Tag: addams family

Posted in Chronic Conditions

They’re creepy and they’re kooky…

Posted on by D. Parker

Guess what? I won! I entered a contest, on a whim, to win tickets to the Seniors (High School) London Performing Arts Academy (London, Ontario, Canada Not-for-Profit School of The Arts) interpretation of The Addams Family musical.

Funny jokes, snap snap, cotton candy, snap snap, audience laughter, snap snap, and musical notes surrounded us, offering the most elusive thing as society struggles…joy. For a couple of hours I was in the Addams mansion, laughing, tapping my feet, and snapping my fingers.

Some highlights: George Crosby as the dashing Gomez Addams brought smiles, laughter, and applause (cara mia).

Uncle Fester, played to distraction by Juan Ambrosio-Ungson stole every scene he was in.

Maddie Carrick brought her vision of the enigmatic Morticia Addams to life death with soaring vocals, dance, tight black dress, and humour.

Lauren Atkinson was a love-struck version of Wednesday Addams, whose impressive vocals pulled us in many directions.

Dylan Lale was comedically candid as Grandma Addams.

Leland Chafee was a treat as the tortured teen, Pugsley.

Mackenna Van Massenhoven was a sheer delight as the ever-changing Alice Beineke, wow, what a voice.

Also, kudos to Will Deman as Lucas Beineke, Xavier Kitching as Mal Beineke, Max Loblaw as Lurch and The Addams Ancestors were entertaining and diverting, in the best way possible.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but this ain’t your Mom’s high school musical; I was impressed by the talent, enthusiasm, and effort all the players brought to the stage. The singing was superb, the choreography swell, and the sets subtle (but effective).

London Performing Arts Academy The Addams Family

Only time and love can brew such a darkly delicious stew. They were, as promised, creepy and kooky, mysterious and ooky…Thank you all for the magical night.

London Performing Arts Academy
They're creepy and they're kooky...thankfully. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/10/20/hide-and-shriek-with-the-addams-family/

Yup, they’re out there, the indies (independents, not the big bucks), waiting. Indie authors (https://yadadarcyyada.com/2021/05/21/how-i-met-your-author/), artists and performing artists galore. Your community and other communities have so much to offer, locally. Art classes and exhibitions, bird watching, cooking/food, nature walks, theater, concerts, plays, gardening, trivia nights, history, craft shows, haunted walks, plants, pottery, paintings, poetry, films, fashion, festivals, fantasy…fun. I visited Museum London for an art show/tour (free).

Meryl McMaster (Canadian, b. 1988), Edge of a Moment, 2017, archival inkjet photograph on paper, Collection of Museum London; Purchase, John H. and Elizabeth Moore Acquisition Fund, 2017

Know what else is indie and free? The support group I founded to help those with chronic conditions, Chronic Not Hopeless (chronicnothopeless@gmail.com), yup, free Zoom activities for anyone, anywhere. Sadly, lots of stuff isn’t free, like chocolate, candy, ice cream, and tea, but with inflation, shopping the sales makes you patient. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2022/01/21/cant-buy-me-love/

So it’s good to step outside your comfort zone, literally and figuratively. For those with chronic conditions, anytime leaving home is can be a big adventure. You have to have a plan within a plan within a plan, so basically, planception. You need your gargoyles in a row, or at least know where your gargoyles are, in the relative scheme of things. So I had a plan and everything went as planned…no, better than planned.

Sometimes, creepy and kooky is a good thing. Does anyone remember The Addams Family motto? “Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc” or “We Gladly Feast on Those Who Would Subdue Us”. Maybe we should update it to, “Veritas numquam perit” or “Truth never perishes”…but the truth can be bought, sold, stolen, hidden, maimed, incapacitated, disfigured, kidnapped, horribly mangled, lost. We need to protect it before it does perish.

Posted in halloween, kindness, Movies, Televison

Sweet Screams (Are Made of This)

Posted on by D. Parker

Sweet screams (are made of this)
Who am I to disagree?

I’ve been dying to have you here, near, dear…
(Mwahahahaha!)
When the moon climbs high o’r the dead oak tree,
spooks awake for the midnight (online shopping?) spree.
Creepy creeps (creepin’ it real) with eerie eyes,
start to shriek and order creep potato fries (terrorfrying!).
Grim Grinning Ghosts, come out to socialize
(6 feet under distanced).
Why close your eyes and try to hide?
Let a silly spook become your guide.
Welcome, foolish mortals!
(Mwhahahahahaha!) 

Maybe it was witchful thinking,
but I’d hoped to be further ahead
in my year-long chronic change challenge.
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2021/08/23/seems-breakin-up-was-easier-in-the-90s/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2021/09/29/what-if/ 
I’m trying, trying, trying, to enjoy, enjoy, enjoy…
the lovely Fall, going a little batty
over the cool weather, cozy sweaters,
hot chocolate, chocolate, hot apple cider,
Halloween, pumpkins, painted leaves,
ghosts, zombies, vampires, witches…
but my fevered brain (not-so-fresh brain)
is stuffed with packing and organizing…
So I’ll kill two ghouls with one stone,
watch some Hallostream tricks and treats,
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2018/10/26/the-more-the-scarier/


Witch is your fav screaming service, dear readers?
Is it Knifeflix? https://yadadarcyyada.com/2019/10/28/happy-halloween-is-that-a-knife-in-my-back-or-are-you-just-happy-to-see-me/
Or Disney Pus? Perhaps Huluween?
Apple Bobbing+? Maybe Amazon Crime? Or Grave?
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/03/20/25-ways-to-stay-alive-in-a-horror-movie/
I’ll keep Hallostreaming while I box up our lives (again)…
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/10/26/my-big-fat-supernatural-life/


Welcome, foolish muppets! I visited “Muppets Haunted Mansion”,  mmm, sorry, Disney, adore The Muppets but this was a less of a treat, more of a trick, especially Kermit and Fozzie’s voice work; nope. 
Then there’s “Squid Game” on Netflix.
Smart, brutal, and stylistically stunning, sorta “The Hunger Games” meets
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, with giant robots, bad catering, lackluster wardrobe, children’s games with dire consequences, organ harvesting, and lots of geometrical shapes…and a lack of chocolate. 
A staggering allegory (with focus on the ‘gory’) 
about the disgusting divide between rich and poor
in society, all fixable with:
affordable housing, food security,
and honestly, some human decency.
Watch it in Korean with subtitles, no dubs.  
Now I really want a Spongebob Squarepants spin-off, “Squidward Game” and The Front Man has to be, David Hasselhoff (The Hoff). 

Hallostreamed some classics and maybe-someday-classics including but never limited to: “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”, https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/29/stuff-i-learned-from-its-the-great-pumpkin-charlie-brown/ “Clue”; “The Turn of the Screw” (Michelle Dockery, Dan Stevens, Sue Johnston, yup, all from “Downton Abbey”, etc. , though I recommend other versions as well, including Netflix’s, “The Haunting of Bly Manor”, hmm, ever get the feeling Henry James didn’t like his governess?); “You”; “Halloween”; https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/10/14/the-glorious-chaos/; “Casper”; “The Secret of Crickley Hall” (Douglas Hensall, Tom Ellis, Maisie Williams, Suranne Jones, Olivia Cooke, David Warner, Iain De Caestecker, etc.); “The Addams Family” (original series) https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/10/20/hide-and-shriek-with-the-addams-family/; “Lonesome Ghosts”; “The Munsters”; “Harry Prince Ghost Hunter”; “Halloweentown” (from experience I knew to avoid haunting the sequels) – mmm, cheesy goodness.


Dug up “Hocus Pocus” which originally
put a spell on you (and me) in theaters in ’93,
believe it or not, in July, no lie, why,
to capture the kidlets home from school…sigh.

The worst horror ever imagined, yet it can
be imagined, all too easily cringing
through “The Handmaid’s Tale” S4.
Oh June! Least scary part? Watched it on a free trial.

I see dead people…
mostly when I watch:
“The Walking Dead” (so far, S11 is a disappointment, especially after the brilliance of S10, but I’ll keep a wait and see attitude),
the nuclear wasteland of the dead that is now “Fear The Walking Dead” and yonder, “The Walking Dead: World Beyond”.

I never get enough of Tim Burton’s visionary,
“The Nightmare Before Christmas”, https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/19/the-nightmare-before-christmas/
which for me, this year, is having to move,
again, just before Christmas…

Inflation, hyperinflation, stagflation – 
gas pumps, grocery store and terror galore! 
Forget knife-wielding serial killers,
vampires, witches and ghouls – 
look at the price of food, gas, electronics…
companies/bankers/politicians making us all fools.

October has flown by on a wonky broom,
packing so soon could spell my doom. 
Life is a fevered Halloween scream dream,
feeling less like reality and more like a bad meme.
I turn off my brain (ha, good luck), with the lights
to thankfully welcome the darkness of Autumn nights.Hoping November offers some reprieve
and help me make it to moving eve…
and the morning after, less of a disaster!?!
Eat, drink and be scary this Halloween and you know, kill ’em with kindness…and laughter!

Posted in halloween, Holidays, Televison, Uncategorized

Hide and Shriek with The Addams Family

Posted on by D. Parker

1addams6Those famous finger snaps, and like Pavlov’s pups so many of us are transported into The Addams Family mansion.

Growing up I always thought maybe I’d been switched at birth with The Addams Family; I don’t believe I was the only person in my family who felt the same.

For me,  John Astin brought the Charles Addams cartoons to life with his irresistible paranormal charm.

Though wealthy, The Addams Family macabre eccentricity caused them to live as outcasts; it was a role they seemed to relish. They were also portrayed as close-knit, respectful, and loving. This satirical translation of an ideal American family may not have lasted long, but their influence refuses to give up the ghost, including: movies (the best with Raul Julia, Anjelica Houston, Christina Ricci, Carol Kane, Christopher Lloyd, Joan Cusack, etc.), cartoons, books, games, musicals – they simply refuse to pass on.

1addams14

Creepy, kooky, mysterious and ooky Addams Family bits and pieces:

The Addams Family motto: Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc. In Addams Latin, simply: We gladly feast on those who would subdue us.

Their mansion at 0001 Cemetary Lane was inspired by Edward Hopper’s 1925 painting about the alienation of modern life, House by the Railroad. Looks like Charles Addams’ friend, Alfred Hitchcock may have liked the painting too, think Psycho.1addams

Charles Addams had no names for the family in his one-panel cartoons, for the TV series he helped pick some out. The nursery rhyme line, Wednesday’s child is full of woe was inspiring.

Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch of Wizard of Oz fame  played Morticia’s Mom.

1addams15The Addams Family loved pets, including but not limited to: a vulture, piranha, an octopus, a giant squid, a man-eating plant, a jaguar, spiders, and who could forget Kitty Kat?

 Ted Cassidy as Lurch gave himself a speaking role by ad-libbing, “You rang?” and also played Thing T. Thing (guess what the T stands for).

 And I’m listening to the CD of original music from The Addams Family, composed by incomparable Vic Mizzy right now, cara mia.

Joyeux Halloween!