Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Middle School Halloween
I wanted to make a blog post out of a neat blog comment that was left tonight.
A comment from someone in the Halloween community who is keeping the torch burning and helping to create nostalgia in the classroom.
The old post is here and it featured the below photo.
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VenomStorm commented:
You will be happy to know that I have the smaller version of that skeleton and that exact witch hanging in my 6th grade classroom on the 1st of October. That witch is part of a nice package that Beistle sells. I love using the retro decorations combined with modern LEDs in my classroom. The kids get a kick out of them. Certainly helps with building up the hype to Halloween. I want to start playing the Silver Shamrock countdown this year. As much as I need to be home setting up the house, there is something really fun and magical about being in a middle school on Halloween. Even these modern kids who grew up too fast because of the internet can still experience the wonder and excitement of that day and night, at least in my corner of the world.
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Porch Decorations
Started the first phase of the porch decor yesterday after work. We drank pumpkin beer and listened to spooky tunes. And a neighborhood Halloween cat even stopped by to check it all out.
Monday, September 16, 2024
Night After Night
Critically acclaimed film director, producer, and screenwriter M. Night Shyamalan will host an evening to celebrate one of the most successful collaborations between a contemporary film director and a composer—Shyamalan and the Emmy® and GRAMMY®–winner, James Newton Howard. This performance highlights Howard’s haunting scores that became part of the identity of eight of Shyamalan’s eerie, mind-bending thrillers—The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, The Last Airbender, and more. Howard will lead Your Philadelphia Orchestra with special appearances by pianist Jean Yves Thibaudet, violinist Gil Shaham, and cellist Maya Beiser in this incredible one-night-only event!
Click below for tickets...
The Dark Ride At Wonderland Pier
Not sure if anyone will swoop in at the last minute to save this historic destination, but just in case they don't, click below to enjoy a ride...
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Westend Manor
Goblins on the doorstep,
Phantoms in the air,
Owls on witches’ gate posts,
Giving stare for stare.
Cats on flying broomsticks,
Bats against the moon,
Stirring round of fate-cakes,
With a solemn spoon.
Whirling apple parings,
Figures draped in sheets,
Dodging, disappearing,
Up and down the streets.
Jack-o’-lanterns grinning,
Shadows on a screen,
Shrieks and starts and laughter -
This is Halloween!
- Dorothy Brown Thompson
Saturday, September 14, 2024
31 Books Of Halloween
A really neat feature over at Jenna's IG account: Thirty-one of her favorite Halloween-centric books of all varietals. She'll be posting for the rest of September and October.
Some images from her recent postings are below.
That Cheese Plate
Cheese is a glorious thing in this house (and the Universe).
Really neat seasonal pairings below:
Blue + Twix
Brie + Candy Corn
Manchego + Reese’s
Aged Gouda + Caramel Popcorn
Triple Crème Brie + KitKats
Goat Brie + Crunch Bars
Sharp Cheddar + Butterfingers
Gruyère + Snickers
Chèvre + Twizzlers
Friday, September 13, 2024
The Order Of The Halloween Tree
A photo series tribute to Ray Bradbury's classic tale.
This series comes to an end with Chapter 6: Ralph Bengstrum
Ralph stood in his Mummy costume, stunned, watching the last shadows go.
“Is that why I’m dressed like a mummy?” He fingered the bandages. He touched his clay-wrinkled ancient face. “Is that what my part of Halloween is all about?”
“All, boy, all,” murmured Moundshroud. “The Egyptians, why, they built to last. Ten thousand years they planned for. Tombs, boys, tombs. Graves. Mummies. Bones. Death, death. Death was at the very heart, gizzard, light, soul, and body of their life! Tombs and more tombs with secret passages, so none might be found, so grave robbers could not borrow souls and toys and gold. You are a mummy, boy, because that was how they dressed for Eternity. Spun up in a cocoon of threads, they hoped to come forth like lovely butterflies in some far dear loving world. Know your cocoon, boy. Touch the strange stuffs.”
“Why,” said Ralph the Mummy, blinking at the smoky walls and old hieroglyphics. “Every day was Halloween to them!"
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Thursday, September 12, 2024
Graverobber Unholy Rye Whiskey
It's baaaack! Friday, September 13 will mark the resurrection of Graverobber Unholy Rye Whiskey (750ml, 80 proof, $34.99), a wickedly delicious spirit crafted with maple syrup tapped from mature maple trees grown amid a colonial era graveyard on New Hampshire's Great Hill Farm — right down the road from Tamworth Distilling.
Revived due to popular demand just in time for Halloween, the sinister sipper is now available in a larger and scarier bottle – year-round! Previously, it was a limited-edition annual release hand-bottled at 200 ml and sold out quickly every year. Tamworth Distilling, known for its innovations and unique flavor inspirations, refined and upgraded processes to bring this highly sought after whiskey to a bigger audience.
Brave imbibers are encouraged to order a bottle if they dare…. Graverobber Unholy Rye is available now for pre-sale, and will be on shelves in New Hampshire state liquor stores soon after.
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Memories Of Halloweens Past
Received a really terrific memory from fellow haunter Jeff (from the always-awesome Ragged Grin Haunt).
Jeff shared, "My Halloween memories could fill volumes. Trick-or-treating in a town that celebrated and valued the holiday, building and designing the youth group haunt in my church basement, my big brother babysitting me while working at the local Jaycee's haunted house, and one of his female classmates dressing me up as a hobo and walking the queue line at 7 years old asking for change in exchange for fresh eyeballs. All of these experiences would instill and shape the love for the holiday that I hold so dear to this day.
One thing however stands out that I will forever remember, the Scarecrow. My father was a hardworking, salt of the earth, gruff sort of man. Stern, but always fair. But "Big Harry", as he was called, had a mischievous side that not many got to see. His was a difficult upbringing. He was the third oldest son in a family of eight kids, his two older brothers drinkers and troublemakers. My father quit school in the 10th grade to go to work and learn construction because both of his parents became ill. By the time he escaped Clarington, PA for a construction gig in Pittsburgh, he had seen all of his younger siblings graduate and find purpose. For years I sat puzzled as my aunts and uncles referred to him as "Had" for reasons I wouldn't understand until my teens. But the Scarecrow - Dad liked to have fun where he could, "one could only put up with so much seriousness," so one of my earliest memories of Halloween was helping, basically handing him stuff, while he built a scarecrow from old work pants, boots, and a red flannel shirt stuffed with bagged leaves. A burlap sack with one eye cut out and an old wide brimmed hat finished the deal along with some old work gloves. And soon, Patch the scarecrow sat in an old rocker on the front porch about a week before October 31st. As the big night approached (school parties, etc.), I became aware that my parents were occasionally discussing the event while in the kitchen over dinner prep, dishes, etc. and laughter often ensued. Come Halloween night, I would abruptly and vividly discover why. Dad would routinely wear green work pants and a consistent rotation of plaid flannel shirts to work, always the same brand, colors, and patterns, bought from the same store, and always tannish Red Wing boots on his feet. When I left to join my friends and a parent on the sidewalk to begin this most spooky of events... Patch stood up to see me off. I nearly landed on the roof and many on the sidewalk shrieked in shock.
My dad...was cool!
I would learn that Dad had gotten the idea from a coworker and thought it would be a fun thing for he and I to do...and he could scare the piss out of me and everyone else in the process. Sometimes it was him, sometimes just a bag of leaves and clothes. Sometimes the dummy was laying half askew in the lawn and his "twin" would sneak out from the sides of the house. Then one year, long past my first encounter with Patch, there were two chairs. Then after a few more years only one, and eventually none. One of my last conversations with my father revolved around that first year and how much fun we had in ensuing Halloweens. Having been adopted and looking nothing like my parents and extended family, I'll always cherish the few, undeniable similarities between father and son, so vastly different, but alike in tangible, powerful ways as well.
Long after Big Harry passed and I had my own kids, my oldest son would help me build, I believe, an even scarier version of Patch...red plaid shirt, green work pants...with a wry smile and one visible eye.
Many swore he moved as well."
Thanks, Jeff! Really appreciate you sharing that about your dad. It's a wonderful memory.
For anyone interested in submitting, you can email me at pumpkinrot @ gmail . com (remove the spaces, of course!)
Monday, September 9, 2024
The Woods
"[When] we got home, we immediately called our local sheriff… a few days went by, and he showed up to let me know that we were not imagining things, and someone really did chase us. I asked what they found and who it was. He looked down at the ground and then looked up, and said, ‘I'm not going to tell you what we found or who it was because if I do, you will never hike anywhere again. What we found was not normal and will not happen up here again.’ I never found out what they found or who it was. I never hiked that section of the trail again, and it completely burnt last year."
Do They Know It's Halloween?
Neat little song and video Jenna introduced me to that I never knew existed.
From the North American Hallowe'en Prevention Initiative.
Click below...
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Teaser: Wolf Man
The official teaser for Universal's WOLF MAN. I'm excited. Same director as THE INVISIBLE MAN (which I loved). So I'm really hopeful. Though I'm worried about the lack of fur in the trailer. I like my wolfmen with fur.
That sounds terrible.
Click below...
Friday, September 6, 2024
The Order Of The Halloween Tree
A photo series tribute to Ray Bradbury's classic tale.
Chapter 5: Hackles Nibley
“Mr. Moundshroud, is that you!” cried Tom.
“Mr. Moundshroud, is that you!” cried Tom.
For towering forty feet above them in the sky, an immense scythe in his hands, was this cowled figure, its face in midnight fogs.
The blade swung down: hisssssss!
“Mr. Moundshroud, let us be!”
“Mr. Moundshroud, let us be!”
“Shut up.” Someone knocked Toms elbow. Mr. Moundshroud lay on the earth beside him. “That’s not me. That’s—”
“Samhain!” cried the voice in the fog. “God of the Dead! I harvest thus, and so!”
Sssss-whoooshhhh!
“All those who died this year are here! And for their sins, this night, are turned to beasts!”
Sssssswooommmmmmm!
Sssss-whoooshhhh!
“All those who died this year are here! And for their sins, this night, are turned to beasts!”
Sssssswooommmmmmm!
“Please,” whimpered Ralph-the-Mummy.
“Sssssssttttt! The scythe zippered Hackles Nibley’s spine, ripping his costume in a long tear, knocking his own small scythe free of his hands.
“Beasts!”
And the harvest wheat, flailed up, spun round on the wind, shrieking its souls, all those who had died in the past twelve months, rained to earth.
Thursday, September 5, 2024
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Memories Of Halloweens Past
The next entry for this nostalgic blog series comes from my gal Jenna. I've had the pleasure of seeing this neat item up close, so it was really wonderful hearing about its backstory.
Jenna writes "Over the years people have often asked me, 'Why do you like Halloween so much?' or 'Why do you like such scary things?' I don't really have an answer for them. Truthfully, I have always found myself drawn to darker interests. Poe and R.L. Stine in grade school. The Twilight Zone and heavy metal in middle school. But when thinking about my favorite memory of Halloweens past (thanks to Mr. Macabre), my thoughts kept coming back to a very non-scary subject: My Grandmother, from now on referred to as Grandie (a nickname of her own creation). She is decidedly not spooky, or scary, and does not relate to my love of horror movies and dark art, but she was formative for my love of Halloween.
Grandie and my Grandfather lived out in the country, not far from the previously mentioned Hex Hollow. In fact, my first haunted hayride as a kid was the local fire hall hayride that took you though Hex Hollow the week or so before Halloween.
She was Martha before Martha - making loads of homemade candy, Golden Grahams smores bars, and soft pumpkin cookies with caramel frosting in the days leading up to the High Holiday. The house was filled with decorations - a sound activated laughing witch (long gone), tons of paper Hallmark party goods, and a unique ceramic pumpkin that she would save for me to put together (once I was old enough to be trusted not to break it).
This particular decoration encompasses all the imagery I love and associate with Halloween - ghosts, a spooky tree, a cemetery, and a jack-o-lantern. Each year, I would arrange the ghosts around the tree, always in the same places, like a ritual. The tombstone and the jack-o-lantern were my absolute favorites, and would go in the very front, so that I could take them out and hold them whenever I wanted. It wasn't truly Halloween until this pumpkin was on display.
Grandie is still with us and turned 98 this year. Knowing my love of Halloween, she handed down her recipes and decorations over the years as she downsized and moved into a retirement community. I think the ceramic pumpkin was the first decoration she gave me when she moved - she knew how much I loved it. Now I am the one decorating and hosting for Halloween, and though she doesn't always understand the darker decor, she loves seeing how we spend our holiday, and will forever be an important part of my Halloween."
For anyone interested in submitting, you can email me at pumpkinrot @ gmail . com (remove the spaces, of course!)
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Now Playing: Haunted
This entire album by Caleb R.K. Williams is primo. Would be perfect as a soundscape for a Home Haunt too, something with blue light and dark shadows, and lots of tombstones. Seems to only be available on Bandcamp.
Click below...
Final Girl Blog
Looking forward to seeing what the Halloween season brings for this blog from the golden age of blogging.
Click below for the always-funny Final Girl blog.
Monday, September 2, 2024
Now Playing: Psycho House Horror Ambience
Click below for a really nice soundscape tribute to the classic film...
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