Vintage Halloween Schlitz Ads

Came across a couple of ads from the 1950's for Schlitz—a beer from Milwaukee that was once widely popular, now mostly known regionally by folks from the Midwest (e.g. my ghoulfriend's Wisconsinite family).

I just thought these were fun, given the Halloween imagery and my partner's ties to Wisconsin. I grabbed these images from some old eBay listings; they're decently high quality.  I might even print them out and hang them up!

If you'd like, click on each image for a "full-res" version. Might take a second to load.

^ Would this be considered pumpkin beer, technically? ;)

Happy First Day of Fall !

My mother likes to share a story of when I was in elementary school.  As she was picking me up from school one September afternoon, I took a long inhale: 

    "Do you smell that, Mom?"

    "Smell what?"

    "Fall!"

I can actually recall this moment and this feeling quite well.  Before I was old enough to appreciate the concept of an equinox, I could smell--feel--when fall had arrived.  Cooler, darker evenings heralded the start of my favorite season.  I treated the first cool fall day much like how kids in movies treat the first snow of winter.  My energy skyrocketed; each breath of cool dry air was like a jolt of electricity. I felt as though I could run and play for hours at a time. (Where did all that energy go??)

Over the years, that feeling--which began with a long inhale and stayed with me until winter--has definitely faded for me, and at times was not felt at all.  Blame it on climate change or the stress of life or just getting older... whatever the reason, it hasn't been there for a while.  But this year felt different.

I've recently shared about an evening at the beginning of this month that felt like the beginning of the season.  While I still feel that was valid, the weather this past weekend had me experiencing that long lost childhood feeling again... I took a big whiff and thought, Fall!

Though the temperatures will be warming up again this week in Central Florida, this past Thursday and Friday were quite pleasant. The highs were only in the low 80s with low humidity (as evidenced by the cloudless skies).

This evening we celebrated by going for a short bike ride through a few local neighborhoods at sunset.  Winding through the suburban roads brought back memories of biking through my childhood neighborhood to plan my trick-or-treating route.

Happy Autumn Equinox!  

Early 2000's Halloween goodness

From Haunted Eve's Halloween Blog

More images here

Happy 100th Birthday Charles Schultz!

To whom I owe a great deal of my childhood love of Halloween.

Listening to: It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (Official Soundtrack)

Like many others, I was ecstatic Concord/Craft Recordings released a "Music From The Soundtrack" album for It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown in October of 2018.  And also like many others, I was extremely disappointed when I discovered that it was merely the dialogue-free audio from the special; already chopped down and riddled with sound effects.

I began to share a sad, resigned hopelessness that many others echoed online: that the original recordings were likely lost and could never be released... But something miraculous happened this year.

"Thanks to a deep dive into the Mendelson vaults -- a project embraced during covid-enforced isolation -- newly discovered analog session reels allowed a vastly superior, re-mastered edition of this score to arrive in August 2022. The newer album features seven previously unreleased alternate takes, all of which offer fascinating insight into Guaraldi's creative process."   

-Derrick Bang, fivecentsplease.org

I can't begin to describe my elation regarding this.  The Great Pumpkin was a childhood staple and remains an obligatory annual watch.  I've longed nearly all my life to have a clean recording of "Graveyard Theme", "Breathless", "Trick or Treat"... but most of all, It's The Great Pumpkin's version of "Linus and Lucy".  I agree with Derrick Bang that "this special opens with arguably the best arrangement [of that song] that Guaraldi ever laid down, thanks in great part to Ronald Lang's flute counterpoint."  The alternate arrangements and reprises are a wonderful treat on top of it all.

To listen to the official album of Original Recordings, click below.

Alternatively, click here to view the album on YouTube

Now Watching: The Black Cauldron

It's been years since I've seen this film.  Produced by Disney in 1985, this movie was widely criticized for being less than kid-friendly. Now a cult-classic, this dark 1980's dungeon-fantasy has been remastered and is available for streaming on Disney+.  

The classical animation is reminiscent of the 1978 Lord of the Rings cartoon, and it looks awesome... even better than I remember.  Elmer Bernstein's soundtrack is wicked.  And Sir John Hurt delivers a chilling performance as the Horned King.  Definitely check it out if you get the chance!

Click below to watch the original 35mm theatrical trailer:

It's time to send in those letters

Now Watching: Early to Mid 2000's Halloween Home Videos

A simple pleasure of mine is watching videos of people's Halloween decorations, parties, or trick-or-treating, specifically from the early to mid 2000's.  These videos scratch a very precise nostalgic itch of mine.

These videos also tend to disappear from YouTube.  Many of the ones I watched regularly (don't judge me) have been deleted, or have vanished after the original account was terminated.  It really makes me sad.  I wish there was a huge archive just for videos like this.  

It disheartens me to wonder how many Halloween home videos have been erased from the web...  how many wonderful October memories have been lost... I've even contemplated buying a larger hard drive just to download and preserve this kind of media. 

I swear, I'm going to turn in to a digital hoarder... 
*pours booze*

Halloween 2020

The 2019 Halloween season was... rough.  I was working at a haunted attraction an hour outside of town, and the long hours and miles of late night highway driving was taking a toll.  I'd regularly get home at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, catch a few Z's, then get up and go to my day job.  Between the haunt, my job, and my education, I had no energy left for personal hobbies.  

That year, I didn't make a single Halloween decoration, watch a single spooky movie, or carve a single pumpkin. I bought a pumpkin to carve, but every time I looked at it, I couldn't find the will to give it a face.  Eventually, it just rotted (a depressing poetic metaphor for my mind at the time).  The haunted attraction job, while initially a dream-come-true, had siphoned all of my Halloween spirit.  

Even Pumpkinrot, whose displays I looked forward to each year, had disappeared.  When no new haunt photos appeared on his website or blog, I felt like a kid on Christmas that woke up to find no gifts under the tree.*

I swore that Halloween 2020 would be different.  And it was.  I made time to watch my favorite Halloween media, carve pumpkins, bake some pumpkin bread, and even attended a couple Halloween parties.  But most importantly in my mind, I decorated.

I wanted something simple and nostalgic for myself; A mix of whimsical and spooky.  I cobbled together some simple scarecrows and bought those hokey white spiderwebs, plus a few orange string lights.  

What I created was a display that took me right back to my childhood trick-or-treating days, and simultaneously embraced my "matured" Halloween aesthetic

I don't have many photos from that display, but I'm still pretty happy with it.  

And that's enough.

*I am sure Rot had good reasons for taking his hiatus; Reasons he need not justify to his fans or anyone else.  At the time I feared my biggest Halloween hero was gone, and that disappointment was a twisting of the knife that had already been sunk into my spooky heart. But that isn't Rot's responsibility, and I don't hold any disdain for his disappearance.  I am, of course, simply glad he's back!