Bold and British

While watching The Royal Wedding today, I wondered how I could incorporate some part of it into my blog. The wedding wasn't Halloween themed (how cool would that have been?) but some of the hats I saw today were bold enough to be part of a Halloween costume. I'm trying to make a segue here. :)

These hats were so elaborate (and in some cases bizarre). I realize that British styles are different from American styles, so these might look a little foreign to us Americans. I did like some of the fascinators I saw, though.

So here are some of the boldest hats from today.

Princess Beatrice

Miriam Gonzalez Durantez

The wife of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg

(I admit to liking this one)

Tara-Palmer-Tomkinson (in the boat-like hat)

The following aren't from The Royal Wedding, but they are British and over-the-top! 

So, what do you guys think? Would any of the ladies reading this be bold enough to wear one of these sculptural hats?

Flash Freezing

Flash mobs seem pretty popular lately! Howie Mandel has a flash mob show going, and one was acted out on Glee last night. There are a lot of flash mob videos out there too! It seems that all over the world people are getting together and planning to either sing, dance, or in this case stand still at the same time. The video below was taped in a Manchester supermarket and involved 50 people.

Just watching this freaked me out! I had to wonder what I would think if everyone around me in a store suddenly stopped moving. These people not only stopped moving, but stood still for four minutes! I was going to write some guesses on how my brain might explain this, but I'd rather hear what you guys think first. We might all think of something different when we watch this and I don't want to influence anyone...

Blood Sucking Bunnies and Cruelty to Peeps

When I was in grade school, (I think in 3rd or 4th grade) something I looked forward to every day after recess was our teacher reading a chapter of the book Bunnicula to us. Do you guys remember Bunnicula? I'm guessing that if you are more of less my age and reading this blog, you were a fan of these books. :) For those who don't know about the Bunnicula character, he was a vampire rabbit. Well, sort of a vegetarian vampire who would suck the juices out of vegetables. I remember something about him draining a lettuce head. I also remember the title of my favorite Bunnicula book, "The Celery Stalks at Midnight."

I was trying to think of something Easter related that I could blog about today. I was feeling pretty positive, so I didn't want to talk about anything too dark. Bunnicula came to mind, since he's a rabbit and something I remember fondly from my childhood. 

Oh, and you know what else I remember from my childhood? Experimenting on Peeps! I wasn't really big on eating them, so it was a lot more fun to stick them in the microwave and stretch parts of them out with toothpicks. If you were the same kind of kid as I was, you might enjoy this:

Peep Experiments

Be sure to look at the "Risk Analysis" section.

Oh, and I have to share some of my favorite horror themed 30 Second Bunnies clips! For those who don't know, these are 30 second parodies of movies that are acted out by cartoon bunnies. I picked the bunny versions of what are, in my opinion, the three scariest horror movies ever made:

The Exorcist

The Shining

The Ring

Happy Easter Everyone!

My First Guest Blog Entry

Today my first guest blog entry was posted! The blog I am excited to have contributed to is the Gravedigger's Local 16. A collection of posts from different writers make up this fun and spooky blog. I've never added my thoughts to another person's blog, and it's cool to be part of a group effort. If you would like to read my guest post, here it is: Artists and Abnormalities

I'd love it if you guys would take a look, because I think you'll learn about some cool and creepy new things! I wrote a little about my favorite episode of The X-Files, side show performers, and an amazingly talented sculptor. So take a look and let me know what you think!

Michael J. Anderson in the "Humbug" episode of The X-Files (You might also remember him from the show Twin Peaks.)

A Grand House Once Sat There

Has anyone read or seen the movie version of The Great Gatsby? I read the book and saw the movie while I was in high school. While I honestly don't remember much of what I read, I do remember the awesome book cover (pictured below). It's beautiful and kind of weird, and I remember staring at the cover of this book more than I remember reading it!

For those who aren't familiar with The Great Gatsby, the story involves a wealthy man (Gatsby) who lives in a fancy mansion and throws lots of parties. I learned today (on the CBS Sunday Morning show) that the mansion that inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald in writing The Great Gatsby was demolished. It had been left to the elements and was dilapidated. It's so sad to me that something this historic and at one time beautiful was torn down, so more houses could be built on the property.

I know there are some haunted house fans out there, who will probably feel some inspiration from the photos of the mansion during it's last days:

In happier times...

In its heyday, this house did host grand parties. People like Winston Churchill, The Marx Brothers, and The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were attending these parties! I wonder if these famous spirits still show up for the parties, even if the house is gone...

"I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited--they went there."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 3 p.41

Gallery Night and Night Gallery

Last night I met with some friends for gallery night. Every year there is a senior thesis show at our old college and we like to go and see what the artists have come up with. We were impressed with the show and we saw some great Gothic art! Here are the portfolios of a few of the artists we met last night:

Gothic Goodness

Little Monsters

On the flip side of Gallery Night, who remembers the TV show Night Gallery? For those who don't remember, Rod Serling started each episode by walking through an art gallery and introducing us to disturbing paintings. The paintings would fit the plot of each spooky (if somewhat goofy) episode. I had a friend in high school with some old Night Gallery VHS tapes and we watched quite a few of them. I like Rod Serling, but I'm more of a Twilight Zone girl than a Night Gallery girl. Still, some of those paintings were pretty creepy...

Although, I'm not a huge Night Gallery fan, I loved the Simpsons Halloween Special spoof of the show! Bart played the part of Rod Serling. I'd love to share a video clip from this episode, but I couldn't find one. So here is one of my favorite stills from it:

"They're dogs and they're playing poker!"

My Encounter With Them!

Well, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I saw an ant crawl across the bathroom floor today that was going on an inch long! What's further disturbing is that it was wandering around confused like it just hatched.

Meaning...

1. There are probably more of these inside the house.
2. There is probably a huge mother ant somewhere.

This reminded me of the nutty old 1950's Sci Fi movie "Them!" If you aren't familiar with this movie, here's the trailer:

Scandinavian Easter Witches

I just learned about something cool that I had to share with Easter approaching! In Scandinavia, witches are a symbol of Easter. Their cartoon version of witches is a lot cuter than the American version, as you can see in these vintage postcards.

If you search online for "Scandinavian Easter Witches" you will find lots of great vintage illustrations. Easter witches on Scandinavian postcards are sometimes seen flying on brooms and are often accompanied by black cats and teapots.


I love the astronaut dog on this postcard!


Something funny that you'll see in a lot of these images is the witches riding on animals instead of broomsticks. Here we have a man being chased by a parade of witches riding pigs.


In this one we have a ram and a black cat.

In Sweden and parts of Finland, a mini-Halloween takes place on either the Thursday or Saturday before Easter. Little girls dress up wearing shawls and scarves on their heads and go door to door with a copper kettle looking for treats. This is a lot like our Halloween trick-or-treat day, except the kids have one choice of costume.



The tradition is said to come from the old belief that witches would fly to a German mountain the Thursday before Easter to cavort with Satan. On their way back, Swedes would light fires to scare them away, a practice honored today by the bonfires and fireworks across the land in the days leading up to Sunday.

I would also like to share a YouTube video that was made by a modern Swedish woman. It's a more in depth look at the holiday. If you have subscribed to my blog by email, you might not see this video. For some reason the videos I post in my blog aren't delivered in emails. So email subscribers, you'll have to go to my actual blog to see this!