Pumpkin Soup And Porch Decor

Enjoying some homemade (and wonderful) pumpkin soup and savoring a porch that's taking shape for the High Holiday.  Last night after work, we went to a favorite farm and picked up ten giant bunches of cornstalks.  This place is a decent drive from here, but it's totally worth it.  Best prices around in an area that pretty much extorts folks when buying pumpkins and corn.  

It was dirty work, but some cold pumpkin ale, pizza from a favorite local place, and a lot of laughs made wiring the [ant-filled] stalks in place a ton of fun.  We worked as the sun was setting and got it all done in record time.  Some neighbors yelled over that they couldn't wait to see this year's Haunt.

I yelled back this year's theme and they seemed really excited.

Day And Night

More Oak Crest Cemetery

So much atmosphere...

More images here.

Concert: Tangerine Dream

Never thought I'd be hearing anything by Tangerine Dream live in a concert hall.  Never.  Ever.

Thanks to a truly amazing gift, last night was one of those magical nights that becomes a permanent memory.  So many incredible songs blasting out over the most perfect sound system.  It was unreal.

Click below to hear a couple cues.

Now Playing: The Way To Darkness

A Tribute to John Carpenter.

So many great tracks on this album.

Click each below to hear three of them.

And click here to go to the album (spotify).

Cocktail: Autumn In Manhattan

Invented a cocktail for the season (and for to-go cups).  Should be good warmed up, but we've only done a chilled version.  

The Autumn in Manhattan:

4 ounces apple cider

2 ounces bourbon

1 ounce Sherry

1 ounce Ploughman's The Plenum (apple & cherry vermouth)

Paper Halloween

Image by giveawayboy.

Cemetery Mists

Click below...

More images and videos by az_haunter here.

Trailer: Encounters

Now on Netflix.

Click below...

Halloween Mantel

Capture Rabbit

Great photography here.  I laughed when I saw at the top of the IG account the words "Before you ask it’s Not AI."  That stuff seems to be everywhere now.  

More images here.

Dark Parlour Promo

Love that The Dark Parlour featured my scarecrow for their upcoming Halloween & Horror Art show in York, PA.  The show starts October 6th at 5pm.  Super excited to have a piece featured at this spooky cool gallery.

Click below to see the IG post.

Now Playing: Souls Wedding

By Phonothek.

A really nice (and too short) Dark Ambient track that oddly sounds like an overcast autumn day.  There's a sound in there that feels like flocks of geese flying far above (to me, that is).

Click below...

Wooden Man

I do not know how this really happened, yet the fact remains that one fine day this piece of wood found itself in the shop of an old carpenter. His real name was Mastro Antonio, but everyone called him Mastro Cherry, for the tip of his nose was so round and red and shiny that it looked like a ripe cherry.

Image by Kohei Andou.

Haunted Attraction: Halloween Nights At Eastern State Penitentiary

Last night we went to the massive and very gloomy Eastern State Penitentiary for their Halloween Nights.  The Philadelphia location is really impressive and the perfect setting for a Haunted Attraction.  The size of the prison allows for multiple haunted houses and various places for food and beverages.  But that same size, I think, makes the Attraction feel a little too spread out inside.  A little sparse in parts.  

I also think Lancaster's Field of Screams is a tough act to follow.  

We had a great time though, enjoying some terrific drinks and food, and making S'mores over a fire while listening to a Ghoul read poetry on stage (that actually happened).

Below are some photos from Friday night...

Autumn Is Here

It is the summer’s great last heat, 
It is the fall’s first chill: They meet. 

–Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt

Weekend Plans: Nitro Sweet Potato Ale

Boy, is this stuff good.  Made in Bucks County, PA and distributed locally by the Vault Brewing Company.  Was expecting the usual over-the-top sweet spice taste of autumn ales and beers and got something that was really reserved and extremely smooth and creamy.  The flavors of molasses, vanilla, and spices are definitely there, but not in a sweet way.  No clue how that is achieved.  Usually, holiday ales are great as a solo treat, or as a dessert beverage, but we had these during a dinner at the Vault Brewing Company restaurant and it paired perfectly with some pastrami sliders and wood-fired duck & apple pizza.

Halloween In The 90s

Some old photos.

Second one isn't as cringe.  Myers in the middle is actually kind of spooky with all those shadows.

The Dark Parlour: Spooktober Collective

There was a call for submissions...

I answered (similar to Pinhead in Hellraiser).

Coming October 6th, one of my scarecrows will be featured at a favorite gallery - The Dark Parlour, in York, Pennsylvania.

More to follow!

Their IG here.

Their site here.

Now Playing: Monster Rap

Back in the late 80s or early 90s, my brother and I were driving around on Halloween afternoon.  This was back when we decorated at our parents' house, and I can't recall why we were driving around with only a few hours left before sunset.  I get nervous just thinking about that risky trip (maybe we needed a bag of ice for the fog chiller?).  I can recall that it was an overcast day.  Very gray, and very chilly.

So there we were, driving around listening to the radio, and a local station was playing a ton of Halloween-centric songs (which I feel was a rare occurrence on Halloween for the local stations).  In-between most of the songs there would be audio clips from horror films and sound effects (an even rarer occurrence).  I recall one clip being Gene Wilder from Young Frankenstein.  It was the scene where he pronounces his name as Fronkensteen.  The song that came up next was something I had never heard.  It was by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, and it WASN'T his famous Monster Mash.  It was his not-so-well-known and totally obscure Monster Rap, a sequel of sorts to the Mash classic.  

Here's to that afternoon.  Driving around excited that another Haunt was happening.  Maybe the year of the Giant Spider descending on unsuspecting trick-or-treaters?  Or maybe the year a kid yelled horrible insults at me in my Michael Myers costume?  Dunno.  I just know that this fun memory is in there.  Like it happened yesterday.

Click below for a listen to Monster Rap.  

Now Burning: Smoke & Clove

Spooky Smoke and Creepy Clove to be exact...

Ghostbusters Meets Nine Inch Nails

A mashup.

A mashup that shockingly works really really well.

Click below for an excellent find by K.O. at The Skeleton Key Halloween blog.