Things are pretty low-key here this year on the High Holiday, so I'm reminiscing about one of my favorite Halloweens & also one of my favorite costumes ever, the two-headed monster, back in 1995.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
Cabbage Night
You can tell a lot about a person based on what they call the night before Halloween.
Well - at the very least, you might be able to tell where they might live in the US.
(photo courtesy of Pixabay)
Where I grew up in Connecticut, we called it Cabbage Night, but other regions refer to it as Mischief Night, Devil's Night, Trick Night, Gate Night, and more. It's a night of tricks before the treats -- around the time I grew up, it wouldn't be uncommon to wake up on Halloween morning to see evidence of minor vandalism, like broken pumpkins, toilet-papered trees, and smashed eggs. It's older tradition that is becoming far less common, however.
(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
You can see an interactive/zoom-able version of the US map with regional terms for it here.
You can read more about the folklore and history behind Cabbage Night here and here.
What do YOU call Halloween eve?
Halloween ambience
Are you in need of a little something extra to amp up your Halloween mood? I have compiled a playlist of 80+ autumn, haunted, and Halloween related ambience videos on Youtube.
These would be great as a background for a party, or while carving pumpkins, or whatever! I am always adding to this list as I find new videos, so continue to check back on this playlist.
My favorite haunted attractions - Haunted Happenings in Hartford, CT
In this post about my favorite Halloween/haunted house attractions, I'm featuring one in my top 3:
Haunted Happenings in Hartford, CT.
T H R O W B A C K T H U R S D A Y
TBH, for me, Haunted Happenings was one of the best things that happened in the 90s.
In the mid-90s, Hartford-area millionaire and philanthropist Arnold Chase got to live every home-haunter's dream - he loved Halloween and had the means to build the haunted attractions of his dreams without limitations. It was a pure labor of love for him. He had done haunts at his own home for about 10 years until the crowds became too large. His first off-home Halloween event that was titled as Haunted Happenings was in an old roller skating rink in East Hartford in October of 1993.
Once you make it into the building, you find yourself in a wide open area with massive pillars, the remnants of G. Fox's glory days. It has that odd, eerie feeling of an abandoned building, even though there's a lot of activity bustling around you. Rumors abounded that the building was actually haunted, for real; I could absolutely believe it. When it's finally your turn to enter the haunted house, you're taken down an escalator to a lower floor by your group's tour guide, who remains with you throughout your journey. I don't remember these in the correct order, but some highlights are:
There were definitely tons more scenes and details that I'm forgetting, no doubt. Most of our visits there ended in a night of drinks and pub food at the now long-gone Brown Thompson bar & restaurant, which went out about the same year Haunted Happenings did.
(I didn't go to that one, so I can't speak to what it was like or how good it was, and internet searching brings up almost nothing about it other than it existed: no pictures, no video, no news articles describing it.)
In October of 1994, also the first year I went, the Haunted Happenings I knew and loved so much was relocated to the former luxury department store G. Fox, an historic 11-storey Art Deco building that was a crown jewel shopping destination for not only Hartford but the entire state.
As I mentioned above, Chase loved Halloween, had money, and wasn't afraid to spend it. I don't know how much he invested in the attraction, but the entire thing was filled with state-of-the-art animatronics, lighting, special effects, and costuming in an over 100,000 square foot space. Even by today's standards, this shit was amazing. Chase was far and away ahead of his time, and went to conventions like Transworld to find the best effects and people in the industry. He had a Hollywood/theme park caliber attraction in a relatively nowhere location on the east coast. Even today, Haunted Happenings (a name now used by Salem, MA as the title of their general Halloween season events) is ranked as one of the best and most influential haunted attractions to have existed.
The best and purest creations are the ones done for love and not money, and Haunted Happenings was a prime example. Chase took a personal interest in how the attraction was planned & built, and worked on some of the construction himself, as he had a talent for electronics. He didn't intend to make a profit from his event, instead using the attraction as a fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association, a cause near and dear to him as he and at least one of his children were diabetic. He also was one of the first haunt attractions to also offer a Christmas/holiday themed attraction the Nov/Dec after his Halloween event.
And the love & enthusiasm he poured into Haunted Happenings was obvious in the sheer explosion of attendees that came out to see it. My first time seeing it was in October of 1994, its first year in Hartford. It was early in the month, and my friends and I hardly had to wait in line to get in. Each time we went after that, however, there was a multiple-hour wait. (If only we had the contemporary timed-ticket admission system back then...) And of course, the info about the haunt was all word of mouth, no internet and social media as we know them today. It was just that amazing.
Here's some of the things I remember most about the experience:
When you arrive, your journey began queuing up outside. As Haunted Happenings got more popular, the line would extend down the whole block and wrap around, so you might be waiting awhile.
(huge skull hanging on the side of the building's exterior)
- A "subway" ride with a simulated train - basically, a facade that looks like a subway car, but rocks back & forth to make you feel as though you've gone on a journey
- A mine shaft full of black light with shifting floors and neon glowing orange ceiling supports that moved as though everything was about to collapse on you
- A catacomb with glass floors, showing the restless dead writhing below your feet
- A mad scientist/Dr. Frankenstein-esque character with real Tesla coil, Jacob's Ladder, plasma tubes, and other electric effects, plus realistic monster animatronic
- A cornfield full of scarecrows and animatronic werewolves that would jump at you
- A medieval style torture chamber
- A gory dinner/cooking scene
- Gas chamber and electric chair execution scenes
- Copious amounts of fog machine fog - ahhh, how I'll always love that scent
- Few, if any licensed characters - everything was original.
- And -- the best ending to a haunted house that I've ever seen. The tour seems to come to an end and your guide brings you to the elevator to bring you back up to ground level. However, once activated, the elevator begins to shake, and the room around you crashes and bangs as though you are plunging down the elevator shaft, the emergency lights are flashing and alarms blaring. Suddenly it stops, and the doors open to reveal a vast red room: you've arrived in HELL with the devil there to greet you. THEN you're finally lead back upstairs, where you can peruse their well-stocked gift and Halloween costume & prop shop before you leave.
Sadly, Haunted Happenings lasted only four years. Halloween 1997 was its last run (also the last of Chase's holiday attractions, too). The city of Hartford had made a deal around that time with a development firm which had plans to renovate the G. Fox building into other businesses. Chase hoped he would eventually be able to continue at another location, but that sadly never came to pass. All of the Haunted Happenings assets were eventually sold at auction.
Weirdly, a video surfaced last year or so, labeling itself as an auction video, but has (very low res) video that's almost a complete walkthrough of the entire tour - which you can watch below. It also contains TV spots and ads for it at the beginning of the video. Needless to say, I was pretty much beside myself when I first found it - so many great memories.
g fox hartford haunted happenings on Vimeo.
Haunted Happenings gets 10 out of 10 jackos, even tho it took hours to get in.
RIP
[ 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃 ]
Sources:
Halloween jams
It's less than a week til Thee High Holiday - do you have your Halloween playlist sorted??
Here's a few fun ones by the Slashstreet Boys --
Halloween Then & Now challenge
Hey, here's a cool idea I just came up with and you should do it too - especially because it's Flashback Friday time again.
On your social media platform/blog/forum of choice, post two Halloween-themed photos of yourself, with at least ten years between the two. It can interpreted pretty much any way you want: you in costume in different decades, your baby pic vs. adult pic, anything that shows two pics of you that are at least a decade apart in some sort of Halloween context.
I got the idea earlier tonight whilst sorting through photos, and found these two pics of me that are kinda eerily similar, despite the difference in years: 1992 on the left, and 2016 on the right.
(your friend & humble narrator)
Pumpkin scarecrow puppet
Found this guy again last night while taking out some Halloween stuff - a jack o'lantern scarecrow puppet guy.
Under his robe, he's held up by a plastic stick with 2 levers to press which extend his arms with the long, spindly fingertips.
His face reminds me a lot of Pumpkinrot's jack o'lantern designs but I feel like this predates Rot's work. I *definitely* had this guy before hearing of Pumpkinrot's site because the first time I saw Rot's pumpkin sentinels I immediately thought of this puppet. I wondered for a long time if there was a connection, especially since I found out that Rot had licensed some of his designs in the past. Could just be a coincidence.
I'm can't remember exactly how/where I acquired him. I thought he still had a tag on him, but I was mistaken. I can't remember much about him other than that I'm pretty sure I purchased him at a Media Play in Enfield in the mid to late 90s. I could be wrong about Media Play but I'm pretty solidly sure I did get him in the late 90s. He has no discernable marks or emblems with any sort of company name or date. Anyone recognize him?
You Can't Do That on Halloween
I was feeling a little down last night and decided to comfort myself by watching Halloween stuff on Youtube. I searched for "Halloween special" just to see what might be out there and unexpectedly found this - a HALLOWEEN EPISODE of one of my all-time favorites TV shows ever: You Can't Do That on Television, a sketch comedy show for kids/teens. There's so much of it that they could never get away with now for a kid's show, it's really got some pretty dark humor in it that I didn't fully realize when I was younger.
I didn't have cable growing up, so the only time I got to watch this show was when I visited my dad & grandma, if it happened to be on while I was visiting. I was pretty obsessed with it in the late 80s/early 90s and watched all the reruns on during that time. My sense of humor was heavily influenced by YCDToT.
For a long time I couldn't find video of it online anywhere and it doesn't appear to be available on DVD -- so when I found this clip, which lead to others, I fucking FREAKED OUT. It made my night to find this and honestly it's just as funny as it ever was. So glad I found this, it's now got a prominent place on my Favorite Halloween Specials list.
Questionable Halloween foods - Sour tropical candy corn?
I'm not sure what sour tropical flavors have to do with Halloween or candy corn, but I'm a sucker for jack o'lanterns on packaging so I sought this out - Brach's Sour Haunted Tropics Candy Corn.
The flavors are watermelon (red/green), banana (yellow), pineapple (yellow/white), kiwi (green), mango (orange), and tropical punch (pink).
They're not super-sour, not as sour as a sour patch kid -- more tangy than anything. For the most part, the flavors are pretty good. Sour banana is a little strange but not bad. The texture of candy corn plus flavors you'd usually associate with gummy candy is a bit of an adjustment, which was unexpected.
Overall I like these and would get 'em again! 7/10 jackos.
[ 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃_ _ _ ]
Seaside scarecrow
In early October of 2013, I spotted this fantastic scarecrow at the Anchorage by the Sea resort in Ogunquit, Maine.
They had a great display of fall mums and some massive pumpkins, too.
The sign says, "Yes they are real, please do not touch."
👀
Listening to: Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House
One of the best of the best. This version is digitally remastered. A+++ listening experience.
Masque of the Red Death 2020 Redux
For the past couple of weeks or so I've been working feverishly on a project that I am finally ready to reveal - my virtual home haunt.
I was asked to be an artist participant in Dutch Design Week 2020 for the event Manifestations: Monsters, an international program of Art, Tech & Fun Online expo during Dutch Design Week 2020 from October 17-25.
For the fifth year in a row, Manifestations shows artists who, in a funny, spectacular or controversial way, examine the (mis) matches between people and technology and ask how technology can contribute to a sweeter, more humane world.With more than 50 works by mostly young, recently graduated artists who put the exciting interaction between people and technology in a different light.Visit the website for the full range and program of kids workshops, lectures and meet-ups.We offer tours and VIP tours via pers at manifestations.nl to sign up.Manifestations is the largest Art & Tech event during Dutch Design Week.https://facebook.com/manifestations.nlhttps://twitter.com/Manifestations_https://instagram.com/_manifestations
More info here - https://2020.manifestations.nl/en/pers/
Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, Netherlands is the largest design event in Northern Europe and presents work and concepts from more than 2,600 designers to more than 355,000 visitors from home and abroad. (link)
Usually, Dutch Design Week and its related programs are mixed-reality events - that is to say, some occur in person on locations in Eindhoven, while others are held online and in virtual-reality space. This year however, due to the pandemic, all events will all take place online.
The main Second Life event portal for Manifestations: Monsters.
Visitors arrive here, and then can teleport to the different installations at the tall kiosks on the left.
Second Life users can follow this link to it - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chill/222/23/21
The online portion I'm involved in exists in Second Life, a virtual 3D sandbox world. My project is based on the short story "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe, and incorporating some commentary about present-day sociopolitical issues.
I currently live in a small apartment in a busy urban area, so home haunts aren't an option for me. We don't even get trick-or-treaters, we're too near busy roads with no sidewalks. Fortunately for me, I can build almost anything I want in virtual space, so it helps to scratch that Halloween itch.
Masque of the Red Death Redux 2020 is an interactive installation in which Second Life users can visit in virtual 3D space. If you have a Second Life account, you can visit this installation by following this link - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kress/244/88/301
For those who don't have an account, I will post some screencaps below, and eventually will produce a video.
Here are some preview images:
When you arrive at the virtual space, you are given this backstory to give context to your experience.
You then begin your journey by 'teleporting' to the beginning chapter, and follow the paths through various scenes - not unlike a haunted house.
There's a few teaser images for you - next week, there will be a virtual event, where I will be interviewed, that will be livestreamed on Youtube. I'll share more details about that soon!
Autumn in the Pacific Northwest
Although New England autumns are my favorite, there is a lot to love about this time of year in Washington, too -- especially when you've got majestic mountains as a backdrop.
This is a great time of year for aimless drives and visits to Mt. Rainier.
(all pictures © Petrichor & Pumpkins)
Masque
I've been a bit less active here on my blog & on Instagram -- because I've been busy working on a project that I'll unveil later this week. Here's a hint:
Freddy update - Haunted or not?
If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you might remember my post from about a month ago, when the pumpkin man scarecrow I purchased on Ebay, supposedly haunted and affectionately named Freddy by the seller, was delivered to my home. I displayed him in my bedroom and he seems to have been content here. Despite what the Ebay listing said about him being potentially possessed, I didn't sense anything scary or creepy about him at all.
For weeks, things have been quiet. I hadn't noticed anything untoward. He hasn't moved done or anything else to suggest he might be haunted. However... Another jack o'lantern in my closet, close to where Freddy is standing, has moved -- see the picture below. This one hasn't been set up for Halloween yet, he's just been sitting on the shelf in my closet -- and had been facing straight forward. His face suddenly was turned a bit to my left (toward Freddy's direction, I should add). There's nothing in there that could have moved him. I just found him like that one morning. Weird...
A few other possibly unrelated, but mildly unnerving & harmless things have happened -- involving objects that seem to spontaneously fall down. One evening, fairly late at night, I was up making myself a cup of herbal tea when I heard a loud crash in my immediate vicinity! It was loud enough to really startle me. I looked all around and I couldn't figure out what had fallen. I went into every room to check for anything out of place. My partner and the dogs were asleep, so I knew it wasn't them, and the noise didn't come from that room. I finally found out it was just a bottle of Febreze that had been on top of our refrigerator, that had somehow fallen off and right into our trash can. Since that night, a few other similar incidents happened, too, but nothing super serious, and ambiguous enough that I can't really blame Freddy for the disturbances.
And then -- a few nights ago, during the wee hours of the early morning, I had a vivid dream that I felt compelled to write down. In it, I was talking to an elderly grandmother-type woman, but she wasn't my grandma or the relation of anyone else I knew -- she was someone I had never seen before. I decided to share the details of this dream with the person who sold Freddy to me:
Hello! I am the buyer of Freddy the scarecrow. I have a semi-strange question to ask -- You mentioned he was haunted. Was that just a story to help sell him, or is all that true? (I'm not mad if it was just a story, I really like him and would have bought him anyway).I'm asking because I recently had a very vivid dream about someone's grandma, someone who isn't familiar to me among my friends and family. In the dream I was sitting and chatting with an elderly lady who was friendly and talkative, outgoing and had a good sense of humor, & very witty. I knew she was someone's grandmother. She seemed feisty and energetic. She was kind of thin and wiry but not weak. She had short curly grey hair and glasses. She talked about being Italian too, and about how everyone loved her cooking. She then spoke to me about my grandmother (who passed on about a decade ago); this lady spoke about meeting my grandma, and then asked what she was like & how my grandma and I got along. I then realized I was dreaming, and was talking to someone who was in the afterlife.It didn't occur to me til a couple days after my dream that Freddy was once beloved by a grandma, so it made me wonder. He's on display in my bedroom so I was wondering if maybe there was some connection to my dream. He doesn't seem scary to me at all, although in the past week or so, random things seem to be falling off of shelves, etc.Apologies if this seems crazy! I really do like Freddy a lot even if it turns out he isn't haunted, and if my dream was just a dream. Thanks for reading!
To my surprise, the seller wrote back almost immediately, and I'm semi-floored with the response (I hid some of the details to protect their privacy):
With only slight embellishments the story is indeed true. My grandma’s name was R***. She was feisty and funny. Although she was a true red head and petite. My grandfather was full blooded Italian...
Sounds like Freddy likes his new home. And I’m sure R*** is very happy about this. She was so sweet.
Bye the way, she was a wonderful cook and it brought our whole family together for many years!!! 😊Best wishes
. . . . . . .
Now, maybe this is all a coincidence, maybe it was all just a dream, but it's Halloween season and I wanna believe! I'll definitely be posting more Freddy incidents if they happen... 🎃🎃🎃
Don't give us no sass or we'll kick your ass
Cuz we're the heralds of Crowleymass
My favorite Halloween attractions: Haunted Overload
Haunted Overload in Lee, NH was a bucket-list spot for me til I finally had the opportunity to visit in 2019. In honor of their opening day 2020, this post is dedicated to them!
I'm originally from CT, yet in all the years I knew about Haunted Overload, I never had the chance to visit while I still lived on the east coast. When I moved to WA, I kicked myself for this, and vowed to one day return to experience it. Fortunately, my east-coast Halloween Squad are very encouraging/enabling of any and all day-trip accessible Halloween-related activities.
Last year, I had just graduated from college and planned an extended stay in CT, for a few weeks instead of the usual week or so. The Halloween Squad likes to plan out all of their late September/October events well in advance to make sure they get to do as many haunted houses and events as possible. There are ones they do every year (like Trail of Terror in Wallingford, CT), but they're always on the lookout for new places, too. Not that I had to twist any arms, but I requested that we go to Haunted Overload during my visit - none of them had been, either, and we all agreed to plan for it. We got our tickets well ahead of time, then all I had to do was wait with heavy anticipation for the day to arrive...
For me, the craziest thing about this place is that I'd seen it before - in dreams.
Well before I knew Haunted Overload existed, I'd had recurring, vivid dreams about a place that looked a lot like it, for years. In the dream, the situation would be similar. The setting began in a real-life place from my childhood, a dead-end street in our neighborhood that was on our usual route for trick-or-treating every year. Except, in the dreams, the street didn't end, it opened up to a "new" Halloween attraction with giant jack o'lanterns that I never quite got to see -- I'd arrive, then something would happen to interrupt, or I'd physically wake up before I got past the gates, and I never quite made it to see this Halloween Promised Land. Ever have dreams that it's Halloween night and you haven't even started on your costume/home haunt/etc., and know it's too late? That's how those dreams about Haunted Overload mad me feel. It's the kind of dream you wake up from feeling sad and incomplete, devastatingly unfulfilled.
So, when I finally got to see it in person last year, it felt...otherworldly. That's not even quite the right word, but I'm not quite sure how to describe the feelings in words -- literally a dream come true.
Needless to say, I felt a TON of anticipation leading up to our arrival. Days before, I wondered if the weather would be good. The day of, hoping we'd all be on time to meet up and get there. And of course, everything worked out perfectly. It was a perfect, gorgeous New England autumn day, and the long drive there was spent in great company, all of us chatting happily.
As we got into town, we had enough time to make a pit stop at a very nice-looking Dunkin Donuts.
And then we moved on to Haunted Overload. It was just a few miles further and was easy to find. We were directed on where to park, which wasn't too far from the entrance.
From the moment you arrive, it's a feast-- a full-on Roman orgy-- for the senses. There are more or less two parts to Haunted Overload: 1.) The standing in line part, where you're surrounded by astounding, custom-built sets the entire duration, a spooky twisting path through the woods; and 2.) the haunted-house proper, a faster-paced trek through more dark forest, full of haunt actors who are totally dedicated to stalking and scaring the shit out of you.
Part 1: Standing in line
This is the only area of the haunt where you're allowed to take pictures, but you will not be disappointed. Everything in Haunted Overload is custom-built, and the aesthetic is that of a haunted forest/countryside that has achieved its own sentience: Towering scarecrows looming over you, gaping-maw, hollow-tree tunnels that look like they're about to eat you alive (with enough scattered bones and remains to suggest that there have been many victims before you). It feels like you're being watched the whole time.
Did I mention it was a full moon that night? Well, it was.
Eventually, you come to a threshold, and pass through into a clearing. You turn to find that you've emerged near the mouth of a giant skull with pointy teeth, aglow with blacklight; and you're now surrounded by jack o'lanterns everywhere you turn.
If you look closely, you can see some people in this pic, for scale
That guy in the middle there cracks me up.
To be honest, I could have spent all night out there in that pumpkin field, and the ticket price would have been well worth it. I could live there. That setting, minus all but the people I'd want to be there, is my literal idea of what the ideal Heaven/afterlife would be like. The lighting, the spooky mist, the trees and candles, every little detail is absolute perfection.
And yet, the tour went on. Don't get me wrong, the rest of it was fantastic, too - but as is the case for most of the haunted attractions I've been to, I wish I didn't have to more or less rush through it. I would love to have taken my time, as we did during our wait in line, to fully take in every detail and savor it. The haunt actors were some of the best I've seen anywhere - truly into their roles. And the lighting throughout the haunt is masterfully done - most of it is quite dark, at times you quite literally feel like you might get lost in the woods out there.
At the very end of the haunt, as you emerge, there is a small stand where you can buy some Haunted Overload swag, which of course I did. I will treasure this experience for the rest of my life, even if I never get to return.
Thank you to the crew of Haunted Overload, who are true artists in every sense of the word.
It almost seems cheap to rate something like this, but if I were to do so, my rating is 10/10 jackos for this haunt.
[ 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃 ]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)