Five Halloween Tricks and Five Halloween Treats (Double Feature)

Happy October 25th!

Halloween is right around the corner and according to this information I learned about Halloween, a little less than half of you will be celebrating in costume. Of course, we all know that there are some costumes we expect to see. Whether it's a classic vampire or summer blockbuster movie character, we expect to see a few people dressed the same at a party or in Facebook pics.

So, to keep with the "season", here are ...

Five Halloween "Tricks" (Costumes we'll probably see a lot) and Five Halloween "Treats" (Interesting Ideas for a Costume)

 First "Trick": PSY (from Gangnam Style fame)

So, Gangnam style took the world by storm this summer and even if you don't know what he's saying, statistically, you've tried dancing like him. YouTube has dozens of parodies and the original video has over 530 million views. (EDIT: According to an article by "The Atlantic", Gangnam style is now the third most watched video on YouTube. Ever.)

Now, let's think about this from a costume perspective.
Sunglasses - Simple.
White or Black shirt with Blue/Black/Green Jacket and Bow Tie - Not too challenging.
Black Pants - Done!
Doing the Gangnam Style Dance - If you're going to a party, it will happen already.
Not being slapped after going to everyone saying "Hey, sexy lady!" - ...

Yeah, this is a college guy's dream costume.

I mean, come on, you're still in costume while going to the bathroom!!

First "Treat": Mary Poppins (from the London 2012 opening ceremonies)

While not inspiring as many YouTube parodies as Gangnam Style, the London Olympics was another experience that brought the world together. Unfortunately, I was not able to see the opening ceremony, but boy, did I hear about the next morning from my friends/co-workers. The reaction was a mix of "Whoa" and "What on Earth?", and I think Halloween needs some of that again. 

To think of it from a different perspective, it's definitely apparently that Halloween is "when children dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In Girl World, Halloween in the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it." Outside of it being from an awesome 2000's movie, this quote brings up a good point - the vast majority of Halloween costumes for women are meant to be slutty/sexy. Well, what if someone doesn't want to show off skin? Get a group of women together with the right gowns, hats, and umbrellas, and bam! Group costume. Plus, no one would suspect if you want to make some mischief.

Bonus: You'd get to freak out anyone that dresses like
Volde... He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Second "Trick": Ermahgerd!

Another recent meme, the "Ermahgerd" girl has been amazed by many things this year, including baby hippos, the show "Bananas in Pajamas", and of course, her collection of Goosebumps books. In true meme fashion, the phrase "ERMAHGERD" has been adopted by our animal population and let me tell, it's an exciting world out there for those critters.

There was a meeting where our warm-up activity was looking at "Ermahgerd" pictures. 
It was awesome.

Like PSY, we have a simple costume (pigtails and a cut-out of the face is like 85% of the costume right there) and you can celebrate everything around you. The music, the punch and refreshments, the other people... just. ermahgerd.

Author will not be held responsible for merging of different ideas on these lists.

Second "Treat": LEGO Lord of the Rings

Ah, LEGO, the classic kid's toy and bane of parents with messy kids. Since 2005, Traveler's Tales has made video games where you re-enact classic nerd moments as Batman, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Harry Potter, etc. The LEGO spin is that everything is made of LEGO, so your tromping around the world includes building LEGO spaceships, chopping up LEGO bushes for studs (the currency of the land), and if you die, your character pops apart into LEGO debris. 

So, why haven't I mentioned Lord of the Rings yet? Well, when I was looking around for this article, it occurred to me that ermahgerdLEGOLordoftheRingsiscomingoutinlikeinafewweeks!!

*Ahem*

What I meant is that since LEGO Lord of the Rings hasn't been released yet, it would be a new idea built on classic nerd things that would remind people that this merging of awesome will be coming out soon.

 

 Bonus Points if your group includes a LEGO Gollum.

 Third "Trick": Hunger Games cast

It's an interesting world when a book about young adults sneaking around the forest and killing each other becomes a best seller. Then, a movie gets made about it. Okay, it probably explains in the book, but what the heck were those dog things that start popping out of the ground at the end? Were they mutants? Robots? 

Anyway, a popular summer movie easily leads into popular Halloween costumes. Katniss will probably make a lot of appearances (DISCLAIMER: Please don't show off your fire costume inside.), but she's not the only character I expect to hear about.  

*Cough*Just dress in bright colors and crazy hair and say you're from the Capitol*Cough*

Third "Treat": Real-Life Battleship

Another summer blockbuster that destroyed the box office this year was of course, Battleship. Little did you know that they ran a promotion that included a game called Battleship, that included naval warfare! Isn't that awesome! </sarcasm>

So... Battleship, the movie, happened. In terms of Halloween costumes, the movie doesn't really stand out, since most of the characters were just in military garb. The board game however, is much more distinctive. This might be geared towards kids trick-or-treating in a neighborhood, but how awesome would it be to see five people running down in an aircraft carrier. Then, you'd yell "D-7!" and one of them would start yelling. Ah. Good times.

These two tragically never made it to the party, because no one could find them and tell them where to go... darn patrol boat.

Fourth "Trick": Movie Superheroes & Supervillians

 Besides Hunger Games, the summer movie roster also included The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. Both movies were quite popular and featured our nerd icons beating up nerd adversaries. Don't think it will affect Halloween? Think about how many people are still dressing up as the Joker after Heath Ledger's portrayal in The Dark Knight. Now, I won't say that Bane will be at every party, but he'll be at some, and even though the newest incarnation of Catwoman is basically Anne Hathaway in a black leather suit, she'll pop up as well. 

I do however, think that the Avengers will be in force come next Wednesday. Outside of new gadgets and delightful banter between characters, the main cast has already appeared scattered between a handful of movies. However, with all of them assembled, they have created what could be the greatest group costume this Halloween will witness... and then witness another five groups of friends showing up as the exact same heroes.

Similar to Big Bang Theory, the costume contest may come down 

to which group finds a girl to dress as Black Widow.
 

Fourth "Treat": Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Another summer release, this movie featured Abraham Lincoln laying the smack down on vampires while the American Civil War rocks the country. While the movie did rest in the shadows of blockbusters like the Avengers and the final Batman installation, it does create a fresh spin to two tried-and-true Halloween costumes.

Just imagine someone shows up as Dracula or a generic vampire to trick or treat. It's all good, right? Then, a dude with a stovepipe hat and beard bursts out from the bushes and chases the vampire down with an axe. He could even yell "Four score and seven years ago, I destroyed you once, and it's time to destroy you again!" or something cool like that. Plus, if you don't have another person to plan this with, you just dress up as Lincoln and play it normal until you see someone else dressed as any ol' vampire... 

Just saying.

Fifth "Trick": Anything that's Political and Topical

Every four years, Wal-Mart Halloween aisles are especially swarmed with rubber masks of presidential candidates and other political figures. Some people decide that they resemble a candidate enough to suit up without the mask. (This is probably for the better since I've seen Romney masks where the teeth look like they should go on a "Bubba Redneck" mask instead.) Then, of course, there are people who pick a recent concept/term/remark and personifies that.

Yeah, I don't need to make a caption for this one.

Whenever I see someone dressing up as someone political, here's their Halloween plans in my head:

• Go to a party. 
• Bump into someone dressed as a person/idea or someone simply with strong political beliefs from another party (let's call that person, Richard). 
• Get into a slighted heated debate with Richard and don't resolve it, because, hey, it's a party.
• Insert a few hours of partying and drinking.
• Go back and punch Richard in the face. 

 I would remark that political costumes could spark the most debate at your Halloween shindig, but I just listened to a 20-minute "discussion" between Marvel and DC coming from down the hallway. 

 

 

 

Now, dress up one party as the Avengers and another group as the Justice League and you're in business...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fifth "Treat": Treating!

 

If the Internet is good at anything, it's making a meme out of something.  It also just loves to take a word and make it into an -ing verb. Don't believe me?

This picture was already compiled just for this reason.

The first picture is even another example: Horseman-ing. If that doesn't say Halloween, I don't know what does. However, that one is a couple years old, so the time as come for a new... thing. I leave it up to you, the citizens of the Internet, to create and spread the word on "treating". Good luck, my online brothers and sisters.

Just take the unicorn's advice and believe in yourself.

Five Movies where "That Escalated Quickly"

Before we begin, I might as well put it out there that this entry will focus on movies. I tried to find video clips of each movie, but was not fully successful. Personally, I recommend watching all of these movies in their entirety. Oh, and the movies are all older, but I since I plan to go in depth with at least a few of them, I'm just going to put

***SPOILER WARNING FOR MOVIES***

to play it safe... Enjoy!



Happy October 15th!

I love movies. I'm sure you have at least a few you really enjoy. In order to create a compelling narrative and bring the audience into the picture, many movies employ a simple story arc: the beginning of the movie is devoted to introducing characters and the world, then crises arise to create higher stakes, after that everything bubbles together into a dramatic climax, and the post-climax sums up loose ends.

 Here's a pretty simple illustration:

Killer waves, dude!

 As you can see, the tension doesn't rise uniformly. There are some movies that just decide "let's crank it to 11!!" and really jack up the intensity, sometimes to a comedic effect.

 So, to celebrate these masterpieces, here are...

Five Movies where...

Couldn't have said it better myself, Ron Burgundy.

1. "Rambo Daydream" from UHF

General Premise of UHF: George Newman (Weird Al) and his buddy Bob (David Bowe) come into operating a TV station, channel U62, on the verge of bankruptcy. Knowing that, George applies the "Weird Al approach" to TV programming and makes the entire line-up a hodgepodge of odd premises and parodies. This miraculously turns the station into a household name, especially the kid's show "Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse", starring the station's janitor, Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards).

How Things Escalate: After being knocked down a peg, the town's "network affiliate" is upset by Weird Al's sudden success. In order to keep the network affiliate from owning and demolishing U62, Weird Al and crew launch a PBS-style call-in fundraiser. The fundraiser features a variety of the different TV show stars (including the upside-down yodeling cowboy), but Stanley Spadowski is kidnapped by a group of network goons. After George learns that Stanley is being held at the network headquarters, George dashes out of U62...

Let's watch:

You Should Still Watch the Movie Because...: The premise of Weird Al running a TV station is a perfect fit for his style of parody and randomness. In between scenes, commercials and TV shows from the network will run, including "Conan the Librarian", "Spatula City", and "Wheel of Fish".

Why make a game show about fish? For the halibut.

The movie also includes the antics of pre-Seinfeld Michael Richards, who really sells the role of someone who, above all else, really loves being a janitor. It's a random movie, it's an odd movie, but by gosh, is it awesome.





2. "Self-Destructing Castle" from The Pink Panther Strikes Again

General Premise of The Pink Panther Strikes Again: Back in the day when Inspector Clouseau is played by Peter Sellers, not Steve Martin, an old colleague of Clouseau (Charles Dreyfus, played by Herbert Lom) escapes from a mental asylum and seeks revenge on the Inspector. Dreyfus kidnaps a scientist who has created a disintegration ray and bullies the nations of the world into attempting to murder Clouseau, while the Inspector seeks to stop Dreyfus and rescue the kidnapped scientist and the scientist's daughter.

How Things Escalate: In a case of "too many cooks in the kitchen", the master assassins fail to murder Clouseau, but knock each other off instead. Clouseau then learns that Dreyfus' headquarters is in a Bavarian castle. Disguising himself as a German dentist, he is able to infiltrate the castle, but as is expected with Clouseau, things don't always work out as expected...

If only all dental offices had pipe organs... *sigh*

Let's watch... err, read:
 Unfortunately, I was not able to find the clip of this specific scene. After the dentist disguise is blown, Clouseau changes into a suit of armor and after conveniently sitting in the scoop of a catapult, the Inspector is thrown onto the disintegration ray when... everything starts blowing up. Yes, the ray, the computers on the walls, practically everything you see that's not human starts to spark and blow up. Since Clouseau's weight knocked the ray into pointing at the castle, the castle also disappears, while Dreyfus is left playing the pipe organ as he also disappears, down to his twitching eye.

You Should Still Watch the Movie Because...: This is another movie where the absurdity is fully on display. Clouseau is clearly a bumbling idiot with a lucky streak three miles wide, so you love to watch how he gets through everything unscathed. While I couldn't find a clip of the castle explosion, here is another entertaining scene from earlier in the movie.

3. "Gas Station Smackdown" from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

General Premise of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: One morning, a thief is speeding along and careens off a cliff. Four cars stop to help the man, and in his dying breath, the thief says that there is $350,000 hidden "under the big W". After failing to reach any form of compromise, the people involved make a mad dash in a race for the money. Since the trip spans a sizable portion of California, different people try to beat the group by flying, calling in relatives, etc. As more people learn about the hidden treasure, more people race to the park where it's hidden, including the California police.

Now, this may sound similar to Rat Race, which is a spiritual re-make of this film. Both films are based around a pursuit for hidden cash, add more competitors like a rolling snowball, and showcase dozens of popular comedians and actors of their time... but Rat Race has a CGI talking cow... so, no. This movie is better.

How Things Escalate: Lennie Pike (Jonathan Winters) is one of the original men to help after the car crash, and is one character whose situation truly goes downhill quickly. He's one of the main guys to suggest fair compromises for every person, but is quickly voted down. He then crashes his moving truck filled with stuff into another character's car and is forced to bike down the highway in "a little girl's bike" to find another car. He is picked up by a smooth-talking motorist, who leaves Pike at the side of the road after learning of the money. Pike then picks up the bike and races after the car who left him in the dust...

Let's watch:

You Should Still Watch the Movie Because...: One thing that separates this movie from others on the list is that the moment featured is really in the middle of the movie, not as some final conclusion. At one point, the movie does feel like five separate journeys as different characters face challenges and rope more people into the deal. Naturally, all of these storylines come together the closer they get to the "big W". Another reason I like this movie is the range of the cast. The main crew includes Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, and Milton Berle, with cameos including the Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis, and Don Knotts.

The noi-ve of some people. Thinking we can't contribute to society. Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

4. "Battle of WTF" from Time Bandits

General Premise of Time Bandits: Okay, here goes. Kevin, a British boy, is kidnapped by a group of dwarves (featured above, including Kenny Baker aka R2-D2), who have stolen a map of time and space from the Supreme Being. The dwarves were helpers for the Supreme Being, but plan to use the map to find portals to steal some of history's greatest treasures. Meanwhile, a sorcerer known as "Ultimate Evil" is watching the group and tricks them into coming into his lair to find "the most fabulous object in the world".

How Things Escalate: After being tricked to come to the Fortress of Ultimate Evil, the sorcerer also gets a hold of the map. Conveniently, the Fortress of Ultimate Evil is on top of a half-dozen portals, so in a last-ditch effort, the party split up to find warriors to help them win against Evil... (Oh, and by this point, one of the dwarves has been turned half-pig... and there have been Dementors with cattle skulls)

Let's watch... err, read again: 
I really wish that I could show you the madness, but you'll just have to take my word at it. This is all directly from the movie and I am not making it. The dwarves were able to get Roman archers, cowboys, knights on horseback, a Panzer tank, and a sci-fi space craft to help fight. The cowboys strike first and quickly lasso Evil. Evil swings the cowboys around like a carousel (including music) and a giant knife coming from Evil's head cuts all the ropes and send the cowboys flying into the distance. The knights go next, attempting to hit Evil with jousting lances. Evil puts on a gas mask, emits poisonous gas, and leaves the knights as a jumble of armor and lances. (No horses were harmed in this movie... as far as I can tell at least.) The archers launch a barrage of arrows, but Evil inflates himself into a giant pincushion and then puffs out so the arrows shoot right back and kill the archers. 

This is a picture to hopefully strengthen the case that I am not making this up...

One of the dwarves fires the Panzer tank, but Evil simply makes the Panzer and space craft drift around and fire randomly. A column collapses and crushes another dwarf. When all hope seems lost and it looks like Evil won... he explodes. Yep, the Supreme Being comes in and makes Evil explode.

You Should Still Watch the Movie Because...: If only I could see your face right now. If you haven't seen the movie, you should watch it so you enjoy WTF moments. I will admit that this scene is one of the biggest ones, but even if you know it's coming, it's just weird. Once you've seen the movie, you should show other people, so you can watch them go "WTF!". For all the randomness this scene showcases, the movie otherwise fits into a cohesive plot, and there are many Monty Python influences, including appearances by John Cleese and Michael Palin themselves.

Oh, and Sean Connery is in it.

Yes, *that* Sean Connery.

5. "ALL the Police Cars" from Blues Brothers

General Premise of Blues Brothers: After being released on parole, Jake (John Belushi) and his brother Elwood Blues (Dan Akroyd) learn that the orphanage they grew up in is going to be shut down unless $5,000 are paid in outstanding taxes. The two decide to get their band back together to raise the money, now that they "are on a mission from God". Jake and Elwood must find each member to pull the band back together, while avoiding the Illinois and Chicago police, Carrie Fisher, and a group of Illinois Nazis.

How Things Escalate: The Blues Brothers are able to pull the band together for one big gig. Since the gig is thoroughly advertised, the venue is filled with fans, but also Illinois troopers, and a country music group that had their gig stolen by the Blues Brothers.While the band plays "Sweet Home Chicago", Jake and Elwood take the $5,000 and sneak out the back door of the concert hall. They get in the Bluesmobile (an old police cruiser) and race towards Chicago...

Let's watch:

After this video, the chase isn't quite over. I couldn't find the entire sequence, but here's another piece showing things have... progressed.

You Should Still Watch the Movie Because...: The Blues Brothers band was originally an SNL skit, and Akroyd & Belushi are entertaining to watch in every scene. Like It's a Mad... World, this movie features many famous actors as well as musicians. What sets Blues Brothers apart from the other movies on this list is the incredible music, which includes James Brown, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin. Speaking of music, there's a chase scene earlier in the movie when Jake and Elwood are being chased by cops inside a mall while the classic Blues Brothers theme plays.

So, about that insurance policy...

I tip my hat to you, oh crazy movies. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to drive a car that's on fire through a building (also on fire), as I'm chased by mutant undead panthers to the tunes of AC/DC.

It's going to be awesome.


Special Thanks to YouTube, IMDB, Google Images, and KnowYourMeme for the videos, photos, and information.

Five Goals of F.I.V.E.

Greetings all and happy October 5th!

You stumbled onto this blog in one way or another, and you may be wondering, "Huh?". Well, that question is a little vague, but I'll pretend that you asked "What is this blog about?". Good question. F.I.V.E. really comes down to sharing. Some posts may be personal stories, while others are about the world around us. For those of you familiar with Cracked.com, this blog takes inspiration from presenting an idea/concept/etc. as a list of five items (of varying effects). As you will probably see in posts to come, I'm kind of a math nut, so I wanted to make the number five the focal point of the blog. The name and premise are apparent, and I also plan to post new entries when the date contains a 5 (aka the 5th, 15th, and 25th of a month).

I don't want this to be one large block of text, so I should show rather than tell...


Five Goals of/Reasons Behind F.I.V.E.


1. Everyone has a story to tell.
Since everyone has a unique life with different experiences and memories, everyone has a story to tell. I'm sure I'm not the only one who enjoys telling stories, but I think I'd be a bore if that's all I did in a day. Fortunately, a blog can let me share my story and you the reader can read as much or little as you want.


2. Pump those creative juices.
I think having a creative hobby/outlet is a great way to spice up life. Even something as simple as a 9-to-5'er competing in a bowling league is something different. I've been considering the idea for this blog for a couple of weeks and have since stumbled onto this post about how to be more creative. Hmm... make lists, know your roots, write it down... yeah, I think I'm on the right track.

After all, if a rat can cook, dang it, I can do this!

3. Keep righting. Uh... writing.
Even if I didn't stumble across that list on "I Waste So Much Time", I could have told you that I haven't written in a while. I've done things like a personal blog and there was even a point when I did NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which is November), but it's been a while since I've updated either thing. Since writing can really capture a moment in time, it's a great habit for me to get back into.


4. I think Proud Momma Otter can say it best...

What do I mean by that? Well, whether we admit or not, we all have free time somewhere in our lives. There are things like work, sleep, eating, etc., but there are at least some times when we don't have anything in our schedule that's absolutely required. A lot of my free time has recently been in my apartment and there's not a lot that I can show for it. However, if I take some time away from randomly surfing the internet and put it into a creative endeavor... well... I maed dis. 
 

5. Have fun.
I think it goes without saying that everyone needs fun in their life, and I think this goal should be twofold. I want to have fun thinking about random things and stories, and I want you to be entertained. As such, if you have anything you want me to write on, let me know! If it's new, I'm willing to give it a go.



I know it's a little short, but I figure this is a good way to get the F.I.V.E. ball rolling. See you on the 15th!