One has to admire the level of detail that has gone into this ‘Halloween’ window display, even down to the ‘Mushnik’s Flower Shop’, backwards, to the left. In the sign I have cropped to the right, the creators claim this is ‘Audrey III’, perhaps because Audrey II already passed through Hebden a few years back.
It is now dark by the time I get back to the station after my Thursday afternoon lecture — but next week it will be dark before I even finish the class, thanks to the clocks going back this weekend. This is one of the usual ‘sculptures’ (I suppose we can call them that) put up around Manchester for Halloween, in case you hadn’t made the connection. Actually I think there’s been somewhat less overt plastic tat on display this year but maybe that’s just a personal opinion.
You’ve gotta like this movie. Not all the jokes work any more, by any means, but Young Frankenstein must be the finest parody-homage of any genre, ever. And at a completely decadent time of day, too, thanks to the Hebden Bridge Picture House’s Thursday morning “Elevenses” deal.
As I have said several times on here down the years, and all (logically) at this time of year, I think Halloween is a commercialist pile of plastic-pushing poo. On the other hand, this pub facade is quite well done. And as I have been walking past it, both to and from work, for years, I don’t remember seeing it before so someone has actually put in the effort in. Credit for that, at least.
I wonder how many different public houses have appeared on here over the last 12 years. Quite a few I imagine. Free advertising: the Ship in Brighouse does very good BLT sandwiches for only £3.50. And thanks to its Halloween decorations, it gives good purple — a shade almost exactly matched by the woman’s coat, which I think is why I like this shot.
Christmas decorations appearing in early November, I have learned to live with. But Halloween ones appearing more than six weeks before the fact? Ah, goddamit. Society is crumbling. (This may, of course, not be a specific Halloween reference but let me grumble.)
We have yet to put our clocks back, and so the level of darkness in Manchester this Friday morning is somewhat boosted by the extra hour, but even after this weekend things will catch up soon enough and this will be a common enough sight for me in the run up to Christmas. For now, Halloween tat is in charge. The spectral yellow blobs to centre right may or may not be evidence of spiritual involvement.
These two certainly look like they’re having a jolly time on their respective Saturday lunchtimes in Hebden Bridge. But perhaps they just feel about Halloween much the same as I do — it’s intrusive and over-the-top, and we could probably do without it.
Back home — at least for a day. It’s Halloween but I don’t really go for The Festival of Cheap Plastic Tat. I did have a couple of online classes to run however, so I let my totem make an appearance. Perhaps the Mac is also a totem — or a familiar? It’s certainly hard to weave any magic without it, these days.
I did not notice the inaccuracy of the clock at the point of taking the photo. But I can assure you that I could not have been here at 10.15am. If you ask me, the ‘pumpkins’ are also too early. What influence do I have over the ongoing encroachment of The Festival of Utterly Disposable Tat, however.
Being 42 