Great Pumpkin Project Drop No. 1: Closed For Business

Last night, I finally joined in on this year's Great Pumpkin Project fun with my first jack-o-lantern drop of the season.

I picked up a nice little pumpkin from the corner store and brought him home. I gave him an appropriately spooky face, and after a quick carve and a GPP tag attachment, he was ready to go...

After a quick discussion with Brother Scrapes on possible drop locations, I settled on one and headed out...

About a month ago, the local Melt Bar & Grilled, a fantastic little food joint that serves up the most delicious and outrageous sandwich concoctions based on a standard grilled cheese theme, closed its doors for business. While I will miss their Chicken & Waffles Grilled Cheese, I felt it appropriate to honor them with a pumpkin drop.

I was surprised that (most of) the sign and some of the other exterior lights were still on, even with no one home. But it made for a cool backdrop!

This location was in a VERY busy and well-lit retail space in a VERY high traffic area, so I had to get in and get out quickly. I casually pulled into the parking lot, secured a nice location under the sign for all to see and enjoy, snapped a few pics, and then casually headed out. Right in front of a cop. Oops. Luckily he didn't pay any attention to me and I was able to sneak away undetected.

A little tip of the pumpkin hat to you, Melt! Your grilled cheeses were delicious!!

  

"Scary Sounds" Cassette

We have reached the end of another week, so that means it's time for another Freebie Friday! Time to share another forgotten gem from the murky depths of my Halloween "spooky sounds" collection.

After last week's dud of an offering, I'm really excited to rebound with this.

There are a ton of releases called Scary Sounds, but this particular version of Scary Sounds is in fact SIXTY full minutes of the creeps! I don't have much background info on this release other than it was composed in 1998 by Steven L. Hartman, produced by the Stanley-Lawrence Company, and released in cassette and CD formats.

The quality of this release is excellent, with two full sides of clean, rich audio. Both sides rely predominantly on heavy reverb and left-to-right channel "warbling" over a base of somewhat standard thunder, synthesizer organ, swamp critters, and a few echoing evil laughs and groans. And a few clips played backwards? But it all works! A real pulsating creepiness is achieved on both sides without any cheap, silly, or annoying sounds prevalent in many of the releases from decades before. I would sum it up by saying this is a more mature, atmospheric and developed "spooky sounds" release.

Each side is broken up into three segments. Side A being Ghoulish/Eerie/Creepy, and Side B being Morbid/Haunting/Spooky. Exceptionally great track names, but each side plays well as a single track. There are a few breaks in the sounds, but I couldn't absolutely identify where the track breaks are supposed to be. So for me, each side plays as one single track.

I bought this one on a whim, based solely on the cool pen-and-ink skull drawing on the cover, and it paid off nicely. It was an unexpectedly cool release for the price and offers a full hour's worth of the creeps! This one is highly recommended to add to your collection!

DOWNLOAD "SCARY SOUNDS" HERE.

  

The Halloween Art Of Cole Cameron

Another shot of Halloween inspiration, courtesy of another really great Halloween artist, Cole Cameron.

A great illustrator who really nails that vintage and creepy, yet totally whimsical and fun, October aesthetic. 

Each piece in this series just gushes with total cartoonish Halloween spirit, and I can't wait to see what he continues to create through the season.

Be inspired and enjoy!

All images courtesy of Instagram/Cole Cameron.

  

Aphex Twin - "Matchsticks"

A long time ago, I decided that I wanted to take my meager Halloween yard display to the next level. I wanted to build more detailed props including coffins and tombstones. I thought more about lighting effects and the use of color. And I wanted to add to the overall creepy feel of the display through the use of music. No more silly "spooky sounds" cassettes (although they ARE still really fun!), I wanted to take the display from fun to deadly serious...

It was at about this time that I discovered the dark ambient genre. I happened upon my wife's CD collection, where she recommended Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II. I dropped the disc in the player and was absolutely amazed by what I heard. Tracks that were more akin to background sounds without any lyrics of identifiable repeats. And so much creepy atmosphere! I instantly knew that audio like this would make a perfect backdrop to my display. It added an unsettling soundtrack that would lay "behind" the visuals of the display without overwhelming or drawing attention away from the main focus.

I ended up grabbing six tracks from the Apex Twin CD to make my first "display soundtrack playlist." Every track a haunting, atmospheric cut to instill fear and unease in the trick-or-treaters on Halloween night.

And since that time, I have continued to refine things throughout my display, including the audio portion. I continue to discover new artists and tracks from the dark ambient genre, and use them in the display.

But every October I still go back to that original playlist to revisit those memories. And every time I hit play on this track, the one that begins that original playlist, I still get a sly smile and a jolt across my belly as it transports me back. Matchsticks will always be an important piece of Highbury history and will always be in my October playlist.

Take a listen and enjoy.

  

Dressing Up Halloween: The Story of Ben Cooper Inc.

The nostalgia of those classic Ben Cooper costumes of the 70s and 80s seems to be having a real moment this year, and I'm all for it. As a product of that generation, I spent many a Halloween shredding through the one-piece vinyl costumes while I struggled to see or breathe through the hard plastic masks, all while hurriedly canvassing the neighborhood trying to amass as much candy as I possibly could.

First, it was the insanely popular line of 6" Ben Cooper Costume Kids collectible figures by NECA (anybody wanna sell me a set of Wave 1 figures for anything less than the outrageous eBay flipper prices?), and now this. A full documentary on the company that changed Halloween costumes for an entire generation of kids.

Art by Austin Pardun.

HNN Productions and director Rob Caprilozzi team up to tell the story of Ben Cooper Inc. and their rise to the top of the Halloween costume industry. The trailer is full of great, old clips of their iconic costumes alongside stories from the names that were there during that time.

The documentary is available now on Amazon Prime and will probably be the best $3 you'll spend all October. I'm diving into this one immediately! Enjoy!

Lowe's Cauldron Prop Upgrade

Another quick prop upgrade is finished and ready to go! 

So last month I wrote about a full schedule really hampering my prop-building time for this season. Luckily, the big box stores have been upping the quality of their offerings, allowing me to pick up a few of their pieces to add to this year's display.

Although as a dedicated home haunter, there would be no way that I could simply pull the prop from the box and put it straight into the yard without giving it at least a little extra touch-up...

So just like I did with the Home Depot Grim Reaper Statue prop, I grabbed this really cool Haunted Living Cauldron from Lowe's and went to work...

Out of the box, this cauldron had a really great texture and finish, but I wanted to give it a well-worn, rusted look. So with paints already in my garage, I dry-brushed a complete coating of orange, followed by a light misting of dark orange and flat brown spray paints. And that was it. Done. In less than an hour, I had the rusty look I was going for.

Before.

After.

The only thing left to do, was to go old school with it! When I first bought it, I decided that I wanted to have the cauldron as a "witch prop" in front of the group that would be handing out candy. So it had to "do something" to get the attention of the trick-or-treaters. And like any good cauldron, it needs to smoke and bubble, so I decided to go out and grab dry ice. I have never used actual dry ice before, but I found a local vendor and secured a few test chunks. I added hot water to the cauldron and dropped the chunks in, marveling at the instant "smoke" rolling over the cauldron's edges and the unexpected "bubbling" from the dry ice's reaction to the hot water. Perfect!!

The final step will be to add some green LED lights to the inside of the cauldron for Halloween night, and this prop is ready to go! A quick and easy touch-up that took no time at all, and this will be a nice new accent piece in this year's display.