Halloween

I’m not particularly fond of Halloween. All-Saints Day! Over the years, society has evolved from honoring our fallen saints to lighting candles at night and contemplating their ghostly presence to getting a little spooked. The “Hallowed Evening” of toasting the ghosts with a little “spirit” drinking turned into a slurred when spoken through a drunken fog, “Halloween.”

I’m guessing “Trick or Treat” was dreamed up by the chocolate-making, candy-producing businesses. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day? Well, I guess we know who promotes those floral, endearing card commercials. It’s a great promotion for a couple of industries. I’m not complaining, just observing.

The fact that kids get to dress up and chow down on massive quantities of sugar is fun. And for adults partying in costumes, disguised as somebody else, well, you can see the joy in that, too. Or as the guys on my crew used to say at some awesome Halloween gigs in the distant past, “Halloween is a great excuse for women to dress sexy, and guys to act more foolish than usual.” At those gigs, we were just music; the entertainment was in the crowd.

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Grandma Hobin, “the most beautiful grandma in the world”, according to my grandkids, has already been partying big time with the littlest members of our clan. Tonight, more fun with the little ones. The weather is going to be a traditional soggy, windy, rain-soaked affair. Memorable.

For me, it will be yet another travel day. Bill Muench and I are presenting a screening of our film, The Artist and the Astronaut, at Cornell University. We’ll be driving together for part of the journey. Our time will be spent working on our next film, An Arrow Shot Through Time. He has already shared a few scenes with me, culled from the hours and hours of film footage we gathered in Mississippi, Mystic Seaport, and Ireland. I’m starting to hear the score in my head. I look forward to bringing the project to CNY to record the score.

Happy Halloween!