French photographer Thierry Cohen is concerned that city dwellers never experience the starry sky visible in truly dark conditions, so he’s done a photo series to show people what they’re missing. His technique is interesting: He takes photos of cityscapes, carefully records the time, angle, latitude and longitude of each shot, then goes to remote areas at corresponding latitudes and takes nighttime photos of the sky. He superimposes the images to show what the cities would see if all of their lights went out.

The photos are supposed to be a commentary on light pollution, but I find them surreal and haunting in a way that has nothing to do with astronomy. There’s a post-apocalyptic, “not even any humans to build campfires” quality to them that’s really rather eerie.

Smithsonian Magazine has an article about the project with more photos, and there are additional photos here.

I’m always deeply impressed by the planning involved in those split-screen “sing with yourself” videos. YouTube user Paint takes it to a whole ‘nother level. Not only is his timing impeccable, the songs are spot-on.

Tim Burton to Film a Biopic – Huh.

Witch’s Girl – (Third link on the page.) An entry in an interactive fiction competition. Pissy Little Sausages’ review makes it sound like a lot of fun to play.

Last House on the Left – Art installation featuring a streetful of miniature houses from horror movies (The Amityville Horror, The Birds, etc.)

Science Chamber of Horrors – The bizarre, uncomfortable, horrifying bits of science: Botflies and ancient biological warfare and so on.

Nenetl of the Forgotten Spirits – Intriguing-sounding indie comic series about a ghost searching for her family during the Day of the Dead.

My Precious Roommate – Single-serving site in which a grown man recreates the poses in baby pictures. I’m not sure if this is hilarious or deeply creepy.

Migration – Art exhibition featuring a slew of adorable little monsters.

Creature Cups – Handmade ceramic teacups with spiders and other creepy things lurking at the bottom.

The Steampunk Tarot – Pretty themed deck. You can see some additional card images here. (Hat tip to Cat)

p.s. – I’m going to be dragged, kicking and shrieking, away from the computer for a week. Due to the magic of advance scheduling blog posts will continue as usual, but if you email and I don’t respond I’m not ignoring you. (Or am I? Muwahahahaha.)

This unusual idea for a house address marker (click the image for larger) was part of a BHG “Halloween Outdoor Makeover” slideshow. As if it should be limited to Halloween.

It’s a super-simple project, and the result is really striking. The plates are decoupaged with house numbers and skeleton clip art, then hung outside on a metal plate rack.

You could buy matching plates, or look for interesting mismatched ones in thrift stores. Use vintage-y drawings of human skeletons, or maybe a selection of animal skeletons instead.

Resize them if necessary, then print them and the appropriate house numbers–there are a zillion fonts to choose from, but it’s a good idea to select something easily readable from a distance–and carefully trim away excess paper. (If you use an inkjet printer, test to make sure that the ink won’t run when decoupage medium is applied; if it does, you may need to go to a copy shop and re-print them using ink that isn’t water-soluble.)

Arrange the pieces on the plates until you like the way they look, then decoupage in place.

Instructions for decoupaging a dinner plate are here (and plenty of other places online), but the procedure pretty much amounts to: Make sure the plates are clean and dry. Brush on some decoupage medium such as Mod Podge. Press the printouts down carefully, and smooth out any wrinkles or bubbles by pressing gently with your finger. Let dry, then apply a couple of coats of decoupage medium over the top and let dry again.

It’d be a good idea to display these on a covered porch or someplace else where they’re somewhat protected from harsh weather. Much more interesting than plain old house numbers, and you can make visitors vaguely nervous to boot.

It’s time for another round of Death is Not an Option! The rules, as always, are simple: Given the choice of a pair of people, you have to decide which one you’d rather sleep with; choosing death instead is not an option. This time it’s vampires.

The Classic Spooksters Matchup
Dracula – Christopher Lee	vs.	Dracula – Vincent Price

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Matchup
Angel	vs.	Spike

The Barnabas Collins Matchup
Jonathan Frid	vs.	Johnny Depp

The Cuddly Matchup
Count Chocula	vs.	Count von Count

The True Blood Matchup
Pam	vs.	Jessica

The Creepy Matchup
Count Orlok (Nosferatu)	vs.	Marlow (30 Days of Night)

The Interview with the Vampire Matchup
Louis	vs.	Lestat

The Lost Boys Matchup
Michael	vs.	David

The Smouldery (Male) Matchup
Dracula (Bram Stoker’s Dracula)	vs.	Kit (The Forsaken)

The Smouldery (Female) Matchup
Santánico Pandemónium (From Dusk ‘Til Dawn)	vs.	Selene (Underworld)

Leave your choices in the comments. And remember…Death is not an option.

This sweet little animated short by Vincent Marcone of My Pet Skeleton is narrated by Peter Murphy for extra gothiness.

If I ever win the lottery I’ve just found the first place I’m going shopping.

Intrepid commenter Fiend4Halloween alerted me to Fabulous & Baroque, a company who creates furniture that would make Morticia Addams’ jaw drop.

Fabulous & Baroque was established in 2010 based on a love and appreciation of the elaborate detail and designs of 17th & 18th century European furniture. Fabulous & Baroque takes a modern approach to the luxurious, hand crafted, French design by using fashion forward colors and concepts. Having emerged as a leading furniture company of Baroque design, we continue to evolve our designs to accommodate client preferences and custom requests. The slogan “If you dream it, we can make it” truly separates us from the competition. Client dreams are transformed into a beautiful piece of artwork for your home.

They are…not cheap. But their stuff is just gorgeous. They’ve got antiqued silver-leaf beds and balloon chairs and mirrored wardrobes and rococo dressing tables and…I think I just furnished the bedroom of my dreams.

As their slogan suggests, they also do custom work. I have no idea what that would cost, but if there’s a piece you’ve always dreamt of having these guys might be the ones to make it for you.

(Thanks, Fiend4Halloween!)

Not in Kansas Anymore – Roundup of interesting Oz-themed art.

Cthulhu Peeps – Various methods for turning marshmallow Peeps into eldritch horrors. If you’ve got some post-Easter Peeps still laying around, now you know what to do with ’em.

50 Most Traumatizing Moments from Kids’ Movies – A roundup.

Ball and Claw Earrings – Neat vintage-y claw earrings (there’s a pendant available too).

Lovecraft – A small Etsy collection. I particularly like the grave rubbing and Lovecraftian Letters.

Fleshlight Freaks – NSFW! NSFW! NSFW! Fleshlight now has a line of monster-themed dildos and male masturbators, including “Frankenstein,” “Cyborg,” and…euuurghhh…”Zombie.”

Rev. Thomas Childe Barker and His Daughter – Bizarrely-posed photograph taken by Lewis Carroll in 1864. I have no idea what’s supposed to be going on here.

Muscle Skinsuit – Anatomical-print workout gear that makes you look like you’ve been flayed. It’s certainly…arresting.

Coloring for Grown-Ups – An “adult activity book.”

If Tim Burton Made Game of Thrones – Gallery of GoT characters drawn in a Burtonesque style.

I occasionally run into a wedding cake that sort of makes me wish I could get married all over again, and this is one of them. Food artist Annabel (“Annabel Lecter”) de Vetten of Conjurer’s Kitchen made this “‘Til Death Do Us Part” cake for a wedding show in Birmingham.

It features solid chocolate skulls of 16 carrion crows, 12 domestic kittens, 3 Vervet monkeys, and 4 barn owls, all of which the artist sculpted by hand. Made from White Chocolate Mudcake, the cake took her over 100 hours to complete in total. There are two options of toppers: a chocolate conjoined kitten skull, or dried flowers from an actual wedding bouquet

This isn’t her first excursion into detailed chocolate skulls; she’s got a Death in Chocolate page which showcases her work with chocolate animal and human skulls, including some painted ones meant to mimic skulls on display at an Austrian Ossuary. I can’t get over how lifelike she’s gotten the “bone” to appear.

Her site has all kinds of other great stuff, too: Creepy Confections has cakes based on 18th-Century anatomical wax models, a bloody heart in a box, and those spooky-ass chocolate baby heads that showed up on Etsy a while back and freaked everybody out. I’m also completely in love with her Beetlejuice-esque Tim Burton cake and the Hitchcock Movies cake.

Even if you aren’t in the U.K. and thus can’t contract her services directly–although it does look like she might ship some small items–the site is a great place to browse just to drool over her creations.

(via BoingBoing)

I bet unscary monsters like to hang out at the back of marathons and imagine all the athletes are running from them.
— rolldiggity

“Oh, no. No, no, no. Are you kidding me?” -First thing I would say if someone raised me from the dead
— bridger_w

When someone looks over my shoulder while I’m on the computer, I open up a new tab and start searching, “HOW TO KILL THE PERSON BEHIND ME.”
— KevinFarzad

< jbms> (btw, I am rather new to this channel, but you have a rather, eh, unusual nickname)
< l0ng_d0ng_s1lv3r> i like it
< l0ng_d0ng_s1lv3r> i have a procedure i follow when i choose a new nickname for the internets
< l0ng_d0ng_s1lv3r> you know that scene in ‘the matrix’ when agent smith is interrogating neo and he says "and in your other life, you go by the hacker alias… neo…"
< l0ng_d0ng_s1lv3r> the purpose is, choose an alias where if you are ever in that situation, no straight laced agent can ever keep a game face while reading your ‘hacker alias’ aloud
— Seen on cmubash

Shoutout to nature for not giving wings to snakes.
— FUCKIPEDIA

“So how are you qualified to administer torture for the CIA?” “I raised 2 girls, & used to brush their hair.” “You’re hired!”
— daemonic3

Pretty psyched that I’d still have two wishes left after giving dogs the ability to roll their eyes.
— GuyEndoreKaiser

“Ugh.” *makes air quotes* “‘Brains’.” – hipster zombie
— sween

“Only one man can defeat the giant monster. Unfortunately, we’re not budgeted for his services.”–And like that my horror movie pitch fails.
— fmarciuliano

Googly eyes don’t taste good, but it’s worth it to get to eat an apple that has fear on its face.
— rolldiggity