Halloween for grownups
IMAGINE A MURDER OF CROWS
or a sickening school of pigeons perched over telephone wires, peering through the windows of your home, simply waiting for you to make the mistake of stepping outside.
Imagine, you need to spend the night in some shabby house surrounded by chamisa; the nearest neighbor is a 20-minute drive. All the doors and all the wooden floors manage to produce a terrible creak, and sure enough you hear the visceral sound of a chainsaw running, but it’s way too late to be cutting wood at this hour, and for some inexplicable reason that back door swings open. This is the time to be afraid. Halloween is upon us.
The darker sides of people will run amok on Civic Plaza Drive, people with well made devilish costumes. There’s a lighter side too: little Lion King Simbas, mini Michael Myers, tiny terrors on the streets, and if we’re lucky maybe even baby Yodas asking trick or treat? Still we must fear something, but we must not fear being able to find a place to celebrate brujas or honor the dead in Taos or around the enchanted circle.
If you need to get a head start or can’t celebrate Halloween the day of, you can go to Coyote Moon on Friday (Oct. 29) for Noches De Altares (Night of Altars) from 5:30-8 p.m. Already a colorful shop, on this day it’ll be festooned with vibrant altars bearing sugar skulls and marigolds and gorgeous miscellany, all dedicated to the deceased. You can reserve your own table whereon to fit an altar, by visiting the store. They claim tables are limited and need to be reserved soon.
You could do a quick jaunt over to Eagle Nest and visit Madam’s Restaurant and Coffee Shop for their Halloween Weekend. This old timey saloon-style building surely has a ton of unresolved trauma and horrors in its past life. The second story of this saloon served as a brothel in days of yore. Those sordid rooms upstairs will be part of the
haunted house section, open all weekend and free of cost.
There being seven rooms in total, it’s only natural the theme will be centered around the seven deadly sins and possibly some allusions to the movie Se7en. On Friday the fun starts at 6 p.m. If you show up on Saturday (Oct. 30) you can have fresh sushi (air delivered from Seattle, not caught in the lake and left to rest at room temperature for several days). If you go on Sunday (Oct. 31) you can belt out some karaoke (anything but Monster Mash).
Both activities have fearful consequences, one of indigestion and the other of public humiliation and shame. You can win a prize for best costume on Saturday at 8 p.m. Perhaps the prize will be one of their spookily themed spirit-forward cocktails.
You could go the great overhead overlords, “War of the Worlds” route on the 30th, when the Taos Mountain Balloon Rally Association unleashes their Hot Air Balloon Glow upon us, right
behind the Taos County Courthouse. The ghastly gaseous spectacle set to rise slightly after 5:30 p.m., they’ll also have a Trunk or Treat raffle drawing at the event.
Once that’s done, you can dangerously quaff pint after pint of hearty ales at the Burger Stand. If you show up with a deserving costume, present yourself to a server between 7 p.m. and 9:40 p.m.; 1st and 2nd place prizes will be revealed at 10 p.m.
DJ Captain Native America makes his debut as well. Having never heard his music, I can only imagine it’s as bombastic as his profile picture. In it he wears a white jacket with some red and blue stripes, no shirt underneath, and holds a rifle triumphantly.
For the fateful day of, you’ve got some options. You could opt for a more sinister and sophisticated approach by going to the Studio 107B Fine Art Gallery on Taos Plaza. Maya Torres plans to decorate the front of the space in an evocative manner similar to the many
challenging and exquisitely grotesque art pieces within.
For instance, there’s the painted fiberglass angel sculpture made by Kent Allen Jones, depicting an ugly wincing angel, essentially crucifixed through his wings with some heavy duty screws. As an added touch of humor or blasphemy we get full exposure to his scrotum and flaccid member.
Then again, there’s the simpler timehonored tradition of watching a scary movie with your beloved, holding each other tight when it seems gory violence will unfold.
Cheap thrills can be had at the Storyteller Cinema 7. Whether good or awful, “Halloween Kills” won’t be shy of bloodshed. While not nearly as scary, you could also watch “Young Frankenstein” at the TCA Backlot for the Drive-In special (7 p.m.). Beware though, if you follow through and see this comedic masterpiece you’ll never quite get Ovaltine out of your head.