The Nutshell Studies Of Unexplained Death

Back in 2011, I blogged about (entry here) a book featuring the beautiful photos of Corinne May Botz - The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.  This book featured the incredible works of Frances Glessner Lee.

Frances Glessner Lee (1878−1962) crafted her extraordinary ​“Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death” — exquisitely detailed miniature crime scenes — to train homicide investigators to ​“convict the guilty, clear the innocent, and find the truth in a nutshell.” These dollhouse-sized dioramas of true crimes, created in the first half of the 20th century and still used in forensic training today, helped to revolutionize the emerging field of homicide investigation.

Text source.

Yesterday, we took a trip to see the Nutshell Studies at its home in Baltimore, Maryland, at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.  On our drive down, we listened to a terrific podcast about these incredible dioramas and the woman who built them.  If you're curious, here's the LINK.

The exhibit was fascinating.  The detail was staggering.  The notion that each tiny scene represented actual human deaths was chilling.  I am very familiar with the gorgeous photographs in Botz's book but seeing the display in person was an entirely different experience.  There was a strong sense that you were looking into someone's hurt, a tragic moment frozen in time.  It was very comforting to know that these miniatures have been used for decades and decades to train investigators, and we wondered how many eyes have studied the tiny blood stains and splatters, the discolored corpses, and the miniscule bullet holes.  

It's hard to imagine a time when a crime scene wasn't scrutinized for clues.  I'm feeling really thankful we had the opportunity to see where this started to change.  Frances Glessner Lee's contributions to this cause have earned her the title of 'Mother of Forensic Science.'  

Below are some photos we took of the exhibit.

Anata No Warehouse

Super neat arcade for adults in Japan.  Unfortunately, it closed in 2019.

More information here.

More images here.

Now Playing: The Mothman Prophecies

Click below for my favorite track from this awesome film...

Crop Savior

Image by Bjørgulf Brevik.

Bloody Halloween

Love these gravemarkers....

Image by cookie_mama123.

Basket Case

You haven't truly SEEN Basket Case until you've seen it in a dark theater with a bunch of horror fans.  Truthfully, I never thought I would watch this one again.  It was one of the first horror films I rented as a kid.  Some friends and I went into the video store looking for a truly scary and blood-soaked nightmare-inducing film.  What we got was something so odd and campy, but shot surprisingly well (I didn't realize that fact at the time).  But the concept stuck with me for decades.

We had so much fun laughing and groaning at this one last night.  The applause at the end of the film lasted a long while.  As it should have.  A newfound appreciation for sure.  

Turns out this film was chosen by the Museum of Modern Art to be restored and preserved.  The director's comment regarding this fact is pretty great:

Hey, Basket Case fans. I’m both humbled and proud to announce that Basket Case is now part of the permanent film collection of the Museum of Modern Art. (And, yes, I asked them if they actually watched the film and they assured me they did.) It’s quite an honor and one that I’m still trying to wrap my head around.

Click below for a trailer...

Land Of The Dead

Image by Kevin Ma.

The Order Of The Halloween Tree

A photo series tribute to Ray Bradbury's classic tale.

Chapter 1:  Tom Skelton

Tom Skelton shivered. Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows’ Eve. Everything seemed cut from soft black velvet or gold or orange velvet.  Smoke panted up out of a thousand chimneys like the plumes of funeral parades. From kitchen windows drifted two pumpkin smells: gourds being cut, pies being baked.  

The cries behind the locked house doors grew more exasperated as shadows of boys flew by windows. Half-dressed boys, greasepaint on their cheeks; here a hunchback, there a medium-sized giant. Attics were still being rummaged, old locks broken, old steamer chests disemboweled for costumes.

Tom Skelton put on his bones.

He grinned at the spinal cord, the ribcage, the kneecaps stitched white on black cotton.

Lucky! he thought. What a name you got! Tom Skelton. Great for Halloween! Everyone calls you Skeleton! So what do you wear?

Bones.

Memories Of Halloweens Past

The next nostalgic entry for cherished memories and special Halloween possessions comes from Revenant Manor.  In his own words...

"Allow me to present Jack.  While he is certainly not our oldest Halloween item, and while at first glance he seems kind of silly and plastic, he has creeped his way into our Halloween season in a way that other treasures simply haven't (and really can't).

You see, Jack is a hand puppet; a sinister 10" little guy with articulated stretching arms that can act as a bit of an avatar for someone so inclined. 

He arrived on the scene ~20 years ago at the perfect time to help introduce two young daughters to Halloween. Offering the perfect mix of slightly scary and mostly silly when being chased around a house; he's been a part of the Halloween backdrop their entire lives.  

Over the years, he has spent spooky season leering in from darkened doorways, unexpectedly poking his head around corners, tapping the shoulders of unsuspecting people, appearing from nowhere at just the right moment during a spooky movie scene, greeting visitors at the front door, and generally causing the household pets to wonder what exactly is wrong with their humans. 

The kids (both the two and four-footed kind) have all known Jack since their earliest days, and have enjoyed his antics...it's really just not Halloween season until he arrives on the scene."

What an amazing design.  Seeing something like this makes me wonder why we don't see anything similar out there these days, as something like this would sell out every season for sure.  It's Sinister.  It's beautiful.

Thank you, RM, for sharing this incredible piece from your collection!  I love imagining its antics each Halloween season.  

And for anyone wanting to see this guy in action, click the link below!

Jack in motion.

For anyone interested in submitting, you can email me at pumpkinrot @ gmail . com (remove the spaces, of course!)

And click here to see past entries!

Give Me Something Good To Eat

We found these at Michael’s today.  Huge fan of Mike and Ike’s, so it was great to see a seasonal sour version in the colors of Halloween.

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things

My mother's mother was a cool lady.  She passed away when I was about eight, but she was perfectly placed in those formative years to introduce me to the joys of everything spooky.  She would visit on some Saturday mornings, with her pack of cigarettes and dressed like someone who was in a rockabilly band.  She'd bring us cool toys like rubber skeletons or a neat blood-dripping candle skull.  She'd also let us watch horror films.  Creature Double Feature to be exact.  Those days were glorious.  She was someone who was the opposite of my parents.  Someone who seemed to realize that a lot of life was silly and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

On one of those Saturdays, we watched a horror film with a strange long name (written and directed by the man who brought us Black Christmas and A Christmas Story - Bob Clark).  I recall the film scaring us at the time, as it was made in 1972 and was low budget... so by default it had a grimy feel to it.  Shot entirely at night, it felt extremely claustrophobic.  And due to a surprisingly solid script and a very interesting story, it made the notion of people in a cemetery invoking a Satanic spell to raise the dead quite believable.  

A local theater was showing this gem of a film on Friday night, and we went.  I hadn't seen it since that one time as a boy, so I had convinced myself it would be one of those so-bad-it's-good horror movies.  Turns out, it's even more enjoyable and interesting now that I'm intensely old and have seen a lifetime of zombie films.  There was a believable sense of dread due to the intelligent way the story was allowed to unfold.  A tension was created at the start of the film between the characters that felt incredibly real.  A group of actors (fearing job loss if they don't follow their theatre group's cruel director) agree to rob a grave and take part in his necromantic ritual.  It was the perfect setting for a zombie tale.  And, to date, I have never seen, nor probably will ever see, a Satanic spell that was so perfectly written and believable.  It felt totally real.

It's Saturday morning here, and if you click below, you can watch the entire film.  My grandmother would take smoke breaks throughout a movie, and she'd go into my parents' kitchen, open a window, and sit in the chair closest to it.  She wasn't allowed to smoke in the house, so this was her version of obeying the rule, blowing most of the smoke out into the back yard, with a smirk on her face.  

Here's to one of the giants from my past.

Click below...

It's Halloween

Black Cat Bakery

We make the unusual delicious. 

After visiting this cool little bakery near Scranton, PA, we can confirm that their tagline above is accurate.  Turns out that the beautiful raspberry white chocolate skull that we had to bash in with a mallet on a recent trip to the Noir Dark Spirits restaurant (blog post here) was created by this fine establishment.  

We ordered the Dragon Cupcake (Chocolate cinnamon cupcake, filled with cayenne ganache, topped with chocolate cinnamon buttercream) and it was absolutely perfect.  

We asked about their seasonal offerings for Autumn and she started to mention flavors that sounded wonderfully made up.  

Wolfman

Pumpkin chai spice cake, frosted in turmeric Swiss meringue buttercream.

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Chocolate zucchini cake, frosted in dill Swiss meringue buttercream.

Dracula

Nutmeg cupcake filled with sweetened spiced beetroot compote, frosted in nutmeg Swiss meringue buttercream.

Here are some other varietals offered throughout the year:

Tomato soup and Grilled Cheese

Vintage spiced tomato soup cake, frosted in cheddar cheese Swiss meringue buttercream, topped with mini saltine crackers. Available Nov.1-Nov.30

Sugar Plum Mulled Wine

Red wine cake, filled with mulled plum wine jam, frosted in brown sugar Swiss meringue buttercream. Available Dec. 1- Dec.25

Juniper Orange

Juniper cake, filled with zesty orange curd, frosted in clove Swiss meringue buttercream. Available Dec.1-Dec.25

White Pepper Gingerbread

Gingerbread cake frosted in white pepper Swiss meringue buttercream. Available Dec. 1-Dec.25

Rosemary Blood Orange

Blood orange cake frosted in Rosemary Swiss meringue buttercream. Available Jan. 5- Jan. 31

Cabernet Clover Honey Goat Cheese

Cabernet cake, filled with clover honey, frosted in goat cheese Swiss meringue buttercream. Available Jan.5 - Jan.31

Old Lace

Almond cake, filled with black cherry compote, frosted in black currant Swiss meringue buttercream, topped with edible lace. Available Feb.1 - Feb.28

Toxic Love

Pear cake, filled with brandied pear compote, frosted in pear Swiss meringue buttercream, topped with a brandy snap. Available Feb.1 - Feb.28

We are definitely heading back there in October and will make sure we try all three of those Halloween offerings and report back.

Here are some photos from their site:

This is the Creature from the Black Lagoon

Click here for all of their flavors.

And click here for their IG.

Morning Coffee

Pumpkin Spice Season has already begun in this house, despite the summer heat.   

Netflix: Unsolved Mysteries

We just started watching the latest season of Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix.  If you haven't caught them, I would highly recommend.  Every season has been terrific.  Amazing production value with the same old classic spookiness of the original series.

Click below for the trailer...