

the recording is not very good, sorry!
you can at least enjoy the flamenco singing
& guitar!
& you can barely follow the steps of Picasso
painting...
although he's not my favorite painter
this piece on the bullfighter
is amazing to see how he starts
and how his mind and techniques behave
a genius indeed!
the bull how it morphs from picasso traces
to picasso's cubism eye, incredible process

hope this don't disappear soon from my youtube acc
anyhow hurry up to watch now!...
& hold your breath till the end
for a spanish whisper: "... muy bien."



& finale!



oh & is it day 59 or 58 to go? ah!