Heartless Bones!

Click on the pic for a delightfully sinister performance from those skeletons over at the Bates Haunt...

Calaca on a Windy Day

From my bud, Mumbly Joe on Twitter, this charming blue skelly! I love his little red eyes! 

Click on the pic to see the little one move in the wind. 

Creepy Cutlery

Artist: André Lassen

Artists: The Haas Brothers

From The Amazing World of Fabulous Products

Artist: John Gerrard

From Vocole

Bone Flautist

A Fiesta Hallowe'en

One of my favorite ceramics places, Fiesta Ware has Hallowe'en dishes!

The ghosts are just too stinking cute! WANT!

Skull and Vine is so El Dia de Los Muertos!

I've always said a girl can't have enough Skeletons!

I guess I know what needs to go on my housewarming gift list when I finally get into my own space!

Click here for the full collection.

Calaveras!

 Art by Jose Guadalupe Posada. Via Cvltnation.

Halloween 1938

Photographer unknown.

Maya Lord of Death

Images via National Geographic.

Paper Skelly

"Looking Back" by Peter Callesen.

Other great paper art at ConradAskland.com.

Eternal Reign

Source.

The Catacombs of Paris

Map here.
Denfert-Rochereau Ossuary, or The Catacombs to the rest of us, was created underneath Paris because of necessity. Paris had been growing during the 1700s, and of course, where there is growth, there is death. The cemeteries had seen a steady increase in residents, (I've always said, "Be nice to the dead. They outnumber us by quite a bit.") and were overfilled. Due to bad burial practices and mass open graves, Death's companion, Pestilence, strode through the city with impunity. Much debate had gone on about what to do about the growing problem, and after lengthy consideration, it was decided to move the remains to the nearby empty limestone quarries and start some new cemeteries outside city limits.It has been estimated that there are at least 185 miles of tunnels in the whole network of catacombs, though we only walked through a small portion of them. Millions are interred in the old quarries, six million in the blocked-off area we walked through alone.

We walked for quite a while before we reached the area where the bones were kept. They were stacked like firewood, sometimes going back only a few yards, sometimes for many. There were skulls used as decoration, a counterpoint to the miles of femurs; hearts shaped from them, skull-and-crossbone designs.

The deeper we went, the cooler it got. Water, filtered through the limestone, dripped steadily and dropped on our heads. At times the ceilings were quite low, and I couldn't help but wonder what it must have been like to travel these tunnels without the electric light we enjoyed.

We also ran across several areas like this one. Places where the quarry workers had sculpted fanciful kingdoms out of the limestone. Flash photography is forbidden in the Catacombs, but unfortunately, boatloads of idiots ignore the rule as long as the guides aren't around. (I found this to be the case when I visited the Sistine Chapel, too. At least after all those priceless paintings are destroyed, we'll have plenty of poorly-taken, over-exposed snapshots of them.)

I'll leave you with several of the short video clips I took while I was there. Please excuse the quality. For more info on the Catacombs of Paris, click here.

Achmed, the Dead Terrorist

Got back from our last leg of our trip last night and I'm really tired. It'll take me a few days to get myself back together and on schedule, and a few more days to upload video and pics so you can see what you missed!

So this is totally offensive on the politically correct standpoint, but I love the puppet. They did a really good job on it! I think you could use it as part of a costume. If you're offended by racist jokes and profiling, etc., please don't click on this and then write nasty comments to me. I'm only here for the puppet factor.

Skull-licious Tuesday

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Save It For Later

I admit it. I am a child of the '80s. I was one of those weird kids (shocking, I know) who loved all music but country. I listened to heavy metal, ska, new wave, rock, oldies. Just about everything.

One of my favorite groups of the day was The English Beat. The album, Special Beat Service, really put them on the map with songs like I Confess and Save It For Later.

I recently saw the video for Save It For Later, and was delighted to see the set they used was decorated with a lovely cellar-and-skeletons motif.

I love the dancing skeleton on the wall behind the actors, the cheesy paper-accordion skeleton, and the film noir-style posters on the walls. I particularly liked the candle holder made out of the upper part of a Bucky skull and an arm bone. I may just steal that idea!

I also love the old Adam and the Ants videos for the wonderful costuming. It's like he ransacked the BBC's costume department for each video and just had a blast with them.
Stand and Deliver:

Prince Charming:

Ant Rap:

I wonder how many times they got to fire the cannon for that one?
Ahh, memories.

Here's me, Ant fan, 1984. Geez, I wish I had that body back. It didn't hurt as much in the morning!