Happy Halloween

Returned from the wedding with aching feet. Watched some of the Addams Family marathon before Monster Baby went to bed.
Not a single ToT'er.

Drove back up to my Mom's to drop off the tux and listened to 'Inner Sanctum' and 'Lights Out' and the Halloween Stomp CD.

About to settle down for the night and let 'Bride of Frankenstein' usher me to dreamland.

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween.

Night.

Now Playing - Bell, Book and Candle

Tonight's feature on GhoulTV, "Bell, Book and Candle". A Light hearted witches story starring Jimmy Stewart, Ernie Kovacs, Jack Lemon and Kim Novak as the sexiest witch in history.

Enjoy.

Classic TV - Countdown to Halloween Oct 27

The Examiner has a Classic TV countdown of the 25 scariest episodes.
Funny thing about Halloween episodes. My top 5 fav The Addams Family's Halloween episodes are a see-saw. Not even close to the best episodes. Conversely the MASH Halloween episode 'Trick or Treatment' one of the best of the series.

Casper

Took monster Baby to a farm/pumkin patch yesterday. That look is par.

Charles Addams A Cartoonist's Life

I love this book. I read many biographies, I rarely read them more than twice. I've read this one 4 times. Addams was such a fascinating character and his life rang of a Carey Grant movie. HE, of course was no Grant, but the 'plot' of his life and attitude was like a Topper sequel.

He was Gomez Addams in many ways. Making a living, a very comfortable living, drawing cartoons he had the eccentric style and carefree attitude of Gomez. It wasn't all wine and roses, of course, but in general his attitude was inspiring.

FLY! My Pretties! Countdown to Halloween - Oct 21

If you can't find any flying monkeys this year try Jet Blue .
$31 flights on Halloween.

Chills In The Chapel - Countdown to Halloween Oct 19

The Jameson Cult film club is presenting several influential, classic horror films at the Union Chapel, a working chapel, in London.
They are showing American Werewolf in London, Halloween (1978), Dracula and a short film from the zombie's point of view, Colin.
So, if you're in London and looking for what sounds like a cool party, for free, check it out.

Timing - Countdown to Halloween Oct 17

So, I've only been seriously doing a yard haunt for three years. (And I'm already taking a year off, but that is another story)
I am wondering when people like to set up their work. I personally have always enjoyed setting up in the dead of night.
I'll plan out what is going up when and every night I'll head out around 11pm to put pieces up. So every morning the neighbors wake up to a few more subtle add ons.
No lighting until everything is up.

That's just my thing that I'm sure no one notices but I find it fun.

My Uncle John

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Haunted Nonsense - Countdown to Halloween Oct. 13

The stunning illustrations of J.E. Larson.

A special thanks to All Hallows Design revealing the path.

Now Playing - Sleepy Hollow

I love Danny Elfman's Sleepy Hollow score. This is one I like to put on the mp3 player and listen to on walks during windy autumn days.

Virginia Creepers - Countdown to Halloween Oct 12

This is the year of the Horror Host documentary it seems.
First, American Scary finally comes out (and it was excellent), then the Count Gore doc Every Other Day is Halloween and now Virginia Creepers. I am as happy as an (EVIL!) squash bug in a pumpkin patch.

"This documentary goes to the days when local television was king and into the future with the new breed of "Virginia Creepers." We've dug up old clips, uncovered information about lost shows and brought together cast members for interviews. We have also worked side-by-side with many of Virginia's current hosts as well as fans of shows like Shock Theater & Creature Feature."

Penny Dreadful - Countdown to Halloween Oct. 10

With the exception of Count Gore - my favorite horror host is Penny Dreadful XIII of Shilling Shockers. I recently stumbled across this show on youtube and promptly devoured everything I could find. Penny is a 700 year old witch who lives in an attic with her werewolf husband Garu. Together with their neighbor, retire vampire hunter Dr. Manfred Von Bulow, they host some of the best worst movies you can see. Penny herself is an absolute delight to watch. She moves from character to character satire effortlessly and often in the same sentence. A very clever show.
You can catch the show live on CTN out of Portland, Maine at 10pm EST. Although every other week the stream seems to be down.

HELP!...uhhh nevermind.

*UPDATE* So this was answered by Grimvisions almost immediately. Revealing that my search skills are highly suspect.

Looks like it's never coming out anyway. But, for the curious, it is call 'Sin-Jim Smyth'



Ok, this is going to be the most vague and difficult to follow description of a movie ever. But it is driving me absolutely bonker, (damn OCD!) so I'm outting this out there in case it jogs someones memory. I can't find anything on the Google.

Does anyone remember a trailer making the rounds about two years ago, about a guy, nobody knows who he is, He is in jail and they are going to move him but he might be the devil. Then there's some talk about the devil can be at two places at once on one certain night. One of the places is India and one in the midwest. Kansas I think.

As far as I know the movie has not come out but I want to know what happened to it and now my brain won't do anything but think of that trailer and try to remember the title.
It had a guys name in it I think.

Ring any bells? Anyone?

My Blair Witch

Bob Burns' Hollywood Halloween

If you know monsters, then you know who Bob Burns' is, and if you know who Bob Burns is then you know why it is with no small measure of glee that I say Welcome To Bob Burns' Hollywood Halloween!
This is a free documentary available on the website. It's being released in chapters so be sure to return frequently.

I SHALL PERISH! - Countdown to Halloween Oct. 8

I MUST perish!
I found this album several years ago and it has become one of my all time favorites.
I have just about every horror acting icon reading Poe you can get but Lee gives the creepiest readings of all.
I listen mostly to OTR, horror tales or dark ambient when driving this time of year. Which has lead to some very interesting looks at lights when the windows are down.

Thank you Mostly Ghostly Music Sharing Blaaahhhggg!!! for this and so many wonderful collections.

GhoulTV - Now With Rot Power! Countdown to Halloween Oct 7.

The great Pumpkinrot has graciously allowed me to run his videos on GhoulTV! I am a giddy ghoul.

I have always enjoyed his visual style. His props are magnificent but the videos he produces with them are phenomenally creepy and usually far more entertaining in 4 minutes than any movie in theaters these days.
My personal favorite has to be the collaboration between Rot and Jon Glassett on last years 'Hollowmen' display. A gorgously tense and shivering score to Rot's haunt.

So tonight I will begin running Rot's video's in between the movies and shorts.

I'm working on some other people as well but If any of you have videos you would like to see run in between 'White Zombie' and 'The Wolfman' let me know.

No Treats For Me

The town I'm in is not crazy about Halloween. Even our chain stores do very weak displays every year. Our Target has one isle of Halloween here.
So, I should have known better than to expect to find 'Trick r Treat' in my local stores. Went to all of them...nothing.
Lesson learned.
Going to Amazon.

Captain Clegg & The Night Creatures

Bought the new Captain Clegg album over the weekend. I dig the rockabilly and surf monster music so I'm enjoying the album. It's fun and very self-aware in its redneckiness. (New word?)



'Zombie A-Go-Go' is the first video off the album. (I think).



Warning, it's graphic gore. Campy graphic gor, but graphic gore none-the-less.

My favorite song is 'Dr. Demon & The Robot Girl', mainly because it uses clips from "The Body Snatcher", one of my favorite classic films.

Towering - Countdown to Halloween Oct. 6

Some wonderful pictures of one of my favorite haunts being prepared.

It's Alive!

The It's Alive Show on WBGN-TV in Pittsburgh.

31 Days - Countdown to Halloween Oct. 5

New spooky puppet show "Spook House Dave" is doing "31 Days of Spook House Dave" during October. (ACHTOBER!) ending with a Halloween special.
I really dig this show. The characters are fresh and fun. Monster Baby loves the show and it works for kids but still has a nice subtle dryness for adults.
The show is a lot of fun, I suggest you go watch all of the episodes available and then go back everyday for the new ones.
No!
I do not suggest, I COMMAND!
DOOOOO AS I COMMAND YOUUUUUUU!

Morlock rules!

Don't Go In The Basement!

At least not when you're visiting Necropolis Manor.

Venetian Halloween

Looking for old Halloween commercials on the Youtube I stumbled across VenetianPrincess (is she famous? She has a fancy subscribe button. Or am I just WAY out of it now?) yard haunt. It is an impressively large and well put together display. Spooky.

Boil and Bubble

There are three things you can be sure of in this world.
I forget the other two but the third is Pumpkinrot will knock your jaw in the dirt.

I'm all about the icons of Halloween. The atmosphere. I love Jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, corn fields, pumpkin patches...and Witches!
Real witches. Evil, creepy witches.
Rot makes the best witches and compliments them with amazing photography.

GhoulTV

GhoulTV returns this October with movies, cartoons, radio and anything else I can find Halloween and macabre related. I am working to eventually get a host for a movie one night a week. So far none of the spells have worked. We hear no scraping at all and we're not going to do all that digging until we're sure something is alive down there.
In the meantime, watch and enjoy.

Countdown to Halloween

The deepest and the darkest are here.
Joooooin theeeeeeeeeem.
So many wonderful blogs and projects to find at the countdown.

Para Abnormal

Not a day goes by I don't check out Para Abnormal, but October is the best as he joins the Countdown to Halloween with 31 Days of Halloween.
These cartoons have brightened, (darkened?) many a day.

Grim Strain

Creepy things to come from Grim Hollow Haunt.

The Grimvisions Ghastly Halloween 2009 Giveaway

So many wonderful events and countdowns this year!
Let's start with Grimvisions Ghastly Halloween 2009 Giveaway.
There are 13 (MWUHAHAHAHAAAA) ways to enter to win one of these beautiful pieces from Grimvisions, DaveTheDead of ShadowFarm and King Unicorn of Anathema Arcana.
These people make creatures so, beautiful, creepy and inventive that, frankly, it's almost discouraging. I mean that in a good way. No matter how cool something looks in my head I know I simply do not have the talent to create anything even close to it.
Thank goodness for these people. Because they can.

I've essentially been a lurker for years with limited contact with a few haunters. But I am much more involved in the Halloween/haunter community this year and it's great. There are so many great events and wonderful people out there. More to come...

Giant Scarecrow

Saw this giant thing coming home at a pumpkin farm.

Vintage Horror

Found a great site that sells or trades vintage public-domain or near-impossible-to-find out of print and rare horror movies, TV shows and specials.

It's a bit spooky ordering at first, there's no shopping cart, but the guy's legit and all over the horror forum circuit.
The best part, he has horror hosts! I not only found some Zacherle clips but I picked up an entire episode of Shock! Theater with Roland (early Zacherle in Philly). Plus, I FINALLY found a copy of The Uninvited. One of the best ghost movies ever made. Maybe the best. He does a great job with packaging and the transfers look very good considering the material. The Roland is a kinescope so it's only going to look so good.
If you're looking for some seriously buried treasures this is the site.

Pumking!

Heavy! This is like drinking a pumpkin pie. I mean, it feels like a pureed pie when you drink it. Mellower than the others I have tried, more pumpkin than spice. Pretty good.
Picked it up from the fine folks at the Murphy Beverage Company.

House of the Wolfman

I'm very excited about this. I hope the movie is as good as the trailer.


There's not even a site for this movie yet so...we'll see.

Antiquing

Saw these in Old Town this weekend.

Vampira

Absolutely brilliant opening to a show.
If I could have any job in the world...horror host.

Vampira's Official Site.

Every Other Day is Halloween

I have mentioned before that some of my best memories of kidhood were watching Count Gore De Vol on Saturday nights. I still love the weekly web program. Seems I am not alone.
'Every Other Day is Halloween' is a documentary about the Count and the man behind the Count as well as Captain 20. Can't wait to see it. It's suppossed to be coming to the AFI Silver in October. I'll be there.

Ichabod Pumpkin Ale

The Bride brought home the first pumpkin beers of the season. Tonight we had New Holland Brewing's Ichabod Pumpkin Ale. This is one of the better pumpkin beers with a heavy cinnamon edge. Quite enjoyable and the label is fantastic, Headless Horseman and a grinning Jack-O. The most wonderful time of the year has begun.

Lizarraga

The amazing art of Bob Lizarraga.
Definitely want the Gomez/Morticia print.

She's Back

My lovely bride brought me a surprise from the grocery store on Monday. The 2009 edition of Martha Stewart Halloween.
I love this magazine. It pretty much nails everything I love about autumn and Halloween.
Although I could do without the glitter pumpkins and skulls. But I do enjoy most of the Grandin Road items.
The pumpkin carving and the decor is spot on.

The real kicker of this magazine, however are the recipes.
- Pumpkin Butter
- Spiced Apple Butter
- Sausage and Apple handpies
- Molasses Spice Cake
- Jack-O-Lantern spice cookies
The food, the design, the photos are all perfectly blended to kick start those autumn/Halloween feelings.

Now, the weird part is, I can't find it online. There is a Halloween section at marthastewart.com but it is sparse and the links in the magazine to the templates result in a 404. So I'm wondering if this issue was accidentally put on the shelf prematurely.

Fantasy Filmfest Germany

I love stop motion animation.
This is a wonderful trailer for a Film Festival held annually in Germany.

At Long Last! A Giveaway!

At Long Last! A Giveaway!
Check out Shellhawk's ceramic Jack-o-lantern giveaway.
One of the great things aout being a Halloween nut is the number of truly talented people you meet.
Shared via AddThis

Life-Size Animated Michael Myers in Decorations New Decor for 2009

Check out the video. The eyes are unsettling. Life-Size Animated Michael Myers in Decorations New Decor for 2009

Shared via AddThis

Well...Hell.

We had plans.
We had grand plans.
We were seriously thinking of taking the year off and driving to Grim's haunt the week before and on Halloween night, making the drive to Philly just to drive by Pumpkinrot's haunt. It's only a few hours and we used to make that drive quite a bit when she lived in Philly. (She was the morning news on WMGK)
If we were going to do it, this would be the year.

That was until my brother announced he is getting married...on Halloween.
Oh well.

Congratulations Tommy, but I'm totally putting a scarecrow in your car. =-)

By the by, found out recently that my grandparents, the one's who had the Halloween parties, were also married on Halloween. Guess it's in the blood.

Looking Forward to August 18th

I was over at Ghoul Friday's site and saw this wonderful video. I do love Monster surf and rockabilly. Captain Clegg's album will be available August 18th.

Halloween 1959

Spent the day scanning pictures of my family and came across these shots from a Halloween party my grandparents threw at their house in 1959. Apparently they did this almost every year. Who knew?
One of the greatest finds ever!

Happy Family

Happy Family
Originally uploaded by Johnny (Through The Patch)

From the PumkinHollow Etsy Shop

Gritty McDuff's Halloween Ale

A favorite of the season will be available starting in August. Hope I cn get my hands on some this year locally. Time to call the specialty beer shoppe.

New Arrival

New Arrival
Originally uploaded by Johnny (Through The Patch)

New Jack-O-Lantern arrived from the Pumpkinhollow etsy shop. I'm addicted to these things. Like Barney for a Faberge egg.
Great stickers in this one too. I always love the stickers.

What Happened to Hauntr

So, quite a while ago I started a twitter-ish service called Hauntr. It was a very simple laconica server designed ofr haunters and Halloween enthusiasts.

Well, it's been down for a while and I thought I should let the few who used it know why.

The server died. That simple. The server I was using for Hauntr and all of TTP (except this blog of course) went all Marion Crane on me. I had TTP backed up but not hantr.

so why haven't I rebuilt it?
At the moment it simply wouldn't be worth the amount of time it would take to build and maintain something like that. Daughter, work and freelancing take up more time than I have in a day. I can't skimp on two and I refuse to cut down on the third so, no spooky twitter for now.
It wasn't exactly tearing up the web anyway, but a few people were using it and one did ask about it so, I thought I would explain.

Maybe someday it'll rise again. After all,it's a Halloween site.

Heed.

Absolutely love Bean's polaroids of Rot's props.
I like her Polaroid work in general, but the depth they add to the props is the best.
Source

Frankenstein Baby

No it's not a new Universal cartoon in he same vein as Muppet Babies.
It's my little one who is walking now and rapidly heading to monster phase.
Scares the dog anyway.

I know, this is probably too 'cutesie' for a Halloween blog. But it's my blog so...here we are.

Btw, every morning in the living room she waves at the pumpkin headed scarecrow hanging above the fireplace. (Proud Daddy) and NO, I don't push her to be a "Monster kid" or anything. She seems to come by it naturally.

Frankenstein Baby! from John Mangino on Vimeo.

Flooded House

The artist.

Mystery in the Air

I do love 'Golden Age' radio programs. Always have.
I'm also a HUGE Peter Lorre fan.
This is a show titled 'Mystery in the Air' hosted and starring the great Peter Lorre in 1947.
The announcer is Harry Morgan of all people. Weird pick, I never heard Col. Potter as the announcer type. He really sells the soap too.

Lorre is brilliant in these and particularly fun when he 'snaps' and start ranting out of control. Check out 'The Hora' for a very frantic ending.




You can also download the entire series here.

Born2Haunt

Blind clicking through links on Halloween/Haunt blogs usually leads to some great finds.
Today's furious clicking brough me to born2haunt.
Lots of projects and Hot To's. (How Tos? - shavings mug?).

A Question

How young is too young to show a kid Frankenstein? (Or Bride, Son etc)

Picked up This Book Over the Weekend

Halloween in an Apartment

I can't decide if this is funny or sad.
When I lived in an apartment, I found it sad.

New Fiend Arrives

Picked up the jack-o-lantern from Halloween Bean made from the Pumpkinrot/Pumpkinhollow Etsy shop Beautifully accurate. I think it is the best Jack I have ordered from them yet.

New Other Halloween 2 Trailer

Don't know why they insist on calling it H2. Are we that lazy or that too hip for the room.
Anyway, here it is.



Wish They'd give the Halloween 3 idea another go. Make it a series about Halloween.

So where was I?

Yeah, I've been out of the loop for a while.
V is almost 9 months, standing, walking along the couch or if you hold her hands - not walking by herself yet.
But, anyway, that's not why we're here.

So, last week I realized just how out of the loop I am when I saw a twitter post about Rob Zombie's Halloween 2.
What?
I thought he was dead set against doing a sequel?
It was announced in December.
WHAT!?
Boy am I out of it.

I haven't been completely gone, keeping up to date on the Google Reader. I enjoyed Season of Shadows' Jack-o-lantern project and the recent EVP work.

Pumpkinrot has been posting some great stuff. Recently (Actually it may have been a month ago) he wondered about doing a display with no display. Using atmosphere only to create a creepy display. I love that idea and wonder if anyone could pull it off.
Also, Rot and Bean did some new shoots with Johnny Appleseed that, I think, is some of the best artwork I've ever seen done with a prop. This one in particular is my favorite picture in the world right now. I would see this movie!
Also, the shoppe work has been amazing, look at these. Definitely planning on picking up one of these for the home office. Amazing stuff.
Spookyblue had a very interesting post recently, I think it may be a launch of a new bit, "Grumble Says" where his awesome Grumble makes his own blog entry. I hope there are more of these.

As for me, stuff is in my head and I hope to get some time to do some prop work soon.
But I did want to leave something for you on my return and I stumbled upon this on archive.org.
It is Halloween night from WKBW in New York in 1973. They did their own interpretation of War of The Worlds...from the description:

An aircheck from Halloween night 1973. A night of radio drama starting with a local version of War of the Worlds, Arch Obler's "The Darkness", a show on Vampires, A ghost story called "The Bed", "People Places and Things - a 30" piece on UFO's. Including actual commercials from the time period in Buffalo, NY. All pieces were performed by DJ's at the station at the time.

The DJ for the War of the Worlds was known as Shane, who seemed to be the archetype for the hip DJ of the time.

The first time the station aired their version of WotW several years previously, even though it was promoted heavily, police departments were called and even the National Guard was called to the Grand Island bridges! For several years afterwards it was aired with a new beginning for newer songs and dj's but the final cutaway to the newsroom on track 10 is original.

So here it is, enjoy!
See you soon.