Movie Magic and Movie Appreciation A Whole Family Can Love....

Lately, well...since October...I've been watching a lot of classic films on the TCM channel. I really love old films...I guess I should use "old" in a certain way..maybe a little more, let's see, what's the word....diplomatic way..."old" is after all, a state of mind and pertaining to perspective. What may be "old" to me, may still be something quite recent or current for others, at least in memory. 

I got side-tracked there...what I am trying to say is that I have been watching a lot of "vintage" movies of late.

October is dedicated to Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Peter Cushing and many more, in my opinion.

I set the DVR (the one piece of technology I absolutely and unequivocally love) to record Vincent Price and other horror masters in October...since it was a classic fright fest on TCM and some other channels. 

I had a blast watching them all, I still have a few more in the DVR I need to watch.

Edward and I watched a Vincent Price film entitled "The Story of Mankind."

What a fantastic and hilarious movie!

Vincent Price plays the Devil and I LOVE him as the Devil!

Click on the picture above to read about the movie.

Edward and I loved this movie and we laughed our asses off several times at the Devil's comments.

Let's see, I enjoyed some other Vincent Price films, including:

"The Mad Magician", "House on Haunted Hill", "The Big Circus", to name a few.

I have more in the DVR that I am planning on watching.

Vincent Price was a skilled and highly accomplished actor with 199 acting credits.

That's amazing!

For our October Classic Film Fright Fest...we also watched: The Beast Must Die" from 1974. Peter Cushing stars in the film and I thought it would be good...but it was kind of a black-panther-Shaft-esque feel to it that really kind of made it a dud for me. I will say that Peter Cushing was excellent as the "Werewolf Expert."

Natalie and I enjoyed some non-horror flicks as well, we especially liked (I should say loved)

"You Were Never Lovelier" with Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth. What a classy, sassy, fun-filled, song and dance swinging time!

"You Were Never Lovelier" (1942)

Here's Natalie's and my new favorite new song, it's called "The Shorty George."

The Shorty George

Let's see...what else have we watched...OH! I just finished a film last night called "Quo Vadis" from 1951.

Peter Ustinov played Nero...and he was AWESOME!

Leo Genn really stole the show though as Petronius, with his wit and sarcasm he was really impressive as Nero's "closest friend and advisor."

Click the picture above to read about the movie.

I really enjoyed it and for the 50's it was ahead of it's time and really set things up for the more modern stories about Rome, like "Gladiator", "Rome" and "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" series.

When I'm not watching classic movies, I'm listening to music. At night I've been sticking with nocturnes, harpsichord, pipe organ and cello music, as well as, Gregorian Chants.

I must be going through a phase or something because I'm reading Emily Post's "Etiquette" book from 1965.

(another freebie book find!)

So..that's it.

Hope you all have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving!

Many Blessings to you and yours!

TTFN

Harvest Fair, Autumn Air, Spooks and Ghosties Everywhere!

Autumnal Cheers!

Been a busy bee...between outdoor adventures, home schooling and Halloween...it's been crazy.

Wait....what? It's November?

Dang...I am running behind. I was just getting used to it being October.

Mid-October Grandma took Natalie and her friend, Christopher, out to Seven Oaks Farm to enjoy the fun harvest time goodies out there.

Caitlin wasn't up for going so it was just Natalie and Christopher.

From the look of the pictures they had fun.

The got to go on a hayride, pick out pumpkins, feed and pet the farm animals, get their faces painted, pose for silly pictures, decorate (and eat) a cookie, run in a corn maze/haunted house..and general Fall type of fun and frivolity.

Here's some pictures:

Next year I'm going with them...cause it looks like fun!

I want to stick my head in all those wooden cut outs..and make hilarious faces!

Natalie and I went on a walk around our neighborhood the other day and we took lots of pictures of the fall colors...so here they are:

From the pictures it looks like we live in a nice area...sadly, it's not the case.

Union Park is in a really bad part of town not far from us. It's really rundown and there's a lot of, let's just say...questionable characters that lurk down there.

I was trying to take pictures of the pretty fall colors to show you...so I think I did okay there.

Natalie and I found an oak tree in the park and gathered up some more acorns and we found the caps for them..so now we can make more acorn people necklaces! Woot!

We did finish out leaf mobiles from the leaves, twigs and pine cones we gathered on our field trip.

Here's what they look like:

(Thanks Grandma for helping us with the wax paper and ironing part!)

As the Witching Hour was drawing near...Natalie wanted to carve her pumpkin.

So...taking it upon herself and one of the neighbor boys, Brandon, they began carving their pumpkins outside.

We had lots of pumpkin carving designs, so we just shared what we had.

I took pictures of Natalie carving her pumpkin and even our cat Squeaky pitched in to help...well..he supervised the going's on.

Here is Squeaky supervising the carving:

He went so far as to stick his head in the pumpkins when the kids were cleaning out the guts and seeds.

I was waiting for him to say "What?! No tuna?"

They had fun carving their pumpkins...although Natalie complained that her pumpkin looked more like a lemur or a koala bear than Gizmo from Gremlins.

LOL!

Sadly I didn't get any pictures of the pumpkins..Natalie and Caitlin's pumpkins started to rot quickly as we have had really warm days but witch titty cold nights!

So the poor ol' pumpkins didn't hold up for long.

We DID have fun on Halloween!

Edward was off, so he helped me take Caitlin and Natalie trick or treating.

We had dinner at Grandma & Grandpa's house,

(Thanks for the grub Mom!)

although....the chili was kind of a mistake..especially with Natalie, Ed and I!

We should have gone as hazardous waste...cause we sure smelled like it by the time trick or treating started.

LOL!

After we ate dinner, I helped the girls get in their costumes...Natalie was a neon orange witch and Caitlin was her black cat....and me...well I decided to dress up too..and brought out my trusted Anne Rice Vampire gear.

Here's a picture of us:

Scary...huh?

It was fun, but the girls pooped out early and after walking around door-to-door for candy.

Caitlin is almost 6 foot tall..and people are starting to question her trick or treating age.

It's really hard to tell Caitlin she can't go trick or treating cause she's too old for it...she just doesn't understand it.

I told Ed and Natalie that we are going to just start having Halloween parties..instead of going trick or treating.

Mom (Grandma) reminisced with me about Halloweens gone by...and she told me and the girls how her parents always had a Halloween party and dressed up and all their friends and neighbors would come all dressed up in costumes...and they had a great party.

How her Mom (my Grandmother aka GG) would make costumes for her and Grandpa Eddie each year.

One year they were a caveman and cave woman couple and I've seen the picture of Grandpa Eddie dressed as a pirate (including the eye patch cause he had a glass eye,,,Aarrggghhh!) and Grandma was Brunhilda Viking Babe from the North, complete with horn helmet, spear and big, pre-Xena boobie armor!

LOL!

So that's what we've been up too..

the girls have been on a sugar high for the past few days....and it's starting to wear off...so they went to bed early tonight all pooped out.

I guess that's all for now..I am sure there are things I forgot to mention, tell or relate...oh well.

I guess that will have to be for next time.

TTFN!