Kurt Richter took this picture of the construction site near his home. The heavy equipment crew has a sense of humor! Let's get a closer look.
Their simple Halloween decoration is tasteful, subdued, and really appropriate for the scene. Incidentally, I would advise springing for the deluxe service. -Thanks, Kurt!
Meatloaf isn't the first name that comes to mind at the mention of horror and the supernatural, unless you're a big fan of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and adore his performance as Eddie.
But Meatloaf's association with the supernatural doesn't begin or end with Rocky Horror, because while he and Todd Rundgren were recording the iconic album Bat Out Of Hell Meat met a ghost.
Meatloaf revealed his brush with one of the afterlife's resident spooks on the Lifetime Movie Network show The Haunting Of, and the tale is every bit as cheesy at it sounds.
It goes like this: One night, Meatloaf saw a ghostly woman in white walk past his window. “And I went, ah, man ... Todd Rundgren groupie!” Meatloaf explains. (There’s absolutely no mention as to whether or not Meatloaf, who eventually had a well-documented drug addiction, was on anything at the time.)
If a vampire must feed on human blood, how long would it take a certain number of vampires to wipe out the human population? And if those human victims then turned to vampires, how soon would vampires outnumber humans? Mathematical modeling turned to the world of the supernatural as a surprising number of researchers have tackled the complexities of human and vampire coexistence. A 1982 paper by Richard Hartl and Alexander Mehlmann titled "The Transylvanian Problem of Renewable Resources" took a look at how vampires would affect the human population.
In doing so, they divided vampires into three categories: the "asymptotically satiated vampire," the "blood maximizing vampire," and the "unsatiable vampire." Regardless of the type of vampire, though, they found that bloodsuckers can't help but face diminishing resources:
"[W]e are facing a typical consumption-resource trade off. The vampire society derives utility from consumption of blood but in sucking the blood of a human being and in turning him to a vampire the resource of human beings is reduced whereas the number of vampires is increased. Both of these effects diminish the resource of humans per vampire curtailing future possibilities of consumption."
However, a 2007 article modeled a vampire apocalypse and concluded that “vampires would eliminate humans within three years.” Which provoked a refutation in 2008. More research has been done, but the results vary according to which vampire mythology one ascribes to. Are the vampires in Bram Stoker’s universe more dangerous than those in Anne Rice’s universe? What about the vampires in the worlds of Twilight or The Historian? Read an overview of the available research at Atlas Obscura.
Last year we brought you some easy last minute costumes and this year we also had some ideas for simple DIY kid's costumes, but if you're looking for something a little more inspirational -even if it's only to awe at, we've got you covered there too.
I'm willing to bet not many of you have seen someone pull off a costume like this. Brooklyn resident Serra used a lot of ingenuity to get this costume together, but the end effect was delightful and entirely unique.
This dragon dog is just about as epic as epic can get -he almost looks like he's ready to breathe fire.
Wheelchairs often provide dedicated costume-makers with so much more to work with. Need proof? Just check out this amazing Batmobile that Connor's mother Karen made out of his wheel chair.
For more proof of just how much a wheel chair can add to a costume, check out this amazing Toothless wheelchair created for little Hiccup by the non-profit Magic Wheelchair.
When a little one is of a certain age, sometimes you just don't want to take him or her trick or treating without a stroller -but it kind of ruins the effect of a Cinderella when you put your princess back in a modern-day stroller. That's why Danielle of La Port City, IA opted to turn her simple stroller into a magic coach fit for a princess.
These killer snails are no masks, but they are certainly more than makeup. The Swedish duo called ellimacs sfx, which is makeup artist Ellinor Rosander and photographer Macs Moser, go through all the steps of making a pretty model look disgusting for Halloween.
The results are truly disturbing. But the process of making it can be disturbing, too, because this is not something you’d just throw together at the last minute. These guys have some skills! -via The Daily Dot, where you’ll also find some simpler Halloween makeup tutorials.
There were around 275 dogs entered into the 2015 Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade on Saturday. Many of them were accompanied by owners who dressed up to match their dog’s Halloween costumes. And there were winners.
The prize was won by some Dallas contestants who tapped into the Halloween spirit with a Day of the Dead-themed presentation that included two Chihuahuas and a Yorkshire terrier. Last year, a doggy version of Rose and Jack from the movie "Titanic" captured the title.
This year, there were all types of dinosaurs, perhaps capitalizing on the excitement generated by the recent release of the "Jurassic World" film, and dogs posing as an alligator, a dragon, a fisherman and characters from "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Flintstones." One dog, accompanied by a woman wearing a nun's habit, was dressed as Pope Francis.
See a gallery of 90 photos from the event at Gothamist. -via Fark
(Images credit: Scott Heins/Gothamist)
This year, redditor aubra_cadabra and her friends chose Robin Williams. From left to right, you can find Williams's roles in Mrs. Doubtfire, Mork & Mindy, Jumanji, Popeye, Hook, Aladdin, and The Birdcage. This assembly won them Best Group Costume in a costume contest for the fourth year in a row.
In previous years, the group went as Johnny Depp, Jim Carrey, and Will Ferrell:
Marky Mark was a shark in the last ADHD cartoon featuring the movie star. Now he’s a werewolf for Halloween!
Mark Werewahlfberg introduces us to all the iconic characters of the season, with plenty of almost-puns that you’ll have to supply the punchline for yourself. -via Tastefully Offensive
That belly is just what you need to impress everyone at the Halloween party. Just wrap the cardboard cutout around you and you'll attract a lot of eyes. And don't let anyone tell you that you're out of shape. Avocados are very healthy.
-via reddit | Photo: unknown
Josh Sundquist is not only a Paralympic athlete, author, dancer, rapper, math nerd, and motivational speaker, he’s also quite well known for his distinctive Halloween costumes, which (almost) always incorporate the fact that he only has one leg. Now Sundquist, who recently got married, has unveiled his 2015 Halloween costume. He is IHOP. -via reddit
The idea behind “trick or treat” is the implied threat of playing tricks on a homeowner if the treats aren’t given. That’s extortion, but it's a big part of how we celebrate Halloween. We often don't explain it that way to our kids.
But Nana the border collie (previously at Neatorama) has a better technique, the “trick for treat”! She goes to a neighbor in her ladybug costume and performs her best tricks to earn treats. -via Tastefully Offensive
Monster themed stuff has always been the coolest, and monster themed cartoon shows brought that classic monster movie cool to the boob tube in a bold way.
The toon incarnations of our favorite movie monsters such as the Wolfman, Count Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster showed us there was much more to dig about those crazy monsters!
1. Groovie Goolies (1970-72)-
The Groovie Goolies could have easily existed in the same cartoon universe as Scooby Doo and the gang, but surprisingly it was actually a spin-off of The Sabrina the Teenage Witch Show.
With Drac on the organ, Frankie on drums and Wolfie on lead guitar-like instrument, the Groovie Goolies were totally hip and always ready to rock the stage for the fine freaks who called Horrible Hall home.
2. The Addams Family (1992-93)-
While they're not technically monsters like their creepy neighbors The Munsters, The Addams Family are creepy and kooky enough to be considered honorary monsters.
Riding high on their comeback thanks to the success of the movie adaptations, The Addams Family finally received a well-deserved animated series and introduced a whole new generation to the first family of the macabre.
3. Teen Wolf (1986-88)-
Many classic '80s movies were transformed into animated series, but Teen Wolf stayed true to the movie and gave us a glimpse into the home life of the Wolf.
With his average middle class lycanthropic family at his side, Scott Howard tries to tackle his teen years without wolfing out every time he gets overexcited. The show was okay, but the intro was totally radical!
Kevin and Amber Judd of Creative Lighting Displays have once again set up a friend’s house to entertain passers-by for Halloween This year’s show features the songs “Ghostbusters,” Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” “This is Halloween,” and Bobby Pickett’s “Monster Mash.”
Thousands of color-changing LED lights are accompanied by strobe lights, flood lights, and two Matrix boards, as well as tombstones and hand-carved pumpkins. My favorite new feature is the flames in the windows. If you can get to Riverside, California, here are the particulars for the show. -via HuffPo
Couples costumes can be a super cute and creative way to share the Halloween fun with a loved one, or they can be a sad example of how little control a person can have over their own life.
And since guys and gals are always being talked into wearing couples costumes they hate simply to appease their partner couples costumes now have a really bad reputation.
But don't despair, duos!
You can feel good about dressing in matching costumes, and if you need some ideas check out this collection of 31 Two-Person Costumes Guaranteed To Up Your Halloween Game and delight in dressing alike!
Cliff Pickover's new book is Death and the Afterlife: A Chronological Journey, from Cremation to Quantum Resurrection. Death is the one thing we all have in common, and it's been that way ever since humans have been around. Not only have people in every historical era wrestled with the knowledge of one's own impending death, but each era and culture has developed its own customs, mythology, and folklore surrouding our ultimate fate and what may come after. Some of these ideas are universal; others are unique to the time and place. Death has been studied in the context of religion, psychology, biology, physics, philosophy, medicine, and art.
Death and the Afterlife follows the format of Pickover's earlier projects The Math Book, The Physics Book, and The Medical Book, in that items about the history of beliefs and customs surrounding death are laid out in chronological order, with a page devoted to each. Accompanying each page is a gorgeous, but often terrifying illustration on the subject at hand. You can easily skip around to subjects that catch your fancy, or read them in order, a little at a time, or all at once. The 100 entries tackle diverse ideas such as funeral rites, heaven and hell, reincarnation, autopsies, ghosts, premature burial, cryonics, abortion, ossuaries, kamikaze pilots, vampires, hospice, capital punishment, near-death experiences... all the way to the end of the universe and beyond.
1550 BC: Egyptian Book of the Dead. The ancient Egyptian ritual of “opening of the mouth” described in the Book of the Dead is performed so that the deceased can eat and drink in the afterlife. In this c. 1300 BCE papyrus, the jackal-headed god Anubis is shown supporting the mummy of the scribe Hunefer while three priests carry out the ritual.
From the introduction to Death and the Afterlife:
I have had a longtime fascination with death, dying, consciousness, the afterlife, and topics at the borderlands of science. Some of my interest was rekindled after reading freelance writer Greta Christina’s 2005 essay “Comforting Thoughts about Death That Have Nothing to Do with God.” Greta writes, “The fact that your life span is an infinitesimally tiny fragment in the life of the universe, that there is, at the very least, a strong possibility that when you die, you disappear completely and forever, and that in five hundred years nobody will remember you . . . [this] can make you feel erased, wipe out joy, make your life seem like ashes in your hands.” And then I sigh. Greta admits that she doesn’t know what happens when we die, but she doesn’t think this essential mystery really matters. She reminds us that we should be happy because it is amazing that we even get a chance to be alive. We get to be conscious: “We get to be connected with each other and with the world, and we get to be aware of that connection and to spend a few years mucking about its possibilities.” Her essay ends on a bright note as she enumerates items that contribute to her happiness, such as Shakespeare, sex, five-spice chicken, Thai restaurants, Louis Armstrong, and drifting patterns in the clouds.
As you read through Death and the Afterlife, remember that even if we may consider some of the ideas and rituals surrounding death unscientific, these are all still worthy areas of study. And the subjects we address are not all depressing. Our rituals and myths are, at minimum, fascinating models of human understanding and creativity—and of how we reach across cultures to understand one another and learn about what we hold sacred.
