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Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Extreme Costume
Wonder how many children would come up for treats from a person dressed like this.
Perchten mask.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Now Playing: Sketch #1
I'm a huge fan of film scores. Orchestral powerhouse scores by composers like James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith eventually led me to explore film music by other composers. That's where I discovered my love for electronic scores. John Carpenter and Alan Howarth proved that music in a film didn't have to be performed by a massive 90 piece orchestra. That's particularly the case with horror films. With the occasional exception (THE RING being one of them), I'd say that a horror film benefits more from an electronic score than an all-out symphonic one. In my opinion, a score which is mostly electronic [with some subtle piano and strings] is the best way to enhance a horror film. A subdued score adds believability, loss, and desolation. Jeff Grace's (and Anton Sanko's) THE LAST WINTER comes to mind.
I checked out a favorite blog of mine and discovered that the author happens to be a musician, and a composer. I listened to a music sample he posted - a bunch of times. It's truly fantastic. The music has a quality to it that I have found in all of the composers' works that I've collected.
Image source.
Click here to listen.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Halloween Night
This wonderful photo reminds me of the long pauses between trick-or-treaters, contemplating the props and atmosphere - savoring everything that's amazing about Halloween.
Truly no other night like it.
Image source.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Shoofly
Pennsylvanians have the distinct pleasure of enjoying a very tasty dessert known as shoofly pie. Straight from Amish country, the sweet molasses and brown sugar filling reminds me of Autumn every time we have it.
It's perfect for Saturday mornings with coffee and a horror movie.
Image source.
Some info and a recipe.
Haunt Theory: Leaves
It's amazing the amount of time throughout the year I spend worrying about leaves. The weeks before Halloween are particularly stressful. Studying the trees and whining about how they aren't dropping their leaves quick enough. Or worrying about those giant wind/rain storms in the Fall that seem to make leaves magically disappear all at once.
In the years I lived in an apartment, I'd actually resort to stealing bags of leaves left at the curb of homes with leafy properties. I'm sure the homeowners wouldn't mind, but it always felt wrong and I always ended up taking them after the sun had gone down. Last year I troubled a coworker for her leaves - showing up at her house on a Saturday to rake up delightfully-huge leaves from massive elm trees in her backyard. I joked that I'd return them after Halloween (and I totally should have done that).
Initially used just to cover the bases of my groundbreakers, the leaves would eventually blow across the path leading up to the porch. The atmosphere achieved was pretty remarkable. Not only did it look neat and creepy, but the sound of the crunching leaves was as important as any prop or pumpkin. Since then, I cover the walkway entirely with leaves. There are moments when a scared child hesitates at the end of the walk looking up into the darkness at a motionless Michael Myers. They pause and then slowly approach me for their candy. They shuffle through the leaves. That old parchment scraping sound is pretty fantastic.
Hardly any leaves remain in this shot taken at the end of a long night.
Stamps For Purloined Letters
Edgar Allan Poe commemorative stamps now available at the U.S. Postal Service.
Order some here.
Thanks, Rene', for this cool link.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Dead
Back in the 80s, when I first discovered Ray Bradbury, I purchased THE OCTOBER COUNTRY for the Halloween-sounding title and was surprised to learn it was a collection of short stories. The notion of a novel having that title was thrilling, so I didn't know what to make of a bunch of unrelated short stories. I remember opening the book to the first short story and sitting on the floor in the dining room in my parents' home. It was a hot day in the summer and they had one of those giant old wall-unit air conditioners running. This one hummed like a massive generator about to spit out its last icy wind (which it eventually did on the day of my sister's high school graduation party - a particularly hot and violently humid day - proving that karma can affect machinery). I sat next to the air conditioner and read every story. It was the perfect way to start my love affair with Ray Bradbury. Every story was brilliant. Each one was so different than anything I had ever read before.
The story The Next In Line was about the Mexican catacombs and unfortunate mummified corpses that ended up lining the walls of the catacombs as a result of their poor families ceasing monthly grave "rental" payments. It was also the first time I had ever heard of the Mexican Day(s) of the Dead. I started collecting tiny skulls and skeletons immediately. And I started buying everything by Ray Bradbury that I could get my hands on.
"Here was a man, his stomach open, like a tree hollow where you dropped your child love letters when you were eleven! Her eyes entered the hole in the space under his ribs. She peeked in. He looked like an Erector set inside. The spine, the pelvic plates. The rest was tendon, parchment, bone, eye, beardy jaw, ear, stupefied nostril. And this ragged eaten cincture in his navel into which a pudding might be spooned."
You can read "The Next In Line" here.
Image source.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Bribes Not Accepted
Happy to report I'm one of the judges for the 2008 Haunters Video Awards. Looking VERY forward to going through the entries - which I received in the mail today.
More information here.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Halloween 2009
The Corn Witch, or Field Witch, is a figure from early rural American folklore. According to the legend, the first manifestations occurred in the eastern part of the country in the early 1800s. Rural farmers frequently blamed livestock deaths and crop blights on curses, or hexes. Inhabitants of the wooded areas surrounding and dividing their farmland were often seen as the source of the hexes, and labeled as witches. The origins, and existence, of these people are debated, but purported sightings and writings of the time identify them often as possessing malevolent intent and monstrous visages, "...miserable termagants clothed in scraps from our scarecrows."
By 1850, due to deficient fertilization methods and acidic nutrient-poor eastern soils, early pioneers abandoned their farmland homes and moved further inland for the fertile acres to the west. For many, this substantiated the belief in cursed acreage and propagated lurid tales of the Corn Witch.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
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