In this, the latest episode of Anglophenia, host Kate Arnell tries to pull a fast one on us by claiming that the idea of Halloween originated in the U.K. Or is she pulling a fast one after all? Listen to her reasoning and decide for yourself. Via Laughing Squid
Marc Evan and Chris Soria have been best friends since 6th grade. They bonded over horror movies, once designed a haunted house at their school, and went to art school together. They worked their way through school at restaurants and bars, where they had opportunity to carve pumpkins and put their design skills to work. Over time, they became really good at it.
Around Halloween of 2007, Marc and Chris began taking photos of their pumpkins and posting them to a Flickr account. Fortuitously, an editor at Wired Magazine came across one of the images and published a short write-up on them.
The results of this tiny feature could not have been forecasted: almost immediately, Marc and Chris were flooded with inquiries and orders -- including a massive request from the New York Yankees. Marc recalls:
“It was right around the World Series, and Yankee Stadium called us to make fifty pumpkins for their skybox seats, each with this intricate logo design. At that point, we figured it was probably time to start a business.”
With little experience in the business world, the two artists charged the Yankees $50 per pumpkin, and ended up taking a loss on the deal.
That first professional experience was the beginning of what became Maniac Pumpkin Carvers. Marc and Chris now employ several other carvers and work 18 hours a day during the eight-week pumpkin season. One of their works will run you between $150 to $700 or even more, depending on the job. Read about their business, their technique, and their tips for making your carved pumpkin last, at Pricenomics.
How do you light a Jack O’Lantern under water? Nature has its ways, as we see in this comic from Liz Climo. The Jack O’Lantern instantly gets not only a light, but scary teeth, too! Only Liz Climo could make Mr. Blobby and an anglerfish look cute. She has several new comics in which the animals try out new Halloween costumes. See them at her Tumblr blog.
crank that (soulja boy) - soulja boy tell 'em pic.twitter.com/XsHzg3Pxcj
— dancing skeleton (@skeletontunes) October 10, 2015
The Twitter account Skeletontunes began earlier this month and took the Twittersphere by storm. Every Tweet is the same video, a six-second sequence of clips from the hilarious classic dancing skeleton video. What’s different is that each is set to a different pop song. Scroll through and you will find a song you can’t wait to hear a skeleton dance to. My favorite is the first one.
spooky scary skeletons pic.twitter.com/CrwBkmeRVN
— dancing skeleton (@skeletontunes) October 4, 2015
Alas, after 70 songs, the skeleton’s last Tweet was Sunday. Maybe he’s just out of town for a few days. He hasn’t even danced to “Yakety Sax” yet! -via The Daily Dot
Who played the best Dracula in the movies? You first think of Bela Lugosi, but there was Christopher Lee, Frank Langella, Gary Oldman, and John Carradine, too. Or maybe you preferred a comedic Dracula, like Leslie Neilsen or George Hamilton. Then there was Max Schreck and Klaus Kinski, whose characters were named Count Orlock, but we all know who that vampire was supposed to be. Den of Geek goes through the various incarnations of Dracula (actually more than 13), including a few that you may never have heard of before. So you might want to look those movies up, for a new Dracula experience this Halloween.
Yes! And this is only the beginning. We need a leggy Gimli, a smokin' hot Balrog, and a coyly seductive Ent.
Tijtske Van Vark, 18, of Melbourne, Australia got to dress up for "Muck Up Day"--a traditional day for student pranks. She went as a different sort of Gandalf. Now I'd like to see Ian McKellen try it.
-via BuzzFeed
It’s an annual tradition to watch Charlie Brown receive rocks in his trick-or-treat bag and Linus mangle Halloween lore in the 1966 TV special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Now in it’s 50th year, you probably know the script by heart. But you might not know how much was riding on the success of the Halloween special, or other behind the scenes facts. Here’s your chance to find out.
2. THE VOICE OF VIOLET PUKED AFTER EVERY RECORDING SESSION.
It’s standard practice these days to use adult actors to mimic juvenile cartoon characters: adults are (presumably) better able to take direction and deliver a performance in line with the director’s wishes. But for many Peanuts specials, children were used to voice Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, and the rest. Anne Altieri, who portrayed both Violet and Frieda, was so nervous to be part of the show that she threw up every time she was done with a recording session.
5. THE MUSIC COMPOSER WAS FOUND NAKED BY COPS.
The jazzy scores of the early Peanuts specials were the work of composer Vince Guaraldi. When he was busy putting together “The Great Pumpkin Waltz” for the show, he decided to break for a shower. When he came out, he thought he heard noises outside and went to investigate, naked, and locked himself out in the process. Keyless, Guaraldi tried climbing a ladder to a second-floor window when cops spotted him. “Don’t shoot,” he said. “I’m the Great Pumpkin.” Police, who were many months away from getting the joke, let him back inside.
There’s more where that came from, in a trivia list about It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown at mental_floss. The show will air on ABC tonight and again on October 29th. Check your local listings for time and channel.
Halloween is our favorite time of the year, but it can be stressful, particularly for parents who don't have enough time or money to make or buy their little one the perfect costume. But you can make a pretty awesome costume for surprisingly little money and here are a few ideas for those who prefer to DIY over buy, but still want something pretty simple.
A yellow hat, an orange scarf, a brown sash covered in badges and some hefty hiking boots can transform any boy into everyone's favorite Wilderness Explorer.
Windup Doll
Dress up your little cutie in his or her fanciest clothes, then add a gold-painted cardboard cutout of a windup key and you have an adorable little windup doll.
Wonder Woman
Every little girl is wonderful, but with a blue tutu, some felt stars and a Wonder Woman tee, she can actually become Wonder Woman as well. Throw in a tiara and wrist cuffs on older girls and you've got a full, fashionable ensemble.
Christine McConnell (previously at Neatorama) went all out in decorating her parents’ house for Halloween! It involved covering up some windows, but worth it for a couple of weeks of frightening the neighborhood children. The eyes and teeth are painted foam board. An album at imgur has photos of both the process and the finished product. Don’t miss the nighttime picture, where it’s all lit up in green! -via reddit
Watch Tiny Hamster (previously at Neatorama) and his friends go trick-or-treating and gobble up delicious pumpkins.
If you were a cutting-edge internet star -and a hamster- it only makes sense to trick-or-treat as the Pizza Rat! That’s almost as funny as Bunny Trump. And the guinea pig gets to go as the airplane scene from Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. -Thanks, Jake!
Halloween mania has entered the operating room. Let’s hope this surgical sequence is a horror film instead of supposedly mirroring real life. This is only the beginning of the longer comic you can read at Buttersafe. You may or may not be able to see the punch line coming “a mile away.” Either way, it’s both satisfying and groan-producing.
Jeff Wysaski pulled a new Obvious Plant prank for people shopping for Halloween costumes. These fake costume descriptions were nestled in with the real ones at a Halloween shop, but alas, they are not real costumes. I’d like to think if there were, there would be people who would buy them just for the lulz.
See the rest of them at Obvious Plant. And a bonus costume at Facebook.
The latest "100 years" video from Mode runs down Halloween costumes over the past century, with one for each decade. The selected costumes certainly do not represent all Halloween costumes of the era, but the ones featured show the influence of pop culture as it progresses.
This is fun to watch, and I’m glad they didn’t use the cheapest store-bought costumes available during those times. Still, I kind of wish that someone would do the same thing with more costumes and less dress-up time.
Image: Evan Swigart
Thinking of having a Halloween party or just interested in having a cocktail or two as the kiddies are out collecting their candy? The Chicago Tribune asked prominent bartenders to submit their best Halloween drink recipes. The resulting collection is a scream.
One example is the "Iron Complex," a recipe supplied by Revae Schneider of Femme du Coupe, a Chicago mixology company. The cherry lambic in this chilling libation lends the appearance of blood swirling through the glass:
3 ounces Scotch
1.5 ounces ginger syrup
1.5 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
5 sage leaves
Cherry lambic, to taste
Combine Scotch, ginger syrup, lime juice and sage in a cocktail shaker; add ice. Shake for 30 seconds, then pour into a glass of your choice over ice. Hold a spoon over the drink with the back facing up; slowly pour cherry lambic onto the spoon, letting it drizzle into the drink.
We love some good art and some great Halloween costumes -and every now and then the two combine into somehting fantastic. This great Flavorwire article shows just how magical the blend of art and costumery can be.
One of the greatest things about these art costumes is the fact that a lot of them are actually easy, they just require a lot of creativity.
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Of course, you don't have to go serious just because you want to go artsy...
