Pumpkinrot 2024 teaser: HAXAN

Rot and Jenna just released a teaser for their Halloween 2024 display, entitled "HAXAN"

I'm stoked.  There are few creators that can garner such excitement from me just by showing a single prop.  It looks wicked!

Click below for the teaser trailer on Instagram:

100 days until Halloween 2024!

As I've previously said, I won't be building a yard display this year. 

BUT, I am still quite excited for Halloween, as always!  Let's ride out the rest of summer together as we look forward to the most magical holiday of the year

Edited photo from Halloween 2021

Listening to: Stumbling Home

By Lunng Fern & Marta Gynku, from the instrumental acoustic guitar and flute album Zwischenraum.  This album is beautiful and melancholic.  "Zwischenraum" translates to English as "gap, the space between two objects".

Stumbling Home is pensive and heartfelt.  When listening, one can't help but imagine walking a dark street, homebound, drunkenly remembering.

To listen to Stumbling Home, click the image below for links to all streaming/purchase platforms:

CLICK HERE to stream the entire Zwischenraum album.

“We wander in the fields...”

Another incredible scarecrow by Herman's Hollow (@hermans_hollow)

Summerween

Summerween takes place on the 22nd of June each year, but can really be celebrated anytime during the summer.

While it's true that I do believe one can begin celebrating Halloween "too early" (a sentiment not commonly shared by many of my spooky peers) I enjoy Summerween because it doesn't attempt to rush the seasons (at least not the way we celebrate it).

Big box stores are already starting to put out their fall and Halloween decorations despite the full-swing of summer's heat, tempting many of us to engage in autumnal daydreams and wistful consumption.  Trust me, I feel that temptation myself.  But just like how I could sit in a lawn chair with my feet in a kiddie pool and pretend I'm on the sandy shores of O'ahu, I know it wouldn't feel the same.  It would feel too.... empty.  Nothing compares to the real thing, the real Halloween.

And that's where Summerween comes in.

"jack-o'-melons" carved by The Ghoulfriend and one of her friends

Instead of futilely pretending it isn't 99° outside, or imagining the leaves changing color, or cranking my AC to "Arctic Circle" just so I can cuddle under a blanket next to the fireplace... Summerween seeks to uplift the summer season, making it more palatable to spookier folks like us by injecting some Halloween fun into it.

For our Summerween celebration, we got a group together out at a friend's lake house.  During the day, we boated, jet-skied, and drank cold beers and seltzers.  We carved jack-o'-melons after lunch, snacking on the red flesh as we worked.  After watching the sunset from the dock, we went inside and made homemade pizza.  We topped the night off with more beer and a screening of Scream (though admittedly, Friday the 13th would have been more appropriate).

The operating room

To me, Summerween is all about celebrating the wait for Halloween and accepting summer as a necessary part of that wait. We're enjoying our favorite parts of summer -swimming, eating popsicles and watermelon, cooking out, spending time outside with friends- and doing a couple Halloween-y activities to scratch the itch.  It feels like a throwback to Summer Vacation as a kid (except for the beer).  Instead of fighting summer, we embrace it, enjoy it, and declare, "This is how Halloween people do it!"  

I know not everyone feels this way, but for those who do, I hope you find ways to "embrace the wait" rather than trying to force the whole holiday of Halloween to arrive earlier.  After all, the real Halloween only comes once a year... that's what makes it so special!

Please Write In! - Halloween Creep

I am beginning to research and draft a future post on what I have started to call "Halloween creep" (in the same vein as "Christmas creep") and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I've noticed the growing trend of stores stocking Halloween items farther and farther in advance, occupying shelves as early as mid-summer.  Many people are more than happy to begin to celebrate the holiday before Fall has even started, and it seems like this crowd is growing.

I'd like to hear what other Halloween people have to say about this trend.  Why are you happy to start celebrating early?  Or why do you prefer to wait?  For those that start early, do you feel the same way about people who celebrate Christmas early?

Whether you like or dislike this growing trend, weigh in by commenting below or emailing me at tjalgahorn@gmail.com.  If you'd prefer to stay anonymous in my final write-up, simply say so and I will leave out your name/handle.

Can't wait to hear from you!

The Earthen Sculptures of Antonio Massarutto

I found out about him after @olesamhain shared one of his works on her story.  Incredible creations of art made from natural materials.

Photos taken from Massarutto's Instagram: @antonio_massarutto

Listening to: Sti.ll

New release from Taylor Deupree.   

Click below for all listening platforms:

More information, from Deupree's Instagram:

    An elaborate, authoritative acoustic re-imagining of Taylor Deupree’s seminal electronic album Stil. (2002), Sti.ll is the result of a multi-year collaboration between Deupree and arranger/producer Joseph Branciforte to bring Deupree’s explorations of extreme repetition and stillness into the world of notated chamber music. 

    Clarinet, vibraphone, cello, double bass, flute, and percussion stand in for the digital loops and granular processing of Deupree’s original, with meticulously notated arrangements preserving the all rhythmic, formal, and textural complexity of these compositions. 

    Transcribed and arranged by Greyfade’s Joseph Branciforte and performed by an ensemble of notable New York creative musicians — Madison Greenstone, Ben Monder, Laura Cocks, Christopher Gross, and Sam Minaie, alongside Branciforte and Deupree themselves — Sti.ll is a landmark recording situated between the electronic and acoustic worlds.

I have been a longtime fan of Deupree and the 12k label as a whole.  As the above description states, Deupree's work often involves the modulation of acoustic loops. One of my favorite 12k albums is Twine, a collaboration between Deupree and Marcus Fischer.  Fischer also created the cover art for Sti.ll.

The album is also available for purchase as a Double 12" LP / Orange Vinyl, which can be purchased on Bandcamp by clicking the image below:

Big Beaks

Series of bird masks made and modeled by Jym Davis
(@jymdavis / @_false_face)

Masks are for sale at his website: falseface.org

“One grave in every graveyard...”

“One grave in every graveyard belongs to the ghouls. Wander any graveyard long enough and you will find it - water stained and bulging, with cracked or broken stone, scraggly grass or rank weeds about it, and a feeling, when you reach it, of abandonment.”

- Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

Photo by The Haunt Next Door

Listening to: “The Last Ride”

Soundtrack by Dave Roland

Click below to listen on Bandcamp

Penumbral Scarecrow

Photo by Haunted Overload

“Summer” update: A Verbose Postponement

Though it hasn't officially begun, the heat of Summer is upon us here in Central Florida, with 100° heat indexes at least once a week at this point.  I hope everyone is finding ways to stay cool as we enter the more miserable months.

After taking a few months away from the blog, I'm feeling the Halloween itch again.  Stress from "normal life" is winding down currently, and the heat is winding up... it's no wonder I long for Fall's gentle embrace.

Last Halloween, I announced I was postponing my yard haunt.  While I had initially planned to finish it for 2024, I think it's for the best if I save it for one more year.  I simply do not foresee myself having the time or funds for the fully-realized display.

Instead, I'm going to be focusing on making more one-off props this season. I want to start taking props out to locations for photoshoots.  This way, I can continue to practice new prop-making techniques, accrue pieces for the full haunt, and (most importantly) fulfill my incessant need to make spooky stuff!

Thanks, as always, to all of you who stop by the blog.  Stay tuned for more!

Only 150 days until Halloween!

“McLean, Virginia, December 1978”

By photographer Joel Sternfeld - click to enlarge

Click here for the backstory

Giants Walk on Halloween

Photo by @vault_of_scarlott

The Electric State

Just a few bits of artwork from Simon Stålenhag's narrative art book The Electric State (2017). I own a copy myself, and highly recommend it; it's a great read with stunning artwork.  I keep mine on my coffee table, and guests are often compelled to give it a peek.

A movie adaptation is set to release this year.  I just hope they're able to capture the atmosphere that Stålenhag so effectively crafted.  And they had better include some of the music he composed to accompany the book.

Book available for purchase on Amazon

Vine Creep and his minions

By tcarter on Halloween Forum.

I love the detailed spine:

I think this little fella is my favorite... he's just happy to be here:

You can see images of their process in this thread

Extra photos taken from this thread

Afternoon Tea with Tinnitus Rex

Storytime!

Back in January, on our first-ever date, my now-girlfriend (henceforth referred to as "The Ghoulfriend") suggested a spontaneous stop-in at Stardust Video and Coffee.  I'd never been, and she'd been wanting to take me for a while (when we were just friends).  I absolutely ate it up.  It was the most hipster establishment I have ever set foot in: Coffee, food, old bookshelves, a cocktail bar, an analog photo booth, eclectic décor, wall graffiti... But it was the live music that really did it for me.

Unbeknownst to either of us, Stardust was hosting a live performance featuring Daniel Fuller (aka Daniel Fuzztone), Billy Davis, and Jeff Matz. We entered the building to the most brain-buzzing distorted drones I've ever experienced live.  It was magnificent.

It's hard to place a genre on the music played that night, but "Improv post-rock shoegaze noise" would get you close enough I think. Here's a snippet from that night: 

When I spoke with Daniel after the show, I learned that Billy and Jeff are members of the local band Tinnitus Rex, a self-described "improv noise band".

Fast-forward almost two months, and I caught wind of an upcoming event: "Afternoon Tea with Tinnitus Rex"

(Source: Orlando Weekly)

The event was taking place tomorrow! I pitched the idea to the ghoulfriend, and she was all for it.  So, just like our first date, we headed to Ten10 Brewing Company for an impromptu date of listening to some of Orlando's finest noise-makers.

A video clip doesn't quite portray the sheer volume and intensity of their music, but here's a couple anyways:

We both had a wonderful time drinking tea and beer, spacing-out to music, and reflecting on the past two and a half months together.  Her and I agreed: we want to go on many more eardrum-destroying Tinnitus Rex dates!

Click here for the Tinnitus Rex website

Nosferatu...

.... does this word not sound like the midnight call of the Bird of Death? Do not utter it, or the images of life will fade - into pale shadows and ghostly dreams will rise from your heart and feed your Blood.

- Nosferatu (1922)

Artwork by Trevor Henderson

Snowed-in

 Photos by Matt Carroll

Click here for full album