Happy Halloween

It was with some surprise that I noticed it's been five years since I posted something on Halloween in this semi-dormant blog of mine. Tempus fugit, indeed. Well, maybe not to our cherished muse, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She irradiates such immortal beauty. Oh, Elvira, tempus fugit, forma manet. So here it is: Happy Halloween folks. 

What the Future Brings

 

So the wheel of time keeps turning, and once more there comes the painful time when one must look back into his past achievements and take measure of his worth. And, looking back over my shoulder, blog-wise, there’s not much to be seen… nor to be said. Just the vast empty space of posts unwritten, the silent digital wasteland of unfulfilled ideas, of promises unkept. As one year dissolves into another in the vertiginous movement of our rock around the sun, again there seems to be a springtime of the mind. A whispered promise that everything will be different this time. Will it? Or will it be just the same newfound impetus, bound to die on the first confrontation with the empty sheet of virtual paper on screen? Does it matter? To anyone but me? Will 2022 be just 2021 with a new coat of paint? Let’s wait and see. Let us brave it, and find out. Welcome to the new year.

Happy Halloween

I don't know why, but every Halloween makes me long for House of Sin's cherished muse: Elvira. Sensuality and a hot moonlit night. That's Halloween. Share the moon, folks! Share the moon!

Neglected House

Holly Ghost, Sherman, what have you done? This is a mess. And such a beautiful and sinful house… Shame on you, Sherman. Four years of neglect.

Hell… Hellvira… I… I mean, Elvira. Gosh, you’re right.  How did that happen? It seems like yesterday when I was full of ideas and projects, and… hey, mind where you step!

 
Damn, Sherman, I almost broke my ankle.  

A shapely ankle I might add. As I was saying… hell… I guess time flies.

Time flies? That’s rich. Is that all you have to say? Can’t you come up with some better excuse? Say, were you in a coma? Were you hit by a hearse while crossing the street at a crossroads in the midnight hour? I bet the few readers you might have had were all thinking you’d croaked. 

Well, you know… I… How shall I say this? I was trying to write a novel. You know. Every blogger wants to be a writer. 

 A novel?! A lousy novel? What a disappointment  Sherman. I thought you had a little more originality in you. Come on. Who needs another novel? The road to Hell is paved with lousy novels. The devil uses them to fire the furnaces. And they don’t even give that much heat, you know? Oh, well. How’s it called? 

Errrr…. I didn’t finish it. It didn’t go beyond a draft…  



…! Sherman, did you made a pact with the devil? Did he promise you eternal life? Eternal youth? He must have, for you to waste all that time on drafts… Say, speaking of drafts, it’s kinda cold in here. Why don’t you light up that book of yours and start cleaning this mess. Maybe you still can do something with your life, yet. And quit staring at my cleavage, you pervert.

I’m sorry, Elvira. Just thinking about what could I post here next.

That’s the spirit. Now, this time, try to keep the house clean and treat your guests as they deserve. You know, they won’t wait for you forever… Writing a novel… Pshush… Another Norman Mailer we need not.

Yeah, you’re right Elvira. I’ll try to do it right this time. There are so many damsels to corrupt, so many bodices to be ripped, so many boobies to…

I’ve already told you to stop staring at my breasts. Now, be a good boy and start cleaning this up. If you behave, I might help you with those spiderwebs.

Gosh, thanks Elvira. That would be really nice.

This Sherman. He’s such an airhead. But deep down inside he’s a really nice guy. So, why don’t you give the guy another chance, eh?

Happy Halloween!

About a week before Halloween, I couldn’t help but feel delighted reading all those wonderful blogs that embark on a now traditional October Halloween countdown. I must confess that I particularly appreciate this special festivity where demons threat to tear through the flimsy walls of our imagination and run amok among us. Hailing from a country with no such tradition, in a way I feel that I enjoy Halloween even more, although in a mediated fashion through movies, novels and comic books. Safe from the inevitable perks of the real experience, I can live Halloween as a constant joy ride of dark frisson.

As I grew up without such an holyday, I tend to have a loose memory of this time of the year, associating it with the plethora of national holydays clustered around the months of October-December that I did enjoy while living in Portugal: October the 5^th, November the 1^st and December the 1^st and the 8^th were all national festivities. Cold and rainy days that I spent at home watching the GROOVIE GHOULIES and SCOOBY-DO on television, or reading SWAMP THING comic books by Bernie Wrihtson and Len Wein.

For me this time of year will forever be associated with 70s horror icons, with go-go boots, mini-skirts, wide belts, gothic castles, muddy and winding roads and lost young tourists seeking shelter in cob-webbed sinister abodes.

And so, each year, I spend Halloween watching groovy movies: BEHIND LOCKED DOORS (1968), TERROR AT ORGY CASTLE (1971), LA LLAMADA DEL VAMPIRO (1971), LA ORGIA NOCTURNA DE LOS VAMPIROS (1972) or EL JOVENCITO DRACULA (1977) all get a spin from my DVD player, alongside Hammer classics and old forties spokies. On recent years I’ve found a strange and eerie fascination with ELVIRA, MISTRESS OF THE DARK (1987) as a symbol of Halloween, a strange mix of October thrills and late summer nights, dry leaves and polyester cobwebs, a promise of sexy frills and wonderful horrific FUN.

So, have fun all you partiers. Happy Halloween!

A new beginning

And so, dear readers (if really there's anyone out there), from now on my humble blog will thread under a new name. The reason for the change? Well, I just thought I was in need of a new beginning, after almost a complete year of near inactivity.

The aim of it will still be the same: to explore the darkest fantasies of the male psyche. Or, if one does not want to sound very presumptuous, just to let ourselves be drawn by the strange and exciting allure of the feminine body and mind in danger. Sexual danger.

And what better image to convey the complex web of contradictions, dark sexual charisma, and power of the threatened female than this publicity photo of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (Cassandra Petersen)? She's imprisoned in a dark and forbidding dungeon (doesn't blue lighting and fake smoke work wonders when one wants to build an oppresive atmosphere?), arms shackled and extended above her head (exposing her vulnerability by the way her breasts are thrust forward, threatening to spill out of her low cut gown), subject to the whims of whoever has captured her. And yet... the look on her eyes; the hauteur. Defying, demanding, indifferent to danger. That's the true power of the undiminished female hero.

We Men may want to possess her, we may force ourselves upon her... we may even rape her... but she is, and still will be a creature of power.

And we, her humble subjects.