I am an Art Snob

I have decided that I am an art snob. I joke with a guy at work that he is a food snob, a tequila snob and is a snob about various other items. Now, I have realized that I to am a snob.

I really like the Autumn because my two favorite events happen this time of year. Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. My only problem is that I am very picky about the type of decorations that I like. First of all, they have to be fairly unique. Second, they can't just be slasher type items. I like the items to have a folksy or almost cartoon feel to them. They need to have unique colors and textures and have to tell a story.

I think this is why I am drawn to Dia de los Muertos so much. Most of the artwork for this "holiday" is hand made and has a Mexican folk art feel to it. I really like this style a lot. I wish that there were more Halloween decorations with the same feel available.

I have scoured the internet looking for items that I like. I have tried ebay and etsy with not much luck. Most of the items on etsy are just really small. I have found some I like, but I need things that are larger in scale for my home. I like the work by Flor Lario which can be found here. I also like the work of Lupe Flores. I would like to be able to purchase larger, original paintings by these two artists, but I have only found the smaller pieces and prints of their paintings.

I am not giving up. I will start looking much earlier next year. I think I may even try to construct a Dia de los Muertos alter for next year.

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The Sanctity of My Home Has Been Violated

I think I pay attention to details more than most people, but I guess I do not after all. Obviously, I have missed a very important detail of my house the past few days. Last night I received an email message that was signed, "Your Gnome."

The following message was sent to my gmail account at 5:57 PM last night, "I see you don't miss me. I ran away from you since you do not pay attention to me. If you want me back all you have to do is ask and i will come home. Hopefully i will see you soon." I read the message at about 7:30 PM and immediately went outside to check to see if my fears were realized. They were. My gnome was missing.

After confirming he was missing, I immediately sent a reply to the email address that the original message was sent from, gnomebodyshomenow@gmail.com. Here is my reply, "Please come home gnome. We really do miss you. I wish you would have told me that you felt unloved. A relationship should be built on communication. See you soon." I think this sums up my feelings quite well.

My wife bought the gnome for me for Christmas about 4 years ago. It was in the back yard of our old house from that day forward. When we moved to our new house last December, my brother placed the gnome in our front yard under a rose bush by our garage. There he has remained ever since. I am guessing that the gnome was kidnapped on Halloween night, which means I have missed him being gone for 3 days. That is bad on my part.

The real question is, who kidnapped him? It has to be someone who knows my email address and it has to be someone who is ornery. I can narrow it down to just a few people who were at our Halloween party on Saturday night. Either our friend Chris or our niece Hailey. I don't care who it was, I just want him to come home safely very soon. I hope they don't demand a ransom.

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Halloween Recap

We spent our first Halloween in our house and I am exhausted. Because Tina's mom is in Mexico for Dia de los Muertos, we decided to do Halloween night at our house. We also decided to have a friend birthday party for Meg at our house in the afternoon.

The afternoon friend party went off without a hitch, but Meg's friends are a wild bunch. I see why she likes them. They played hide-and-go-seek, bounced on the trampoline and just ran around the house playing. The parents picked up their children at almost exactly 3:00, so we had some time to rest before the night crowd started showing up at 5:00.

Everyone started gathering around 5:00 and the kids were ready to go trick-or-treating by about 6:30. I wasn't sure what to expect since it was the first year to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. Some of our neighbors went all out with decorations. I would say a little more than 50% of the people were home. There was a pretty good crowd of kids walking through the neighborhood. The trick-or-treating at our house was over by about 8:30 which was surprising since it was a Saturday night.

Meg was the daughter of Captain America, I was Nacho Libre the monastery cook and Tina was Sister Encarnación. My parents showed up dressed as Superman and Supergirl. Kathleen and Lisa were both dressed as witches and Jaime was a vampire. Most people did not get who I was, but that was OK. It was a long night.

The Halloween song playlists I prepared disappeared into the background, which I thought would happen. They did help to set the mood.

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House of 1000 Corpses

I have been listening to Halloween music for a few days now trying to put the party playlists together. It has started to get me in the mood, but I needed something else. I read a tweet from someone yesterday talking about The Devil's Rejects, so I felt like I needed to watch a horror movie. I knew I wanted to watch either of the first two Rob Zombie movies. After looking at the cases for both, I chose House of 1000 Corpses.

I turned off all of the lights and asked my wife if she wanted to watch it with me. She declined, so I settled in and turned it on while Meg was in the shower. I am not a big fan of traditional horror movies, but I do like this movie. There enough freaky characters and situations that make this movie fun and entertaining. I love the Captain Spaulding character and his gas station/tourist trap/fried chicken road side attraction.

I had forgotten that Chris Hardwick and Rainn Wilson were in the movie. Chris was the host of the show Singled Out on MTV along with Jenny McCarthy. And of course, Rainn Wilson is Dwight Schrute on the office. The movie also features Rob Zombie's wife, Sheri Moon as Baby. I did not know until today that Rob Zombie got the names for his villains in the movie from Groucho Marx movie characters.

This is a good horror movie and it really put me in the Halloween mood.

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Halloween Playlist 2

For the evening festivities, we can get a little more creative, and macabre, with our song choices. It will feature some songs from horror movies mixed with some from The Nightmare Before Christmas and others. We might even enjoy Thriller by Michael Jackson. Here is the playlist:

Whispers - Midnight Syndicate
Howdy Folks - film track
Welcome - Disney's Haunted Mansion
Dead Man's Party - Oingo Boingo
Halloween 1 - Theme Main Title - John Carpenter/Alan Howarth
Blackest Rose - Midnight Syndicate
The Omen Theme - Jerry Goldsmith
Halloween Montage - John Carpenter/Alan Howarth
El Phantasmo and the Chicken-Run Blast-O-Rama - White Zombie
Walt Disney World® - Disney's Haunted Mansion
Myer´s House - John Carpenter/Alan Howarth
Fantasia for Strings - Hans Werner Henze
No One Lives Forever - Oingo Boingo
Living Dead Girl - Rob Zombie
Tubular Bells - The Exorcist Original Theme - Robert Miles
Dead Girl Superstar - Rob Zombie
Bonus- Jason's Hack Track - Harry Manfredini
A Mother's Love - Harry Manfredini
Oogie Boogie's Song - Ed Ivory/Ken Page
Everybody Scream (Theme from Dr. Wolfenstein's Creature Double Feature - Rob Zombie
Prophet Of Doom/Introduction to Horror - Friday the 13th Main Theme - Harry Manfredini
He's Alive - Harry Manfredini
Run, Rabbit, Run - Rob Zombie
Dr. Satan - film track
This Is Halloween - Danny Elfman
Call of the Zombie - Rob Zombie
Amityville Horror Theme
Born of the Night - Midnight Syndicate
Transylvanian Transmissions, Pt. 1 - Rob Zombie
Nightmare On Elm Street -Freddys Coming For You
Little Piggy - Rob Zombie
Thriller - Michael Jackson
Goodbye-Goodbye - Oingo Boingo

This playlist should set the scene well for a night of trick or treating and a birthday fiesta. I think there is enough diversity here to satisfy the kids and the adults. It will just be background music, but I know some of the songs will catch the ear of people. It should be fun.

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Halloween Playlist 1

Since Meg is having two different parties on Halloween for her Birthday, I need two different music playlists. Her official party will be in the afternoon for her school friends. This is really the first party she is having for school friends, so it is a big deal.

We need background music for the party, and the kids may even start dancing on the back patio if they feel it. This playlist will feature the entire Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack as well as some other songs. We may even have to put on some Miley Cyrus or other dance music. Here is the playlist

Welcome - Disney's Haunted Mansion
Thriller - Michael Jackson
Walt Disney World® - Disney's Haunted Mansion
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor - Johann Sebastian Bach
The Addams Family Theme - Vic Mizzy
Halloween Dance Macabre Organ
This Is Halloween - Danny Elfman
Otherworldly Music - Disney's Haunted Mansion
Overture - Danny Elfman
Opening - Danny Elfman
Jack's Lament - Danny Elfman
Doctor Finklestein/In the Forest - Danny Elfman
What's This? - Danny Elfman
Town Meeting Song - Danny Elfman
Jack and Sally Montage - Danny Elfman
Jack's Obsession - Danny Elfman
Kidnap the Sandy Claws - Catherine O'Hara; Danny Elfman; Paul Reubens
Making Christmas - Danny Elfman
Nabbed - Danny Elfman
Oogie Boogie's Song - Ed Ivory/Ken Page
Sally's Song - Catherine O'Hara
Christmas Eve Montage - Danny Elfman
Poor Jack - Danny Elfman
To the Rescue - Danny Elfman
Finale (Reprise) - Catherine O'Hara/Danny Elfman
Closing - Danny Elfman
End Title - Danny Elfman
[Untitled Hidden Track] - Danny Elfman
Beetlejuice Theme - Danny Elfman/william Ross

I don't want to get to morbid with the kids, since I don't really know them or their parents. Speaking of parents, I don't know if they will be staying for the party or not. Last Saturday we had 17 kids at our house before the Harvest dance and we ended up with about 10 or 11 parents as well so you never know. My next post will be the playlist for the night gathering.

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Halloween Music

I have been attempting to put together a soundtrack for Meg's birthday party on Saturday, which is Halloween. I have been digging through all of the "standard" Halloween music and I must say that I am disappointed. Most people consider songs like "Purple People Eater" as Halloween classics. I don't consider most of these songs Halloween at all.

I am disappointed with the creativity of Halloween songs. I have always thought that "Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo is a great Halloween song and that it would make a great party theme. Meg is too young for that, but when she is older we will definitely use it.

Today I took a major turn in my search and went to horror movie songs and I am much more satisfied. They have the sound I associate with Halloween. The Silver Shamrock commercial jingle from Halloween III is one of my favorites. I think it just has that sound of a kids song, but there is something sinister behind the sound that makes it work. Another great song for Halloween that is along the same lines is "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. While it is not from a horror movie, it is a great song by Danny Elfman who is formerly of Oingo Boingo.

Of course the Friday The 13th and Halloween theme songs are classics. I am a little disappointed that there aren't any original songs from the Rob Zombie movie The Devil's Rejects. There is however some good Rob Zombie music in the movie House of 1,000 Corpses.

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Halloween

I have been really busy updating our decorations for Halloween, and Meg's birthday which are one in the same. I find most of the Halloween decorations to be either ugly or just cheap looking. Most people have no problem with this, but I really do love this time of year and am very particular about what I buy.

On our last trip to Disneyland, we added a few items from the Nightmare Before Christmas movie. We bought a Jack Skellington bobble head and two Jack tea light holders. They are just Jack's head. In addition, my sister bought Meg both a Jack doll and a Sally doll for her birthday.

I mix in my collection of Dia de los Muertos items and masks from Mexico along with our Halloween docorations adn they go great together. I am more partial to creative Halloween items rather than just the horror type items a lot of stores sell. It is really hard to find stuff, so this will be a collection that grows as the years go by. Maybe at some point I will just start creating my own items. Who knows?

I can't wait until Meg is ready to go to her first haunted house/forest/attraction. The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland is just not scary at all.

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