The Hallowe'en Tree, pt.6

Good day to you, loyal S&P-brains!

I imagine you are all quite full of Hallowe'en and are ready for a brief stretch of holiday-free weeks before the end of the year madness overtakes us all.

I certainly could use it.

But I did want to show off some of our fantastic fright night scenes from last week.

It was a beautiful night, the weather was perfectly Hallowe'en. Not too cold, not too warm, no rain, slight breeze, cloudy skies with a nearly full moon. Just beautiful.

First to enjoy the weather and the night's festivities, our animatronic graveyard group.

Capt. Lantern, Ficketts, Nevermore the Raven, and

the Lean Bros. & Ghoul swing quartet.

Some tombstone detail. We sure lost some greats this past year.

Our kid-friendly Boo Corner, showing Mad Monster Party (along

with The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Legend of Sleepy

Hollow, It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, and other

Hallowe'en specials all night long).

But the real attraction for just about everyone who visited that night had to be our amazing

Hallowe'en Tree.

It really turned out to be something special...

Almost 100 pumpkins, carved and sent from family and friends all over the country, to honor the passing of Ray Bradbury, and celebrate our love for All Hallow's Eve.

Just stunning.

At the base of the Tree was our longtime 'host' of the haunt, the Great Pumpkin.

And just around the tree trunk from him stood the brooding, ancient and wickedly wise ol' being, Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud.

I'd like to think ol' Ray would've loved it.

Just above and beyond our Tree, in a dormer window, floated one of many wandering revenants...

... and in the same window, not long after, could be found our little black kitty, Hallowe'en herself, watching our goofy goings-on in the yard below.

Yes, she's wearing a little orange/black jester's collar.

No, she's not summoning Satan.

As far as I know.

The next day, I had to get a good sunshine shot of our Hallowe'en Tree.

Just beautiful.

Hallowe'en 2012 is in the history books, and I had a fabulous week.

I hope each of you enjoyed your Hallowe'en.

Still cleaning up...

DDSP!

Tick, tick, tick...

Two days.

Eek.

 "Oh God... give me time!"

Actually, I'm having a ball. The set up, the anticipation, the anxiety and giggling and enjoying...

As Ray Bradbury wrote in his October 1975 essay in Reader's Digest, Tricks! Treats! Gangway!:

Amen.

And as for tradition, I'm living up to that too...

It's magic time.

I sure hope every one of you is enjoying their Hallowe'en week.

Two days.

Eek!

DDSProgress...

Work, work work...

Hello dear S&Pers!

I KNOW I've been notably absent this month, and I have no excuses but that Life is what it is.

I beg your forgiveness and appeal to your Autumn-Lovin' Hearts for understanding.

I will say, though, that I have been working on Hallowe'en 2012. Of course I have -- I just haven't been posting about it as I usually do.

Perhaps it's because there's not much new to post about; we are waiting on more pumpkins to arrive, and when we get the Hallowe'en Tree going, I will post all about it.

But for now, I have been bringing our animatronic figures back to life, brushing from their shoulders the dust of a year of storage, rewiring, powering, and programming.

Until The Big Night, they shall live in my bedroom...

They will soon be joined by the Great Pumpkin, who will have some new dialogue this year.

And of course, Mr. Moundshroud needs his suit and cape.

More later.

I hope you are all enjoying your October.

It's magic.

DDSProgress!

In memoriam.

Your big holiday weekend is on them.

Enjoy it because you can.

DDSP!

Before we get to November...

Well, November's already here, yes.

But before I get to any new jukebox tunage or waxing poetic about the end of Autumn and all that, I wanted to pass around a few pics of our 2011 yardhaunt, the 'Greatest Hits' display I was able to put together.

Yes, I was going to do a big tribute to the anti-genius of Edward D. Wood, Jr. But time... time not only slipped away, it was fairly torn from my daily schedule with alarming regularity all through September and October.

No complaints. I love working.

But I decided I had backlogged so many great props, figures, routines, music and decor that a greatest hits display would be perfect -- a kind of Hallowe'en version of a cheap TV clip show.

It worked just fine.

Now don't get up, I'll just pass a few around:

 Our 'graveyard' just before adding the animatronic characters.

 The lovely 'V' helping set up 'Boo Corner' (for littler spooks and scared grown-ups!).

 'Uncle Bill' setting up the stupendous 'De Witch Woman' display he built 

last year in honor of the family-favorite James Lewicki illustration 

(story and pictures from this post and this post, remember?)

Our cat Hallowe'en ('Halli') always helps us move the leaves around.

 She also spent a lot of time hanging out with Cap'n Lantern an Ficketts.

 The graveyard ready to go, seen through the web of a spider

that decided she had to set up shop here. 

(Sorry Frog Queen!)

 An angle I only get to see once a year: the business end of my

graveyard attraction.

 Cap'n Lantern, First Mate Ficketts, a tombstone-perched raven named Nevermore...

 ... and the Lean Bros & Ghoul, ready for spooky swingin' songs!

My one and only Ed Wood tribute piece.

 The completed Boo Corner...

... and guests.

'De Witch Woman' took the place of the usual Treat Room we have on

that side of the porch. That foot pumped, that spindle spun, and de ol' witch woman

sang  (in my Aunt Gail's voice) 'Turn an' spin, come off skin!' all night long.

The decade-old Great Pumpkin animatronic character, in his perfectly

glowy, perfectly plasticky pumpkin patch!

A blurry but colorful shot of the display from across the street. 

Of course, the Skull & Pumpkin has always been a Post-Hallowe'en Blues-Free Zone, as you well know. There is nothing about cleanup that saddens me -- not really -- and in fact it has grown to become a rather Zen-like ritual, at once cleansing and inspiring.

Besides, there simply isn't a reason for sadness.

For one, we had a grand time.

For another, it's still Autumn. I mean, look at the view I get to and from work every day...

Still very, very Fall.

I'll be back soon with new musical diversions for a new month.

In the meantime, I'll gather up the pictures and let you all get back to whatever you were doing. I hope you're all discussing your own amazing Hallowe'en 2011 stories!

Until next time!

DDSP!

Hallowe'en dreams.

It was truly wonderful, wasn't it?

All my creations recapturing my imagination, pursuing me like the Monster pursued Frankenstein across frozen floes.

All my fears riding to meet my giddy challenge, and sending me headlong across the bridge from October to November, like a headless Hessian soldier's flaming gourd to the back of my noggin -- beautiful, painful, spirited, brief, and final.

It was just wonderful.

Off now to dream black and orange dreams, with a real breeze blowing real leaves against my real window, and the warming sound of every voice that haunted my home tonight, still in my ears -- a last, thin-wick'd candle flickering in one last jack o'lantern.

Happy Hallowe'en.

Good night.

Dumdumshrrrzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Diggin' up goodies...

... and settin' up for spooky fun!

Oh wait, I found this old picture in the attic and knew I had to put it up for the weekend for loyal S&Per DeeDee:

And fellow S&Pers, let's give a warm Skull & Pumpkin welcome to our newest loyal pubgoer, Katie! She runs the sweet Little Barn Owl blog, and is definitely one of us crazy Autumn People. Free rounds for Katie all weekend long.

So...

Two days away.


DDSusPense!

Almost...

October smolders, crackles, flies, floats, breezes to the door.

Almost here.

One more night.

The waiting is almost over...

The spirits will be rising very, very shortly.

Enjoy the last of September, S&P-brains!

DUMDUMSUSPENSEPOP!

Plan '11 for Hallowe'en, pt. 2

Well... sort of.

I must apologize to my faithful followers, all of you wonderful Autumn Folk who frequent this homely house.

I have been so stupidly busy with work and other commitments that I haven't been a very good pubkeep.

The thing is, this is the first Autumn in a long, long time that has me working morning and night, and it does not leave me much time for updating and picture-taking and all the fun things I've usually done this time of year here at the ol' S&P.

Now, this does not mean I am not working on things -- oh no, Hallowe'en is definitely in the making here...

I am building and designing and deciding and digging and gluing and bending and painting and generally being the madman I tend to be for Hallowe'en...

... but this year it's all coming quite a bit later than usual, and I find myself more than a little concerned that I have let too much time go by to really give it all my all.

I don't have any worries that I'll miss Hallowe'en -- that will simply never, never happen -- but I got taken out of my usual game this Summer and things will be a little more old school, a little less savvy, but surely a bit more analog... and perhaps, simply, a bit more fun.

A bit more Ed, I guess I can say.

We're working on it.

It won't be a new animatronic figure, but what the hell -- I have pirates, a skeleton band, a raven, a Great Pumpkin and an Uncle Forry -- who's going to gripe?

Back to basics, back to fun, back to making magic whenever, wherever, however we can, right?

Don't worry... the monsters will arrive on Lone Pine this year...

They always do.

DDSProgess...

A hard working human.

He was indeed a hard working human.

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó

 20 October 1882 – 16 August 1956

I know everyone else in the world remembers August 16th as the day Elvis died, but Lugosi has always meant so much more to me than any amount of hair grease, swinging hips and deep fried peanut butter-banana-valium sandwiches.

Not that Lugosi didn't have his own demons, but The King of the Vampires is, even today, no less a worldwide cultural icon, no less recognizably himself, than that other King, even if his funeral wasn't quite as large...

You can barely see, just to the upper right, that one of Bela's pallbearers was the one and only Ed Wood, another hard working human (and original writer of the phrase "hard working human").

I love segues...

Lately I have been a hard working human, it's true.

And unfortunately, none of that work has been here at the ol' S&P.

Oh, I'm not complaining. I'll take every cent I can get these days. But it leaves precious little time for relaxing with all of you fine Hallowe'en lovin' friends.

And Hallowe'en is indeed sneaking up on all of us, tapping at our nighttime windows, insinuating itself into our dreams...

It has been a little disturbing to me that I usually have my theme well in hand and half built by this time each year but for some reason, this year has been racing by so quickly, it nearly passed me by.

Not to worry, though.

You see, I did recently hit on what I think is a very fun and silly and wonderful Hallowe'en display theme, and it has everything to do with Bela... and Eddie.

Yes, for the dozen or so folks who will actually get every joke and reference, this year's display will be a loving tribute to that maven of movie mediocrity, the inept, inane, incomparable Edward D. Wood Jr.!

C'mon. More Bela and Ed is a good thing.

And can't you just see it? All the usual spookiness of my haunt endowed with Wood's mighty creations, speaking his jumbled wisdom, garbed in pink angora, reveling in the awful wonderfulness?

I mean, the Raven must be able to do a pretty fair Criswell...

And can't you just see Capt. Lantern loving this get up?

And how could Ficketts not get a kick out of being the screen's least amusing comic relief, Kelton the cop (to the right)?

And there are some other characters to play with...

And not a few amazing prop ideas...

I mean, it's not like it has to look good. And I already have the rotten cemetery anyway!

As I say, only about a dozen people will truly get every reference, every gag.

But they'll be the right people, so I don't find myself terribly concerned. I find myself happy.

Besides, I'm still going to have my Pumpkin, and the Lean Bros. & Ghoul, and all the other spooky delights I have every year.

You can't really argue with the idea. 

I mean, future events such as these will affect you, in the future.

Onward. 

Upward. 

Edwood.

DDSuPernaturalthriller!