Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors

The ghoulfriend and I went to see Dracula A Comedy of Terrors at the Orlando Shakes theatre, and it was a blast!  

Get ready for FANGtastic fun in this hilarious comic vampire spoof! Packed with witty wordplay, pop culture references, and a nod to Mel Brooks and Monty Python, five actors sink their teeth into dozens of characters in this fast-paced, laugh-out-loud version of Dracula. It’s a two hour, gender-bending, quick-changing, laugh-out-loud reimagining of the gothic classic, perfect for audiences of all blood types!  - Orlando Shakes

The cast was fantastic.  Everyone involved was incredibly talented and skilled.  Kelly Bashar's characters were especially fun to experience.  And I'd pay to see an entire What We Do In The Shadows spinoff following Fredy Ruiz's Dracula.  His facial expressions and acting choices were so subtly perfect.

The production design was very beautiful.  The onstage effects with fog, lighting, and sound (even the classic "giant window that opens on its own when Dracula comes through it") really took this show to the next level.  The intentional camp and unserious vibe of the show was elevated by its high production value.  

Photo by @oneandonlyinsta

(The costumes were beautiful as well, but I can't find any production stills that feature those!)

After the show, we entered the themed lounge attached to the lobby.  We each received a sticker and had to get our hands stamped to enter.  The stamp was invisible ink that appeared only under blacklight.  There were several photo-op spots, and a bar serving custom themed cocktails and a range of bottles and cans. It was a pretty cool spot to hang out in (don't let my phone camera's poor low-light quality deceive you).  They seriously went all out for this show.

Our hand stamps (ft. the ring my gf made for herself using my tooth)

Credit:@oneandonlyinsta My photo was terrible, so here's their photo of this amazing custom chair photo op, (ft. @quinnthepomsky_nyc)

I got the "Bite Me, Darling" cocktail, which came with an actual blood sample tube filled with "plasma" (cranberry juice)

They had one more photo op in the lower lobby area...

... and a giant inflatable pair of wind-up chattering vampire teeth out front.  Marvelous.

A big shoutout to our friend who invited us out and used her crewmember comp tickets to get us entry to the show.  We had so much fun! I was cackling the entire show.

The show runs through November 8th, so go get your tickets now!

Director: Jim Helsinger

Set Designer: Philip Lupo

Costume Designer: Lisa Zinni

Lighting Designer: Rob Siler

Sound Designer: Britt Sandusky

Wig Fabricator: Destinee Steele

Dialect Coach: Lori Engler

Intimacy Director: Monica Long Tamborello

AEA Stage Manager: George Hamrah

AEA Assistant Stage Manager: Katie Rinaldi

Production Assistant: Rebecca Low

Production Assistant: Lincoln Stone

Immersive Lobby Experience Project Mentor/Leader: Kurt Bippert

Porch Decorations

Living in an apartment means we don't have a yard to decorate, which kinda stinks.  Still, we wanted to spread some Halloween cheer in our apartment complex.  We've seen a few other porches and balconies decorated, and decided to join in on the fun.

I hung the lights and the ghoulfriend put up the props.  The ghost she made was part of an old university project, and the corpse we made for a group of friends that were putting on a spooky art installation.  

Here's a better look at "Dry Bones":

Dry Bones isn't our best work, mainly because we made him in a few hours (if that).  He's a plastic skeleton shrink-wrapped (with a heat gun) in black contractor bags, then dry-brushed with light colored paint.

The following section is not important, nor is it terribly interesting, but I decided to include it just incase someone happens to have a similar issue (which I find incredibly unlikely, but whatever)

The lights I hung were their own funny debacle.  Bafflingly, there is no outlet on our porch.  I had the idea of using our porch light as a power source instead, so we bought a standard lightbulb-socket-to-outlet adapter.  But then, we realized our porch light doesn't have a normal E26 lightbulb socket, it's a GX23 base--a random florescent bulb socket....

Yeah, trying screwing a lightbulb adapter into THIS

Thankfully we were able to find a GX23-to-E26 adapter online (left), which we could then screw our E26-to-outlet adapter into (right) and plug our lights into that.  

The whole thing looks quite jerry-rigged, but hey! It works! And I was able to wedge the light cover back on... I'm hoping my complex's admins will just not notice my wiring job, or even better, just not care as long as it looks presentable.  It's been a week, and I've yet to receive a cease and desist from them (a good sign!)

 

I firmly believe there is a solution for every problem.  It just takes some research and some ingenuity.

New Apartment Decor

The ghoulfriend and I have settled in nicely to our new apartment. and I wanted to shamelessly show off some of our decor  (our "everyday" decor and our fall additions) of which we are very proud.

The Dining Room

Starting with the dining area, here's our regular decor:

The ghoulfriend had the idea to hang up these old pewter mugs I've had for a while, and I had the idea to add this oil lamp.

As a fall addition, we added some fake fall foliage I've had for years:

The Living Room

Again, starting with the "normal" decor:

Featuring two pumpkin pails we made (I'll share more about these in a later post) and our sombrero-wearing light up dancing skeleton lawn decoration (self-explanatory)

Our hall closet is flanked by two pewter candle sconces and two seashell windchimes my great aunt made us as housewarming gifts.

Not sure why my wall looks blue here....

For our fall decor, we added more of that fall foliage, and we made our own dried citrus garland!  From it, we hung pumpkin ornaments from Primitive Pig Folk Art.

Please excuse my roommate's reflection in the TV

~ ~ ~

It isn't much, but we are very proud of our humble decorations!  This is our first apartment together, and we hope to be here for many years.

The Great Pumpkin Project: Oct 14th 2026

My first entry into this year's Great Pumpkin Project.  I carved this jack about a week ago, but have been delayed in placing it because it's been raining almost every evening!  He's a bit droopy from age, now.  His slumped appearance has garnered the nickname "Ol' Gums" from the ghoulfriend.

We placed Ol' Gums near a busy road and multi-use path, right outside of a cemetery.

I've procrastinated on setting up our printer post-move-in, so the ghoulfriend drew a beautiful custom tag:

I also posted a short clip of this spot on my Instagram

You can learn more about this ever-growing Halloween tradition at TheGreatPumpkinProject.com, and on Instagram @GreatPumpkinProject.

Now Watching: Mr Jones (2013)

I haven't worked on a Halloween prop for myself in months years.  Between building haunted houses professionally, pursuing other artistic avenues, and the shortcomings of apartment living (namely, having no yard to haunt) I haven't felt that Halloween urge to make stuff for a couple of years now.

But this week... I don't know, something just shifted.  I'll probably investigate this further in a post down the road, but in short, I finally resolved myself to just make something, damnit!  I challenged myself to make even one (1) prop, just for myself.  After I made it, I could hang it on my wall, or give it to a friend for their yard, or leave it in the woods--the point is I will have made something, finally, after so long.  

I decided to make a scarecrow.  I'm still working on it.  I'll share once I'm done, I'm sure.

As I worked, I decided to switch on a film very dear to me: Mr. Jones.  In brief, it's a found footage horror movie shot from the perspective of a young couple attempting to film a documentary about a mysterious, infamous, and reclusive artist known only as Mr. Jones.  He creates these "scarecrows"--unsettling sculptures that serve an unknown purpose.

Wicked poster, right?!

By any objective metric, the movie is.... fine.  I think the acting is good.  The exposition is a bit clunky and heavy-handed at times.  The pacing is weird.  I really dig the concept and ultimately enjoy the story.  But my favorite part of this movie is the scarecrows. Check out the clip (1:30) below to see what I mean:

The scarecrows were created by Pumpkinrot. Karl Mueller (the director) says Rot made about 18 scarecrows for the production.

When I saw this movie, I was just beginning my yard haunter/Halloween prop journey.  This film inspired me to pursue my craft; to make creepy things and tell a spooky story by doing so.  It seemed like the obvious choice for me to put Mr. Jones on the TV as I busted out the branches and paper mache again after all this time.

I highly recommend giving this movie a shot. CriterionCast's James McCormick described it as "something like David Lynch directing a Lovecraftian film," and I think that's a pretty good description.  Plus, it's free on YouTube (with ads, but ad-free with YouTube Premium [or an ad-blocker])

Listening to: Shine on Harvest Moon

In celebration of last night's beautiful harvest moon.

Composed by Nora Bayes and written by Jack Norworth, this is the 1931 recording sung by Ruth Etting; a favorite version of mine and the ghoulfriend's. 

click below to listen on YouTube

"First" Day of Fall

Central Florida experienced its "first" day of fall today. Even though the equinox was a few days ago, a cold front came through this morning and cooled the air here to a pleasant 65°F (and perhaps more critically, removed much of the tropical humidity). It's shaping up to be a weekend of beautiful fall* weather here--a tantalizing prelude to the season to come.  There's a whisper on the wind, and it's saying "soon."

*What passes for fall in Florida at least

Happy Winter Solstice!

We interrupt this AUPHH* to bring you another wonderful piece by Katherine Blower. I hope everyone is having a nice winter so far.

Katherine Blower's links:

Website

Etsy Shop

Redbubble Shop

Zazzle (for EU Customers)

Instagram

---

*(pronounced "awf," it stands for Annual, Unplanned, Post-Halloween Hiatus)

Listening to: A Unicorn Masquerade

"There is a cacophony of birds overhead, and the crisp wind they surf on bites through you as October dies and November rises in its place..."

Self-titled debut experimental electronic EP from A Unicorn Masquerade. 

Of the three songs, track 1, "It lingers," is my favorite.

Click below to listen on Bandcamp.

Click here to watch/listen on YouTube (total length: 11:08)

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Toad Bread: Attempt 2

Click here for some context and to see Attempt 1

The GF and I decided to re-attempt Nikk Alcaraz's toad bread recipe -- this time following the ingredients and instructions from his newly-posted YouTube video.

We made only slight ingredient adjustments based on what we had on hand.  Here is what we used:

Ingredients

Dough:

100 g  whole milk

100 g water 

14 g granulated sugar 

9 g active dry yeast 

400 g bread flour 

9 g salt 

28 g unsalted butter (softened)

10 g apple cider vinegar 

1 large egg

Egg Wash:

1 egg yolk 

1 tsp water 

~1/2 tsp garlic salt

After proofing the yeast in the warm water & milk, we mixed all the dough ingredients into a ball, then kneaded it for 10 minutes.  Then we let it rise for about an hour and a half, punched it down, and pressed out the air bubbles.  

Then we got to shaping! Starting with a tight egg shape.

(Woah, hand reveal!)

Then, we covered him in plastic wrap for one more 30-minute rise, and he plumped right up:

Then came the egg wash...

And finally, we baked him at 350° for 28 minutes.

Just look at our beautiful boy!

Some excellent photography from my Ghoulfriend

He's quite a bit handsomer than our first loaf, and he tastes SOOOOO much better.  This loaf is fluffier, chewier, and more flavorful.  The garlic salt in the egg wash added a nice subtle hint of umami.  

This recipe was really very easy, too.  Definitely give it a shot if you've thought about making your own.  

Follow-along with Practical Peculiarities' YouTube video or purchase the cookbook: Peculiar Baking.

Happy baking!

A little collage by the gf :)