I have been decorating my front door for Halloween for a couple of decades. I talked about it previously here. This year, however I won't be doing it up much. The reason? The premiere party for the movie noted below. I co-wrote a horror/comedy short a couple of years ago a the request of an actress. And, dang, if she didn't get it made! Anyway, the screening is Halloween night, so I won't be home for the trick-or-treaters.
A big part of the decorations was my Halloween mix-tape. Since the mechanical man was build over a step ladder, that meant that I had a couple of shelves to store things under the gown that made up the figure. It was originally a mix-tape, as I recorded the classic Halloween music I had available; Monster Mash, Thriller, Purple People eater. The trick was recording some on the music off the radio. Each year, one of the local radio stations would pull Zacherly the Cool Ghoul out of mothballs and let him host a Halloween party on air. He pulled out all the more obscure creepy-themed pop-songs, A Night in a Haunted House, Frankenstein and other wacky novelty songs. Come Halloween, I would pop the cassette into the player insded the mechanical man and let it blast. I had to run out every 1/2 hour to flip it over to play the other side.
Then came digital music. When I got my first iPod, the first thing I had to figure was how to use it for Halloween. I gather up all the songs I knew from the older recordings and hunted the internet for more. Then sound effects! There were sound effect records at the library! I recorded that and added it in. Every year I would find another song or five to add. Real old songs (the Boogie Man) and recent songs as they appeared (Ghostbusters, Nightmare before Christmas). The songs go from Bing Crosby to Frank Zappa. I got a iPod speaker, I load it up and it plays for hours without me touching it! It's great. No one really hears it all but me. And I let it play as I slowly dismantle the man every Halloween evening. It's the last thing I disconnect. And only then is Halloween over.
Then came digital music. When I got my first iPod, the first thing I had to figure was how to use it for Halloween. I gather up all the songs I knew from the older recordings and hunted the internet for more. Then sound effects! There were sound effect records at the library! I recorded that and added it in. Every year I would find another song or five to add. Real old songs (the Boogie Man) and recent songs as they appeared (Ghostbusters, Nightmare before Christmas). The songs go from Bing Crosby to Frank Zappa. I got a iPod speaker, I load it up and it plays for hours without me touching it! It's great. No one really hears it all but me. And I let it play as I slowly dismantle the man every Halloween evening. It's the last thing I disconnect. And only then is Halloween over.
