Author: Head Candy Corn

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Ethereal Day 16 from Movingarden

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What do you see when you see DAY 16’s “Green” by Movingarden? 

Today’s beautiful short film is an introspective one, inviting you to get dizzy with the trees, and perhaps even dizzier with other aspects of day and night, it’s lights and shadows.

Is it mystical disciplines or contemporary physics that you are drawn to when your eyeballs are given a taste of the experimental, the notional? 

Functioning on its own terms, this piece provides kinesthetic impact, a poetic dreamlike textures and fragments that steer far far away from what is being sold in the big box store aisles. It is indeed a fine emerald treasure, enjoy.

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Thirteen on Day 15!

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It’s mildly terrifying!!! RUNN!!!!!!!

Never to shy away from a good and scary freak-out, Lori Meeker brings us one of the most terrifyingly mild pieces to hit Gothtober yet. Visit Day 15, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Within the parameters of the Gothtober framework comes a series of images that are sort of kind of disturbing in a mellow sort of way.

Watch this piece, and you may begin to feel the edges of your sanity begin to stay pretty much the same, but make you feel… like… 2% uneasy or something.

You might finally begin to comprehend the vaguely unsettling feeling people talk about on the news when they’ve just come from a placidly terrifying experience. You may experience no trouble sleeping, not all that much difficulty concentrating, you might think you’re hearing or seeing things, but not in a way that would make you lose your mind, just in a way that’s sort of weird or irksome. And it’s funny, did I mention that? Go see!

IT’S MILDLY TERRIFYING, WATCH OUT!!! 

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The Mystery of DAY 14

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It’s elementary that eventually, with enough sleuthing, you’d arrive at DAY 14 on Gothtober.
Watch as Sherlock Holmes uses his brilliant deductions to solve the mystery of Friday the 13th! A very special royal figure makes an appearance in this wonderfully narrated gripping family film!
Rumor has it that the Gailiunas, Aaron, Williams, and Waller families were involved in this funky riddle, but we were unable to recognize any of them, maybe they were on the film crew. Huh.

You do know what Sherlock Holmes uses when he wants to make cookies, right?
HIS 221B Baker SHEET!!!!! HAHAHAHAHHAAHAAHAHAAHHAAAAAAHHH wheeze… sputter…

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Euro Monster Smash from Frankfurt, Germany for DAY 13

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Hold onto your eyeballs, it’s DAY 13 with the Chambers!

Not all that far from Stuttgart is Frankfurt, but wow is Frankfurt far from Gothtober Headquarters in Los Angeles! We’re so excited to offer MORE work from distant lands, a Gothtober family in Germany! We love the internet because it lets art travel here from outer space! Bridging the gap from bratwurst to hot dogs is the miracle of online perseverance, a true international collaboration, we couldn’t be prouder of our International participants!!!

Here is where the Chambers family is sending their art from, it’s out there! Someday we hope to visit!

There are many monsters from mythology you do not want to meet, but we must insist that you meet these. Thought up by the young Nigel and then brought to life with his parents, Christy and Brian, here we have quite a gruesome gallery of beautifully illustrated creatures thoughtfully caged behind your computer screen so that you don’t have to worry about safety. It’s a mixed media treasure trove of droll entertainment.

The Chambers are like the Frankensteins, but instead of using human remains and lightening, they’ve paper puppets and stop motion magic to breathe life into thirteen creations. It’s alive… IT’S ALIVE!!!! 

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Drankin’ with Del Norte Presents! DAY 12

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Are you feelin’ lucky, my friend? Are you ready to rumble? Are you a Gothtober party animal? How many rounds can you go? Well it’s Gothtober DAY 12 so let’s just count out the shots and see where the night takes us.

Your horse is headless, your witch is brewed, you are three… four… thirteen ghost sheets to the wind! That is, if you take a romp to the cave of spirits with Del Norte Presents!

They are here, they are back, they are pouring themselves and you some cocktails for the witching hour. It’s always been well known that if you imbibe enough beverages, you will either meet or become something other than is expected. You could meet a blue fairy, you could become Elvis, you could wander into a night scape of incomprehensible zombie sing-a-longs! BRAIIINNNNZZZZZZ!!!!

We suspect that this might be the MOST fun anyone’s ever had making a Gothtober piece, at least, where revelry is concerned. Watch it, but also watch out, it seems a little haunted, did you see that bartender? I didn’t! It’s a joyous celebration, possibly a wee woozy outcome. It’s nothing a little alka-seltzer, low lighting, aspirin and an ice pack on the head can’t solve in the morning.

Also: Something kind of spooky… the day before on Gothtober, is Dianne Chadwick’s 13 creepy cocktail recipes for Day 11, and then for Day 12 we have these fearless carousers from Del Norte Presents getting absolutely soused with spirits! These Gothtober artists, to my mind, have never met. They just came up with these shenanigans and it was put together so serendipitously to make a Double Whammy hootch-a-rama on the Gothtober calendar this year, a one two (spiked) punch!

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Spooky Spirit Recipes for DAY 11

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Click on Gothtober DAY 11 and receive a delicious and ghastly presentation from Dianne Chadwick, drink vampiress extraordinaire! If you’ve been stumped at what to serve at your Halloween cocktail party, fear no more, here we have thirteen wonderful recipes to knock people’s heads off… literally. From the “Corpse Reviver” to the “Bitter Pumpkin” there’s plenty to add to your boiling cauldron this month that will impress all of your ghoulie guests.

Serve these drinks in themed glasses, if you have the option. If you can find garnishes that call to mind things like severed fingers or bloody eyeballs (or you know, in a pinch, the real thing is even better.)

Nothing builds friendship and good times like wormy ice cubes and plastic spiders. 

We’re considering trying each and every one of these before October is done, we’re very goal oriented around here.

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DAY 10: Shipo’s Halloween Day!

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So who is this Shipo, anyway? It’s all very cat-centric, you see.

Watch this great story by 8-year-old Sienna from Little Green Dog! Little Green Dog has been a Gothtober staple for many years, and often, Sienna and her cats were the inspiration for some of the great work put together by Sienna’s parents, who run Little Green Dog. But this year is different, because this family production team, for the first time, features Sienna behind the camera as writer, illustrator and narrator! She also plays some of the piano in this video!

See how the drawings come to life in this adventure about Halloween, and friendship. It’s even better if you’re eating candy while watching the show. 

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DAY 9: TAKE OUT

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Click on DAY 9 on www.gothtober.com

From the depths of pipe cleaner nihilism arrives a one minute film called Take Out.

Though a brief foray into the avant-garde, it is everything, and it is nothing.

You might say it’s viscerally alive. You could say it was designed by the inventor of Tetris.

One might say it’s jalapeños in your pancakes.

It can be experienced as a smörgåsbord of sight and sound.

Refreshingly free of narrative, the joy of this film exists in it’s complete abandonment of constraints and a whole-hearted embracing of raw, spontaneous energy.

Take this journey, go on a one minute musing of whatever you will, whatever you have. What’s going on? Only the disco ball knows for sure.

 

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DAY 8 – Fall Ideals: Los Angeles River

Today is a short film by Julianna Parr (me) about water, pumpkins, and one of LA’s secret havens: The Los Angeles River.

What you can see is pumpkins and the LA River. What you can’t see is the perilous task that is pumpkin wrangling IN the LA River.

It’s slippery, even if you have tread-laden shoes. But it’s beautiful, and it’s our river, and it was great fun slogging about, setting up shots with orange orbs in the middle of the day. One woman asked us if we were scared.

I’m not sure what she meant. Did she mean being in the LA water? Did she mean being scared of the urban environment? Was she inherently uneasy at the site of pumpkins not analogous to the surrounding landscape? I assured her that we were not scared. Maybe she meant flash floods? Flash floods are scary, and I made sure to check the forecast for any rain that would be happening up in Valencia or other places that could send a deluge of water our way, but the coast was clear.

It was sunny, breezy, clear and serene at the river. Pigeons were very curious about the project.

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Peanut Brittle for DAY 7

DAY 7 on Gothtober is all about CANDY.

peanut_brittle_001There are people who give out toothbrushes to trick or treaters, and then there are the people in the world who are ALIVE. Halloween is not about restraint, or making sense, or paying attention to limits, or going on a diet. Halloween is about rotting your teeth. That’s why we believe this recipe for Peanut Brittle isn’t just a recipe, it’s a Public Service Announcement.

Sure, you can buy peanut brittle and stuff your face and lay on the couch and moan and feel regret, but why do that when you can really fall down the rabbit hole and make your own? If you’re going to feel like you ate too much peanut brittle, make sure it was good peanut brittle. And make sure you did the work that it takes to make delicious, crunchy, melty, peanutty peanut brittle, because the work makes it taste better.

Anything you have to stir for more than a half an hour deserves your attention and appreciation. We recommend that you make this recipe with a friend, because it’s fun to take turns stirring.

And hey, it’s true, the dentist isn’t going to be thrilled with your peanut brittle consumption. But it’s Halloween. And it’s real sugar, real butter, real peanuts, and it’s home made. There is a difference, and no dentist can deny it. It’s time for Peanut Brittle.