PEANUTS Halloween 2023 Posters

Mondo has announced their newest batch of PEANUTS posters for Halloween, 2023. Charles Schulz's classic comic strip panels featuring Snoopy, Linus, and the rest of the gang released as limited edition (and highly collectible) screen printed posters. This year's release features 3 memorable panels celebrating all things Halloween and the coming of The Great Pumpkin (including one panel that has never been published).

These posters will be available today starting at 12 Noon CT, and like all of Mondo's limited poster releases, will sell out quickly. Gotta be quick, gang!

Don't be a blockhead. Grab a poster here.

  

Axemaster - "Slave To The Blade"

The underground Heavy Metal scene of the 1980s was just so rad. Case in point is this incredible gem from the (local to me) band, Axemaster. 

Now picture it. It's 1986 and you're watching your local horror host on a Saturday night (in this case, it's Cleveland's own Son of Ghoul), ready for another unending roll of terrible-yet-hilarious skits and bad jokes, all enveloping this week's awful horror film. And then during one of the show's breaks, you get the privilege of this added bonus. A one-take "music video" of a local heavy metal band belting it out, complete with astoundingly low-budget video effects and a live "dungeon master" actor, complete with prop axes and a hood, who looks like he's not sure where he's supposed to be. IT IS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. 

You just know everyone is having a total blast with this, and that's what makes it so strangely authentic. The band is giving its all on a show that doesn't even take itself seriously. It's a campiness that is painfully missed today and a reason why I love this video so much. Enjoy!

And a silver lining to this video is that Axemaster is still around today, releasing new records and playing shows! True metal will never die!!

  

HalloWeekends At Cedar Point

This past weekend I was able to go check out HalloWeekends at Cedar Point. It had been quite a few years since my last visit, so I was pretty excited to get back and see how things had changed. And I was especially excited to bring my son for his first HalloWeekends experience. He assured me and my wife that he was ready to tackle the monsters and haunted houses the park is famous for...

We got there late Friday afternoon, and quickly got two coaster rides in. We would have ridden more, but we were really there for the spooky stuff! We then made our way to the main stage to catch Midnight Syndicate's really cool live performance, Echoes of the Brimstone Club  (SPOILER: they performed a variety of their tracks live while carnival performers did their acts. It was a really great show with some really great individual acts - I'm looking at you, Ms. Sword Swallower - and I highly recommend catching it.) 

We then made our way to the back of the park to take in the main after-dark scare zone, complete with roaming haunt actors, richly-themed scenery, fog, more fog, haunted walkthroughs and the actual haunted houses.

We ended up skipping the haunted houses due to long lines, but the walkthroughs were detailed really well and provided a nice half-step before finally tackling a true indoor haunt. We crisscrossed our way through the scare zone and then headed for our final destination of the night: Midnight, the lone haunted house located at the front of the park.

My son cautiously got in line and waited for his turn to enter...

He was really nervous as we entered the haunt, but it eventually turned to excitement to see the actors and scenery in each new room. It culminated with a face-to-face meeting with Mr. Midnight, overseer of the entire HalloWeekends festivities, in the final room. He exited the house with a huge grin, telling me how fun it was.

It was the perfect ending, giving him the courage to now go through the full haunted houses back home. And I can't wait to experience THAT with him!

We already have plans to get back to Cedar Point one more time this season to experience the haunted houses and shows we missed on this trip. And my son couldn't be more excited! They really did a great job transforming the park into a full haunted experience for people of any age, and I really recommend it as a part of your October celebrations.

Enjoy some photos from a night at HalloWeekends!

The 14-year-old me shed a tear at the Demon Drop tombstone in the Dead Ride Cemetery, a Halloween memorial to all of the rides no longer at the park. I really enjoyed reading all the old names and remembering each ride...

Echoes of the Brimstone Club, featuring Midnight Syndicate. A really great live performance.

The night's full moon, constrained by the magnificent Millennium Force roller coaster.

Top Thrill 2. Coming soon...

And the night's final destination: the haunted house, Midnight. Savagely conquered by my son...

  

Charnel House - "Upon Summer's End"

Here we are at day 2 of the Countdown To Halloween celebration and I have ANOTHER surprise! Earlier this summer, I decided to revisit Charnel House, my "haunt ambient" audio project. I wanted to have a special release (still to come) for the big Highbury Cemetery 20th Anniversary, so I dusted off the headphones, grabbed a few old files and went to work!

Charnel House started back in 2018. I had discovered (and fallen in love with) the dark ambient genre, and had started using various dark ambient audio tracks in my annual Halloween yard haunt display. This type of audio sits just in the background and perfectly supports the ghastly visuals presented across the front yard, never taking over the focus with any recognizable sound.

In 2017, I started thinking about the creation of this style of music. I was very interested in the sounds used and eventually very curious about how to create them myself. I began to research audio software and how I could learn to use it. I have no formal musical education, outside of jackhammering on an old bass guitar in a fun punk band many years ago, but I knew exactly the sound I was looking for.

Fast forward to the start of 2018, and I took the plunge. I was deeply inspired as I set about learning how to "compose" my own ambient audio. I didn't yet know how to assemble it, but I fumbled through the process, even going as far as experimenting with my first field recordings.

As I continued to gather and create different clips and sounds, I began to refine my first test audio track. I walked a fine line adhering to my vision of creating ambient audio that spanned the dark ambient genre and the spirit of Halloween.

And today, I'm REALLY excited to resurrect this project and share the first brand new track, Upon Summer's End...

Withering foliage turns to fire before falling to brown earth. Once-warm breezes are cut sharply as the life cycle transitions toward its end. The oncoming darkness slowly creeps further, winning its battle against summer's light. The shadows hold whispers of the dark season to come...

This new track, like all of my Charnel House releases, are absolutely 100% FREE to download and use in your haunt display or other Halloween project! My gift back to the Halloween community. Enjoy!

Download Upon Summer's End here.

And visit my Charnel House page, where you can sample and download my earlier releases!

  

Highbury Cemetery Logo, 2023

Welcome. Here we are again. October 1st...

IT'S OFFICIALLY THE HALLOWEEN SEASON! And it's time to kick off the annual Countdown to Halloween! An orange-and-black blitz of 31 posts in 31 days, all leading up to our high holiday of All Hallows Eve!! This is my 13th year celebrating all things creepy and cool with the Countdown to Halloween blog party, and we are still going strong. Can you feel that crisp, electric excitement in the air!!??

We've got a long list of blog posts all lined up and ready to go. A full month stuffed with tricks and treats, so be sure to check back daily because this party is going nonstop straight through the 31st! And you don't want to miss out on the good candy, do you??

So let's get this thing started, shall we!?

Each October, I like to start the festivities with the unveiling of my annual yard haunt logo. It's a great way to set the tone for the spooky season, and it gets me motivated to finish all the planned projects for the year's haunt. 

And this year's logo is extra special! For the past 20 years, I have created an increasingly defined and prominent Highbury Cemetery haunt logo for the season. The logo is used on posters, stickers, and a very small batch of t-shirts. Each year, the t-shirts are hand printed here at the Cemetery and then given out as a thank you to everyone who helps put on the yard haunt on Halloween night. A well deserved treat for all of the hard work that goes into this crazy thing every year.

So ladies and gentlemonsters, boils and ghouls, without further ado I proudly present the ghastly and gruesome 20th ANNIVERSARY logo for Highbury Cemetery, 2023:

I cannot believe that I have been doing this for TWENTY YEARS. So many good memories, and so much fun!

With this year's logo, I have taken one element from each of the past 19 years' logo art and dropped it into the 'XX' portion of the logo. A subtle nod to how far Highbury Cemetery has come as a yard haunt. I'm incredibly happy with this year's logo and I can't wait to get this thing printed on some shirts. I have some really great ideas to make this the best shirt yet...

And in honor of the 20th Anniversary celebration, I might just print up a few extras to give away! Sound good? Just check back throughout the month (both here and on the Highbury Cemetery Instagram page) to see how to win one of your own! Let's do this!!

  

Is It Time? (Yes, It Is!)

A little over a month ago, I made a post talking about how I didn't feel like it was time for all things Halloween (Sam Heimer actually had a succinct post that I quoted and was in full agreement with). We were still in the thick of August's sweltering summer heat, and the "Halloween creep" was starting earlier than it ever had before...

Fast forward to today with a look at the calendar, and my, how things have changed. Ready or not, tomorrow is October. It's orange alert, all hands on deck, 100% Halloween season. IT IS TIME!

Tomorrow starts the annual Countdown To Halloween, where I'll be dropping posts like mad all month long up until the big night. 

Since that post, I have been working like mad behind the scenes to get into the spirit and get things moving. It has been a quick flip from summer relaxation to the high-output energy of autumn. Things are happening.

Be sure to check back tomorrow as I kick off another black-and-orange blitz of Halloween fun and frivolity. This is it. IT IS TIME!