Little People in my Life.

Around 10 last night while finishing up my blog entry Friday's post (running late as usual), I was beginning to feel a tad blue because I was alone at home on Halloween. Then I got a call to go join some friends at the pub and leapt at the chance. 

I grabbed my new smock which unfortunately got a bit stained after slaughtering schoolkids all day on Friday and a quick mask and met my friends who normally perform at the Hap'penny Bridge on Halloween and St. Patrick's. (The main reason I didn't go there earlier is because I was told they wouldn't be playing that night. Much to my surprise, they were there in civilian garb.)

I did meet up with my pals who were in varied states of inebriation.

 

 

Fortunately my mask had a gap with which I could sip my G&T through a straw. 

I gave a few candies out to the handful of patrons (WE were the only ones dressed up) and they appreciated it and the pub owner gave me a present.

These Kitty candies were a hit.

So two hours at an uncrowded pub plus a few drinks and I cheered up immensely.

Today, I wanted to watch something as a tribute to Sean Connery so I viewed something I'd never seen before.

Sean and Janet Munro.

A spooked Albert Sharpe.

The king of the Little People, Jimmy O'Dea.

Now some of the scary bits...

First up, O'Gill's horse is a Pooka (also Púca or Phooka), a Celtic spectre that can either help or hinder a person. 

A Banshee showed up when his daughter was on her death's bed. 

When she was on her way out, Darby begged the Leprechaun to let him take her place and his wish was granted. A Death Coach was called by the Banshee to take him away.

It was driven by a headless Dullahan. 

This movie will now be on my St. Patrick's viewing list as well as Halloween.

Finally, here is the finale for my Shigeru Mizuki Yokai book. The gang all visit a marketplace.

The gang goes for a drive.

The gang participate in a wrestling match.

I'm going to try and track down these other books so I have some ammo for next year.

I'll wrap up this year's Countdown with a few odds and ends I've picked up over the last few weeks.

Who ya gonna call?

A new Cthulhu.

A Cerberus inspired Ako-beko and a Cycloptic Maneki-neko.

Finally, this cord strap sorter featuring Gegege no Kitaro's papa. See ya all next year...

Once in a Blue Moon!

I missed a post last night due to an emergency Karaoke engagement. It was the only opportunity to get together with Alex to celebrate his birthday. Details later.

Meanwhile, today is the first Halloween Full Moon since 1944 and because it's the second Full Moon this month, it's also a Blue Moon. My friend took an excellent photo of the satellite for me.

I snapped a photo from the Supermarket parking lot. Not quite as impressive.

I was about to type something profound but I got sidetracked by an episode of The Walking Dead: World Beyond which is just a sort of a teeny-bopper version of the original. It just struck me that Elton is the same character as Columbus from Zombieland. I suppose the sisters (Hope & Iris) are Wichita and Little Rock, and Felix is Tallahassee. I suppose I could stretch the comparisons to include Silas as Bill Murray and Huck as Nevada (from Z-land Double Tap), but that would be a Reed Richards-length stretch. I'm enjoying it due to a lack of Zombie infused entertainment and it is a tad better that Fear of the WD. 

Okay, back to Karaoke. I haven't had an opportunity to laugh in several weeks (Alex brings out the best in me) and I haven't had an opportunity to sing in a couple of years. Though not intentionally at first, we tended to choose rather spooky tunes. Now, though Alex's choices don't show up on the console I was using, he did have a few choice ones such as Psycho Killer and Back in Black. (Note, we will never attempt Back in Black again). Here is the lineup for the most part.

Hmm, Somebody to Love and 99 Luftballons must have been sung while I was in the loo and we passed on Have You Ever Seen the Rain, substituting it later for Bad Moon Rising. 

Why did you choose this following song Michael? Well, apart from its eerie theme, it actually has ME dancing in the rain for I was an extra in this scene. I challenge you to find me! (If you do, you're more eagle-eyed than I.)

 

Birthday was sung so I could give Alex a birthday gift. The others should be self-explanatory. If we weren't on a time restraint to warble as much as we could while also consuming Lemon Sours and food, I would have videoed some of our performances. The videos used alternated between awesome and lame.

Whenever the masked waiter/waitresses entered, I donned this mask for their sake.

And at the end of the evening, I wore this which really freaked out one of the gals.

I need to finish up the last of my Yokai so I can enjoy another horror movie. (So far today, I've watched Night of the Demon (1957) which has an excellent Demon effect and la Nuit de Dracula (1970) or as Hammer called it, Count Dracula. Christopher Lee is fun as always though he died too easily and Herbert Lom was okay. Standout performance by Klaus Kinski as Renfield who would later be vampirized as Nosferatu. I also watched Return of the Living Dead on my phone while I cooked dinner and snippets of its documentary as well.

Oh, before you watch that, you should watch the entire movie cuz it spoils the ending. I suppose I should have mentioned that earlier.

On to the Yokai of Oceania.

Below is the カボ・マンダラット (Kabo Mandalat) which is sort of a giant Hermit Crab from New Caledonia.

I found an awesome depiction...

Next up from New Guinea is the ヌグ (Nugu) on the left and キンブーヤン (Kinbuyan) on the right.

OH NO! I just got hijacked to a party, so the rest of this entry will be cut short. Hopefully I can revise it later.

UPDATE: Above right is a チイ (Chii) from Polynesia and on the left is a ペナンガラン (Penangaran) from Malaysia. Below is a ランスグイル (Ransuguiru) also from Malaysia.