The Salted Earth Series - Photos By Highbury Cemetery


Immediately after wrapping up the 2018 Halloween season, I sat down and went through the night's photos. 

In one last burst of creativity, I decided to take a handful and just see how far I could filter them and ended up creating a small art project. The one thing that I had noticed about the photos from Halloween night was the amount of color in each. It was something that I had started to worry about—that is, using too many colors in my display and giving it an almost Christmas light effect. EEK!

I took the photos and went in the completely opposite direction, stripping all color out of each, adding layers of decay and grit to accentuate the bare rawness of the subjects.

The results were pretty cool, but as the post-Halloween burnout quickly settled in late last year, I ended up shelving the project. I had the series of photos done, but I never did anything with them.

Until now.

In the run-up to this October, the Halloween fire is once again starting to stoke up, so I decided to revisit the photos and finally publish them all.

The term "salted earth" came to mind as a cool name for the series, but as I thought more about it the name took on more of a double-meaning.

In the literal sense, "salting the earth" was symbolic of spreading salt to wipe out an area of a conquered enemy, rendering the land useless for crop production. Similar to removing color and life, leaving only the harshness of raw black and white lifelessness.

It also came to represent the final season of Highbury Cemetery in its old location, leaving only waste as we moved to our new home earlier this year. The land, as I joked, was rendered useless for any future haunt display.

So this name stuck. And after nearly 11 months of sitting on the shelf, I finally present my 2018 photo project, The Salted Earth Series.



01. Rise of The Undead


02. Le Cadavre de Vodoun


03. The Guardian of the Tombs


04. The Obelisk's Watchman


05. The Spectre's Shriek


  


TCM Halloween 2019 Classic Horror Schedule


I have a confession to make. Do you know the traditional Halloween classic, Hocus Pocus? Of course you do. Everyone knows it. It's a Halloween staple.

I cannot stand that movie. I HATE IT. Everything about it. Bette Midler's absurd buck teeth and Kathy Najimy's ridiculous and annoying crooked smile. I LOATHE IT. From start to finish. It makes me want to scratch my eyes out any time it's on.

So when FreeForm announced their "31 Nights of Halloween" schedule, I just knew that bad things were coming.

And sure enough, as I glanced down the schedule, there it was. Literally every single night, ending with a damn marathon. Of Hocus Pocus. Why!? Why!? That movie SUCKS! Every year, they play that damn movie every single day. Can't get the rights to play ANYTHING else!?

And this is why FreeForm will not be played in October at THIS house...


But luckily for me and other fans of something a little more spooky and a little more classic, Turner Classic Movies comes to the rescue again!

They just announced their October Classic Horror schedule and it looks amazing! 31 days of solid, classic horror, cult and monster movies. AND NO HOCUS POCUS.

I could literally fill my DVR with their schedule. So many great titles to get you through the Halloween season!!

But what REALLY caught my attention this year (and it should catch yours, too), is an absolute stunner of a double feature on the morning of Saturday, October 19th. Get your DVRs ready!!



Back-to-back 70s blaxsploitation horror classics, starting at 2:30 am with
Sugar Hill. The stunning Marki Bey seeks revenge on the mob for killin' her man, all with the help of a powerful voodoo priestess and her army of undead zombies. This movie is so damn good!! If you haven't seen this one yet, it needs to be at the top of your list!!






And after a sweet spoonful of Sugar Hill, make sure your DVR is set to record at 4:15 am when TCM follows it up with the baddest blood sucker around, Blacula! Deadlier than Dracula! William Marshall (and those amazing eyebrows and sideburns) eats up every scene he's in, playing Mamuwalde, the black vampire. So much class and he really plays the hell out of his character! "You, sir, must be ill."



As we continue down the schedule, there are classics being played every day, ending with a Halloween marathon of some of the biggest names in classic horror. I could seriously lock the doors, pop up a bucket of butter-slathered popcorn, lay on the couch and watch movies all day. If only I didn't have something else going on that day...

So check out the full schedule, fill up that DVR, and enjoy some creepy, classic horror as we roll through October.

Because this just ain't gonna cut it...




Ghost - "Kiss The Go-Goat"


Highbury Cemetery favorites Ghost are finally back with a new one, and it has a bit of psychedelic throwback coolness. Dig that funky keyboard! Super catchy with their signature flavoring of less-than-subtle sexuality.



And of course the new 7" record, 7 Inches of Satanic Panic, went up for sale this weekend while I was out riding my bike in the Pennsylvania hills, and I totally missed it. Sold out. Fudge.


So here's my plea to you. If anyone has one on order that they wouldn't mind parting with for a slight profit, please hit me up. I know they are all over eBay already, but I'm not going to pay outrageous flipper prices. Maybe $25 for a mint copy (plus a spirited shout-out on this illustrious blog??). Help a haunter out??

Pär Boström - Midnattsmässa


More incredible audio from Pär Boström, creative mastermind of dark ambient projects Kammarheit and Cities Last Broadcast, among others. I could lie on the ground and listen to this for hours...