October 31, 2005

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  Happy Hallowe’en.

   It’s Hallowe’en again. The clocks have been set back. The costumes are being altered and fitted. The candy is being set in bowls. And the parties are being readied. I’m at work, modifying last Hallowe’en’s blog entry, which only got four comments. My how things have changed. Now I am averaging about 20 comments an entry. I always took time preparing the entries, however, even when I had a paltry readership. Last year I blogged about not buying candy because the two previous years nobody came calling, and of course last year the neighbor kids called, and I didn’t have any candy. Then, the next morning, I came ouf to my car to go to work, and I had a flat. Coincidence? Or “Trick” ? You be the judge. This year, I will buy a bag of candy, even if I end up eating it myself. The local Ralph’s market had some Bit O Honey’s individually wrapped. I already put away two bags of those puppies over the past month. Hope they have some more. I was popping them like crazy while writng on the computer a couple of times early in October.

  The image above is a costume I wore at the last Hallowe’en Party we had at work in about 1993 or 1994. I won first place. The linen bandages were layered over my underwear, and I didn’t wear regular clothing over the underwear. Late in the day, a lot of the bandages were peeling off. You’ll notice this mummy wears glasses. His mummified eyes needed a better prescription. Speaking of which, I should be able to pick up my new spectacles today. It has been almost two months since the cataract surgery. I went in on Saturday, not realizing the place was closed, because I wanted to have them for the showing of “How the West Was Won” at the Cinerama dome and for a showing of my new DVD of “Titanic” but that was not to be. Well, “Batman Begins” should be delivered from Netflix today or tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll be watching it with my new set of “eyes”.

   

  

  For the Hallowe’en Spirit, I am posting some “photos” which are really video grabs from an old VHS tape dated 1989. My brother, who has always been  a very imaginative sort, and a true artist, used to design and feature a “Haunted House” at his son’s and daughter’s elementary school. He constructed all the “gags”. One year I was a “half man” lying on an operating table with all my guts streaming all over. The ghoul above was in the floor, and the lights would come on suddenly for the scare.

  

  This is “Meg”, a monster on a track, which “slid forward” giving guests a good fright. I read in the L.A. Times last year that there are quite a few makeup artists and production managers in the Film business who create vast and detailed “Hallowe’en Crypts” in their front yards. My bro and I always talked about creating great Hallowe’en Decorations, and Daniel put his money where his mouth was for quite a few years, entertaining the townsfolk in these Haunted Houses, which took up two or more school rooms for the two or three nights they existed. I shot lots of video of my brother “masterminding” the show in 1989..

  

  I guess you can tell that Daniel’s Haunted House had some real scares. He has always been good with makeup, and parlayed his theatrical training into a career as a production designer for Community Theater. I’ve sort of lost track of my brother. (He isn’t “into” computers, and I do have an email address but he never answers his email.) He calls me “out of the blue” usually on my birthday, and we “continue” our conversation, which picks up easily from the last time, and our talks are usually an hour or two. But this year he didn’t call. I don’t have a phone number for him. He lives in Northern California.

  Daniel, call me. Let’s have lunch. (Actually, I did a search on a website last week and did get an address for a Daniel C. Nyiri born in 1956. Our surname isn’t all that common, so I think I have his address, if not an email or phone number. Perhaps I’ll write him a “snail mail letter.” I am always the one who looks up my siblings, neither of whom live near me here in SoCal. My sister lives in Oregon. I do have her address, and we exchange Christmas Cards at least. Funny to think that we all used to be so close as kids, and then as soon as the “peeps” died, we split up, and have travelled our own paths. Both my sis and bro got married. Sis is still happily married to her career Naval officer husband, with two fine children. I actually have a grand-niece. My niece Cinnamon is a mother. My brother married, and divorced, and lives with his new love up north in California somewhere. He has two children as well. Autumn, who is in her 20s, was in fifth grade when I shot the video from which I culled these photos.

  A Happy HALLOWE’EN to all my Xanga readers, and to my brother and sister. (where-ever you are!) Too bad they aren’t into puters or I might someday run into them on Xanga!

  • 9:33 am
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