Fiendish Fun

I love the concept of this book. I'd be happy to read it as an adult, and I would have been all over it as a kid. From the incrediblethings.com website:

Gary Greenberg's Pop-up Book of Phobias makes you face your fears head on, whether it's a podium and an angry crowd or dirt flying at you while you're buried alive. The dark artwork and innovative pop-ups make the Pop-Up Book of Phobias the scariest book we've come across since The Shinning.

Dangerous times for advertisements. Someone has dedicated themselves to decapitating figures in the posters, or at least collecting images of this. Be sure to look through the entire flickr collection. I especially enjoyed the "Sex in the City" billboard.

This came to me from Claire who has done a superb job on her own version of a peek-a-boo plant.

From left to right, let me introduce you to Tiny, Cedric, Hubert, and Sleepy Pete.

Thanks Claire!

I'd also like to wish everyone a Happy Friday the 13th. I haven't decided how I want to mark the occasion. Perhaps a couple of scary movies and a relaxing dinner. Even better if it's a dinner I don't have to make. And movies I don't have to go out to get.

Can you technically celebrate something by napping? It's one of those days.

I think this might be the coolest kid's costume I've ever seen. I know I would have loved to dress up as Jareth, King of the Goblins when I was 4 years old.

The fact that it's the photographer's little girl (and not a little boy) makes it even better. There is hope for the younger generation.

I'd still dress up as him, but the idea of putting on leggings makes me a bit twitchy.

Source: Christina Ragusin

The 7th Annual Toronto Zombie Walk is happening Saturday Oct. 24th. It will start at 3:30pm at Trinity Bellwoods Park (by the pit bordered by Dundas St. and Gore Vale Ave). It goes all the way to Bathurst and Bloor.

I'm elbow-deep in projects for my show on Sunday (not to mention Halloween plotting), so I'm not sure I'll be able to make this one. But I did donate a copy of Brains Vs. Copy to the cause!

Update: Great pictures from blogto.com of this year's event.

If you don't mind spending a lot of money or doing a lot of prep work, then Rockett St. George has a wallpaper you might be interested in.

I would have told you about this gem last night, but we lost our internet connection for the evening (and cable...and phone. The horror!).

"The signature paper featuring skulls in a reflective bronze, deep pile velvet on a incredible light-catching, iridescent base, using horribly expensive ink which changes colour as you walk past it - through reds, greens, blacks and golds - like an oil slick."

(spotted on streetanatomy.com)

Missed the last two days on the Halloween countdown (bad blogger). Wasn't feeling too well and am totally swamped with Halloween projects. So I spent yesterday on the couch, painting eyeball plants and watching horror movies, including Friday the 13th parts one through three.

I'm sure there are many like me who haven't watched the earlier movies in a long time. And I forgot just how...real Jason used to be.

Sure we know him as the hulking form behind the goalie mask now. The unstoppable, looming figure that's ice-cold.

But back then, he was the size of a regular man. He wore overalls and a sack or pillowcase over his head. He moved at normal speed. He ran, stumbled and when he fell to the ground, he made an audible sound. An actual "oof" noise.

And when you hit him, he was hurt. Just like any other man, when Jason took one straight to the *cough* family jewels, he went down just like you'd expect him to.

He was human. He was desperate and determined in his chase.

And you know what? All these weaknesses - these human traits - made him scarier. Probably because I believed he was real.

So while everyone else can worship the hockey-masked, machete-wielding, supernatural killing machine, I'll save my shudders for the flawed, deformed man who grew up alone in the woods...who (everyone believed) drowned...who saw his mother killed...who wears a one-eyed sack over his head to hide his deformity.

This morning I remembered I should post a link to my Halloween playlist on blip.fm. I've been adding tunes to the list for months. Just keep it open in a tab in your browser to listen to the collection while you surf the net or work within earshot of the computer.

It's a lot of rockabilly-style tunes with some classics mixed in. Hopefully I've unearthed a number of songs that are new for your listening pleasure.

While I was looking for an image to go along with this post, I came across this record of the Monster Cereal gang. Thought I would post that as well for your amusement.

I have been watching with some interest the emotional debate taking place online regarding Spirit Halloween's supposed campaign to move Halloween to the last Saturday of October. The campaign isn't what interests me, but the deep chasm it's created in my online circles is worth noting.

I've flippantly mused about this very thing in forums, and if I remember correctly, I said I wouldn't mind it so much but would prefer if instead we made it a whole week of festivities for Halloween.

I've stayed out of this new debate, chalking it up to another marketing ploy (a successful marketing ploy, hinging on the edge of going viral) to draw attention to their store. I wasn't about to get riled up or involved in the mess. And I wasn't going to give it air time on my blog.

But.

I underestimated the dedication Spirit Halloween has given to the campaign. Yesterday I got an email - where a living person actually took the time to type GF in the subject line - signed Elio Valenzuela, on behalf of Spirit Halloween.

Ok. You got me. I will weigh in on this.

It's that time again. Time for Nuit Blanche. For one sleepless night experience the city transformed by close to 500 artists for Toronto's fourth annual sunset to sunrise celebration of contemporary art. Discover art in galleries, museums and unexpected places. From churches and grocery stores to chimney stacks and bus stations, choose from 130 projects and chart your own path.

And it's all free.

Here's a few installations that caught my eye:

Ghost Chorus – Dirge for Dead Slang: sights and sounds of Ghost Chorus – Dirge for Dead Slang rise up into the trees and into the ears of onlookers, rubberneckers and passers-by. These ghostly apparitions raise their voices to the driving melancholic baseline from the beyond to revivify outmoded slang of the long and recent past. See the dead rise to life! Hear the dead rise to life! Sing. Sing. Sing.

Ghosts not your thing? What about witches?