Godzilla Christmas in Japan

Merry Merry! How can you not love GZ?

Recycled DIY Christmas Tree

I'm all about sparkly lights during the holidays. This is the last year we'll be in living in this house so I thought maybe it's time to get our first Christmas tree. That line of thinking didn't get very far. I don't want a real tree because I have a bloody great blue spruce in my back yard that I hate. Why put a mini version of that monster in my house? And artificial trees are, well, ugly. Target has a skinny little black one for 60 bucks that I considered briefly. But then I thought about packing it up and moving it in a few months. Not happening.

As fate would have it, a shitload of heavy snow fell a few weeks ago and busted a big branch off one of the trees out back. I was going to burn it, eventually, in our ridiculously underused firepit. So there it lay.

And my wee little brain started to make a plan.

I cut it down and trimmed it, stuck it in a broken vase I was about to put in the alley, stuffed an old cloth shower curtain to steady the branch, strung some lights from last year, and presto whammo I got me a white trash tannenbaum. The only expense was the $4 for white corrugated paper from the art store for stars.

Neal and Del

I'm not big on traditions. Those I do have are, as they say in the German, eigenartig. That is to say, atypical. I don't hold an annual brunch or dinner for family and friends, and I certainly don't hack down a tree from the mountains or string up lights. (String lights are up all year in my house.) One thing I do, however, is watch the same movie every fourth Thursday of November. Because it makes me laugh every time. Every fucking time. Which is unheard of for me: She Who Is So Easily Bored.

Certain things really are sacred. And I see no reason to take part in the same American ritualisms the rest of the country does at predetermined times of the year. Is there an untraditional tradition you take part in each year? Maybe something you do on your own terms? Go ahead, I'd love to hear some amusing anecdotes.

Cult of Costume

Guess how I'm dressed up today. Not really a costume so much as showing my colleagues what I do and how I look in my spare time. I did get interesting looks on the bus this morning, which always makes me laugh.

This year, in addition to the normal goth activities that accompany Halloween, like the highly entertaining Witches' Ball replete with beautifully costumed Pagans and Wiccans, I'm looking forward to attending the Día de los Muertos processsion.

Day of the Dead festivities can be quite the party. This ancient indigenous Mexican holiday celebrates the deceased and is commonly represented by the skull symbol. Families remember not only the sadness of loss but also the happiness and humor the dead have left behind. Elaborate costumes and masks are worn and gifts are brought to the cemeteries to honor the departed.



I love me a good cemetery.