We've made it to the Winter Solstice. The official start to our winter season. With the ending of another autumn, I actually look forward to the coming cold and darkness.
The balance continues and the cycle completes.
Back in 2020, dark ambient label Cyclic Law released this incredible playlist for the Winter Solstice. And while they haven't released anything newer, this one still captures the stark mood of winter cold and darkness so well. Hauntingly desolate, yet oddly comforting.
Enjoy.
So a few months back, I posted on my excitement of the seasonal return of the Monster cereals. To relive my hyper-sweet childhood breakfast memories, I ended up buying a box of Count Chocula (the gold standard of Monster cereals) and Frute Brute (a horrifically sweet, cherry-flavored mess that I won't take a chance on again).
The thing that caught my attention was this year's customized Monsters, designed by famous street artist, KAWS. Nothing mind-blowing, but kinda cool.
But the thing that REALLY caught my attention was the contest on the side of the boxes, where you could win a limited-edition set of 4 KAWS Monster figures. Cool. I jumped on their site and plugged in the code from the box. And then thought nothing more of it. Because I never win ANY kind of contest like this...
Until now.
I ended up receiving a "Congratulations" email back in the middle of October informing me that I had in fact won a set of figures. I got really excited, then quickly went back to work on the upcoming haunt build.
Fast forward to this week, when a package from General Mills showed up in my mailbox...
Now having said that, I'm actually not really sure what I'm going to do with them. For now, I'm keeping them in their sealed bags and they will go back in the mailer envelope. I'll keep them in my closet until I figure out exactly what I'm going to do. Still, a really cool prize from a most unexpected win!
And I have seen a few other Halloween bloggers showing off their figures, so it looks like there were quite a few winners out there. So congrats to everyone who won, and if you didn't win (and you REALLY, REALLY want a set) you're still in luck. People are already posting them up on eBay for silly money...
But wait, there's more. In doing a bit of research on the Monster cereals, I found a most interesting fact...
Are you ready?
Did you know that Count Chocula has an actual first name??
It's Alfred. Count Alfred Chocula.
Do you want to know another interesting/kinda gross fact? I'm warning you on this one, though. Click the next link only if you REALLY want to know.
Learn all about "Franken Berry Stool." EWWW...
Gruss vom Krampus!
It's Krampusnacht, and that means that all of the bad children will be visited by Krampus tonight! Krampus, the Christmas Devil and evil counterpart of St. Nicholas, is a cloven-hooved, goat-demon that punishes bad children with a lash of his birch branched switch, then transports them to Hell inside the wicker basket upon his back.
Have you been good this year?
And a little homage to the horned-one himself from the 2015 Michael Daugherty film of the same name to put you in a ghastly yuletide mood... "Cloven" by composer Douglas Pipes. Enjoy!
A perfect track for the weekend! Classic American roots blues by C.W. Stoneking with a really great illustrated video by Patrick McHale (of Over The Garden Wall fame).
Enjoy!
So now that Halloween is over and everything has been put away for another year, I can finally get to a list of things I wasn't able to during the hectic haunt season.
First up is finally getting a chance to spin this absolutely gorgeous double-record soundtrack from Waxwork Records. Released 23 years ago this week, Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow is his wonderfully dark and gothic, yet witty retelling of the Washington Irving classic, The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.
And as with any Burton/Depp collaboration, you simply MUST have Danny Elfman creating an iconic, grand soundtrack to help complete the story. And what a soundtrack THIS one is...
And once you eventually get past the beauty of the package, you still get to drop the needle on the vinyl...
For the sixth year in a row, I was able to sneak out and get creative with my jack-o-lanterns after this year's Halloween celebrations. Starting back in 2017, I decided that I wanted to do something more than simply tossing them into the trash, and ended up covertly setting them up in a local metropark to much surprise and joy... and it has become an annual tradition ever since.
Every year I look for a new, creepy location to set up my jack-o-lanterns and extend the Halloween season for a bit longer. An Easter egg of sorts to anyone who happens to see them, and food for the local wildlife at the very least.
This year, I had a partner in crime who ended up suggesting a perfect location for this year's dump - my brother, Scrapes! And he even volunteered to help on the unloading, which was a welcome offer!
I got up at dawn and loaded all 19 jacks into the car. I then picked up Scrapes, and we drove over to the darkened, abandoned building.
Sitting empty since the end of 2016, the old Dimitroff's Furniture and Design building had fallen into quick disrepair with nature taking a firm hold of the structure. We stepped carefully, setting up the pumpkin display at an angle sure to grab the most attention. And then we simply slipped away, completely undetected.
Another perfect Pumpkin Dump to end a really great Halloween season. Thanks to brother Scrapes for helping make this another successful (and mischievously fun!) pumpkin dump.
Please enjoy my annual submission to the Great Pumpkin Project, the Highbury Cemetery Pumpkin Dump 2022…
