And he has shaped it as a babe that is to nurse and he has made two eyes of glass

[sovay]

Our neighbors are decorating for Halloween. This means giant inflatable ghosts, mummies, pumpkins, green-faced witches, vampire Winnie-the-Poohs, snowglobes full of mylar bats, et cetera, several of which glow at night and all of which are tasteless to the nth—yards full of this stuff, it's unbelievable. It makes me want to put up Halloween decorations of my own. Cornhusks, dog skulls, knots of old ribbon, branches of turning leaves. You know. Normal things.

Comments

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

vampire Winnie-the-Poohs

I'm quite certain I am not seeing what you're saying; I have an image of a Ernest Sheppard drawing of the bear in question with just a hint of uncharacteristic narrowing along the eyes, mouth open, full of tiny needle teeth.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Yours, free of charge.

[sovay]

Yours, free of charge.

You could do a poem on it . . .

[sovay]

the bear in question with just a hint of uncharacteristic narrowing along the eyes, mouth open, full of tiny needle teeth.

That would be awesome. This, alas, is Disney.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

That would be awesome. This, alas, is Disney.

How horrid. The thought of someone taking a concept as potentially wonderful as a vampire Winnie-the-Pooh and wrecking it is disturbing.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Why must the commercialization of holidays always make them tasteless as well?

That said, my mother was keeping a squirrel skull (which she found in a bush in our neighborhood when we were out walking one day) in the window for a while. I don't think the neighbors really noticed- but I rather wonder what their response would have been if they had.

[sovay]

Why must the commercialization of holidays always make them tasteless as well?

I do not know! It's unfortunate.

That said, my mother was keeping a squirrel skull (which she found in a bush in our neighborhood when we were out walking one day) in the window for a while.

That's very cool.

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

Your subject line reminds me, for some reason, of Otesanek.

Which would make an awesome Halloween decoration (http://www.clubdesmonstres.com/otik.htm), by the by.

[blubeagle.livejournal.com]

Totally agreed. An "Oteansek" decoration would be delightful.

[sovay]

Your subject line reminds me, for some reason, of Otesanek.

It's from the ballad "Willie's Lady," as sung by Martin Carthy.

Which would make an awesome Halloween decoration, by the by.

Seriously!

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the film? We must put it on the incredibly knobbly list.

Best. Subject. Line. Ever.

Nine

[sovay]

Have you seen the film? We must put it on the incredibly knobbly list.

I have not seen the film; it's on my list. I was told it was like Little Shop of Horrors, now with more Eastern Europe.

Best. Subject. Line. Ever.

Hee. Thank you.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

now with more Eastern Europe

And watermelons!

Nine

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That is an awesome ballad. Whenever I need an awesome ballad, I'm going to come to you.

26 years, and you already know just stacks and stacks of awesome ballads!

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

That is the ballad that informed my mythscape, thirty years ago: a turning point.

Nine

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I am going to come to you, because I have it on the best authority that you have more ballads than God :-)

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Only about six or seven thousand on iChild. God has "The Bitter Withy." Andthose obliging cherries.

Nine

[sovay]

That is an awesome ballad. Whenever I need an awesome ballad, I'm going to come to you.

Come to nineweaving. She has more awesome ballads than God.

26 years, and you already know just stacks and stacks of awesome ballads!

I have obsessions to feed!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

obsessions to feed

Oh, run with them. Definitely.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Wow, yes indeed.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

That's appalling. You have my sympathies. There's a couple of houses like that round here, but so far none of them are terribly close.

Do they do this at Christmas or Hanukkah as well? I hope not, for your sake.

[sovay]

Do they do this at Christmas or Hanukkah as well? I hope not, for your sake.

No, they do. It makes me want to commit archery upon the inflatable Grinch.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Thus transforming it to St. Sebastian.

Nine

[sovay]

Thus transforming it to St. Sebastian.

You know, I totally would support an inflatable Saint Sebastian. Whatever that says about me.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

You know, I totally would support an inflatable Saint Sebastian. Whatever that says about me.

That would be rather nice, really.

You could put it out every 20 January, (or, following the Greek Orthodox calendar, 18 December) and see what your neighbours with the ghastly Grinch might say. ;-)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

LOL! Modeled on Botticelli's St. Sebastian. I can just see it.

[farwing.livejournal.com]

Oh, what a wonderful image! (sorry you have to suffer with such tasteless neighbors)

[sovay]

Oh, what a wonderful image! (sorry you have to suffer with such tasteless neighbors)

If life gives you tasteless neighbors, make wonderful images!

(Or acts of mayhem . . .)

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

No, they do.

I was afraid of that.

It makes me want to commit archery upon the inflatable Grinch.

An understandable urge. In a just world, such an act would be considered justifiable inflatable-figuricide.

My mother and I have considered taking a blowgun to some of the monstrosities in our vicinity.

[thomasfreund.livejournal.com]

The recent rash of inflatable decorations at any holiday is very disturbing. Though I'm quite fond of them when they spontaneously deflate and you see lights shining on what used to be an 8-foot tall Frosty the Snowman.

There's a place in Waltham that has committed this offense for several years now. The neighbors here have small children and consequently go a little overboard for several holidays, but at least their Halloween decorations last year were little bats and things hanging from the tree and a little graveyard with grey-foam headstones. However, they did use a fogger during Trick or Treat which we actually asked them to turn OFF because it was literally obscuring sight all the way to the corner and there's quite a bit of traffic there.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

There are houses near me that have platoons of those things--and in the daytime they turn them off, so there are these piles of deflated balloons, like so many melted witches of the west. It's creepy and amusing.

[sovay]

Though I'm quite fond of them when they spontaneously deflate and you see lights shining on what used to be an 8-foot tall Frosty the Snowman.

Okay, that's awesome.

However, they did use a fogger during Trick or Treat which we actually asked them to turn OFF because it was literally obscuring sight all the way to the corner and there's quite a bit of traffic there.

. . . Wow. At least we've never had that.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Though I'm quite fond of them when they spontaneously deflate and you see lights shining on what used to be an 8-foot tall Frosty the Snowman.

That can be fun. There was a Frosty outside of the Playwright Pub in Hamden, CT (1) last year which, slightly deflated, listed for a couple of weeks before its removal as if it were rather drunk.

(1) Not the restaurant downtown in New Haven, but the pub on Whitney Avenue. Did you ever go there, sovay? It's probably my second favourite pub in CT, after the Liffey.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I hate the sense that I'm obligated to decorate, period. Tasteful or otherwise. What's this about putting little pumpkin decorations on bushes? Why? Why does everything trend toward Christmas decorations?

I did once put milkweed stalks, with all the milkweed silk popping out, by my door. Now I forever have milkweed seedlings in my garden.

[sovay]

I did once put milkweed stalks, with all the milkweed silk popping out, by my door.

I approve.

Now I forever have milkweed seedlings in my garden.

. . . It's autumnal!

[humglum.livejournal.com]

Hooray for normal stuff!
Those inflatable thingies make me want to sick mad cats on them.

I need to go buy some pumpkins, which will get covered in slugs, which will make them extra ookie :)

I might also make a scarecrow-ish thing. My hands have been so busy this week that making a scarecrow sounds like it should be done.

If none of this makes sense, blame my migraine.

[sovay]

I need to go buy some pumpkins, which will get covered in slugs, which will make them extra ookie

The last several mornings, I have gone out to retrieve the newspaper only to discover about a dozen slugs stuck to the plastic bagging, and not the small kind, either. I have no idea what is causing this. Perhaps we've had an influx of oddly literate gastropods; which makes me think that on any sensible calendar, there should be a Month of the Reading Slug.

If none of this makes sense, blame my migraine.

Actually, scarecrow-making always makes sense to me. But I still hope your migraine dissolves soon.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

My downstairs neighbours have decorated the outside of their apartment, and the garden, and the entranceway, with tasteless weird Halloween stuff. This includes something I've never seen and which completely freaked out my friend Gill, childrens' legs apparently disappearing into (or emerging out of feet first) the ground, using jeans and shoes that look as if they've been recently outgrown by their kids. Squick. Do you know what these are supposed to be about?

I have thought about adding to them with normal things... or eye of toad and etc, but as everything is festooned with white fake spiderweb, and as they have tasteless light-up ghosts, I think they'd vanish. Also, sorry, but it isn't Samhain for weeks.

Last year at about this time I came back from Mike Ford's funeral to find a toy gravestone on the lawn. I wasn't amused, and did actually say something to communicate my distress to my neighbour, who refused to move it on the grounds that the children like it. It's there again this year.

Every time I brush past the ghost hanging by the front door and the lights come on and it sings at me, it reminds me of Auden's:

"The lights must never go out
The music must always play
Lest we should see where we are
Lost in a haunted wood
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good."

Because I get it, death, yes, the death of the year, and we too will die in time and some have gone before us, but is all this obsessive playing with the bright and plastic images of death's kingdom not a little too shrill?

[sovay]

This includes something I've never seen and which completely freaked out my friend Gill, childrens' legs apparently disappearing into (or emerging out of feet first) the ground, using jeans and shoes that look as if they've been recently outgrown by their kids. Squick. Do you know what these are supposed to be about?

I have no explanation: I've never seen them. But I imagine it's only a matter of time.

Because I get it, death, yes, the death of the year, and we too will die in time and some have gone before us, but is all this obsessive playing with the bright and plastic images of death's kingdom not a little too shrill?

This should be reprinted somewhere more people will read it than on my livejournal.