I know, I know… I get a bit juvenile at this time of year but I can’t help myself.  It’s October and Halloween is coming!

If you’re a MonsterKid, there really is no better time to be alive.  Halloween is like Christmas and the 4th of July rolled into one uber month-long celebration, with the bonus being that you can dress comfortably (no itchy sweaters, no sticky summerwear) and the chance that you’ll have to listen to even a little bit of a Toby Keith song is greatly diminished.  Even here in sunny California Karloffornia, there’s a snap in the air and the nights are cool and perfect for mischief and devilry.  This is jacket and goulash weather my friends!  This is what we live for!  The only really agonizing thing about the Hallowtide is how to spend those few 31 days… you can only watch so many movies, read so many books or eat so many candy corns.  No matter how comprehensive you are, something gets left behind… that collection of Arthur Machen, that unsung Lugosi-Karloff team-up, that well-regarded J-horror classic.  It all can be a bit overwhelming, which is why I recommend you get by with a little help from your fiends.  And no, that isn’t a typo.  There are lots of resources on the old Information Super-haunted-Highway and today I’m going to point you to some of the brighter lights for you to drop inside your Jack-o-Lantern.  Like the blue flames that spout out of the cold earth along the Borgo Pass (well, according to Bram Stoker, anyway), these lights will take you to treasures beyond your wildest imaginings. Make your first stop…

CINEMA STYLES.  I can’t speak too highly of Greg Ferrara’s essential film blog, especially during his annual October “Kill Fest.”  Greg’s got film clips, essays and montages galore, in addition to some of the juiciest banners you will find anywhere on the ‘Net.

Writer and artist John Rozum is one of the brains (“Brains!”) behind the COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN blog, a “virtual neighborhood” and one-stop-shopping site for all things Halloween and horrific.  It will point you to places you simply won’t believe.  Beware… and bookmark!

If you’re at all like me, you enjoy alternating cinematic shocks with literary ones.  If that’s the case, you might want to keep THE KIND OF FACE YOU HATE close at hand.  Bill R. loves a good horror tale and each October he tackles a different author a day.  Like a classic monster-on-the-loose, Bill can be childlike and gentle with writers he admires and mercilessly cruel to ones he does not.  Visit today and start building your Halloween Must Read Lists.

ALL EYES AND EARS is new to me but I’ve wasted no time sampling some of the aural awesomeness of this music and photography blog straight outta Ohio.  BLACULA and BLOOD MANIA radio spots, a jazz-funk cover of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” achingly lovely photographs of cemeteries and other haunted places… it’s a treat, and that’s no trick.

I also can’t praise in more basso a profundo a blog from Melbourne, Australia, called SEXY WITCH.  Leave a chocolate for the spirits of Truth in Advertising because this site is exactly what its name implies, a celebration of sexy witches throughout history, from ancient woodcuts to the Photoshop spellcasters of the digital age.  Not necessarily safe for work (witchcraft occasionally gets its kit off) but the kids (smoke ‘em if you got ‘em) will love the saucy sorceresses and naughty necromancers of the jazz era and on through the World War II and Cold War periods.  This place is a treasure trove of great old striptease witch cards and Hollywood Halloween portraits that were once a staple of the studios’ cheesecake factory.  Looking at these old pictures of – well, certainly not a simpler time (Depression?  War?  What has changed?) – but of another time make my heart sing and hurt at the same time.  There’s just something about this cavalcade of broomstick jockeys, winking Jack-o-Lanterns and arched-back black cats that makes me a child again in the best possible way… fearful but curious, dreadful but brave, serious in my interests and silly in the pursuit of them.  These images from a time beyond even my own youth make me want to turn out the lights and fire up some candles, to boost myself up on the bathroom sink, stare in the mirror and whisper “Bloody Mary… Bloody Mary… Bloody Mary…”  They make me want to slip into a pair of boots and go out and kick leaves and breathe in the aromas of woodsmoke and fallen apples, to run into the kitchen where my Mom has cider mulling in a pot on the stove and cookies cut out in the shapes of ghosts and bats, and take these treats to my bedroom where my 45 rpm copy of  “Monster Mash” spins eternally on my little plastic turntable.  It’s the same for me every year, every Halloween.  We’re only 2 days in to the month of October but even now I can feel the month slipping away too quickly.  If you feel the same way, hold on tight.  Make your Halloween count this year.  Don’t let it get past you.  Stay orange, Ponyboy.  Stay orange.