October 31, 2005
Rhode Island's haunted places: an interactive map
Mysteries of Rhode Island is "an interactive map and guide to mysterious locations and strange places in the smallest state."
You can zero in on separate maps of Providence and Newport.
Best of all, it invites you to add your own entries, and tag them with color-coded pushpins, the color depending on the nature of the mystery in residence there.
I learned of this from a comment added to last week's Halloween Events item. Reader Stephanie, who owns up to having created it with some friends, didn't offer a last name or a real email address, but there's a RISD connection here.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 09:28 AM
October 30, 2005
50 original printable pumpkin stencils
Nice stencils to enlarge, print, and carve, found at the Appleton (Wisc.) Post-Crescent.
Not your usual spooks. These are four of the 50 thumbnails on a single page.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 05:04 PM
October 28, 2005
Printable parodies of 'Star Wars' masks: Martha Stewart, Steve Jobs, Greenspan, Oprah, the Google guys ...
Forbes Magazine has parodied the real Star Wars masks in previous item.
You'll find Steve Jobs as Darth Vader, Martha Stewart as Padme Amidala, Alan Greenspan as Yoda, Oprah Winfrey as Princess Leia and Sergey Brin & Larry Page as R2-D2 & C-3P0.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 07:18 PM
October 27, 2005
17 printable 'Star Wars' masks for kids
Starwars.com is offering 17 full-color printable masks in two sizes -- 11 x 17 and 8 1/2 by 11 inches -- Revenge of the Sith masks by Star Wars illustrators and artists: General Grievous and Obi-Wan Kenobi by Cat Staggs, Tion Medon and Aayla Secura by Cynthia Cummens, C-3PO and Yoda by Chris Trevas, Padmé Amidala by Sarah Wilkinson, Chewbacca by Joe Corroney, The Emperor by Otis Frampton, Anakin Skywalker by Randy Martinez, R2-D2 by Brent Woodside, clone troopers by Tom Hodges, Boga by Amy Pronovost and Darth Vader by Matt Busch.
Thanks to BoingBoing for this gift.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 01:16 PM
Victorian Halloween site is several cuts above
Miss Mary's a hoot, and her Victorian Halloween site is really well done.
Besides Gothic tales, a gift shop largely of the Miss Mary's clipart, and Gothic games, there are costumes to make that assume you're intelligent and willing to improvise.
Check out the paper costume and the photo gallery.
I think I know how the Frightful Fashions got their name: Stunning thugh they all are, neither the The Flexible Giant, nor The Centaur nor The Wompus Cat(these require two people) nor the Woofus leave any hands free to carry a trick-or-treat bag. Be warned.
There's commerce here, but with a deft light touch. The fun continues at Miss Mary's LiveJournal site.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 12:02 AM
October 26, 2005
Horror Film Festival opens tomorrow
The sixth annual Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival opens tomorrow with The Manson Family and runs through Sunday. (Scroll past the press release to get to the schedule.)
There's a Halloween party for kids ($5) at the Columbus Theatre on Sunday at 2 p.m. with scary stories, cartoons, Bela Lugosi's reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s A Tell-Tale Heart and a costume competition with prizes.
But the rest of the festival looks much more adult. Screenings are largely in Providence -- at the Columbus, Cable Car and Chamber of Commerce theaters -- except for Cruel World, showing Friday at 8 p.m. at the Court House Center for the Arts in West Kingston. Tickets ($10) at arttixri.com or call 401-621-6123.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 01:17 PM
October 25, 2005
Creepy spiders
Creepy spiders is a Flash ad on earlyamerica.com, of all places, that my colleagues discovered while fact-checking a story that included a reference to the Louisiana Purchase.
When they left for the night, they left the page up on a big Mac used for making newspaper pages with QuarkXPress and, even at 300 by 250 pixels, its scurrying spiders drew a crowd.
I copied the page URL and brought it up on my PC, reloading the page a few times to get the same ad. Here it is, full screen.
(No, nobody clicked the ad, we don't know where it goes, but we love it.)
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 05:37 PM
October 24, 2005
Make your own fake blood
Blood Recipes is from Nightshade's Pain-in-the-Neck Vampire Page, part of a LARP (live action role playing game) site. Even better, the formulas are based on simple ingredients and food coloring.
Yummy: one of the blood forumulas is based on cocoa, thickened and sweetened with corn syrup. Tastes like chocolate.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 04:29 PM
October 23, 2005
Recipe: Unsweet Pumpkin Soup
I made this from a recipe for Cuban Pumpkin Soup today, and it's really good. I avoid sugar, so many pumpkin and squash soups taste like dessert to me, but the original recipe, which lacked the spices and called for just yogurt, was bland and too chickeny. I improvised, and we liked it.
I added the traditional spices and a bit of sugar. Yogurt alone was too prominent a flavor, but swirling in some sour cream balanced it beautifully and blended the flavors. Feel free to add more sugar or spices to your taste.
It's low-carb -- pumpkin has more fiber than sugar, and the carbs in plain yogurt are consumed by the bacteria in the process of milk becoming yogurt. Low-fat sour cream reduces the fat and calories.
Unsweet Pumpkin Soup1 tb Olive oil
1 c onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 lb pumpkin meat, pureed or one 1-lb., 15-oz. can of pumpkin
4 c Chicken stock
6 oz. container plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 c low-fat sour creamTabasco
Salt and pepper1 1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugarCook onion in oil over low heat until it's nearly transparent; onion, add garlic and cook a few minutes more. Add pumpkin, then the stock, slowly, mixing it well. Add Tabasco, salt and pepper.
Simmer about 45 to 50 minutes.
Turn off and add spices and mix well. Stir in yogurt till blended, then swirl sour cream into the soup, leaving streaks.
Updated to reflect that I used one 6-oz container of plain yogurt rather than the full cup called for in the original recipe. This was enough.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 10:11 PM
Inspiration; Extreme pumpkin photo gallery
Electrocution pumpkin
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 09:45 PM
October 20, 2005
Carve a virtual pumpkin
Carve your own pumpkin: Another interesting E-card, this one from Bloompetals. Pick a pumpkin shape, wield a knife by clicking points, return to the starting point and the shape falls out, with shadows.
Helps if you can draw, fun even if you can't.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 10:35 AM | Comments (1)
October 19, 2005
Bloody Finger Mail
Bloody Finger Mail ia a nice twist on an "E-Card": Draw your (very short) message in dripping blood and email it off. When the recipient picks it up, the finger will draw it again, just as you did the first time.
"For those times when ink just doesn't cut it."
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 03:56 AM | Comments (2)
Costume how-to: Lego Man
Laurence at xenomachina.com writes,
Two years ago, I decided to make a Lego minifig (ie: "Lego man") costume for Halloween. The hardest part was building the head. Here's how I did it:For the rest of my costume I wore a long-sleve baseball T-shirt (to get the effect of different colored arms from legs that many minifig have), wore yellow kitchen gloves, and put some rectangles of carboard in the bottom of my pant legs to make my legs seem "boxy".
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 03:48 AM
October 17, 2005
Free homemade costumes, makeup and crafts
Make Up, Bruises & Blood. Amazing what you can do with some food coloring and common household creams, soaps and powders.
Make Up, Bruises & Blood. Amazing what you can do with some food coloring and common household creams, soaps and powders.
Free, Creative Halloween Costume Ideas
At Parents Magazine, you'll find instructions for Raggedy Ann, Frankenstein's Monster, Rockin' Elvis, Pretty, Pretty Princess and Cool Crusader costumes. Tip: While they boast that Elvis's guitar is made from a tissue box, find a way to attach it to your child. It's a pain to carry around a prop and a candy bag.
Free Halloween Crafts Projects Links
Halloween Costumes From the Eighties: If this was your time, you can go back...
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 06:34 PM
October 16, 2005
Pumpkin patterns and software to make your own
Blogger Adam Kalsey pulls together an updated list of sites offering pumpkin-carving patterns.
While I can admire the art in these squash-art stencils, some depicting TV and movie characters, I still prefer well-done primitive jack-o-lanterns best. Software to draw your own could be interesting, too. (screenshot)
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 11:58 AM
October 15, 2005
Frugal and smart Halloween projects
Frugal projects: I like Derek Greenwood's attitude. He makes a glowing potion out of water and the inside sponge of a yellow highlighter, a creepy tube full of eyeballs from a plastic tube and this printout.
More goes on at his Halloween pages.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 12:02 PM
Southern ghost stories, text and audio
At The Moonit Road,
Ghost stories haunt the moonlit backroads of the American South. Their roots in Southern culture and folklore are deep. Each month, The Moonlit Road brings you these ghost stories and other strange Southern folktales, told by the region's best storytellers.
Our monthly feature stories are available in both text and streaming audio versions....
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 11:47 AM
October 14, 2005
Horror photos
At Flickr, the Halloween clusters come in scary and vegetable.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 10:49 PM
Halloween events
Organized Halloween events in Southern New England this weekend -- these listings are from the Journal's Live This Weekend section -- do not seem to include H.P. Lovecraft's grave in the Phillips family plot in Swan Point cemetery, but you could make a private visit...:
Organized Halloween events in Southern New England this weekend -- these listings are from the Journal's Live This Weekend section -- do not seem to include H.P. Lovecraft's grave in the Phillips family plot in Swan Point cemetery, but you could make a private visit...:
All Hallows' Eve: The Story of the Halloween Fairy, Lisa and Tucker Johnson read and sign their new children's book. Barrington Books, 184 County Rd., Barrington. 245-7925. Sun 2-4 pm.
Pawtuxet Village Farmer's Market, 2154 Broad St. (the Shriners' parking lot), Cranston. 785-9599. Sat 10:30 am-noon.
Carved in Stone Walking Tour, depart from the Gateway Visitors Center, 23 America's Cup Ave., Newport. 90-minute walking tour of the Common Burying Ground. See interesting grave carvings, discover the final resting place of Newport's famous and infamous. Sat4 pm. $18, $10 age 10 and younger, free under age 4. Reservation.
Factory of Terror, corner of Pearl and Spring Street, Fall River. www.factoryofterror.com. Thu 6:30-10 pm, Fri-Sat 6:30-11 pm, Sun 6:30-10. $16, $12 under age 10.
Field of Screams, 179 Plain Meeting House Rd., West Greenwich. 884-7369; www.hauntedhayride.net. Psycho House of Horrors (outdoor walk-through haunted maze), haunted hayride and 4-D haunted maze. $15, children 12 and under $13. Thu-Sun. Tickets sales start at 6:30 pm; gates close 9 pm Thu, Sun, and 10 pm Fri-Sat.
Haunted Hill (3rd annual), Diamond Hill Park, Cumberland. Spooky trail with 15 different acts. Fri-Sun dusk to 10 pm. $10. For ages 10+. Proceeds benefit the Drop Zone Student Center.
Haunted Labyrinth, Rejoice in Hope Youth Center, 804 Dyer Ave., Cranston. 943-8686 or www.hauntedlabyrinth.com. Indoor waiting. Thu-Sun. 7-11 pm. $8. Proceeds benefit the Center.
Haunted Weekends, Francis Farm, 151 County St., Rehoboth. (508) 252-3212, www.francisfarm.net. Haunted horse-drawn hayrides, monster games, spooky pumpkin patch, scary-oke music. Fri-Sun 6-10 pm. $4, $2 ages 6-12; includes one hayride, pumpkin patch maze and entertainment.
Lantern Tours and Labyrinth, South County Museum, Strathmore Street, Narragansett. 783-5400, www.southcountymuseum.org. 90-minute tour of the museums' exhibit buildings. Sat-Sun at 8 pm. Harvest Home Full Circle Labyrinth, Halloween stories and walk Sun. Members $3.50 each event; nonmembers $7 each event. Registration.
Nautical Nightmares (4th annual), Mystic Seaport, 75 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, Conn. (888) 973-2767, www.mysticseaport.org. Eerie ghost tales and spirits guide you through a darkened village Fri, Sun 7 pm. Tours leave every 20 minutes; last tour leaves at 9 pm. Members $15, $12 child; nonmembers $17, $14 child. Not recommended for children under age 7.
Old Town Ghost Walk, departs from Fathoms Restaurant, Newport Marriott, America's Cup Avenue, Newport. 841-8600. Lantern-led stroll down historic Newport's shadowy lanes to discover the ghosts, ghouls and legends of the City-by-the-Sea. Daily through Oct. 31, 8 pm. $18, $10 age 10 and younger, free under age 4. Reservation.
Providence Ghost Walks, walking tour of haunted Providence leaves from in front of the Providence Athenaeum, corner of Benefit and College streets. Sat-Sun 3 pm. $5. 454-0977, www.roryraven.com.
Pumpkin Luminaria, Oakland Beach Sea Wall, Oakland Beach Avenue, Warwick. 739-1305. Carved or decorated pumpkins can be brought to the seawall Sat at 3:30 pm to register for the contest. Children register free, adults $1. Pumpkins will be lit after dusk (6 pm). Family activities, games and music.
--FREE-- Revlak School of Magic & Wizardry, Newport Public Library, 300 Spring St. 847-8720, www.newportlibraryri.org. Magician Bruce Kalver presents a Harry Potter-style magic show for ages 5 and older. Children are invited to wear their Halloween costume. Oct. 18 3:30 pm. Drop-in.
Salem Haunted Happenings, Salem, Mass. (877) 725-3662, www.hauntedhappenings.org. Month-long celebration of autumn and Halloween.
Salisbury Farm 2005 Corn Maize, Plainfield Pike and Peck Hill Road, Johnston. 942-9741. Llama Labyrinth Maze, Mon-Fri 10 am-5 pm, Sat-Sun, holidays 10 am-6 pm. Weekdays, $6 adults, $4 children; Sat-Sun $7.50 adults, $5 children. Moonlight Maze Sat 7-9 pm, last ticket sold at 8:30 pm. $9, $6 under age 12. No pets.
Scary Acres, Confreda Greenhouses and Farms, 2150 Scituate Ave., Cranston. 823-1150. Haunted corn maze and terror-filled hayride. Fri-Sun dusk to 10 pm. $15, $10 under age 12. No one under age 16 without an adult. Bring a flashlight.
Spooky Zoo Sundays, Roger Williams Park Zoo, 1000 Elmwood Ave., Providence. 785-3510, 751-0203 (TDD), www.rogerwilliamsparkzoo.org. Trick-or-treating, creepy crawly critter encounters, beetle juice station. Sun noon-4 pm. Acitivities included in zoo admission of $10, $8 seniors, $6 ages 3-12, free under age 3.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 01:49 AM | Comments (1)
October 12, 2005
Games that spook and go bump
If you're having trouble getting into Halloween, some free online games might get the spirit moving.
Halloweeeen is a simple run, jump and collect the candy game. (You're a small ghost.)
You seem to be able to land on the mean jack-o-lantern and squash it, but if you walk into it, it eats you.
This is best for smaller kids. I got tired of just hopping and didn't take it too far, so I don't know if it gets more challenging on later levels.
Halloween Smash will be more interesting to older kids and grownups: Align three or more objects in a row horizontally or vertically by swapping its position with an adjacent object. When you do, they drop out, new ones come in and spontaneous matches rearrange the board.
(If you're familiar with the Elf Balls Christmas game, it's the same action.)
There are 16 other Flash games linked on this page, which is a mixture of French and English I found on a Japanese site. Some French pop-unders got through the Firefox block, but the games are worth having to close a window.
The House is not quite a game, it's an interactive horror story set in a dark spooky house with a few clickable items, some of which need to be clicked a few times or clicked again after you've clicked something else.
Mildly interesting, not really for kids.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 06:57 PM
October 11, 2005
How to turn a picture you like into a pumpkin pattern
Very useful. Step-by-step instructions for turning an image you like into a pumpkin-carving pattern:
We used Adobe Photoshop to create this pattern however, any graphics program with gray scale conversion and image resizing capabilities will work equally as well.
It's from The Pumpkin Lady, who has some downloadable patterns, too.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 11:19 PM
Free haunted-house soundtrack (mp3)
You gotta love it. drumnjazz, the site admin at sounds are active, offers a spooky new scene music as a free download:
So this past weekend Create (!) teamed up with with Chaos Theory (two teenagers from the neighborhood) and recorded a special soundtrack for the Haunted House that will be held at Martin Luther King Jr. Park (one of the many places that Create (!) conducts free music workshops for the community) in Long Beach.
You gotta love it. drumnjazz, the site admin at sounds are active, offers a spooky new scene music as a free download:
So this past weekend Create (!) teamed up with with Chaos Theory (two teenagers from the neighborhood) and recorded a special soundtrack for the Haunted House that will be held at Martin Luther King Jr. Park (one of the many places that Create (!) conducts free music workshops for the community) in Long Beach.
This was a lot of fun and hopefully is more than a little scary when the lights are off. What we decided to do was post it here on the site and let others use it as a soundtrack for their own Halloween haunts and such. This is designated as the 2005 version as we hope there will be more to come. Enjoy!
There are two versions of the Haunted House Soundtrack (2005):
Short (this is the full 7 minute track) Long (this is a 33 minute end to end mix- that way you can scare... LONGER!)
Yes, I listened to the first few minutes and it's appropriately silly. The best comment:
scary free-jazz, ha! It is like Klezmer Christmas Music.
haha! yes! a bit silly, too... almost like a dracula b-movie.
Beats a boombox playing Monster Mash any day.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 11:14 PM
Free Martha patterns
Martha Stewart Halloween is what used to be called "camp." ("an ironic appreciation of that which might otherwise be considered corny") A costume "from the grocery store" includes mophead hula skirts, while the lead story is black-widow makeup.
For your goodie bag there are some pumpkin templates, silhouettes (pdf) for those who can paint but can't draw. The cat that probably just saw a giant dog would be fetching if enlarged on your own computer.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 11:11 PM
October 10, 2005
Extreme Halloween baking: Thoracic Cavity and Zombie cakes
Thorax Cavity Cake
They're coming to get you Barbara is the site of a pair of serious horror-movie fans, and they're just as obsessive about their party fare. The thorax cake above is a lot like a train wreck, made entirely from scratch. (The ribs are lovingly shaped white chocolate.)
Thorax Cavity Cake
They're coming to get you Barbara is the site of a pair of serious horror-movie fans, and they're just as obsessive about their party fare. The thorax cake above is a lot like a train wreck, made entirely from scratch. (The ribs are lovingly shaped white chocolate.)
My favorite line: "After baking all the different types of cakes, I carved them into the shapes of the appropriate organs, using my handy Gray's Anatomy as a reference."
The zombie cake below is slightly more doable for a normal person, one with lots of time. (I'd skip the candymaking and go for just the head.)
...The head was made of sour cream chocolate chip cake, dyed red to resemble brain matter, covered with modeling chocolate and various other frosting and hard candy details. The hand was made of mint-flavored hard candy bones covered with chocolate. Green hard candy letters around the perimeter reminded everyone that "They're coming to get you, Barbara." At the height of the party we gathered everyone around it to witness the thrilling moment when raspberry flavored blood spurted from his eyes and poured from his mouth. In fact, it sprayed a bit further than I expected it to. ..
I calculated that, between the cake, the French creams, and the bloody eyeball cordial cherries, I went through 15 pounds of granulated sugar, 2 bags of powdered sugar, 8 large bags of chocolate chips, 2 bottle of corn syrup, 8 pounds of dark chocolate, and 4 pounds of white chocolate. I have a slight tendency to go overboard with these things. We have a lot of eyeballs left over.
Its creation is lovingly detailed, with many photos, over five pages.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 11:46 AM | Comments (2)
October 09, 2005
Halloween recipes you might actually want to eat
At Perfect Entertaining, the Halloween recipes are real and appropriately decorative, developed in response to a gaping hole, an abyss, in the recipe canon:
At Perfect Entertaining, the Halloween recipes are real and appropriately decorative, developed in response to a gaping hole, an abyss, in the recipe canon:
... It seemed that everything at the time was geared towards twelve year old boys or people who were really into Halloween. For the first set it seemed like the main goal was to be as gross and disgusting as possible - and the result was the complete lack of good taste. In more ways than one! The combinations of ingredients resulted in dishes I wouldn't serve to my worst enemy and nothing was appropriate for little children to eat or for adults. The second set of recipes and ideas were not necessarily gross but were incredibly time consuming, expensive, and intricate. Special molds, special ingredients, tons of props, hard to find components, and the patience of a saint to put everything together were required. The worst part was that while the appearance was more sophisticated, usually the taste was still terrible!
The result of this situation was that I began developing a series of recipes and menus for Halloween. The recipes were sometimes gross and sometimes complicated -- but the final product was always edible and always delicious. (No more Jell-O, broccoli, Velveeta, and mini-weiner combinations for me, thank you very much!) The recipes range from kid friendly - both in preparation which makes for a lot of fun for your children and in eating - to elegant grown up fare you wouldn't be ashamed to serve the boss on a fall evening.
Links to categories are below that, and a quick browse leads to relief: Roasted Heart involves chicken breasts shrouded in Italian tomato sauce topped by a red pepper roasted naked (and alive) and then unfurled.
The decorative green pepper above (Stuffed Monster Heads) is stuffed with ground meat, couscous and barbecue sauce.
Spooky Black Cat Cupcakes, can be constructed entirely from store-bought parts;
Spiced Pumpkin Pecan Fudge sounds yummy, and Chocolate Orange Bread Pudding is an architectural masterpiece
Undecorated, these recipes might be keepers year-round.
Far simpler, the Halloween Recipes at Britta Blvd will get you through with a single shopping trip and a little imagination. Awful Arachnids and Eerie Eyeballs give maximum effect without enormous effort. If you just need to nod to the season, Jack-O-Lantern Cheese and Crackers involves simply pressing a cookie stamp into warm American cheese on crackers.
Definitely for grownups, Pumpkin and Mussel Soup and the like at Food Network's Pumpkin Time.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 11:06 AM
October 08, 2005
Haunted paper toys are just the takeaways
Artist Ray O'Bannon's RavensBlight is a strange and wonderful site, full of free Halloween goodies...
Artist Ray O'Bannon's RavensBlight is a strange and wonderful site, full of free Halloween goodies -- horror music, a ghoulish art gallery, PC games to download and, best of all, interesting and free paper Halloween toys. Print them on heavy stock for instant decorations:
Welcome to the toyshop! Here you'll find a variety of rather unusual paper toys, all free for you to print out and enjoy. The toys include a hearse playset, coffin gift boxes (with occupants), a little cemetery, several unusual board games, a gloomy little haunted house, a rusty old-style robot, and quite a few other dark delights. So pick out some toys, print out the pattern pages, and with a few common supplies like scissors and glue you're ready to create all these strange little curiosities. I hope you'll enjoy them all.
Posted by Sheila Lennon at 11:36 PM