It's strange to think about it just now but my earliest memory is actually of Hallowe'en. Well...more precisely I've always had this very vivid memory of sitting in a pumpkin on a small bench with my brother and sister in our little house in Pasadena way back in the '60s. It didn't occur to me for years and years just how exactly a child old enough to recall events could yet be small enough to fit into a pumpkin. I guess I didn't question it because I was still something of a smaller child and children pretty much just say strange things all the time at which few people bat an eye, but years and years went by as I occasionally shared my tiny observation of remembering having my picture taken and nobody ever stopped to question it, least of all me.

Then one day I happened to find the picture of that memory and it I suddenly found myself staring at myself as an infant, stuck in a pumpkin transfixed by my no doubt overly animated parent getting my attention. I don't know why I never thought about the whole logic issue of how I could have such a vivid memory and yet be just a blubbering infant, and I suppose that's why I never even entertained such an idea in the first place as the memory seemed all too casually familiar and real for me to consider the reality of the situation.

If it wasn't for the fact that I've always possessed such a solid memory of the action long before I made the connection with how literally infantile I was I would normally pass the whole thing off as a falsely confused transposition of events as perhaps I simply remember sitting on the bench as a slightly older child with that of the picture I discovered. But there it has always sat, that even present strong memory of the situation long before I knew what it really was. I remembered being put into that pumpkin and finding it definitely an odd thing to be sure but yet it somehow made me feel strangely happy to be doing something odd and changing my appearance. I've loved Hallowe'en ever since.

I suppose then it was the luck of the fates that I would be born somewhat prematurely on my favorite day of the year Hallowe'en! Well...okay that's sort of a fib and sorta not. If you know me a little better then you're probably aware I was born actually a few days before Hallowe'en (oh...those unfulfilled dreams) but because of the relative closenessness of the dates I grew up often waiting to celebrate my birthday on Hallowe'en, so much so that it often feels strange to do things on my actual date of birth and not on Hallowe'en and random people that I have encountered over the years are mildy pushed into action when All Hallow's Eve hits that they probably should give me a spirited (no pun intended) heads up.

Strangely when I do the celebrating thing on my actual date of birth it has this odd after effect of making me feel like Hallowe'en is over...somewhat a similar feeling when you are young and it's the day after Christmas. You're kinda okay with it but you feel oddly sad now that the anticipation is over. Another year. Some stuff. I'm still me. Yays. This feeling was somewhat assuaged when I used to go up to the Castro area in San Francisco in the early '00s with my friends/ex-roommates as there was always a lot of fun holiday stuff going on all the way up to Hallowe'en there so it was fun to keep busy going to the Castro Theatre to watch the old House of Wax movie in 3D (the old red & blue 3D) and perhaps attend a showing ofthe silent film Nosferatu accompanied by a local quartet...lots of fun stuff. These days I just hunker down in my abode with a bowl of candy on the off chance that some kids should stumble by (kinda random from year to year) and despite my decent collection of DVDs I flip through the channels looking for something spooky. TCM of course always serves up my favorite film The Haunting (1963) which still scares the bejeezus out of me in a rather primal way. This year for the West coast it's on at the perfect time...11pm, primed for a midnight crossover. Wish me luck! :shock:

Another happy coincidence this year is the long awaited release of the English translation of Haruki Murakami's newest work of fiction 1Q84...released just days before my birthday! So happy that I'm compelled to do a Snoopy dance if it wasn't for the fact that my right knee has messed up tendons. Just started reading it and of course it starts off with a bang! Actually I'm joking because if you read much Murakami then you know his books never come out of the gate quickly with a strong personal presence like a Gogol story or immediately with the strange like a messed up Koko Abe novel. For the most part they start off so ordinary with simple people going about their ordinary lives and bit by bit they find the world around them is not what they had at first thought or the seemingly simple things we assumed about the protagonist aren't quite so ordinary. Anyhoo I'm rather excited. After some years of a few non-fiction entries it's nice to see Murakami crank out a 1,000 page novel to tear into.

Whereas the Murakami book was a material gift, being an older and somewhat hermit like person whose friends are somewhat poor or lead problematic and at times disparate lives, I did received a couple of nice surprises one of course being my best friend Patrick coming over and not ony bringing me some much needed comestibles in a Thanksgiving sort of way, but taking me out to a nice diner for what turned out to be the two larges slices of cake I have ever seen! :o At first I was thinking perhaps I should buy an entree as well but I'm so glad I didn't as it took everything inch of my stomach to consume that titanic slice. Soooooo good though. Yummers!

The next day his sister, of whom I've actually been friends with longer, took me out to the movies for my B-Day and I was delighted to see her movie selection was Puss in Boots as despite my relative coolness towards the Shrek films, I had heard some very positive early words on the film and so bolstered with my love for cats my interest was definitely piqued. It turns out this time the positive word was well earned as I found the film not only entertaining but so bloody funny that I found myself helpless in its comedic grip as I literally became doubled-over with laughter towards the end. Usually I pay attention to the details but sometimes my random viewing habits are bourne out of laziness and opportunity and this was one of those cases otherwise I would have realized that Puss in Boots was directed by Chris Miller who directed last year's big surprising bit of animated awesomenessness called Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Anyways it was a greatly enjoyable film and I highly recommend it as it's funny and amusing on a whole lotta levels.

And lastly but not leastly as I slowly made my way through a Ingmar Bergman mini (but threatening to become maxi) movie marathon I was constantly peppered with well wishers on my Facebook which kindly reminds folks of the birthday of others if they so wish and so I kind of felt like I was having a weekend long birthday. It might not seem like much, but it meant a lot to me so thank you to the 30 friends of mine in my quiet corner of Facebook where I now can blather on and on in my movie posts now that the word limit has been done away with. Thanks again to everyone and to everyone else here it's a Happy Hallowe'en from me to you for YOU!

Now time for candy and scary movies.