October-Fest! (31 days of fall fun)

I have never made any secret of my love for fall, and of Halloween specifically. I will be celebrating this month in three ways.

First of all, I will be participating in Inktober. I had hoped I could have some solid idea and produce a short book with something to say, but I don't have the mental wherewithal for that. I am just going to draw, and if something coherent develops great. There is a lot of uncertainty in my life, and that effects my creativity too. And, maybe not being good at drawing would bother me more if I was trying to illustrate something cool. 

The next one is the easiest: the songs of the day will be monster songs.

Previously I have written about my shock that Halloween songs on the radio were basically just "Monster Mash" and "Thriller" after learning that there were songs like "Werewolves of London" out there. I have used many songs that I have discovered in past Octobers.

More recently, my emo listening (not all emo) has shown me many  more songs than expected. I did Mogwai and Rye Coalition fairly close to each other, finding "How to Be a Werewolf" and "Cocaine Werewolf". Then when "Do the Vampire" came up with Superdrag I realized I needed to delve more. Also, one of the bands I reviewed last November has a great one that I have been saving for now. Will the monsters all be metaphorical? Will this make a truly scary playlist? I don't know; I'm just trying to have fun with it.

That's the thing. I need more fun.

The #365dailyselfies have been painful this year because the year has been painful. I always feel hideous and sad. When I have done theme months, although they are confining in some ways, that also brings out some creativity to try and break out of the confinement. With the food month, maybe it was the insecurity of admitting that a fat person eats, but eventually it unlocked some playfulness. I don't get to play that much.

Some of the musicians I like dress up a lot; like I can't even imagine being that theatrical. I enjoy the creativity of Halloween, but I take the least advantage of that with costumes, because how do you draw attention and become something? Also, I have no skill with makeup.

Therefore I have decided that each selfie for October will be a costume selfie. It makes me nervous, but it feels important.

Obviously I can't spend a lot of money on this, and there are some limits to the time I can spend too. Some of these costumes will be remarkably lazy, but I also hope some of them will be cool.

None of them will be sexy; that could only set the stage for disappointment.

I should add, I did also change my Twitter name for the month, to "Anyone but Gina Harris", with a picture of me shielding my face. Some of that is that the costumes will be experimenting with other identities, but some of it is also that it has been hard being me, and a temporary reprieve from that could be nice. That's what I hope this will feel like. Maybe there will be some laughs.

Also, while it may not be specifically for Halloween, I am getting closer to the time when I will need to do some writing about death. Maybe that will show up in the Inktober drawings, but I don't know.

All the clarity I have has now been expounded on. For the more speculative, one of the costumes could involve some singing. Maybe it is time for a Facebook story.

All Inktober drawings, daily songs, costume selfies, and blog posts will go up on Facebook and Twitter. Stay tuned.

https://www.facebook.com/sporktastic
https://twitter.com/sultryglebe