Undead Images Dance in the Streets

No, I'm not possessed or insane. The windows are really speaking to me.

Not only is this week exciting with the prospect of encountering a ghost or being attacked by a poltergeist, but there are many more reasons to light up the supernatural season with so many special events going on in Guelph!

I like getting in the mood of Halloween, where everyone is someone or something else. Last night at the restaurant where I work, all the waitresses were either devils or angels. It was interesting to see which choices they made, especially considering that in some cases they dressed up as their complete opposite!

But back to the whole Halloween et allness of this week. There are many shows playing, such as last night's Meredith Grant or this Friday's Dragonette show at Peter Clark Hall in the University of Guelph. (SO excited! SO excited!) Also, since movies are a reproduction of a living moment, sealed in time, outliving their source of inspiration, forever undead, what better time for a cinematic festival than this one?

All week, a rotating reel of illusions play across shop windows downtown Guelph. You can see these unnatural flashes of light and sound on unexpected places such as a parked car or a brick wall as these surfaces become projection screens for the local Guelph Festival of Moving Media. (Pictured above)

I notice that while trick or treating was a serious sport when I was a small tike, (we were out way after dark) the anxiety around the ritual has increased since those days and children don't tend to go unsupervised or very long past dark on Hallows Eve. It seems parents are paranoid about having their children abducted, poisoned or both. Perhaps that's for the best considering that although little Timmy may be dressed up say as a Samauri, he might not have the same defenses as a Tokagawa black belt and therefore NEEDS YOUR PROTECTION. But what might get little Timmy may not be a razor in an apple or anything so bad as...THA BOOGIEMONSTER!! BOO!! (Sorry, just wanted to try to scare SOMEONE)

In light of these concerns, please remember to make sure your candies haven't been tampered with and if a hand reaches out from the ground, don't shake it. If you're going to eat a lot of sugar, remember to maintain proper dental hygiene by brushing twice a day and flossing at least once a week.


Feel free to roam and become one with the dark forces of nature, watch horror movies, play ouija board and if you're still looking for last minute costume ideas, here are some pictures of what my friends have come up with:



Events

Halloween is in the Foul and Filthy Air

If you, are planning, on going out this weekend....DON'T!
If you, are planning, on watching scary movies...DON'T!
If you, are planning, on checking your basement to see what that strange noise was...DON'T!
If you, are planning, on reading this blog at midnight...DON'T

DON'T check this blog. DON'T read the newspaper. DON'T go out this weekend. DON'T go to your basement. DON'T!!! It could be the last time you DO anything!
(Reference to the fake horror movie trailer in Grindhouse, which BTW I LOVE!)

Hopefully everyone has a safe and happy holiday being zombies, mummies, fairies and thieves! The celebration of death and the mystery of the spiritual has just begun!

I Likes Me My Dragonette

Whether a good day or bad, you can always go for some Dragonette. If you like the Peaches, you will probably like them too.

I'm excited to see this sexy, salacious electropop band on November 2nd, when they visit Guelph. This group is made up of singer Martina Sorbara, who previously had a solo career in Toronto. She happens to be the daughter of Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara. Other group members include two others from Toronto and one from the UK, husband Dan Kurtz (who is part of a jam electronic band called The New Deal), Joel Stouffer and Will Stapleton.

For more information on the band or concert dates near you, visit dragonette.com

Me This Morning

It's still early but I'm not awake yet. I was lucky enough to find this gravestone which will conveniently do to describe my energy level. Scrambled eggs and coffee make concentrating and grinding to the end of the week bearable but I can't wait to go home, watch Star Trek and take a nap...

Taxing Sweets

Do you think putting a tax on your sweet and salty pleasures would curb your craving for junk? Half of Canadians surveyed by an Angus Reid poll think it's a bad idea but perhaps at least it would pay for your quadruple bypass down the road...

In a country such as Canada, where taxes pay for our healthcare, welfare and roads, it makes sense to tax those behaviors that are damaging to society to pay for the damages that result from them.

Take obesity for example. At least a third of adults are overweight and diabetes alone costs Canadians more than $9 billion a year. Since our lifestyle choices -getting that double-double at Tim Horton's every morning that eventually adds up, the government could be making a killing off of the types of foods that kill. Shouldn't the government be doing something to prevent heart disease, strokes and other health complications related to being overweight, especially when health depends so much on prevention?

Everyone hated Brian Mulroney when he introduced new taxes like the GST. If we work in a convenience store, we pay income tax to sell our goods while our customers pay tax again on every product to buy them from us! It's highway robbery! However, we've gotten used to it. Maybe the strategy could work in other ways...

What the government should do is tax more selectively and strategically, taxing people for buying certain types of goods (or bads) that are bad for health and the environment, create more tax breaks for people buying hybrid cars, recycling and throwing out less garbage. The Oxford study conducted in the UK proposes to add a 17.5 percent Value Added Tax to fatty, sugary and salty foods thereby dropping death rates by 1.7 percent. It would be great incentive for companies to make healthier products!

If taxation better reflected the types of services that the money goes to pay for, I think justice would be sweeter.

Health