My Tiny Chicken Army

I can't be the only one who finds these things creepy, surely.
Look at them. With their EYES!

Putting The Fun In

Took this on the weekend. Also got some nice shots of the funeral parlour, hopefully I'll get to upload them sometime this week.

Putting The Fun In

Explosive

Looking for some nice x-rays of horrific injuries? Check out radiologist Surfactant's flickr stream, which includes gunshot wounds, things where they really don't belong (shotglass, anyone?), and my personal favourite, Hand Trauma, which you see above, where a homemade explosive exploded before it was thrown.

There's also some neat pictures of shells and other objects that are worth checking out.

Via wasteofbaco.

Happy "I didn't get a Valentine" Day

Now, before we start, it'd be supercool if everyone actually watched the video I linked to in the For Future Reference post, but if you haven't, then this will (most likely) make no sense to you at all. 

If you can't be bothered watching the whole thing but still want to know what's going on, then this is the link again, and watch from around the 4 minute 20 mark.

 

 Valentine's Day is a holiday I appreciate more in theory than I do in practise. If you're in a couple, there's too much pressure to choose the right gift and to make everything perfect. If you're single it can be incredibly depressing to be surrounded by other people's flowers, chocolates and happiness.

A quick chat to my friends revealed that even those in a relationship were hating on the holiday - something which, despite my distaste for it, I found rather disheartening. 

So, drawing on a shared love for a certain crazy drunken Irish man who owns a bookstore (Bernard Black), I decided I'd make an Black Books referencing anti-Valentine card.

Also I really wanted a use for the accordion sketches I've been doing lately.

 

 The front of the cards read (in case you can't read my awful handwriting):

I've come to serenade you.

I can't play guitar.

I can't play this either, 

but I thought it would be less obvious.

While the inside reads:

Happy "I didn't get a Valentine" Day

Black and WTF

I've talked before about how old black and white photos are awesome.

I'm saying it again because 1: I've got an incredibly limited vocabulary, so I just repeat the same phrases ad nauseam, sometimes word for word.

and 2: it's true.

Black and WTF collects people's weird old black and white photos, from freaky long haired horses to freaky long haired men, and many other pictures sans freaky looking long haired stuff.

And you thought your old family photos were bad.

Now For Something Completely Different

from PostRejects.

Like the vast majority of people on the internet, I quite enjoy Mr Python and that grand old "Flying Circus" of his. However I have found that this is a fairly uncommon trait of people my age. They do exist, but most have only seen The Holy Grail, and I find that to be a bit sad.

A year or two ago, I went to a party dressed as Cardinal Ximénez (the one with the hat). It was a costume party, obviously, which made it a bit less odd. However, while I thought the costume witty and entertaining, nobody else did.

 Nobody expected it. But nobody understood it either.

So if I were to make a post secret about The Spanish Inquisition, it would look more like this:

Because sometimes having cool parents who let you watch Flying Circus videos at age 5 really sucks.

Also I hate that yellow mouse.

Can't Wait To Be Eighteen

So that I no longer have to get an adult to buy my spray paint. Few people are willing to drop everything and go buy a half dozen cans at my say so. For now, however, my skills remain only at the 'stencil' level.

Internet tells me that this amazing piece is by Shepard Fairey aka The Guy Who Did Those Obama Posters. See also album covers for Mothership by Led Zeppelin and Zeitgeist by The Smashing Pumpkins.
via fuckyeahstreetgraffiti on tumblr

An Overall Good Time

A posthumous Happy Halloween to you all.

Due to technical difficulties, this will be a long, mostly text based post, where I ramble on about what happened on Halloween. If you wish to see the few pictures, scroll down towards the bottom. If not, feel free to read. Or do something productive with your time. Up to you, really.

Waking up on the morning of the 31st, it was a warm and muggy day. I'd kicked off the sheets some time in the early AM, too hot and restless to sleep. For days they had been changing the forecasts. Overcast with cool winds. Hot and sunny. Thunderclouds and rain. I was worried that it would be a repeat of the day before - hot and humid all day then rain pouring in come nightfall. Stepping outside my prediction seemed likely, with clouds overhead and a fairly oppressive heat. Luckily the main area that needed work done was indoors, so I didn't need to leave the house for a few hours.

The morning was spent removing almost everything from the living room, hallway and bathroom. All personal effects, knick-knacks and excess items disappeared into other rooms, light switches were covered with tape, doors sealed off with caution tape and Do Not Enter signs and furniture covered with white sheets. The bags of Halloween themed candy and bottle upon bottle of drink arrived and were hidden away in the fridge. The projector arrived and I found out that my year of light and sound tech classes had gone to waste when I was unable to connect speakers > playstation > projector. In my defence the speakers are possibly older than my mother, but still, it was quite a stumbling block. The brother was called out and set to fix it. He did. The cute cupcakes are various party foods arrived, and as we put them in the outdoor fridge we discovered it was just about cool enough to go outside.

Down to the shed we went. Up came the paintings, a second set of speakers (which didn't work any better than the pair we had), and more caution tape to wrap around the outside of the house. Back down we went, and dragged out all the wooden benches, and placed them around the path. Hot and sticky work. They look rather easy to carry. One person at each end, lift and carry. They're not. We collapsed back inside and debated hanging positions for the paintings. The portrait of his dead wife went next to his desk. Black and white figures went on the walls in the living room while creepy magpies were hung down the hallway, watching you pass, with one watching over your shoulder while you wash your hands in the bathroom. A bag of a hundred tea lights were opened and distributed in clusters in the room, with two dozen going in jars to hang outside. Others were placed on concrete tiles along the path, to be lit moments before guests arrived.

And then the neighbours came home.
As far as neighbours go, I have it pretty good. We live on a small street with no through road, and at present there are only four houses on the street. On the corner live a fairly large family who keep to themselves. Next door is my step-uncle and aunt and their daughter. Across from us have yet to finish building but are old friends of the family. However at the end of the street live the family that everyone will say hi to but don't really want to associate with. You know the type. Turns out November 1st was their eldest sons birthday, and they were celebrating the day before. And so the mob arrived. Last time there was a party there the police had to be called after they broke into our neighbour's shed. With a great part of the party planned to be outside, we had some decisions to make. Ultimately we chose to be non-confrontational. Inside the party went. We couldn't risk having them attempt to crash our party, nor did we want to be stuck outside in case the rain finally made an appearance.

It was a good decision, in the end. The police made an appearance only briefly, making sure nothing was going awry, and nothing went missing from our yard - something I was especially afraid of seeing as The Gardener was easy to take or destroy. The rain clouds, while still threatening rain, held out till midnight, and provided us with an early dark. An hour before guests arrived we scrambled to get ready and I briefly snuck out to snap some pictures of the set up. They were wonderful pictures. I say that safe in the knowledge that no one will ever be able to challenge me. Because they no longer exist. Three were recovered from the memory card. It does make you acknowledge how much you rely on photography to help you remember events. My main regret is that I can't show you all the effort that went into the party. The guests seemed to appreciate it though. And that's what's important, right?

The projector idea was a hit. Moved indoors along with the rest of the party, we pinned a white sheet to the blinds and played guitar hero, which was especially welcomed by the boys. A skewed gender ratio had them keeping to themselves, but thankfully the competitiveness of the girls got them playing together, with our effort at playing System of a Down's B.Y.O.B. on expert rewarded after we completed it on the third try. GH was such a hit that in the end we completely forgot that we planned to watch a movie just before midnight. Instead we sat around and did... party things, I guess. At several points, people moved outside to sample the cool air and for the most part the neighbours left us alone. The costumes were great, with my personal favourite being a milk maid, complete with milk jugs handing off a pole slung across her shoulders. I ended up being jealous of my brother's costume, because he ended up looking rather snazzy as Richmond from the IT Crowd. But I win in the end as I made it and did his make-up. My costume was rather... light, for me. Wearing a toga/dress and laurel wreath, I was Melpomene, the ancient Grecian muse of tragedy. Which, while sounding cool, means I was the patron saint of plays.

I had planned on doing a little slideshow of pictures from the party, but unfortunately they were also lost those along with the set up pictures. So very angry at my camera right now. The three pictures that were saved were:

Me doing my brother's make-up. (blurry)

And no, I'm not wearing a wig. I have blonde hair. Lets move on.

My brother again, pre make-up. (also blurry)

And The Gardener in his raincoat. (not blurry!)

Clean-up was relegated to the morning, and so those of us to lazy to go home crashed in the loungeroom, under the condition that they would have to help clean up. Breakfast was a very healthy meal of leftover Halloween candy and soft drink, of which, two days after the party, there is still plenty of. After the main cleaning was done, we all retreated to the lounge to play a nice calming game of Left 4 Dead. So all in all, it was nice. It's just my camera and the neighbours who couldn't made things nicer by not being quite so annoying. 

Innards/Progression

I think it's fairly safe to say that I enjoy taking photos from this perspective. It's pretty cool though, you can see the changes taking place, from the raggedy beginnings to smoothed out edges to the final coat of paint.

Pumpkin Teeth, Eyes & Blood, at Flickr.
(Eyes is my favourite. Just the colours.)

Work In Progress

And only two weeks overdue. I was going to get all of the papier mache on the vines done last night. Was. That was before I discovered a spider inhabiting the support pole under the vine and had a little freak out. It's dead now but I had trouble working to the same efficiency knowing I'd almost touched a spider. Yes, I know, it's a tad girly but it was either a funnel web (very bad) or a house spider (not so bad). There's a nice spider chart here telling you just how hurtie the spiders will be. Don't click on it if spiders freak you out, the pictures, while obviously drawn rather than photographs, move.
But moving away from spiders, once I've got the last of the mache done all that remains is a coat of varnish and then paint. It is shall live! -evil cackle-

-From now on this post will be about mind-numbingly mundane details of my life, so turn back now if you wish. Don't say I didn't warn you.-

Sadly The Gardener is turning into one of those things that I could've had done in a week had I not have had so much else to do. I've probably mentioned this on twitter several times, but the last week in October is for me not only the week before Halloween (and therefore the most exciting), but also the last week for school work submissions for the year (therefore the most nerve-wracking). The logical, "let's get straight A's and go to University" side of me says I should put off everything else and study. The rest of me though, is screaming Halloween. Because I don't really want to go to University, and well, I like Halloween more than I like writing essays about feminism in Ancient Greece, the changing status of artists from the Middle Ages to today, and knowing the formulas on how to find the angles and side lengths of triangles given only one length and one angle.

Ultimately I've chosen to do both. I finished and submitted my math assignment a few days ago. The Gardener is both for Halloween and for school. I got back my mark for my feminism essay last night (I did shockingly well). I spend most nights sewing my costume instead of doing revision and on Wednesday I finished my last compulsory day of sound and lighting tech classes. It's a strange feeling, to be honest. A lot of things have been done, and yet there's still a lot left to do. So I made a list. And another one. And then one more. Then I made a chart of the days leading to Halloween/end of school and filled in when they had to be done. I'm a nerd. I know. These are two of the lists:

Orange note pads make me happy. But the point of this post (there was one, honest) was to ask how the hell you guys do it, those of you who have such large haunts. I have enough trouble with just my modest decor-plans.

It's In The Blood

I've posted my mother's art a few times, and my own more than a few, so I thought now was as good a time as any to show some of my brother's. Don't let the messy style fool you - he's only two years (and eight days) younger than me. He just likes things messy.

More than once I've gone into his room to get/steal something and ran into something creepy staring at me. Luckily for me though, he also shares my distaste for cutesy Christmas figurines, much to the chagrin of our mother. Last year I was bringing the boxes of ornaments and general Christmassy things down from the shed's loft when I dropped a box and it bounced its way down the stairs. I freaked out for a moment thinking it was the box full of expensive breakable things. It wasn't. It was filled with the annoying novelty plushes that sing songs and dance when you press them. Which explains the horrific cacophony of noise that erupted upon the box's arrival on the bottom floor. I decided that it would probably be best just to check to make sure nothing had died, and if it had I would have sufficient time to dispose of the bodies. Then I discovered that two creepy porcelain santa figurines were in the box. One survived unscathed. The other was not so lucky. Head shorn from its fabric body, he lay in the bottom of the bag, begging for a quick death. Or maybe I was just imagining things.

Either way, I had a beheaded santa to deal with. So I got my brother to dispose of it while I carted the rest of the decorations up to the house. I came back to find this:

I'm not sure why he decided to give it gold skin. I just know it's awesome.

Idol Worship: The Obscure Hollow

The Obscure Hollow is my go-to site for inspiration when it comes to atmosphere. The concept behind the blog is simple; they - Kerry Kate, Micha Michelle and Rebecca Kasner - watch horror movies (haunted house movies in particular) and provide us with lovely screenshots of the decor.

This year's Halloween decor is inspired by these shots from their post about Fear In The Night. Choosing dust sheets and minimal lighting was perhaps the best decision I've made this year. Also great source material for this year was the post about the first movie from The House That Dripped Blood. It's the attention to detail that I love, and my friends and I have been collecting old books since I showed her the photos.

Halloween Shop Haul

For weeks now, I've been watching bloggers post photographs upon photographs of the Halloween items in their locals stores. Eagerly I have awaited the appearance of such magical mass-produced goodies in my local stores. I knew that as I live in Australia, I would have to wait a bit longer. "Give it a few weeks," I told myself. "Just you wait, a three weeks to go and it'll be everywhere!"

I was wrong.

Australia has come quite a way in embracing Halloween. They play last year's Simpson Halloween special on the 31st. Channels dedicate their weekend movie spot to movies of the horror genre. Occasionally small children come a-knocking. But sadly we're still incredibly resistant to the holiday. For you see, yesterday I went shopping.

I like shopping. It's something I've become quite skilled at in my seventeen and a bit years on this planet. But yesterday was possibly the most depressing, and least fruitful shopping trip I've been on. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right places. Maybe I just wasn't trying hard enough. Maybe my expectations were to high. For as I left the house, in my mind I pictured aisles bedecked with Halloween goodies. Sugary treats and horrible polyester costumes. I wasn't expecting anything more than what was on offer last year and even then I was let down. For what holiday's decorations did I see in the 'seasonal' displays?

Christmas.
Yes, that's right, Christmas.
IN OCTOBER!

I should have seen it coming. It's a wonderfully marketable holiday and why start stocking shelves a month before when you can start two months before? Generally, I'm quite the fan of Christmas displays - all the colours and textures and shiny things. I am, afterall, nothing if not a simple creature. But this was just... sad.

Two stores did their best (sort of) to pervade against the gloom - craft store Spotlight and bargain store The Reject Shop.

Spotlight have had bits and pieces up for a few weeks now. I'd check in on them every now and then under the pretense of buying fabric for some thing or another. It never seemed to really change at all. However when I arrived yesterday morning I discovered the display above behind the counter. There wasn't a great deal of thought or effort put into it, but I appreciated the gesture. And wanted the clear plastic skeleton window cover thing on the back wall. However it was the last of its kind and Spotlight's assistants are notoriously unhelpful so I left empty handed. There were two shelves of Halloween related goodness that I could find, however the ever ominous Christmastime seemed to have begun its descent upon their shelf space.

 

The Reject Shop was perhaps both the biggest disappointment and the best overall. The crooked photo at the top of the post is one of three that appeared overnight outside their shop-front. I never remembered them advertising before and I thought that perhaps this year I'd gotten lucky. I contemplated taking down one of the posters late at night to keep all for myself but the idea of possible security cameras got the better of me and I walked on past. Admittedly I built it up too much. This year was much the same as last year - the ends of two aisles. Cute and bright but not exactly amazing, but I was drawn in none the less. (For some reason I only have photos of one of them. You're not missing much)

I ended up spending $16 dollars in The Reject Shop on my mini haul. Two pairs of skeleton gloves to one day replace my current ones, a packet of "candy basket" jack o' laterns (yes, really), two bracelets featuring some nice beads, and two imitation Pez machines which actually shoot out candy. My brother and I took it upon ourselves to test the candy. It was awful. They do however, make great projectiles and the carpet in the hall was littered with them before we were finished. Also on a fun note, the top part of their heads moves from side to side, and it makes their eyes and tongue move. Cute. The jewellery I immediately took apart and used the pumpkin and black cat beads to make necklaces from.

Also worth a note, the candy shop had a small display (really really small. Almost didn't see it small) out the front, and I was surprised upon returning home today to find two bags of "Severed Fingers & Eerie Eyeballs" which my brother and I are testing as I type this. So far the graphics are good, the chocolate not so much.

And the Halloween tree is enjoying it's new company.

The Gardener

I love the moment when you realise what you're going to name a piece. For me it's always a bolt out of the blue thing, one moment completely stuck and then suddenly I've got it.
I don't remember what I was thinking about when the name came to mind. I do, however, remember wondering why the hell I hadn't thought of it before.

(Yeah, guess whose scanner stopped working)
((Also, this sketch was drawn in a very short amount in time and should in no way represent my artistic abilities. ))
(((Although, when it comes to drawing, that is about as good as it gets.)))

A poor soul was working in the garden, and something went a bit awry and now he's a part of the garden. He's THE GARDENER!
Sigh.

I think it's fairly safe to say my brain is not working too good. The Gardener is both for Halloween and my final art piece for the year. And did I mention it's due Friday? I am going more than a little bit insane trying to get everything done, which explains why it's only now that I realise I was meant to write an Idol Worship post today instead. As far as I'm aware blogger doesn't have a save as draft option for posts so you get my frantic rambles today, and Idol Worship tomorrow. And then the day after as well! Yay?

The Gardener is currently about 2/5 of the way done, I'd guess. I've got a pumpkin head made (my first ever), the skeleton torso and arms were cannibalised from my last big artwork/thing, and I'm about halfway through covering them in papier mache. All I've got to do, therefore, is make the cross, buy and mache the rope for the vines, and spray paint the leaves. Then I shove the whole thing in the ground and abandon it.

But right now I'm going to go have a nice long bath and write a fake newspaper article about the death of a fictional artist. Ciao.

----------------
Now playing: Beck - Scarecrow
via FoxyTunes

Stealing From The Past

Old photos are awesome. I, personally, have a thing for pictures of train wrecks back in the days of steam-powered trains. If you search youtube hard enough you'll find a video of a series of train wreck photos set to an instrumental guitar track. It may or may not be mine. -cough-
But back to topic. Searching flickr a few days ago I came across the Powerhouse Museum photo sets. The Powerhouse Museum is an Australian museum, meaning it's not really that old and there's not that much history, speaking from an apathetic history student's point of view. They do however, have a lot of really nice black and white photos. Like the skeleton above.
All their images (so far as I can tell) have no known copyrights, which is handy, and have incredibly wonderful quality. Take the time to look through the sets, especially the thematic groupings. There be collections of photos of ships, costumes, caves, and my personal favourite, railway, among others.

But to the reason I was looking for old black and white photos to begin with. As this year's Halloween party is a split operation between my friends and I, we wanted to create a photo of us in an the style of these old photos. An imitation, one might say. It's not going to be something that everyone will notice, just a photo sitting on a shelf with three girls who look quite a bit like the people at the party.

So go check them out. Idol Worship returns tomorrow. (I've decided to space out my fan-girling with a vague attempt at normalcy).

----------------
Now playing: The Matches - Between Halloweens
via FoxyTunes

Page Four.

The 'That Night,' series is now complete. Check it out here.

Poker.

Blackout

My imitation of Pumpkinrot's witch jars. His are better (of course), but I'm quite fond of the one of the far left. It's so cute and little.

We had some strong storms a few days ago and the power went out. My brother and I played Uno by witch-light.

Blackout

Also, a shoutout to My Ghoul Friday who is hopefully resting up right now for her weekend at Festival of Fear. Thank you for the lovely comments. They're much appreciated.

An Addiction

An Addiction

When I was taking photos for the That Night series I thought that I should take stock of what can be used for Halloween. It was then I realised that we have far too many park benches. This isn't even all of them. I'm not sure whether I should leave them there on the night or litter them along the path that people will have to walk up to get inside.

Hang some of the witch jars from the arm rests and it'd certainly create a nice spooky atmosphere. Because walking along a barely-lit garden path at night is such a pleasant experience normally and all.

Forked

The second in the 'That Night, A Forest Grew.' series.
Which from now on I'll refer to as the 'That Night' series. Because I like it better that way.

Skeleton Me

(Source)

I'd forgotten about this little guy.