Top 8 Links: Halloween

 Jack O Lantern for Halloween

Halloween was one of my favorite holidays growing up. We lived in a large apartment complex with many buildings and would trick-or-treat in each building on every floor.

It was such a blast and we got so much candy! A friend’s mother would decorate their whole apartment, have scary music playing and she would dress up like a witch. So many years later and I still have such fond memories.

I’ll be picking up some candy today and hopefully we’ll get a few trick-or-treaters. We usually don’t get many, but I still love the day.

Happy Halloween to you and enjoy the links!

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The Fantasy and Folklore of All Hallows (The American Folklife Center)

Soul Cakes: Hallowed Offerings for Hungry Ghosts (NPR)

Halloween 2014: The horror films and scary TV to watch on Netflix (The Independent)

The Tell Tale Heart – 1953 narrated by James Mason (YouTube)

5 Workouts to Burn Off Halloween Candy (Boston.com)

10 Supposedly Haunted Objects Never, Ever to Bring Into Your Home (Especially Around Halloween)(Bustle)

Here Are the Top Five LA Neighborhoods For Trick-Or-Treating (Curbed LA)

Yes, I Bring My Poor Children Trick-or-Treating in Your Rich Neighborhood (Time)

Recently Watched: Small, Beautifully Moving Parts

Small Beautifully Moving PartsThis past weekend, I was looking for a quick film on Netflix. Small, Beautifully Moving Parts was suggested as one that I might like. Since it was only available until November 1st, I decided to watch it. Good choice Netflix!

It was quite a sweet film and I recommend it if you’re looking for something a little quirky and sentimental. Below is a description from the movie trailer.

Sarah Sparks is pregnant and feeling wholly ambivalent, despite her boyfriend’s pure enthusiasm. A committed tech-geek, she fears she is more interested in ultrasound technology than in what’s being ultra-sounded. When her sister lures her to L.A. for what ends up being a terrorizing baby shower, Sarah keeps her rental van and hits the road in search of the source of her anxiety: her estranged mother, now living off the grid. SMALL, BEAUTIFULLY MOVING PARTS takes a comic and poignant look at one woman’s coming-of-parenthood in the age of technology.

You have a couple of days to watch it if you like. I love labyrinths and was really happy to see one in the movie. Although it wasn’t used as fully in the scene as it could have been. I would have liked to see the character walking it, while pondering her dilemma. Anyway, that’s just me.

Have you seen any good films on Netflix lately that you recommend?

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Photo Credit Official Trailer on YouTube

A Tree Fell on My House

tree fell on my house

Well, this is not a post I ever planned on writing.  Soooo, last night a friend invited me to see King Lear. By the way, Joseph Marcell who played Geoffrey the butler in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” played King Lear. He was all in!

The weather was really bad last night. Serious wind and rain with the Nor’easter that has been hanging over the region. I was tempted to cancel, because I hate going out in storms when it’s really not necessary. Also, I’m in the middle of a big writing project and had to stop writing in order to go out. Hopefully I can get my writing groove back today.

As we were leaving the play, we were talking about how Shakespeare was so dramatic and over the top. I’m no Shakespeare scholar, but I was thinking that if he wrote for TV, his shows would be slapstick comedy with mayhem and murder mixed in.

Speaking of mayhem, that reminds me of those Mayhem Allstate commercials. Especially, because there is a tree on my house and part of my car. Well, really my landlord’s house.

Anyway, I think Shakespeare was dramatic and over the top, because life really is dramatic and over the top. The drive home was really bad and I was wishing that I had stayed in. On the expressway, huge waves of water were splashing up everywhere. When it’s like that, I drive slowly, so everyone was speeding around me.

When I exited in Quincy, there were lots of leaves and huge branches on the streets. Some of the street lights were out too. When I got home, I had to drive over two more huge branches to park. When I got out of my car, I stopped to look at the branches, but it was so windy and rainy that I decided that I had better just get inside quickly.

When I got in the door and was walking up the stairs, I heard a huge noise. G opened the apartment door and said, “Did you hear that?” I had heard something. It sounded like a really big branch fell on the roof.

It wasn’t until about twenty minutes later that G looked out the front window and saw branches covering all the front windows. That noise wasn’t a branch. It was the whole tree! When I was walking in the front door, the tree had fallen just seconds after. It was a good thing that I didn’t linger!

As you can see from the picture that I took earlier, some branches are on my car, but they don’t appear to have done any damage. The front door is totally blocked, so I went out the back way to take some pictures this morning. Hopefully the tree will be removed soon, but apparently the city is dealing with a lot of similar calls. I hope this is not a sign of the winter to come.