Halloween New Year 2007

I've had some creative fun around Halloween this year. It's a great time of year to "take a stab" at the Martha Stewart subculture. Why should gourds get all the fame and glamour this time of year? Even a lowly persimmon can have "simply...radishing" hair.

I decided to take on a political tack and design a Libertarian-themed graveyard in the front for the adults bringing their kids up the stairs for treats. Let us not forget the sobering side of where things are at right now! No Adobe software was harmed in the spookification of these photos.

Also in celebration of the New Year, we broke the seal on our home copy of Quills. It's a perfect movie to tune into the dark side of human nature and to be reminded of our own mortality. We had both seen the movie before, but I'd forgotten its true artistry in suspense, exceptional acting, and most notably, the beauty of its screenplay.

Most mainstream culture no longer has the gusto to address the questions art should be forcing us to think about. Both Rush and Phoenix, are masters at that downward spiral of human nature. Caine applies his expert talents of villianry and Winslet is convincing, stong and yet innocent as Madeleine, the heartthrob of practically every male character in the movie. Rush crafts us a Marquis who, guided by a brilliant script, steadily takes us further and further into insanity, with lots of dry British humor to titillate us along our way.

The screenplay is embedded with gems of morality and controversy that call religion, art, obscenity and politics out onto the carpet. The Marquis denounces Christianity as "an entire religion founded on an oxymoron [the virgin Mary's birth of Jesus]," questions whether art should be responsible for its consequences: If someone drowned who'd read it first in the Bible, would that be a crime of its author and then slaps us silly with wit, 'I see you've come to read my trousers.'

A bit of fun with the front windows- the stage blood proved too real to have an effect. I should have gone with oil paints or something...

Don't try this at home with your kitties! Joule doesn't usually growl but she was not thrilled with Mom's costume idea.

To celebrate and remember some of the ones who've passed on (the ones I have the best pictures of!), I thought I'd let the images do the typing as I share family photos from decades and decades past.