Fascinating Day 4 with Mellocreme Fairchild III

It’s VERY bright and sunny in Southern California, this goth is dedicated!

Visit Gothtober.com and click on DAY 4!

In this day and age, surrounded by Halloween costume and party stores vying for our attention at every turn, attempting to pick out some original autumnal couture can be trying. Whatever’s old is new again and vice versa, it’s a very ho hum situation that can’t be helped in any way shape or form, especially not with a glue gun…

WAIT.

It CAN BE FIXED!!! Mellocreme Fairchild III to the rescue! This illustrious Crafte Gothe hath ventured out into the bright and unforgiving sun to get just the right supplies to make things right! With glue gun in hand, patterns, felt, and sparkles, she’ll show you the way.

Enjoy THREE original and fabulous fascinator presentations, giving you all the inspiration you need for making a gorgeous centerpiece for your head! It’s so easy, just watch and follow along with the Mellocreme Fairchild Method™, and you’ll be SET!

Thanks for showing us how to style it up this Halloween, Ms. Mellocreme!

A Study in Decay for Gothtober Day 3 with Sam G

Visit Gothtober.com and click on DAY 3!

Look closely, and you’ll observe that what appears to be everyday upholstered turn-of –the-century furniture is actually quite haunted! These chairs are in the midst of a detailed deterioration!

Sam G is a texture artist: proficient in adding texture to virtual AND real items via computer magic in the entertainment industry known as Special Effects. It’s one thing to notice the amazing realism of what texture artists can do, but it’s MORE common that you never notice a thing because it has the appearance of being so real. It’s an unsung hero kind of job, where some of the best renders you’ve ever done are what sneaks right by a viewer’s nose! Audiences have barely an inkling of just how much effort goes into building the worlds we see on film and television.

This piece in particular shows the careful consideration and thought goes into the required level of quality verisimilitude at work!

Also, this visual meditation on furniture, mortality, and the passing of time is a great reminder that inescapable impermanence for all of us is fact. Make hay while the sun shines, time’s a wastin!

Thanks for sharing your skills with us, Sam! Say hi to the ghost chairs for us!

Aunt Lyla KaRug is Gothtober DAY 5

She’s the radio call-in queen of South Texas, battling bullies and social injustice with Texas charm, and bona fide heartfelt love. Her official saying is “go out and be a miracle to someone!”

Texas’s own Aunt Lyla KaRug is here in her breakout Gothtober role, wandering around a very unsanitary and eerie locale, shining her lantern, and somehow having the bravery to recite verse… in heels!

Gothtober’s got a very long LGBTQ history, and Halloween itself is kinda like gay xmas. Your Gothtober creators are quite queer, and we LOVE us some drag.

Drag embodies the bravery of bursting through the boundaries of uptight, repressed societal mundane heteronormative codes by using style, hyperbole, and camp; quite the antidote for quotidian malaise!

Jeffrey Wylie, Lyla’s nephew, would probably agree and I keep trying to ask him more about his auntie’s next big gig, Aunt Lyla is so busy! Actually, come to think of it, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen those two in the same place at the same time, they’re never in the same room together!

Huh. Weird.

Gothtober Day 2: Ghostly Transformation!

Visit Gothtober.com and visit DAY 2!

Today we’ve got the youngest artist in the 2019 Gothtober Collection, Dragon Girl is 13, and has been raised on Gothtober videos. Her parents have been a part of Gothtober since the start, 17 years ago. Dragon Girl has been contributing to the Gothtober calendar for quite a few years now, and we’re thrilled to bring you her latest!

What we have here is a sweet nugget of an animation involving the paranormal, a bird, some succulents, and well… I don’t want to give away the whole thing, you gotta go see it! You’ll see clever use of strings, pins and hand hewn props, and some pretty cool characters. Dragon Girl makes it all herself!

We’d also like to add that Dragon Girl is the niece of Gothtober’s High Priestess of Web, Cristin Pescosolido. When it comes to smarts, craftsmanship, and making insanely detailed cool works of art: this family’s got strong stock!

Go Go Dragon Girl! We love seeing what you come up with every year!

2019 Gothtober Day 1: Pithy Fall Seasonal Guidance

Visit Gothtober.com and click on DAY 1!

On the very first day of Gothtober 2019, we open with crisp leaves, a colorful and glorious autumnal display by Mother Nature’s finest. And we’re also given a few words of wisdom from Alis Jurua Nonpareil. It’s set to a very boppy and jauntyPercy Faith number from back in the 50s.

It’s 10 Ideals for Autumn, suitable for focusing on letting go of old conventions, and preparing to alight anew. It is a time for rumination, reflection, brain time, after all. Here, Alis Jurua Nonpareil does not hold back, but offers 10 conversation starters for your mind.

Gothtober 2019 is LIVE!!!

Head Candy Corn here,

WE DID IT!!! Our yearly collection of things that go bump in the night is underway, it’s quite the exciting lineup! Everyday a new artist is revealed, this week we’ve got Alis Jua Nonpareil, Dragon Lady, Sam G, Mellocreme Fairchild III, and Auntie Lyla!

Expect to receive some fall season advice/commands/weirdness, a bit of ghostly animation, a study in decay, and some thrilling, chilling drag!

Big thanks to our Web High Priestess, Cristin Pescosolido, who transferred all the data from our staging bay to our main directory, making it very easy for me to easily launch Gothtober 2019 at the stroke of midnight!

Thank you for viewing and experiencing this Public Internet Art Installation, it is our SEVENTEENTH! That’s a lotta pumpkins! There’s nothing quite like unveiling a brand new Gothtober.

Showing off this annual collection of new works from Gothtober Artists, it makes me misty. It never gets old, I’m a big fan of “together art” and this project brings a new reason to be sincerely grateful everyday. I am proud, and heartened by everyone who’s in this year’s mix, and all the previous mixes! Thank you thank you!

Slimy toads and haunted roads,

Head Candy Corn JP

New Look, Same Blog!

Oooh, okay, sorry, hold on a minute, I’ve switched the blog to a NEW template, one that you can read on yer phone. Of course, doing such a thing turned everything upside down, and I’m still getting my bearings, dealing with the CSS and images, etc.

So… bear with me, we’re getting our spells in order, grinding up some newt eyeball powder to make this CSS really shine!

Check out the Gothtober 2019 FAQ and APPLY why doncha? October needs yer art!

Pumpkin Guts,

JP Head Candy Corn

Gothtober 2018 OPENS with Horror Movie Survival Guide!!!

Happy Gothtober, everyone! Visit the Gothtober Countdown Calendar and CLICK DAY ONE to see today’s offering! 

The calendar went LIVE last night, we always pick newbies for DAY 1, to get you in the mood for fall fun!

It’s time for puppets! It’s time for, specifically, puppets of the two hosts from the “Horror Movie Survival Guide,” Julia Marchese, and Marion Kerr. Created and puppeted by one of their fiercely crafty producers, Teri Gamble, you can watch the 2-D version of our hosts give you expert advice on how to STAY ALIVE when watching horror movies, very good tips!

This information is hard to get and highly prized, we trust you’ll watch, learn, and keep it away from evil forces, demons, flesh-eating zombies, you know, the horror hoi polloi. From oldies back in film’s beginning days, to VHS classics, to more modern creature features, this lively, witty and candid podcast delves deep with insights, minutia, personal anecdotes, and plenty of great facts and figures to boost your horror movie knowledge. For instance, did you know that Piper Laurie’s bible verses in Brian DePalma’s Carrie are all completely fake and made up… but somehow still amazingly believable?

Find all past and future episodes here!

Gothtober Day 2 – The Terror Tunnel, by Rick Orner!

Visit www.gothtober.com and click on DAY 2

Are you up for a haunted attraction involving paranormal activity and partying with the undead? Rick Orner brings to us a P.O.V. simulation of what such a thing might entail. Your car glides on its rails, lurching right, pitching left, each new direction revealing a new spooky tableau!

Do you remember going to the county fair and staring at the terrifying facade of the Haunted House ride? Do you remember it looming over your small frame, it’s metallic edges painted over to resemble decrepit castle stones or rotting wood?

There was always some kind of extra creepy skeleton or Lon Chaney-esque phantom of the opera both beckoning and repelling you to enter the “Bordello of Blood” or “The Ghost Train” or “AmityVille Scareground.”

At age 7 or 8, this was enough to make you want to flail wildly, scream bloody murder, and run in any direction BUT one of these places. But at some point, you’d brave your better sense, get in one of these things and survive, but perhaps not without throwing all your popcorn in the air from being scared so badly. Get that feeling back again as you enter the terror tunnel, maybe have a little cotton candy, or some roasted peanuts.

Dark rides were invented in the late 19th century, often called “pleasure” or “scenic” railways. This is the first one ever designed with Gothtober in mind, we’re thrilled that Rick Orner kept us in the dark, so to speak! please keep all hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times. We don’t want you losing a limb… or do we?

Read Rick Orner’s and other Gothtober contributor’s bios here! 

First Day of Gothtober: Pumpkin Heads, by Fonzie!!!

Go to www.gothtober.com and visit DAY 1 to see “Pumpkin Heads” the movie by FONZIE!

It’s officially pumpkin season! What better way to feel the magic of the squash than with REAL LIVE PUMPKIN HEADS running down your street?!? This sweet friendship film comes to us all the way from Vermont, where the leaves were just starting to change a few weeks ago when this piece was made. Fonzie is the altar ego of Alison McHaffie Bergman, who made this film with her husband (go ukulele!) and some very well-disguised individuals wearing hollowed-out vegetables over their craniums.

FUN FILM MAKER FACT: “As we were shooting our movie, a guy in his car rolled down his window and yelled out “Pumpkin Head!!!” but this piece actually has TWO pumpkin heads, hence the title. 

I asked Alison to share some “Vermontian Fall Finery” with us, and she sent these pictures of some pumpkin innards (omg the innards of one of her film star’s heads!!! So gory!!!), beautiful red leaves, and the Cabot Plains Cemetery, which was established in 1822.

A very Happy Gothtober to Alison and family, thank you for wearing ACTUAL pumpkins on your heads, you really went the distance!

Read Fonzie’s and other Gothtober contributor’s bios here!