!!! Happy Halloween !!!

Días de Los Muertos is Spanish for Day of the Dead. It's a Mexican holiday.

It is a day to pray for and remember those who have died.

It takes place on November 1st and 2nd. It is tradition to build private alters

decorated with skulls and flowers and the favorite foods and beverages

of those who have passed.

The photo above shows a little alter that I bought in Arizona some years ago. I

think that Días de Los Muertos is an interesting holiday and the artwork

that comes out of it is really beautiful.

If you're ever in a Halloween store and you see a sign

like this, do NOT go through the door.

It's a trick. I'm quite sure of it.

Yeeee-haw!

Here at the mall in Oceanside California, youngins can ride

plush battery powered ponies in circles. Four dollars for five minutes.

"Four dollars for five minutes" is code for "Stay away from this end

of the mall if you have more than one cowpoke."

The ponies in this photo are all hitched up to the corner

of the corral. Too early for riding I guess.

Well, they were hiring. I doubt they are now.

I took the picture because I am totally down

with skeleton pirates. But you knew that.

The only thing keeping me from being completely

menacing are the fluorescent lights and the drop ceiling.

Naw, belay that. I am your worst piratey nightmare!

When I was pretty darn young, say like ten or so, my dad

bought this hand that artists use as a model to sketch. It has great detail.

He put a hook on it and hung it up on the wall in his home (my

mom and dad were divorced). It was really interesting to look at...

...a big ol' hand just a hangin on the wall. He knew I admired that

hand so one day he gave it to me. I think I must have been about

thirteen or fourteen. I in turn had it just a hangin on my wall for years.

Now it kind of resides wherever I put it. I don't dare tell you how

many years I have had the hand.

When the remake/reboot of Friday the 13th came to theaters in 2009,

they had this display that you could stand behind, poke your head

through the hole (ala Coney Island) and look as though Jason Voorhees

was ensuring that you would no longer release carbon dioxide

into the atmosphere.

Did I do it? Nope.

My Stetson wouldn't fit through the dang hole.

I took this picture in the parking lot of a mall in

San Diego, California. This was on

Thursday at about 8 AM.

This is the tin bank that came with the Walmart exclusive

Blu-ray/DVD of POTC: On Stranger Tides. I put some doubloons in

there for size reference (because I am scientific like that).

It's a fun little piece of Pirate's memorabilia that  I am

leaving in the cellophane because I have decided not to play with it (as

tempting as that be, ya swabs) and I have no money to save anyway.

Ahoy!

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides came out

on DVD and Blu-ray today. I bought this exclusive to Walmart

version this morning. It comes with what it says is a "tin bank".

From the photograph it looks like a little treasure chest with

the POTC logo on it. It was the same price as the Blu-ray/DVD

without the little collectible, so I bought it.

It's not a very good photograph.

I probably won't have time to open the movie today, but I wanted

to get it smartly, so I did. Aye, it were a good deal to me.

"Ummmm.... Yes sir. Yes Officer.
The Halloween store."

This is the Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park at

San Diego, California. This area is home to many artists

and on some weekends they display their artwork in this

open-air plaza located in the center of the studio spaces.

I enjoy all the different colored tiles and I don't think that

anybody could take a bad photograph of them.

Here is a photo of a pirate having his way with a bit

of grog. This scallywag was spotted on The Pirates of the

Caribbean ride at Disneyland in California. It was actually

my son who took this picture quite a few years ago.

I remember being on the ride with my mom when I was

very young. She couldn't get over the mud on his feet.

Dirty feet might be her pet peeve.

Dirty feet on pirates is okay with me.

This was the entrance to the SCREAM Haunted House in Simi Valley California.

 I took this picture in 1999. I think it was the last year that they had this event as the

owner of the land was involved is some "shady business" of some sort,

so that was that.

This place scared the Hell out of me. It started with guys

yelling at about ten of us at at time to get in that door you see there.

They were screaming at us like we were in Marine boot camp.

They were banging on the walls and basically keeping us all disoriented.

And it went on from there. Blood and guts and guts and blood.

And lots more SCREAMING.

It was very scary, and awesome.

This is a boulder that I pass by just about every day,

It was altered when the road was built so we could pass

by it. Especially on rainy days, I drive by this thing rather

lickety-split. I am sure that ooooonnnneeee day, this thing

is gonna come down.

 I don't want to be under it when it does.

In keeping with the spirit of the month...

Although I have all of the Friday the 13th standard edition movies on

DVD, and the Deluxe Editions on DVD, and even though I am holding out for the

entire series to be released in a Blu-ray box set instead of picking them up

one at a time, I could not resist picking up this newly released Deluxe Edition

 DVD box set limited to 50,000 copies. It comes with a collectible Jason

Voorhees hockey mask.The mask is small and not movie accurate, but it is pretty cool. The box looks just great on the shelf and I have no self-control.

Hey, I know this is boring to most folks, but somewhere out

there, there is an F13 geek (like myself) who is falling in love with me.

I see this "sculpture" every time I drive by this antique store. It
looks like a tin guy tied to the top of a table, then left on
the front lawn for passersby to gawk at. I wonder if the creator

 of the sculpture is still into sadomasochism.

Hey, that's what I see when I look at it.
Don't judge me.

For those of you who have ever heard of IN-N-OUT© Burger

but don't have one in your neck of the woods and wondered

just what in the heck they look like, well, this is it.

A Double Double Burger and an order of fries.

I don't know if they live up to the legend, but

they are pretty good.

You can see by the street in front of the Best Buy store that

we received some welcomed (to me) cooler weather and a bit

of rain. Not too much rain, just enough to be nice.

And above is the movie I have been wanting since I saw it

in the theater. SCREAM 4. I had it pre-ordered and yep, tonight it's on.

...and one more Blu-ray that I've really been wanting. This movie freaks me out.

The erotic visuals and violence in Brian De Palma's

Dressed To Kill is ultra. Brian De Palma is one

of my favorite directors.

One thing is for sure: It's October, baby.

A typical day in Los Angeles.

Okay, so I know I've had photos of this stretch

of freeway before, but I like the view.

This is an up close and personal of "Sweet Tooth".

He's a 7 inch action figure of an (apparently) totally INSANE character from (I think)

a game for the Playstation 3. I don't know for sure, I just like this figure.

I would play with a PS3 if I had the money or the time.

But I have not that much of either, so that's that.

Spotted in the parking place next to me.

A fitting beginning to the season says I.