Five Bullets 10.28.22
This week: Halloween stunts, a Ukrainian ultramarathon, and Tom Sachs
Hello and welcome back to Circles In Space, where each Friday I share five interesting things.
All cultures have a way of honoring or celebrating the dead. In North America, Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve, is the night before the Christian holiday of All Hallows (All Saints) Day which originated from Irish, Scottish and German festivals that celebrated the dead. Present-day Halloween customs of jack-o-lanterns, bobbing for apples and the wearing of costumes resemble those of the Gaelic pagan festival Samhain, a feast which marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, when crops, animals and people would die. This was also a time in which the boundary between this world and the next was thin, and spirits could cross over into our world. Wearing costumes would protect the wearer from the spirit’s spells. Today, winter no longer brings the danger of death, so by dressing up and watching scary movies we lightheartedly recall this part of our history in which the dying of nature signaled our end.
On to this week’s topics:
A recent episode of the Criminal podcast focused on the BBC’s 1992 Halloween special Ghostwatch, a live television documentary which investigated paranormal happenings. Terrified viewers thought it was real - the crew and cast were all in on the joke. The podcast also discusses Orson Welles’s infamous October 30, 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds, which (supposedly) panicked the nation.
Despite the ongoing war, Ukrainians are participating in events which help to restore some sanity and normalcy. The Shypit festival, a hippie camp in the Carpathian Mountains where young people can detach from society, take psychedelics and spend time in nature, continued earlier this summer. Also - 15 Ukrainian runners participated in the Big Backyard ultramarathon.
Lately I’ve been thinking about Substack as a platform and what I hope to accomplish and provide to readers with this newsletter. While I ruminated on this, I checked out a few recent developments. Over the summer, Substack co-founder Chris Best had a conversation with Joe Rogan. Earlier this month, when Meta announced ending Bulletin, the New York Times posed the question: Are we past peak newsletter?
Artist/inventor/astronaut Tom Sachs's new exhibit Spaceships is on view in New York’s Acquavella Galleries until November 26. Sachs’s bricolaged works ask viewers to consider the metaphysical and spiritual aspects of what constitutes a spaceship. Sachs, a NASA devotee, has completed several of his own space missions.
Happy Birthday to my humble blog which began two years ago on October 31, 2020 with a simple post about my trusty MacBook followed by a post on Edgar Allen Poe.
Got something to share? Leave me a comment! I’m always on the lookout for something new to dive into.
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That's all for this week! As always, thanks for reading, have a great weekend and Happy Halloween!
Until next time,
KW
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