Halloween Fashion

I really do wish Halloween were everyday and the costumes below are why.  I would love to dress up every day.   Here are my pick of my favorite costumes I've seen so far this year.  I found many of  them on etsy.com and a couple of them at http://wearydrearies.deviantart.com//    I also found several including the costume I'll be wearing this year tat cosplaysky.com.  It is a shame we can't dress like this year round!  This post was inspired by a post by labyrinth creations and her post on the same subject.  



The Building That Brought Poltergeist III and Ghostbusters to Life

While we were in Chicago I stayed in an old hotel right across from the John Hancock Building.   The Hancock building is an ominous structure that immediately gives you the creeps.   I knew it was evil the first moment I saw this building.  First,  I hated the ugly, black monolith.  And secondly,  the sign of hell's winter, The North Face store was on the first floor.

According to Ursula Bielski,  the building is cursed by more than over priced fleeces.  The very land the building is built upon was cursed by a man named Streeter before the building was even a whisper.   To make matters worse,  the building was built in a sinister trapezoidal shape which some occultists believe is evil.  Antone LeVey, founder of the Church of Satan had much to say on the matter.  Bielski had this to say about LeVey's feelings for the building.

" LaVey wrote many essays during his time as the Satanic Church’s leader, including fascinating analyses of the problems of modern architecture. LaVey knew--as most occultists do--that the trapezoidal shape holds significant power for arcane forces: traditionally, the shape is believed to serve as a doorway or “portal” for occult--or even diabolical--forces. As a young man, LaVey was fascinated with the thought of H.P. Lovecraft, whose horror novels often feature characters grappling with the dangers of “strange angles,” and it was Lovecraft’s work which led LaVey to first pursue his study of modern architecture’s sometimes deadly capabilities."

 
It is hard for me to take anyone to seriously who bases their religion on a fiction writer, but regardless of LeVey's credibility the building has seen many strange murders, deaths and suicides in its day.  It was also the inspiration for the movie Ghost Busters.  They based their building built to summon evil on the Hancock building.  The Hancock Building was also the place where the most horrible film, Poltergeist III was shot.  If that movie isn't proof of a curse, I don't know what is.  The movie Poltergeist is often said to be cursed.  Many of the main actors met their untimely demise shortly after the filming of Poltergeist III, including the girl who played Carol Anne.  Those that believe the Hancock building is a funnel of evil believe it was this building that cursed the cast of the movie. 

If you would like to learn more about the many deaths and ghosts that walk the halls of this diabolical building you can go to the site http://www.chicagohauntings.com/hancock.html  .   To learn more about the Poltergeist curse you can go to  http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/poltergeist.asp .  I'm not sure any building can be built for evil, but the Hancock building is certainly haunted,  to many strange deaths and occurrences have happened here to account for it any other way.

Hamilton's Counsel

I love these. My favorite part of this email is the part where is has state in parenthesis. I mean, I know where they get my email. It have my jurisdiction right there on the page. They simply have to plug in the state. The directions could not be more clear. I mean, they took the time to plug a name in the parenthesis. One more step. This is just laziness and I am really disappointed. Again, let's step it up phishermen. A little bit of effort goes a long ways when you are scamming lawyers.

From: Sinji Okadashi
Subject: LEGAL ASSISTANCE
Date: October 13, 2010 1:37:38 PM PDT
To: my email address

Dear Legal Counsel,

I provided a business loan of $578,000 to an individual ( Joe Hamilton )who is a Businessman and owns a company in your jurisdiction(state). The loan was for a fixed term of 24 months and interest rate of 7.75%. The capital and interest was supposed to be paid after maturity which was on April 19th 2010 but up till now, We have only received a portion of the loan ($168,816.90)as a substantial portion is still in default status,Let me know if you can help me in this regards.

Best Regards

Sinji Okadashi

Should I be Mrs Lovett?

So I bought my Halloween costume months ago, but I'm seriously tempted by this.  I love Sweeney Todd.  For the line,,, "The History of the world, my love, is those below serving those up above.  How gratifying for once to know that those above will be serving those down below."  alone.   So should I change my mind and be Mrs. Lovett?  I even have her insane curly hair.

The Origins of Halloween Costumes

Halloween's history is most commonly traced back to the Celtic festival of Samhain.  During Samhain, the Celts believed that the divider between this world and the next became thin.  This thinning allowed both malevolent and benevolent spirits to cross over to our world.  This naturally caused a good deal of fear and anxiety for the ancient Celts.  While family ghosts were welcomed, bad spirits had to be scared off.  Celts used bonfires to drive evil spirits off.  They also used apotropaic devices to scare off bad spirits.  

Apotropaic literally means to ward off evil but apotopaic devices are often devices that are so terrifying that they scare away evil.  My favorite examples of apotropaic devices are the gargoyles and terrible monsters that line the outside and insides of medieval cathedrals in Europe.  The most holy places in the medieval world were lined with horrifying demons and monsters that are often depicted devouring people and animals.  These horrors were so terrible that medieval people thought that even evil spirits would be frightened off.  

Costumes were used as both apotropaic devices and disguises to confuse the spirits.  In Scotland, young men interpreted the dead by blackening their faces.  These costumes evolved over the years and were eventually used in the late medieval practice of souling when poor people would go door to door asking for food.  This practice eventually evolved into costumed trick or treating.   So as you plan your costume this year remember that it should not only be interesting, but it should scare off evil spirits as well!

Chicago's Forgotten Cemetery

Unbeknownst to most, beneath some of the most populated and heavily used land in the country, there lies the remains of a cemetery.   Chicago's old City Cemetery  used to occupy space that is now Lincoln Park.   Begun in 1846, it used to take up space that was on the edge of the city.  However, as the city grew and land came into high demand, a movement began to move the city cemetery.   In 1866,   this idea was shot down by courts and it seemed the cemetery would remain along this beautiful lake front property forever.   However, in 1871 something happened that changed everything.  In a small barn a fire began that moved into the city and devoured Chicago.  The flames of the inferno were so intense that only 3 buildings remain that stood against the all encompassing flames.  The fire devoured everything in its path.  People fled into the cemetery from the flames and jumped into open graves to escape.   But the fire had no mercy and the flames roasted those in open graves and even destroyed the grave markers.

After that there was no question as to the relocating of the cemetery. A massive disinterment effort began in 1872; in 1874, the last burial lots were condemned. The last acknowledged removals in this process occurred in 1877.  However,  many of the graves markers were lost in the fire so many bodies were not moved as part of this process and new construction in areas once belonging to the City Cemetery often reveals old corpses laying in unmarked graves.    It is no telling how many bodies still lay beneath the earth of the ground that was once the old City Cemetery.

Only the Couch Mausoleum remains as an official reminder of the cemetery.  Couch's family would not allow this tomb to be moved or even opened so it stands quietly in a lonely corner of an old park.   It is even a mystery as to how many bodies lay within the tomb.   Of course,  stories of ghosts and haunting proliferate in the area around the mausoleum where the dead still walk.  Our ghost tour told a tale of a phantom dog that wanders the grounds at night, leaping upon those that walk alone.

Never The Bride

Yesterday was the Trowell Writers' Trust annual awards day. I had an entry in the short story section and I thought I knew exactly where it would come. I've had so many second places over the last few years that I knew it would be runner-up. I could predict this with the same certainty that within one hour of switching the telly on tonight I'll see either a meerkat, a fat tenor or both.

This post was going to tell you how the result was a foregone conclusion because of the many second places I've had in this very same competition over the last few years. You were also going to be informed about my second place in Writers' News last year and the same result in the National Association of Writers' Groups the year before. To top it all off I've been narrowly pipped to the post for two job opportunities recently so excuse me if I'm feeling like the perennial bridesmaid.

I sat there listening to them read out the commended authors followed by highly commended and then honours and still my name hadn't been called out. Then it came to the top three and, maybe it was the excitement of the moment, but I suddenly felt optimistic. Why should I come second again just because it's happened so many times before. It doesn't always follow does it? After all, aren't I always going on about being persistent and never giving up? So I crossed my fingers and guess what? I came third.