Telling Ghost Stories

Wading by the lake-shore was how I spent my summers....
Watching my lover casting far and wide for golden
fishes and complimenting his skill.

Casting his greedy line further he found a catch more
golden than I would ever be....

Water, water, everywhere....What grave for me.

Floating in the water is how I'll spend this summer....
I'll again be the elusive prize he can never catch
and only he'll see.

I love ghost stories...the Gothic ones full of sadness and passion. No obvious gore for me thank you. The idea of an implied horror can be creepier than actually seeing the bloody victim or monster. The Medieval Silver Dagger Ballads and Edward Gorey's inspired my series Spectres of Unfortunate Romances.

So it was easy to come up with the idea of doing a series of ghost dolls, but the poem aspect really threw me at first. I am essentially creating stories and dolls about murder victims, but at the same time I want the ghosts to be giving their murderers hell too.

With the character, Nerina, she my have spent hours with her lover watching him fish and was killed and replaced by her rival, but with her ghost lurking in his favorite fishing spot....I don't think he'll enjoy himself any more.

I'm betting that Nerina's visits will get him to confess or give himself away. Since he's the only one that can see her, the problems the murderer will face trying to hide his fear will eventually break him down.

I really want to stay with the period motif of these dolls because the long skirts lend themselves to creating the floating feeling of a ghost. The victims in all the Silver Dagger Ballads I've seen were women, but some of the victims in Gorey's stories were male, so I have some choices to make as I continue this series.

Since this isn't the 14th century and women aren't quite the chattel we once were, I suppose I should consider doing a few male victims of love too. It is easy to portray only women as victims of choosing poorly when falling in love, but failed romances happen to everyone .

These dolls tend to be cathartic for me . I fill their stories with sad memories and let them go. Everyone can relate to a bad romance and the relief when it's over.

Romantic Movies

I'm not usually into romantic movies, but I found a few on sale for Valentine's Day and decided ... why not!

An Affair to Remember was a lovely movie. The commentary track was brilliant. I love Cary Grant and Debra Carr is so pretty. Grant has this great charm in this film, but I think I like him in Hitchcock films best. Hitchcock seems to bring out this underlying viciousness in Grant that I find intriguing. I think Notorious is my Favorite Cary Grant movie.

Dirty Dancing is just a fun movie. I love to watch people dance and the movie does pretty good job of evoking an early 60's feel. Jerry Orbach is a great Dad. Patrick, well he's just too cute and Jennifer Grey's adorable too.

Ghost- I like this movie because the story is told from the point of view of the ghost. I like all of the characters in this movie a lot.

Funny Girl was amusing and I enjoyed it. Omar is gorgeous and I enjoyed Barbara's amusing performance. The color palate of the late 60's is so evident in the costuming and everything. But I like 60's colors, so I didn't find it a drawback.

Now I've never actually seen Breakfast at Tiffany's, but I love Audrey and Truman Capote. So I'm sure I'll probably enjoy myself. I'll probably dig out Sabrina too and have a little double feature.

I'll be gearing up for Thursday. I'm even going to make a heart shaped pizza. We'll probably watch a movie while eating... SciFi or horror something . Nothing says romance like The Crawling Eye or The Head.