Gone Feral In Idaho

PBS will air this Tuesday evening.  I'm proud to say I work with a group of qualified professionals.

Kyle and I have been thinking of using those "wall of water" protectors for putting out tomato plants earlier.  I am so glad I came across this Yahoo article while researching them.  We already buy 2 liter bottles of diet soda, so we will have more than enough for our garden.  I love this idea.   I also goofed and started some tomatoes WAY too early, I thought our last frost date was April 8th, not May 8th.  Maybe things will work out though.  I'm sure the Burpee Zavory peppers will be fine since they took 2 weeks to germinate and were the smallest transplants we had all last year.   Black Krim, Zavory, and a medley of herbs for a windowsill garden.

Neatorama now features a glass skull stein for just over 9 bucks.  These look much nicer than the cheap plastic ones you see at the stores around Halloween.  No, I am no way affiliated with Neatorama.

I check my Blogger stats, because I'm a little obsessive about who is checking out my blog.  I just saw the creepiest search terms someone used that directed them to my blog:  "corpse removed panty".  I don't want to know what that person was looking for.   They must have been bummed to hit my post .

Pumpkinrot's post reminded me of something. There is one question I get regarding my job that pops up more often than you'd think. I've had lots of people from either side of the cat and dog perspective of pets that ask me about pets actually eating their master's after they die. They are simply waiting to eat your face off. 1stholistic.com has an article that spreads the biggest misconception I've come across. The Daily Mail has a version of the story that makes the concept seem a bit more acceptable-  The pet had run out of food and as a last choice, fed off it's master to stay alive.   There are many misconceptions and crackpot stories surrounding death.  No wonder, people spend so much time avoiding the thought that any junk story can fill the vast gaps in our conceptualization of the topic.  I'm here to set the story straight.  Your pet would likely at least take a few bites if left alone with your dead body, even after a fairly short amount of t...

Actual text I just got from Kyle:   "Perfect day for photographing a haunt" Yes it is.  

I view some of the haunt community artists as the leaders in the field and some are simply replicating.  Just like the "art" world.  I hope the haunt world never gets as pretentious as the "art" world.  It is so cool to see what may be one of the most "underground" movements in creativity happening within such an intertwined and supportive community.  Haunters appear to be the best of both worlds- talented and unselfish- we encourage others to take our ideas and run with them.  It is amazing to see the results when a true artist makes an old idea theirs.   Years ago, I left a prestigious art school because I realized I was paying for bullshit.   Here is the movie that inspired this rant:

Anatomical heart cake as seen on Lily Vanilli Cake Fight .

Rich over at Devil's Eve presented me with a major award!  I along with two other happy haunters won a 1 year subscription to Hauntcast! Boo-yah!  Thanks a bunch man! Now go check out his blog .  Do it.

Toes Go In First A local hospital used to have a TGIF sign on their cooler door to remind the transport people how to properly put in the bodies.

Click the photo for a pretty extensive overview of the postmortem decomposition process.  Yes there are gross pictures, so be warned.  From emedicine.com  In the business, we call these cases, decomps.  The photo above would be called skeletal though.  

It wasn't until almost 10 years after taking a human osteology class (study of the human skeleton) for anthropologists and archaeologists, taught by a student of Bill Bass, that I ended up working in forensics.  Years ago, when I was studying to be an archaeologist I used to questioned the sanity of fellow students that were looking to forensics as a career choice.  The Midwest Bioarcheology & Forensic Anthropology Association meeting acronym said it all BARFA.  I only wanted to work with really old bones, the beautifully bleached, not covered in flesh ones.  The funny thing is that I think I'm the only one out of that group that actually got into the field, of forensics, that is.  I think the only foot in the door I had was archaeological excavation experience and a good knowledge of the human skeleton and how to differentiate bone fragments into either human or non-human, which is pretty important every once in a while in my job.  So much of my traini...

While doing some artwork during a brief break from the constant rain, Kyle and I stumbled upon some surprisingly green carrot greens.  This is what we found beneath the surface in one of our raised beds.  I've heard carrots can go through the winter, but never tried it.  They smell great.  I have yet to report on the taste.  I have no idea what variety these are.  It was pretty cool to pick something fresh from the garden on January 17th!

I had a great time and feel privileged to be Emily's +1 for the newest engagement of the Red Light Variety Show: Time Machine.  The RLVS gang did an amazing job and really had me on the edge of my seat during parts of the show. Other times I laughed due to the wonderfully funny bits.  I think my favorite parts were when the artists couldn't help but beam a wonderful smile when things went "just right", either due to a perfect hit on a move or gag, or when something went wrong, but they still nailed it.  Emily shot her way through the show with her camera while I sat by wondering what wonderful images she must have captured.  I'll link to her post when it's ready, she must have hours worth of images to pour over.   Thanks a ton Emily, I had a wonderful time.  Check out her blog- Your Apples are my Oranges This is one of her photos from a different show they did in October 2010, and is a good representation of how I felt as I left.  ...

Yep, this is way after Johnny Thunder's review, but K and I are watching this right now.  It is so cheesy, a ripoff of Jaws, and quite silly if you don't mind stupid cop cliches and lots of boobs and butts mixed in.  After seeing all that I have, this stuff is pretty light in my book.  Stupid, silly, oversexed, did I say stupid?  If you can brush those things off, it is funnily entertaining coming from the generation that grew up with this genre.  

So much better than I can.  Warning, this link goes to an article about an artist who actually photographed real dead bodies (in Mexico).  I like some of his stuff, but if you are easily offended or don't want to see a B&W of a headless corpse- I'll just copy the text below the link.  You can Google his name to find more images although some may be considered extremely perverse as he not only photographs corpses, he has worked with other topics that could be considered of a freakish nature, or deviant, depraved, and downright grotesque.  Remember, you can't unsee this stuff.  The photo in the link is cropped.   Also know that I'm a "normal" person that sees the craziest stuff you'll never see in a lifetime, so his work doesn't phase me much.  Some of it does make me cringe a little... http://supervert.com/essays/art/joelpeter_witkin From supervert.com  a site about subversive art, etc.  I can in no way vouch for the site or its ...

Today started with me accidentally opening my driver side window that I know has been broken and won't roll up.  I had to pay to get it back up after driving to work in the freezing snow.  I payed to get the window back up, can't afford to fix the damn thing.  Argh! The funniest (for real) part of the day goes to Kyle's phone conversation with his dad that included the update on what is happening in our household.  It kinda went like this: [I imagine dad asking what K is up to] with K's response: I'm making some food.  [K's dad asking: so what's Jeanne up to?] Kyle's response being- "Uh, well, she's working on the new haunt, you know, she's macheing a new ghost, you can never be too ready".  Then there was a big pause and then the conversation shifted on to something completely different.  

Work in progress with those little LED spots on the inside.  

Great Story, this looks just like Sadie, just 60 lbs bigger.   Unlike this Big Dog  which is utterly frightening.  

I spent the entire evening working on my new ghost prop whilst listening to Hauntcast.  I added some ribs and gave up on rolled newspaper over wire ribs and went with the same cheap skinny tubing.  Then I started the mache.  I had a fun night listening to Hauntcast and working on a prop way early in the season.   Neat thing was that I was called out earlier this week to check on some bones that someone called 911 for us to check out.  I had a hell of a time getting out there, but once I did, I could understand why someone might think they were possibly human.  I did a bit of "digging" in the frozen ground, but they turned out to be non-human remains.  I had a great time out there anyway.  Now I have my next set of non-human remains drying in the living room because it is way to cold for the stuff to dry properly.  Happy haunting, and STAY SCARY!

The G Rated version of Black Swan.  I present to you:  Black Sadie Pants in a Halloween crinoline! This isn't dog abuse if she got three small treats and never minded wearing a tutu, right?  If I had more time, I would have 'shopped in those crazy red swan eyes on her fuzzy face.  

Psychological Thriller?  Horror?  I don't care, I had a great time once it got going. What's with her eyes?