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Lon Chaney as “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925)

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Photo credit: By Movie still scan ([1]) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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In best Shaggy voice: “G-g-g-ghost!!”

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Well, not really.  Just a couple of Halloween decorations to keep the spirit.

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Free online zombie short stories from “The Living Dead 2” anthology

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This was too fun not to share — a handful of free online short stories from “The Living Dead 2” anthology.  There’s some great stuff here, including an entry by David Wellington, one of my favorite zombie storytellers.  But, of all of the free stories here, I think I am most partial to Genevieve Valentine’s “And the Next, and the Next.”

Here’s the link:

http://www.johnjosephadams.com/the-living-dead-2/free-fiction/

Anyway, on a related subject, I have NOT yet seen the entirety of last night’s episode of “The Walking Dead.”  So PLEASE no spoilers here or on Facebook about the “major death,” even though I think the first half of the episode clearly broadcasts which character would be leaving us.

[UPDATE: I just watched “The Walking Dead.”  Dear Lord.]

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“Man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked.”

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“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”

—  from “Man’s Search for Meaning,” by Viktor Frankl

Viktor Frankl, österr. Psychologe und Arzt. Photographie. Um 1949.

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“Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?”

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“A Dream Within A Dream”
 
by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

 

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

 

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“We found the mutual souring of our lives to have been rooted in the hems of our birthplaces.”

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“On my ongoing canvas, there’s only been caricatures and carcasses, with a highway of torture dividing the two.  Somewhere, I took a detour of forgeries and virgins, and lost the rest of America I was meant to see …

“Every time I try to measure time, I get a case of dry mouth.  That’s how I met Ettey, Ettey Roth. She, too, had a memoir, not unlike mine, and it was over slugs in Seire’s Tavern time and again that we found the mutual souring of our lives to have been rooted in the hems of our birthplaces.”

— from “Fretensis, in the Image of a Blind God, Volume 1,” by Dennis Villelmi

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Will Reichard favorably reviews “The Man in the High Castle” television adaptation.

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Author Will Reichard gives us a nice rundown today of the small-screen adaptation of “The Man in the High Castle” (2015).  Check it out over at his blog, right here:

http://plaeroma.com/2015/10/go-watch-the-man-in-the-high-castle/

I’ve been dying to get to this alternate-history dystopia — it looks so much more ambitious and thoughtful than the usual fare, and it depicts a Nazi occupation of the United States!  I’ll review it when I get to it.  Right now, I’m finding myself tempted by the “Limitless” television adaptation and that new “Tales of Halloween” anthology horror flick.

There is actually a really basic question I’d love to ask about the plot of “The Man in the High Castle,” but I’m afraid an answer would be too spoilerish.  (It concerns the films that various characters watch within this show.)

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“The Wolf Man” (1941)

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Here’s what looks like a publicity still for “The Wolf Man” (1941); this is part of my efforts to monster up the blogosphere a bit this Halloween.

For some reason, it seems weird to me that the classic Universal monster movies came out before America entered World War II.  They really ARE old movies.

I had a children’s book about the making of the Universal classics when I was a kid.  I remember reading how Lon Chaney, Jr.’s makeup had to be applied — each hair was apparently placed there strand by strand.  And audiences back then were quite thrilled with the result.

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A nice young lady is teaching me to make art!

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She is five, and the daughter of a friend.  Despite her age, however, I find her work to be quite inspired.

Pictured below is a present she gave me — an untitled piece depicting the two of us.  When I queried her about her unexpected interpretation of my hair, she informed me, “Your hair stands up a lot.”

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Poetry

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If you enjoyed “hens staring upward” today, and you’d care for a few more verses this cool October morning, then please feel free to peruse the rest of my published poetry here:

Poetry

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Nurse Your Favorite Heresies in Whispers