Culture Gulch - The Durango Herald

October’s musical beginnings

The San Juan Symphony will launch its 39th season this weekend. Twin concerts will be performed in Durango and Farmington, with ambitious, long-range programming planned by Music Director Th...

DATE: Oct 9, 2024 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

A dazzling showcase

The Fort Lewis College Performing Arts Department will unveil the 2024 Faculty Showcase at 3 p.m. Sunday in Roshong Recital Hall. It’s a significant event as the recital brings forth veteran...

DATE: Sep 25, 2024 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Endings and beginnings

ENDINGS: Among the many delights of the 38th Music in the Mountains summer festival memorable solo performances top the list. Dazzling the audience on July 26, the Russian-American pianist O...

DATE: Aug 14, 2024 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

The trouble with tragedy

The first question in the first talkback on the first night of PlayFest was a bruiser. Wednesday night, the playwright, James Anthony Tyler, and the cast of his new play, “Hop Tha A” assembl...

DATE: Jun 27, 2024 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

The play’s the thing

The 10-minute play phenomenon has swept the country. Last week, if festivals in Durango and Albuquerque prove anything, the short-form theatrical evening is here to stay. The Durango Arts Ce...

DATE: Jun 13, 2024 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Razzle dazzle ’em

Merely Players spoofs Americana in ‘Chicago’

DATE: May 15, 2024 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Art, folk and popular songs: Drea Pressley presents music of then and now

Friday night, well-known mezzo-soprano Drea Pressley will play her new Celtic harp in her latest recital. At 7 p.m. in the final offering of the Unitarian Universalist Recital Series of 2024...

DATE: Apr 25, 2024 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Telling our own stories

If you want to see what community building really looks like, attend a performance of Raven Narratives. Last weekend in Cortez and Durango, Raven Narratives co-founders Sarah Syverson and To...

DATE: Mar 13, 2024 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Storm clouds and sun with Southwest Civic Winds

Last Sunday, the Southwest Civic Winds musically crashed storm clouds together and brought out the sun. So much energy went into the winter concert, the first of four this year, the audience...

DATE: Feb 28, 2024 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

A musical tribute

The heart of last week’s Southwest Civic Winds concert was “American Elegy,” by American composer Frank Ticheli. It was more than an appropriate choice. The concert, “Legacy,” paid tribute t...

DATE: Nov 22, 2023 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

A Gold Rush tale grounded in fact

Durango author Eilene Lyon’s new book, “Fortune’s Frenzy: A California Gold Rush Odyssey,” examines the California Gold Rush from the perspective of a struggling Indiana farm family. On the ...

DATE: Oct 4, 2023 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Plays and audiences

“Why this play now?” Pesha Rudnick, director of the final work at PlayFest 2023, asked in the closing talkback session last Sunday. Rudnick said she raises that question every time she encou...

DATE: Jul 13, 2023 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Final phases of project underway at Camino del Rio and Main Avenue

Photos: Marching for women’s rightsDurango Women’s March on Saturday starts at Buckley Park, continues down Main Avenue

Durango Women’s March on Saturday starts at Buckley Park, continues down Main Avenue

Photos: Durango High School football DHS beat Vista Ridge 20-14 at home Friday night

DHS beat Vista Ridge 20-14 at home Friday night

Gallery: Animals, super heroes and other creatures take over Main Avenue

Photos: A fun and spooky day at school

Haunted house northeast of Durango gets bigger every yearCody Petersen’s Halloween hobby is his escape from the daily grind

Durango resident Cody Petersen said when he moved into his home at 15 Edgemont Way several years ago, his house on the corner looked lonely and spooky.Today, it’s a madhouse. Halloween decorations are splayed practically on every inch of his lawn, in the trees and up and down his home.

A group of school-aged kids stop in front of his house every day to pose with a little gothic doll in the lawn, he said. It’s the favorite attraction amongst hundreds of decorations Petersen bought locally and online as early as July in preparation for Oct. 31, Halloween.He said he doesn’t want to think about how much money he’s spent on fog machines, animatronics and Christmas lights, but the bill easily totals several thousands of dollars.

For trick-or-treaters on Halloween, whom he encourages to visit, jumpscares abound at Petersen’s home, featuring animatronic spiders, growling wolves and other monsters, he said.He’s working on his own animatronic coffin, which shakes and rattles, and a pulley system that will push and pull a ghost up and down the yard, but neither will be ready for this year’s Halloween.He said he has fond memories of his parents decorating for the holidays during his upbringing and he’s a huge horror genre fan. So he enjoys going all out on decorations for the spooky season. He justifies his hobby with the logic his kids will only be in high school a few more years, and it isn’t as cool to decorate the lawn for Halloween when one doesn’t have children living at home.But the neighbors enjoy his haunts as much as the rest of the community. He said his Halloween scene has gradually grown larger every year; at least 50 trick-or-treaters turned up at his home last year.“I'm a home inspector, so I do have a lot of tools and no fear of trying things out,” he said.

He said typical Halloween animatronics cost $400 a piece, but they only last one year or so without breaking. That’s frustrating, he said, and he believes he can do better by building his own.He said this year’s display and experience is more organic than past years thanks to his handiwork. Among his myriad decorations, trick-or-treaters can spot easter eggs referencing “Beetlejuice,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Pet Sematary.”Among the horror props are real animal bones Petersen said he’s found on hikes across the countryside.“I've got ghosts and spiders and witches and that kind of thing,” he said. “Here in Edgemont, we have giant spiders for real. ... We get these huge wolf spiders that are bigger than my hand. I mean, huge, bigger than tarantulas.”

Petersen said he was motivated to make his first decorations within the first month he and his wife moved into the home on the corner at 15 Edgemont Way.A lone pine tree, a typical Christmas tree that would be strung up with lights and ornaments in December, stood out to Petersen in the yard, he said. He just felt compelled to decorate it and light it up.He said he thoroughly decorated the tree and left it lit year-round. Within a month of moving into the house, his neighbor died. The man was old and suffering from Alzheimer's.

Months later, the man’s wife approached Petersen and told him she and her husband’s last salient moments together were spent looking out at Petersen’s lighted Christmas tree, pretending it was Christmas. In the following hours, the man succumbed to delirium. He died several days later.“I don't know why I had that tree, why I lit it, but that's why that tree, even when Halloween is over, all year round, that Christmas tree always stays lit now,” he said.Petersen is a horror movie fan, and in particular he’s always enjoyed the sinister character Michael Myers of the “Halloween” franchise.

He said every year, after thrilling trick-or-treaters at his home, he takes to downtown and East Third Avenue in his Michael Myers costume, bearing a giant bowl of candy, to continue the fun.The highlight of his yard, the creepy doll neighborhood kids like to pose and take pictures with, is Petersen’s “elf on the shelf,” he said. He likes to move the doll around the house, sometimes propping her up to hold animal bones.“I have a real busy and pretty stressful job,” he said. “I just love the fall so much. And to come home, it's just a good way to wind down and, you know, de-stress, just go out and work in the yard.”cburney@durangoherald.com

Cody Petersen’s Halloween hobby is his escape from the daily grind

Reader-submitted photos of Halloween decorationsLast week, we asked readers to submit photos of their Halloween decorations or a neighbor’s decorations. We received dozens of photo submissions. We have selected some of the most spooky, elaborate and fun photos to share in this gallery. Enjoy!

Photos: FLC volleyball returns homeFort Lewis College volleyball took on Adams State University on Tuesday

Fort Lewis College volleyball took on Adams State University on Tuesday

Photos: Expert leathercrafter and collector estate sale near IgnacioItems belonging to the late Alex Pappas were auctioned for sale on Saturday

Items belonging to the late Alex Pappas were auctioned for sale on Saturday

Photos: Pro boxing in DurangoLegends on the Animas boxing showdown took place on Saturday

Legends on the Animas boxing showdown took place on Saturday

October’s musical beginnings

A dazzling showcase

Endings and beginnings

The trouble with tragedy

The play’s the thing

Razzle dazzle ’em

Art, folk and popular songs: Drea Pressley presents music of then and now

Telling our own stories

Storm clouds and sun with Southwest Civic Winds

A musical tribute

A Gold Rush tale grounded in fact

Plays and audiences

Videos & Photos

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