I'm back for another hangout!! This Thursday, March 30, come hang out with me and a few other insanely talented haunters and hosts on the next episode of Haunters Hangout, as we discuss all things Halloween and haunting! Tune in at 9pm on the Haunters Hangout YouTube Channel, and post your serious/not-so-serious haunt questions to the Hangout Facebook page.
It's the perfect cure for your post-Transworld blues! Shenanigans and mayhem are sure to ensue, so tune in, have some fun and even win some seriously cool prizes!! See everyone this Thursday night!
I've always said that when viewed through the lens of a haunter/Halloween fanatic, my home town of Akron, Ohio is a pretty cool place to be. I have one of the oldest running haunts in the country, the famed Haunted Schoolhouse and Laboratory, a mere 10 minutes down the road. I have one of the longest haunts in the country, Canton's Factory of Terror, a mere 40 minutes down the road. And I have literally dozens of other haunted attractions in all directions around me. And don't forget the quick 2 hour jaunt to the Midwest Haunters Convention in Columbus each June...
But even closer than all of those cool locations is a sweet little prop shop that is an unbelievably quick 5 minute hop from the Cemetery: Dave Shonk's Closed Casket Studios. I actually met Dave when he was a wee lad getting in trouble with his local fire marshal. Since then, he has continually upped his home haunt game, eventually went pro for a bit, and has since started his own mask & prop shop. I've been to his basement shop a few times before, but I recently had the chance to hang out a bit, share a few beers and stories, and check out his new pieces for 2017. It definitely looks like I'll be adding a few more of his prop heads to the display this year!
But wait, there's more!
And as an added bonus, it looks like I'm headed to Transworld's Halloween & Attraction Show this week with the Closed Casket Studios crew! I'm beyond stoked for this opportunity, as I've never been to this show before. Be sure to come visit us at booth 406. I'll be the guy with the camera around his neck, shooting everything in sight! Stop by, say hi and buy something killer from Dave! See everyone in St. Louis!
And if you can't make it to the show, stop by next week when I'll share all (most of?) my stories and photos.
This is a really cool video of Pär Boström's Cities Last Broadcast doing a 30 minute live set at Phobos Festival VIII in Wuppertal, Germany. I'm quite familiar with the audio, but it's nice to have the added video elements to accompany the dark ambient audio tracks.
Oddly relaxing, and I would love to one day take in a live set of this or his main project, Kammarheit...
I had some free time this past weekend and was able to whip up another image in my continuing Highbury Cemetery Graphic Series. It's great to sit down, listen to some haunt-inspiring music and then just let the creativity flow. Grab an image of one of my Halloween props (which so far have all been skull and corpse heads) and then just put together a spontaneous art piece. No specific purpose other than to exercise some creativity...
This time around, I listened to USURPER's killer dark ambient track, Death Dimension, from the release The Disappointment's Room. It had a minimal, dark and very foreboding sense of dread that really influenced this particular piece...
Be sure to check out the first and second images in the series, as well as read the art's intent here.
I recently came across the Instagram page for Baltimore ritual dark ambient artist, USURPER. After checking out a few posted clips, I immediately checked out the Bandcamp page for a better listen. Fantastic dark ambient audio that could work really well in a haunt setting. Go check out USURPER's Bandcamp page and download some great tracks and score some super-limited cassettes. Highly recommended, with my personal favorite release being The Disappointment's Room!
While rummaging around in my attic late last night, I discovered a long-lost treasure buried among a stack of dusty old boxes. I pulled out one particular box, simply labeled, "Fragile - Records." I couldn't for the life of me remember what exactly was in this box, although I knew it certainly wasn't any vinyl records. When I opened it up, I was completely shocked...
It was a set of perfectly preserved, still sealed Polar Lights' Customizing Monster Kits. "The Skull, Lizard & Rat" and "The Vulture & Mad Dog." Everything You Need to Make Your Monsters Come Alive. I had forgotten that I had ever picked them up! They had been tucked away for the better part of 15 years, and they both still had the original $2.99 price tag from the local discount store. Unreal. These plastic model kits were part of a large assortment originally released during the monster kid craze of the 1960s under the well-known name of Aurora. Polar Lights re-released many of these kits in the late 1990s, keeping the original's famous long-box form and incredibly cool packaging art.
These will definitely go on display in my ever-growing collection of monsters and masks! And this score has piqued my interest to see what other long-forgotten monster treasures are buried away in my attic, just waiting to be rediscovered. I'll dig in and post up what I find soon!
A cold, weathered hand pierces the rust-laden earth of a late autumn night. Reanimated decay becomes the evening's guide. Masked faces bask in the fiery glow of a jack-o-lantern's illumination. A lifeless finger points the direction toward the next porch-lit house. For this is the night of ghouls and goblins and tricks and treats. This is the night of Hallowe'en...
