As a matter of segue, I happen to be a big fan of October. I like to read scary books in October and I like to listen to scary music in October and I like to eat scary food in October (see our post from 11.8.10) and I like to put up scary decorations in October. I love the changing of the leaves and the crisping of the air and the glorious combination of melancholy and ripeness. Oh, what the heck. Here's a poem:
To Autumn
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
For my scary book last year I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and it was AWESOME. The book is completely different from the pop-culture version in a refreshingly philosophical kind of way. This year I'm reading Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Natalie and I have also checked out some books from the library including an illustrated guide to the paranormal and a book of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
(The illustrations by Stephen Gammell are a zillion times scarier than the actual stories)
So, anyways. October is fun and Halloween is also fun. And can you guess what else is fun? Music. Which finally brings be to the impetus for this post: Tuesday Tunes. Early in the summer I had the exciting idea to make a mix of songs with Halloween-related themes and you will find below the end result of my efforts. I wanted to make a playlist of songs on horror and/or paranormal subjects that people might not automatically associate with Halloween. I knew there had to be more out there than "Monster Mash," "Thriller," and "Purple People Eater." I also wanted to make a list of songs that might be worth listening to all year, should one be so inclined to celebrate horror/paranormal themes beyond the month of October. It was really hard narrowing the list down to 80 minutes (the arbitrary length of CDs originally based on Beethoven's 9th Symphony) and there were some honorable mentions that might possibly grace some future Tuesday Tunes episodes for your listening pleasure and overall edification.
UPDATED: Halloween Mix 2012 on Spotify
Unfortunately a few of the songs on the YouTube list aren't on the Spotify list because those songs aren't available on Spotify. Sorry for the inconvenience. Any complaints may be submitted in the comments section below.
Enjoy! Please comment below with any songs like these that you'd like to share!
the stars definitely sounds familiar..cough cough natnat... love the playlist!! thanks brenden!!
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