Time sink ahoy: This site is, as the kids say these days, relevant to our interests.
When Cassandra was planning her geeky wedding in 2010, she was dismayed by the lack of resources and inspiration for the type of wedding she envisioned. So she came up with her own: When Geeks Wed launched this year, “focusing on inspiring geeky, gamer and alternative brides and grooms with daily updates, photos and DIY projects.” And it is just splendid.
Affetto – This prototype of a child robot is the uncanniest thing in the whole Uncanny Valley. Around the 0:40 mark is where the nightmares should begin.
Xoil Tattoos – This guy’s work is astonishing. More examples here. (via Cat)
Haggis Vitae – In addition to winning my Favorite Etsy Shop Name Ever award, this “house of strange vintage fiction” sells interesting art prints and mixed-media stuff. I’m particularly fond of A Most Reluctant Specimen.
Grown-Up Goth – Collection of gothy items with a more grown-up aesthetic. A couple photos are NSFW. (Hat tip to Pensive Pumpkin)
Who/Holmes Bouquet – Clever wedding bouquet made from the pages of a Sherlock Holmes story and a sonic screwdriver.
New Disney Dream Portraits – Annie Leibovitz has been doing her “Disney Dream” series (celebrities as Disney characters) for a while now. She’s just added three new ones, including Jack Black, Will Ferrell, and Jason Segel as the Hitchhiking Ghosts from the Haunted Mansion.
I’m a mere six years late to the party on this–the series originally aired in 2006–but Shadowboy just discovered it whilst channel-surfing. Blame my eight-year-old for not being more timely.
Ruby Gloom is a little girl who always sees “the bright side of the dark side.” She’s got a pet cat named Doom Kitty and is friends with a huge-eyed cyclops named Iris (whose name makes me very happy), a skeleton named Skull Boy, and a walking disaster area named Misery. Minor characters include the raven trio Edgar, Allan, and Poe, and a ghost named Boo Boo. They all have sitcom-esque adventures which are perfect for baby bats. It’s cute.
I’m enormously taken with this splendidly simple cake-decorating idea from Dessert by Candy: A little bit of cookie-crumb “dirt” and some fingers made from marzipan turn a plain cake into something marvelously creepy.
She provides a recipe for the cake she made, but you could substitute your own favorite recipe. I quite like the smooth, shiny look of the dark-chocolate glaze, but regular frosting (or fondant, if you want a smooth surface but not a glaze) could be used instead.
Instead of marzipan, the fingers could be made of fondant or white modeling chocolate (which is what I initially thought they were), and could also be the “witch finger” cookies for which recipes abound: Some good-looking ones are here and here.
The ghostly-white color is nice, but you could also use food coloring to tint your marzipan/chocolate/fondant either a more natural flesh tone or a zombie-esque green. I do think that the sliced almonds would look a bit more natural pressed slightly into the backs of the fingers rather than perched on top.
In addition to being a fairly fast and easy way to spook up a cake, this has the advantage of looking rather elegant instead of going for the gross-out factor. It would be a fine dessert for a grown-up Halloween party.
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The Mütter Museum in Philadelphia boasts a fascinating assemblage of anatomical oddities, and one of their most famous features is the Hyrtl Skull Collection. The collection was acquired in 1874, and after a century and a half they’re looking a bit tatty. To remedy this, the museum has launched the Save Our Skulls campaign.
Be among the first to choose one of the 139 Hyrtl Skulls to “adopt.” Save a 150+ year old skull & have your name in the Mütter Museum!
You can help conserve and preserve a skull by becoming a sponsor for an annual subscription fee of $200. Your contribution will help offset initial costs associated with the cleaning, repair, and remounting of your chosen skull. Additionally, your subscription will be acknowledged as part of the skull mount in the permanent Hyrtl Skull Exhibit in the Mütter Museum. The subscription period for this initiative will end December 31, 2013
This is sort of like those promotions where you can sposor a zoo animal, only, y’know…bonier.
The museum has a photos of the skulls available for “adoption,” along with their names, ages, and cause of death (Hyrtl apparently took careful notes). The list is at turns fascinating (like the Russian guy who died of the self-castration required to join the Scopzi sect) and heartbreaking (like the 13-year-old suicide who “hanged himself because of a discovered theft”).
There’s also a video which discusses the program in more detail:
(Incidentally, did you know the museum had its own YouTube channel? Time suck ahoy!)
I ran across this on Pinterest and originally thought it was a brooch. It’s not–it’s a painting by deviantART member reality-must-die–but there’s no reason why it couldn’t be.
You can find spider-shaped bases for brooches, rings, and other items at jewelry-making supply shops, but it’d be just about as easy to find a cheap premade brooch like this one, pop off the existing “gem,” and substitute your eyeball of choice.
If you prefer to make the whole spider from scratch, google “beaded spider tutorial” to find a zillion ideas for making spider jewelry: Instructables, and Shawkl, and Reverie & Revival all have nice examples, and Beading Gem has a roundup.
You could make one large one as a “statement” accessory, or run a whole bunch of little ones along a hat brim or around your collar. The eyeball adds a whole ‘nother layer of creepiness.
Monster Book Cover – Knitting pattern for an adorable multi-eyed, fanged, book cover.
Vampire Pumpkins and Watermelons – Discussion of a folk legend from the Balkans. I don’t know about you, but I am deeply taken with the notion of a vampire watermelon.
(No prizes, but if you can answer them all without googling you get bragging rights.)
Most Bella Morte concerts feature a cover of what popular love song?
A) The Power of Love
B) Eternal Flame
C) Only You
D) Kiss From a Rose
E) My Heart Will Go On
In this 2002 video game-inspired flick starring Milla Jovovich, a virus has escaped in a secret facility called The Hive, turning the staff into hungry zombies and releasing the mutated lab “Animals” that they were studying.
“The Bride of Corinth” is a macabre tale of a young woman who returns from the grave to find a husband. Who wrote this classically-inspired poem?
A) William Wordsworth
B) Edgar Allan Poe
C) Charles Baudelaire
D) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
E) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
What is the name of Neville Longbottom’s pet toad?
The name of Lon Chaney, Jr.’s character in the 1941 movie The Wolf Man has become a sort of in-joke in movies and TV, often applied to someone with werewolfish tendencies. What is it?
A) Daniel Niemann
B) Larry Talbot
C) Wilbur Grey
D) Tony Conliffe
E) Frank Mannering
The word “poltergeist” is German, and literally means what?
Before forming The Cult with Ian Astbury, Billy Duffy played guitar for which band?
A) Theatre of Hate
B) Flesh for Lulu
C) The Cramps
D) Adam And The Ants
E)The Bolshoi
This line is from what movie? “I met this six year old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes, the Devil’s eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy’s eyes was purely and simply… evil.” (Bonus point if you can name the character who said it.)
The Kitsune is a magical Japanese creature which is technically a were-human, since its normal form is that of an animal. What kind of animal is it?
A) Badger
B) Horse
C) Fox
D) Cat
E) Owl
Time sink ahoy: This site is, as the kids say these days, relevant to our interests.
I’m enormously taken with 
I ran across this on Pinterest and originally thought it was a brooch. It’s not–it’s a painting by deviantART member 