THE STORY OF THE SINISTER GLADIOLA

I bought a bouquet of gladiolas one day. As I was adding more water to them, I noticed something a little off about one of the stamen, so I took a picture. It looks like it's a skelton on his back, with big feet in the air. I am offering it in black and white as well, as it shows up even better. I think it's very funny. Too bad they couldn't develop an entire series of these flowers. Wouldn't it be the perfect parting gift if a couple were splitting up?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

No fancy displays. A fruit stand in a small town.

STREET-VIEWING THE PAST

`````I wonder how many people have used Google Street-view to look at the places that they lived as kids, or taken the opportunity to tour their childhood school. It was Thomas Wolfe who said it best; "You can't go home again."

`````For there is much more that ties us to a time and place then mere physical structure or locale. It is the people who inhabited those homes, the smells of what we swore was the best bakery going or the sounds of those AM Classics we attempted to sing along to.

`````Streetview doesn't photograph the back alleys, which was the preferred highway of our youth. It was there that we'd make our mark; not in the form of grafitti, but as hop-scotch squares on the asphalt. We all knew a maze of short cuts from alley to driveway. Backlanes held the promise of discarded pop bottles, and then we'd be off to the store.

`````On the hill where I lived, my beloved trees are gone as are my mother's flower beds. What was once one property has been divided into two. Thus, the funky house with the balcony which ran around the entire length of the structure is gone. My cousin had streaked it on a dare one sleep-over.

`````I used Streetview to position myself at the top of the hill from which we ran. It was very steep, and on two occasions a car had rolled down the hill and crashed into the bedroom of the house at the bottom where my friend Joanne lived.

`````I still have a slight scar on my left knee from one of our races, as we'd cast ourselves headlong down Oxford. We'd grab the stop-sign at the bottom with such force that my shoulder would jolt.

`````As I move my cursor along, I miss the sounds. I recall the cadence of the sport's announcer's voice when the game was on in the evening. For my memories are usually of summer, thus the open windows and extended days. The concrete would radiate the heat well into the evening hours as we sat on the low curbs and talked, plucking at the reedy grass stalks behind us.

`````The images on my computer are devoid of any emotion. There are buildings, but the faces of the neighbours who watched us play from behind the windows are gone. Maybe in today's world their protective eye holds as much worth as those lovely felled trees. Where did those birds go? The ones whose blue eggs we'd find each spring, year after year. This street has no connection to my memory of where I grew up at all. The monster house sits upon the grass where I'd lay and hug my dog. The vast tangle of sweet peas no longer beguile with their charmingly soft scent. Long since torn up.

`````No, you can't go home again-----don't even try it.

The Sisters Of Mercy - Marian

I love the Sisters of Mercy and the footage is from the classic "Nosferatu."

HALLOWEEN VIDEO OF THE DAY-LOST BOYS

The song is "Cry Little Sister" from the movie's soundtrack.

HALLOWEEN VIDEO OF THE DAY-THE SHINING

This is one of the best horror movies. It's beautifully filmed and the acting cannot be topped. I've added some artwork by Damien Loeb, who will run with a topic in his work. In his set which includes this painting (Room 237), one feels that they've been in the place before; it is oddly familiar. It takes a while to realize that it is a scene from a horror movie. I love photorealist work and Mr Loeb one of the best.



There's a sense of pathos to the character in this movie, as the acting is done so well. He is tormented by what is happening to him. Jack Nicholson mastered this part.



The music is the soundtrack to "28 Days Later'. I put this soundtrack on when I am in a certain mood or if I'm writing something which requires just that sort of ambience.

Everytime that I watch "The Shining", by the way, I want to go on a roadtrip. I want to head to one of those old world hotels, like the one at Banff or Lake Louise. By the way, one of my best drives involved a quirky, odd place called "Three Valley Gap." Many are offended by its aesthetics as it's hardly five star, but I love the odd. The owner purchased actual buildings from the turn of the century ghost towns and rebuilt them---exactly as they were---items included. It's like a museum, but it's the entire town. Since the time I was there, a large train museum has been added. This is probably why I've lost my travelling companion, as people who have read earlier blogs can atest. Trust me; Google "Three Valley Gap." There's a gnome garden amongst ivy inside the hotel, with plastic parrots hidden in the branches. The pool has a large mural of the Titanic behind it. One of the rooms is called "The Cave Room" and is made of rock. This is heaven for a vampire at heart like myself. At the entrance, a tree grows through the rafters, as they didn't want to cut it down when they built the hotel. They built around it.
I don't have many photos as I took pictures with a regular camera. It's a bizarre place, often furnished like somebody's den. Hey, I love the offbeat and odd. I really want to go there again and explore that museum. I will post the pictures below because STINKING MICROSOFT JUST ERASED HALF OF MY POST. I HAD TO REDO IT. AFTER I TRIED TO UPLOAD THE PICTURES USING BLOGGER, I GOT THE INTERNET EXPLORER PROBLEM MESSAGE AND THAT WAS THAT.

Photos Which Would Not Print with the Above Blog Because Microsoft Sucks

The above is actually taken from the second story. It's a huge two story fire place. Below, you can see a table and a stool. That's a bunch of ivy. Those windows look out towards the lake and a garden, which has a walkway.


There's the tree which grows through the roof.

This is an actual old church. People opt to get married in it.

There was a tour group of Germans and this guy, who is bending over, looked exactly like a thin Robert Downey Junior. That old hotel in the background was really nice inside and looked sort of creepy on the outside. That little building is a trapper's sleeping quarters. They used to sleep in them when they followed their trap lines.

That's a view of the hotel.