Late Cretaceous Fun

When a friend asks if you want to go panning for shark teeth fossils in a stream, you should probably go.  I never knew you could even do such a thing.  Big Brook Preserve in Monmouth County New Jersey is the location of a stream that runs through ancient layers of sea floor sediment -  65 to 75 million years ancient.  It's boggling to ponder.

So you work your way to a very normal stream located in a local park and you begin seeing people in the shallows.  The banks of the creek aren't even all that high in most parts.  But you can see strips and layers of pebbled sediment in spots.  During heavy rains, the banks will erode into the stream, depositing prehistoric shark teeth, belemnites, and oyster shells.  We found an isolated spot and began scooping rocks and debris from the stream floor into our sifting pans.  It was slim pickings at first until a young guy who was passing through asked us if we found anything and we told him we found a tooth.  He showed us his technique and the best spots to pan and it was a night-and-day experience.  We began finding a bunch of various shark tooth fossils.  As you pass folk in the stream or as you're leaving the park, they all ask "Did you find anything?!" excitedly.  It was a really neat experience.  And the weather was perfect for sloshing through a stream in sandals digging up ancient choppers.

Some photos below...

Now Playing: Hostile Lifeform

From the new album by Void Stasis, a favorite Dark Ambient project.

Click below...

Artist Matt Schu

The artist's site here.

His Instagram here.

Terrain Halloween 2026

Stopped at this home and garden store on Saturday.

Click here for their online shoppe.

The Lady Of The Lake

In the background there is a lake,
and beyond that, some low hills.

(The photograph was taken
the day after I drowned.

I am in the lake, in the center
of the picture, just under the surface.

It is difficult to say where
precisely, or to say
how large or small I am:
the effect of water
on light is a distortion

but if you look long enough,
eventually
you will be able to see me.)

- Margaret Atwood, This Is a Photograph of Me

A friend and I spent Saturday morning at the edge of a lake, sloshing around with a Lady, and a lot of tiny fish (and some hungry ducks).  Here are some of our photos...

(pics 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 11 were taken by me.)

Cellar Dwelling

Now Playing: Cathedral

The music on Cathedral retains all the eerie atmosphere and sinister propulsion of the epochal scores Carpenter created for his films Halloween, The Fog, and Assault on Precinct 13, but this is a much heavier, riff-driven enterprise. Carpenter is a firm believer that music plays a major role in what really makes something scary. That’s first and foremost,” the director says. “It’s all about making the music work.” “This is somewhat different sounding stuff that we've done, but it's done with the same desire in mind,” he adds. “In other words, put this thing on and imagine you're watching a movie. That’s what we want you to do.”

Daniel Davies’ soaring, snaky guitars take center stage on opener “Primeval,” “Elevator,” and the metal masterpiece “Lord of the Underground” while John Carpenter and Cody Carpenter’s synths take the lead on the ominous “Desolation in the Underworld,” the plaintive “Death of the Mapmaker,” and even converge with strings on “Abandoned Cathedral.”

Whereas the Lost Themes albums were written as scores to movies of the mind, Cathedral scores the first original graphic novel written by Carpenter, his wife and long-time creative partner, producer and editor Sandy King, and writer Sean Sobczak, published by Storm King Comics. 

Click below...

At Home Halloween 2026

Some fun stuff here.