Buddy Beaverhausen's Excellent Halloween Adventure

When I travel up to Sandy Hook these days, I'm forever reminded that gun control is the real American horror story! Yet that's where I connected in Connecticut for my Halloween get-together with my coven (Tracey and Merv) this weekend. I won't even mention the horror of Saturday afternoon's commute to get to this Final Destination.

Tracey and husband, Merv, always put me up in style and I am so eternally grateful to their hospitality. There were some cheese and crackers after the prolonged commute; the bewitching, home-made lasagne for dinner; the very comfy guest bed and our movie marathon on big-screen tv. Can it get better than that? I, for one, think not.

Our film line-up included Whoopi's Moms Mabley documentary (HBO) , the macabre (Halloween appropriate) Suddenly Last Summer and Hocus Pocus.

The final title is a Bette Midler vehicle from 1993. Bette openly loves it, it's become a family Halloween fave and is on Facebook's witch-movie top ten list.

My opinion is that that film is best seen by tweens and teens, though Bette dominates this Disney doozer like nobody's business if she do! The special effects are still pretty state-of-the-art in this day and age. The acting is all-around solid (including the young ones). Bette's "Put a Spell on You" muscal number is classic, certainly. And I adore any movie in which I can lay my eyes on the late 6'5" cutie, Charles Rocket.

The sequence with Garry and Penny Marshall is singularly hilarious! More reasons to watch than not, though this is one of those films that doesn't know when to end. It seemed to have at least three more climaxes than necessary, though Buddy B can never have enough climaxes, personally, as a select few may well be aware.

 

Early afternoon today, I traveled back to NYC and bought the latest pre-releases of Aretha and Annie Lennox albums at Rebel Rebel in the Village, then visited John Azelvandre's exhibit at the Gowanus art event. Kowabungus, Gowanus, and Ungoowa! It is always a delight to see John's work and his evolution as a painter.

Asked how his art has evolved since I last went to his last exhibit, John told me that he's gotten much more into physicality and water in his very expressionistic style. You can see more of it below: