the good, the bad, and the kitty

Those crazy / wonderful pagans…leave it to them to create something so magical like Halloween.  I can’t thank them enough – it’s my favorite day of the whole year!

In brief non-Halloween news: Yesterday Ryan and I went for a walk in the Oakland Cemetery and I got several great cemetery shots.  I haven’t posted them yet (yesterday was Ryan’s birthday!) but plan to play with them this weekend, so hopefully they will be ready soon.  I’m very happy with them on the small LCD screen on my camera, so I can only imagine what they will look like on the big screen.  Keep your eyes open for that some time next week!

(Halloween history from history.com)

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Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints’, All Saints’, and All Souls’, were called Hallowmas.

Also, Feliz Dia De Los Muertos to all you Mexicans out there, like Meg.

Viva los Muertos!

I wrote this a few years ago, and thus updated it so that dates and spans of time are correct.  Other than that, it remains unrevised.

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I am recalling a Halloween from, oh, probably 15 or 16 years ago, when I was in 5th grade. My friend Amanda and I had taken an interest in the occult, and had therefore taken a liking to a boy in our class named David Anderson. David had a book that belonged to his stepdad or someone called Encyclopedia of the Occult, which Amanda and I used to borrow all the time to do our little 5th-grade personal research projects involving witches, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, etc. We were very occult-savvy – our interests included Ouija boards, mirror games, “Light as a Feather/Stiff as a Board,” etc. I remember us being particularly fond of the Bloody Mary game; so fond, in fact, that we would stay inside at recess and spend our 30 minutes in the girls’ bathroom with the lights off, chanting into the mirrors and scaring ourselves silly.

In the weeks leading up to Halloween that year, David, Amanda, and I had made a shocking discovery – the fence at the north end of the playground at Harding Elementary School had a huge indentation, as though some huge force had leaned against it and permanently bent the chain-links. What could have caused this? we wondered. We devoted several recesses and even some after school time to our studies, and eventually surmised that there was no other explanation than that it was a WEREWOLF that came to the playground at night, leaned up against the fence, and left that big indentation.

Our plan was to get a tent and camp out on the playground in order to catch a glimpse of this werewolf. Of course we were scared, but in the name of paranormal research we tried to put those fears aside and persevere in the name of the 5th grade imagination. That is, until David Anderson told us a new story.

Apparently David knew of a story about a witch – a witch that had the power to kill you in your dreams. He told us that on Halloween night, we would have a dream about this witch, and in the dream we would do battle with her. If we won, the witch would be defeated and we would wake up in the morning, fresh and alive on November 1. If we failed, however, and the witch won, we would die in our sleep.

Amanda and I were terrified to fall asleep, even before Halloween. We feared that somehow, the witch would arrive early, catch us off guard, and we wouldn’t be able to properly defend ourselves - and thus end up dead in the morning. Finally I told my mom what was going on, and she went to school and told our teacher, Mrs. Jurgens, about what David had been telling us. Mrs. Jurgens gave David Anderson detention, and that put an end to our spooky shenanigans.

Amanda and I ran into David Anderson a couple of years ago while we all happened to be in Monmouth one weekend. We sat in a booth at the Bijou Pub, drank some beers, and laughed about our outrageous 5th grade imaginations. David still seemed to have some hostility, though, as he had never forgotten that my mom told Mrs. Jurgens he had been scaring us. “That’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back,” he said.

He was lucky to only get detention, I suppose, when the alternative might have been waking up dead.

Happy Halloween to Amanda, David Anderson, and anyone else who lets their imaginations run away with them and let that deliciously cold tingle of fear creep into their bones.

[REPOST FROM DEWEYSTREETPHOTOCOMPANY.WORDPRESS.COM]

bench on linn street

all photos taken on monday, october 13, 2008, as i was walking home.  i travel north  from downtown iowa city to linn street to brown street, an avenue notorious for attracting writers and artists who crave privacy and eccentric living conditions.

in the spirit of the season, i feel compelled to also mention that brown street is known for having a high density of haunted houses – it’s a historical district and many of the buildings in the neighborhood are very old.  my own house was built in 1920, and though it’s not located on brown street it has quite a bit of history about it and even has a few ghosts of its own – not real ghosts, perhaps, but one can never be too sure. 

for more photos and larger versions of the ones shown here, visit my flickr page.

pagliai's and payphone

in other news, i have put out a call to anyone in the iowa city area who would like to be a model for me so i can practice portraiture.  besides weddings and senior portraits, both of which i feel call for more formality than “normal” portraits, i have done few portrait sessions and would like to expand my portfolio.  if you are or know someone who is willing to let me experiment on you with my camera, please contact me by email or phone.  see the “contact” section for this information.

speaking of portraits, i am developing a photo shoot for myself and raj reminiscent of this old photo of his parents:

there is something about this image that i love so much and would like to recreate or at least pay homage to.  i can’t put my finger on what that something is, but i will try to find it.

now, for more photos.

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vines on brown street

happy autumn (self portrait of sorts)

rose

died

oakland cemetery

I’ve decided to pick up the ol’ blog again, mostly because I’ve been inspired by others’ blogs I’ve been reading…some friends, some famous people, etc.  I don’t really care if people read my blog or not, but I just want to start putting myself back out there.

As you may have noticed, I adopted a new look for autumn and Halloween.  It’s my favorite time of year.  I really need to go spend some time in the cemetery by my house with my camera.  Call me kooky but I love photographing graveyards.

Meg went with me to the raptor center last night, and we took some photos —

moonrise at the raptor center

 my new raccoon friend, who kept peeking from the side of the food bin at the bird blind…

meg follows directions very well.  i said “be cute!” and she did.

crouching in the woods makes for good photos.

 i was glad the sun was shining at just the right angle to capture this beautiful spider web… which prompted a conversation about why we don’t utilize spider’s webs as a material for textiles, rope, etc.

That’s all for now.