Photos & Short Video - My Halloween Setup 2011

Each year I've put the vintage and folk art Jack O'Lanterns in the front window, but this year I ran a little late and built Catrina, an 8 foot Day of the Dead skeleton figure the Saturday and Sunday before Halloween.  Catrina was placed in her "parlor", waiting to receive Trick Or Treaters.  1930s Halloween Jazz Music (Halloween Stomp CD, etc) was playing on the radio.  I ran the music through the "Old Time Radio" filter in Adobe Audition's program, burned the altered music to CD.   Loud thunder was heard from a large bass speaker hidden in the front yard bushes.  I've skipped using lightning effects the past few years because this house is on a busy street, I think it might be too distracting to drivers and kids running across the street.

Link to short Video from my Flickr account

We had about 400 trick-or-treaters this year.

When I lived in Detroit - We just called it "Devil's Night"

Click to see the larger picture and read the Japanese interpretation of Halloween, circa 1990s.  I love that children "Assail the House"  and "Irishmen make a fire".  I suppose they are talking about Halloween day, the day after Halloween, November 1st, being "All Soul's Day" or "Day of the Dead" is when "the humans are cooking for the spirits". 

Halloween!

Stop motion animation by the GREAT Jason Willis!  This is amazing.

Vintage Treat Bag Design

I changed the Colors around a bit, but this has always been one of my favorite small treat bag designs

Always a Favorite

Snailbooty's Flickr photos

Creepy Flower Encrusted Skeletons

More HERE

"Trick 'r Treat Back to School" Behind the Scenes

GREAT short film by Michael Dougherty - a behind the scenes look at the making of his "Back to School" film.

Sam Is Going Back To School

Happy "Back to School" month. Once they clear out the back to school supplies, they will replace it all with Halloween. Yay!

Haunted House Film for NBC/Universal is looking for Home-Haunters!

Attention Home Haunters!  NBC Universal is looking for home haunts for their upcoming documentary.  Head on over to Magic Stone Productions and fill out an online submission form!

And so it begins... Halloween 2011

Traveled to Stats Floral in Pasadena yesterday.  They begin setting up their GREAT Halloween displays in early August. 



Stats Floral Supply



Watusi A Go-Go!

I've been working with vector images all day today and remembered the packaging for the "Halloween a Go-Go" decorations from the 1950s.   I redrew a representation of the old packaging and decided to make t-shirts out of them.  I just had to...  the packaging is too funny.  "Swingin' Watusi Action"?  Groovy!  And at the same time I had to redraw a favorite old Trick or Treat bag image, further colorizing the image and making the two black cats "glow"

Definitely got a badly needed Halloween fix by drawing these...  Only a couple of months and Halloween will start to appear in stores!

To see the newer old fashioned designs on Zazzle - click HERE

The Monolith

This was an unexpected - and spooky - find far up in the hills above Burbank. It's a very old abandoned Boy Scout camp. The monolithic chimney of it's main house is all that remains, looking much like a scene from 2001 A Space Odyssey.  It was built well to be able to withstand so many earthquakes and brush fires.   But now, except for the sounds of wind through the brush, it's silent up here, one would never know you were in Los Angeles.  I like that about LA, there are many, many hidden treasures here.

After taking this last photo, there was a loud commotion on the level below me.  All I could see were branches of bushes moving violently, it may have been a mountain lion attacking something.  Or the ghost of an old boy scout...

Trick R Treat - Happy Father's Day!

GREAT Little Film!  Copyright 2764 ?

Haunted Air

Ossian Brown's superb book of vintage Halloween photographs, with an introduction by David Lynch, is finally being released in the US on June 14th.  Here are a few sample photos.

I've collected many similar photos over the years, mostly digital photos found on the Internet. I've had them printed and display them in old picture frames at Halloween.

Monster Cafe

Anyone near or visiting Saltillo Mexico will certainly want to stop at the Ultra-Cool Monster Cafe!  See more pictures HERE.  Thanks Matthew, your place is fantastic!

Movies That Never Were

I caught a quick glimpse of this while surfing the Internet and thought I somehow missed a fantastic horror movie.  Until I looked closer and saw Alfred Hitchcock's name.  The thought of Hitch directing "Halloween" is the stuff dreams are truly made of.  For more Alternate Universe Movie Posters, click HERE.

Vintage Movie Poster Fun

Lately, I've been obsessed with the beautiful imagery of old movie posters.  The artwork is amazing - I'd love to see a revival of this style of illustration!  Enjoy the poster images here, you can click on any of them to see them in a much bigger size!

Vintage Spook Show Images

Fun 1950s grahic.  I've extracted and restored many vintage Spook Show images over the past few weeks and added them to my Zazzle Store.

Spook Show Posters Zazzle Shop

Coulrophobia

Was there ever a time when clowns weren't scary?  From a vintage Cole Brothers circus poster, modified only slightly by me...

Morphy Auction

A few interesting vintage Halloween pieces in the upcoming Morphy Auction Toys & Advertising auction which ends on April 29-20.



Buy Kreepee Board Today!

Sundummy - Great FREE Drone Music for Halloween Soundscapes

A lot of great free Halloween-ish background music can be found on the great archive.org website.  One of my favorites, Sundummy, has often been used as droning soundscape audio for my Halloween yard haunts.  It's also great fun to listen to this music while dreaming up new Halloween projects.

LINK