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Designer Ben Douglas illustrated a dozen pop culture vampires into one art print. Can you name them all? Of course you can! It’s for sale as a poster print or on canvas. Link to print. Link to artist’s site. -via Buzzfeed
(Image credit: Flickr user Ben Douglas)
It’s that time of year, when we look to graveyards for tales that scare the Dickens out of us. You’ve read about 9 Creepy Places to Visit for a Good Scare and you’ve seen lists of haunted houses. Now how about cemeteries? These six stories don’t all contain ghosts -some are about vampires, poltergeists, and unidentified flying objects! Shown here is Chesnut Hill Cemetery in Rhode Island, the site of a vampire exhumation in 1892.
Chesnut Hill Baptist Church Cemetery in Exeter, Rhode Island is reported to be haunted by a vampire named Mercy Lena Brown. She was preceded in death by her mother and sister, victims of tuberculosis, and Mercy would often visit their graves. In January 1892, 19-year-old Mercy herself fell to tuberculosis and was interred with her family members. Mercy’s father George claimed she haunted him every night, complaining of hunger. His son Edwin fell sick, also with tuberculosis, but as he experienced visits from Mercy, the family and townspeople considered the cause of his illness to be the restless dead. George Brown, with the help of others, dug up the graves of his wife and two daughters on March 17, 1892. Only Mercy, who died in January, was free of decomposition. This led George to believe she was a vampire.
Read what happened then, and other tales, at mental_floss. Link
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Some of the most popular Halloween costumes are monsters and flappers, so if you are a female that already is a monster, a flapper is a natural costume choice. Artist Jeffery Thomas has a great collection of a variety of monster gals glammed up as flappers and the artwork is simply fantastic.
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While I always though vampires were kind of cool, I find zombies to be a lot scarier. As it turns out, it might just be because I’m a bit liberal. According to this graph, more zombie stories are released when Republicans are in office and more vampire tales come out when Democrats are in power. If you’re wondering why one political viewpoint would fear either creature more than the other, then this Cracked article can fill you in on the psychological aspects.
Supposedly these vampire hunting kits were sold to travelers to protect them from our fanged, blood sucking friends. See the full gallery at the link.
Travelers in the 19th century would purchase ‘vampire hunting kits’ in preparation for their travels to Eastern Europe. The kits would contain a wooden stake, Bible, crucifix, pistol with lead bullets, gunpowder, garlic and glass vials that held various concoctions to ward off vampires.
The legend of Dracula was inspired by the 15th Century Romanian warlord Vlad the Impaler. Researchers at Ancestry.com recently discovered that Robert Pattinson, the actor who plays the sparkly vampire Edward in the Twilight series, is related to him:
Researchers at Ancestry.com discovered that Pattinson and the Transylvanian leader (real name: Vlad III Dracula) are connected through their relationship to the British royal family. Prince William and Prince Harry are Pattinson’s distant cousins; Vlad the Impaler was their distant uncle.
“Tracing Pattinson’s family back to Vlad was difficult research, but the pieces that unraveled created the perfect accompaniment to the Twilight Saga,” said Anastasia Tyler, a genealogist at Ancestry.com. “Without any myth or magic, we find royalty and vampires lurking in Pattinson’s life — making his story just as supernatural as the one he’s playing on screen.”
Link via Nerd Bastards | Images from Geek Tyrant, photo of Robert Pattinson originally from Summit Entertainment
The Oatmeal skewers the over 40 year-old Twilight fan base in this hilarious step by step breakdown of the science of the series. Twilight is painted as a diabolically designed trap, able to turn all but the strongest middle aged women into lusting, exuberant fangirls.
View the rest of the piece (with some hilarious illustrations) at the source.
Link – The Oatmeal
Would you like to get course credit for reading Anne Rice? The University of Hertfordshire is offering a new master’s program that focuses on vampires in fiction:
In a bid to make the most of that interest, George is launching, in September, what seems to be the world’s first master’s degree in vampire literature. “In the months I’ve been planning the conference I’ve fielded a huge number of inquiries from people all over the world who are interested in studying vampires, zombies and the undead at a higher level,” she says. “I had the idea of offering the master’s as a direct follow-up from the conference. I thought it was crucial to have a way of extending this burst of awareness.” The best papers from the conference will be collected in a book, which will become a textbook for the MA students.
Link via io9 | Image: Warner Bros.
Vampire kits used to be all the rage for travelers in Europe, but thanks to Twilight’s spawning vampire trend, they are now popular tourist bait for Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. The museums now boast that they have the largest collection of vampire kits and they intend to keep buying them. The kits are pretty neat, so if you get a chance to see one, check it out.
Illustration by Travis Pitts
Dr. Monster (Travis Pitts) created this illustration for his Flickr ‘Stream. Pitts calls it “we’ve got some work to do now,” and it clearly tells a dramatic tale. Note the R.I.P. S+F+D (Shaggy, Fred & Daphne). Link
Calm down, it’s not actually blood. It’s just an energy drink made to look like blood, and it’s served in an IV bag:
The fruit punch flavor packs 4 hours of energy along with iron, protein, and electrolytes. Not only does Blood Energy Potion have a similar nutritional makeup to real blood, but it has the same color, look, and consistency of blood. Get real blood nutrients without that real blood taste! The re-sealable transfusion bag style pouch provides the convenient delivery of fluids for vampires and humans alike! Contains no real blood, just synthetic!
See? There’s nothing at all abnormal about this product.
Link via Nerd Approved
The Boston Latin School, a private prep school, issued a press release in the hopes of quashing rumors that the school is infested with vampires:
“The headmaster believes that the outrageous rumors had reached a point where she had to say something to families to ensure that all students felt safe and respected,” said Chris Horan, School Department spokesman.
In my experience, when an authority figure denies that there is a problem, the problem has become much, much worse than feared.
Craftster user Lethargic made these back in October for the season premiere of Dexter, but other clever Craftsters immediately came up with lots of other uses for them (divorce party). The actual cake is red velvet (my favorite, yum) with butter cream icing tinted to look like a skin tone, and the little knives are made out of piped white chocolate. Genius.
And Crafter member Choleblack made these simple yet brilliant cupcakes for Halloween. You could also use them for a Twilight party (not my thing, but have at it if it’s yours) or a True Blood premiere party. Or just for fun if you’re kind of creepy like me.
