And Many A Screech Of Despair Shall Rise

WITCHES' NIGHT ON HEXENKOPF ROCK, by the Poison Apple Print Shop.

Click here for the site.

Hexeglaawe: Hexenkopf Rock

Pennsylvania Dutch settlers called this place Hexenkopf  (witch's head) due to an outcrop of rock resembling the profile of a witch.  Sometimes it's called Misery Mountain or Haunted Hill by the locals.  There are tales of unholy shrieks, evil spirits, and an eerie glow in the moonlight (due possibly to large deposits of mica embedded in the rock).

Lenape Native Americans used this rock as a site for rituals intended to take evil and sickness from the body. Later, immigrants continued this practice.  Local pow-wow doctors used Hexenkopf Rock as a place to transfer sickness, curses, and spells.  For two centuries, misery was deposited into this rocky landscape.

Similar to Mount Brocken in Germany, witches are said to congregate here on the night of April 30th, Walpurgisnacht.  

Walpurgisnacht

Now Playing: Diminution

By Leila Abdul-Rauf.

One of those times when an album cover couldn't capture any more accurately the essence of each track.  I'd describe this album as Haunted Jazz Ambient.  Click below to hear what I mean.

Final Girl Blog

Remember blogs?

Those wonderful online depositories where you could find someone's rantings about all of their favorite things... so different than contemporary social media.  A place to actually READ content, on your own time.  At your own pace.  

One of the giants was Stacie Ponder's Final Girl blog - hilarious musings and terrific film reviews.  

And she's still posting new entries.

Click below for some old-school blogging...

Dandelion Wine

Dandelion wine. The words were summer on the tongue. The wine was summer caught and stoppered...sealed away for opening on a January day with snow falling fast and the sun unseen for weeks...

― Ray Bradbury

A while back I posted about a terrific dandelion wine from the Maple River Winery.  As a Ray Bradbury fanatic (lunatic), I knew I had to get my hands on this mysterious wine mentioned in his novel with the same name.  In the book, it was sipped during the non-summer months to keep that season alive and well on cold winter days.  For me, it was always perfect on a hot summer day on the porch, served extremely chilled.  Well, the Maple River Winery closed its doors a couple years ago and the Bradbury tradition was no more.  We found a local winery that offered this unusual varietal, but unfortunately, they make their version with grapes and not entirely with dandelions, so it was a super sweet dessert wine that had none of the charm and mystery of Maple River's.

Recently, Jenna found a dandelion wine being sold by the Hidden Legend Winery.  I took a chance and ordered a bottle.  Happy to report that this is the stuff.  As they describe it on their site:

This is not your grandmother’s dandelion wine, but it’s pretty darn close. It’s been approvingly described as “delicate” and “grassy” but we just think of it as summer on a back porch in Montana. Hidden Legend Dandelion Wine is best-appreciated mid-afternoon, by itself, or with a very soft cheese.

A perfect description.  And four more bottles are on their way to chill those hot humid summer days that will soon be here.

The Hidden Legend site.

Now Playing: Descent

By Martin Stürtzer.

Click below...

Alien Day: LV-426

I almost forgot it was Alien Day.

Currently watching the below and pondering the fact that a long slow segment like this one would never make it into a movie these days.  So glad I grew up when I did.  Movie magic.  True story telling.  

Click below...

In The Basement

Blurry Face In The Dark

Blurry Halloween photographs are a thing 

(click here to see a bunch on this blog).

Image by H Olson Sr.

The Strangers

Image by Danny Rowton.

Now Playing: The Dead Walk

By John Harrison, from the Day of the Dead soundtrack.

Click below...

The Scarecrow

All winter through I bow my head
Beneath the driving rain;
The North Wind powders me with snow
And blows me black again;
At midnight 'neath a maze of stars
I flame with glittering rime,
And stand, above the stubble, stiff
As mail at morning-prime.
But when that child called Spring, and all
His host of children, come,
Scattering their buds and dew upon
These acres of my home,
Some rapture in my rags awakes;
I lift void eyes and scan
The sky for crows, those ravening foes,
Of my strange master, Man.
I watch him striding lank behind
His clashing team, and know
Soon will the wheat swish body high
Where once lay a sterile snow;
Soon I shall gaze across a sea
Of sun-begotten grain,
Which my unflinching watch hath sealed
For harvest once again.
 
- Walter de la Mare

Daytime Sighting

Some ghost hunters believe that darkness helps to draw out ghostly entities. Yet even a casual review of ghost reports reveals that this is not true: most sightings do not occur in darkness. People have reported seeing ghosts in broad daylight, in the morning, and at all times of the day. Well over a century ago, it was recognized that ghosts were not necessarily associated with the dark—popular perception notwithstanding. Educator and researcher Eleanor Sidgwick of the Society for Psychical Research concluded around 1885 when analyzing hundreds of eyewitness ghost reports that “ghosts may be seen in daylight or in artificial light, at dawn or at dusk, and in various parts of a house or outside in the yard,” according to Michaeleen Maher.

Text source.

Image source.

Scotch Wish List

THE THREE MONSTERS OF SMOKE

 

Includes Three 200 ml Bottles:

Ten Years Old is revered around the world as the peatiest, smokiest, most complex Single Malt of them all, perfectly balanced with fruity floral sweetness and complexity. Its maturation in ex-Bourbon American Oak casks creates a balance of sweet vanilla and bold spice. Multi-award-winning, Ardbeg's flagship whisky reflects the best of Islay.

Wee Beastie is Ardbeg’s newest permanent expression is the youngest Ardbeg ever. Wee Beastie is matured in a mix of Ex-Bourbon & Oloroso sherry casks for just 5 years. The younger the whisky the more powerful the smoke, making this untamed new expression stand out amongst all other Islay Malts. A rich, explosive mouthfeel with lots of chocolate, tar, creosote and smoked bacon, followed by a burst of antiseptic lozenges, eucalyptus and more aniseed.

An Oa embraces its contrasts. It is inspired by the Mull of Oa, the cliffs protecting the Ardbeg distillery from the wild Atlantic Ocean. It brings together the finest casks and balances roundness with Ardbeg's signature intensity. To create the complexity of An Oa (pronounced “An Oh”), whiskies are matured in Pedro Ximénez casks for sweetness, Virgin Charred Oak casks for spiciness and ex-Bourbon American Oak casks for intensity. These different parts are then married together in the bespoke Gathering Vat.

An Andrew Wyeth Tribute

Living in Pennsylvania offered a unique opportunity for a photoshoot that captured the spirit of everything I love about the earthy melancholic landscapes of one of my favorite artists - Andrew Wyeth.  We've been driving around for months looking for the perfect location and this weekend we found it.

Happy Birthday, Antonio Bay

Celebrating Fog Day with some fun appetizers as crab cakes and lobster macaroni and cheese bake in the oven.  The drink of the evening is a Blake's Dark 'n Stormy (Old Republic dark rum with blood orange ginger beer [and a sprig of charred purple sage]).

And, of course, the movie of the evening is Carpenter's flawless ghost story The Fog.

Spirit Of 1876

Beautiful display.

More images here.

Now Playing: Some Friday Music

By The Meteors.

Click below...

Now Playing: Music For Haunted Asylums

A wonderful collection by various artists where they try to capture that unique feeling that can only be found inside an old, abandoned asylum.

Click below... (would make a great Hauntscape)

HellsGate Haunted House

More images here.

Autumn Window

Art by Sam Wolfe Connelly.

Scene/Trailer: STING

This one seems like it'd be some good old fashioned horror film fun...

The Circle

Image by Jean-Luc Bourdial.

Halloween Underground

Halloween Underground is the culmination of twenty years of photographing people dressed up in fantastical, outlandish costumes against the backdrop of the drab, gritty reality of the New York subway. Seymour Licht captured revelers preening in their outfits as the prelude to the largest Halloween parade in the world - or some private night out where creativity is the currency and mystery and flirtation the prize.

Click below for more info... 

Now Playing: Horror Night

By Starcourt.

Click below...

Your Suffering Will Be Legendary

Image source.

Incantation

Image source.

Infestation

Image source.

Ghostwatch

Currently streaming on Shudder, Ghostwatch is a British mockumentary that in a ton of ways influenced a whole range of modern horror film tropes.  Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch Project, and every single ghost hunting series ever seem to have drawn inspiration from this old classic from 1992.  The best part is that the hosts of the show were actual real-life television news personalities, so for anyone who missed the credits (and this apparently happened on a large scale), people became convinced that this was a real event unfolding on live TV - on Halloween night no less.

This was pure gold, with a really involved and interesting tale.  As we learned the slowly unfolding (and very disturbing) backstory of this bizarre haunting, we marveled at how something from '92 could have been so ahead of its time.  

There are no good trailers for this gem and that's probably a good thing.  

Ghostwatch gets my highest recommendation.

Necropolis

There was at Auburn an old, abandoned cemetery. It was nearly in the heart of the town, yet by night it was as gruesome a place as the most dismal of human moods could crave. The railings about the plots were prostrate, decayed, or altogether gone. Many of the graves were sunken, from others grew sturdy pines, whose roots had committed unspeakable sin. 
 
- Ambrose Bierce

Image source.

Boneyard

Image by Jim Rohan.

Now Playing: He Walks By Night

From the upcoming Noir release.

Click below...

Glencairn Museum

Growing up in PA, we heard a lot of spooky stories regarding the Pitcairn family... my sister's friends would sometimes mention the Pitcairn [haunted] mansion.  They spoke of deformed descendants still living there.  They mentioned the horridly abstract notion of inbreeding to a small child (me).  

Turns out this terrifying fictional place I built up in my head as a kid has always been a beautiful sprawling estate which houses an amazing cathedral, a museum, and a mansion.  No ghosts nor deformations were spotted.  It was a wonderful tour and a great way to spend a windy Saturday afternoon. 

Glencairn is a castle-like mansion in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, that was home to the Pitcairn family for more than 40 years. Now the Glencairn Museum, it contains a collection of about 8,000 artworks, mostly religious in nature, from cultures such as ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, the Roman Empire and medieval Europe, as well as Islamic, Asian, and Native American works.  The nine-story, granite-and-ruddy-colored-stone mansion features more than 90 rooms on 10 floors.

Late Harvest