Amy H. Sturgis's Blog, page 170

1 Day Until Halloween

I Finally Meet Severus Snape!
Ladies and gentlemen, Lenoir-Rhyne University's Harry Potter Fest 2010 was a fantastic success.


I can't say enough good things about this week. My lecture on Monday, John Granger's lecture on Thursday, and our joint Q&A session on Friday were all extremely well attended. It was a joy to see John again and catch up with him and his exciting work in person, celebrate the publication of Harry Potter Smart Talk , and meet gods_lil_rocker at last.

It seemed like everybody was involved, and some of the best costumes came from the university faculty and administration, as you can see from Molly Weasley and Sirius Black:



Yesterday afternoon brought two spectacular hours of quidditch, with matches between faculty/staff, university students, and then community K-12 students and preschoolers. Here are three of the young Harry Potters who went on to make a real difference on the quidditch field:



On the whole, I believe the Slytherins won the most games, but a good time was had by all. A large number of community members also came just to watch and cheer.

The evening began with a K-12 costume contest. Luna Lovegood won the show. Here she is, with Draco Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange:



The week ended last night with a rocking two-and-a-half-hour concert by The Blibbering Humdingers and Gred and Forge. (Unfortunately, it was a bit too dark outside for my pictures to turn out well. *sigh*) Highlights, in my personal opinion, included "Nobody Expects the Blibbering Humdingers," the title song from the BH's new album (which I purchased), "History of Magic" by Gred and Forge, and a joint performance by both bands of the classic Harry and the Potters tune "Save Ginny Weasley."

If you'd just like to check out the great costumes and quidditch action, here's a slideshow of my photos:



Text of the Day: Ladies and gentlemen, Halloween is... tomorrow! Can you believe it? To put you in the mood, I offer "Harbingers of Unimagined Horrors" by Nicholas Gordon (1940-present).

Harbingers of unimagined horrors,
Avatars of those who rule the night,
Lurking in the shallows of our shadows
Like fish that lack the lungs to breathe the light;
Omens from an almanac of sorrows
Written on a midnight long ago,
Etched into the mirrors of our marrows,
Ever masks for what we dare not know:
Now revel with us till the cocks thrice crow!

2 Days Until Halloween

Another gargoyle on Tulsa's Philtower
Buckle up, folks. Today's countdown post is a... well, it's a ride.

I posted earlier this month about my hometown, vampyres, and how both are related to one of my current writing projects. Well, in my online rambles connected with this I've come across a few more links and thoughts I'd like to share that seem fitting for the Halloween season.

If I had heard the news before, I didn't really take it in, but now I realize at last that Bell's Amusement Park has closed after fifty-five years in Tulsa. This place was the setting of many of my father's company picnics, my friends' birthday parties, and spillover fun from the state fair. Being both introverted and acrophobic, I'm not the first person you might think of as an amusement park type of gal, but nonetheless I have many very fond memories of Bell's. Fortunately, it sounds like the owners are planning to relocate in the area and rebuild. Here's the latest news.

I feel tremendous gratitude and affection for the times I had at Bell's. And I realize it all comes down to my favorite ride there, a place that's taken on near-mythic proportions in my memory.

I'm referring to the Phantasmagoria:




Born only two years after I was, the ride (designed by the legendary Bill Tracy) was meant to disorient and then, of course, to terrify. One of my favorite parts included descending slowly down what seemed like a mine shaft with only ghostly pale wooden beams visible bracing the walls. As you neared the bottom, one of the beams appeared to crack above your head and then collapse, threatening to bury you alive. In another section, you rode on in absolute darkness until, suddenly, an oncoming bus appeared a mere arm's length away, blaring its headlights blindingly and blaring its shrill horn. Of course, giant skulls, lunging mummies, and large rats played their roles, as well. The key to the ride was the fact you caught only glimpses of things (except that bus); everything around you was pitch black. Just about the time your eyes began to adjust, the car wheeled you out into the daylight for a few seconds, only to plunge you back into the blackness. When you're five years old (okay, or fifteen, or fifty), that's awesome.

The last time I rode the Phantasmagoria was on a trip back to Tulsa when I was in college. I went with a high school pal of mine, and as I recall, we made it our first stop and then rode it several times in a row. At that point it had been a constant in my life, visited several times a year, for at least fifteen years. It was like seeing an old, dear friend... you know, complete with a few screaming skeletons.
Today I'm remembering it, not saying goodbye. Thanks for helping me.


Here's a picture of the Phantasmagoria's debut in 1973 from the Tulsa Tribune:




Related Links Well Worth Visiting

Laff in the Dark has a special feature on the Phantasmagoria here, written before its dismantling. While it doesn't capture the darkened "feel" of the ride, because the pictures were taken with a flash, the tribute is still a terrific gift to those of us who remember and loved the ride.

Secret Fun Blog has an excellent post here with more photos and some fascinating behind-the-scenes information: "Secrets of the Phantasmagoria." See also the related article "Phantasmagoria Remembered."

Here's a post on the ride's layout: "I rode the Phantasmagoria."

This site is a tribute to Bill Tracy, the ride's creator, "the greatest designer and builder of dark attractions the amusement industry has ever seen."

Videos can't hope to capture the "feel" of the ride, but at least two individuals have done their best to record the experience anyway. There are YouTube videos of the Phantasmagoria here and here.

For many poignant posts, including a tribute to the dismantled Bell's Amusement Park, read the Lost Tulsa blog.

Open the first PDF file on this page to view Abandoned Tulsa, the book.


Text of the Day: Today's text is a Halloween favorite of mine, "Oil and Blood" by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939).

In tombs of gold and lapis lazuli
Bodies of holy men and women exude
Miraculous oil, odour of violet.

But under heavy loads of trampled clay
Lie bodies of the vampires full of blood;
Their shrouds are bloody and their lips are wet.

3 Days Until Halloween

Thanks to lizziebelle for today's wonderful picture!

From Fantasy Magazine: "The Top Ten Hammer Films to Horrify You This Halloween."


I thought this was a Halloween-appropriate offering from xkcd:




Text of the Day: For the gentler side of Halloween, here's "Theme in Yellow" by Carl Sandburg (1878-1967).

I Spot the hills
With yellow balls in autumn.
I light the prairie cornfields
Orange and tawny gold clusters
And I am called pumpkins.
On the last of October
When dusk is fallen
Children join hands
And circle round me
Singing ghost songs
And love to the harvest moon;
I am a jack-o'-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know
I am fooling.

4 Days Until Halloween

Let's kick things off with some Halloween-related links:
* Beginning on Halloween day, Dark Fiction Magazine will be launching a monthly magazine of audio short stories.
* From GalleyCat: "Powell's Books to Sell 7,000 Books from Private Library of Anne Rice."
* From Top Tenz: "Top Ten Funny Zombie Movie Moments."
* From Topless Robot: "Twenty Awesome Horror Anthology Movies."

Here is an atmospheric picture for your Wednesday. I find it beautiful and haunting and otherworldly, and I hope you enjoy it, too.




Thanks to Someecards for putting things in perspective.




Text of the Day: I present "Haunted!" by Isabella Banks (1821-1897). May it give you a chill!

And so, it is said, you are haunted!
My friend, we are haunted all;
And every homestead holds a ghost
That ever has held a pall.

Do you think that the empty cradle
Has never a ghost within?
Or the unused nursery table
Hears never a ghostly din?

Think you there is never a patter
Of unseen feet on the floor?
Or that never a voiceless clamour
Floats in through the garden door?

Is there ever a maid or widow
Whose love lies under a stone,
Who holds not a ghost to her aching heart,
To cherish and call her own?

Is there ever a grey-haired beauty
Looks not in her glass to see,
No time-worn face, but the phantom form
Of the belle she was wont to be?

Was there ever a wretch abandoned,
A waif from the hour of birth,
Whose unknown mother was not to him
A ghost on the dreary earth?

Could there ever be man or woman,
Facing through lane or street,
Who could not extend an open hand
Some shadowy friend to greet?

Could there ever be man or woman
So lonely and loveless through life,
Was never haunted by kith or kin,
Spirit of peace or strife?

Could there ever be human being
With heart so narrow and small
That never a ghost could hide therein,
To waken at Memory's call?

There are some with vision beclouded
Who see not all that they might;
And some, of a finer essence born,
Who see with the inner sight.

To these the past hath its phantoms,
More real than solid earth;
And to these death does not mean decay,
But only another birth.

5 Days Until Halloween

* For some perfect October reading, check out darkdestination , an online travel guide to the mysterious and macabre. Filled with eerie pictures and descriptions of creepy places, this blog is ideal for the season!

* Mad-Monsters Movie Trailers is great fun. Watch the movie trailers of classic old horror films on your computer! Be sure to look around the rest of the site, as well.


Here's a truly spooky fan video made by Dustin from the 1934 Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi film The Black Cat and set the to the wonderfully chilling song "The New Zero" by Rasputina. Watch this to be reminded that Halloween doesn't get any better than Karloff and Lugosi in all of their fiendish, black and white glory.




Text of the Day: Today's verse is the eerie "All Soul's Eve" (1920) by Darl Macleod Boyle.

The evening is dark, and the sky is misty, and the wind blows low:
O wind, cease swaying the bare, bare branches, bending them to and fro,
They look too like ghosts in the pale moonlight,
Ah, too like ghosts in the dusky night,
When ghosts glide to and fro!

O ghosts not laid, and ghosts forgotten, and the ghosts of the evil dead,
Why will ye come to sear my heart, when I thought ye had gone and fled,
Why do ye come on this night of the year,
Does it ease your pain to behold my fear,
Since all is done and said?

6 Days Until Halloween

Happy Monday! It's our last Monday of the countdown. How quickly the month passes.

First, here's your spooky picture for the day.




Next, for your Monday enjoyment, I recommend a visit to Rebecca's Realm, a wonderful collection of Gothic cartoons that, as you can see, capture the Halloween spirit.




Text of the Day: Now here's a truly frightening piece of fiction: the short story "The Creature from Cleveland Depths" by Fritz Leiber (1910-1992). This tale might be scarier today, in fact, than when it was written. I think you'll see what I mean.

Teaser:
On the scarred black tabletop was a dully gleaming silvery object about the size and shape of a cupped hand with fingers merging. A tiny pellet on a short near-invisible wire led off from it. On the back was a punctured area suggesting the face of a microphone; there was also a window with a date and time in hours and minutes showing through and next to that four little buttons in a row. The concave underside of the silvery "hand" was smooth except for a central area where what looked like two little rollers came through.

"It goes on your shoulder under your shirt," Fay explained, "and you tuck the pellet in your ear. We might work up bone conduction on a commercial model."

Read the complete story here.
Listen to an unabridged reading of the story here via Maria Lectrix.

7 Days Until Halloween

Virginia is a Jack-O'-Lantern!
Every year, my parents send their granddog, the fabulous Virginia, a Halloween costume for her to wear (as well as treats to bribe her to model for pictures). The latest arrived last week. As you can see, this year she's transformed from a Boston Terrier into a Jack-O'-Lantern.
















As always, you can see more pictures of Virginia here.

Text of the Day: In honor of the start of Harry Potter Fest 2010 tomorrow, here's a poem originally written for but later edited out of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This is "The Ballad of Nearly Headless Nick" by J.K. Rowling (1965-present).

It was a mistake any wizard could make
Who was tired and caught on the hop
One piffling error, and then, to my terror,
I found myself facing the chop.

Alas for the eve when I met Lady Grieve
A-strolling the park in the dusk!
She was of the belief I could straighten her teeth
Next moment she'd sprouted a tusk.

I cried through the night that I'd soon put her right
But the process of justice was lax;
They'd brought out the block, though they'd mislaid the rock
Where they usually sharpened the axe.

Read the rest of the poem here.

8 Days Until Halloween

Ladies and gentlemen, there's not long to go now. The big day approaches!

Thanks to everyone who took part in It's still open, if you'd like to participate.

Happy early birthday wishes to bookwoman2009 , jinjifore , edroxy , lindajsingleton , xtrustisyoursx , and John Granger. May each of you enjoy many happy returns of the day.

Via ankh_hpl : The Science Fiction Poetry Association's annual Halloween poetry reading page is up now, with audio selections from dark poets plus accompanying spooky artwork. What's not to love?

Thanks to cookiefleck for this haunting photo. Look at those details! (Click for a larger version.)





Text of the Day: Obviously what this countdown needs is a little more Emily Dickinson (1830-1886).

"The Only Ghost I Ever Saw"

The only ghost I ever saw
Was dressed in mechlin, -- so;
He wore no sandal on his foot,
And stepped like flakes of snow.
His gait was soundless, like the bird,
But rapid, like the roe;
His fashions quaint, mosaic,
Or, haply, mistletoe.

His conversation seldom,
His laughter like the breeze
That dies away in dimples
Among the pensive trees.
Our interview was transient,--
Of me, himself was shy;
And God forbid I look behind
Since that appalling day!


"One Need Not Be A Chamber To Be Haunted"

One need not be a chamber to be haunted,
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.

Far safer, of a midnight meeting
External ghost,
Than an interior confronting
That whiter host.

Far safer through an Abbey gallop,
The stones achase,
Than, moonless, one's own self encounter
In lonesome place.

Ourself, behind ourself concealed,
Should startle most;
Assassin, hid in our apartment,
Be horror's least.

The prudent carries a revolver,
He bolts the door,
O'erlooking a superior spectre
More near.

9 Days Until Halloween & A Poll

The Harry Potter Fest 2010 at Lenoir-Rhyne University is coming up next week, and as promised, I'm back with a schedule of events.

For my lecture on Monday, and the quidditch match and wizard rock concert on Friday, I will be dressed as a Ravenclaw student, as you can see. I'm also considering this my Halloween costume for the year.




There are various events every day on campus for the students, including film viewings, costume contests, and special wizarding menus in the school cafeteria. These events below, however, are the ones I'm free to disclose to the off-campus Muggle world:

Monday, Oct. 25
My presentation: "Who's Afraid of J.K. Rowling? Harry Potter's 'Appropriate' Readership"
9:20am, Belk Centrum

Thursday, Oct. 28
John Granger 's presentation: "An Evening with John Granger"
7pm, Belk Centrum

Friday, Oct. 29
Presentation with John Granger and me: "Who's Saying What About Harry Potter and Why?"
9:20am, Bear's Lair

Quidditch Match
3pm, Russell House Lawn

Wizard Rock Concert
with The Blibbering Humdingers and Gred and Forge
6:30pm, Russell House Lawn

The new book Harry Potter Smart Talk is also available now. Believe it or not, this is relevant to Halloween. Two of the chapters are transcriptions of my guest appearance on last year's Halloween episodes of the Potter Pundits discussing Harry Potter as Gothic literature.


As for my costume, here's another view, with a closeup of my beloved prop. This raises a question: are you dressing up this year? If so, what as? And what's your favorite costume of all time?

View Poll: Halloween Costumes

Pictures are welcome in the comments section, too!


And now back to our regularly scheduled countdown…

Text of the Day: I hope you enjoy "Lady Button-Eyes" by Eugene Field (1850-1895).

When the busy day is done,
And my weary little one
Rocketh gently to and fro;
When the night winds softly blow,
And the crickets in the glen
Chirp and chirp and chirp again;
When upon the haunted green
Fairies dance around their queen—
Then from yonder misty skies
Cometh Lady Button-Eyes.

Through the murk and mist and gloam
To our quiet, cozy home,
Where to singing, sweet and low,
Rocks a cradle to and fro;
Where the clock's dull monotone
Telleth of the day that's done;
Where the moonbeams hover o'er
Playthings sleeping on the floor—
Where my weary wee one lies
Cometh Lady Button-Eyes.

Cometh like a fleeting ghost
From some distant eerie coast;
Never footfall can you hear
As that spirit fareth near—
Never whisper, never word
From that shadow-queen is heard.
In ethereal raiment dight,
From the realm of fay and sprite
In the depth of yonder skies
Cometh Lady Button-Eyes.

Layeth she her hands upon
My dear weary little one,
And those white hands overspread
Like a veil the curly head,
Seem to fondle and caress
Every little silken tress;
Then she smooths the eyelids down
Over those two eyes of brown—
In such soothing, tender wise
Cometh Lady Button-Eyes.

Dearest, feel upon your brow
That caressing magic now;
For the crickets in the glen
Chirp and chirp and chirp again,
While upon the haunted green
Fairies dance around their queen,
And the moonbeams hover o'er
Playthings sleeping on the floor—
Hush, my sweet! from yonder skies
Cometh Lady Button-Eyes!

10 Days Until Halloween

Here are some links for your Thursday:
* From Boston.com: "The Top 20 Zombie Movies of All Time."
* From Oxford American: "Ten Great Novels of the Apocalypse."
* From io9: "When Americans Remake Foreign Horror Films: The Report Card."
* Frankensteinia has a great list of collections featuring stories related to or inspired by Frankenstein here.
* I am very excited about the new collection Jason Sizemore has edited: check out the Table of Contents for Dark Futures: Tales of SF Dystopia.


What can I say? This certainly seems bizarre, eerie, and speculative enough to fit perfectly in a Halloween-themed countdown. Did Charlie Chaplin catch a time traveler on film?

What do you think?




Text of the Day: Today we have, for your chills and thrills, the short story "Spawn of the Stars" by Charles Willard Diffin (1884-1966).

Teaser: "The Earth lay powerless beneath those loathsome, yellowish monsters that, sheathed in cometlike globes, sprang from the skies to annihilate man and reduce his cities to ashes."

Read the complete story here.