From all of us here at Gravedigger’s Local 16, we wish you a Happy Halloween. Be safe, be spooky.
During a the second of two years when I lived at home to attended the local state university, I helped my parents hand out candy by being The Cowardly Vampire. Donning one of the many surplus capes my family kept onhand (the vampire is the easiest costume to make) I handed out candy while doing my fakest of the fake Bela Lugosi accents, cowering in fright at all the scary costumes. I had more fun when the costumes weren’t scary. The littler kids had fun getting the grown-up to squeal and yelp. It was fun.
As a teenager, the event once fell on a Saturday. My little sister went off to spend the night with her friends at one of their houses while my friends came over. There weren’t any plans to do anything holiday specific. It was to be another Saturday where we gathered in someone’s basement and tried to pass twenty-four hours before the dredge of school started up again on Monday. Someone had a packet of grease paint and our faces were done up in alternating clown/death metal/black metal sequences. We did not so much as ‘trick or treat’ as run, jump and holler for an hour before returning back to the home to spend the evening playing card games and watching television. There exists a lone photograph of the spontaneous results as evidence of the night. I’m standing off to the right, looking like a bad Alice Cooper knock-off.
When I first went out without a parent as a chaperone, it was I and two other friends. I must have been thirteen or fourteen because it was before Alex moved away. Alex, I think, was supposed to be the Grim Reaper, and I remember he had one of those Ghost Man masks right before they would be forever associated with the SCREAM franchise. I think Daniel was an army man, a prophecy that he would later fulfill by joining the marines. I can’t recall what I was, though I think there was facepaint involved. Might have been a skeleton, might have been another Grim reaper, might have been a vampire for all my failing memory provides. It was probably the first instance when the chase wasn’t worth the catch and I discovered a diminished return on the endeavor.
Seems as I get older, I’m growing more fond of those more innocent times when I accompanied my little sister. Our Dad watched over while we both went up to the doors to knock and ask for candy. After a night’s haul, the spread out contents inspected for deviant alterations would instigate the trade-and-exchange moments. Ultimately, by the end of November, each of our dwindling bowls of candy would be combined until Mom threw out the stale Dum-Dums and black/orange taffy, tossed to be forever uneaten.
Back when Weird Jon wrote “Son of Shameless Cross Promotion,” he had no idea that the “Costume Crazyness” series would be dropped from URBMN the very next year due to changes in the site’s format and would be moved to Gravedigger’s Local 16. Neither did I, for that matter, but the site had changed so much since then and both the owner and I agreed that it would make more sense over here, Sadly, this happened after I had written my update for the Halloween countdown and what little free time I had was soon devoured by other things. So rather than disappoint fans of the series by not doing a 2010 installment I decided to post it in November, just like a Halloween episode for any given animated comedy series on Fox. But enough about that, let’s get to the knock-offs and other assorted costume oddities!
Holy crap, they made a Pai Mei knock-off? That’s…pretty cool, actually. It’s a shame they referred to a Chinese character as a Japanese “sensei” rather than the proper “sifu.” They also lose style points for not calling it a Bak Mei costume.
Scream knock-offs? That is so 1996. I am somewhat impressed by the fact that the last one is also a knock-off of Ex Mortis’ Stalkarounds. You rarely see something rip off two different costumes at the same time.
This is just a “Ragga Muffin Sailor” costume and not Raggedy Andy. Right…
From all of us here at Gravediggers Local 16, we wish you a safe and happy Halloween.
Thought the American Thanksgiving is next month, I would like to take today to thank each and every one of the readers we’ve had in the past year. GdL16 keeps growing and we’re still not sure how this little experiment is going to turn out. Everyone’s continual support here, on the twitter feed and over at Facebook is truly appreciated.
Thanks go out to every single shop on Etsy that allowed GdL16 to run a Tuesday uEtsy. They’ll return in November but thank you for helping us grow the site by having some spooky content every Tuesday. It also allows the Front Office to tell more about the GdL16 world.
Many, many thanks go to each and ever artist that has let us review their spooky, tiki and plain awesome bit of work here on the site. It’s been incredible how warm a reception we’ve received to offer our humble opinions and insights on another person’s art.
And personally, I want to thank Weird Jon, The Abominable N. Oremac, Atomic Mystery Monster and the Front Office. I am lucky to write for this site but I’m even luckier to have these guys writing, offering fun and hilarious reads.
Happy Halloween, everyone. Go out and get some candy!
When I think to myself “I better go down to the basement. I have two that I need to take the knives to, today,” I realize it’s thoughts like those are why I wouldn’t be a good schoolteacher, but a great one.
It was a pretty good first contest, here at Gravediggers Local 16. Before we go any further, we want to extend our gratitude to all of those who entered. A contest without entries is the saddest pumpkin on the block. You took time out of your day to craft together some effort – could have taken an hour or a minute – it was still time that you gave to this little website. Thank You.
We have received word back from our celebrity judges, the Freakshow Family – Bernie, Loretta and daughter, Poinsettia. We’ve tallied up the scores and are ready to present the winners of the 2010 Halloween Contest here at Gravediggers Local 16.
Longtime readers of the site know it’s no secret that that we love puppets. Especially the inventive use of a low budget and twisted humor from the warped world of Puppetose.
Given the Halloween season, I thought it would be good to share one of my favorite episodes of PuppeTose Street, wherein the gang visits a haunted mansion. It’s filled with loads of horror movie references and very NSFW humor and situations. So, without further ado:
Dedicated PuppeTose fans will undoubtedly notice the cameo by the hypno-priest from the show’s second episode. Also, be sure to check out the new season of PuppeTose Street on the official PuppeTose Youtube channel.
2010 marks eight years of ZombiePumpkins.com bringing its collection of over 200 frightfully artful designs to your holiday decoration. Patchmaster General Ryan Wickstrand, a freelance art design maestro, applied his craft to the holiday tradition of pumpkin carving and struck some orange gold. As people asked for his designs, he heeded the calling and started up ZombiePumpkins.com
The official story is that the neglected pumpkins, left behind to rot and decay in pumpkin patches, have risen up to seek their revenge. The only way to prevent a pumpkin zombie uprising is to carve! carve! carve! them all. Thankfully, Ryan adds new designs to the site, giving you plenty to chose from each year. There are multiple levels of membership, for those who just want a few designs to those who utilize Ryan’s work year round.
ZombiePumpkins.com was generous to donate a membership to our 2010 Halloween Contest. For those who win, they’ll have a bunch of new designs to pick from—recently added were Zombie Hello Kitty, Killer Klowns from Outer Space and Dr. Frank-N-Furter from Rocky Horror. The site also houses a forum for all your pumpkin, spooky art and general horror interests.
Ryan was kind enough to answer a few questions as he gears up during this busy 2010 Halloween season
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The common sentiment about the holidays seems to be “they come earlier ever year.” When do you usually start gearing up for Halloween?
The more appropriate question might be, when am I NOT planning for Halloween. The answer to that is probably, just at Christmas. No wait, that’s not true either, there are skulls on my Christmas tree and my door wreath has eyes and sharp teeth.
People always ask me what I do the rest of the year, and my answer is: plan for next Halloween! There’s always something that can be done. Generally though, I take a break from Halloween during the winter months, start planning in the spring, and work full force during the summer to prepare new patterns and products.
What do you usually do with what I can only imagine is a metric-ton of pumpkin guts? Have you gotten to a master skill at making pies?
I’m pretty good at eating pumpkin pie, but not making them. You can’t really make much out of the gooey, stringy guts of a pumpkin. You can eat the seeds, which I’ve done on occasion. But 99% of the time, it all goes in the trash. Luckily I have a dumpster nearby that just so happens to hold a metric-ton of pumpkin guts.
What’s the best advice you can give to someone picking out a pumpkin?
Pretty common sense tips, really. For an easy carving experience, make sure it has a nice flat, smooth face. And look it over thoroughly to make sure there are no soft rotting spots, or nicks and scrapes that expose the pumpkin flesh to germs. I’m always surprised when I see people at pumpkin patches just grab the first pumpkin they see and walk away with it. Turn it over, feel for bad spots. Or you’ll be sad when your prize pumpkin is mush before the big night.
Your summer patterns bring up the idea that carving shouldn’t be regulated to just one night in October. How did the idea of carving watermelons come about?
Can’t say I invited it, watermelons have been discovered to be a good carving canvas for a while. From fruit bowls made of the melon itself, to melon-lanterns, their structure is well suited for it. The “Summer Spirits” collection of patterns on my site allows me to try designs other than the usual spooky stuff. And the timing of summer couldn’t be better. It leads right into the fall Halloween season so it’s a great way to get the buzz going for carving.
You have a wide range of tiki designs available. Are you a big fan of tiki/exotica music?
I’m a big fan of all sorts of music, and often I’ll listen to the matching genre while I’m designing a pattern, to get me in the right frame of mind. So you can be sure I’ve listened to my share of groovy exotica, tiki tunes and swinging surf while designing and carving my tiki patterns.
With all the characters on your site, do you have someone who you haven’t yet been able to capture in pumpkin form, a ‘great orange whale,’ so to speak?
Many of my patterns have gone through several rough drafts before I was happy enough to release them. Pinhead from Hellraiser is one example, which took me a few years of attempting before I “nailed” it. Currently, Lily Munster and Darth Vader are characters that are still playing hard to get.
This Saturday is the deadline for the 2010 Halloween Contest here at Gravediggers Local 16. We’ve been caught up in getting ready for the holiday that we’ve missed a prize announcement (or two.) We apologize, and figure today and tomorrow should be the best time to announce the final two additions to our grand prize packs.
If you’ve been following us on Twitter or on Facebook, you’ve known that the ART Contest wins the PAIN IN THE NECK prize pack, while the LIMERICK competition winner will be awarded the OUT OF YOUR GOURD package.
We’re almost three weeks away from the deadline (October 16th, 2010) for our Gravediggers Local 16 2010 Halloween Contest. We’ve already received some incredible entries so far! And we’re accepting entries until One minute until Midnight (11:59pm EST) on October 16th. Remember, you can send three (3) limericks and one (1) artistic expression. Remember, every entrant who includes a mailing address gets something neat and spooky. It won’t be much but it’ll be our way of saying ‘You entered our contest. You rock. Seriously, you do.”
Last week, we announced an entry to the PAIN IN THE NECK grand prize pack. So this week, OUT OF YOUR GOURD gets an addition with….
ZOMBIE PUMPKINS MEMBERSHIP
Zombie Pumpkins (www.zombiepumpkins.com) is site in it’s 8th year of operation, providing up to 220+ carving pattens for the pumpkin enthusiast. You will have the pleasuring of picking 25 out of over-two-hundred designs when you win a Break Ground membership.
If you’re someone who is going to have their pumpkin carved well ahead of the October 23th announcement date, don’t fret. Zombie Pumpkins memberships are good for 9 months and the site provides ideas on how to apply the designs for other occasions!
Note – Zombie Pumpkins is not affiliated, sponsoring, endorses or is responsible for this contest in any way. Winners will have an account purchased by Gravediggers Local 16. Any gripes about the contest can be sent to frontoffice [at] gravediggerslocal.com. If winning contestant is currently a ZombiePumpkins member, the ‘break ground’ account will be purchased at the end of the current, existing ZP membership. This is a disclaimer. This has been a disclaimer.
Update: Patchmaster General Ryan at ZombiePumpkins.com has graciously offered to donate a ‘Break Ground’ membership to the winner! We want to thank Ryan and www.ZombiePumpkins.com for such a generous offer! Let’s all give a big Halloween Thank You to Zombie Pumpkins (here on Twitter, Facebook and even on their YouTube channel!)
CLICK HERE for the Gravediggers Local 16 2010 Halloween Contest.
We are officially within the countdown to the October 16th deadline for the 2010 Halloween Contest here at the Local. That’s a long sentence, but it sums everything up: submit your three (3) limericks and/or one (1) artful expression demonstrating the theme of this year’s contest – ‘something spooky is happening at the Local’s Halloween Party’ – by October 16th.
We’ve already received entries and we’re still thirty days away! Remember that you are not required to include a mailing address with your entry (if you win, we’ll contact you) but if you do, you’re guaranteed to get something spooky and neat from us at the Local.
Since we have thirty days to go, we’re going to leave you with a little tease for this Week’s Prize announcement. Next week, we’ll tell you what’s going into the OUT OF YOUR GOURD package but for this week, an addition to A PAIN IN THE NECK….
We’ve already announced that the grand prize winners will receive some spooky soap and either a DVD of ‘Perfect Creature,’ a neat New Zealand vampire movie or a CD of ‘Halloween Hootenanny,’ featuring original music by The Ghastly Ones, Deadbolt, Southern Culture on the Skids and more.
FAKE BLOOD
Blood Gel, realistic and close to the genuine product without having to puncture a vein. The winner will be up to seventh heaven someplace else when they win this fine specimen of holiday horror Hollywood magic.
Fantastic! Keep your entries coming in!
OH – one more thing!
Since we believe in democracy, and perchance to encourage you to enter knowing that you had a hand in picking your prizes (and not your nose), we’re taking an informal poll. Follow us on twitter – @GdL16 – and by Sunday at Midnight EST, tweet at us with either “Neck for Art” or “Gourd for Limerick” or vice-ah-versa. Next Friday, we’ll announce the grand prize designations for each contest and another addition to the prize pile.
Keep it spooky!
Our Ghoul Jenn has thrown down a challenge!
Using our new wireless crystal ball – which has great reception – we were able to channel forth a spirit and get a call from beyond the grave! (about two miles beyond, because Our Ghoul Jenn was down at the coffee shop. She’s not dead. Just deadly.)
Being that tomorrow is officially 31 DAYS LEFT on the Gravediggers Local 2010 Halloween Contest, she has challenged each of you out there to out-limerick her:
Once, a hot ghoul named Jenn
got sick of all these monster men.
A sparkly vampire did appear
and said “Come here, my dear.”
Instead, she gouged his eyes out with a pen.
A good one! And a great update to the dating scene for today’s modern ghoul. THE CHALLENGE HAS BEEN THROWN DOWN. Are you man (or woman) enough to pick up? GO HERE
As you might have seen, we here at Gravediggers Local 16 recently announced our ’2010 Gravediggers Local 16 Halloween Contest.’ You have until October 16th, 2010 to enter so there’s plenty of time! We’ve received our first entry already and we haven’t even announced all the prizes yet!
Each week, we’re going to announce a new addition to the prize packages. Since there are two contests, one for visual expression (i.e. ‘art’) and one for written expression (i.e. ‘limerick’) there will be two grand prize packages plus two runner up prizes as well.
This week, we figure we’d announce both prizes for the Grand Prize packages as well as for the Runner Up. Each contest will have one (1) grand prize winner and (1) runner up.
For GRAND PRIZE #1 – A PAIN IN THE NECK, we add….
PERFECT CREATURE on DVD.
Recently, New Zealand suffered a 7.1(give or take) earthquake. Kind of crazy, how the world seems to be going through hell. We given our support to Hati, Pakistan and China – now is time to root for New Zealand. While we donate to disaster relief, let’s give some spiritual and spooky encouragement by giving away PERFECT CREATURE, listed as New Zealand’s First Vampire Movie. Sure, that claim comes from Wikipedia, reason enough to be dubious, but we’re willing to look past and say – go kiwis!
One might say that the Lords of the Rings might have been better if we secretly imagined the hobbits as vampires, but we’ll leave that for the fan-fiction writers.
In addition to the grand prize, a copy of PERFECT CREATURE on DVD will be given to a runner up.
Next…
GRAND PRIZE #2 – OUT OF YOUR GOURD…
Honestly, outside of Pumpkinhead, the Pumpkin Karver and that Christina Ricci movie called ‘Pumpkin’, there’s not a lot of gourd themed horror out there. Sure, we could give you ‘Jack-O’ or ‘Jack o’Lantern’ on DVD, but we want to REWARD you, not punish (we kid. we kid.)
So, we’ve decided that the next prize should be….
HALLOWEEN HOOTENANNY on CD
One of the more favorite compilations of rockin’ tracks (that Strange Jason talked about here) features songs from Southern Culture on the Skids, Rocket from the Crypt, Deadbolt, The Amazing Royal Crowns, The Ghastly Ones and Rob Zombie. Perfect for any party where you want to rock out with your pumpkin out.
In addition, one runner up will get a copy of HALLOWEEN HOOTENANNY as well.
Check the Contest Page. We’ve changed the rules regarding mailing addresses. Follow us on twitter and ask questions. We had a good one about mixed media, and how that applies. Collages are more than welcome. So long as you can take a good picture and send it to us, we’ll take it. Our only request is ‘no video,’ so if you want to collage, sculpt, make a diorama, etc. – knock yourself out!
Stay tuned to the site for more info, more great articles from the writers here and more prize announcements!
As you might have seen, we here at Gravediggers Local 16 recently announced our ’2010 Gravediggers Local 16 Halloween Contest.’ You have until October 16th, 2010 to enter so there’s plenty of time with about six weeks left.
Each week, we’re going to announce a new addition to the prize packages. Since there are two contests, one for visual expression (i.e. ‘art’) and one for written expression (i.e. ‘limerick’) there will be two grand prize packages plus two runner up prizes as well.
09/03/10 – This week, we start things off by with some products from Dugshop, as spotlighted in this Tuesday uEtsy. The kind folks over at Dugshop (and Bubble Genuis) provided some free samples that we could not just share with ourselves.
For GRAND PRIZE #1 – A PAIN IN THE NECK, we add….
HEART ON – Anatomical heart soap (pomegranate scent.)
This hand made, totally vegan soap is in the shape of a human heart. Pretend it’s the heart of a scorning lover, a political rival or a food service worker who screwed up your order. The choice is yours if your winning entry wins the grand prize.
As you might guess, the next prize for…
GRAND PRIZE #2 – OUT OF YOUR GOURD…
BATH O’ LANTERN - Pumpkin and Shea Butter Soap
You will be clean and delicious smelling for Halloween after winning this dugshop/bubblegenuis product. Smell like pumpkin pie and give the people around you reason to nibble on you.
More prizes to be added every week. Keep reading the site and get those rhymes flowing and art sketchin’. Check the Contest Page for details!
Although I ended my contribution to the 2008 Halloween countdown with a cover of a Frank Zappa song, it hadn’t dawned on me how appropriate it was to do so until now. At the time, I just wanted to use it since I’m a Zappa fan and wanted a video that ended with someone saying “Happy Halloween.” But now that I think about it, the choice was doubly appropriate, as Zappa was known for his yearly Halloween concerts and the mask-wearing musician with a KFC bucket on his head would have undoubtedly appealed to FZ’s love of the bizarre.
In fact, that love of his resulted in the creation of “Cheepnis.” The song is a loving tribute to the low budget monster movies, with a title which both refers to the budgets of many such films and his name for the cucumber-looking monster from It Conquered the World (said creature was dubbed “Beulah” by its creator, Paul Blaisdell). It was also this love of both monster flicks and general weirdness that led to him trying to make a musical tribute film about a giant spider with Best Brains, the company behind Mystery Science Theater 3000. Apparently, Mr. Zappa was so impressed by the weirdness of a particular sketch he had stumbled across that he immediately contacted the company. Despite the Brains being big FZ fans, the project was sadly never realized (although I seem to recall that the songs prepared for it were eventually released).
Since GdL shares that love, I thought I’d post a video of the song itself. Like last year, it’s a cover, but it isn’t an ordinary cover song; it’s done by Frank’s eldest son Dweezil and some of FZ’s old friends/band mates. So, thanks to zappaplayszappadvd, here’s a little “Cheepnis” for you all:
My other reason for posting this is that I wanted to pay tribute to another band known for Halloween concerts and for a love of the bizarre: Oingo Boingo. I only got into them fairly recently, but here’s what I know: Originally founded as “The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo” by Danny Elfman (yes, that Danny Elfman) in 1972, the band eventually changed their musical style and shortened their name (along with band size) in the 1980′s. After many hits and membership changes (along with a brief change of name to “Boingo”), the band left the music world after a “Farewell” concert held on October 31st, 1995.
Here’s a homemade music video for “Dead Man’s Party” (the song that first got me into Boingo), created and uploaded by vash81888:
I don’t know if Oingo Boingo ever tried doing a concert with Frank Zappa, but I doubt it. It’s a shame, as I think they’d both appreciate each other’s love of the weird. Boingo’s cult film Forbidden Zone would definitely be up FZ’s alley. But since Zappa passed away in 1993 and Oingo Boingo probably won’t ever reunite officially due to Danny Elfman’s concern over hearing loss, such a team-up can only exist in our minds. To aid in the process, here are some quick Halloween-themed song lists I came up with for each band (in no particular order):
Frank Zappa:
Cheepnis
Goblin Girl
Zomby Woof
The Torture Never Stops
Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch
As Zappa often did numerous versions of each of his songs, I’m going to recommend my favorite versions to you (with the exception of “Cheepnis” since I’ve only heard the “Zappa Plays Zappa” version). I enjoy the live version of “Zomby Woof” and original version of “The Torture Never Stops” from Cheap Thrills, the You Are What You Is version of “Goblin Girl,” the You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 3 version of “Drowning Witch” and the You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 6 variant of “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance.” I know that last one might seem like an unusual choice for a Halloween tune, but I’ve always felt that particular version of the song has a “harvest dance” quality to it.
Oingo Boingo:
Weird Science
Dead Man’s Party
Heard Somebody Cry
As I’m a bit of a Boingo newbie, I can’t really make any recommendations on any song versions. I do know that their Dead Man’s Party album has all three songs on it, but I’ve heard that they might use a different version of “Weird Science” than the one heard in the film. Oh, and “Heard Somebody Cry” totally needs to be the theme for a Ghost Hunters parody.
Now that I think about it, we’ve been making an awful lot of music recommendations this year. Maybe Gravedigger’s Local 16 could make a Halloween song list for the next countdown. In the mean time, be sure to keep visiting the site come November.
Happy Halloween!
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