Jessica Hlavac is DAY 1 of this year’s Gothtober, and I’ll tell you why:
One day, Jessica told me she was having an art opening, so I decided to check it out, and GEE WHIZ, I had no idea that Jessica makes TINY SCULPTURES!
I mean tiny. I mean, like… did she sculpt that with her eyelashes?!? Tiny.
Look at that ice cream cone, it is sitting in a spoon. The spoon has room to spare.And then, check out this sushi plate: it’s sitting on a QUARTER. This fish will not satiate your hunger, but it will be a feast for your eyes… get out the magnifying glass!
Jessica’s piece celebrates Gothtober in a cheerful and unexpected way, she even had a few squashed specimens in trying to make her movie. Squash… har-de-har. “The Pumpkin” is perfectly expertly magically weirdly fun, and we’re extremely proud to have Jessica start this year’s Gothtober.
If you’d like to find out more, you can visit Jessica’s site I’m so Tiny and also visit her Etsy Store where she sells limited edition prints of her work, and if you don’t see that perfect food you love in miniature form, you can request custom items!
Mini Sashimi
Gothtober artist fun fact: Jessica made a cameo appearance as a pumpkin patch tour guide in Sebastian Johnson’s DAY 22 of Gothtober 2004.
Gothtober always has great music, because we always have AMAZING musicians that come out of the woodwork for the Halloween Holiday. This year is no exception, we’ve got two fellows on board this year by the name of Josh Fielstra and Chris Morgan. While they may appear to look like normal people.. they are anything but. These guys make their keyboards freak out on a regular basis with 10,000 tons of flaming awesome, and they are spoiling us rotten with their expert synth-piano-musiciany-supernatural-dark-muzik-skillz.
Here are shots of Josh calmly composing Gothtober hits such as “Spooky Love”, “Gothtendo Quest” and the 1-minute breakdancing hit “Gothtober Electra-Boogaloo.” that will be the featured tunes on the Gothtober Boom Box. I don’t really know how he stays so calm, when I was hearing this music, my brain was whirling around in its skull with extreme happiness.
Look for Chris Morgan’s Gothtober debut on DAY 2, he is scoring the music for Cristin Pescosolido’s exciting alien visitor film. More news later, but I gotta tell you, it’s getting VERY EXCITING as it’s almost time for launch! Eeeeeeeee!
Here you have it, pictorial observation of how a storyboard idea translates directly to film production!
Monica Howe’s brand new music video will be debuting on DAY 12 of the Gothtober calendar, she enlisted a talented crew to help her candy-coated dreams come true: Katherine Morrison, Jean SpinoSa, Coral Lobera, Kerri Fernsworth Feazell, Jen Hofer, Rob Ray and Cricket Amy Russell. In this photo to the right, Monica poses as Jean and Kate set up the shot, while Kerri sets up sound to go with the shot.
Monica had her nails done especially for this project, I saw her the night before the shoot, and can I just say, merely looking at it made my head do a “Linda Blair” in excitement. I have never seen nails this amazing: NEVARRRR. It took about two hours to complete them, and no decals were used. I can’t wait for you to see them, you’re just gonna DIE!
Stay tuned, we’ll post another sneak peek tomorrow!
Here’s a little ditty from days past that is sure to amuse, Ed Lee’s weird and wonderful seasonably-challenged “Ghost Dog Serenade.” We’ll be putting more gems up on the Gothtober YouTube channel, this way, those of you with handheld devices that won’t show flash-based content (like Gothtober proper) can visit some pieces from yesteryear! If you like this piece, be sure to view Ghost Dog Serenade II the SEQUEL, it’s just as riveting (and ridiculous.)
Man oh MAN was it a hard choice, lots of you applied this year, it was really super-duper-crazy-hard to pick. If you didn’t get in this year, please be sure to apply next year, you can always find out on this here blog in August of 2011 when the Application process opens up again. Keep your eyeballs peeled… and don’t let any hungry zombies eat ’em.
In the meantime, this year’s calendar is going to be packed with amazing art, as usual. We’ll be presenting some creepy culinary delights, there’s more food in the 2010 calendar, as well as some literary treats, and some preoccupation with alternative forms of transport.
And what am I doing? How do you even begin to make a Gothtober? Well, you start by coaching the craniums of 31 different artists: You HEAR ME, ARTISTS? Let’s fire it up! Wooooo!
Your application doesn’t have to make sense, but it does have to be in on time! Recipes, crafts, how-to primers, slideshows, drawings, sculptures, videos, music, stories, informational pamphlets, movies, skits, puppets, pets, monsters, bicycles, toys, costumes, photography, performance art, MORE!
You mean you’ve never heard about The Tale of the Haunted Boom Box?!? Here goes:
In the the time of Pac-Man and the Cabbage Patch Doll, a boisterous fellow decked in gold chains and a massive boombox would saunter his neighborhood breakin’ to the beat. You could always hear him before you saw him, his music was so fresh and loud, it would bounce off the bricks and float through the sky, making people dance when they’d least expect it.
One day, there was a terrible accident. The legend tells that one rainy sinister night, the break dancer’s Boom Box started playing Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up over and over again. Puzzled, and irritated, he checked all the frequencies, and made sure the radio was off and PHONO was on, but the Boom Box seemed to have a mind of its own. After 15 minutes of trouble-shooting to no avail, the frustrated break dancer pressed fast-forward on the tape deck. It was then that the mighty boom box’s wicked cassette spindles caught and held the shiny bling around his neck.The high whine of smoking torque tightened the necklaces around his windpipes, and then jerked them tighter still, eventually wrenching his head off, leaving a gruesome gory gash. No one ever found a body, or a boom box, just a few broken links from a 14 karat gold chain and eight D batteries covered in acid dripping into the sewer drain.
Yet, dare I say, the spooky headless breakdancer and his haunted boombox lives. On a full moon, you may catch a glimpse of his transparent form weaving through the buildings of the city. The apparition’s name is UC No HED, and he can do the wave, the caterpillar, poppin’ and lockin’ but don’t ask him to do a head spin, it sends him into a frenzy of rage which will transform even the bravest foolhardy soul into a piteously weak and feeble coward.
If you see a BoomBox that is not quite right… DON’T TOUCH IT!!! Especially if its playing Rick Astley.
More details on how to protect yourself from a Haunted Boom Box in the next post.
Are you looking for something to DO?!? Well, let us help! Don’t sit there and be all namby-pamby and say silly stuff like “I’m not an artist, I dunno how to come up with ideas” etc. SNORE. And don’t say stuff like “Oh, I’ve done everything there is to do, I’m bored by the inside of my own skull, I’m just too jaded to do this…” ALSO very boring. YOU are not boring, YOU have weirdness in you, I can see it. You are beyond those old chestnut excuses, you are AMAZING! Here is your autumnal creative outlet! Gothtober is seeking the bored, the jaded, the pent-up unrealized freaky-crazy peculiar nuances of your very SOUL. I could try to sound more casual about it, but why?
Halloween is not a casual holiday, it freaks out the religious right, it’s misunderstood, it’s minimized yet also demonized, it encourages erratic behavior and rebelliousness, half the people think it’s kid stuff, while the other half of the population things its for naughty nurses and drag queens.
It’s a troublemaking holiday.
Gothtober celebrates this troublemaking holiday with panache and fun, without the hindrance of grace or sophistication.
Come on, fill out an application, it doesn’t have to be wordy or verbose, and it doesn’t have to make much sense either.
We are gearing up for our NINTH Gothtober, is that crazy or what? Over the years, it’s only gotten crazier, stranger and more fun, and this year will be no exception! We’ll be delving into “musical thrills” for this year’s theme, the official news on that isn’t far behind this very post. For now, consider this an official acknowledgement that yes, Halloween is on the horizon, we are again bringing you 31 days of highly varied versions of the fantastic, the exuberant, the macabre, the usual assortment of interesting and creepy goodies you’ve come to expect.
And yes, if you want to make something for Gothtober this year, put on your headless thinking cap. More info on the way, stay tuned!
Gothtober always has great music, because we always have AMAZING musicians that come out of the woodwork for the Halloween Holiday. This year is no exception, we’ve got two fellows on board this year by the name of Josh Fielstra and Chris Morgan. While they may appear to look like normal people.. they are anything but. These guys make their keyboards freak out on a regular basis with 10,000 tons of flaming awesome, and they are spoiling us rotten with their expert synth-piano-musiciany-supernatural-dark-muzik-skillz.
