From whiskey river:
Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that’s on its mind and can’t make itself understood, and so can’t rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving.
(Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
Shadow
So the dead are among us again
even here where Halloween is not celebrated
and the moon flies through the skeletons of trees
and men in rowboats fish for souls on the river
There is a woman with spidery hair swinging a lantern
disappearing down the colonnade
a row of buildings tilted like gravestones
in which a single window is lit
a wall from whose depths shadows emerge
assuming the contours of bodies they will follow
all night and abandon at dawn:
a revelation to you
that each day we take on a new shadow
(Nicholas Christopher, from Crossing the Equator: New and Selected Poems 1972-2004)
Not from whiskey river:
Fezzik: Why do you wear a mask? Were you burned by acid, or something like that?
Man in Black: Oh no, it’s just that they’re terribly comfortable. I think everyone will be wearing them in the future.
(The Princess Bride)
Also not from whiskey river: Jim Carrey’s not to everyone’s taste. But this is pretty memorable:
Finally: While on the topic of Halloween, you might be interested in this brief excerpt from the chapter called “The Horror, The Horror,” of How It Was: Autumn.
[Note: the illustration at the top of this post appeared in the American Examiner magazine, after Mark Twain's (Samuel Clemens's) death in 1910. There, it was captioned "Behind the mask of the humorist was the face of the philosopher."]
P.S. for The Missus: You almost certainly want to see this now.
That excerpt got me thinking about some really divergent ideas: one was the fact that “what I would be for Halloween” didn’t take on as much significance until I grew to an adult — in my grad school days the Halloween parties were perhaps the best, and my favorite costume is a toss up between Andy Warhol and SickBoy from Trainspotting. Anyway, the other thing I thought about was the Dead Kennedy’s song about Halloween and dressing up as the only outlet for many caged cubicle dwellers… I guess maybe the thoughts aren’t so divergent after all.
Have you seen the movie Mirror Mask? It may or may not be your kind of film, but it has this mask theme–the heroine is the only character in the alternate world who doesn’t wear a mask, and one character asks her how she knows how she feels–”How do you know if you’re happy? Or sad?…”–without one.
recaptcha: should question.
Love that drawing of Twain – like the moustache has a life of its own. Happy Halloween – and thanks again for the widget, playlist now up and running!
cuff: Bet the Warhol and Sickboy getups were both head-turners. Was thinking yesterday afternoon, on the way home from work — seeing NO kids out trick-or-treating despite driving through many neighborhoods… Halloween sees to be moving in the direction of an adults-only affair. Or maybe I’m hanging out with the wrong people to make such judgments.
Marta: Actually, MirrorMask sounds like something I’d like! That “how do you know?” question reminds me of a science-fiction story I read once. In this alien civilization, everyone had identical faces. They were completely freaked out about the fact that NO humans were identical.
Kate: Hey, congrats on the widget — I’ll head over to check it out!