No Bonfire night here.

Despite the rapidly cooling weather (I saw snow yesterday!), the chance of getting to celebrate Bonfire night this year seems pretty slim, (I'm still hoping someone will to set fire to something in the next few hours). Therefore, this year I'll have to make do with Halloween.


For me, the excitement started with the Toronto After Dark Film Festival which ran at the Bloor 'Hot Docs' Cinema. It's 9 nights of horror, sci-fi, action and cult movies presented in the trendiest cinema in Downtown Toronto. We went to see Wrong, the latest film from French director Quentin Dupieux (whom you may know as the man behind this).  His last film, Rubber, was about a killer tyre and Wrong is just as bizarre. It included canine telepathy, spontaneous arboreal transformations, mistaken identity and forced vehicular re-design. Megan fell asleep, she claims from jet lag, but I thought it was hilarious and brilliant. The introduction described it as cinematic stand-up, which is a pretty good summation if you ask me.

The second film we saw was A Fantastic Fear of Everything starring Simon Pegg and directed by Crispian Mills of Kula Shaker fame. It started out like a typical Channel 4 comedy special, but once it got going was funny, and original. No great work of art, but the killer's sunglasses alone made it a worthwhile venture.

My Festival T-shirt, which, as you can see, is awesome.

As soon as the film finished we headed to the Centre for Medieval Studies Halloween party which was being held in the Pontifical Institute. Need I say more? The best bit was that they had a keg of beer. My first keg party was in the Pontifical Institute with a painting of his Holiness staring down and me. Despite there being slightly too many Tolkien characters present to make it a truly memorable party, it was really good fun.

On Halloween night proper, Meg and I bought loads of Chocolate in preparation for the hordes of children we expected to be at our door. Not a single knock. Nothing. Lots of chocolate for us. It's been a good week.

The day after Halloween (All Hallows'?), we went to Sorauren Park, where all the local residents take their pumpkins to display their carving prowess. As you can see below, there are some very impressive pumpkins.

Stephen Harper

 

So now I'm off to try to find some fireworks, bonfire toffee, sparklers, toffee apples and something to set fire to. I think I may need to buy some sort of hat as well, it's getting very cold. Probably something with fur would be good. Wish me luck.