I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: XTC-“The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead” (1992).

XTC is a wonderfully poppy and often quite subversive band.

This song is subversive in overall meaning, but pretty straightforward lyrically.

It’s also got some great guitar sounds.

The song starts with those guitars, a ripping harmonica and some big loud drums.

And then the lyrics mostly follow the idea that if Jesus came around preaching his ideas today, he’d be considered an enemy of everyone.

Peter Pumpkinhead came to town
Spreading wisdom and cash around
Fed the starving and housed the poor
Showed the Vatican what gold’s for

But he made too many enemies
Of the people who would keep us on our knees
Hooray for Peter Pumpkin

Peter Pumpkinhead fooled them all
Emptied churches and shopping malls
When he spoke, it would raise the roof
Peter Pumpkinhead told the truth

Andy Partridge’s delivery is pretty great, too.  The way he sings “slur his name” in the third verse is nicely dark.

There’s some nice pauses before the ringing guitar chords–especially in the final verse–which really emphasize those moments.

The final verse shows his ultimate fate:

Peter Pumpkinhead was too good
Had him nailed to a chunk of wood
He died grinning on live TV
Hanging there he looked a lot like you
And an awful lot like me!

Not a happy ending, but a really catchy song nonetheless.

[READ: October 15, 2019] Pumpkinheads

I haven’t read anything by Rainbow Rowell, but she is the author of Eleanor & Park which I am familiar with.  The art in this book is from Faith Erin Hicks, who I do know and like very much.

This book is set in the most magical autumnal playground that one can imagine: DeKnock’s World Famous Pumpkin Patch & Autumn Jamboree.  By my house we have farms that have corn mazes and pick your own pumpkins and hayrides.  But this place is almost like a Renaissance Faire devoted to autumn.  Although I suppose really, all of the special booths are food related: Pumpkin Bomb Stand; Kettle Corn Kettle; Chili Fries Stand; Poppy’s Apples; Fudge Shoppe; Freeto Pie Stop; S’Mores Pit and the Succotash Hut.

The Hut is where the two main characters Josiah and Deja work.  We learn that Josiah has been the patch’s MVP almost every month for the three years he’s worked there.  But tonight is their last night working at DeKnock’s.  Josiah frets it might be his last time ever seeing the place again!  He truly loves working there–the sights, the sounds, the smells and his autumn friend Deja.  Deja calms him: “we’re going to college, not to Mars.”  But Josiah know it won’t be the same when they come back.  So Deja sets out for them to have the most amazing Halloween ever.

Josiah is most upset because he has never spoken to the girl he has had a huge crush on for three years: The Fudge Girl.  Deja: “In three years, I feel like you could have come up with a better nickname…”  (Deja spends the rest of the book coming up with hilarious fudge-related nicknames).  Deja is frustrated with him–you’ve been mooning over her for three years, you can’t just never talk to her.”  Thus, on this last night, Deja has switched shifts so they are not at the Succotash Hut, they are at the Pie Palace which is right across from The Fudge Shoppe.  She even tells Josiah the Fudge Girls’ name: Marcy, but “Maybe don’t repeat her name dreamily like she’s just handed you the One Ring.

But when Josiah finally gets the nerve up to go  to the Fudge Shoppe–Marcy is not there.  She had an emergency to deal with at the S’mores Pit.  Josiah is ready to give up but Deja refuses to let him.  So they set off on an adventure through the Jamboree.  Deja realizes that she hasn’t tried all of the goodies for sale there (impossible, I say). So she is going to try and eat one of everything tonight while they search for Marcy.  She’s starting with the caramel apple.

On the way they run into Deja’s exes.  First there’s Jess, the sigher, a cute girl with long red hair.  She is sweet and earnest and more than a little dumb.

When they arrive at the s’more’s pit the scene is a madhouse  But Marcy isn’t there.  She is at the Kettle Corn Kettle helping out. We also learn that someone let Buck out from the petting zoo (the scenes of Buck chasing people and himself being chased by others are silent interstitials and they are hilarious.  I also love that chaos is going on all around them, but they are oblivious on their quest.

Deja introduces him to a pumpkin bomb (vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two wedges of pumpkin pie on a stick dipped in chocolate –holy cow).

On the way there, they meet Deja’s other ex.  Cool Jess.  Cool Jess is very cool and chill.  Deja broke up with him because he was so chill it made her nervous.   Then they run into Tim, the guy who is trying to run the Patch like Six Flags.  Deja also dated him, but he dumped her–management shouldn’t date hourly help, he said.  We also notice that Josiah hasn’t dated anyone.

They are distracted by chaos at the Succotash Hut because their replacements are messing things up big time and smoke is everywhere.  They finally take a break from their quest and Deja asks how come they never hang out outside of the patch.  Josiah says he didn’t realize she’d want to.

When they finally arrive their destination, Marcy is, once again, not there.  She wanted to ride the Hayrack Ride once before she was done for good.  So with every ounce of energy he has left, he runs to the Hayrack ride and catches it while it’s moving.  Marcy is startled and calls out his name.  Josiah is thrilled she knows his name, but she replies that his picture is all over the breakroom.

They finally have their moment but it turns out that everything that Josiah loves about DeKnock’s is what Marcy hates–the cheesiness, the smells, the nicknames.  She doesn’t even like pumpkins.  Then she says something that makes Josiah leap off of  the Hayrack Ride and heads back to Deja.

The ending is very sweet and promises good things for our heroes.

I really enjoyed this a lot.  The illustrations were fantastic.  I love that Deja is not a tint petite heroine nor a super hero–she’s a normal, fun girl.

I also loved learning that while DeKnock’s is made up, there are many autumnal festival like it in Omaha, where rainbow is from.  Maybe next year a Fall trip to Nebraska is in order.