Niki Chanel

Just in time for Halloween – a list of ghost movies so you can scare yourself, family and friends every night of October. 

The IMBD link - a slick list; each film has a synopsis so you know what you’re getting into – so comforting, don’t you think? Beware though, IMBD goes on and on and on and… you may end up reading more than movie watching.

The Wikipedia - this list of ghost movies is just a straight list – cut to the chase, let’s get on with it! Just so you know… each one is linked to its own Wikipedia page, so you might get caught up in the spoilers.

Totalfilm gets into the act with nice images to entice you to come a little closer, plus all kinds of distracting extras on the site. Worth a look.

Hey, what are you going as for your Trick or Treating? I see lots of Lady Gaga outfits this year, and here I thought she was fun and creative… not scary! But wait, there was that meat outfit…

Me, I’m thinking of being a wine taster for Halloween. It’ll be a cheap costume – all I need is a wine glass, and I can go from house to house asking for something to fill it. Whataya think?

Oh, and I uh, almost forgot…

 BOO!

Originally posted 2013-10-01 12:01:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

October is a threshold month, a stepping-out-of-summer-into-the-dying-season month. Dios de los muertos, the Day of the Dead is in October; All Hallow’s Eve, Halloween is in October. Days get shorter, nights longer… more hours to be afraid of being alone in October.

So I’ve decided to finish things I started this year. I’m beginning with left-overs from the fridge – either I eat it, or the garbage can eats it. Next, I’m going to install the faucet I got on sale that has been sitting in the bathroom for a month, dismembered and disconnected. Then I’m going to finish my list of things I want to finish before October is over.

But if you think about it, October is all about supernatural things lurking in the dark. It’s not often you hear about a ghost or spirit bugging people during the day. October things come out at night. Makes me want to leave all the lights on all day, every day of October so I won’t be in the dark. Somehow, by the time November comes around, the night isn’t such a big thing. Why is that, you think? Probably the moonlight reflecting off the evening snow so it’s not pitch black outside. Hey wait, this is Los Angeles! Oh yeah, we can see at night because of all those celebrities names in lights.

Thinking, like I do, about the membrane between life and… other states of being, I wonder if darkness really does play an important role. We close our eyes – darkness; we fall asleep – darkness; we leave Earth – darkness. It’s natural to believe that death is ALL about darkness. However, if that were true, near death experiences (NDE’s) wouldn’t include the light at the end of the tunnel, would they? Or have these almost dying people gone to the Pearly Gates and seen inside? Hmmm… kinda supernatural.

Some scientists believe that the brain, sensing it’s immanent demise, releases a “flood of euphoria-causing endorphins”. I don’t buy that. Living beings are programmed to rail against the Reaper. Even my poor parakeet fought his end with a disturbing display of Death-Throws. Where were those the euphoria endorphins then?!

A Dutch study published in a 2010 Clinical Care Journal suggested that religious, young, female victims of near death were more likely to see shining lights than those who feared death. That would indicate that death lights are psychological and more in the realm of the brain than in the Hereafter.

Or since we are primarily seeing beings, if we can’t see it we either don’t believe it or, we are afraid of it. The suspense is just too great.

Then I am reminded of those science shows that explain how light is both a particle and a wave, and how it acts remarkably indeed, when it “thinks” it’s being observed ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc ). That’s weird enough to trump the After Life!

So if we are built to not want to die, and we’re afraid of the dark, do we instinctively think the dark is deadly dangerous? Is it? If it’s not, then why are so many of us afraid of it? Things that go bump in the night do that because we can’t see them and we’re up and moving around in the dark. Simple.

Enough of this musing… it’s time to get back to my movie. Can you please turn out the lights when you go?

Thanks.

Originally posted 2013-10-12 22:28:35. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

When things go wrong, I resort to art.

I know this about myself, so there’s no need to report me to the Strict People – it’s nothing new. Like many other ‘Artistics’ we are taught by parents and teachers to be like the mainstream, take a deep breath and conform, but that just doesn’t work for me. Artists can only take so much before they need to be creative.

“Or what?” you ask.

1931 movie poster of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

That’s a complicated question, possibly without an answer.  But let’s analyze it; the left side of the human brain can do the math, but for all its accuracy a staircase is a series of equidistant, linearly connected, perpendicular lines on a two dimensional plane. Right-brainer’s live in the world of sweeping spiral staircases festooned with rococo carvings dug deeply into old oak banisters. Me? I am a right-brainer and have been known to burst out into song and sketches, or simply choke on the verbatim list of details in front of an audience awaiting facts. I really do try to maintain an even strain, to be as expected, but I leak art. What would happen if I simply embraced it? You know, the age old go-with-the-flow?

Oh no, no, no; that would just be silly.

But seriously, artists are accused of being the frivolous among us – the goofballs and cuckoo-heads. Yet every medium we absorb is art: our first books, toys, clothing, eating utensils and food are all made of artistic fancifulness, like those bright orange, smiling crunchy fish that would disintegrate if put into water. In middle school we discover computer games, smartphones, blockbuster movies and F a s h i o n! We become more aware in high-school and beyond – billboards, car designs, home decor, architecture, more movies and TV, TV, TV. Everywhere you look there is art, or at least the result of it. So why do I feel ashamed for my artistic pursuits?

The little devil on my shoulder wants to know how come I think things are going badly. After all I’ve been learning code, good, wholesome left-brainer computer code. Stinker; he knows damn well I’m stumped with a programming problem. Ah! A linear-minded pursuit. No wonder! I was too close to the unhappiness to see it. I’ve been following the straight line too long.

“Now what?” you ask.

Now, draw, glue, cut, paint. Design, carve, melt, solder. Take a break, pet the cat and watch Dr. House videos – watch as he get ah-ha’s. It might be contagious. If that lil devil whispers “If you go back to the left-brain project, I’ll help you solve your puzzle”, then maybe we’ve been Dr. Jekyll too long and it’s Hyde’s turn. Artists: do art!

OK… I’ve got an art journal and coloured pencils in my lap, Dr. House is on pause, the cat’s within reach – I’m goin’ in. Don’t wait up.

That’s what.

Originally posted 2012-09-09 01:13:34. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

It’s hot. I can’t sleep.

The open window is my only source of cool air and there is no breeze. Staring into the darkness unable to rest, I resign. Better to read than stare at the ceiling for hours.

I flick on the lamp and resume my current supernatural suspense. Almost immediately I am visited by a butterfly. Cool! It (He? She?) lands on my nose and seems to be staring at me with its orb-y, stickin’-out eyes. Not a moth; a butterfly – the small monarchy looking one. I stare cross-eyed back at it, wondering why it’s awake this late at night. G-d alone knows what the butterfly is thinking. It must have something to do with rotating antennae. This is so weird I fight the compulsion to brush it away and we stare at each other. It’s still better than looking at the ceiling.

I have always felt that personal experiences with animals proved that a direct connection to the realm of magic and alien life was possible, like a kind of message from the universe, or a mystic calling. It’s happening to me again with this butterfly. When I was nine I thought about such things all the time. Always hoping for another sign of the magic, I took silver linings seriously, wanting to know if there were any golden linings.

Lately, it has been raccoon’s. A mama coon with four babies visits us every night, early enough to be entertainment with dinner. I have learned that giving them some leftovers from the fridge keeps them from turning over the garbage cans. I know the dangers and keep my distance but I get to watch. What intrigues me is the eye contact; they look right into a particular part of your soul, transmitting an extra-sensory warning: “If you do anything to scare me, I will never trust you again.” It’s a contract, and I obey. Besides, what if they can hear my thoughts? “Aw, she thinks I’m cute.”

But Babs the butterfly is sending me sweet nothings and we’re becoming friends. I felt a deep relaxing sigh well up from the depths, and right on cue Babs gently takes her leave and saunters, as only butterflies can, out the open window. Is it my imagination or is it cooler?

Yep, it’s cool enough to put down the unfinished fiction and turn out the light.

Was that magic? Coincidence? Alien contact? D, none of the above? I drift into the unknown buoyed on a breeze from hundreds of black and orange fans.

Originally posted 2013-07-29 03:06:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter