Monday, January 31, 2022

Froderick Krueger

That time I didn't dress as a Pumpkin Head nor as Michael Audrey Myers.  Keep in mind this was before you could buy a Freddy glove or a rubber Krueger mask, as the film had just come out.  The makeup was knox gelatin and scalding, scar-inducing hot water, and blends of red and tan makeup.  Very uncomfortable, but it was fun opening kids' trick-or-treat bags with the blade on my index finger.  


The flash of the camera ruins the spookiness.  So does my goofy defeated grin.



Leatherface Dies Tonight

The "new" Texas Chainsaw Massacre is coming to Netflix this month.  Not even really sure what I just watched below.  I'll leave some comments as not to soil/sway your opinions prematurely (though I think I just let you know what I thought of it [but not totally]).


Click below for the trailer...


The Haunt Of Hickabod Crane: Halloween 2017

Click below for an amazing video of an incredible Haunt...



Now Playing: All I Had To Do

By Keosz.


Click below...


Whitehaven Hollows Cemetery






More images here.

Second Sight

Click below...



Sunday, January 30, 2022

Parks And Cons: The Curse Of The Raven

Always great Haunt videos by Parks and Cons.


Click below for one of them...

Now Playing: Holding Pattern

From the 400 Lonely Things album The Morning People.


Click below...



Bone-Chilling ‘Grim Reaper’ Ice Formations Haunt Canadian Home

The story grew more unsettling when Ben Tucci, 65, of Dunnville, Ontario showed pictures of the ghastly ice formations to his daughter, the Mirror reports.

She told her dad they look like two spirits who have been haunting her dreams.

The wraithlike figures of twisted ice appear gaunt and hunched, covered in long shawls or cloaks around their shoulders.

“My initial reaction was one of awe. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Tucci said. “On the first formation, I thought this is Jack Frost, Old Man Winter, Father Christmas or perhaps even the Grim Reaper.

























Thanks, Mike!


Saturday, January 29, 2022

It's The Little Things

Another cool mini scarecrow from Willow Cove.

This might as well be up on a nine-foot-tall post.
Feels life-sized.


Now Playing: Alignment

By Ascendant.


Click below...


Big Boned

Love this setup.



Spotted Lanternfly Sanctuary

If you live in the eastern part of this nation, you probably have heard of the Spotted Lanternfly.  If you haven't, they're an invasive plant-hopping insect native to China that threatens vineyards, orchards, and the logging industry.  We Pennsylvanians have been ordered to kill them on sight.  There's only one problem:  they're kindof cute.

So a few years ago, I was sitting on my porch and I saw something float down from way up at tree level.  My eyes followed it until it landed in a shrub next to where I was sitting.  I saw this gray "moth" with long black legs.  Beautiful thing with Halloween coloring (but only as it flew).  So I walk over and put my finger in front of it.  He/She/It walks onto my fingertip and stays there for a bit.  I study this little guy and I feel like a ten-year-old boy, because I had never seen anything quite like it before.  I'm thinking of how this insect species will probably be named after me since I discovered it when he/she/it gets spooked and flicks away, with bright orange wings.  I said, "Fly free, little guy!" and sat back down.

That's when I remembered a sign I had seen on a hike at a local walking trail.  A sign I ignored every time I saw it.  Something about a bug.  With orange coloring when its wings were spread.  The Spotted Lanternfly.  Google educated me quickly.  The coming weeks saw tons of these things.  They were everywhere.  So many that they'd land on you if you were outside too long.  

Then...  the stomping.  Kids in my neighborhood would be seen delighting in the act of smacking, smashing, and stomping these gray and orange bugs.  One day, in front of my house, some kids from up the street were stomping a few of my buddies into the next realm.  I think it was the smiles on their faces that made me do it.  In true old man form, I shouted over "Hey, leave them alone!" (haha)

They stopped and proclaimed "They're lanternflies!  We're supposed to!"  What came next wasn't rehearsed or planned.  And I'm not sure where it came from exactly, but I retorted (to children) "Well, not on THIS property.  This is a Spotted Lanternfly Sanctuary!"  They listened and left.  And a handful of lanternflies lived another day to ruin human life.   

It's complicated.

Anyways, looks like they've moved on (the lanternflies, not the kids [I can hear them shouting {the kids, not the lanternflies}]).  As there were so few lanternflies this past season as to suggest they've either been weakened by our unpredictable seasons (that's the current theory), moved on to find a better food source, or have been stomped to borderline extinction by angry kids.   Thankfully they've left something behind.  Honey.  Dark, delicious, mysterious honey.

Apparently, Spotted Lanternflies have excretions that are the delight of honeybees.  This "honeydew" is eaten by the bees and transforms their honey into something pretty neat.  In the words of one company that sells the honey, it's a robust fall honey with a smokey flavor.  

Happy to report, the guy was right.  I ordered some last season and it was pretty remarkable.  Super smokey flavor that reminded me of a very sweet apple cider donut.  Very unique and unlike anything I had tasted before.  

Kinda pricey for a small jar, but click below if you want to pick some up.  It's called Doom Bloom.  

Thursday, January 27, 2022

Oliver Hardy And E.T.

Better than Michael Jackson and E.T.


A leftover photo from the family photo albums.  That poor version of E.T. in the background consisted of two pumpkins, clay, and a flannel shirt.  I entered it into a pumpkin "carving" contest at school.  I won a pretzel (honorable mention).




Trailer: Nightmare Alley

Click below...



Now Playing: Creature, Pt. 1

By Djrum.


Click below...


Effigy



Image by frunzafmb1.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

More Samhain

Some pre-Halloween lighting tests...






Southwalk Ritual: Halloween 2018

It was the start of the year in our old Celtic lands, and we'd be waiting... in our houses of wattles and clay.  The barriers would be down, you see, between the real and the unreal, and the dead might be looking in... to sit by our fires of turf.  Halloween... the festival of Samhain!  The last great one took place three thousand years ago, when the hills ran red... with the blood of animals and children.

Conal Cochran, HALLOWEEN III

































More cool images here.


When The Moon Is Blue



























Great photos by Anna Day.