Soir macabre

 Photo prise par mon père cette année, lors de sa promenade dans Chicoutimi. J'aime particulièrement le mort-vivant chauve. Un zombie? Je vais finir par me réconcilier avec lemonstre. Ici, on a changé d'heure, le soir tombe plus vite. Et il n'y a rien de plus délicieusement macabre qu'un soir qui tombe sur un cimetière hanté, même si ce n'est pas un vrai cimetière.

Zombie

For today's countdown to Halloween, let's talk about zombies. My dad took this picture about a month ago, in Chicoutimi, because people from my home town take Halloween seriously and they start early. I'm proud of being a guy from Saguenay. Anyway, on this display, there was this zombie. Usually, I am not a fan of zombies. Of all the horror and Halloween critters, I must confess that I find them the least inspiring. I tend to get bored by horror stories featuring them. But this one looks genuinely scary, not merely gross, and he is suitably ghoulish.

Vampires, sorcières, zombies, etc.

Photo prise par mon père il y a quelques jours. Je partage parce que c'est vraiment superbe. Bon, il y a une faute à zombie et je crois que les autres créatures devraient être écrites au pluriel, mais bon. C'est une belle danse macabre (je vais d'ailleurs en partager une bientôt). Alors donc, morale de l'histoire (de la photo?): on fête l'Halloween proprement au Saguenay.

Brio's Haunted Train Station

I blogged before about Brio's  a Spooky Train Station. Well, I bought it for Wolfie's last birthday. My wife said I really bought it for myself, but it's not true. I mean not really: I truly, genuinely thought Wolfie would love it. And he does. He has his first Brio toy about five years ago, but he hasn't stopped playing with them since, although he plays less often.

All the same: he loved the Spooky Train Station, even though we don't, I mean he doesn't have the train that goes with it and has it doing spooky noises. My mistake, I should have thought about it. It's still fun and he made a display in the living room. I particularly like the ghost conductor. I thought he was a zombie at first, but he really looks like a ghost and a Gothic one at that. But a friendly ghost, most definitely. I love the mix of old fashioned horror and railway, as it is a staple of modernity and technology meeting the supernatural. Trains and train sations make for great settings for horror stories. Anyway, Wolfie wants to play with his set, however he said that once Halloween is over, this is it: the train station and its ghost will not show up until the next countdown to Halloween.

Wolfie's Haunted House

 Wolfie drawed a haunted house at school a few days ago. No idea why, I guess he felt inspired. You can see ghosts in the windows and a zombie in the garden. I am so proud of him. My brothers and I used to do the same thing when it rained during our holidays: we drew plenty of haunted houses, full of ghosts of all sorts and critters. Then we used it as prop for our Haunted House Game. It kept us busy when we longed for Halloween, which was yet so far away. I think Wolfie might want to play haunted house before long.

Brio's Spooky Train Station

For today's countdown to Halloween post, a toy I wish I had bought me... errr, I mean, for Wolfie. Anyway, you know our son loves train sets, especially Brio designs. My wife found a few weeks ago that they sold a Spooky Train Station, with a zombie action figure (they say ghostly conductor, but I think he looks like a zombie, albeit a more gothic one), ghostly sounds and all. We didn't buy it, for some reason, but I have been kicking myself since then. It could become a new Halloween tradition for next year. I keep thinking trains and train stations are pefect settings for horror stories. We could create our own spooky stories, we'd have our inspiration and prop.

Collecting Sticks

Our family went to a walk last weekend in a piece of woodlands nearby. Wolfie decided to startpicking up sticks. Bits of branches that had fell during the last spell of windy days we had, thanks to Storm Eunice. He was very eager to get them all. One ofthem, shaped vaguely like a gun or a rifle, he pretended it was just that, a gun, with a small stick he had as ammo. Wolfie then shot at zombies he decidedto pretend were roaming free around us. I think he got that idea from his friends at school and from videogames. But it was quite fun and it made the walk all the more entertaining. Even though, as the amount of sticks increased, I ended up carrying them. Some branches were probably big enough to be used as canes by my wife or me. In the end, we brought them all back home. I placed them in the garden. Hopefully they can be used as prop for future games.

I'm a Cryptkeeper

Tomorrow is the official start of the countdown to Halloween. That said, I start counting down since the first of November, or almost and I prepare myself mentally to Halloween and to this time of year from August onwards. And every year, for the month leding to my favourite holiday, I become a Cryptkeeper and blog almost exclusively about Halloween. I also get my cool badge from the Countdown to Halloween blog, THE big online gathering place for Halloween lovers. And what a cool badge it is this year: it is a changing one! It has an image of witch, of zombie rising from the grave and of a raven. My favourite is the raven. Anyway, I cannot wait for tomorrow and please keep reading this blog.

Zombie Strike!

For today's (first?) countdown to Halloween post, it might surprise you that I blog about a children's game and a silly one at that. Last weekend, we went to the birthday party of some twin brothers, friends of Wolfie. They are four and their mother, who is Canadian, had decided to rent a room in a community centre and fill it with fun and games. One of them was this zombie shooting practice. With Nerf Guns as arsenal. Now I am not a big fan of zombies, of all the Halloween critters I find them quite meh, not very scary and rather uninspiring. But a zombie shooting ground? Zombie shooting? Count me in! That said, I could not convince Wolfie to play and getting these darn Nerf Blasters to work was really difficult. So in the end we did not shoot any zombie. That said, what a cool looking shooting game!

A Tickler's Birthday

Today was a very special day... No, not what you might think: it was the birthday of Blonde Tickler, who turned eleven. I saw her only briefly and after her birthday party, on my way home. My wife and Wolfie were there already. We had bought her an emoji backpack (I mean a backpack covered with emojis) and a journal as present (my wife's idea), she really seemed to like them. But her favourite present was... a zombie doll. Complete with her own coffin and death certificate. I think they are called the Living Dead Dolls. She was so proud to show her to me. That is why I love Blonde Tickler, she is such a tomboy. Anyway, I never liked February much, now there is a reason to truly enjoy the month, or its beginning at least.

Des zombies et des squelettes (addendum)

Je reviens sur mon billet du mercredi sur les squelettes et les zombies. J'ai déjà mentionné mon parti pris pour les squelettes, parce que je les trouve pleins de potentiel dramatique dans les histoires d'horreur. Le zombie est une créature qui a un passé riche, mais qui dans sa modernité n'est qu'un tas de viande avariée qui mange de la viande. Cela dit, il y a une chose, une chose que je n'aime pas chez les squelettes. Une chose bête et idiote qui m'a toujours agacée. En fait, c'est un détail de nature linguistique et plus précisément phonétique: au Québec, il y en a qui prononcent "squolette". Et c'est comme... Eurk! Vraiment une prononciation atroce. Alors voilà. C'est atroce. Ca tue toute l'aura de peur qui émaner d'un squelette animé. Zombie est vraiment en soi une prononciation bête, en soi pas effrayante. Mais transformer squelette en squolette, c'est presque blasphématoire. Enfin, c'est l'Halloween dans moins d'une heure. Je suis content d'avoir partagé cette observation linguistique avec vous.

Des squelettes et des zombies

Ces deux photos ont été prises l'année dernière. La photo de gauche/en haut a été prise dans la vitrine d'un salon de coiffure, celle de droite/en bas dans la fenêtre d'une des maisons qui célèbre l'Halloween en grand ici. Ces deux photos illustrent moin propos et c'est une excusepour télécharger plus de photos d'Halloween. Donc, parlons de squelettes et de zombies et comparons-les. Parce que la comparaison est intéressante.

Dans un questionnaire que j'ai publié sur ce blogue récemment, on m'a demandé si je préférais les squelettes ou les zombies. J'ai choisi les squelettes sans hésiter. Parce que je trouve les zombies surévalués et les squelettes délicieusement macabre. J'ai voulu approfondir la réflexion. Les zombies et les squelettes sont tous deux cadavres, mais le squelette, le squelette animé magiquement, par nécromancie ou quoi que ce soit, je le trouve plus inquiétant. Le zombie, c'est de la chair stupide qui mange de la chair. À part que c'est cannibale et anthropophage, ça ne fait pas grand chose, du moins pas dans le folklore moderne. La Faucheuse, elle, prend souvent les traits d'un squelette. De même que bien des morts-vivants dotés d'un semblant d'intelligence et de malice, y compris bien entendu les fantômes, comme dans la photo de gauche. Je sais que les zombies sont issus d'une tradition plus complexe que leur utilisation contemporaine dans les histoires d'horreur en font, mais quand même. D'ici à ce qu'on les utilise pour autre chose que comme des machines à bouffer, je vais préférer les squelettes. Dans le fond, le squelette est conne un vase, un réceptable. On y met ce qu'on veut.

Montreal and Zombie Apocalypse

It is Friday the 13th and I was wondering how to mention it or commemorate it in a different way. I mean saying something else than: "mine was ok, how was yours?" Because mine was pretty much banal. So I thought that, since Friday the 13th is associated with gloom and doom, I will blog about gloom and doom. I recently read a funny post on MTL Blog, about how my city would survive and even strive in the event of a Zombie Apocalypse. You can read it here. I think the arguments are sound. Heck, they are pretty much full proof. We have the resources, the equipment, the geographic situation and the architecture to go full on against brain dead zombies and make them regret they ever... herrr... re-lived? Even if it is highly hypothetical and unlikely to the extreme, I am very proud of my city.

An Epiphany about Rhinoceros by Ionesco

I was thinking about my recent post on Ionesco's Rhinoceros. About that time when I played it too. And it struck me, I had an epiphany about it: it is a zombie story. It is Night of the Living Dead with more dialogues and an absurd setting. At its core it is the story of an epidemy, one that strikes the body as much as the mind. And the rhinos are just as malevolent as the zombies, maybe even more so. Like many of Ionesco's plays, there is a very sinister side to it, that can be missed sometimes. I watched this performance of Jean's transformation on YouTube. I played the same scene, and indeed the Jean character. I think I got it better, because I played it sinister, like a man turning into a monster. Which is I think the whole point. The play is scary as much as it is funny.

A dreadful great unknown written line

I am not the father of another great unknown line, which I think is quite funny (if I may say so myself). Halloween Spirit blogged today about a zombie cake she made. She should be proud of it, the cake actually looks like a rotting undead head. My comment has not been published on it yet, so I publish it here in exclusivity:

"I hope it tastes better than it looks."

For those of you like who thinks that it is a long way until Halloween, this is my modest contribution to keep the spirit of the holiday alive. Oh, and I dreamt of a sinister l'Ankou looking character recently (don't flicker through your scary books before going to bed). If I have the discipline, I might try to put him in a horror story.