Mid-Week Libation: The Bats Have Left the Bell Tower
Halloween is almost here! Celebrating with a spooky playlist, spiced wine, a witchy poem, the Gothic art of Victoria Francés, wise words from Carmen Maria Machado & Halloween drag with Dolly Parton!
Mid-Week Libation is our weekly curated splash of inspiration and culture! Click above to listen to this weeks’ audio segment!
Wildstar’s Wednesday Wine Pick: Vin Chaud! (aka Mulled Wine)
Here’s a perfect recipe to warm up your frozen bones on All Hallow’s Eve:
R&R’s Gothity Halloween Playlist! Boooooo Spooky!
The Art of Victoria Francés
A Witchy Poem for Halloween: “Laughing in the Moonlight” by Helen Louise Birch (1883-1925)
Laughing in the Moonlight
by Helen Louise Birch
Three women laughing
In the moonlight,
In the night—
Eerie,
Strange,
With sound of water
Thundering up the cliff;
With sound that comes from swaying boughs
Of pine trees,
Giant pines of a virgin forest—
Fringe of wilderness,
The border
Of a narrow strip of clearing
On the bluffs.
Laughing! How their voices carry!
Fearlessly!
Such merriment
As must awake the sleepy soul of the forest.
Merriment so mad—
How it carries!
Elfish laughter—
Far out over the wicked waters,
Peals and peals!
And the moonlight wavers, glitters,
Strokes their white throats with its poison;
Makes its streaks and streams of silver
Cold and colder in its joy;
Sinks its sharp, silver-dappled, shining moon-fangs
In their eyes.
Laughing women,
Mad and merry,
Send their voices on the winds;
Calling destiny about them,
Calling to titanic powers:
Till their play,
And their lightness,
And their madness,
And their harsh and eerie laughter
Rouses forces that through aeons
Long have slept—
Slept and waited for a summons
Deep enough,
Wild enough,
Light enough,
And evil enough,
To call them forth.
Slow they stretch their unused muscles—
Answer in a dawning smile.
Three women are laughing in the moonlight,
In the night;
And earth is reeling
In light and shadow.
Air and water,
In some fearful manner,
Mingle
With their voices.
All of nature throngs and rushes
Into the vast,
Chaotic
Drift of sound—
A world of maddened, unchained souls,
Of wicked, savage glee!
Naked Earth
Swings into consciousness,
Uncovered,
Sudden,
Reeling in light and shadow,
Through this hellish, hellish laughter!—
Through this wild,
Malicious,
Evil,
Evil
Laughter!Hilarious Dolly Parton Interview with Mo Heart!
The always-fabulous Dolly talks about dressing up as herself for Halloween and attending a Dolly Parton drag lookalike contest: “And I have seen some beautiful drag queens that look better than I ever imagined that I could!”
And just because . . . here’s a video featuring some of our favorite drag queens lip syncing to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”:
Artists Born Today: October 25th
Visual Artists:
Today is the birthday of Richard Parkes Bonington, Florence Dreyfous, Mary Morgan Keipp, Pablo Picasso, Walter J. Phillips, Nils Dardel, Claude Cahun, Marjorie Acker Phillips, Harry Shoulberg, Ken Domon, Tyrus Wong, Roelof Frankot, Olga Bogaevskaya, Richard A. Florsheim, Eric Bransby, Manuel Carbonell, Arthur Leipzig, Rocco Armento, Ismail Gulgee, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Aref Rayess, Elmira Shahtakhtinskaya, Robert Delford Brown, Theodor Pištěk, Iver Jåks, Marguerite Müller-Yao, Vija Celmins, Sachida Nagdev, Richard Ritter, Lynda Benglis, Yazzie Johnson, Requena Nozal, Borys Buryak, Wu Shanzhuan, June Brigman, Yuki Onodera, Reinier Asmoredjo, Zana Briski and Victoria Francés!
Writers, Philosophers & Scholars:
Today is the birthday of James Beattie, Benjamin Constant, Max Stirner, Karl Polanyi, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, John Berryman, Harold Brodkey, Anne Tyler, Elif Shafak, Ellis Avery, Suheir Hammad and Zadie Smith!
Musicians & Composers:
Today is the birthday of Thomas Weelkes, Johann Strauss II, Georges Bizet, Alexander Gretchaninov, Tony Jackson, Sam M. Lewis, Âşık Veysel, Eddie Lang, Chubby Jackson, Earl Palmer, Jimmy Heath, Helen Reddy, Terumasa Hino, Charlie Smalls, Jon Anderson, Peter Lieberson, Robin Eubanks, Chad Smith, MC Sha-Rock, Chely Wright, Midori, Bat for Lashes and Vagabon!
Film/TV/Stage:
Today is the birthday of Leo G. Carroll, Abel Gance, Bill Tytla, Minnie Pearl, Billy Barty, Jeanne Cooper, Nikos Nikolaidis, Gordon Tootoosis, Gale Anne Hurd, Nancy Cartwright, Hong Sang-soo and Craig Robinson!
This Week’s Words of Wisdom: Carmen Maria Machado
