Theodor

A charming, kid-friendly short about a grand night out for a vampire named Theodor...

Click on the pic to see it.

Music for the Spooky Soul!

Another tradition here at the Nest is to post a link to my Halloween playlist. If you're someone of a certain age, you'll recognize some of the old Halloween commercials and stories, but I do try to update every year with modern songs!

So click on the pic and have at it! 

The Legend of the Scarecrow - A ShellHawk's Nest Tradition

Oh, my dear Halloween friends, I am so sorry I've been absent this year! Things are chaotic around the Nest and there's been a decided lack of Halloween-y love to go around.

Not to worry! We can start of with an old favorite, and perhaps the Great Pumpkin will allow us some Autumn blessings...

Click the pic for the animated short... 

This is Halloween! A Playlist for Your Spooky Soul

I share this playlist every year for those who love the Hallowe'en sounds this time of year. I tweak it here and there, rearrange it in bits and pieces. If I find a vintage Halloween commercial, I add it. New spooky songs get added during the year.

I'm always happy to share it with y'all!

Click on the skulls for a lovely Hallowe'en playlist! 

The Legend of the Scarecrow - A ShellHawk's Nest Halloween Tradition

 

A heartwarming tale of a sweet little scarecrow. Click on the pic for video.

Happy Easter!

 

 

It's been a minute, I know! But I still intend to keep this rolling.

 

Meanwhile, click on the pic for some Easter fun! 

 

Happy Hallowe'en!

I'm re-posting my Halloween playlist for you today, so it's easy-to-hand. Click on the pic!

Happy Hallowe'en, October people! Enjoy! (More posts to come, today, so stay tuned!)

Thriller - The Full Experience

This post contains some links to Amazon, from which I may get compensation for qualifying purchases, although it's not bloody likely.

If you're a *ahem* person of a certain age *cough! Gen X! cough!* you'll remember what a big deal it was when the video for Michael Jackson's Thriller came out.

MTV and music videos where at their peak at that time, and the production companies were desperately trying to keep the interest of millions of teenagers by creating musical stories which were eye-catching and buzz-worthy. It was getting harder and harder to stand out amid all the noise of promoting thousands of songs and driving kids to the record store to pick up the latest hits.

And then, Thriller dropped...

We freaked. We screamed. We spent endless hours in front of the TV, figuring out  the choreography (Thank you to Michael Peters, may you Rest in Power) for the now-famous dance scene in the middle of the video.

This alone was a huge challenge, as there was no such thing as a DVR! We had to have a VCR at home (an expensive luxury), have MTV (cable was another expensive luxury), wait endless hours for Thriller to be played  (we never knew when that would happen), and have a blank VHS cassette tape loaded into the VCR and waiting to record, and even then it wasn't guaranteed we would have it for long enough to learn the routine, because our parents were vicious about recording over what we had so painstakingly ripped off from MTV.

It drove our parents nuts.

What made this video so unique was a combination of length (it clocked in at 13:41, the longest music video made at the time) production value, and the high quality creative team it attracted. 

John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers, National Lampoon's Animal House, Twilight Zone: The Movie) was on-boarded as the director, co-producer and co-writer. Robert Paynter, B.S.C. (British Society of Cinematographers) came on as the Director of Photography (An American Werewolf in London, Curtains, Trading Places). The now-legendary Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, Altered States, Ghost Story, The Funhouse) created the makeup effects we now know so well. Ola Ray (Night Shift, Trading Places) played Jackson's girlfriend.

Even the movie theater used for the exterior shots (interior theater shots were done at The Rialto in Pasadena, California), The Palace, gained its fame by being the oldest movie theater in Los Angeles! You can check out the other locations used here. 

 

As with almost everything one sees on screen, the background of Thriller was carefully curated by the crew to appeal to the horror movie aficionado.

Classic movie posters from various Vincent Price films (The Mask of the Red Death, The House of Wax, The Mad Magician, The House on Haunted Hill) adorned the exterior of the movie theater, in addition to several visual hat-tips to more then-current horror films.

And of course, Vincent Price took top billing on The Palace's iconic neon marquee! 

I'm fairly sure most of Gen X has the famous Vincent Price rap committed to memory, but many don't realize the final cut of both the music video and the album track didn't contain the original, full version, included below.

Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'all's neighborhood

And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpses shell

The demons squeal in sheer delight
It's you they spy, so plump, so right
For although the groove is hard to beat
It's still you stand with frozen feet
 

You try to run, you try to scream
But no more sun you'll ever see
For evil reached from the crypt

To crush you in its icy grip

The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
 

And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller

 

Can you dig it?

Price's trademark maniacal laugh at the end was chef's kiss, of course, and Thriller would not have been the same without his deft voice work.

For more behind-the-scenes thrills and chills, watch this.

The Legend of the Scarecrow - A ShellHawk's Nest Tradition

A charming tale of a lonely scarecrow... Click on the pic to watch! 

Has Halloween Become Overcommercialized? A ShellHawk's Nest Tradition

 Every year, I kick off October with this offering from The Onion. Click on the pic for the video.

Welcome to October, y'all!

Has Halloween Become Over Commercialized? A ShellHawk's Nest Tradition

The Onion in all its glory! I post this video every year, and every year, I have to laugh! 

Click on the pic for some Hallowe'en fun!

Bad Necromance

Click on the pic to rock out to some of those sick (Lovecraft) beats! 

The Legend of the Scarecrow: A ShellHawk's Nest Tradition

 This is one of those delightful finds I look forward to sharing, every year. Charming, evocative, graceful.

An October story, through and through.

Click on the pic for the video.

The Legend of the Scarecrow: A ShellHawk's Nest Tradition

Click on the pic for a charming short film!

In the Know: A ShellHawk's Nest Hallowe'en Tradition

Click the pic.

Happy Final Long Build Weekend!

It's the hardcore build season for haunters, and if you click on the above pic, you'll have a playlist which might just keep you going and motivated to (maybe) be ready by The Big Dance.

Have a blast, my fiends!

Guest Potter at Oak Park Brewing Company!

Soooooooo... This here's a visit with a fellow potter and great young guy who has a fun vlog, "The Apprentice Potter," on YouTube.

We met up at Consumnes River College and struck up a nice friendship, which has continued even though the college system booted me out because I've taken all the classes I can. (Effing budget cuts!)

A couple of corrections for the video, though...

I'm an investor, not an owner.
The art featured is arranged by one of the folks at the Brewery, not by me, although I support it completely! (I wish I had come up with the idea, but I didn't...)

But, enjoy the video. And ignore how many times I lick my fingers, 'cause, DAYAM! That sauce was GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

The Backwater Gospel

A dark Saturday morning cartoon... Click on the pic.

This is a Halloween Playlist!

I've been building and tweaking my YouTube Halloween playlist for the last couple of months, and am still adding to and reordering it. So if you need some inspiration for decorating, click on the pic and revel in the song, story and vintage-ness!

Children of the Night! What Music They Make!

Click on the pic for a Hallowe'en playlist on YouTube. Then click, "Play All."