A Politically Incorrect Blog About Living in Woodland Hills, California

Woodland Hills Couple Sets Up Free Haunted House Beginning at 7pm Tonight

Well here’s something nearby tonight that might be worth 15 minutes of your time to check out, although I’m guessing there will be waits.  The LA Times writes:

With Halloween celebrations so often a bath of blood and guts these days, Matt Ford and Lori Merkle Ford have organized a viscera-free, retro-flavored display and show at their Woodland Hills house. Ford, an Emmy-winning lighting designer whose credits include Academy Award shows, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “Last Comic Standing,” and Merkle Ford, a lyric soprano and voice-over actress, spent the last month setting their scene. Hologram-type effects and computer-controlled moving figures follow an original score with narration by voice-over actor Corey Burton, who also has narrated a Halloween scene for Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion.

Apparitions appear in windows, characters rise from tombstones and other effects animate the yard and house, but Ford said the 11-minute show is really driven by the story: A 1930 actress marries a shady screenwriter whose previous wife and daughter died under suspicious circumstances. On Halloween night, the dead return as ghosts, and then . . .

You’ll have to see the show to find out. It will repeat every 15 minutes from 7 p.m. to midnight on Saltillo Street, which is closed off between Canoga Avenue and Rios Street.

Please visit the article for more details and additional quotes from the couple.  See some pictures here. I’m not exactly sure if this is from last year, but it looks pretty awesome.  Pretty cool that  they’ve got the whole street closed off for this thing!

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Awesome Pumpkin Patch w/Petting Zoo at Ventura & Woodlake

So cool! I was driving home from El Camino Real High School tonight and I came across another pumpkin patch!  This one is absolutely huge and is at the corner of Woodlake and Ventura Blvd (23210 Ventura Blvd), right by the entrance/exit ramp to the 101 Freeway. I decided to go and check it out, especially when I saw a sign saying there was a petting zoo.  I’m a sucker for petting zoos.  I went inside, walked around a little, then a gentleman asked me if I needed any help.  I explained I have a blog and I asked him a little bit about the place.  They opened up on September 24th and are open daily from 9am to 9pm.  They have just about everything you need for Halloween and pumpkin carving goodness.

I guess I’ve been living under a rock, because I’ve never seen white pumpkins before, but they had plenty.  They also let me go take a few pictures of the petting zoo to show you guys.  It’s only $3.00 and they have a $5.00 option where you get feed the animals, too.  It also looked like they might be construction something of a haunted house in the adjacent building, but I didn’t get a chance to ask about that – I’ll have to follow up on that tomorrow.  They also have pony rides for the kids, and a few other attractions.  The place is huge, so if you’re into pumpkin patches and petting zoos you must check it out!

Awesome!  And honestly, this was one of the cleanest petting zoos I have ever seen.  The animals all looked super clean and healthy, and there wasn’t any poop to be seen.  Impressive!  If you have any questions, give them a ring before stopping by at (818) 225-2496.

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Halloween Pumpkin Patch Opens on Corner of Owensmouth Ave and Victory Blvd

Well, even though I am clearly not a fan of Halloween stores, I don’t think I can have much against a nice seasonal pumpkin patch so you can pick up a pumpkin for carving, baking a pumpkin pie, and other such delightfully festive holiday activities.  One of these has opened on the corner of Owensmouth & Victory.  I’m sure come November you’ll be able to get your Christmas trees there as well.

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Exit Circuit City, Enter Urban Blight Halloween Super Store

I guess it was inevitable that this would happen.  A month or two ago the abandoned and empty old storefront of Circuit City at the corner of Canoga Ave and Victory became occupied by a Halloween store.  Shoot me in the head.  Realistically, any store that doesn’t have real signage and has to indefinitely rely on vinyl banners should be outlawed, zoned out, whatever it takes.

What’s worse is it seems like these squatters have a tennacious way of sticking around forever.  There is also one of these eyesores in Canoga Park also on Canoga Ave. that has been there for far too long. This also what happened several years back when the degenerative movie theatre on the corner of Victory and Topanga went out of business, and became occupied by a similar Halloween store.  Thankfully Westfield, it seems, eventually gobbled up the property and placed a glorious Crate and Barrel there.

Speaking of that plaza and its growing list of business fatalities (Black Angus, the now torn down bank that once stood at Victory & Owensmouth, Yankee Doodle’s, and the long abandoned Chinese Restaurant) we can only hope that Westfield has plans to force out the FedEX Kinkos and Cocos and put some more modern ammenities on this parcel. This 1970s relic of a shopping plaza is a really antequated waste of bankable real estate.  It’s only conjecture, but I’m pretty sure Westfield owns this stretch of land – as they have some signage for the Westfield Topanga Mall on the property.

Sure, it might sound wrong to be optimistic about a corporate bohemoth like Westfield coming in and revitalizing an area, but honestly they seems like the only folks willing to put money into a place to make it nice.

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