Smiling Fire

Image by Brian Raicich.

Now Playing: Prowler

By Bohren & Der Club of Gore.

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Trailer: Ariel Phenomenon

Really great documentary on a ufo/alien mass sighting that occurred at the Ariel school in Africa in 1994.  

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Witch Hollow

The Hag is astride,

    This night for to ride;

The Devill and shee together:

    Through thick, and through thin,

    Now out, and then in,

Though ne'r so foule be the weather.

    A Thorn or a Burr

    She takes for a Spurre:

With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,

    Through Brakes and through Bryars,

    O're Ditches, and Mires,

She followes the Spirit that guides now.

    No Beast, for his food,

    Dares now range the wood;

But husht in his laire he lies lurking:

    While mischiefs, by these,

    On Land and on Seas,

At noone of Night are working,

    The storme will arise,

    And trouble the skies;

This night, and more for the wonder,

    The ghost from the Tomb

    Affrighted shall come,

Cal'd out by the clap of the Thunder.

- Robert Herrick

Bleak

Now Playing: Hymn For The Psychotic Mind

By Terrortron.

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Reaper

An old (true) story that inspired a prop...

Giving out candy on Halloween night for as long as I've been doing it has made me something of an observer.  I get to study how adults and children act when approaching my Haunt. If they're the type to pause and appreciate everything, or the sort that rushes up and away without hesitation and without looking back. There are the people that kneel down and study props, tapping lightly at the mache.  And the ones that get brushed with threads hanging down from the porch or trellis like thin spider webs and scream and run off before getting candy.  There are parents that get frustrated with their children who clearly are too terrified to walk onto the porch for candy.  And parents who love to sit back and watch their children slowly approaching the Haunt, with huge proud smiles.

Back when I gave out candy at my parents' house in the old neighborhood, I saw children grow up - going from trick-or-treater to parent.  That was the most peculiar feeling.  I'd see a young man carrying his own child, and I remembered when he was too scared to come up for candy. Crazy.

Then there was something else - Death.  There was a cloaked figure that walked slowly around the neighborhood.  A black hooded cloak, the deluxe variety, and a rubber skull mask.  I'm assuming it was an adult male based on the height and build.  I'm not exaggerating or embellishing in any way - I saw him every single year and had seen him for as far back as I could remember.  I don't know if it was the same guy or maybe a few guys over the years.  But there was always just the one lonely figure, keeping to himself and not stopping at houses for candy.  He was in character too, with a strange slow walk, like a one-man funeral procession.

It's a neat concept, an adult who never gave up on Halloween.  Keeps a cloak and a mask in a drawer or closet all year long. On Halloween night, he leaves work early, has dinner, puts a bowl of candy out on the porch with a "Help Yourself" sign, and then dons a rich dark cloak and an old, tattered latex mask, the kind that smells like new sneakers.  I bet he was smiling under there the whole time.

Or maybe it really was Death.

Now Playing: Chariots Of Pumpkins

Amazing cover by Mega Beardo.

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Haxan

Louis Cyphre

Unworthy

House Of A Thousand Spirits

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Crimson

The night is darkening round me

The wild winds coldly blow

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot cannot go

- Emily Brontë

El Fantasma Del Convento

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The Photography Of Karen Jerzyk

More works here.

Horseman

When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

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The Kutztown Folk Festival

All good things...

Last June we traveled to Kutztown for its annual folk festival.  We didn't realize it at the time, but due to "dwindling interest and increased costs" it apparently was the last Kutztown Folk Festival.  The very first one occurred back in 1950.

Looking through the photos from that trip was bittersweet, as we had planned to return again this summer.  Pennsylvania is a glorious state.  Its folk art and history have always been a comforting part of my life.  Seeing old, faded hex signs on massive, tired barns is as exciting today as it was the first time I spotted one as a child.  Summers are like the stuff of Ray Bradbury's short stories.  Falls are pure magic.  Our winter landscapes of layered browns and grays never cease to resemble something the Wyeths couldn't resist to paint.  I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

The Kutztown Folk Festival was a blast... a true celebration of Pennsylvania Dutch culture.  Rows of vendors and artists of every kind.  Music and dancing and interesting presentations under flapping tents that provided shade from the summer heat.  We listened to the history of hex signs and barn stars and learned how the PA Dutch preserved their food.  We saw replicas of an early Church and schoolhouse.  We bought some terrific coffee at one stand and spiked it at the recommendation of an old farmer doing the same to his coffee, as we all moved to the vendor next-door - a distillery selling some fantastic whiskey.  

That was the most memorable part.  Everyone there was kind and friendly and seemed really proud to share their heritage.

The highlight of the event was a very special "Country Kitchen" presentation of an authentic Pennsylvania Dutch meal (including the seven sweets and seven sours tradition).  In a mockup of a hundred-year-old kitchen with a wood burning cast iron stove from the 1920's, we sat around a table with six strangers as our host and chef prepared everything from scratch and educated us on the process and history.  Keep in mind this was a very hot and humid day in June and we're sitting around in this hot wooden kitchen, near a wood-burning stove.  Incredibly, I wouldn't have changed a thing.  Somehow it felt appropriate.  There was homemade iced tea made from apple mint leaves, and we drank tons of the wonderful stuff.  We got to know the other guests as we passed around plates of delicious food.  By the end of that amazing dinner, it felt like we were all friends.  

On a personal note, I'm not much of a praying man, but prior to eating dinner, the host had us all join hands and say a short prayer of thanksgiving.  It was really quite special, and I felt truly grateful for the opportunity to experience a meal in such a way, and with these super nice folks.  I felt gratitude for a lot of things.  

Below are some photos from that neat summer day.  I made sure to get some shots of the amazing food - that's Moravian chicken pie and the best apple dumpling pie you've ever had.