Fall ... the leaves drop, the days start to grow cold and short, and politicians roam the earth. Scary stuff indeed.
Halloween is almost here, and the election is four days later. I put up the decorations last weekend: the full-size skeleton in the living-room, the realistic bat in the corner, the big furry spiders on the windows. Haven't found a John McCain mask yet, but I'm sure I can find one out there somewhere. Still, the neighborhood has changed; ten years ago I would have stashes of candy for the drunken college kids next door who would go door-to-door, beer-in-hand. Now the candy is for the families with young kids, who begin arriving before sundown and keep appearing until nine o'clock. This year, I've decided to go on a chocolate-candy binge: Milky Way bars, Junior Mints, chocolate peanut-butter pumpkins. Send the kids into their own sugary ADHD orbit. Now, that's scary.
The card of Ronald Reagan (above) showed up at the TV station in 1993. The flip advertised a postcard club show in Atlanta, but the postcard itself is one of those images that has a strange, otherworldly quality about it: is it the oddly-bent flag? Reagan's resolute gaze? Seldom has an American politician looked so ... unsettling. There's a small photo of the artist, Morris Katz, on the back of the card, as well as a credit to the Guinness Book of World Records, so I'm not really sure what's going on here, but the overall effect is fairly chilling, somehow.
Apparently even the corporate world understands how spooky politics can be; the other day I opened my mailbox to find this postcard of a smiling Dick Cheney peering back at me. Even mobile phone offers now emphasize the politics-is-personal hook: "Sorry to say, but AT&T's political-action committee contributed the maximum amount allowable by law to the Bush/Cheney campaign -- twice. ... To get your phone in line with your values, get in touch ASAP."
Where's George W.? Apparently his poll numbers are sinking so fast that Vice President Cheney is the scarier G.O.P. figurehead at this point. Maybe the "V" in V.P. stands for "vampire": Mr. Cheney's been hanging around Washington since he served as Gerald Ford's chief-of-staff, in 1976.
Who better to pal around with a vampire than a zombie? This postcard is in a set of Hollywood horror movie cards (Plan 9 from Outer Space, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, etc.) given to me by Tom Hill. The stars! The horror! The low budgets! Produced by Val Lewton (The Cat People, The Cat Creeps), I Walked With a Zombie (1943) also provided a great title for a song by the legendary Texas musician, Roky Erickson, the original 13th Floor Elevator himself. Roky has a spooky history all by himself, too. The movie title provides the entire song lyric, a nice trick even a zombie can remember.
Vampires ... zombies ... bats. This card I got from sister Joan, "in the crispy north," a description which raises images of either a warm day in hell or (more likely in Minnesota) weather cold enough to freeze a nose off -- the perfect look for Halloween. And here's some Halloween art from young Sophie, age 4, showing some real talent: strong lines, figure-ground balance, and a fine appreciation of collage techniques.
Postcard: Sophie Marts, age 4Vampires, goblins and other creatures of the night will be out this Friday, and then the politicians have their chance to go for the jugular on Tuesday November 4. (Perhaps the superstitious can wield the power of the absentee ballot.) Stock up on the treats, beware of tricks and voting machine malfunctions, but most of all have fun -- if you dare!
1 comment:
WOW!! After just leaving the voting booth I came across this blog and that photo of Reagan scared the crap out of me.!!Thought I was having a flashback!!
Rick
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