Voodoo Ghoul

Where Have I Been

2012-02-04T10:04:00.001-08:00

It's been a while, like over a month. I meant to do a few more posts in December, wish you all a Merry Christmas and a felicitous new year and the like, but then major big time life stuff happened, and I haven't had time to keep up with all your lovely blogs, or even post anything on mine.

I won't go into the succession of unpleasant events that impinged upon my life over the season, except the worst and saddest, which is that our sweet little dog Keiji got very ill, and we had to put her to sleep.

You may remember her from this post. Here:

She was a good dog, and it is in recalling little moments that I miss her the most. We may never again get to see her tear-ass across an open field, but the important thing is that we did get to see such sights, so that we may miss them.

Anyhow, I will slowly make my way back to blogging Halloween, once enough of these life experiences have been sorted away and dealt with.

Hope everyone is having a good year so far!

Creepmas Mass Ӝ 13 Chimes

2011-12-14T00:10:00.000-08:00

I didn't really blog Creepmas along with everyone, though it was fun to see all of the creepy Christmassy cheer that was spread. A sort of digital wassail!

I wanted to share a bit myself, so lift up that wassailing cup and take a drop of this.

"Saint Nicholas" by Robert W Weir
Click the picture for video clip

"Nicholas Was..." is a short story written (and read) by eminent author Neil Gaiman, and reflects much of how I have always felt about Santa Claus.

One year, I crept out of bed, late at night on Christmas Eve. I snuck into the dining room, which adjoined the living room, and could hear something shuffling around by the tree. No matter how hard I tried though, I couldn't bring myself to look. It wasn't fear that paralyzed me, it was something else, something deeper and more arcane. It was magic. Saint Nicholas, whoever that man may be, does not want to be seen.

I always knew this, in my bones. They always told us that the fellows at the mall were just Santa's "helpers", and they are jolly enough. The television specials always portray Santa that way, Jocular and benevolent.

But we know better. We always have. No one is that good, that beneficent. I understood that this "jolly old elf" bit was a facade. In order to travel all around the world in the span of only one night, father Christmas must command some terrible power. And no one with such power is wholly benevolent. We know this too, instinctively.

So, what is the true nature of this mysterious being? who creeps into our homes through the hearth, on the darkest and coldest night of the year, and leaves children marvelous gifts, or more menacingly, lumps of coal.

No, I always knew, instinctively, that Nicholas was a dark soul, a fellow traveler in our explorations of the regions of the macabre.

If Gaiman's "Nicholas Was" does not strictly relate the facts about Santa Claus, it does admonish us to remember the nature of father Christmas.

Merry Creepmas friends,

That's a Wrap!

2011-11-21T23:15:00.000-08:00

Molly Turner, our survival(?) girl

I disappeared for a bit, but why did I come back now?

Last night we finished shooting principal photography on our feature length independent horror picture: "Blackbird Pie"!

We celebrated with some fancy Blackbird County champagne, leftovers from one of our penultimate scenes.

We still have some re-shoots to do, but this is a big milestone for us, and it left me recalling an icy cold Thanksgiving-Eve (at 3 am) when we finished shooting our short film "Zombie Awareness Now!" shot on DV with a budget of Zero dollars and no cents.

Next up we have editing to get into, and I will be directing the art department as we begin on the animated sequences of Blackbird Pie.

Left to right: Serena, our awesome makeup fx person, Mr. Punch, and Allister Wolf

☻ Bỏ̧̬̺̬̜̫̞͔ͯ̃̌̑̊ͣ̍̓g͔̘͕͔-Lḯ̈̓̐͛̏̚g͔̘͕͔h̳̤̖̗̋͑͋̿ͦ̇̚t̒͆s͒ ʡ

2011-11-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot, to post shots of the Bog-lights. These guys were the stars of my haunt this year. I carefully considered what I wanted the theme of my haunt to be, I particularly wanted to avoid becoming derivative of other haunters like Pumpkinrot, who has been an incredible influence on me since discovering him a few years back.

In the last couple years I made quite a few witch-jars to decorate with, and I loved them as a light source, but I wanted to adapt them into something new. A monster that served as its own light-source, which led me to the idea of the bog-lights.

Will~o~the~wisps are a well known phenomena in folklore, eerie inexplicable lights seen in inhospitable locations like marshes and cemeteries. I wanted to imagine what they might look like up close, what they might actually be. I'm not entirely happy with how they came out, so I might iterate on them next year, but I am satisfied that I did get off my butt and make them in time for Hallowe'en!

Excerpt from the diary of John Stahl (researcher)

Our group, a fairly jocular assembly of students, researchers, and scientists from the campus of Winchester University in San Locura California, took an interest in the subject because we felt that the usual explanations for the phenomena were insufficient. We also pursued the subject as a lark, most of us being members of the infamous “Rictus Club”, an informal society of like-minded deviants interested in the subversion of the rather banal traditions of campus life. The, so-called, “bog-light” seemed a perfect subject for us, given our predilection for nonsense and snipe hunts. We arranged the expedition, more as a pleasant autumnal camping trip than anything else.

Excerpt from the diary of John Stahl

It was the last night of our sojourn into rustic America, and my compatriots had departed already, some by car, others on flights from the local airfield. The cars being full, and I suffering a horror of flying, booked a trip by train for the following morning, which left me a night alone in the small backwater town, with the appropriate of monicker, “Trainsong”.

There was not much to do in Trainsong, and having adopted the habit of taking a long evening constitutional, I set off down one of the winding country roads out of town. It was an agreeably cool and clear autumn evening, and I had gone some way, when I approached a copse of trees, which appeared to bound an abandoned dwelling, near a stretch of bog.

These tin cans were pricked with nail-holes, and each had a candle inside.

This is the one made from the crushed skull, that kept taking a header into the concrete

Excerpt from the diary of John Stahl

I came upon the bog-lights. I will admit, that I am no more certain now, than I was before encountering them up-close, as to what exactly they were, except that I can attest that they are not self-igniting swamp gasses.

My first impression was that they were some sort of vegetable growth, perhaps a symbiotic culture of mosses, vines, and luminescent fungus. But then, they appeared to have almost recognizable features, faces or an approximation of a face, grinning or leering out of the darkness. It was as if they had grown to vaguely resemble a human being, via some sort of beneficial evolutionary trait. But why? Many plants have been known to develop lures for certain animal species, in order to spread their pollen, or in the case of carnivorous species, to devour them...

Excerpt from the diary of John Stahl

…which lead inevitably to my next speculation: that they may actually have been composed of dead bodies, lured to that desolate location and then, overgrown, absorbed, composted, by the living plant matter. This seemed to be borne out by the litter of bottles and other rubbish woven into their… bodies. On one or two, I could distinctly call out the features of a degraded human skull, and it was at this point that I decided to flee the scene. A sensation of panic had slowly crept up my spine, and I admit that I fled that place immediately. They seemed to be watching me.

Excerpt from the diary of John Stahl

And it was that revelation that had urged me to flee: their seeming consciousness of my presence, that eerie impression of dumb hunger. A plant has such limited apparatus of sensation, let alone thought, but these… things… seemed almost cognizant! The leering expressions wrought on those mockeries of a human visage. I felt an overpowering sense of malignancy! It’s virtually impossible to broach the subject in scientific circles, but I swear I doubted, almost instinctively, whether these bog-lights were a “natural phenomenon” at all.

My director was good enough to take some footage of the haunt, and we're planning on editing it together into a short video of all this in action. Look for it!

A Simple Ghost Story

2011-11-06T12:34:00.000-08:00

Click the image

I generally try to avoid presenting others' content on this blog, but I felt that this was such an effective story, I really ought to share it.

It's a moderately long comic, so I recommend scrolling with the keyboard arrow keys, rather than the mouse wheel, or navigation slider.

I've always felt that really excellent horror stories show you that which you least wish to see. And this is an excellent example.

Bonfire Night

2011-11-05T13:05:00.000-07:00

Click the image for a clip

Hello all, Happy Guy Fawkes Day! Though most people in the Americas seem to know Guy Fawkes from the comic, and later the film, "V for Vendetta" where the Anarchist terrorist protagonist adopts the iconic Guy Fawkes mask as a uniform, I was first introduced to this slightly obscure English holiday via the excellent film "Hangover Square". Part gothic horror, part film noir, the film describes the fate of a talented but moody up-and-coming composer who is subject to curious blackouts. He begins to suspect that nefarious deeds are done during his spells, and indeed, a few bonfire related atrocities are committed. I definitely recommend it, if only for the excellent soundtrack by influential composer "Bernard Herrmann" (Psycho anyone?)

As I said, I think that most Americans know Guy Fawkes from "V for Vendetta" though this is a highly subversive interpretation of the character. I have a friend who was under the impression that Fawkes was sort of an English folk-hero, though actually the opposite is true. The man is burned in effigy every year! Guy Fawkes gained his infamy for his part in the "gunpowder plot" to blow up parliament during the time of conflict between the protestant reformation and catholic church. Alan Moore (writer) and Dabid Lloyd (artist) apparently felt that Fawkes should be lionized rather than condemned, and hijacked the mythos so effectively that the iconic "Guy Fawkes" masks of bonfire night have become the contemporary representation of protest and rebellion.

This is an interesting foreign holiday for us Americans, and I would love to find a way to bring the, much older, bonfire tradition to our shores.

I'll just leave you with an interpretation of V's song from V for Vendetta "Vicious Cabaret". I would prefer to share a nice reading of V's televised speech from the book, but no one seems to have recorded one yet. Sounds like a job for Mr. Calaveras.

Click the image for a clip

Pumpkins (2011)

2011-11-03T19:19:00.001-07:00

What a beautiful couple of post-Halloween days it's been. Clear blue. Yesterday we sat out on the porch with a cuppa, talking about the movie and watching them yellow leaves just coming down. Very Zen, you dig?

Got some fresh candles to keep our Jack o' Lanterns lit. It's been so cold, they haven't even started to fuzz yet.

Left-most two are mine, and the chipper little fellow on the right is B's. I always envy J's jack o' lanterns, he seems to possess an intuitive pumpkin carving genius, so this year I really worked hard to get mine right. I like the middle one the best great wild expression and weird unconventional design. Next year, next year.

J did the cyclops on the left, and the Meatwad in the middle, and the classic fellow on the right is Carly's. The cyclops was originally going to be King Harkinian in bas relief, but he encountered vexations.

Bats-BATS

I loved how this guy cast shadows on the night. I think I'm going to start carving faces on the back of my jack o lanterns from now on, so that they cast faces on the walls.

Witching Hours

2011-11-01T01:34:00.000-07:00

It's late now, dark, cold, still, and silent. The very witching hour of the night. The night.

I take apart some of my props, the ones that can't stay out overnight. One last bog-light, candle-lit, struggles on, against all odds. All alone now.

The jack o' lanterns wink out one by one, as night-creatures begin to creep over their thin orange flesh. The cold air is redolent, vaguely, of charring pumpkin. A burnt offering.

I can hear things out there, stirring through the darkness. I think, I understand why this holiday came to be. The only things abroad now are night-things, traversing a dark country.

Because, Halloween is not a time of year, it is not a day or date. It's a territory. And for brief spells we get to visit there, like bad tourists, cloaked in the symbols and costume of the local culture.

We breath the same air as the denizens of Halloween, then part with them for another year.

Tonite

2011-10-31T19:04:00.000-07:00

Cool and clear, right on the money. Haunt is in operation. The moon is a crescent and my powers are at their height. It's quiet now, no trick or treaters yet.

Happy Halloween everyone.

Some pics of the evening

A bog light in action. I'll have to see if I can get some decent shots of these for you.

Last minute Halloween mask, Jack Carver, the Jack o' Lantern that carves you back.

Some of our Jack o' Lanterns this year. The two left-most are mine.

Fogging devil was a gift from my Dad. It reduced a toddler to tears.

Another bog-light. He seems to have gone out.

Pumpkin Time

2011-10-29T17:46:00.000-07:00

So super happy. This is the least-rushed Halloween I've had in years. Sure, props are still hanging to dry, but the carport is cleaned up beautifully, we've got our pumpkins together, our Halloween candy waiting in the cupboard. We had an excellent Halloween thirsty Thursday.

Tomorrow we carve.

Now, we're just waiting for the wheel of weatheric fortune to land on "cool and clear".

ψ What is it Ώ

2011-10-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

This was made from the shattered remains of that big lots skull. Must be cursed, because it kept taking a header to the pavement last night whilst I was applying creepy cloth. I hung it up in the sun this afternoon, and really liked how this shot came out. So another, this time inadvertent, teaser.

Chicka Bon

2011-10-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

Whew late evening out in the cold clear October night, shooting grisly murder, and saucy bubble-gum chewing dames. The Whiteaker neighborhood becomes incredibly beautiful this time of year, with dessicated leaves whorling down from towering trees.

Luckily, we were fortified with Dave's homemade chicken soup, which was bomb, but not quite as good as my own. I've been working on my own recipe. It's pretty simple, thought I'd share.

Hardware

Stock pot
wooden spoon
Mesh strainer
Tongs
Colander
Secondary pot for draining
Bowl or pan for capturing bones
cutting board
knife
usual junk

Software

1 whole chicken
2 carrots
2 red onions
1 large finger of Ginger
1 large Jalapeno
1 bunch of Cilantro
2/3 cup Vinegar
Kosher Salt
Pepper
1/2 lb. dry rotini pasta

Pretty simple. Start by chopping your Carrots into quarters, down their length and in half, then add to the stock pot. Peel and halve one of the red onions and add the halves to the pot. Peel and halve the ginger and add it. Inspect the chicken and remove the neck and innards if they are included, then add the chicken to the pot. Add water just to cover, and then the vinegar and bring to a boil. Once the pot is boiling, reduce the heat a little, and let it boil away. Use the mesh strainer to skim off the scum that forms on the surface. When most of the scum is clear, add a little salt and some ground pepper.

It will need an hour or more to boil, every so often test the chicken with the tongs, when the meat starts to fall off the bone on it's own, test the breast, if it feels like it's coming apart give it another 5-7 minutes and then remove from heat.

Use the tongs to pull the chicken from the pot, and place it in a pan or on a cutting board to cool. The chicken is perfectly cooked if the legs come off together as you lift the torso.

Place your colander over the secondary pot, and drain the broth and vegetables into it. Some people like to cool the broth at this point, and then remove the excess fat from the surface. But we are not afraid of fat. The fat is our friend.

Remove the colander and set it's contents, the carrot, ginger, and onion aside. Transfer the broth back to the original stock pot, and add the pasta to soak.

When the chicken has stopped steaming, start picking the carcass. I usually grasp a portion with the tongs, and pick the meat off with my fingers. Be careful, it's way hot. Have a spare pan or bowl handy to toss the bones into. You can use household peroxide to bleach those bones later, if you want to use them for some nefarious purpose (see above picture). As you work, toss the liberated meat into the secondary pot.

Once the carcass is picked clean, chop up the carrots and ginger. Discard the boiled onion, it has a nasty flavor and texture after all that boiling. Instead, slice up the other fresh onion, it will have a nice crisp flavor. Slice your jalapeno in half and remove the seeds. Wash your cilantro and cut off the stems, it usually comes in a little bundle, which makes this easy, then chop up the leaves a little.

Add the chicken meat back to the broth and pasta, and apply high heat. Add the carrots, ginger, onion, jalapeno, and cilantro, and let it all boil for a couple minutes. Taste and add more vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste.

All done, I recommend putting it in a bowl and eating it with rad loaves of sourdough with plenty of butter. Fat is our friend.

Also, all that ginger, chicken broth, and vegetables are excellent for your health. This is a cold slayer. Take a dose of absinthe with it and you won't need cold medicine.

I'm in the process of turning this recipe into thom kha gai, and I may share that recipe too, when I'm happy wiv it.

~~

Oh, one week to Hallowe'en, I gotta get busy, happy hauntings!

Got the Spirit

2011-10-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

Got up early today to run an errand downtown. Stopped in at Bagel Sphere for breakfast. They are so awesome, more Halloween spirit than anyplace else in town. The whole place was decked out with paper jack-o-lanterns, and they were playing the soundtrack to Nightmare Before Christmas.

Gourd-bless-em, it was just what I needed.

Cap'n Jack (No relation)

2011-10-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

¿What is It?

2011-10-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

WicKED requested pics of Halloween props for this year. But I am not ready to show them yet, so all you get is this teaser.

Tease, tease.

Dusty Shrouds

2011-10-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I love the smell of creepy cloth, especially as it wafts through the leafy October air.

Masks, and the Faces Beneath Masks

2011-10-04T02:26:00.000-07:00

Another movie post!

No respectable American small town is without its share of fraternal societies, and Blackbird County is no different.

Blackbird is home to the venerable "Eternal Order of Checks and Balances" an age old secret society which appears to have been in constant struggle with the political powers of Blackbird.

There are five mysterious master cultists seen skulking around the film, so I made these venetian style masks to help obscure their identities. Partially inspired by the iconic Plague Doctor masks of the middle ages, but also part reference to Zanni one of the masked archetypes of the Commedia dell'arte tradition.

After all, politicians and secret societies aside, it's really the clowns that run Blackbird County.

October Time

2011-10-01T20:49:00.000-07:00

It's October already, hulloo hullae!

Actually, it's a bit overwhelming. Only one month?

We're taking the weekend off from filming, so for the first time in weeks I'll have Sunday off. I'm thinking a whole day of prop building, break out the decorations, pizza and java.

In Dreams

2011-09-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

I've been having trouble... sleeping... lately. Not nightmares exactly, just bland disorderly dreams. I've been admonished by friends, that I ought to try mugwort. It's supposed to help with dreams, purportedly intensifies dreaming, can help develop lucid dreams and even prophetic dreaming. I saw that they had bulk mugwort at the New Frontier market, so I purchased a bit. It smokes nicely, it's easier to keep lit than the more dense and moist tobacco, and has a pleasant herbal smell. I'll be making some tea with it before bed too.

Oh, and the beer is superfluous, except that it's really good, really pumpkin-y, and the label says that its dedicated to the Púca.

Also, a sneak glimpse of one of my Halloween props for this year. It's up to you to deduce what exactly it is that's glowing over there.

Dead Tired

2011-09-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

Ooh, up all night and this morning shooting and watching dailies. It was a fun shoot, all about saying rude words, stabbings, pools of fake blood, and smooshing rubber heads into birthday cakes.

Pic by our lovely makeup and effects artist Serina Woodcock

This is Lenny St. James, or actually, just his head. This practical effect was lovingly handcrafted over the course of months by our dear director Gary Wilder. Because we believe in latex rubber and corn syrup, damn it!

First of the Season

2011-09-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

In with the equinox, rainclouds blew to finally cool things off. Some of the stores are finally getting their Halloween stuff in. The S*P*I*R*T is up and running, great location in the mall, black walls standard.

I headed out on this drizzly afternoon, nabbed a slice of cheese pizza and an espresso, and perused the Halloween aisle at Bi-Mart. Meager compared with previous years, but man are these pumpkins ever fresh.

Minions of Misery

2011-09-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

wicKED of the "Something wicKED this way comes" blog picked me to be one of the inheritors of the "Minions of Misery" title. Something like a chain letter, only with the dark piquancy of terrible secrets. So, I am bound to share with you A) Dark Book, B) Dark Film C) A Dark Secret of my Past, before passing on this mantle to three lucky souls.

Dark Book

The House With a Clock in Its Walls
-By John Bellairs
and illustrated by Edward Gorey

Not particularly dark, being a children's novel, but this book had a huge impact on me when I was a child. I read it one summer, as part of the library reading program, and being the weirdo monster kid that I was, I only really read books about devils, werewolves, and vampires.

But The House With a Clock in Its Walls is something special. The characters stuck with me long after reading. I had vivid dreams of adventures with Lewis, Jonathan, and Mrs. Zimmerman. The house at 100 High St seemed something out of my own unconscious mind.

It begins with recently orphaned Lewis Barnavelt arriving in the quaint town of "New Zebedee" Michigan, where he is to become the charge of his good-hearted Uncle Jonathan, who turns out to be a gen-yoo-wine wizard. Jonathan lives next door to his best friend, and honest to goodness witch, Florence Zimmerman. Jonathan's house is a grand mansion built by its previous owners, the malevolent wizards Isaac and Selenna Izard.

Lewis discovers that Jonathan roams the halls of the mansion after hours, stopping all of the hundreds of clocks in the house for the night. All but the one he can't find, the titular clock in the walls, a mysterious device left somewhere in the house by the insidious Izards, to tick away the seconds 'til doomsday.

The mystery of the clock aside, Lewis settles in to a happy life with Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmerman, and his not quite as happy life at school. Lewis is bullied by the other kids, he doesn't quite fit in. He only has one friend, Tarby, a kid who is seemingly everything that Lewis isn't. Strong, brave, and coveted for his talent at sports.

But their friendship is tenuous at best, so Lewis plots a plan to secure their flagging friendship. He'll use Uncle Jonathan's magick books to cast a spell, just a little Halloween trick to impress Tarby.

I really sympathized with Lewis, myself being a shy-uncoordinated-tubby little dork. I knew painfully well the feeling of alienation on the schoolyard, and the fear of losing your one and only, but largely incompatible, friend. So I understood how Lewis could stumble into dark powers, with only the best of intentions. How Lewis could unleash the dark forces that he did, without intending to.

I picked up a collection of the Lewis Barnavelt stories at Smith Family Bookstore, and I still read this every year. It's written for children but it doesn't pander. The author John Bellairs respects the intelligence of his juvenile audience and like the best children's cinema, it's just as heartfelt for adults as it is for kids.

Dark Film

Sante Sangre (Blood Saint)
-Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky

I debated whether I should choose this for my dark film. It's more than just dark, and more than just a horror film. It delves into the fractured psyches of characters with broken souls.

Much like Peter Medak's excellent "The Ruling Class" it's a movie that seems to delve deeper and deeper, darker and darker. There are no reprieves, no cinematic hand of god, to save the characters from the fates that unfold for them. It has no mercy, much as life shows us no mercy.

More than anything, it reminded me of how it felt to be a child, growing up in a world of seemingly mad adults.

Sante Sangre is a film about a boy, Fenix, the son of the abusive circus ring-master and knife thrower. Fenix mother is a trapeze artist, and the leader of a sacrilegious catholic cult, that worships a saint of their own choosing, a little girl whose arms were cut off during an assault. Alma, deaf and mute, is the daughter of the tattooed lady, the target of the knife throwing act, and mistress to the knife thrower. Together, Fenix and Alma perform a magic show in the circus, and rely on each-other to weather to excesses of their parents dark compulsions.

The film follows the story of Fenix and Alma's traumatic childhood, and then their traumatic adulthoods. A story of pain, and perhaps catharsis. I don't want to say too much, I think that the film needs to be absorbed moment by moment, without expectations. I was more or less paralyzed while watching it.

Dark Secret

Source image: MUMMIFIED CAT - Taken by Larry Elkins

It's really hard to think of a dark secret. I'm not altogether secretive, and honestly, my conscience is pretty clear. If I've done misdeeds, I'm pretty open about them. But I thought of one story that I haven't had cause to recall recently. It probably is a secret, if the others involved don't recall it.

When I was kid, I had two friends on my block, one was a girl and one was a boy. We had a creek, despite growing up in the city, around the ghetto, a thin sliver of jungle forest ran behind my house. We played in the creek sometimes.

One time, we were exploring, when we found a dead cat. I think it was black, and it laid, dry, flattened, and tough, safely away from the waters edge. We were sort of overcome with the revelation of death, entranced. We agreed that we should do something with this cat. Maybe we wanted to honor its life, offer it a proper burial. Maybe we were a little drunk on feeling of triumph over death.

We each found a stick, and pushed it down the creek bed, chanting a song about the dead cat. I don't remember the words, or the meaning of the chant. I think we went a little mad. It was ritual, compulsive and inexplicable. We slid it over concrete and sand. Down the creek-bed, to the waterfall. The water poured off of a concrete wall, over a fifteen foot drop, into a pool that flowed into a man-made tunnel. We cheered as we pushed the dessicated cat over the brink. It stayed there for a while, in that pool. Stupid street kids went swimming there sometimes, the water was probably toxic, running through the city as it did. But it was also tainted by that dead cat.

I'm not sure what came over us that afternoon. We reveled in what we were doing. Afterwards I was frightened, I've been a very composed person since, afraid of the dark forces that I learned could overcome people. I became hyper-sensitized to my own unconscious compulsions.

Years later we would explore further down the creek, even into the tunnel. We always fancied we could see the cat's skeleton, still bobbing in the algae black water.

-=~ & ~=-

Now, three more victims, I'll choose:

V is Vivienne Moss inhumed by a vamp
http://viviennemoss.blogspot.com/

N is for Necropolis who choked on a nail
http://drnecropolis.blogspot.com/

D is for Dr. Theda found dumped in a ditch
http://thedascrypt.blogspot.com/

What To Do With Your Soul

2011-09-19T17:38:00.000-07:00

Shots from the set of the shoot last night. I assumed that some of these set dressings were African in origin, well you know what assumptions make me. Our producer Dave set me straight, actually these are from Fiji:

This is for whacking you on the head and stealing your soul...

Whereas THIS is for trapping your soul once you've been whacked

Incidentally, the boars head is handmade by my brother, who makes these weirdo fur monster masks. They've got sweet jaw-action. Just thought I'd mention, in case anyone is interested in commissioning one.

Corpse Instruments

2011-09-13T18:38:00.000-07:00

Not sure if this would be more appropriate on my art blog, but I made these corpsed instruments for our feature length motion picture: "Blackbird Pie".

I found the little ukulele at St. Vinny, and the guitar was donated by our awesome makeup artist Serina Woodcock. I de-stringed 'em, and then corpsed them with paper mache. Paint, lacquer, and re-stringed with gorilla glue.

Then we rocked out with them for our weird Cab Calloway/Flesicheresque song and dance number. This movie is going to be really weird.

Bonus prop: Tombstone

This was kind of a neat challenge, it had to look modern enough to be from the 90's, but old looking enough to match the other tombstones in pioneer cemetary. I gave it a blocky modern shape, and then weathered it down with a sanding block and acetone.

I cut two sheets of styrofoam insulation in half, and then layered them together with glue. I printed out the epitaph and cut it out with a craft knife. I printed it too small though, the full epitaph read:

Richard Turner
phd. dds. bs. dor. etc.

ARCHEOLOGIST
beloved father and husband

Born 1969 Deceased 1999 At the unsightly age of 30

Here lies Dick
Who dug in the dirt
He found what he looked for
And now lies inert

Backstory y'all! Also, some terrible puns. Richard doesn't lie inert for very long, in fact we exhumed him to accompany us on mandolin during the song and dance.

Crack dem bones,

2011-09-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

In my fury and haste I backed over a box of Halloween props that I was lending to the movie shoot on Sunday. Everything seems to be okay, except my brand spanking new plastic skull. Darn it, I was looking forward to lighting a candle on this sucker. Oh well, shattered skull sounds like an intriguing base for a papier-mâché prop.

It Blew in with the Wind

2011-09-01T17:15:00.001-07:00

Original Pic by Jason Willis

So, with a snap of his spindly fingers, August summons September. It was summer hot just last weekend, but come Monday it was cool and overcast. Already feels like autumn, and the trees have already started to turn.

A lot of haunters seem to get impatient with summer, but I've always enjoyed it. Even when I was a little kid the summer was really just an extension of the Halloween season anyway, spent reading EC horror comics and working on Halloween masks.

Plus, once summer is over, Eugene gets rainy, and I'm not looking forward to that.

On the plus side, 59 days till Halloween. I've got a few pieces started, and given the rate I've been finishing them I should have a nice handful together for the big day. Think this is gonna be a good year.

Big Jack

2011-08-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

Goodwill finally has their Halloween stuff up. It's my go to place for ceramic Jacks, because older, second hand, ones tend to be a little sturdier and have more classic faces. This is definitely a cousin to the best Jack that graced our mantlepiece when I was a kid. But this one is much bigger, so it was a must have. Looking forward to seeing him lit up.

How I Did It - Learning Paper Mache

2011-08-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

ha HAm it's that time of year again. I've been working on movie/Halloween props since July. I don't really have any work space (or storage space for that matter) so I bought a cheapo tarp from the wheeler dealer and use the living room floor. It's alright, the carpet is vintage from, like, the 50's man. We spilled ink on it shortly after moving in, and drew a squid on the floor. We'll tear it out at some point, but for now I don't mind ruining it further in the name of Halloween. I am a 20-something I can live this way.

So, I've been doing a ton of paper mache, and I thought I'd share some of the insights I seem to be picking up as I go. Maybe they will help somebody out, I dunno.

1. Your Mix

I've been using three ingredients to whip up mache mix.

Supplies:

Mache Goop
Wood Glue
Tap Water
Flour

Structure

Newspaper
hot glue sticks
Rebar tie

Tools

rotary egg beater
crafts only bowl
hot glue gun
Wire snips

I bought a gallon jug of wood glue at the bi-mart over a year ago, and I've still got a good third of a bottle to work with. I buy the flour wherever it is cheapest, usually wheeler dealer. I used to add salt, but I found that it makes the mix gritty, and the glue acts as a better preservative than the salt does anyway.

I got my rotary egg beater at the goodwill (where I also got my portable hair drier, I recommend goodwill for your first pass on tools, nothing beats that 30 year old 1970's era workmanship when it comes to electronics (seriously)) and I got my plastic craft bowl at the dollar store (it's a highly suitable orange candy bowl). Don't use the craft bowl for cooking.

The proportions of ingredients tends to vary. Adding a higher preportion of glue will make a stickier mix, which is great for getting wet strips of paper to adhere. Adding more glue will also improve the tensile strength of the mache, but also leaves it more fragile once it dries.

Adding a higher proportion of flour will thicken the mix, which creates a pasty consistency that also helps with adherence. I like my mix to be like thin pancake batter.

water is mainly for volume, it's a filler that stretches your glue. The flour also acts as a filler, thickening the mix to make up for the addition of water.

I like 1 part glue 2 parts water, 2 parts flour, but my formula changes a lot, especially depending on what I'm working on. I don't like too much glue, I like it fairly thick. Don't make too much, if you do, you can always cover is with wax paper or plastic wrap and re-use it the next day.

Newpaper. I use newspaper for my mache, I just nab a few of the free counter culture weekly papers from every stand I come across, and build up a stock. I like to tear them into thin, medium, and this strips, and then tear those down to smaller squares. I like to use a variety of shapes and sizes, always like at least one nice rough edge to each square, and I'm not afeard to goop an entire page of the newspaper and slap it on the sculpture.

2. Building

I've been making everything from scratch. At first I planned to build a skeleton with newspaper and duct tape, and then corpse it. I advise anyone approaching creative endeavors to get comfortable abandoning plans. That technique was really stiff, and I didn't end up using it too much. Maybe for larger figures, full standing ones, I'd roll up whole newspapers for the spine or something, but the rest of the work is very delicate.

I've been starting with the head, I build up a skull shape out of bunched up newspaper to bulk out the form, and then mache over it. Once the head has dried for a day, I start cutting it up and building the facial features.

Also, I really find that it's important to tear up your work. After I have a first pass on the shape of the head, unless I am really in love with how it's comeing along, I always tear off what I've done and rebuilding with the mache I've torn off. This does something to the paper, it's hard to describe. When you start out making something, you have a certain intent in mind, and it appears to be immensely helpful to tinker with that intent, to interrupt it, and let more, intuitive(?) forms come out. Seriously, try it. Do your best work, then tear it off and just mash something new on, you'll often come up with a much better result.

So, once I have a skull built and dried, I'll use hot glue to add a length of rebar tie to indicate the spine. Around this I'll bunch some paper mached. I always try to keep the paper "flowing" along the direction of the limb. I let it dry, and then extend the form, gluing on more lengths of formed rebar tie to indicate the shoulders and clavicle. Rinse and repeat to build out the sternum and humerous.

3. Get messy

I find that it's very important to avoid being too prissy with the mache. Those nice clean newspapers, torn up into clean little squares. There's a tendency to gingerly drag them through the mache mix and try to preserve their condition. But I find that the sculpt looks better the messier you are. I like to roll the strips up in my hands, after dipping them. This is also why I tear off the work I've done, reusing all that torn off mache really makes it irregular, and gives you very naturalistic shapes.

Damned Good Halloween

2010-11-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

I made a little deal with Halloween. If Saturday and Sunday were crystal clear and sunny, just perfect autumn days, then I would buy a fire pit, and hold a bonfire for Samhain.

See, Eugene and I, well we don't see eye to eye in regards to the weather. We'll get some great fall days, alright, but about the last week of October it starts to rain. It also gets cold, and we'll get maybe 4 or 5 trick or treaters.

This year it was raining hard, solidly most of the week. Woke up Saturday, and it was overcast. I got up, put on some vintage Halloween sounds from ScarStuff and started setting up the haunt. Not much, I didn't have time to make any props, aside from a handful of witch jars. I nailed up a partition of jute netting in the carport, blocking off the second entrance to the house, and I tied open the gate leading to the front door. We have an awkward bookcase that I brought out and setup, with witch jars and one of those talking skulls that doesn't say lame stuff. Doesn't! Not much, I know, but it's what I had.

I hadn't been checking the weather forecast, I thought that would be looking a gift horse in the mouth, remember me and Halloween had a deal. Carly told me there was going to be rain Saturday, Sunday, all weekend, and Monday. I told her that was ridiculous, it wouldn't rain on Halloween.

We carved our pumpkins in the early evening, and then had a party to go to. The party was kind of lame, and crowded we mainly sat on the porch all night, but there were some great costumes. One guy came as The Monarch and Carly yelled "THE MONARCH!" everytime he came through. The best costume I saw was a guy wearing a Luchadore mask, championship belt, and leopard print smoking jacket. Yeah, real cool cat, dig?

I didn't wear my costume, I didn't want the somewhat fragile mask to get damaged. Instead I put on one of the comedia del arte masks for Gary's movie. I think it's Pulcinella motley. I wore a tiny bowler hat we got from the Spirit for Jonathan's role as the Burger Clown. Jenna came in her badass monster shaman costume, of which we have not yet gotten quality pictures. It has a strange paisley face, with fur and ears, and big brassy looking horns, with a big crushed velvet robe and clawed hands. Carly came in her little store bought burlap ghost face costume. It looked really cool.

It started raining while we were there. Hard rain, rain you wouldn't wanna be caught in. Umbrella destroying rain. I stepped in a huge puddle of muddy water on the way out.

We got home about 2 am, the party had started to wear on us near the end, and we were cold and wet. Carly put on "Trick r' Treat", she had wanted to go as Sam for Halloween, but we couldn't get the costume together in time. Next year definitely.

Woke up Halloween morning to more overcast, the sun was breaking through here and there, but it never got completely clear. I finished setting up, Carly put one of our Jack O' Lanterns on the roof. I managed to break two of my witchjars, and my blue floodlight. I was a little frustrated at this point, no proper props, broken lights, and Halloween definitely wasn't holding up it's part of the bargain. As dusk settled in I carved a turnip lantern (technically, I think it was a rutabaga lantern) and called up my Dad to wish him Happy Halloween. He was unhappy about the prospects for trick or treaters around his place, and I commiserated with him about the decline in TOT's.

Once it got dark, we started to hear groups out there, making noises in the night. A large group came through the slender hallway between B & Jonathan's bus, and the overgrown hedge fence, through the jute shrouds, into the haunt. When we heard them coming, I'd slip out the second door, and slip on my mask, standing behind a hanging mummy, no one could see me. I'd watch them go through the gate, where Carly did a great job in her ghost costume, holding the candy bowl, the kids couldn't tell if she was a person or a prop. When they came back through the gate, I'd emerge from the jute wall, groaning and shambling into the chartreuse light. I got a couple of groups really well.

One time, after ducking back behind the jute wall, a couple of toddlers in lion costumes followed me in. I squatted down to their level, and looked at them. The kids didn't know what to make of me, too young to know what the scenario meant. I reached out an arm to pat the kids head, and he backed away, saying, "Are you a scary guy?". I dunno, I left it up to them to decide.

In between scaring groups of Trick or Treaters, I was busy in the kitchen, making up dinner. We did mulled wine, and macaroni and cheese, and kielbasa sausage. This was the first time I'd ever made mulled wine, but it turned out good. Even my roommates who don't like wine dug it. I have a couple of friends who are cooks, and my sous-chef friend liked it so much he asked for the recpie. Well hot damn, not bad for a half assed first try. Here's the recipe:

Mulled Wine

1 750 ml bottle of red wine (I used a Syrah from ravenswood winery)
1 Orange zested and sliced thinly
20 whole cloves
17 cardamom nudules
2 Cinnamon sticks
1 Vanilla bean
1 1/4 cup water
1 1/4 sugar.
1 new pot for mulling

I washed out the pot, and then put in the sugar and water and brought to a boil. I then zested the orange and sliced it, and made a packet containing the cardamom and cloves with a coffee filter and bit of twine. When the water and sugar turned clear, I reduced the heat and added the wine and oranges, followed by the cinnamon sticks and vanilla bean, and finally the packet of cloves and cardamom. I covered it and cooked it on medium low for about 5 minutes.

I just set it on a hot pan holder on the kitchen table with a ladle. It looks really cool in the pot, with the cinnamon sticks and vanilla bean and sech, looks like a serious witches brew.

And what the hell I'll give you the macaroni and cheese and kielbasa recipe too. Why not?

18 oz Large Elbow Macaroni
1 lb. medium cheddar cheese
1 oz whipped cream cheese
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup milk or half and half
1/4 vegetable broth (alternatively use a bouillon cube)
pepper and kosher salt

Fill up a large pot with tap water, and salt it. As you bring water to a boil add vegetablt broth or bouillon cube. When the water comes to a boil, add your macaroni and let it cook, stirring occasionally so that it does not stick. When it's al dente, drain it through a collander. Put the pot back onto the stove, and start melting the butter in there, when the pat is half melted, add the macaroni and stir it up. Add the cream cheese and the milk, stirring until the noodles are evenly coated. Add the grated cheese and stir until melted.

The kielbasa is easy to make, but I did it up a different way this year:

2 kielbasa sausages (It's all about the ring kind)
1 red onion sliced
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup vegetable broth

I chopped up the onion and laid it in the bottom of a baking pan, then laid the sausages on top. I placed it under the broiler for a few minutes, until the sausages started to burst on top. I poured in the white wine, and then the vegetable broth, and then reduced the oven to 350°.

~Welcome to the Haunted Castle, let me introduce you to my strange friends~

When that was all cooked, Carly decided to go Trick or Treating. She's about my age, but around 5 feet tall and in her ghost costume, labeled for 9-10 year olds, she could pass for a kid. I grabbed my mask and went along with her, posing as an uncle taking his niece out for tricks or treats. This is the first time I've been trick or treating in years, it was kinda cool. We made kind of a figure 8 around the neighborhood, and it was nice to see the neighbors giving out candy. There was a full on haunted house around the corner from us, and we went through. They made us stick our hands in spaghetti, and offered to perform radical surgery on us, and there was a guy on the ground eating the guts out of another guy. Good on 'em, it was great to see a serious haunter in the neighborhood.

There is something about being out there in the dark, and following someone's sound fx tape and colored lights through the trees to their porch. A number of houses did it up right, though we were out kind of late and some people weren't answering their doors anymore. I should have brought my camera along and got shots, but it's terrible in the dark. There was one house with something in their picture window, I thought it was a person watching us, but when I got up close it was a menacing looking clown. Dummies in the window, so old school. At several of the houses kids were giving out the candy, and one of them recognized me, he thanked me for scaring him earlier. That was a treat.

It was warm, and dry, and we walked through the night getting candy, it's the first time in a long time that it really felt like Halloween. I think that sometimes you just have to get out into the night to feel it. My mask lost a tooth somewhere along the way. Always remember, that nothing is ever borne into this world that is not violated before leaving it.

We came home, and Carly spread her haul out on the floor, and everyone drank wine, and enjoyed themselves. I made friend Uri a glass of Absinthe, but didn't have one myself.

Shortly after we got home, our last two trick or treaters came to the door, and took our last full sized 100 grand and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup bars. We actually got exactly enough Trick or Treaters to take all of our full sized bars this year. That's what it's all about, Hallelujah.

~~

The morning after I stopped to pick up donuts for my co-workers on the way in to work. Dessicated leaves whirled through the streets to Le Danse Macabre. Yeah, it was a damn good Halloween.

Scare Man

2010-10-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

There is some-thing in our yard.

There should be, I built it.

I like the way its arms are bundled up, withered little limbs.

I don't know if it scares the crows... but it seems to be scaring people.

Maybe it's the slumped shoulders, or the crooked maw, or the jaunty hat.

Halloween 2010

2010-08-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

Summer always started the season. I can recall childhood summers spent in the cool musty sanctity of my father's studio behind the house.

It had an old green shag carpet and a half a skylight, and an old proper easy chair, upholstered in gritty pink fabric.

My father's Aurora monster kits were in there. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman. He did an astounding job painting them, Dracula had Bela's pained expression on his face, Frankenstein Monster's hands were upturned, pleading for understanding.

There was a time shortly after we moved to that house when I was scared of the back end of the place. The backyard seemed to plunge down into a creek, there was a strange red deck, with angled dimensions that made the space feel like a German Expressionist film set.

And the monsters were back there, I imagined them growing to full size and coming to my room near the back of the house.

I spent the summers back there in the studio, reading my father's collection of classic EC Horror comics. In the evening my Dad would get home from work and maybe we'd spend some time working on the sculpt for that year's Halloween mask. I was pretty fortunate in that regard, I got a custom mask for Halloween, heh heh.

~~

We're working ourselves up for Halloween, it's been tough this year, crunch time hit at work just as the summer started. I doubt I'll have time to do a proper haunt, but I want to make at least one prop this year. Otherwise I want to focus on ambience, what can be done with a roll of dorp and some votives, and a few witch jars.

I found this little yard lantern at the cash king market around the corner. 5$ solar powered. I think it will be a nice addition.

A Shrug and a Polite Cough

2010-08-17T01:06:00.000-07:00

~ INTERMISSION ~

{Back in 5 min.}

Ugh... Filthy

2009-12-30T00:19:00.001-08:00

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

And All Through the House...

Not a Creature Was Stirring...

Except For...

And Too All A Good Night

One More for the Road

2009-11-26T13:09:00.000-08:00

This pumpkin is becoming a pie. But it was just too nice a gourd to be left without a face. Then I cut him in half, scooped out the strings, and sliced off his face.

Honey, eggs, clove, and cinnamon. Into the pie crust.

A Perfect Autumn Night

2009-11-16T23:47:00.001-08:00

The wind is blowing. It's come from all directions, blowing leaves back and forth around the yard, in gamboling waves, and leaving unlikely things in the streets.

This Years Jack O' Lanterns

2009-11-04T23:53:00.000-08:00

.

Those are just some darling Jacks

I Heard What I Heard When I Heard It!

2009-11-01T23:53:00.000-08:00

Mr. Talbot?

...?

By Light of Day

2009-11-01T15:22:00.001-08:00

Here's a shot of my Halloween mask, by light of day. Gotta check the video we took of me stalking around the carport in full costume.

The Treats

2009-10-31T15:19:00.000-07:00

The sky has cleared and dusk is setting, my favorite time on Halloween.

I'd better distribute some treats, lest I incur the wrath of certain bogeys, ghoulies, and other assorted agents of Halloween trickery.

These here are two of my favorite Halloween sound effects albums, if you're haunt lacks rhythm, or you just need a good dose of classic Halloween medicine for the soul, these are for you.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

It's Here!

2009-10-31T01:29:00.001-07:00

Autumnal Splendor

2009-10-24T14:47:00.001-07:00

Ghoulie

2009-09-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

A spooky blood red ghoulie. Don't worry, it's only pixels. Boo!

Ceramic Jacks

2009-09-04T19:05:00.000-07:00

Took a trip to a local thrift store, they had Halloween stuff in the window already. They've actually got a good selection of ceramic jack~o~lanterns. It's hard to find good examples of ceramic jacks these days, the ones you find new in stores tend to be fragile.

Heads Drying in the Sun

2009-08-30T22:27:00.000-07:00

First two of the shamble of zombies we're making for our first yard haunt. I'm going for old fashioned voodoo-zombies, rather than the more gory Romero zombies. Either way, fresh zombies make a delicious snack for a famished voodoo ghoul. Lip smackin'

Monsters in the Closet

2009-08-29T12:55:00.001-07:00