A Bloody Valentine's Day




Image via Facebook

  I had a crazy busy Valentine's Day weekend this year, and several unique holiday experiences. I went through one of the most frightening haunted houses I've ever experienced, and attended an extravagant Valentine's Day party in an apartment that looks like Versailles. That second one is for a later post.

Here is my review of Blood Manor, a fast yet bone-chilling haunted house that is sure to give you the creeps:

Blood Manor’s Bloody Valentine’s Day Haunted House, located in the West Village, may not be for everyone. But for those who love the thrill of being sincerely frightened, you will not want to miss it.

I’ve been through my fair share of haunted houses, and seen a ton of horror movies. A Halloween buff who is not so easily scared, I can say with pretty good conviction that Blood Manor is really scary- and I absolutely loved it.

The house, created and run by Halloween aficionados Jim Faro, Mike Rodriguez and Jim Lorenzo, has been running for the past eight consecutive Halloweens. This is the second time the house has also run for Valentine’s Day.

Depending on how fast you walk, or run through, the entire event only lasts about 15 minutes. But your heart will be racing and you will feel pretty terrified the entire time. Entering the house through a set of swinging doors, a series of elaborate rooms with intricate and highly realistic horror scenes await you. Many inspired by horror/murder movies like Sweeney Todd and Saw, you truly feel like you’re walking into a murder scene, or that a serial killer is just lurking in the shadows.

The characters are extremely intense and have no fear of creepy eye contact. While they don’t touch you, they are also not afraid to get in your face or trap you alone in the corner of a room. This happened to me in one of the last rooms of the house- characters directed me to what I thought was an exit to the next room, but was really just an empty corner. Then several of them surrounded me. Needless to say I got out of there as fast as I could.

While the characters did an excellent job of scaring the living daylights out of me, there was also a lot of excellent technical work in the house. Some rooms contained animatronic monsters and others had light systems purposefully meant to be disorienting. Others had flat screen televisions with zombies slowly creeping closer, until before you know it they are in front of you, so close you can feel them.

I would give more details about the horror that I went through, but I don’t want to give it all away. Half the fun was not knowing what to expect next.

Faro said the intensely horrific scenes are the result of hours of planning and preparation. By going to trade shows and constantly brainstorming for new ideas, the three owners end up changing about 30 percent of the show each year. “It’s a year round process mentally,” Faro said. “It’s a lot of work, but we love it. I always had a great love for Halloween. I really enjoy people enjoying it.”

I am certainly one of those people who enjoyed it, and I plan on going back this Halloween.

Vintage Valentines

There is this wonderful little store near my new apartment that specializes in old art prints and more modern works of art. Located on Lexington Ave. between 29th and 30th Streets, The Old Print Shop offers dozens if not hundreds of antiquarian maps, 18th and 19th century prints, satirical works of art, photography, and various other vintage art prints. It also offers beautiful work done by contemporary artists.

This store has been up and running since 1898 unbelievably, with its first location at Fourth Ave. between 9th and 10th Streets. It has been on Lexington Ave. since 1925. The Old Print Shop has historically focused on important art it believes the public has overlooked, and was instrumental in growing 19th century American painting and primitive art and sculpture collections in the 1940s and 50s.

While the entire store is a great treasure trove to dig through some Saturday afternoon, The Old Print Shop is displaying and selling an especially cool collection of artwork right now: vintage valentines, honoring the upcoming romantic holiday this Tuesday.

No one so sweet, : No one so true, : In all the Earth : There is none like you.

Hundreds of beautifully-crafted and ornate little Valentine's Day cards are waiting for you to sift through and marvel at them. Spanning the Victorian era up through the 1950s and 60s, there is a huge variety in terms of style and quality. Some are just gorgeous designs but with no written words; others are both artful and poetic, expressing feelings of love, romance and happiness.

Star of my Heart : I miss thee each lone hour, : Star of my heart! : No other voice hath power : Joy to impart! : I listen for thy hasty step, : Thy kind sweet tone...

I was drawn in to this seasonal sale by the store's window display, where several of the cards were featured. When I walked in to check them out, I had no idea there would be so many to admire. I fell in love with several, but unfortunately could not afford to buy any of them. Instead I settled on a card that wasn't quite so rare or vintage, but that still had an image I loved: the profile of an 18th-century French woman with gigantically tall hair. Cupid is sitting in front with his bow at the ready, as if her hair is a conquering army and cupid is the vanguard.

The image is paired with an interesting poetic phrase: Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare, and beauty draws us with a single hair.

I was so captivated by both the image and the words, I had to buy this. It was also really cheap in comparison to the others, so that helped too. While relatively small, I'm hoping to frame it and hang it in my room someday soon.

If you're looking to see something totally new, rare and interesting in your Valentine's Day shopping this year, check out The Old Print Shop. I have a feeling I'm going to be checking out this place more than once.

Charles Dickens Turns 200

Today would be Charles Dickens' 200th birthday. I've been hearing a lot about this event on Twitter today and in conjunction with an exhibit at the Morgan Library. I haven't checked out the exhibit yet but I will be sure to do so this weekend, as it closes Feb. 12.

While hopefully I will get the chance to write about that, I also wanted to write a little something today to honor the great author. Taking advanced and AP English classes all throughout school, Dickens novels were a frequent staple of assignments, references and discussions. As I read more and more classical authors covering a variety of genres and subjects, I found time and again that Dickens was one of my absolute favorites.

What I love about Dickens' writing is its very humanistic yet sometimes satirical approach to very real problems facing England during his time. He always had a wonderful way of writing about human flaws and of making the reader emotionally involved in his characters' lives and troubles. His writing also had a way of making you think and reflect about societal issues, without necessarily forcing his point of view down your throat. His words were powerful and lasting, and once you read them you don't forget them.

My favorite Dickens novel is Hard Times, although A Tale of Two Cities comes in a close second. I don't think Hard Times is as recognizable as his other works like A Christmas Carol or Oliver Twist, but to me it is one of his most profound and heartwrenching works. Reminding me a little bit of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Hard Times focuses on the horrible working conditions in manufacturering factories during the Industrial Revolution, and critiques a popular school of thought called Utilitarianism.

Utilitarians believed in a very strict and harsh rational view of the world. The most radical followers believed in the use of strict logical analysis and the shunning of emotional investment. Dickens portrays this in his details of schoolchildren and their headmaster, who believes that, quite literally, nothing but "facts" are important to a child's education. As we see through the novel's development, it takes a lot more to raise a psychologically healthy and competent person, and thinking only in terms of rational detachment is not always so healthy.

With the Industrial Revolution under way, Dickens also critisized the capitalist economic system fast gaining traction, a system which he deemed as materialistic and selfish. We in turn see the consequences of this selfishness throughout the course of the novel.

I'm not really sure I need to explain how his commentary is still relevent today, with the Occupy Wall Street Protests, the We Are the 99% movement, and the Arab Spring still ongoing. Dickens may have written Hard Times more than 150 years ago, but his criticisms of unfair systems, systemic greed, and emotionless rationality (anything to keep up profits!) should continue to resonate in the current state of world affairs. It's been a while since I read it, and I'm looking forward to picking it up again soon.

Happy Birthday Charles Dickens! You're still very much appreciated.