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Ok guys, I was working on this all month (honest!), so here's my results. With 6 bullets to clear in 31 days, you'd think it'd be easy--and it can be done in 1 day, as the September pack showed--but I really wanted to use it to keep my halloween spirit up (and there were days it went way down @_@). So let's see how I did.
I assumed this meant the movie franchise mentioned from last month, and therefore, I was locked into the Howling series. Not that its a bad idea, since I found it interesting, if completely different from the original novels (oh yeah, they were novels). But I only owned Howling 2 on DVD and I wanted to watch it in good quality. So I popped that shit in and enjoyed it as wonderful background noise. I first saw parts of this as a feature on a justin.tv MST3K stream for us to riff. Mostly cuz it had Reb "Beef Chunksteak" Brown, as seen on Space Mutiny. And because I fucking love the song. But more than the song, its the ending sequence. I've gone over that in a previous countdown day, but here it is again. Cuz you need more boobs anyway.
MOVING ON.
A mood table was on my mind, and in honor of Zero Week, I themed mine on Fatal Frame, because the series needs more love, and also its part of the campaign to get the 5th game out here. So here's mine.
So I built mine on my giant record player/tape player/radio/music player, because I have a blind dog in the house and she might crash into a table in a place she isn't used to. I arranged all the boxes for the games I do own in one corner: 1-3 plus Spirit Camera, and the 2 X-Box releases. I draped a lil exposed film (from a camera that wasn't advancing film and thus ruined the whole thing), and had a 35mm film and a 120 film out for effect. Thus the need for the "film for life" piece my sister bought me at an art show ("film for life" indeed for the games XD). I have a book for yokai out, and the small Black Album that I reviewed earlier this month. A small wooden japanese doll is in one corner, and I also have a simulacrum of the shide and shimenawa (sacred rope and paper streamers) for Kirie, an ofuda, and even an evil eye pendant for protection. 3 cameras; 2 are in the style of the one Sara has in the manga Shadow Priestess (also represented by the crow in the corner), and the tlr in the back is meant to represent the movie and novel. I put out all my jewelry to represent the heroines: Miku's hair clip, Mayu's charm, Rei's necklace, Ruka's necklace, and Miu's hairpin. Rounding out the table is a stone mirror replica (quartz in a box), and a electronic votive candle that glows in orange. It was really fun to make and made me happy I could do one on a theme that I really love.
This ghost is also on my mood table, as a necklace, because I wanted my lil ghost to be with me when I'm out and about (mostly to keep it out of mischief!).
Here's a closer shot. I named it "Rei" and used the kanji for--what else--"Zero". A ghost named…zero. Hey, if Jack Skellington can name his dog Zero, I think its a nice name.
I hung the tiny jar on a gunmetal roll chain, then added a small silver chain for effect. I made itsy bitsy shide to help contain it. Its made from tracing paper, which is a lot like some rice paper, and was really hard to fold @_@.
I wrote the name with Sharpie and slapped some packing tape to protect it. I didn't seal the jar since I think I can trust the spirit to behave and let it out if I want to.
That and I think I might add some trinkets like tiny toys for effect later.
Last year, I didn't have time to carve, and the year before that I think I slacked off. I've done nicer pumpkins before, like a Deadmau5 inspired one (with glow stick necklace ears!), and a Mr. Saturn one in honor of the Mother series. This year, I wanted to do one for Animal Crossing, and carved mine to look more like Jack the Czar of Halloween.
I've probably written about it before but carving pumpkins is hard work! Even with my giant slasher-movie knife, that gourd was giving me hell letting me give it the pumpkin seed lobotomy. Pumpkin flesh is thick, and can be even fed to dogs. So I tried that. Cody spit it back out, and Molly turned her nose up at it. AND SHE EATS POWDERED PUMPKIN IN HER FOOD EVERYDAY.
Foodie dogs. ヽ(￣д￣;)ノ
So here's the result and the inspiration:
Not bad if I do say so myself. Even with the last minute t-shirt choice, I rather like it. Not that any kid is gonna get it cuz adults play AC. Kids play Minecraft.
Hokay. I sat a long time on this. Cuz I really wanted to do something to get me into drawing. I haven't really had time this month with my crazy schedule, so I decided if I want to really do a good job and not phone it in, you have to start with good material.
To that end, my choices in monsters were these lovely ladies:
Oh yes, son, I went there. Hell yeah Ghoul School. I used to watch this with my sister all the time when it was available. Its probably one of my favorite Scooby-Doo movies, but I'm just a sucker for all Scooby related stuff.
So here's my drawing of the girls having a tea party.
Why a tea party? Well it started with me wondering how to do the art in the first place. First of all, I didn't just want to update the girls willy-nilly. I saw someone had made fan art a lil more adult in mind, and it worked out GREAT. But since it was done so well the first time, I changed my focus. I decided to go a more EGL/GothLoli/cutesy route, and redesigned the outfits according to my tastes as well as the style of each monster. Sorta. It was easy with Sibella, since vampire and GothLoli go hand in hand like peanut butter and chocolate. I wanted Tanis in a petticoat dress cuz I LOVE petticoat dresses, gave a sorta chic yukata look to Phantasma cuz she fit that yurei/japanese ghost look adorably. Winnie was a lil more harder since I wanted something more cute and sporty and with with slightly lacy overalls and a simpler shirt with ruffles. Elsa rounds out with a more elegant look, though the boots were cute too. And with my lolita style girls complete, it made a tea party that much more appropriate. I'm quite happy, since they all look so adorable, and they look more in line with my default style but still retain their original designs. That and coloring girls in different skin colors like blue and purple was really fun.
This was a tricky one to do with me working or driving so late, I miss most decorations when you can see them. But I saddled up the dogs and quickly took a tour of my neighborhood for some well-deserved exercise.
And yes. Its hard to walk a hyper lab and a blind old dog at the same time. You know what a medieval rack is like? Yeah.
Sadly most of my neighborhood was lacking in the decoration department. Only a few places even had anything on their lawns. It kinda made me sad. This neighbor always has a graveyard, and while its small, its always well done. I like how their graveyard has a tiny lil black picket fence. Really makes it stand out.
One lawn has one of those garden decorations that has air flowing through it, like a bounce house, and it was a ghost. It had lights in it that blinked to make it light up, but this year they also had a blown up spider that had colored lights in it that moved around like water. it was really cool, but I couldn't get close enough to take a pic.
Another house had a few decorations out, but not many. But there's something nice about simple displays.
Maybe its me, but the pic at left of that random box sitting there with the label "Christmas" was really weird. I mean, yeah, x-mas stuff goes up even before Dracula's stuff makes the clearance table, but this was just odd. Are they getting rid of stuff? Is it for sale or pick up? Its so neatly packaged too. Something very Se7en about it….
My usual favorite spot, where the neighbor always hung up black curtains and had a huge cemetery, wasn't as elaborate this year. It might be that it wasn't done, but I'd have to check halloween night (and with passing candy, I may not have time). Still, I love the fence and the tombstones. The fence one year had this great fake blood on it that looked like it was made of a gel like substance. Really tricked the eye. Hopefully by the big day it'll really be something.
Anyhow, that was the extent my immediate neighborhood had. Kinda wish I drove around more, like we used to do for Christmas lights.
Tangentally related is that our front yard's graveyard sometimes has our neighborhood cats chillin. They're like little halloween cats, since they're both black (one has a tuxedo pattern in white, but the other is all black, which is weird cuz Mom cat is like a smoke grey and white siamese). I rather like them, but my dogs aren't a huge fan, obviously.
Well, that's the checklist for October! I'm glad i did it little by little when I had the time and when my halloween spirits were particularly low. This really did help in the long way to get me throughout the countdown (in addition to our other lovely writers and guests too!). We have just 2 days left til Halloween, so let's try going out with a bang!
--Dio (10/29/31)
Pics shot by me, Hanna Barbera owns Scooby-Doo.
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