Halloween Through the Ages

I love Halloween. I love that there is a day in the year when you will go to the grocery store and see people walking around as witches and ghosts and Harry Potters. It's like the world gives itself permission to have fun and be crazy for a day. I love it all - the costumes, the decorations, the pumpkins, the Halloween-themed T.V. episodes (especially Buffy), the candy, the parties, and the trick-or-treating. If it were not totally weird and creepy, I would probably still go trick-or-treating (plus the walking boot would slow me down). I feel bad for today's kids who don't get to experience real trick-or-treating. My friends and I were die-hard trick-or-treaters, and we would kit several entire neighborhoods in a single night, planning out routes beforehand to cover the most ground and then practically sprinting around to hit the most houses. We always came home with at least one pillowcase full of candy, and then the next day we had big candy trading parties. Trunk-or-treating in a strip mall parking lot just isn't the same.

Earlier this week I was thinking about Halloween costumes past, so I emailed my mom and asked her to send me some pictures from a few specific years. She ended up sending me a bunch more than I asked for and it was fun to see some of the costumes I had completely forgotten about. The one picture she didn't send me was the costume that got me reminiscing in the first place, but that's probably a good thing. The costume in question was from 3rd grade, around the time of Operation Desert Storm. For some reason my dad had come into possession of a real gas mask, and so I wore the gas mask, a towel tied around my head, a robe, and a fake gun and went as an Iraqi soldier. If I were to publish that picture here, I probably would never be able to run for public office (like that would ever happen) and I might just get an unexpected visit from homeland security. Besides, now I have a better idea what Iraqi soldiers actually look like, thanks to Lost's Sayid.

So let me take you on a personal tour of Halloweens past:

I had completely forgotten about this costume. I guess I'll be coming full circle this Halloween when I'm planning to dress up as Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love it when people pass off a poodle skirt as a costume. What are you dressing as - a poodle skirt? I guess the answer could be a "50's teen girl." And Amy might just be wearing an old ballet recital costume.

This may not have been Halloween - I used to wear that karate outfit full-time when I was in my Karate Kid phase. The poodle skirt lives on another year. Emily should have collected her candy in a bindle, but that probably would have been problematic. These two photos beg the question: Where is my sister Julie? Maybe she was two old/cool for us back then.

Forgot about this one too - perhaps it's fate that my greatest life accomplishment is Mario-related, although I never play as Mario on Mario 2. My outfit reflects the color scheme of Mario 1, before Mario permanently switched to blue overalls and a red shirt. What can I say - I've always been a purist.

I can't tell you what I had in mind with this costume. The wig, nose-glasses, and tie all say "Big pile of wacky stuff!" but then I've got that incongruous army jacket on. I still have that tie, by the way, but it's back in Utah. I might just have to dig that out next time I'm back home. I had a piano recital that night and my teacher told me that all of her students who were playing in the recital were going to be wearing Halloween costumes. Nope. Just me. At first I felt really stupid, but then I felt cool because everyone else was boring and afraid to be different.

I alluded to this in a previous post about my Bob Dylan years. This was from my sophomore year of high school, the same year that I played "John Wesley Harding" in the talent assembly. Thanks to my mom for curling my hair for me and thanks to D.I. for that awesome shirt (I think that shirt is also still around back in Utah). The inspiration for this ensemble was the album cover of the classic Dylan album, Blonde on Blonde:

On with the tour:
This was my senior year of high school, and I remember that I had rehearsal that day for The Wizard of Oz and once again, I was the only one there in a Halloween costume. Later that day I got stopped on the street by some random person who said, "How dare you! Do you think it's funny to dress up like Hitler?" Fair enough I guess - even Chaplin exploited the Hitler 'stache comparisons in The Great Dictator. The yearbook ran a photo of me in this costume walking with a group of non-costumed people, accompanied by a quote where I said something like, "I don't really care about how I dress." I was really proud of that.

I hope you enjoyed the tour and I would encourage each of you to call your moms and ask them for your old Halloween pictures. And dress up this year and wear the costume all day - trust me, you'll have a great time and the world will be better for it.

Happy Halloween!

Save the Pumpkins!

When I was a missionary in Brazil, I learned that if you wanted to have blockbuster attendance at a church activity, all you had to do was label the activity as "American." There are so many things we do in America that they find fascinating down in Brazil. For instance, in Brazil they have gigantic chocolate eggs full of toys and candy inside for Easter, but they don't dye Easter eggs. I had my mom send me an Easter egg dying kit and the activity was a sensation. The Brazilians were both delighted and puzzled when I explained what they were supposed with the eggs. "What, with chicken eggs?" "What are you supposed to do with them afterwards?" When they were all dyed we had an Easter egg hunt and the kids went crazy for it.

Brazilians know about Halloween from American movies, but they don't really know about the finer points of trick-or-treating or pumpkin carving. In Brazil they have various squash varieties but they don't have real pumpkins. So for Halloween I put together an activity in which we carved squash and watermelons. It was another sensation.

Last night I was in charge of the Family Home Evening activity for the ward, and so I took that Halloween activity even farther. Entitled Save the Pumpkins!, the activity consisted of carving surrogate pumpkins such as cantaloupes, pineapples, pomegranates, apples, eggplants, coconuts, bell peppers, pears, kiwis, etc. I love being in a situation where I can watch people being creative and last night was filled with some really imaginative work, such as:

My personal favorite of the evening, Jessica Allen's coconut. Seth and I picked out the coconut as a joke because we thought that there was no way that anyone could carve a coconut. I love the primitive aesthetic and the play of textures from all parts of the coconut.

I was stunned to see this macabre piece come from sweet little Sister Kurabayashi. It is an apple with a knife through its head and pomegranate brains coming out. It appropriately won the prize as the scariest work. But it was fun to watch the Kurabayashis cackle with delight as they made one twisted decision after another.

This video showcases some of the finished pieces, including Jody and Evelyn's prize-winning Jonah and the Whale Eggplant (Most Original; Jody was on a roll yesterday - she gave a great talk in stake conference, she was baptized, and then she created a prize-winning eggplant carving) and Abe Gong's Elephant banana (Best Use of the Materials You Were Stuck With; it appropriately collapsed soon after judging).

A Push for Pushing Daisies

The great German director Werner Herzog has said that we live in an era starved of new images. In our entertainment we keep getting different versions of the same old images - car chases, explosions, etc. Furthermore, he states that if we keep seeing these recycled images, our imaginations will become deadened.

Don't get me wrong - I love me a good car chase/explosion. But I am always most excited by artists who can show me places and things that I have never seen before, things I would never even think or dream of on my own. That is one reason why I am so drawn to the films of Hayao Miyazaki. In his films he creates an entire world that I have never seen before that is so pure that it seems to have poured straight out of his imagination onto the screen. His worldview is so colorful, whimsical, and full of childlike wonder that I get irresistibly sucked in. The first time I saw Spirited Away I had a serious goosebump overload because every inch of the screen for every second of the running time was full of delightful new surprises and wonders. For weeks I told every single person I saw that they needed to go see it and I returned to the theater four more times to take new friends to experience it.

This past week I discovered a show that has captured my imagination and ignited my desire to proselytize in the same way: Pushing Daisies.

Every single episode is like a perfect little miracle - full of sights and sounds that no one has ever shown me before. Everything about it works perfectly. The color palate is bright, vivid and beautiful - like a gorgeously illustrated story-book come to life and with the most elaborately designed and terrifically imaginative sets and costumes. The writing is absolutely top notch, the performances are all fantastic (especially the bubbly and hysterically funny Kristen Chenoweth).

But what is most special about it is the tone. If you have heard any synopses of the plot, you might expect the show to play like a forensics drama with an odd supernatural twist. While the plots do revolve around forensic investigations, the show is like a forensics fairy tale. The show is sweet, romantic, quirky, whimsical, and funny. It provides me with sights and situations I have never seen before. Consider this scene:



Be honest - have you ever seen a scene where a pie shop waitress, two former synchronized swimming stars, and a resurrected dog follow a carrier pigeon that has a parrot's wing grafted onto one side, all while harmonizing to a They Might Be Giants song? This show consistently delivers wholly unexpected and delightful scenes like this that make my heart happy.

Now I know what you're thinking: "Brian, please tell me where I can watch this fabulous show!" It is currently in its second season on ABC, where it airs on Wednesday nights. I would recommend starting from the beginning - the pilot episode is the finest pilot that I have ever seen. The first season is on DVD, so you can buy it, check it out from the library, or find a friend who will lend it to you (no, I don't own it yet, but I hope to rectify that soon). You can watch all of the episodes that have aired so far from the second season for free at abc.com (click on "Full Episodes" and then "Pushing Daisies").

Hopefully many of you have already discovered this little treasure on your own. I just love it so much that I couldn't help myself from using my blog to gush about it, so I hope at least a few of you out there will decide to check it out. Trust me - you'll love it.

Jonesin'

Thanks to my concerned blog readers for intervening and encouraging me to head to the doctor for x-rays on my foot. I was thinking that it would just get better on its own since my foot has been feeling much better and I was even able to ditch the crutches on Friday morning. But the comments on my blog coupled with a phone call from my mom convinced me that I should have it looked at, so I went to the Student Health Center Friday afternoon. I was wishing that I had taken my camera with me, but the x-ray result looked something like this:

It's a fracture near the top of the 5th metatarsal, frequently referred to as a Jones Fracture. I found a really straightforward site that describes the Jones Fracture, a portion of which I quote here:

What are the symptoms of a Jones fracture?
Patients who sustain a Jones fracture have pain over this middle/outside area of their foot, swelling, and difficulty walking. Most often a Jones fracture is caused without significant injury or impact.

Wikipedia chimes in that "it may not be an obvious fracture to the patient, and could be mistaken for a sprain." They both got me pegged. I found another site that lists the causes of stress fractures, including "Increased levels of activity, especially without proper conditioning." That would seem to be true in my case. I decided in the last couple weeks that I wanted to become more active, since I'm usually one of the most sedentary people I know. So I started doing things like going to Sports Night every week, training for a 5K in Detroit on Thanksgiving (I guess that is out), playing tennis, and even attending a capoeira class. Serves me right for trying to be more active - guess I should just stick to Mario 2.

This is a fracture that doesn't heal very easily because it lies in an area where there is very little blood flow, so they hooked me up with a walking boot and told me to come back in 4 weeks for a follow-up. It's hard to predict how long it will take to heal, but the typical figures run from 2-8 months in the boot.

Check out my sexy new footwear:

It's just perfect for the coming winter months - I've sure I'll love to walk through snow and ice in that thing. But hey, I can walk again, so that's definitely a good thing, and I'm so glad I'm not on crutches - they were starting to hurt worse than my foot was.

I've been on the boot for two days now and I've got to say that it's not that bad - I can do almost everything that I'm used to being able to do. This is my first broken bone and it could have been a whole lot worse - I think of my nephew Dallin in a full body cast for several months and I'm grateful that that is not me.

Injuries Afoot

If there is one thing in which I have really excelled in the second half of 2008 it's got to be in the art of hurting my feet. When I was in Campinas, Brazil, I stepped in a hole in the sidewalk and twisted my ankle. It was actually a pretty bad twist - I could feel it for months afterward, especially when I was just waking up - but I soldiered through and continued to limp around an insane amount every day powered by sheer "I'm in Brazil and nothing is going to slow me down, dangit!"-ism.

The next foot malady happened during a basketball game at our ward's Sports Night. It was just a few plays into the game and I went for a loose ball and I landed on top of someone's foot. I walked off the court limping and continued to limp for another day or so before that twisted ankle went gentle into that good night.

Flash forward to Monday night. I thought I was going to have to miss Sports Night because of a recital that I had to attend, but it only lasted a half hour, so I hopped in my car and drove out to Ypsi to catch the last half hour of basketball. Just like the previous time, three or four plays into the game I went after a loose ball and landed on somebody's foot. I limped off the floor and went home. I put some ice on it expected the pain to die down, but it kept getting worse, and when I finally took my shoe off to have a look at my foot, it had a big fat old lump on it that was starting to turn purple.

I couldn't sleep at all that night because every time I moved even slightly my foot was not at all happy about it. I was supposed to get up and teach my class at 9:00, but I couldn't put any weight on my foot and it was hurting a lot. I had sent an email out to my class the night before saying that class was canceled, and I called the office at the theater building in the morning and told them to put a note on the door just in case people didn't get the email. I then proceeded to spend the first few hours of Tuesday with ice on my elevated foot watching T.V. before Seth took me down to the re-use center and I got me some $5 crutches.
So that's me on crutches. I decided it would be nice to have some Michigan fall foliage in the picture, but the goofy grin was a result of me realizing how ridiculous this picture is - it looks like I'm about to traipse off on a nature hike on my crutches. My eyes are closed in the picture, but I was not about to hop all over the place to set the timer for another shot.

I've quickly gained an appreciation for people who spend an extended amount of time on crutches. I've only been on them for two days and my arms and especially my armpits are already sore. Hallways seem endless and and parking lots seem gigantic and forbidding. Everyday tasks become an ordeal, like the two flights of stairs to get up to my apartment. I've tried hopping up on one foot, walking up on my knees, going up backwards on my butt, but regardless of the approach it is still an ordeal. Yesterday one of my classes met down on Central Campus rather than our usual North Campus spot and going from the music building (which is not very ADA-friendly, by the way) to the Hatcher Graduate Library and back felt like Odysseus's 20-year voyage (fortunately I managed to avoid those pesky Sirens and Cyclopses).

I just finished teaching my class this morning, so now I can just go home and spend the rest of the day on the couch, which I am really looking forward to. Seth just got a used Sega Genesis and I'm planning on getting season one of Pushing Daisies from Amy Jeppsen, so let the convalescing begin.


P.S. - When I finally get around to inventing that time machine, going back to Monday, October 13th and stopping myself from going to Sports Night will be near the top of my 'to-do' list. But the universe might just do a course correction and I would sprain my ankle in a different way. In that case, I would keep going back in time over and over again until I had sprained my ankle in the coolest way possible - like by sky-diving or having a supermodel trip on my foot. Seth and I actually had this conversation - shows you how nerdy we are.

"The Witch Went Through the Exit Sign!"

Last night at our ward's FHE (Family Home Evening, for the uninitiated, although it see as though my readership is almost exclusively LDS (Latter-day Saint, for the uninitiated)), my roommate Seth, the FHE coordinator, orchestrated a meeting at which we deconstructed what constitutes a Family Home Evening: a family (or ward), a home (or institute building), an evening (preferably a Monday), a lesson, an activity, a treat, etc.

It got me thinking about the Family Home Evening meetings I had when I was a kid. My parents assigned duties to my three older sisters and I to help us participate in the meeting some way. However, during the years when I was too young to do anything as elaborate as giving a lesson or whipping up a snack, I was responsilbe for performing two important tasks at FHE, and I took both of them very seriously:

1. Calling Roll: At each meeting I was in charge of calling roll - Dad... ("Here!"), Mom... ("Here!"), Julie... ("Here!"), Emily... ("Here!"), Amy... ("Here!"), Brian... "Here!", Nelson... (silence, since Nelson was a dog).

2. Presenting the latest chapter of my ongoing flannel-board saga: The genesis of the flannel-board story predates my ability to remember, so I don't know how I came up with this particular storyline, but every week for years I would present the on-going adventures of The Witch. It was truly an epic tale and every single chapter ended with the same cliffhanger catchphrase: "The Witch went through the exit sign!" I don't know how I came up with that line and I even remember realizing after a few years that my big catchphrase didn't make any sense, but by then it was too late. The catchphrase stuck and The Witch inevitably had to travel through the exit sign at the conclusion of each chapter.

"The Witch went through the exit sign" turned out to be quite a useful phrase in other situations. Every night at family dinner my dad had a rule that no one could be excused from the table unless they had participated in the dinnertime conversation, so there were many times when I would get up to leave the table, my dad would say that I couldn't leave until I had added something to the conversation, and I would whip out a trusty old "The Witch went through the exit sign," and I'd be good to go.

The phrase was an inside joke in our family for years, but I had almost forgotten all about it until last night, so maybe now it will make a comeback. Who knows - maybe it will end up saving me some day:

Hypothetical situation: Brian is taking his final oral exams to become a doctoral candidate.
Faculty Member 1: Describe the use of imitatio in the later motets of Monteverdi.
Brian: Uhhhhh... The Witch went through the exit sign?
Faculty Members 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5: Brilliant! What a bold and unprecedented analysis of
Monteverdi! Full marks!

I'd like to thank you all for joining me for the lastest chapter in the ongoing saga of my blog. Until next time, "The Witch went through the exit sign."

Brian Presents: Double Indemnity

Thanks to all who made Brian Presents: Double Indemnity a success. It was the 27th Brian Presents: overall and we had 13 participants - an ideal number, if you ask me. The evening was very enjoyable - except for the part where Elizabeth Downey was schooling me at Dr. Mario.

I've long wanted to do a showcase of the two great comedians of the silent era, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. I've already shown Chaplin's The Gold Rush, but that was during Brian Presents: The High School Years, and we've had a complete personnel turnover since then, so I am going to show it again, pairing it with Keaton's Sherlock Jr. These two men are such geniuses and they made such wonderful, inspiring, and hilarious movies that I think it is a crime that many of my generation may go through life without seeing their work.

So stay tuned for Brian Presents: Sherlock Jr./The Gold Rush in November.

Training Camp

The Jazz training camp began on Monday, meaning that the NBA season is rapidly approaching. Around September I start to get really impatient waiting for the new season, so I probably get a little bit too excited about media reports written during training camp, but at least there are a half-dozen Jazz-related stories to read every day. Here's my favorite so far: ESPN's NBA expert John Hollinger is expecting the Jazz to be the best team in the Western Conference this year. For some reason I feel personally validated when a national expert praises the team I like.

P.S. - GO JAZZ!!! WE'RE GOING TO ROCK IT THIS YEAR!!!