Fools on Parade
My ex-wife and I have attended the local Halloween parade together for the last 15 years or so. When our son was little, we took him to it each year because that’s the type of things kids like to do. And then, when he got older, we went every year because he is in marching band, and we showed up to cheer and support him and his friends.
Last night’s parade was the last Halloween parade we’ll attend like that, unless perhaps he one day has kids, and our grandkids want to go or are marching in it.
As the parade would come right by Vortex, I decided to put two chairs in front of the store so we’d have good seats. When I got there at 9am yesterday morning, a lady was spreading six blankets lengthwise across the curb. I asked her if she’d mind moving them down because a) I needed space for my chalk sandwich board, and b) I’d like to put two chairs out for ourselves. She explained huffily that she was from out of town and had gotten up early and driven 45 minutes to reserve these spots, and refused, so then I explained that I had driven 10 minutes to open up my store and put out 2 chairs, and I’d be very happy to move her blankets into the fucking gutter the moment she left, or she could move them down enough to make space for my stuff.
So she did.
As we sat there last night, my ex-wife and I both agreed that we miss the dfays when marijuana was illegal. Understand, neither of us are against weed. Lord knows we’ve both smoked plenty in our time. But if you are a certain age, you probably remember how rare it was to smell weed in a setting like a parade or a concert. And when you did catch a whiff, it was an exciting thing. “Ooooo! Somebody’s got weed!” Now, weed is everywhere, and you smell it all day long, and with the smell comes the knowledge that you’re breathing in vape smoke that was, until a moment ago, in some diseased moron’s lungs. It was so bad that when Mary came to pick us up after the parade was over, and we got into her car, she asked if we’d been smoking weed. We hadn’t. We’d simply been sitting amongst the crowd.
The other thing we saw a preponderance of were adults in pajamas with plastic bags, scrambling amongst the little kids for the candy tossed from parade floats. We watched one lady compete with her own children, and ram the candy into her bag, and when her kids looked up at her with their sad eyes and empty bags, she said “You’ve got to be quicker! This is mine and I’m not sharing.” And I’ve got to tell you, folks, I hope she has a diabetic coma at some point today. In her nasty ass pajamas.
Shocked. Shocked I am at the way our country is going, with a brain trust like this allowed to vote and operate motor vehicles and have children and all the other things that adults do.
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Got three copies of Kit Power’s EXPLORING THE LABYRINTH Volume One yesterday (I keep three copies of everything I publish, and every associational item for my archives). It’s such an honor to see this in the flesh. Kit really impressed me (as did Eric LaRocca’s Introduction). Below is the marketing copy for the book.
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“If you are at all a fan of my work — old or new — you should absolutely 100% have this on your shelf. Your collection is incomplete without it.” — Brian Keene
On the surface, Kit Power seems like a successful horror writer – three-time BFA finalist, two-time Splatterpunk winner, and author of the celebrated My Life in Horror essay series. But that affable facade hides a terrible secret: he never read the works of Brian Keene on initial publication.
Podcaster. Philanthropist. Stoker winner. World Horror Grandmaster.
Brian. Fucking. Keene.
With this book, Power starts to un-fuck that. And he’s taking you along for the ride.
With a foreword by splatter legend Eric LaRocca, what follows is a horror enthusiast’s first-read peek at each of Keene’s full-length fiction pieces from The Rising (2003) to Alone (2011), covering the Leisure Books years and much, much more. But it’s also Power’s story: the firsthand account of a young writer finding his voice as he examines the work of one of the greats who went before. And, finally, it’s Keene and Power together. This volume concludes with an exclusive, heartbreakingly intimate interview you’ll never find anywhere else.
So, keep a popcorn box full of eyes out for The Thirteen and join Power as he takes you… Exploring The Labyrinth
PAPERBACK: Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble