Finally got around to a little project I mentioned a while back. Placing a gnome door at the base of a tree in an area where a pedestrian will see it. Ultimately I'll place one where it won't be easy for a person to investigate, like on the side of a road near a traffic light, so the driver or passenger will see it briefly as they pass.
Gnomes have awesome homes (though I'm thinking dog-sized spiders would be a downer).Another great episode of my new favorite show.
Click below for part one:
A spooky dedication by J.P. at The Haunted Gallery blog.
Click below:
Image by Lauren Powell-Smothers.
Thanks, Jesse.
That was truly awesome.
Can't wait for Halloween? Neither can we. In anticipation of our favorite holiday, FEARnet's creating a brand new Trick ‘r Treat promo spot and we want you to be in it! Dust off the old photo album, send us pics or video of yourself as a kid dressed up for Halloween, and your image could appear alongside Michael Dougherty's devious little Sam.
Click below:
I'm totally going to dig out an old photo...maybe the Salt and Pepper one..
It seems that cooler air is finally being forecasted.
It's coming in on the back of a windy storm.
Classy way to arrive.
Hopefully it stays clear through Halloween.
Image by sparth.
Very cool to see Mike Dougherty's house used as Sam's Halloween nest. And super awesome to see his witch jars and my zombie in this fearnet production video.
Click below:
If you're brave enough
to go out into the orchard,
on a night of a harvest moon...
a night as still as death...
you can still hear my mother's body,
swinging in the trees.
Leslie Vernon
Image by PantherGirl012.
By the awesome Sinoia Caves.
If Sophia Coppola made a film set during Halloween, I have a feeling she'd use this song.
Click below:
J.P. at The Haunted Gallery blog is on to something.
I'm really excited about his project to bring the journey of Ichabod Crane to life in the form of a soundscape track. This story has always been such a major part of Halloween to me.
Finding this map on his blog, a soundscape map, was a hoot.
The logistics of this is pretty darn impressive, and I can't wait for the finished product.
(I was lucky enough to hear a sample of this, and it's absolutely amazing.)
Click here for more info about this project.
And click here for his most recent soundscape "The Lonely Churchyard."
What is a ghost? A tragedy doomed to repeat itself time and again? An instant of pain, perhaps. Something dead which still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time. Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in amber.
The Devil's Backbone
From the Gone Feral In Idaho blog.
A new Halloween blog by friend and fellow Halloween fanatic K.O.:
Click below:
And thanks a ton for the nice stuff you wrote.
Semi-Halloween sighting at a local Target store.
Halloween candy is going out and there were boxes in the aisles marked "Halloween." Peeked inside one and they had skull candles which dripped blood.
Bought two boxes of Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts there.
Not too shabby.
The Shadows where the Mewlips dwell
Are dark and wet as ink,
And slow and softly rings their bell,
As in the slime you sink.
You sink into the slime, who dare
To knock upon their door,
While down the grinning gargoyles stare
And noisome waters pour.
Beside the rotting river-strand
The drooping willows weep,
And gloomily the gorcrows stand
Croaking in their sleep.
Over the Merlock Mountains a long and weary way,
In a mouldy valley where the trees are grey,
By a dark pool´s borders without wind or tide,
Moonless and sunless, the Mewlips hide.
The cellars where the Mewlips sit
Are deep and dank and cold
With single sickly candle lit;
And there they count their gold.
Their walls are wet, their ceilings drip;
Their feet upon the floor
Go softly with a squish-flap-flip,
As they sidle to the door.
They peep out slyly; through a crack
Their feeling fingers creep,
And when they´ve finished, in a sack
Your bones they take to keep.
Beyond the Merlock Mountains, a long and lonely road,
Through the spider-shadows and the marsh of Tode,
And through the wood of hanging trees and gallows-weed,
You go to find the Mewlips - and the Mewlips feed.
J.R.R. Tolkien
Image source.
A moment later he had emerged from the forest into a small, open space, mostly upgrown to brambles. There were remnants of a rotting fence. A few yards from the trail, in the middle of the "clearing," was the house from which the light came, through an unglazed window. The window had once contained glass, but that and its supporting frame had long ago yielded to missiles flung by hands of venturesome boys to attest alike their courage and their hostility to the supernatural; for the Breede house bore the evil reputation of being haunted. Possibly it was not, but even the hardiest sceptic could not deny that it was deserted--which in rural regions is much the same thing.
Looking at the mysterious dim light shining from the ruined window the boy remembered with apprehension that his own hand had assisted at the destruction. His penitence was of course poignant in proportion to its tardiness and inefficacy. He half expected to be set upon by all the unworldly and bodiless malevolences whom he had outraged by assisting to break alike their windows and their peace.
Ambrose Bierce
Image by Matthew Elton.
Text source.
The only zombies I was able to make this year.
Going to post them on the Etsy shop on Monday afternoon.
A month ago, on one of the cooler days of the summer, I drove out to Bucks County and saw a sign along the road: "barn sale." There was an arrow pointing up a small road, so I made the left.
I slowly drove up the driveway of the farm and could see a man sitting in a chair at the top of a grassy hill which led right up to the barn doors. I parked and slowly approached the barn, enjoying the breezy day, and wondering what it was like inside. I think the last time I was actually in a barn would have been back in grade school on a school trip. It's a pretty ominous thing, all that wood and empty space. And quiet. I wasn't expecting that. The wind was blowing hard and you could hear it muffled against the old wood, but even though sunlight was pouring through the cracks between the planks, the air inside was cool and still. Very peaceful.
I sifted through the old dust-covered jars and tools and magazines and furniture. I looked over a rail and could see that we were pretty high above the barn floor. Old stone walls framed the base of the barn. And you could smell the earthy coolness down there. All I could think of was that I wanted to be that guy, sitting out there, reading a book. And inside my barn would be a Haunted Walk-Through, open all year long. A passage of corpses, rafters of ghosts, an opening through which you could see some slightly disturbing scarecrows off in a field.
Pretty fun thought. Been thinking of it quite a bit.
Saw the Fright Night remake a few nights ago. Colin Farrell was excellent. The Evil Ed character was a throw-away character, as was Peter Vincent for the most part. Tom Holland, the director of the original Fright Night, has stated that he had the concept for his film floating around for a year as a rough idea, but that it had only come together and truly worked when he conceived the character of Peter Vincent. This film missed that point, making Vincent a profanity spouting alcoholic who was only there to almost help Charley, but the film really didn't need him. And that's too bad because making him a Las Vegas act was actually pretty appropriate and a very cool idea.
Then there's the CG. I long for the old days of practical effects. I get that it's expensive and that movies are made so quickly now that there's just no time in the production schedule (the same goes for the massive symphonic scores of the past) [so much of what I've grown up on and loved is dying]. But the CG - I'd rate it up there with the computer generated effects seen on ANY of those disposable SyFy tv movies, the ones with giant fish or a creature-of-the-week. Yeah, it was THAT bad. In fact, the finale featured effects which I am still recovering from.
So here's to the old timers - the Rob Bottins and Sam Winstons and Rick Bakers and Tom Savinis.
My heroes.
"Wait. I wonder if I could do all of this on the computer."
And while I'm at it, go to Hell, George Lucas.
Fresh-pressed apples, spiced cider, sweetgrass and fall’s new-mown hay harvest.
A cheerful gush of pumpkin and buttercream against a backdrop of fall - sere leaves and sweetgrass, bonfires and candle flame.
The Soap Box Company
If I saw these guys when I was a kid, I would have been terrified.
Skull-faced witches. Just wonderful.
At the Pumpkin Abbey blog.
Like ROOT and SNAP, RHUBY is based on a centuries old Pennsylvania recipe and is totally unique in the marketplace. There has never been anything like it…at least not since 1771. This is the year Ben Franklin sent John Bartram America’s first rhubarb seeds. Bartram proceeded to make a delicious garden tea with rhubarb, beets, carrots, lemon, petitgrain, cardamom, pink peppercorn, coriander, vanilla, and pure cane sugar. We took this recipe and turned it into a spirit!
Click below:
Man, if this is anything like their ROOT or SNAP that I've owned, I can't wait to try it.
Frid 26th
Froze hard last night today clear & warm Wind S: E: blowing briskly Marthas jaw swelled with the toothache; hungry times in camp, plenty hides but the folks will not eat them we eat them with a tolerable good apetite. Thanks be to Almighty God. Amen Mrs Murphy said here yesterday that thought she would commence on Milt. & eat him. I dont that she has done so yet, it is distressing The Donnos told the California folks that they commence to eat the dead people 4 days ago, if they did not succeed that day or next in finding their cattle then under ten or twelve feet of snow & did not know the spot or near it, I suppose they have done so ere this time.
Diary of Patrick Breen
Image by Annadancie.
Text source.
