2009 Halloween Update

Other Yard Displays

Next year, I'll have pictures from other neighborhood yard and front door displays.  Sorry I didn't finish the project this year.   But thanks to all those who allowed me to photograph your spooky exhibits. 

Boney Island Website

Boney Island creator, Rick Polizzi, tells me you can see more  pictures and videos of his funny scare fest at the Official Boney Island Website.  There you can play a skeleton game, see the official park map, and even buy Boney Island t-shirts and coffee mugs. 

Boney Island Lives!

In 2007 Rick sold his Boney Island displays on eBay.  However, he tells me, "Bob Baranick, an ex-Disney Imagineer, bought the band and a bunch of other displays and will have it running Friday night October 30 and Saturday night October 31, from dusk to 10pm.  Bob's address is: 14333 Califa Street, Van Nuys CA 91401  (2 blocks east of Van Nuys Blvd, 2 blocks south of Oxnard St)

Stay safe out there this Halloween!

See you around the neighborhood.  --  Jeff S.

1998 Halloween: The Legend of Boney Island

Once upon a time--right in the middle of our little neighborhood--a carnival side-show of skeletons magically appeared during the Halloween season.  It happened in the front yard of Rick Polizzi's house on the corner of Morse and Sarah.

When the apparition first began in 1998 it was small.  But over the years it grew to include over 100 moving skeletons, animated with the aid of strings and motors and speaking with the help of hidden speakers.  Inspired by the Coney Island amusement park, Polizzi called his display "Boney Island."

Those who witnessed the annual spectacle say it was more funny than scary.  In 2004, the LA Times described the scene:  "Skeletons perch in the trees, playing trumpets. They climb on one another's shoulders to reach the roof.



In the carnival's batting cage, a skeleton swats at flying bats. Another bowls with his own skull.  By the front door, members of a bony band called The Skeletones play a bone xylophone, a scythe harp and an ax guitar as pumpkins with moving eyes and mouths sing along from the front window. Spiders bob up and down from a thick web in a tree, spouting corny one-liners, including 'Help me kill the Orkin man.'  Above the roof, in Polizzi's piece de resistance, a skeleton floats back and forth in a jack-o-lantern hot-air balloon." 10/30/04 - LA Times.

Every year, thousands of people came to see Polizzi's display.  But after 10 years, the traffic took it's toll on Poizzi's neighbors, and in 2007, he decided to call it quits.

"Boney Island" is gone forever...and we'll miss it.  But we still have the pictures and videos.  And it's spirit lives on in the many smaller, more modest Halloween displays throughout our neighborhood.

Thanks for all the good times, Rick!

See you around the neighborhood. - Jeff S.

P.S. Hollywood Gothique did a nice little video of Boney Island during it's final season.

2009: Coach John Wooden turns 99

In Encino--about 4.5 miles from our neighborhood--legendary UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, has lived in the same modest condominium for the last 30 years.  In the 60's and 70's, Wooden's teams won 10 NCAA National Championships in 12 years, a record unmatched by any other college basketball coach.  Today, Coach Wooden turns 99.  And I wanted to honor him not because I'm a huge college basketball fan--I'm not--but because I admire the inspiring coaching philosophy he developed. 

Wooden was not your typical coach.  "On the first day of practice, I remember him saying, 'I'm not going to be talking to you about winning or losing because I think that's a byproduct of our preparation. I would much rather be focused on the process of becoming the best team we're capable of becoming,'" says John Vallely, who played under Wooden on the 1969 and 1970 UCLA national championship basketball teams.  Underlying this approach was his redefinition of success.  Rather then thinking of success as outperforming an opponent, he said:  "Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self satisfaction is knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable." 

That attitude helped his teams win championships.  But to me, it's also a sensible way to approach life.  Happy birthday, Coach!

See you around the neighborhood -  Jeff
 
Find out more about the Pyramid of Success at the Official Site of Coach John Wooden. 
Find out more about John Wooden on Wikipedia or this web page from Congressman Brad Sherman who helped get the Reseda Post Office named in his honor.  

BTW:  In July 2009, I counted 34 basketball hoops in our neighborhood.

1959 Ford Custom 300

1959 Ford Custom 300

Seen this car in the neighborhood?  Sure it's a classic.  But for "M" this 6 cylinder Ford is also transportation: She drives it to work every day.  "You have to go real slow over Coldwater," she says.

Sunday afternoon I saw "M" lifting bags of potting soil out of the car's spacious trunk.  She told me she's owned it for 18 years.  I said I'd never seen a car quite like this.  She explained that the Custom 300 was basically a "stripped down" version of the  Ford Fairlane.  They called it "the poor man's Fairlane," she told me.   

BTW:  See more classic cars this Wednesday night (10/14) at Van Nuys Cruise Night, sponsored by the Van Nuys Cruising Association.  The action is centered around the  old Rydell Chevrolet lot at the corner of Van Nuys and Burbank boulevards in Van Nuys.  Check out this article by Steve Rosenberg's article in the Daily News for more info.

See you around the neighborhood.  --  Jeff