It's the most wonderful time of year!



Halloween party was a great success. Recap in the coming days! This was the 9th one. that means next year... is... the 10 Year Anniversary!!!

Planning starts tomorrow!

Labels: halloween

New column up at the Harlan Daily. It's tips for Trick or Treating next year. This is the last thing I'll write about Halloween until next year. Promise.

Labels: column, halloween

Well, Halloween has come and gone. Sara and I saw the season out in a nice low key fashion. The Colonel family invited us over for dinner and Trick or Treating in their neighborhood with Lily and Harrison. It was a blast. I took some pictures but haven't had time to get them onto the computer yet. I'll do that tomorrow and update this post.

Labels: halloween

I use Google Reader to check blogs and regularly updated websites. It tells you at the top of the page how many unread items you currently have. Today, on Halloween, when I opened it up I had... 666!!!

Dum duh dummmm!!!

Labels: halloween

On Friday afternoon I drove to Maysville with my mom to pick of Zachary and Nicholas. We went early enough to be able to step in and see some of their school Halloween party in progress. Here'r the boys in costume. Zach was a football player and Nicholas was Captain Jack Sparrow. Nicholas didn't have a mustache originally so we made one out of electrical tape in the car on the way to L-burg:

Labels: halloween

This year's Halloween party was probably my favorite ever. Do I say that every year? Probably. Who cares. This one was really a blast, though. There was close to 50 people there and we raised over $100 for St. Awesome's Nati Carter pre-school playground fund.

Bryan and Erika Carter co-hosted the shindig with me this year and I can't think either of them enough for the time, money, and property they put into it. They are, as the kids say, totally bitchin'.

So on with the pictures:

Decorating began on Friday night. Mike Turner, Bryan, and The Cranfizzles helped out. I couldn't have gotten it all done without them.

Bryan and I spent all day on Saturday setting up. The biggest job was putting up the two huge tents we borrowed from Jason and St. Awesome's. Which I'd like to point out, with much frustration, nobody hardly ever stood underneath. Ingrates

The decorations looked spookier at night obviously...






This year I was a zombie:



And Sara was Amy Winehouse. Hot!!!



There were a lot of great costumes this year:










There was a bonfire:



And a totally awesome haunted house. Usually I create an elaborate story for the haunted house and then lead groups through it. This year we just created a plastic maze in a barn, hung some automated props and then four other guys and I hid in it. It was fun because I actually got to do some of the scaring this year.




There was a dance party in the house:




Apparently the dance party featured River dancing at one point. Also, even pregnant ET is the best dancer I know.



There was a costume contest too. We gave out prizes for scariest, sexiest, funniest, and best. Incredibly GG walked away with a prize again this year by once again going to Halloween Express at the last minute and grabbing a random item off the shelf.



All in all everybody had a great time, as you can see. The best moment of the night might have been when Glen and Marilyn (lead pastor of St. Awesome's and his beautiful wife) showed up and surprised everybody. It's one of those moments that will be spoken of in hushed whispers for years to come. Here's more pictures:





Charley was really sad it was over. You can see his rooster here trying to cheer him up.



You can see the entire set of pictures here on my Flickr page. Thanks to everybody who came and brought food or drinks - and to everyone who just showed up and made the party a little more rockin' just by being there. Big huge extra thanks go to Sara, Bryan, Erika, Mike, Jennifer, and Charley for helping clean up on Sunday and to Dirty for helping with the parking. See everybody next year!

Labels: halloween

Mike and Jennifer had Sara and I over to their house last night to carve pumpkins. I carved three in the time that the rest of those losers carved one a piece. Of course, mine don't look anywhere nearly as nice as theirs, but still...

Here's the final results (I only took a picture of one of mine). You'll be able to see some of these at the Halloween party on Saturday. Then you can be all like, "I already saw these. On the blog." And people will be like, "Wow, this guy's really cool." Seriously.

Mike's creation:


Jennifer's:


Sara's:


And mine:


Spoooooky...

Labels: halloween

Every year St. Awesome's throws this big Halloween party called Pumpkin Patch. There's skits, and songs, and carnival rides, and costumes, and ponies, and hay rides, and cotton candy, and elephant ears, and just about everything else kids would want at a fall festival. Last night Sara and I headed over to the first night of the party to see the kids in their costumes. I didn't get pictures of every kid I wanted to, but here's what I made it out with:






I hate it that Harrison's picture came out so dark. Click on it for a bigger version that you can see better. Man, I know a lot of cute kids.

Labels: halloween, st. awesome's

New column up at the Harlan Daily. It's a retelling of the Bunnyman Bridge legend.

Labels: column, halloween

I talked a lot about TV On The Radio's album, Cookie Mountain, when it came out. The first single released from the album was Wolf Like Me. This song appears on the Halloween party playlist and has been dubbed Thriller for new millennium. Well, just by me. Nobody else has dubbed it that, but if you don't care what I think why are you coming here in the first place.

Labels: halloween, playlist

On Saturday night, some time after dusk, ET, Dirty, the Colonels and I decided to go check out the Terror on Tate's Creek haunted trail. Going into it, ET and I were the only ones excited about going. Dirty and the Colonels were not looking forward to it, but were good sports about nonetheless.

The trail presented a lot of missed opportunities. There was no bait and switch, there was not taking advantage of the surroundings, and there was no creativity. It was the same old, guys stepping around corners and chainsaws that you see everywhere.

The only time I was the least bit frightened was when this ghostly white girl with stringy black hair crawled out of the woods towards us, like in the Grudge or one of those other Japanese horror movies. I thought that was genuinely scary. Nobody else did, though.

The big frustration of the night was the maze. I hate mazes. Especially ones where nothing scary happens, but you are forced into tight quarter with a bunch of screaming rednecks and house music. It was an exercise in annoyance more than fear and the kind of thing that would make me reconsider going back next year. There's an important difference between scary and irritating.

The only good part of the maze was the fact that Dirty got separated from us and was left wandering around in it by himself for a while. Comedy gold!

Labels: halloween

So years ago, I'm not sure how, a fog machine came into my possession. Not the kind to look fog-expelling gift horses in the mouth, I promptly started using it at my annual Halloween party.

The big problem with fog machines, though, is that the fog comes out hot and therefore tends to rise. That's fine if you're wanting to obscure people's vision, but not always conducive to a party setting.

So the internet is full of instructions, created by Halloween enthusiast, about how to chill your fog and cause it to stick close to the ground. The most common of these instructions involves creating a "fog chiller" out of pvc piping and store bought drink cooler. I've thought about making one for years but just never got around to it.

Until now.

Two nights ago I ran by Lowes, bought the stuff I needed, and then headed to Sara's family's house to make the thing. When Sam Handwich and Nathan saw what I was doing they offered to help.

So now, after less than an hour's work and less than $20, we created a fog chiller.

By clicking on the picture below and following it to my Flickr page you can see the notes on making it. You can also click here to find out how to make your own.

Labels: halloween, nerd

Poking around Wikipedia recently, I came across the legend of the Virginia Bunnyman. I'd never heard this particular urban legend before, but I found it immediately to be of interest because 1. It's kinda scary and 2. It took place near where James, BP, and Ian live.

Like most urban legends, the story of the Bunnyman exists in several variations. The most commonly told is the story of an escaped asylum inmate who lived in the woods near Bunnyman Bridge, living off of rabbits and hanging their carcasses from trees. Then one day local authorities find the bodies of some teenagers hanging from trees in a similar fashion. A manhunt is ordered and authorities chase the deranged killer through the woods, towards some train tracks. Right as they police are about to apprehend the lunatic, he throws himself in front of a passing train.

Now, decades later, his spirit is said to haunt the overpass at Bunnyman bridge every Halloween night, killing any children foolish enough to investigate his legend.

Another versions of the legend include a killer with an ax in a bunny suit. Not as nuanced a story, but pretty frightening imagery nonetheless.

Here's a special artist's depiction by me so that James, BP, and Ian will know what to be on the lookout for.

Labels: halloween

That's right, I said "The Shinning" not "The Shining."

The Shinning a segment from one of the Simpsons Tree House of Horror episodes. It spoofed the classic Jack Nicholson horror movie.

Thanks to the wonder of YouTube, here's the segment in all it's glory. Take 7 minutes and enjoy:

Labels: halloween

We're entering the 13 days of Halloween. To celebrate their arrival, the next 13 days here on Patchdrury.com will be dedicated to celebrating Halloween (with regular content thrown in as well). To get started, here's the video for one of my favorite Halloween songs by some of my favorite artists.

Back in 2005 the The North American Halloween Prevention Initiative was formed, tongue firmly in cheek, under the auspice of stopping Halloween. This initiative is made up of a veritable who's who of indie rockers and comedians:

Arcade Fire's Win & Regine, Redd Kross' Steve McDonald, Beck, R.E.M.'s Joey, Waronker, Buck 65, Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis, David Cross, Roky Erickson, Devendra Banhart , Sloan's Chris Murphy, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Smoosh's Asya & Chloe, Feist, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, Gino Washington, Sparks' Russel Mael, Les Savy Fav's Syd Butler , Subtitle, Islands' J'aime, Sum 41's Stevo, Malcolm Mclaren, Tagaq, Peaches, That Dog's Anna Waronker, Postal Service's Jimmy Tamborello, Wolf Parade's Dan & Spencer, Yeah Yeah Yeah's Karen O.

All the proceeds from their first single, Do They Know It's Halloween (recorded all We Are The World style) went to Unicef.

The song always (well, for the last two years anyway) makes an appearance on my Halloween party playlist. Here's the video:

Labels: halloween

Sent out Halloween Evites yesterday and today. I always end up forgetting somebody so if you're interested in coming and didn't get an invitation, please don't feel slighted. I am, after all, half brain-dead. Just email me and tell me you'd like to come and I'll send you an invitation.

We've already had about 16 people confirm they'll be attending. The only "no" we have so far is from my buddy Greg - and he's a no because this is his first year owning and operating a haunted house in Houstonville! He emailed me after he got the invitation to let me know why he couldn't make it, but offered to send some coupons and and a couple of VIP passes to his haunted house to give out at the party. He also said I could come down in the coming weeks and check the thing out behind the scenes. I am, as they say, giddy as a school girl. And, on a personal note, I have acne and braces like a lot of school girls.

Labels: halloween

Gearing up for Halloween, slowly. Getting more and more excited every time I walk into a store and see decorations. I haven't been able to put a lot of thought into the party yet, due to the renovations to Ft. Bachelor, but I do have a good lead on a possible location.

Found a trailer online to a movie called Trick r Treat. It was supposed to be released next month but it's been pushed back to 2008 for some reason. That usually isn't a good sign, but man, the trailer seems to promise everything I'd want out of a Halloween movie.

Update: It appears the rumors of the movie being pushed back are incorrect and Trick r Treat comes out on October 5th. That's in a couple of weeks! Who's down?

Labels: halloween

So I was in Michael's the other day looking for watchmaker tins and as I'm walking around the store what do I see? Halloween decorations! A couple of weeks earlier I had been in K Mart and seen Halloween candy but it was just a tiny little section.

Halloween is still over two months away, but the cyclical demands of the retail market have thrust it into my consciousness and now there's no turning back!

Halloween is coming!!

For now I'll just announce that my party is tentatively scheduled for October 27th. Everything beyond that will be made clear in time as it's nailed down.

It's never too early to start thinking about your costume!

Labels: halloween