The day began with a pumpkin doughnut, and now I am pondering weak and weary over what to add to my Halloween playlist. Universal monster classics vie with lurid Hammer horror, devil operas, and macabre comedies.
Readings from Poe have punctuated the season. I lay down last night with Fortunato being led into the catacombs to test a pipe of Amontillado and recalled how much fun I had reading this story for the first time as a kid.
I do miss being able to share some of my Halloween favorites with you as part of a live air shift. My impulse is to lend to the savor of the day by mixing the familiar and the unusual. Frederic Curzon’s “Dance of an Ostracised Imp” or Thomas S. Allen’s “Dance of the Lunatics” always put me in a proper trick-or-treat mood. So much “Halloween” music for all occasions and from all eras, and so little of it ever played. Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
Well, at least I can still record.
How about you? Any good reading, listening, or viewing planned for the day? Any excuse to array yourself in widow’s weeds or motley?
Whatever your pleasure, I wish you a Happy Halloween!
PHOTO: The author, Poe-faced