Take Me Up To The Ballgame!

The real world entered into my Halloween fantasy world so I'm unable to produce a "normal" Halloween post. Luck would have it though that I managed to link some wacky alternative spin on Baseball to fit a Halloweeny theme.

So for the first time this season (and maybe the last time since the season ends on Monday), I made it to a Rakuten Eagles game. A co-worker who happens to be the mother of a former student of mine, procured the tickets and we had some nice seats out in Right Field.

Alas, our team lost 7-4 after blowing their 4-1 lead but thanks to the beer girls, we still had a good time.

The first of those three gals drew a little picture on each of the cups that she sold!

We were also close enough to the field that we got a fairly good view of the cheerleaders, the blurriness of the photos is my fault, not theirs.

Oops, I forgot to tilt my phone when filming the 7th inning balloon send off!



Best of all, I managed to snag a shirt at 50% regular price for the right fielder, Okashima.

Now to make this a little more Halloweenish, here is a box of cookies that I bought on the way home from the game.

More importantly than this is the discovery of a video that has long eluded me. Back in 1980, Nelvana studio created a Baseball video that puts an Alien spin on your typical Kevin Costner flick. Take Me Up To The Ballgame was one of my favourite specials back in the day and I've been looking for a copy of it for ages. Here it is in three parts for your perusal, Enjoy!








Back to a regular Halloween post tomorrow...

Nekophilia.

No, Nekophilia is not an sexual attraction to dead people, rather it is a term I coined to show one's affinity with Cats. I personally am not a cat-person, but I do like a creepy cat as much as the next guy. Here are several for your amusement interspersed with a few feline films.

I saw these odd little videos today and that's what inspired me to do a cat-post.





First up, it's Angry (or is it Hangry) the cat.

Here are the ex-Morning Musume musicians in their own feline funky feature.



I didn't know that Nyanpire had its own cartoon. (Some things are better left unknown.)

I've shown some of these in previous years but it's worth breaking them out again.

Hello Kitty as mini-stuffed creatures, specifically Franken, Dracula, Ghost, Witch, Zombie and Little girl/Scarecrow?? (I really don't know what the last one here is.)

Kitty as a vampire, in German no less!



Zombie Kitties and a few more of the above as key-chain accessories!

Make your own Hello Kitty Cupcake Zombie Toppers! (Warning: Very dull narration.)



Kiki's kitty, Jiji!

Neko-Musume of Gegege fame:

Just to show how ubiquitous Felix the Cat is, here he is riding a cow before it's about to get its tongue lopped off to make Gyutan!

Here is Kitty Cosplaying as both Rei Ayanami and Shikinami Asuka of Evangelion fame.

Speaking of Evangelion cosplaying...



Unfortunately, Sally's Black Cat has never to my knowledge been marketed so instead of a NBC character, let's choose the cat Whiskers from Frankenweenie.

(Here's the poop about Whiskers from the Wiki page:

The school bell rings, and Victor walks to his bike, and finds "The Weird Girl" waiting for him, cradling her creepy-eyed, Persian Cat. She tells him that her cat Whiskers has a special power. It can predict the future through its excrement. She unveils a dry cat-turd, which she had been carrying, which forms the letter "V." She explains that when classmate Toshiaki (James Hiroyuki Liao) pitched a no-hitter in baseball, the night before Whiskers pooped-out a "T." When obese classmate Bob (Robert Capron) injured himself by falling into an open manhole, Whiskers pooped a "B." When spooky classmate Nassor got knocked-out cold by a fastball while playing catcher, Whiskers pooped out an "N.")

Watch Whiskers transform into a vampire-cat!



There isn't a lot to do with Cats on Attack on Titan so instead I spelled out the word "Cat" using a few emaciated humans and an actual cat messing around with the theme song.

Finally, I happened to Gacha-capsule Neko-zilla the other day. There were several normally-coloured kitties but I had to get the blue one!

The Halloween Tree.

I remember reading The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury back when I was a teen but darned if I can recall how it ended. Now I've just watched the intro and a clip of the Hanna-Barbera adaptation and it has left me hungering for more. I need to find a copy, hopefully before the month's end.





Why do I bring this up now? Well, not only is it Day 2 of my Countdown to Halloween but I just happened lay my hands on my very own Halloween Tree last night! As a matter of fact I got two of them!

I popped into Mandai (Best...Store...Ever!) just to see what loot I could pick up and lo and behold within one of the UFO Catchers was a Halloween Tree. After several tries, I finally managed to land one and happily carried it around the store while I sought other cool items. I picked up a few goodies such as some Mystery Bags (to be showcased later) and with my purchase, I was given a voucher for a 2-tries-for-1-coin at the UFO Catcher machine of my choice. I went back to the machine and won a second tree, this one with ghosts!

The toughest part of assembling the trees was finding enough batteries to enclose.

I've figured out the first ornament with which to adorn my tree...

Since I don't have the aforementioned book, this is the nearest tome in tone that I own. I hope to read this on the weekend.

 I probably have a NBC Halloween Tree somewhere but I can't locate it right now. So for the nonce, here is a pumpkin bush guarded by Zero.

 Finally for my Titan entry, there isn't anything really tree-related so this little diorama of stickers on a wall is about the best I can do. I'm not even sure if I assembled it correctly, but who cares, it was on sale and came with a pack of Choco-flakes.

I'm going to link daily to another blog that I think you might enjoy and today's lucky winner is Erick at the Wonderful Wonderblog. Go there to see some Halloweeny cutouts.

Monstrosi-Tea.

It's almost time for the Countdown to Halloween 2014 to begin whereupon Bloggers from around the world spend the month of October presenting Halloweeny themes for one and all to peruse. 

I've started my entry with a spot of Franky-tea as today's Halloween treat. Not bad, a bit too herby for my taste but tasty enough.

By the way, Click that link above to join in the fun and be sure to check out the new badge on the side of my blog featuring The Creature (From the Black Lagoon, natch) who is celebrating his 60th Anniversary and is the Feature Creature for this year's Countdown.


Today's movie feature as part of Takeshi Miike Tuesday is his latest opus, Kuime or "Over Your Dead Body".

I saw this a few weeks ago and it is incredibly creepy. I couldn't understand half the dialogue but I could figure out the entire movie just by the surreal imagery. If you were lucky enough to catch a Preview at TIFF, you got to see it with some English subtitles. I wasn't quite so lucky. Click the link above and surf around there. Good for a few surprises.

As and added bonus to today's bloggy thing, I managed to snag several Kuime-chan sticker sheets and I have 6-8 to give away. Just comment on the blog or my Facebook page and tell me what your favourite Takeshi Miike movie is and I'll send you a sheet!

I hope to include a Movie Pamphlet whenever possible. I don't have one for this movie, but I took some photos of some promo pics. 

Preference will be given to those outside of Japan and if the response is too overwhelming, then I'll send you a Monster Hotel (Hotel Transylvania) sheet instead.

Okay, I'm running out of time if I expect to publish this by midnight, so here are two more of the features this month. A Daily Nightmare Before Christmas doodad and a Daily Attack on Titan goody.

These Nightmare Wall-hanging thingies are perfect places to store my easily misplaced Remotes. Not sure what I'll stuff in the other pockets.

A couple of Titan hand towels. Not sure whether I'll use them or give them out as Halloween presents. We shall see...

That's about it for the premiere post. Come back for a dose of Halloweeny goodness every day this month!