Vintage Family Photos

I recently got around to doing my free Windows 7 upgrade. I backed up everything important to my external drive, but before I did, I had to remove everything that really wasn't important. As a result, I found some old family pictures I had scanned a few computers ago. Please, if you have the urge to use these, ask my permission. These pictures are subject to copyrights.

This is a picture of my dad with his dad, around 1936 or so. You can see that he grew up in Europe. I think it comes through in the picture, but maybe not.

This was taken in Venice, around 1934, I think. That's my Grandmother in the middle, the one who turned 100 years old last July. My father is holding her hand, and of course, that's my grandfather on the other side.

This is the Mexican side of the family. Left to right, my aunt, my grandfather, my mom, and my grandmother.

This is my grandmother when she was a young woman. Below, she's much older, holding my brother. Strange that I never met her until she'd been dead for thirty-five or forty years. That was interesting.

Halloween '09 Leftovers

Neighbor Bud brought over his thumbdrive the other night, and it had some neat pics of my '09 haunt. I thought I'd share.

A New Twist

Something neat came out of the kiln yesterday. Might make a good giveaway item, too. But, sadly, I'm not there, yet. ;o)

Haunt Cast 15

We are live and nationwide! All-new show starring me and the rest of the wonderful Scream Team-ignore this podcast at your peril...

http://www.hauntcast.net/

Lots to Read. Instantly.

It all started last Halloween, at my party. Fellow potter Gary brought a book for me to read as a guest-gift, called "Hands in Clay."  I was excited, but since we whisked off to Hawaii two days later-and the book is a bit big to be schlepping in a carry-on, I left it on my night stand. And it stayed there for a while. I recently picked it up and am working my way through it.

Since then, it seems that "Hands in Clay" has spawned other books to be read, preferably all instantaneously and at once, if that sentence makes any sense at all. Here's the list of "must read for knowledge books":

1) Hands in Clay
2) Making and Installing Handmade Tiles
3) Handmade Tiles: Designing, Making, Decorating
4) The Complete Guide to High Fire Glazes: Glazing and Firing at Cone 10
5) From Clay to Bronze: A Studio Guide to Figurative Sculpture
6) The Figure in Clay: Contemporary Sculpting Techniques by Master Artists
7) The Essential Guide to Mold Making and Slip Casting
8) Ceramics: Mastering the Craft
9) The Potter's Book of Glaze Recipes
10) New Product Development For Dummies

Of course there are a few Halloween and prop-making books I'd like to get to as well, primarily "The Prop Builder's Molding and Casting Handbook," but they'll have to wait for a bit. I just know I'll regret putting those off come build time.

I mentioned to Mr. ShellHawk that I was thinking of absorbing all the knowledge in these books by sleeping on them for a night or two, but he told me it doesn't work that way, if you can imagine! I guess I'll have to read them and make notes like everyone else!

Seriously, though, it's the work anyone would have to put in to become good at anything, and if one wants to master anything, reading is absolutely part of it. I'm just impatient to know all of it right now!

No One Has Pipes Like Hers

One of my guilty pleasures is the movie, Hocus Pocus. When I first saw it had Bette Midler in it, I wondered when she would start singing, because you really can't have her in a film and not have her sing. She didn't disappoint. Man, does this gal have an amazing stage presence!
I really love the costumes in this film, and keep thinking that maybe one day, I'll talk neighbors V and M into dressing up as the Sanderson Sisters with me for a group costume.

Sorry for the video quality!

You Know...

I might actually do a giveaway once I get to 100 followers.

I honestly don't know how much more blatant I can be than that.

And sorry, but no, I'm not showing my boobs to you to get more followers, so forget about it!

Sheesh!

The House Next Door

Perhaps you have never run across this little gem of a horror story. I ran across it when I was a member of one of those numerous book clubs floating around out there- Book of the Month or some such, and was immediately grabbed by it.

Written in 1978 by Anne Rivers Siddons, "The House Next Door" was her one trip into the horror genre. It's the story of Colquitt and Walter Kennedy, who live in the 'burbs of Atlanta, Georgia. They live normal, peaceful lives until someone begins to build a house on the pretty, wooded lot next door to them, but that's just due to the typical bangings and crashings of construction work, right? Perhaps it's something less obvious...

Colquitt's forced acceptance of the march of progress in her little neighborhood is disturbed by the persistent feeling that something is wrong with the house. She feels almost as the house stares back at her through her windows, and then of course, there are the animals that go missing and are later found horrifyingly mauled, adding to her growing sense that the house itself may have a hidden agenda. Walter, ever the practical male, scoffs at her feelings at first, then becomes convinced that the house is, indeed, evil, turning each family who moves into it into its playthings and destroying their lives, one by one.

While in places the book may seem a little dated to modern readers, this is a solid horror story with the added twist of the haunted house being brand new and quite modern. I don't know that this story is very well-known, but what I do know is that Stephen King was so impressed by it that he included it in his special releases of his "Horror Library" series, and that was good enough for me. This book was one of those I just couldn't put down, and I really wonder why it seems it was never made into a movie. I'd certainly pay to see it!

Looking Up From The Pit Of Hell

Image source.

The Haunting (1963)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the original story, "The Haunting of Hill House," the first thing to remember is that is has nothing to do with "The Legend of Hell House," although both stories are of the classic gothic haunted house variety.

Written by Shirley Jackson, the book is narrated by Eleanor Vance, a still-young but bitter and unstable woman recently freed of eleven years of the high demands of her dying mother. As she has spent nearly every waking hour with her mother until her death, Eleanor has no confidence and few social skills to draw on to help her in her new life and her new freedom. Eleanor also seems to have a strange talent, one that draws the attention of Dr. John Montague, a paranormal researcher. He issues her an invitation to-dum, dum DUUUUUM!- Hill House, the iconic house on the hill that no one has been able to spend the night in.

The House finds a sympathetic soul mate in Eleanor, whose narcissism and twisted need to be needed instilled by long years of caring for her mother make her the logical target for both Hill House's terror and its seduction.

This is truly my kind of story, whether it's in its original written form or seen on t.v. late at night and alone in the dark. I love how the story is told from the point of view of an unstable narcissist, one who you nevertheless feel empathy with. It's a triumph for Jackson, in my opinion, to be able to write such a character with such believability. The interior shots of the house are simply stunning, and the slow ratcheting up of tension by director Robert Wise is masterfully done. I'm a big fan of the "show less if you can get away with it" school of haunted house movies, and this 1963 version doesn't disappoint. In my opinion, this version far outshines the 1999 update starring Liam Neeson, though I suppose that version is o.k. if you hadn't read the book or seen the original film.

I won't post the entire movie here, as there are thirteen different parts on YouTube, but I will tell you it's available on Netflix.

Watch it with someone you trust to have your back...