Happy Halloween from the Hobbs House!
Festivals, 40th birthdays, and a new podcast! Autumn 2024 has brought us many blessings, and we're not done yet.
Halloween looks a little different this year, as Robin and I are bouncing around the country in search of tricks, treats, and professional development opportunities. (But mostly treats.) I just celebrated my birthday at the Austin Film Festival, where I had two pilots in the second round of the script competition this year: The Book of Jane, a half hour comedy about a recently divorced New Yorker adapting to the strange culture of L.A., and One of Them, a supernatural thriller about body snatchers in a war between good and evil, set during World War 1.
Because that wasn’t enough, I also pitched The Witches of Westbrook at the festival (it didn’t advance to the finals, but an honorable mention is still nice!). Before the festival, we even recorded the pilot as an audio drama, partly as a proof of concept, but mostly for funzies.
Robin is now in New York (and I’m tagging along, too!) running a score production workshop with Joy Music House, their second this year.
Fall has always been a special time for us. Both of us have Fall birthdays, and this year, Robin celebrated his 40th in style with a masquerade ball at Sassafras Saloon in Hollywood, complete with a live performance of an album he composed based on core childhood memories. Special thanks to the supremely talented Anna Azarov for the photoshoot we had done ahead of the big event, and of course to our beloved friends and family who came from Colorado to celebrate with us.
Early October is also when our relationship changed from friends and bandmates to something more. While Robin was visiting Boulder and Denver for a Flogging Molly concert, we went out to see The Departed together and ending up having dinner at a nice restaurant, at a time when we were both primarily living on burritos and pizza, making it an actual date. That adorableness happened…wait for it…EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO?? How did that happen?? It's been a wild ride since then, but I know we are making those two naïve punk kids proud.
With our relationship ties to October, we’ve always considered this to be a super romantic time of year. I had an article published on how our Halloween costumes subconsciously told the story of our relationship over the years, and have a soon-to-be published short story, Salem’s Kiss, about a witch hunter from the 1690s who finds himself teleported to modern-day Salem, where witches are now revered.
On a more supernatural note, this is the time of year in which the veil between the living and the deceased is at its thinnest. Before leaving for Austin, I set out an offering for my grandmother, Evelyn, who left us this year, and my grandfather, Ralph, who lovingly welcomed her to the other side. It feels very strange for our extended family not to have its Matriarch, but we take comfort in knowing that the two are together again. Her funeral service took place on the weekend that would have been their 75th wedding anniversary, in the very church where they were married in 1949.
As we soak up every moment of crisp Autumn air and golden leaves in NYC (not having a proper Fall is a major downside to living in Southern California…) we wish you a fun and happy Halloween full of costumes, pumpkins, apple cider, black cats, and cauldrons.
Blessed be, friends!