I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MINISTRY-“(Every Day Is) Halloween” (1984).

Ministry is now known for being/industrial band.  But before the first album of that ilk, he played a kind of industrial dance music.  Even though I love Ministry’s heavier noisier stuff, I have a huge soft spot for this song and all of the music from Chicago’s WaxTrax records.

I also love that this song get regular airplay (especially at Halloween) and makes all kinds of Halloween Top Ten song lists (who knew such things existed).

In addition to the song being incredibly catchy and surprisingly dancey, there’s a really fun “scratching” solo in the middle of the song.

Al Jorgensen may not like this song anymore, but it’s a favorite for me.

[READ: October 22, 2018] “The Striding Place”

Just in time for Halloween, from the people who brought me The Short Story Advent Calendar and The Ghost Box. comes Ghost Box II.

This is once again a nifty little box (with a magnetic opening and a ribbon) which contains 11 stories for Halloween.  It is lovingly described thusly:

The Ghost Box returns, like a mummy or a batman, to once again make your pupils dilate and the hair on your arms stand straight up—it’s another collection of individually bound scary stories, edited and introduced by comedian and spooky specialist Patton Oswalt.

There is no explicit “order” to these books; however, Patton Oswalt will be reviewing a book a day on his Facebook page.

Much respect to Oswalt, but I will not be following his order.  So there.

I often wonder if stories like this, where a 21st century reader pretty much knows what’s going to happen pretty early on, were novel and unexpected when they were written (in this case over 100 years ago).

Weigall is a gentleman going grouse hunting.  But the hunting is poor and the ladies are boring. It’s not been a great a day.

Weigall’s mind is elsewhere, too.  His companion and chum, Wyatt Gifford, disappeared two days ago.

Wyatt had been having a great time with them–shooting, making love, making all the women swoon at him. Weigall refused to believe that Wyatt was dead.  He knew that Wyatt was a practical joker and this must have been one of those jokes.

Wyatt was also philosophical.  He and Weigall often discussed the mind and body, sprints and the soul.  Wyatt believed that he soul lingers in the body after death.  He said, “If I had my way I should stay inside my bones until the coffin had gone into its niche.”

As Weigall wandered the grounds deep in thought, he was sure he saw something in the river.  It seemed to be struggling against the current and, upon closer look, was four fingers,

Weigall rushed down to rescue the man.  The body clung to the branch that Weigall threw into the water and slowly the man came in from the water.

The story ends dramatically, with the last line of a paragraph–somehow it’s even more shocking that it’s not a separate line.

I’m impressed that it could end in such a way.  And even though I feel like I knew what was going to happen, I was unprepared for the way it resolved.

Great stuff.