Wicked Grin

Had a day off from work yesterday and had a creative impulse. This is the result - an impromptu finger-painting to hang above my workshop table. Made with acrylic paint on a quarter-inch sheet of plywood, this was done in about an hour. The shape of the pumpkin shows up better in person - it's a very deep orange/black that disappears as the workshop grows dark (and the eyes and mouth are painted with glo-paint so they light up at night).

The face was borrowed from here:

http://ericfreitas.deviantart.com/art/Jack-o-lantern-2-184798515

Silver Shamrock

111 days 'till Halloween, Halloween, Halloween...

Stay Tuned

Survived a week long log cabin vacation deep in the woods of South Dakota. Thought I'd take this time to announce that major changes can be expected at both the Hallowzing site and Drive-In of the Dead - hopefully before the year is out. You may have noticed that both sites have basically been inactive for the past few months, and there has been some politics involved in that that I'm hoping to sort out so that both sites can be regularly updated. Thanks for your patience!

Stay tuned...

Halloween Roundup

We've had wave a flu bugs sweep through our house, which is partly why I haven't yet uploaded my 2011 Halloween pics to the Hallowzing website. Meanwhile, loads of other home haunts have put me to shame with some really incredible photos from Halloween night. The legendary Pumpkinrot has put together a nice collection of some of his favorites over at his 'What's Brewing' blog. Stop by and check out everyone's hard work - and I promise to get my butt in gear and get some photographs up soon!

http://pumpkinrot.blogspot.com/

One Man's Trash

Another entry in my long-running series of 'One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure.' Found this scrap piece of maintenance-free decking while on a walk (it was actually pretty heavy and sort of a pain to heft all the way home!) A bit on the small side for a gravestone, but I had a couple that had to be 'retired' last year as they finally succumbed to the elements.

The nature of the maintenance-free material doesn't allow for carving with a Dremel as it will just crumble, so I couldn't put a name on it. But a glued on cross, a coat of gray auto primer, some black spray-paint for aging, some black and forest green acrylic for effect, and boo!: Instant Gravestone! It took all of 30 minutes from start to finish, and most of that was waiting for the paint and glue to dry. It will fill the gap nicely in the back row where you don't have to look too closely...

Reloaded

Working on a new look for the Hallowzing website. Still a work in progress, more updates will be made in the coming weeks. Right now I wanted to get the basic format up and running - this kind of gives you an idea of the direction I'm taking it. I'll try to keep you up to speed on any new updates as they happen. Hope you like it!

Signs

A friend of mine was asked to tear down an old barn, with the caveat that he get to keep whatever he wanted from the job. When I say 'old barn' I mean OLD. This barn must have been ancient. The wood was incredibly soft and dry - almost like foam core - and light as a feather, with a bit of a musky 'barn smell' attached to it.

I was lucky enough to score a few planks from the haul with the idea of turning them into some cool Halloween-related signs. Here's the first effort. Not sure if it's quite finished yet - it feels like it needs something more - but I'm pretty pleased with the direction it's going. The actual quote reads:

"Those born on Hallowe'en shall see more than other folk."
-ancient saying

& More Swag

Some more cool swag from Bath & Body Works and Michaels.

Swag

Some cool Dollar Store swag I picked up with the fam the other day. We've hit all the major retailers on our hunt for interesting Halloween items: Michaels, Hobby Lobby, TJ Maxx, Jo-Ann Fabrics, etc. TJ Maxx is the front-runner so far (as usual) with Michaels a close second, but overall I haven't been too knocked out with the themes this year - much too cutesy and cartoony for my tastes (which is pretty much a reflection of the times and how nauseatingly commercial Halloween has become).

However, it's still early, so hopefully one of these stores - or some of the others that have yet to put out their wares - steps up and delivers some really cool, dark merchandise that taps into the true meaning of Halloween.

Must Read

http://www.amazon.com/Halloween-Nation-Behind-Scenes-Americas/dp/1589806808

Zing!

Looks like that demented dude over at the Hallowzing website has finally got his 2010 Halloween pictures up. This creep has a serious love of Halloween (and a serious case of procrastination)! Stop on by and check out the madness at: www.hallowzing.com

Countdown

T-minus 200 days and counting...

Walking Dead

After a much deserved day off - I'm finally back. The activities of Halloween - not to mention the tear-down effort the next day - really took their toll this year (and I'm not even completely done!) Exhausted would be an understatement. However, Halloween went well - we had over 200+ TOT's this year (we actually lost count of how many came through our haunted garage), the weather was incredible: 50 F with no wind or rain, followed by The Walking Dead on AMC that night.

Tearing down the haunted house went pretty quickly, but I kept thinking: "Man, two months to construct - two hours to tear down!" Now there's nothing left to do but store it all away for another year. Once that's done I'll be able to get back to blogging regularly, as well as writing up some new reviews for the Drive-In. Thanks for your patience - we're looking forward to a great year of movies under the stars!

P.S. If you have any ideas, criticisms, suggestions for the site, please don't hesitate to comment.

Living After Midnight

At the stroke of midnight tonight, the dead shall rise...

www.driveinofthedead.com

Dead Tired

I'm back after an absolutely exhausting weekend. Our annual Halloween/birthday party went great - we really couldn't have asked for a better day. After a freakishly warm October, the weather-man gave us a grim forecast for Saturday - 55 and rainy. Instead, we got blue skies, abundant sunshine and 70 degrees - an absolutely perfect fall day (as an added bonus I got to watch my beloved Iowa State Cyclones whup up on Texas on television!) We had a great turnout with some fabulous costumes, the haunted house in my garage was a big hit, and all the kids were winners and left with plenty of candy and prizes from our games (Wheel of Fate, Apple Bob, Beanbag Toss, and Pumpkin Seed Spit).

Teardown - on the inside of our house, not the outside graveyard or garage - took ALL DAY yesterday, from 7:00 a.m. until I crashed in bed at 8:00 p.m. But that's what it takes to get ten giant Rubbermaids filled and stored back into the crawlspace. And to think - next week I do it all over again for the outside props! Man, Halloween can be exhausting...

P.S. Pictures to come...

Back...

Ughh... Finally back after having my butt severely kicked by a major cold. My sincere apologies for not posting on the blog - it took well over a week, but I finally got rid of it (I hope). Now back to the home haunting, making last minute repairs to the drive-in, and trying to enjoy the last remaining days of October before the greatest day of the year. Here's hoping I stay healthy for the last two weeks - there's still so much to get done!

Countdown...

In honor of it being the first day of that glorious month of October - and beginning our official countdown to opening day - here's a little sneak preview of things to come...

Bride of Hallowzing

For those wondering what Mrs. Hallowzing looks like, or why she puts up with my Halloween chicanery all year round - here she is! My beautiful wife picked up this really cool Halloween mask at Pier One the other day. She models it here in all its fanged grooviness. She says she has plans to put it on one of our mannequins, but after looking at this picture I think I might have other ideas...

[insert evil laugh]