Makeup Tutorial--Traumatized Finger (Warning, real gross)

So I pulled out the old makeup box yesterday and started twiddling around with it.  I'm not really that much into gore but I sometimes try to push my comfort zone limits a bit.  With a little bit of blue, a little bit of fake blood, a little bit of sealer, a little bit of black paint, I think that I did a pretty good job of making my middle finger look like it had been traumatized:

 Pretty good if I do say so myself!   Let's see any of you hotshot makeup artists out there who think you're bad enough to top this!  You boys have been owned by Macdaddy Macabre!

If only it were true.  Oh how I wish it were true.

This is what happens when you take a 10 ounce framing hammer and hit your finger with ALL your strength, effectively missing your desired target.
I said shoot!
I said doggonnit!
I said dang!
I said oopsie doodle!
I said monkey poo!

Actually I said nothing, just quivering with a little nausea in my stomach, my father was standing right next to me as I was biting my lip in two to keep from saying
%<*!!&*(#@$%*+{=%&@$&#$ H-E-EFFING-HOCKEYSTICKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


We were working at a farm and it just so happened that they had a vet there brushing a horse's teeth (I'm not kidding).  My dad wanted to let the vet drill my nail right then to relieve the pressure.

I politely declined the offer.

Just thought I'd share :)

The Final Unresting Place 2010

Humbly submitted for your viewing pleasure, a bit of Hallowe'en from last year's haunt...My submission to the Haunter's DVD set (you still have time, February 15 DEADline).



Special thanks to Logan Kendell for allowing me to use his rendition of Grim Grinning Ghosts Remix

www.Logankendell.com

Missing in Action

Just a note to let ya'll know I'm still here.  Life has thrown us a curve ball:  Mrs. Macabre's father has untreatable leukemia and is in Hospice.  He just turned 82 and the huge blessing is that he is in no pain, just becoming weaker and weaker daily.  Leukemia at his age is basically unable to be treated, the treatment is worse than the disease itself.

Good thoughts/prayers would be appreciated but most of all, thanks to all of you, I appreciate your following/reading this blog and I will be back on a more consistent basis with more pent-up evil and insanity soon.

And I still managed to get my Haunter's DVD submission ready; I'm waiting for permission from the musical artist to use his rendition of Grim Grinning Ghosts as my soundtrack...so you have no excuse, get yours in production today!!!

Peace and Blessings to you all,

Joseph
aka Mr. Macabre

A Call to Arms-Haunt Video Submissions!

Many of you may not be aware of the yearly haunted DVD set that is compiled that allows you to submit your video or pictures of your haunt and strut your stuff.

Well, now you do and you're invited.

Each year, a DVD set is compiled and people from all over the world submit their haunted lawn art, haunted houses, haunts, parties and whatever else Hallowe'eny to be put on this DVD set and then you may purchase a set when it is finished.  Many a bright cheery spring day full of promise and merrily chirping birds have I watched my sets over and over longing for the gloom and foreboding darkness of Hallowe'en before slithering to the shop to start creating something dead.  In them, you get inspiration, motivation and good old fashioned entertainment!

So make your up to 5 minute video or send your pictures in!  There's about 25 submissions so far (in past years, there have been up to 100!).  Deadline was January 31 but has been extended to February 15.

And a special blood-curdling scream goes out to the Davis' of Davis Graveyard for graciously undertaking this project.

Click anywhere here for submission information and instructions (it's really easier than it sounds)!

Click anywhere here for the Hauntcast page of information reflecting the new submission date!

Now, get to work!

Call to Arms--Support Your Local Hauntcast!

If you aren't familiar with Hauntcast, it's a podcast especially for us--Haunters (I capitalize Haunters because I think that we deserve it as a proper noun) and Hallowe'en enthusiasts/crazies.  For the past couple of years, it's been free to listen to but as you might guess, the talents behind Hauntcast do not have a bottomless abyss filled with money.  If they did, I would offer to be their love slave but that's something that you probably didn't want to hear.  Hauntcast is needing help to survive.  For 12.00, you get a year full of ear full of deliciously decadent haunting interviews, humor, reviews, ideas, and much much more.  Think about it, what will 12.00 buy:  1 meal and tip at a halfway decent food joint, maybe a bottle of cheaper wine, perhaps 3 minutes of dirty talk, and then when it's gone, it's gone.  With Hauntcast, you'll have it and can listen to it over and over. With any of the former, in less than 24 hours, it's gone.
That was kind of crude wasn't it?
Anyhow, please consider subscribing to Hauntcast, it's worth a lot more than what you would be paying for it.
For the numbers and why Hauntcast went from free to fee, this gentleman will explain it for you better than I can...

And don't forget to check out the other parts of the site including the store, the blog and the archives (but please don't go downloading all the past shows without at least donating something for their time and effort, they have to pay for bandwidth and that's expensive, just go ahead and spend the 12.00 and then you're going to have a clear conscience about it and everyone will be happy!).

Happy New Year!

Yeah I'm repeating myself but Tristan Robin Blakeman of Enchanted Revelries sent this and I couldn't resist (or figure how to put it in the comments from my last post so it gets one of its own).  Go visit his blog, the only word I can come up with to describe it is FABULOUS.

Insurance for the New Year...Black Eyed Pea Dip

I'm NOT taking any chances this year.  It's not that I'm overtly superstitious or anything but I have learned that traditions that have been passed down through generation upon generation just may have a grain of truth in them.  Case in point, eating black eyed peas, corn bread and collard greens on New Year's Day for luck.

From Wikipedia:

The "good luck" traditions of eating black-eyed peas at Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud (compiled ~500 CE), Horayot 12A: "Abaye [d. 339 CE] said, now that you have established that good-luck symbols avail, you should make it a habit to see qara (bottle gourd), rubiya (black-eyed peas, Arabic lubiya), kartei (leeks), silka (either beets or spinach), and tamrei (dates) on your table on the New Year." However, the custom may have resulted from an early mistranslation of the Aramaic word rubiya (fenugreek).^[4]

A parallel text in Kritot 5B states that one should eat these symbols of good luck. The accepted custom (Shulhan Aruh Orah Hayim 583:1, 16th century, the standard code of Jewish law and practice) is to eat the symbols. This custom is followed by Sephardi and Israeli Jews to this day.

In the United States, the first Sephardi Jews arrived in Georgia in the 1730s, and have lived there continuously since. The Jewish practice was apparently adopted by non-Jews around the time of the American Civil War.

In the Southern United States,^[5] the peas are typically cooked with a pork product for flavoring (such as bacon, ham bones, fatback, or hog jowl), diced onion, and served with a hot chili sauce or a pepper-flavoredvinegar.

The traditional meal also features collard, turnip, or mustard greens, and ham. The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion.^[6] Cornbread also often accompanies this meal.

And I didn't understand half of it except that it's an old old tradition.

Another article from The Houston Press Blog:

 Purists know that the traditional New Year's Day meal also features collard greens, stewed tomatoes, and cornbread. The peas, which swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens represent money; the tomatoes bring health; and the cornbread is that sweet, sweet gold. The catch, of course, is that the black-eyed peas are the luck staple -- eating the greens without the peas, for example, will not do the trick, and instead bring fireballs, locusts, and acid rain upon thee. Or something like that.

Add a shiny penny to the pot just before serving, and whoever receives the serving with the penny receives the best luck of all.

Again, I'm NOT taking any chances this year, I've alway's liked salsas and I made this one this morning which should cover all my lucky bases.

Black Eyed Pea Dip

• 2 cans black eyed peas (for prosperity)
• 1 can white shoepeg corn (for gold)
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes (for health)
• ½ bunch green onions, chopped (for money)
• 1 tomato, diced (more health)
• 1 yellow pepper, diced (what the heck, I need some more gold)
• 1 purple onion, diced (borrowing from Mardi Gras, justice [grasping for straws here, cut me some slack!])
• ½ bunch chopped cilantro (mo' money!)
• 1 small can chopped green chilies (even mo money!)
• Juice from ½ lime (and some change)
• ¼ cup Balsamic vinaigrette (for taste)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients well. Serve with Fritos Scoops. 

Again, via Houston Press Blog

 Ok, I made up the symbolism, but it can't hurt to be too careful!