The Scarecrow

All winter through I bow my head
Beneath the driving rain;
The North Wind powders me with snow
And blows me black again;
At midnight 'neath a maze of stars
I flame with glittering rime,
And stand, above the stubble, stiff
As mail at morning-prime.
But when that child called Spring, and all
His host of children, come,
Scattering their buds and dew upon
These acres of my home,
Some rapture in my rags awakes;
I lift void eyes and scan
The sky for crows, those ravening foes,
Of my strange master, Man.
I watch him striding lank behind
His clashing team, and know
Soon will the wheat swish body high
Where once lay a sterile snow;
Soon I shall gaze across a sea
Of sun-begotten grain,
Which my unflinching watch hath sealed
For harvest once again.
 
- Walter de la Mare

Daytime Sighting

Some ghost hunters believe that darkness helps to draw out ghostly entities. Yet even a casual review of ghost reports reveals that this is not true: most sightings do not occur in darkness. People have reported seeing ghosts in broad daylight, in the morning, and at all times of the day. Well over a century ago, it was recognized that ghosts were not necessarily associated with the dark—popular perception notwithstanding. Educator and researcher Eleanor Sidgwick of the Society for Psychical Research concluded around 1885 when analyzing hundreds of eyewitness ghost reports that “ghosts may be seen in daylight or in artificial light, at dawn or at dusk, and in various parts of a house or outside in the yard,” according to Michaeleen Maher.

Text source.

Image source.

Scotch Wish List

THE THREE MONSTERS OF SMOKE

 

Includes Three 200 ml Bottles:

Ten Years Old is revered around the world as the peatiest, smokiest, most complex Single Malt of them all, perfectly balanced with fruity floral sweetness and complexity. Its maturation in ex-Bourbon American Oak casks creates a balance of sweet vanilla and bold spice. Multi-award-winning, Ardbeg's flagship whisky reflects the best of Islay.

Wee Beastie is Ardbeg’s newest permanent expression is the youngest Ardbeg ever. Wee Beastie is matured in a mix of Ex-Bourbon & Oloroso sherry casks for just 5 years. The younger the whisky the more powerful the smoke, making this untamed new expression stand out amongst all other Islay Malts. A rich, explosive mouthfeel with lots of chocolate, tar, creosote and smoked bacon, followed by a burst of antiseptic lozenges, eucalyptus and more aniseed.

An Oa embraces its contrasts. It is inspired by the Mull of Oa, the cliffs protecting the Ardbeg distillery from the wild Atlantic Ocean. It brings together the finest casks and balances roundness with Ardbeg's signature intensity. To create the complexity of An Oa (pronounced “An Oh”), whiskies are matured in Pedro Ximénez casks for sweetness, Virgin Charred Oak casks for spiciness and ex-Bourbon American Oak casks for intensity. These different parts are then married together in the bespoke Gathering Vat.

An Andrew Wyeth Tribute

Living in Pennsylvania offered a unique opportunity for a photoshoot that captured the spirit of everything I love about the earthy melancholic landscapes of one of my favorite artists - Andrew Wyeth.  We've been driving around for months looking for the perfect location and this weekend we found it.

Happy Birthday, Antonio Bay

Celebrating Fog Day with some fun appetizers as crab cakes and lobster macaroni and cheese bake in the oven.  The drink of the evening is a Blake's Dark 'n Stormy (Old Republic dark rum with blood orange ginger beer [and a sprig of charred purple sage]).

And, of course, the movie of the evening is Carpenter's flawless ghost story The Fog.

Spirit Of 1876

Beautiful display.

More images here.

Now Playing: Some Friday Music

By The Meteors.

Click below...

Now Playing: Music For Haunted Asylums

A wonderful collection by various artists where they try to capture that unique feeling that can only be found inside an old, abandoned asylum.

Click below... (would make a great Hauntscape)

HellsGate Haunted House

More images here.

Autumn Window

Art by Sam Wolfe Connelly.

Scene/Trailer: STING

This one seems like it'd be some good old fashioned horror film fun...

The Circle

Image by Jean-Luc Bourdial.

Halloween Underground

Halloween Underground is the culmination of twenty years of photographing people dressed up in fantastical, outlandish costumes against the backdrop of the drab, gritty reality of the New York subway. Seymour Licht captured revelers preening in their outfits as the prelude to the largest Halloween parade in the world - or some private night out where creativity is the currency and mystery and flirtation the prize.

Click below for more info... 

Now Playing: Horror Night

By Starcourt.

Click below...

Your Suffering Will Be Legendary

Image source.

Incantation

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Infestation

Image source.

Ghostwatch

Currently streaming on Shudder, Ghostwatch is a British mockumentary that in a ton of ways influenced a whole range of modern horror film tropes.  Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch Project, and every single ghost hunting series ever seem to have drawn inspiration from this old classic from 1992.  The best part is that the hosts of the show were actual real-life television news personalities, so for anyone who missed the credits (and this apparently happened on a large scale), people became convinced that this was a real event unfolding on live TV - on Halloween night no less.

This was pure gold, with a really involved and interesting tale.  As we learned the slowly unfolding (and very disturbing) backstory of this bizarre haunting, we marveled at how something from '92 could have been so ahead of its time.  

There are no good trailers for this gem and that's probably a good thing.  

Ghostwatch gets my highest recommendation.

Necropolis

There was at Auburn an old, abandoned cemetery. It was nearly in the heart of the town, yet by night it was as gruesome a place as the most dismal of human moods could crave. The railings about the plots were prostrate, decayed, or altogether gone. Many of the graves were sunken, from others grew sturdy pines, whose roots had committed unspeakable sin. 
 
- Ambrose Bierce

Image source.

Boneyard

Image by Jim Rohan.

Now Playing: He Walks By Night

From the upcoming Noir release.

Click below...

Glencairn Museum

Growing up in PA, we heard a lot of spooky stories regarding the Pitcairn family... my sister's friends would sometimes mention the Pitcairn [haunted] mansion.  They spoke of deformed descendants still living there.  They mentioned the horridly abstract notion of inbreeding to a small child (me).  

Turns out this terrifying fictional place I built up in my head as a kid has always been a beautiful sprawling estate which houses an amazing cathedral, a museum, and a mansion.  No ghosts nor deformations were spotted.  It was a wonderful tour and a great way to spend a windy Saturday afternoon. 

Glencairn is a castle-like mansion in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, that was home to the Pitcairn family for more than 40 years. Now the Glencairn Museum, it contains a collection of about 8,000 artworks, mostly religious in nature, from cultures such as ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, the Roman Empire and medieval Europe, as well as Islamic, Asian, and Native American works.  The nine-story, granite-and-ruddy-colored-stone mansion features more than 90 rooms on 10 floors.

Late Harvest

Trailer: Files Of The Unexplained

Watched a bunch of these and have been really enjoying them.  

Click below...

Now Playing: Chronos (Some Friday Music)

From the GREAT new album by Pye Corner Audio.

Click below...

Strange Cargo

31 October.—Still hurrying along. The day has come, and Godalming is sleeping. I am on watch. The morning is bitterly cold; the furnace heat is grateful, though we have heavy fur coats. As yet we have passed only a few open boats, but none of them had on board any box or package of anything like the size of the one we seek. The men were scared every time we turned our electric lamp on them, and fell on their knees and prayed.

Dracula, Bram Stoker

Image by Dotsy McCurly.

Now Playing: I Am One Of You

By 400 Lonely Things.

Click below…

Clay Jack

Image source.

Trampling On Thistles

Evening was in the wood, louring with storm.
A time of drought had sucked the weedy pool
And baked the channels; birds had done with song.
Thirst was a dream of fountains in the moon,
Or willow-music blown across the water
Leisurely sliding on by weir and mill.

- Siegfried Sassoon

Poem here.

Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled

This exhibition traces a persistent vein of intriguing, often disconcerting imagery over the career of renowned artist Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946). Frequently countered and even hidden by Wyeth’s fuller body of work—particularly his well-known coastal views and farmscapes—the darker and more troubling imagery is constant throughout his oeuvre. Whether he is introducing curious characters or surveying strange landscapes, Wyeth is at home with uneasy subjects and a master of the unsettled mood.

We had the great pleasure of visiting the Brandywine Museum of Art again... this time for the latest Jamie Wyeth show.  Love that he had such a dark side to his works.  And it's wonderful the museum embraces that fact.