Iron Man Played on Tesla Coils – The best rendition of Black Sabbath on Tesla coils played whilst standing in a Faraday suit that you will hear all day.

Soylent Green Crackers – They’re for real, although they’re sadly not actually made from people. The same company also produces Stay Puft Marshmallows (“they’re apocalycious!”) and Tru Blood.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – “A dictionary of buckish slang, university wit, and pickpocket eloquence.” This is a goldmine of period slang.

Ages of Madness – Somebody’s making an animated film based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Huh.

The Definitive Guide to Steampunk Gadgets – I especially like the brass USB memory stick.

The Composites – Police sketch-style drawings of literary characters based on their descriptions.

Beetlejuice Manicure – Cute nail art.

Cthulhu Light Fixture – Pensive Pumpkin had a wonderful idea for adding tentacles to an overhead light.

Alnwick’s Poison Garden – I was aware that Alnwick Castle had an extensive garden, but didn’t know they had an area set aside just for poisons. Neat. (Hat tip to Cookie)

Azrael’s Accomplice – Purveyors of stunning gowns, corsets, and other accessories. I particularly like the Ghost Town Belle gown.

Jake von Slatt at the Steampunk Workshop wrote an article for MAKE Magazine describing how to build a Wimshurst Influence Machine (an electrostatic generator) out of easily-obtainable materials. He’s re-posted the article at his site, so we can all pretend to be mad scientists.*

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

*Or is it just me who does that?

Elevator? Nonsense. This is a traveling hugging booth and I see you’ve selected the button for 16 hugs. So let’s get to it. Come here, you!
— MrBigFists

Sometimes I wish natural selection was something you could nominate people for.
— Paxochka

If we end up in a Civil War with our Robot Overlords, I’m taking out that evil red-eyed automated towel dispenser in the bathroom first.
— FlyoverJoel

I bought a carton of oat milk just to support the kind of person who can find udders on an oat.
— warrenellis

Don’t you hate it when time travelers from the future want a photo with you but then refuse to say why they’re laughing?
— badbanana

It’s looking very likely that, come 2015, we will still need roads. #docbrownlied
— SethMacFarlane

There’s no law against putting on clown makeup and lurking in the woods near a high school kegger.
— BarrettChase

Counting sheep doesn’t help you fall sleep if you re-cast “Predator” in your mind with an all-sheep cast. “Baa! Get to da choppa! Baa!”
— sween

Couples wouldn’t fight as often if they remember how defenseless their toothbrushes are when their significant other goes to the bathroom.
— MistookMistake

Saw a werewolf at the bus stop this morning. Or possibly just a very hairy guy. Either way, the silver bullets worked.
— donni

I’ve posted lists of beer, wine, and spirits with helpfully creepy names before, but since I keep finding new ones it’s probably time to issue an addendum. These are all great additions to any party with a spooky theme, not to mention making a memorable hostess gift.

The estimable xJane pointed me to two wonderful items: Dearly Beloved wine (a Trader Joe’s exclusive with great bottle art), and KAH tequila, artisanal tequila that comes in hand-painted calavera bottles.

Absolut has just released Absolut London in a limited-edition bottle featuring a rather gritty London street scene illustrated by Jamie Hewlett (co-creator of Tank Girl).

Mistress of the Dark Elvira has launched a personal label with Elvira’s Macabrenet. The same cellar that carries her label also has a number of other offbeat wines, including Rockabilly Red, Cardiff Giant, and Film Noir.

Crystal Lake Wine is a label blessed by Adrienne King, the actress who played the only survivor in the original Friday the 13th movie. The bottle artwork depicts the end of the movie, where the tattered Alice rests in a canoe just before Jason leaps out of the water.

Elk Creek seasonally offers Bone Dry Red and Ghostly White. Owen Roe produces Sinister Hand, and indeed it is. Ed Hardy (Ed Hardy makes wine?) has a whole line of Tattoo-themed labels, including a neat Sangria with a very happy skull.

Ash Hollow has a collection called “Legends,” featuring Headless Red, Four Horsemen, and an upcoming label called “1882” (which doesn’t ring any bells for me, but here’s Wikipedia’s list of events for that year; Jesse James’ death, maybe?).

Read the rest of this entry »

George Lucas originally offered David Lynch the opportunity to direct Return of the Jedi. He turned it down, but Frank Schalk has given us a trailer from the alternate universe where Spock has a beard and Lynch took the job.

Alex Gross – Artist who takes antique photographs and paints over them, turning their subjects into superheroes, monsters, and other fanciful things.

Edgar Allan Pooh – Great “Bizarro” strip. (Hat tip to Limeyfish)

Your Guide to Cemetery Research – This is skewed a bit toward genealogical research, but it has a lot of useful information about how to “read” a cemetery, such as analyzing the local “community” and how to decipher various gravestone symbols. (Also genealogical research is an excellent excuse to just wander around old graveyards.)

Celestefrittata – Etsy shop specializing in notebooks that look like Hogwarts textbooks.

Giant Paper Rose – Tutorial for making great-looking oversize paper roses. These would be fun as part of an Alice in Wonderland party.

Body Type – Book devoted to tattoos of words and letters. There’s also a second volume (Hat tip to Pensive Pumpkin)

Kate Mosse’s Top 10 Ghost Stories – Roundup of (mostly) short stories with a vintage-y ghost story vibe.

Bat Conservation International – Group devoted to preserving our favorite misunderstood animal.

The Literary Dalek Game – This isn’t really goth, but it amused me greatly. (And, of course, the same game could be played with words like “vampire” or “zombie” standing in for “Dalek.”)

Love Transfusion – Tutorial for making a liquid candy-filled blood bag. Technically for Valentine’s Day, but psssh…blood bags are for every day.

This clip art-based “Webcomic for Grownups” is entirely wonderful, and many of the entries deal with fantasy and horror tropes (which is why I can shoehorn it, grunting and sweating, into this blog). Go here to see the rest of this strip.

I’m also quite taken with this, this, this, and, oh heck, just go read the whole site.

One of the best things about running this blog is the suggestions for interesting stuff that people send me. “Cookie” dropped me a line the other day to mention the Chinese batnut (Trapa bicornis, which is also, I find out, called a devilnut, water caltrop, buffalo nut, and several other names all related to the fact that they’re black and spiky and evil-looking). They’re toxic when raw, but when cooked they’re apparently somewhat similar in flavor and texture to a chestnut.

Her note continued, “They are really impressive served with black skinned chickens, also found [at the Saigon Market].” And I went, “…black-skinned chickens?” A quick googling reveals that the chicken breed called the silkie–they’re the ones that sort of resemble the avian equivalent of a sheepdog–all have black skin and bones and greyish-black meat. Apparently they have a somewhat gamier flavor than regular chickens; there’s a bit more information about their preparation and some lovely photos here. They’re also reputed to have medicinal properties, so they’re widely available at Chinese groceries.

So. Naturally-black chickens and a vegetable that looks like a medieval torture device. Match them up with some squid ink pasta and you’ve got a wonderfully spooky dinner.

Thanks, Cookie!

Y’know that bit in Type O Negative’s “Black No. 1” about, “Her perfume smells like burning leaves…every day is Halloween?” Check it out: Burning Leaves perfume (“the smoke of burning maple leaves”).

Perfumer Christopher Brosius hates perfume, but in addition to Burning Leaves he offers scents like November, Forest/Wild Hunt, and In the Library. Sounds like our kind of hater.

In addition to blended perfumes, he also offers single-note accords (I’m rather taken with “Wet Pavement London” and somewhat less sure about “Locker Room”), moth-battling wardrobe sprays, and fragrances for the home. (He also apparently does custom fragrances, but according to the site he isn’t currently taking on new clients.)

If you’re looking for an unusual scent, this is an interesting place to browse around.

(via Cult of the Great Pumpkin)

Y’know, this blog really should have a “WTF” tag.

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers promote a style of music they call “bagrock,” which at least has the advantage of sounding slightly dirty. They rock various traditional Scottish songs and also do covers of stuff like Clocks, Smoke on the Water, and this:

There’s more on their YouTube channel.

I…have nothing to add here.

(via pdq)