Happy Halloween 2023!! Good Greetings from DarkMatters! .. If you have a spooky avatar, show us what ya got!

[gogoblender 3,070]

One of the biggest days of the year, and only seeming to get stronger! Kids, candy corn,  ghosts and beautiful home decorating are coming! Just behind us on the mountain is Westmount which has magnificent decorations going up every year, and kids from all around come to trick and treat here for the excitement.

If you've little ones in your lives or just feeling spirity, our best wishes to you during this festive, spooky time, and if you have a costume or cool halloween  *thing* you've seen, post it up !

gogo

[gogoblender 3,070]

scaaaaaaaaaaarecrows... they're my *clown* thing

gogo

[Flix 5,116]

Best time of year. 

This year's profile pic is my entry for the pumpkin carving contest at work.  A sugar skull!

[gogoblender 3,070]

7 hours ago, Flix said:

Best time of year. 

This year's profile pic is my entry for the pumpkin carving contest at work.  A sugar skull!

Great image! How is that made out of a block of sugar, you have to make the block itself or is it a kit? We usually have very elaborate parties at work, but ever since our main building with Fido and Rogers became a single floor, there are attempts to to do spooky walks etc with our teams dressed up... kind of cool but somehow not having all the humans together has a kind of deleterious effect on spook and creep encounters

we however got some of my friends together, got some make up and cheap costumes... and had a good time

gogo

[chattius 2,526]

Halloween collides with Reformation Day. We are 5 villages which rotate in doing not Halloween but Reformation day. So people who want to go to remain silent and remember the reformation can visit our church in evening. I have to do a short opening speech and will do a solo not with my tuba but with a banjo. So if you fear for your health, stay away from our church.

Then our third will play a Neanderthal song on the organ. The Neanderthal valley was named after the composer Joachim Neander who did the German original of Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.

then a pastor, different chorus and at the end 'Die Gedanken sind frei' played by our family orchestra.

it will close the ring since I will do Pete Seeger's version of it with the banjo.

Picture of the next video is the  White Rose. An anti nazi-movement of students in 1942. The members were executed. The song is often played at Reformation Day because Luther's thoughts were put free.

 

 

[chattius 2,526]

On 10/31/2023 at 4:05 AM, Flix said:

Best time of year. 

This year's profile pic is my entry for the pumpkin carving contest at work.  A sugar skull!

In my youth we hadn't Halloween but something similiar: carving terrifying faces from sugar beets. There was no fixed date, just when the farmers harvested them - end of octobre, begin of novembre. Kids put a candle in the skull and placed it on a stick, walking from door to door and collecting stuff. Most often stuff the people had: sausages, eggs, bread, ... Kids weren't wearing costumes, just warm stuff.

Then the kids met at a campfire and did the stuff in a big pan. So yes, our glowing devils days was allways on a saturday with no school the next day.

Halloween is same day as Reformation Day so here we had no Halloween till Germanies Reunion when some workfree religious day were given up to pay for reunion.

 

[gogoblender 3,070]

From where I grew up, in the west island of MOntreal called DDO (Dollard Des Ormeaux) One of my friends who still lives there with family posted up that they had two hours of traffic filled with parents and kids and gave out about 400 packs of candies to to monster kids!

[Flix 5,116]

On 10/31/2023 at 5:44 AM, gogoblender said:

How is that made out of a block of sugar, you have to make the block itself or is it a kit?

Actual calaveras are made with a mold, into which you'd put either sugar or sometimes just plastic for the decorative ones.

In my case I took a basic (yes that's actually kind of basic for a sugar skull) design and drew it onto the pumpkin before carving it.

I came in 2nd place in the contest. No one else carved theirs, the rest were all painted or decorated some other way. I think the cold fluorescent office lights did me in. The difference between lights on and off is stark but they needed the lights on to see everyone else's designs.

 

[gogoblender 3,070]

Quote

I think the cold fluorescent office lights did me in. The difference between lights on and off is stark but they needed the lights on to see everyone else's designs.

Ahhhh they had to diminish to make up for the makeup of the others'... alas oO ...but second is still wonderful, and rewarding.. That office you work is has produced wonderful beautifies for this holiday, was hoping you were going to show one of your creations...and now..itll lve here on the site...F O R E V A H

  

gogo

ps love this skin and the seasoned goodies, well bring the skin down in a few days just for a little more fun...thanks everyone for all the beautiful avatars here worn  

[Hooyaah 2,823]

My apologies for being late for Halloween with this. It's something that I wrote several years ago.

 

I am never alone anymore. There are no visitors here in my home, but yet I feel some unwelcome presence.

The bumps, footsteps, and shuffling sounds are always in another room or from somewhere above me.

Why am I am being watched; for what sinister purpose? I do not know.

I heard voices yet again today. They can’t be talking about me, I said to myself. Yet, I know that I caught my name being muttered softly in my ear moments ago.

I bravely peeked through the narrow passage to the attic today, the sultry, musty air rudely shoved by me as I opened the portal.

It seemed apparent that there was nothing amiss there. But, I sensed a presence peering back at me from deep within the dark foreboding shadow in the corner.

Alas, it has become bitterly cold since those fearsome moments; but a mere hour has passed since Fall began to surrender to cold and uncompassionate Winter.

I rest in my bed devoid of companionship, warmed only by my thick quilt; I am so very weary. Yet I struggle, from fear of sleep’s inevitable embrace.

The room grows ever darker and bitter loneliness overtakes me. I hear the voices yet again; they're calling my name.

[chattius 2,526]

7 hours ago, Hooyaah said:

I am never alone anymore. There are no visitors here in my home, but yet I feel some unwelcome presence.

The bumps, footsteps, and shuffling sounds are always in another room or from somewhere above me.

Why am I am being watched; for what sinister purpose? I do not know.

I

First lines

If it would be me living mid in a forest: a badger dug through the patchwork into the cellar,  a racoon or marten climbed the roof and found a way in, a boyfriend of a daughter isn't trained to leave silently, ...

The rest: in German I would name it a Poltergeist.

 

[gogoblender 3,070]

On 11/2/2023 at 9:32 PM, Hooyaah said:

My apologies for being late for Halloween with this. It's something that I wrote several years ago.

 

I am never alone anymore. There are no visitors here in my home, but yet I feel some unwelcome presence.

The bumps, footsteps, and shuffling sounds are always in another room or from somewhere above me.

Why am I am being watched; for what sinister purpose? I do not know.

I heard voices yet again today. They can’t be talking about me, I said to myself. Yet, I know that I caught my name being muttered softly in my ear moments ago.

I bravely peeked through the narrow passage to the attic today, the sultry, musty air rudely shoved by me as I opened the portal.

It seemed apparent that there was nothing amiss there. But, I sensed a presence peering back at me from deep within the dark foreboding shadow in the corner.

Alas, it has become bitterly cold since those fearsome moments; but a mere hour has passed since Fall began to surrender to cold and uncompassionate Winter.

I rest in my bed devoid of companionship, warmed only by my thick quilt; I am so very weary. Yet I struggle, from fear of sleep’s inevitable embrace.

The room grows ever darker and bitter loneliness overtakes me. I hear the voices yet again; they're calling my name.

Aaaaand.... that would absolutely not be my choice of horror prose poetry before bed...  would chill me for the entire month of Halloween well into christmas!

Did your family ever tell ghost stories during this time, Hooyaah, any kind of oral tradition?

gogo

[Hooyaah 2,823]

3 hours ago, gogoblender said:

Aaaaand.... that would absolutely not be my choice of horror prose poetry before bed...  would chill me for the entire month of Halloween well into christmas!

Did your family ever tell ghost stories during this time, Hooyaah, any kind of oral tradition?

gogo

Gogo, our family tradition was to watch some Halloween-themed cartoons, like Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang's The Great Pumpkin.

On 11/3/2023 at 4:14 AM, chattius said:

First lines

If it would be me living mid in a forest: a badger dug through the patchwork into the cellar,  a racoon or marten climbed the roof and found a way in, a boyfriend of a daughter isn't trained to leave silently, ...

The rest: in German I would name it a Poltergeist.

 

 

Then I suppose that Edgar Allen Poe's Telltale Heart would be just a subwoofer left plugged into an amplifier in the basement next to water dripping nearby?

[Hooyaah 2,823]

On 11/1/2023 at 7:19 PM, Flix said:

Actual calaveras are made with a mold, into which you'd put either sugar or sometimes just plastic for the decorative ones.

In my case I took a basic (yes that's actually kind of basic for a sugar skull) design and drew it onto the pumpkin before carving it.

I came in 2nd place in the contest. No one else carved theirs, the rest were all painted or decorated some other way. I think the cold fluorescent office lights did me in. The difference between lights on and off is stark but they needed the lights on to see everyone else's designs.

 

Your craftsmanship is quite professional, indeed! Perhaps if it had been displayed, all lit up inside a dark black box the judges would have received the full effect. You are indeed a man of many talents, Ben!

 

[chattius 2,526]

While preparing compost, noticed that some self-spread tomato near rivelet were affected by red Teufelszwirn (devil's yarn?). A totally parasitic plant, no chlorophyl as mistletoes have. Vampiric plants, this would have fit for halloween if noticed some days earlier. Or make a horror movie.

 

[gogoblender 3,070]

2 hours ago, chattius said:

While preparing compost, noticed that some self-spread tomato near rivelet were affected by red Teufelszwirn (devil's yarn?). A totally parasitic plant, no chlorophyl as mistletoes have. Vampiric plants, this would have fit for halloween if noticed some days earlier. Or make a horror movie.

 

Lol Chattius...u got surprise garden renovated for halloween!

gogo

[gogoblender 3,070]

On 11/4/2023 at 11:14 PM, Hooyaah said:

Your craftsmanship is quite professional, indeed! Perhaps if it had been displayed, all lit up inside a dark black box the judges would have received the full effect. You are indeed a man of many talents, Ben!

 

I was thinking the same thing..if the  rules had stated that the pumpkins had to be by traditional techniques...the moment the lights went out Ben's pumpkin would literally have been the only one left standing powered by Candlelight!

gogo

[gogoblender 3,070]

Christmas is almost here eveyrone... we'll have our HOliday theme up soon and trade out the Ghoulios!

And while waiting... anyone got any good list of anything theyve seen thats particulary horror? WE saw a few, and ill post <em up tonight.. two were both five star quality each... one a  period piece from two hundred years ago and another that takes its origins from a love, children, protection and witchcraft!

gogo

[chattius 2,526]

I think 'Father Christmas' by The Kinks is a song which combines trick or treating from Halloween with X-Mas. Pour kids want money or work for their parents from a shopping mall santa and beat him up.  The punk band from my brother played it alot.

Yes I am old, I know it.

[gogoblender 3,070]

Aaaand... it looks like Schot has to tidy up the Christmas skin, so in the mean time... we give you back Titan theme!

gogo