Happy Halloween from Grenada!

In last week’s newsletter, I suggested some scary shorts from the page and from the screen:

One of my favorite times to be a teacher is during Halloween. I love incorporating eery music and stories into my classroom. I’ve played the music video for the song, “Drácula, Calígula, Tarántula,” by the Chilean sitcom, 31 Minutos (similar in content and esthetic to The Muppets). It’s a total vibe that you’ll pick up on even if you don’t speak Spanish. I will also use movies without any narration or dialogue in class, like Alma and Úlfur, and then work with students to build language around the story. Alma is a creepy animated short involving children and dolls, neither of which is creepy, right? Úlfur is another animated short that confuses the line between dream and reality in a circular fashion, reminiscent of two of my favorite short stories from Argentinian author, Julio Cortázar. Continuidad de los parques (English version) and La noche boca arriba (English version) were both introduced to me during my college days as a Spanish student. Both are well worth the read. Cortázar was a master of confusing what’s real and what’s fiction — perfect for Halloween!

You can read the rest of the newsletter here.

In other Halloween news, the following picture came up today as a Facebook memory from 2016.

Of course, we miss Cal and the fun of being around the hood tonight to hand out candy and play terrifying tunes for all the children. Angie and I are still planning on watching a scary movie or two though, be it tonight or tomorrow night. Studying is the horror consuming most of the time around here these days. Movies currently in the running are:

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
• I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
• Coraline (2009)
• It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Last but not least, I was finally able to put together a Halloween playlist for 2024, just in the nick of time! You can listen to it here.