Happy Halloween, Everybody...

A few random thoughts on this, perhaps my favorite of all holidays...

-I realize that my point of view is skewed, since I only sell tickets at one theatre rather than the thousands of locations being tallied, but as of late, I can honestly say I have no idea what's the deal with the weekend box office report. The latest numbers are that "The Grudge" was #1 this weekend, "Ray" was #2, and "Saw" #3. I dunno, at my theatre, there was only one movie that sold out multiple times, and that was "Saw." Now, granted, "Saw" on Friday was in two of our smaller theatres, so selling out wasn't as big a deal, but they corrected that mistake on Saturday and moved it into one of the big 500-seat venues, and there, for the 10 p.m. show, it came within 50 seats of filling the place. I'd guess it averaged about 150-200 people per show for the day. Meanwhile, "The Grudge," in two of our biggest theatres, never even came close to selling out and at best averaged about the same. Now, it was close between the two, no doubt (mainly, it seemed, because a lot of the teenage audience that was trying to see "Saw" and not able to because of its R rating, then changed their minds and saw the PG-13 "Grudge" instead), but "Grudge" gets 22 million and "Saw" only 17? Nearly a quarter more business? Not based upon what I, um, saw.

-Heading up to BG to see some friends and, hopefully, watch a little MST3K for the holiday. That was always one of my favorite things to do on the 'Ween, and I recall fondly the experience of gathering in the Black Hole that one year, when it got too damn cold to stay at my Grandma's barn, going back there and watching "Werewolf." I've never seen a video tape get applause before.

-Doing a little digging, I came across an old friend in my folks' office - the Head. Think I'll be taking it up this year to BG as a pseudo-costume while I say hi to everyone. (The actual pronoun, based upon the way Al Snow addressed Head when he played the character, is "them" - Head was the symbol of all the voices in his head, you see - but I didn't want to throw a "them" into the previous sentence and really confuse the crap outta people.) I've had that mannequin head for nearly six years now, buying it when I decided to go as Al Snow for Halloween in 1998 (the year where Al's ECW schtick made him a superstar, and the same year where the WWF's stupid booking of him made him a bit player again). I found it at a beauty supply store for the low, low price of $50, but at the time, considering my devotion to getting the costume right, I considered it a good purchase. And the weird thing is, I still don't regret it. That silly mannequin head has always been there as a useful prop, both at the Hydro (I took it there every year, and sat it on my DJ stand a few nights, and it always got a laugh) and at Halloween parties (want a quick-and-easy costume idea? Go as "guy carrying a mannequin head"). And also, it's a great momento of one of my favorite wrestling characters of all time, from one of my favorite eras of all time. When I see the Head, I can't help but smile in memory of the great moments Al was a part of in ECW, and think of how much I miss that organization, the Rocky Horror Picture Show of wrestling. I recall writing about how much I missed that era in a column on Rantsylvania.com once upon a time, and got a TON of letters back on how much people missed the glory days of Al, with one writer even saying that, at that time, he had been going through a very serious bout of depression, and Al's endlessly-entertaining antics were one of the things that helped pull him out of it. So yeah, I'll be holding onto that silly old mannequin head for a while, thank you. Because it reminds me not only of a great era in an art form I care a lot about, but also because it reminds me of how something so little can mean more than anyone ever knows.

Happy Halloween!