skelly pez

skelly pez
Originally uploaded by Jon Glassett

A glow-in-the-dark skeleton Pez dispenser. It's a skeleton. It glows in the dark. It spits out candy. What's not to love about that?

Congratulations

Congratulations, Dan and Janelle.

Shoyeido Incense

My favorite Fall incense: Golden Pavilion by Shoyeido. It smells like cinnamon, cloves and autumn leaves--even more so than another scent they make which is actually called Kyoto Autumn Leaves. That one is great, too, but Golden Pavilion is far closer to the essence of the season in my opinion.

Shoyeido incense can be pretty hard to find so I usually order it online.

SUMO

I made an update to the MySpace bio of my former band, SUMO. It's a pretty meaningful thing to me and represents a personal milestone so I thought I'd share it:

"SUMO was a band from 1997 to 2007. Then, owing to diminished creative impetus and the mounting forces of entropy, it ended. No one was happy about it but that's just how things go sometimes. We all still get along and music is still being made, just under different guises.

If you want the corny, pathetic truth SUMO was about love the whole time: love of being swept up in the current of sound, love of the reciprocal energy between the stage and the crowd, love of friends, love of the people who gave us time, attention, effort and a place to be, love of trying to always do good work, love of what we learn and love of the most alive moments we can possibly manifest.

Today is July 24, 2008 and I am finally able to write this.

Thank you for everything.

-Jon"



SUMO was a really important part of my life both personally and creatively and it's taken a while to get to the point where I can reflect on it with a sense of clarity.

moon&sparks

moon&sparks
Originally uploaded by Jon Glassett

This is one of my personal favorites from the bunch. I love that I was able to get the moon in some of these shots. It allowed for some experimentation with composition.

cosmic drama

cosmic drama
Originally uploaded by Jon Glassett

A long exposure shot from July 4th. I was really happy with the light trails in this one.

Music Review: Perfume - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

I got a little carried away at the local Newbury Comics yesterday and came home with a stack of horror soundtracks. They were all winners but there is this one standout that I'd like to share with you. Even if you don't particularly like scary music this is worth a listen.

I'm going to be right up front with the fact that I haven't seen the film. This purchase was either an act of bravery or abandon or just plain old dumb consumerism. Probably all three. What consciously pushed me to lay my money down, though, was really two things. First, I knew a little about the book upon which the film is based and it's a great premise. Second, the soundtrack is largely orchestral.

I found out after the fact that the score for Perfume was actually composed by the film's director, Tom Tykwer, along with Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil. Big points there for the director getting in on the music (Hello? John Carpenter?). The music is performed by Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker with choral performances by State Choir Latvia. The three composers also perform the soundtrack's electronic components, which are used sparingly but with great effect.

It's apparent that the aim of this score is to mirror the complexity of fine perfume by skillfully layering complementary and contrasting notes. Swelling, romantic themes are cut with a keening, faraway dissonance. Sinister motifs skulk in the shadows of illuminated passages. Revelation, joy, tension and melancholy seamlessly intertwine. The tang of dementia lingers after dissipating sweetness.

All of this is made better for me by the occasional incidental sound like the creak of a chair or the soft drawing of breath. I love to hear the people in the music. It's part of the attraction of orchestral scores.

The best prices I can find online are here (Amazon) but feel free to do your own search. I don't get paid for click-throughs or anything so it's all the same to me. Get it any way that you can.

haunted house

haunted house
Originally uploaded by Jon Glassett

I had to have it even though Halloween is still months away. Then, having it wasn't enough; I had to set it up, too. That, of course led to me taking a bunch of pictures of it. This is one of the better ones.

This Is Not Your Father's Workbench

Well, it's definitely not my father's workbench, anyway. His is covered with car parts and disemboweled radios.

MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

Faunus Returns

While I was working on this year's props over the weekend I came across my old mask from 1991 or thereabouts.


I made this mask after a rather peculiar and inspiring dream. It went on to become part of an evolving costume that I would add to every Halloween until eventually hanging it up in favor of decorating the house. By the end, the costume included a heavy, wool, hooded cloak, a 7' staff, a tabard-style outfit and a handful of ornaments.

A lot of great memories are tied to it: my mother helping me make the plaster cast of my face (that was tricky), roaming the woods looking for "the right branches", the many and varied reactions. I even wore it on stage once as a prank. Halloween parties were always especially fun.

There's a character and a story behind the mask which have evolved over time, as well. I once had ambitions to actually write it all down until a friend gently broke the news that a strikingly similar story had already been written. That's not to say it couldn't still happen. A few adjustments here and there might make it workable.

It occurred to me when I dug this up that it actually works really well with the props I'm working on now. Looks like old Faunus (one of my handful of names for the character) is going to be making a comeback.

cloudburst

cloudburst
Originally uploaded by Jon Glassett

Seven explosions fading into sparks and an eighth in mid-burst.

White light revealing kernels of smoke in the night sky.

It makes me think of nebulae, the life cycle of stars and the universe as seen by Hubble.

It also makes me think I got really lucky.

Ulver - Svidd Neger

I have just ordered this:

It is beautiful.

You can listen to samples here.

Every time I hear a new release or discover an old one Ulver NEVER fail to impress me.

Who wants to help me make music like this? Anyone? Are you out there?

Did I mention that I'm pretty handy with a hammer?

Oh, yeah.Technically I guess I did hit a nail.

Fireworks

fireworks
Originally uploaded by Jon Glassett

We headed back to North Andover yesterday to visit my parents and check out the fireworks. I ended up taking about 500 pictures of the show including a handful of long exposure shots like this one. The best of the bunch will be up on my Flickr site as soon as I can find the several hours it will take to sift through them all.

Eyes in the Dark

A forgotten photo from Halloween 2006.

Making Jack-o-lanterns from Scratch

We built a garden this year. Naturally, that meant I would be planting at least one of these:

It seems to be doing okay. It should only be a matter of time until the Great Pumpkin rises from the back yard. We've certainly had plenty of rain. I'm a little concerned about the paleness of the leaves, though. As much as I've been enjoying all the recent thunderstorms a little more sunlight would probably do this thing some good.

Then there's the matter of the beetles that have started hanging around the place. Something will have to be done about that.

More Sketchiness

Another monster sketch. This is actually the very first version of one of the creatures that will be supporting cast to the Baba Yaga(esque) prop. The drawing in my last post was the second attempt.

I'm thinking about doing another and making the creature more birdlike. Somewhere between a goblin, a miniature Nosferatu and a large raven.

The odds are that the end result will be vastly different from any of the sketches. It often works out that way. Still, drawing is a part of the process I really enjoy.

Black Ink, How Do I Love Thee?

An early sketch of a monster design I'm working on for Halloween '08.

It's pen & ink with some marker and a little Photoshop to remove a few adjacent doodles.

Name That Movie

A recent email exchange reminded me that I had this screen capture lying around.

Can you guess the movie?

THEY LIVE

My They Live t-shirt arrived from FRIGHT RAGS today:


There's nothing finer than coming home from a hard day's work and finding a kick-ass horror shirt waiting in your mailbox.

I took the above photo while wearing the shirt. I am also wearing it now.

Thanks to Pumpkinrot for letting me know this site existed. This will not be my last purchase. There's a killer The Thing shirt that I have my eye on, too.

Making Monsters

Finally got underway overhauling last year's props to get ready for Halloween 2008.

Last year's "The Lurker" got some new skin and a base coat of paint. I'm really happy with the old paper towels and Elmer's glue trick. It creates some pretty life-like wrinkles and texture. It's also very easy to work with.

My inspiration this year is Baba Yaga. I confess that I won't be keeping entirely true to the stories. For example, I don't intend to mount it on a giant mortar or build a little house with the legs of a chicken. My version will be more of a sinister, "What if she were real today?" sort of take on the legend.

Along with an identity change The Lurker will be getting a new body this year, too. Something a little more to scale. At least we'll try to keep it under 12 feet this time around.

Oh, and she'll have some..."friends"...with her, as well.

While I'm on the subject, I really need to come up with an excuse to mess around with some of that monster mud I've heard so much about. That stuff sounds like fun.

Hmmm...

My Cat Thinks He's Sexy

Hello.

I am Buzzy.

Look at me.

Forget the world now.

There is only you and me.

Forever.


Now go and fetch me some albacore before I carve my name into your upper thigh.