Listening to: Christmas Ambient

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas! If not, then rejoice in the fact that this stressful holiday season is finally behind us.

Today I enjoyed listening to this ambient electronic album by Ken Elkinson. It features ethereal covers of famous Christmas songs, perfect for that post-Christmas-dinner nap. 

Merry Christmas folks!

Click below to listen to the album

New Moon

Hey everybody! Things are finally starting to level out for me again.  I've been lurking around, dropping in on some of the other blogs (see sidebar →) once in a while.  I can't wait to go through the backlog and binge-read all the posts I've missed.  

Tonight is the last New Moon of 2023.  It marks a time of renewal and fresh starts!  For me, it marks the end of a very stressful (and very long) period of time. And boy am I ready for a clean slate.

I want to give another huge "thank you" to everyone who reads the blog and supports me and my work! I hope your post-Halloween season has been less stressful than mine!

Here's to fresh starts!

At Close of Day, by Maxfield Parrish, circa 1941

Halloween 2023: Postponed until next year

This October has not been kind to me.

I've put off writing this, partially because I haven't had the time or energy to put my feelings into words, but also because it feels like admitting defeat.  Still, with only one day left until Halloween, I see no reason to put it off any longer.

Due to extenuating circumstances, I've made the difficult decision to postpone my yard display until next Halloween.  I have had little time to work on props, and even when I have time, I've lacked the necessary energy or conviction.

Sadly, I think I had already given up on Halloween halfway through the month. This month has taken a mental and emotional toll on me that I never could have anticipated. Increased workloads and back-to-back emotional upheavals severely reduced my time and motivation. This weekend, I faced an unexpectedly harsh case of Halloweekend FOMO.  It all became too much. For one of the few times in my life, I just want October be over already.

What about the yard haunt?

I am still proud of the concept for this year, and I think it deserves a proper execution. Rather than executing a barely-half-baked haunt, I am saving the few props I've made and will carry over this year's theme to Halloween 2024.  Hopefully then, I will have the pleasure of sharing a fully-realized yard haunt with you all.

October 2016

Thank you to all of my regular and intermittent readers.  I hope the rest of you are having a fantastic Halloween season.  For my fellow haunters, I am very excited to see what you have created!

Happy Halloween,
Tjalgahorn

New shirt from Just Okay Company

Picked up this awesome Over The Garden Wall t-shirt from Just Okay Company.  They had a booth set up at a local market, and I couldn't pass it up.

They are currently taking online pre-orders for this shirt, which you can get here.

Here's a few other autumnal designs available on their website that I loved. Click each image for their respective store pages:

The Great Pumpkin Project: October 2nd 2023

A lakeside park, right off of the freeway.  The park is well maintained, so this jack probably won't last long, but it's on a popular pedestrian path and next to a well-traveled side road (Even at 1 A.M. I must have been passed by a dozen cars) so it should get some good visibility.

If you want to know more about The Great Pumpkin Project or participate yourself, check out this post of mine and follow @GreatPumpkinProject on Instagram!

Happy October!

The best month of the year is officially upon us, and the veil grows increasingly thin.  

It's crunch time for me and my yard display, and time to realize that it won't be all I had planned.  While disappointing, it's ultimately for the best. If I spend my time lamenting what I won't be able to achieve, I might not have the will to make anything this year, and that simply cannot happen!

Some time after October I may talk about the importance of building your haunt in "layers". But until then, there's much work to do!  Keep creepin'!

Jack-o'-lantern from 2022 video

Misty Monsters

Several whimsically spooky pieces by Vorja Sánchez (@vorjailustracion)

Click here for their store links and website

Big Ass Brick of Soap: Candy Corn

Just got an ad for the newest shower soap from Duke Cannon: Candy Corn! 

(Yes, it's real. Yes, I might just be crazy enough to try this.)

Click below to purchase

Moonache

This chamber feels most familiar
When it's shadow-clad and hollow.
I have such space to feel and fear,
And fearlessly may wallow.

Assuredly, the Moon is out.
Her heavy song my ears do bear
From pallid lips. I have no doubt:
Celestial is the song I hear.

While luminous her words may be,
(Though spoken by some delphic tongue)
Her visage is obscured from me
And no light hath she brung

Might brumous vapors cloud my view?
Or is my blindness nothing less
Than benighted beating sinew
About to fray from passion's stress?

Yet though I miss the lunar beams
That once so nobly split the dark,
Succor flows anew from dreams
Where moonlight is afraid to lurk

A Yorkshire Lane in November, by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1873

I wrote this poem last night during a thunderstorm.  Inspiration struck unexpectedly (insert lightning-metaphor here) and I'm quite proud of the result.  

Thank you for reading 🖤

Early 2000's Halloween goodness

From Haunted Eve's Halloween Blog

More images here

First Pumpkin-sighting

Spotted at my local Walmart Neighborhood Marketplace.

I have neither the space nor funds to be buying pumpkins yet.  I am trying to take my own advice and not FOMO-buy.  I have this creeping anxiety that I have to buy pumpkins right now to take part in The Great Pumpkin Project, or because if I don't buy some now, all the good ones will be gone by Halloween (a ridiculous notion).

I put a lot of pressure on myself to maximize my Halloween experiences every year. I get disappointed when I have a "light" season.  I've built up this reputation in my head and amongst my friends, family, and peers that I am the "Halloween guy". If I see anyone else doing "more" Halloween-y stuff than me, I get a bad case of Imposter Syndrome.

It's unfortunate that such a beautiful sight as the one above is filling me with anxiety about running out of time for my yard haunt, or not doing "enough" for the Halloween season.  It should be filling me with excitement! I really am trying to find a balance between filling my days with Halloween plans and riding the natural ebb and flow of the season.  

I know the season feels like it goes by faster every year, but it doesn't.  That's just what big box stores want you to think (but that's a topic for another post).  Trust me, don't worry like I do. 

Next time I go to the store, I'm gonna give one of these pumpkins a hearty *pat pat*. That usually puts a smile on my face.

Morbid Arrangements

Beautifully composed photos by Anastasia Jamal (@familiar_flower)

My personal favorite:

Click here for so many more great photos

Chickens carve a pumpkin

Actually a pretty cool result.

Click below to watch

(from @itsbreellis on Instagram)

Listening to: Nautical Nights

by Stevan Pasero/Michael Becker

More relaxing music to help me stay sane throughout the week. This song is flowing and drone-y but has a definite melodic structure that implies an amount of mystery that is oddly comforting. It makes me want to go night crawling and discover parts of the city I've never seen before (as was the case when I took this photo)

Click below to listen

Wrong Turn

By OleSamhain

Update: Nice weather, except for the sickness

A very busy week of life stuff, work stuff, and haunt stuff, finished off with getting very ill over the weekend.  Tests so far have ruled out strep and COVID, so I guess I'm just ignorantly bed-ridden for now.

On the bright side, this insane heat wave has been showing signs of waning.  The lows are finally down into the mid 70's, and we've been getting a nice breeze in the afternoon.  It doesn't get unbearably hot until the early afternoon, and already starts to cool off by early evening. It's a welcome change, and a herald to the coming autumn season.

I hope everyone has been staying healthy and enjoying themselves as the summer dwindles.  Keep cool, keep creepin'

Photo taken by my sister on a recent outing to Prometheus Esoterica 

Listening to: Twine

The wonderful ambient album Twine by Taylor Dupree and Marcus Fischer. Some much-needed relaxing music after a hectic week of work (and another one ahead).

From their Bandcamp:

"Two artists, two mono tape loops and four acoustic instruments, nothing more. Creating one loop each of different lengths and recording the outputs of the reel-to-reel machines’ built-in speakers with microphones in the room, Deupree and Fischer started to craft their most restrained work yet, focusing on the raw beauty of such a limited system of creation.

The title Twine comes from the idea of the two tape loops as knots, as physical media, combining to form a single, more complex, piece. The seven tracks on the album are highly repetitive yet constantly shifting due to the asynchrony of the loops. All of the warm, tactile and dusty quality of the tape and vintage players is captured in the recordings and the listener can easily get lost in the slow, enveloping cycles."

Click below to listen

The Ferryman's End

“The ferryman’s craft lied dead in the water.

Unable to move he can’t reach and touch the other shore. 

Unable to touch he can’t become real, identified, energized and joyful. 

Thus he fades and dies"

"The icon (rather than sculpture) of the Ferryman’s End represents the individual who, mired in sameness, that is to say, in wholly meaningless activity, is losing touch with the real world, personal or general, and is, consequently, experiencing burnout and feeling like he or she is dying"

Text source/website

Photos source - Atlas Obscura

Swamp Foetus fanart

Some cool fanart by Hallowayne @thatskeletoninblack

Click here for the Swamp Foetus page on Pumpkinrot's Blog

“The Switch”

A beautiful post over at the blog Petrichor and Pumpkins. Nebulosus' words encapsulate how I start to feel this time of year, deep in my bones.

Only 86 days, friends. 

Click below to read this touching post and see some lovely photos. 

It's hotter than Hell out here

A fairly consistent heat index of 100+ for the past several weeks.

I hope all those people who claim to "love Summer" get heatstroke. 

Awesome art by James Bousema (@james_bousema)

Listening to: OUTPOST 31: Night Station

Ambient synthesizer music with the soothing sounds of heavy machinery and Antarctic wind.

Listen below on YouTube

Boris & Bella's

New shirt design from DOA co.  Perfect for the dog days of summer we're currently suffering through.

Click below to purchase

Haunt Theory: The Role of Blue Light

~ Foreword ~

I believe that home-haunting shares a commonality with other forms of artistry in that the exchange of thoughts and ideas not only benefits ones artistic peers, but provides an opportunity for introspection on matters both philosophical and practical.

Pumpkinrot's Haunt Theory posts were of great benefit to me when I first started out. I still find myself going back to them each year to consider his wisdom and advice.  I highly recommend any haunter, fresh or seasoned, to give them a read.  Moreover, I believe every haunter should share their musings in a similar manner, as such commentary can only elevate our craft.  That is my intention for this post.

This post has mutated far beyond the initial scope I had intended, and has become a hyper-specific over-intellectualization of a niche aspect of haunt lighting. Whether or not this post "works" remains to be seen I suppose. You've been warned.

~ The Role of Blue Light ~

In a post on Haunt Lighting, Pumpkinrot cites a lighting tutorial by Rob of now-defunct SkullandBone.com.  Rot highlights Rob's placement of light sources and his emphasis on shadows.  I'd like to expand upon another aspect Rob touches on: color. Specifically, blue light, its place in haunting, and how it can enhance your display.  

So in my mind, orange has always seemed the obvious choice for general haunt lighting. It's the quintessential color of Halloween; matching the jack-o'-lanterns, the flickering candles within, and easily blending with the amber glow of street lights. Overall, a nice orange wash evokes a warm and inexplicably natural feeling.  But defaulting to orange has often led me to forget and underutilize its contrasting color, blue!

For the sake of this post, let's break down the usage of blue light into two main categories of use:

1: Prop-Specific Lighting

2: Wash and Backlighting

1: Prop-Specific Lighting

Certain props are more thematically effective when lit with a blue spotlight. In pop culture, ghosts are often portrayed as having a blue-ish glow.  Think The Haunted Mansion ride or any number of animated cartoons.  

The Haunted Mansion

Lonesome Ghosts (1934)

For this reason, I think blue light works incredibly well for giving a prop a "ghostly" or ethereal appearance. Blacklights are exceptionally suited for making an otherwise plain-white prop appear to glow with blue light while minimizing background illumination (fig 1.3).

fig 1.1 @hallowjean

fig 1.2 @gourdinfester

fig 1.3 House Bloodthorn
I'd be remiss if I didn't include a
classic blacklight flying crank ghost!

Aside from literal ghost props, other things like gravestones and statues can be lit with blue light for a similarly ethereal look.

fig 1.4
Pumpkinrot & House of Marrow
(Slightly greener than the other
examples, but the effect is there)

fig 1.5 Evil Vines Cemetery

When designing the lighting for your haunt, use your imagination and consider what other props work better (thematically) under blue light. The cobwebs in fig 1.5 are not spiritual in subject matter, but I think blue was still the most effective choice. 

2: Wash and Backlight

*Note: I may end up making a future post dedicated to light placement, but for now, just know that "wash" lights bathe a large area with a single color and "backlights" are lights that shine from behind a subject, forming an edge of color (also known as "rim lighting").  

When covering multiple props or large areas of your yard/house, blue light has a paradoxical effect. It provides plenty of illumination, but messes with the brain in a way where it can still be perceived as dark and shadowy. 

fig 2.1  Pumpkinrot

fig 2.2  Wicked Woods Cemetery

A blue wash light placed high up on a post or in a tree can evoke moonlight (fig 2.3). Yes, true moonlight is white, but bathing your haunt in plain white light can be a bit garish. Blue light is more appropriate for the night-time look even if not entirely realistic. The balance between realism and romanticism in haunts will likely be a topic covered in a future post. 

fig 2.3 House Bloodthorn

For the props that you do light with warm colors, blue still has an important role to play as rim lighting.  Blue light cast around the edges or on the side of an otherwise orange/red prop adds contrast, which adds depth (fig 2.4). Depth can also be acheived by simply alternating wash colors (fig 2.5). This is something I feel was lacking in my previous haunts (fig 2.6); something I hope to remedy this year.

fig 2.4 @gourdinfester

fig 2.5 House Bloodthorn

fig 2.6  My 2021 Yard Haunt
Everything looks a little flat
because of the homogenous color 

 ~ Conclusion ~

(is it over yet??)

 

I hope you were able to glean something - anything - useful out of this post.  Take some of these concepts and experiment with your own yard, props, and theme.  Also, I am eager for feedback on this post, and am curious to hear your own thoughts, so please drop a comment below and tell me what you think!  Thank you for reading, and Happy Haunting!