Halloween Stuff I Like
I've been watching Halloween shows, as I am likely to do at pretty much anytime of the year. There have been some interesting ones on the DIY channel.
There was one on people buying haunted houses to live in (if I had the money, I would totally buy a haunted house, unless the ghosts were actively ax-murdering people.)
There was one on converting an old building into a haunted attraction, that pointed out one of the first steps was a highly sophisticated fire suppression system, including a giant water tank to supply the sprinklers.
One of the most interesting ones was about a company that designs set pieces for haunted attractions. They display them at Halloween Trade Shows (like this one described on the Black Gate blog) that are strictly for Halloween retailers and haunted attraction owners. It's a fun creative business, and like all fun creatives businesses, was filled with work and stress. Their ability to survive depends a lot on how many pieces they sell at the trade show, and if the installation at the trade show has any problems, then that piece won't sell. (The company has a basement basically filled with failed pieces that seemed like good ideas at the time.) Even after the pieces sell, they can have problems. The company sold two evil talking animatronic trees to a haunted attraction, had them taken there by a shipping company while they drove up separately to help unpack and install them. They arrived to find out that the shipping company had managed to bang the crates around so badly, the welded steel arms of both trees were bent, and they frantically had to rebuild one tree out of the remains of the other so the attraction could reopen on time.
We will be decorating the house this year, since I won't be at World Fantasy. One of the best Halloween house decorating shows I've seen was on HGTV, where in a decorating competition, a woman designer turned a two story suburban house into a haunted Spanish mission for Dia de los Muertos using painted canvas on a two-story wooden frame. It was awesome. We won't be doing that.
Halloween links:
Atlas Obscura's 31 Days of Halloween Blog: Day 1: the Devil Walked Here
and![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380451598i/2033940.gif)
eldritchhobbit
's Daily Halloween Links.
There was one on people buying haunted houses to live in (if I had the money, I would totally buy a haunted house, unless the ghosts were actively ax-murdering people.)
There was one on converting an old building into a haunted attraction, that pointed out one of the first steps was a highly sophisticated fire suppression system, including a giant water tank to supply the sprinklers.
One of the most interesting ones was about a company that designs set pieces for haunted attractions. They display them at Halloween Trade Shows (like this one described on the Black Gate blog) that are strictly for Halloween retailers and haunted attraction owners. It's a fun creative business, and like all fun creatives businesses, was filled with work and stress. Their ability to survive depends a lot on how many pieces they sell at the trade show, and if the installation at the trade show has any problems, then that piece won't sell. (The company has a basement basically filled with failed pieces that seemed like good ideas at the time.) Even after the pieces sell, they can have problems. The company sold two evil talking animatronic trees to a haunted attraction, had them taken there by a shipping company while they drove up separately to help unpack and install them. They arrived to find out that the shipping company had managed to bang the crates around so badly, the welded steel arms of both trees were bent, and they frantically had to rebuild one tree out of the remains of the other so the attraction could reopen on time.
We will be decorating the house this year, since I won't be at World Fantasy. One of the best Halloween house decorating shows I've seen was on HGTV, where in a decorating competition, a woman designer turned a two story suburban house into a haunted Spanish mission for Dia de los Muertos using painted canvas on a two-story wooden frame. It was awesome. We won't be doing that.
Halloween links:
Atlas Obscura's 31 Days of Halloween Blog: Day 1: the Devil Walked Here
and
eldritchhobbit
's Daily Halloween Links.
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