Ghost of the Ghoul Goes West, pt. 8

Hello, hello one and all.

Things have been remarkably busy for your humble pubkeep lately, and will only continue to be busy for some time to come.

There are much worse problems to have, no doubt. I'd rather be busy than broke and bored any day (or long, long night).

One of the funnest busy-things I've been trying (trying!) to get finished is Mr. Edward Van Bone, of course.

I have finally been able to make some shoes and pants for him, so he's not just some floating half-thing on the stage.

I had originally made some shoe forms out of Model Magic -- I posted briefly about them here -- but when I left them out on my front porch to dry, they simply disappeared! I don't know if one of the neighborhood dogs or cats thought they were some sort of food or toy, or if they just walked off by themselves, but they were nowhere in sight.

So...

Grab some insulating foam, razor blades, thin foam sheeting, gold wire and black paint and just make them:

I know, Skinny McSkinnyton. It's perfectly cartooned and crazy. 

So... I think I may actually be -- dare I say it? 

No, not just yet. I will say I am very, very close to being finished.

Whew!

O'ZOM-beeee!

For Shellhawk.

Because she's an artist.

My best to Ape.

O'ZOM-beeee!

Ghost of the Ghoul Goes West, pt. 7

Hey St. Paddy's revelers, I don't want to interrupt your green gathering but I do want to show you just a hint of the programming work I had time to accomplish today.

As promised, a little video of one Edward Van Bone, now using my own voice (trying to do my best Van Sloan, honest!) in order to make his dialogue a bit more specific to Monsterpalooza. In this clip, he is welcoming museum-goers and admonishing them to keep their grubby hands to them-grubby-selves...

YEAH, I know, it's dark. But I don't have a good low-light camera. Given all my dark projects, I should probably invest in one.

If you've been paying any kind of attention, you may notice that I have re-mounted his head and neck, to have it a little hunched, a little jutting out, to add some character and feeling. His earlier straightened look was just too stiff and lifeless. When I started programming yesterday, I kept wondering why nothing was looking right, and I realized that his head was just all wrong. Too normal.

These are the kinds of terrifying lessons one has to learn in this hobby: instead of programming yesterday, I somehow found the brass cajones to take him all apart, redesign and rebuild him. So glad I did, because it thoroughly improved his look -- oddly angled, cartoonish -- and now he's just about right.

Fear faced down, problem solved for the better.

I think I may actually get this done, and shipped, and set up and -- well, I don't want to jinx it.

I even shot this in green light for the occasion. I guess the luck o' the Irish is in me t'dee.

As ye were, one an' all.

SLAINTE'!

O'ZOM-beee!

Slainte'!

Welcome, welcome, pubbies!

A fine Saint Patrick's Day to one and all.

Yes, our beloved Hallowe'en Pub is still a pub, and I'm still Scots-Irish, so we celebrate Saint Patrick's day right and proper!

I am still having difficulties with the hosting site for our radio and jukebox, but I have been able to get the radio updated with some St. Patrickey goodness for us...

First, The Wakeful Ghost, an episode of the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre first broadcast in March of 1975.

It is the odd tale of an American visiting relatives in Ireland who enlists the help of an ancestor's ghost (how Irish!) and the ghost's partner-in-misdeeds, a leprechaun (how IRISH!), to help him snag the woman of his dreams.

Then, a fun and freakish little story of an Irish lad who runs afoul of some very insistent Little People who charge him with a very ghoulish burden late one foggy night...

Tighe O Cathain (or Tadg O Cathan OR Tige O'Kane) & the Corpse is a creepy little drama first broadcast in 1982 on the excellent CBC series Nightfall. Worth every minute of listening, trust me.

Alas, I could not really edit the jukebox much, but I did add one piece, an excerpt from the late, great composer Paul Weston's 1974 suite Memories of Ireland. I call this movement Irish Origins -- I don't really know why.

Who knows how the Irish mind works?

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful St. Paddy's Day and Night, talking, loving, drinking, singing, eating, and remembering that Hallowe'en owes so much to Ireland.

I also want to wish my sister Julie a very happy birthday! May it be filled with fun and fortune!

A toast...

... and

DUMDUMSHREKPOP!

O'ZOM-beeee!

Ghost of the Ghoul Goes West, pt. 6

Just a brief look...

Impossibly skinny and cartoonish... perfect!

My apologies to you all (and Mr. Chicken in particular) for not posting any video yet but I am honestly waiting until I get a whole day's worth of real programming time before trying to show you how he moves. I've had to rebuild and redesign things after burning out servos and so on, and it only looks right when it's all choreographed and moving  just right.

Soon, I promise.

Besides, I have to finish making his little shoes...

They'll be black with grey spats, and barely visible anyway. I thought this Model Magic base would be fine. 

My ol' friend and monster buddy, Henchman Henner, is making the little stage with footlights, and we'll meet up in Burbank to put it all together and fine tune things before setting it up at Monsterpalooza.

It never ends up just as I first imagine it, but it always ends up being odd, fun, quirky and entirely mine.

I'll take it.

O'ZOM-beeee!

On farewells, Hallowe'en style pt.2

Welcome, good pubgoers.

I am glad you are here this evening.

I'm glad I am here. We should all be glad we are still here.

Tonight, we raise a glass and celebrate the passing of a fellow Autumn Soul who, now free of his long struggle with a diseased body, lies resting in a sunny pumpkin field,  floats darkly among the branches of a twisted wood, rides the wind of a banshee's howl, for the rest of ever.

John Wolfe, thank you for being you.

Now that your fight is done, I hope you are getting that long thirst truly quenched.

I know we will all continue to keep Hallowe'en in our hearts as you did.

We ask for peace to your family and friends, all who loved you and whom you loved, as we grieve your departure.

And we will seek your Autumn spirit this Hallowe'en, and every Hallowe'en, now that you have left this life and embraced what is beyond that very Veil we Autumn People so long to draw aside on our favorite night of the year.

And even as we say our goodbyes, we turn to live the more appreciative for what -- for whom -- we can still enjoy the wondrous gift of loving so deeply in this short, amazing life.

Bless you, John.

Your glasses, everyone... come on, shout it with me --

DUMDUMSHREKPOP!

O'ZOM-beee!

Ghost of the Ghoul Goes West, pt. 5

OH! I have been working...

Cutting, gluing, wiring, soldering, programming, breaking, cursing, punching, hitting, spitting, kicking, drinking, cutting, gluing, wiring...

Boy did this project turn into a much more difficult thing than I had ever dreamed.

Still, I may actually get it done before shipping it off to L.A. before I ship me off to L.A..

Here is Edward Van Bone, minus his jacket and legs.

I think I need to change up his hair and how 'clean' he is, because right now he looks

so much like Andy Williams that it's starting to distract me.

Don't protest, Eddie ol' boy -- it just means I've made you too 

good-lookin'.

Yeah... I need to put some baldness back in, matte it down a bit, and make sure he's a little grungier.

But as long as Edward Van Bone moves right for two and a half days in April, it's all good.

Onward.

O'ZOM-beeee!

Make it March!

This is my request to the audio hosting site Podbean, who have decided for some reason to no longer recognize my (paid!) account and will not let me log in.

For three days I've been trying to edit playlists and add new songs and radio shows as I do near the top of every month, and I have been unable to do so!

So until that time, I can't update anything in the radio or the player.

BUT... I'm making real progress on Edward Van Bone, and will have pictures very soon.

Oh, Podbean... why must you ruin my pub with your slow responses and fracked up software? C'mon, Podbean... make it March!


Oh, since this is a new post, I can at least show something neat and Hallowe'eny.

DDSPodbeansucks!

Oh no, wait... it's March, so
O'ZOM-beeee!