AI Artwork: VEX

A few weeks ago I saw a deceptively easy Halloween prompt: make a list of scary Halloween songs.

Easy peasy I thought.

I went to my lap top. I went into my files and chose a header image for my response.
I typed “1” and like every year when I attempted to do this prompt, I got stuck.

I know myself. My writer’s self that is. When I get stuck on the first line, it’s because my brain says write one thing and my Writing Brain says something else.

My Writing Brain has the power to shut the works down, so that page will never hold a single word the my brain wants.

The fact is when I think of a song that truly makes my blood run cold, it’s the song “I Don’t Like Mondays” by the Boomtown Rats.

” I Don’t Like Mondays” isn’t a Halloween song. It’s a harbinger that was released to the world via The Top 40 and MTV in 1979.

The incident, from the comments under the video show that a lot of people thought the song was about hating Mondays or that that it wasn’t about a real shooting.

The results based on that misconception were quips that were intended to look clever, but were pathetic and idiotic.

Here are the bones of this song:
On January 29, 1979 a 16 year old girl shot her rifle into an elementary school playground. She killed 2 people and injured 8 children.

When she was asked why she did it, she replied ” I don’t like Mondays”
Before Columbine, before Sandyhook we had this school yard killer.

Unlike the other monsters who followed her we got a glimpse into the monster’s brain and that one phrase that was born there painted a dark portrait of true evil.

This murderer didn’t wear a special outfit. She didn’t style herself as a soldier or a misguided Patriot with a manifesto written on college ruled notebook paper with a nifty logo.

She had long hair, she wore wire rimmed glasses. She was a teenage girl.
She terrifying in her simplicity.

The most haunting parts of this song, and it gets more haunting with each tragedy that gun violence brings comes in two parts:

Instead of using a snare drum to represent gunshots, they use a simple set of hand claps.

The second is when the grim faced haunted looking children seated in what looks like a school auditorium but feels like a chapel, sing back
” Tell me why ”

This song is the scariest song I can think of: