Hmm, driving home, color starting to change, crisp 34 degree temps. Ah, IT IS TIME!
Lagoon has started their Halloween season.
With all this travel, I have pretty much settled in on what we’re doing for the year, and a lot of that is waiting for time to harvest. But, I gotta scratch the itch somehow…
Skipped it last year, after Charr had won in 2009. I think it’s time to go again, just to have a little fun with the season change. Now, to find a suitable subject….
Always fun to spend time with the Family over the 4th.
If nothing else, it gives me a chance to hear what all my neighbors are saying. It is also Fred’s birthday.
Among the more bizaar things being said?
“He has some kind of Star Wars guy out doing the countdown.”
Star Wars?
I’m really not seeing how we get Star Wars out of the Chimera.
However, it is an intriguing area of potential inspiration. The concept art on Darth Maul alone yields some potential so strong, it’s worked it’s way into Star Wars canon in the ‘extended universe’ of games and TV.
And, while there was a lot of science and industrial aspects, there is also, perhaps even more, a very natural and organic element to the Star Wars universe. The amount of source material is near infinite…
In some other news, we completed the second prototype piece of the Bridge of Death. The sections lock together great, and it’s holding up just as intended. We only have 5 more sections to make…maybe 6. And I’m still a little iffy on how we’ll get the corner piece done.
We’ve been too busy to update for a few weeks now, as you’ve noticed.
Well, I was out doing my normal routine of researching for inspiration. The subject at the time was the Moche civilization, specifically their trophy heads…and I stumbled onto something so completely unorthodox and beautiful, I knew I had to have one.
Heady on my purchase of the torches, we went back for more on Saturday, and bought what I was ORIGINALLY going after to begin with. Of course, I could not afford ALL of what I wanted, so we had to settle for just the framework this weekend.
The end piece will measure 6′ tall, but the head is down around the 4′ mark, to stare those 8-10 year olds in the eyes.
Well, the body is drawing inspiration from skull and bone’s 2006 kreep. But the right hand will be holding a lantern, and the head is coming right out of my own past, drawing from the good ole pelvis bone.
(wow…a few years ago that was the entire display…)
It’s only fitting to bring the thing back. We’ll be taking a rough mold of one, and doing a little sculpt work, maybe even adding a ‘lower jaw’ to the thing.
They recently made it available to our PS3 without mailing away for a special disk, and I’ve been in love with it ever since.
Most recently becoming re-acquainted with that hidden gem from my childhood: The Dark Crystal.
I was never a huge fan of it…for a rather odd reason. It just tasted wrong. Yes. Tasted. It’s one of those few films that has the unusual effect of leaving me with a taste. I know it sounds odd…and I can’t explain it.
I don’t know, maybe I was unconsciously tasting podling essence.
But, watching it again after many years of it being forgotten made me appreciate it on a whole different level, but it’s still rather disturbing. Trying to pin down WHY, I’m left to consider the Uncanny Valley…
What’s that, you ask?
The ‘Gelfings’ in Dark Crystal can definitely fall into that ‘valley’.
And, that got me thinking…how do we tap this?
First thought came to costumes.
Think of virtually ANY Halloween icon. They are more or less human, yet have some characteristic that makes them just that much ‘off’. I’ve always told people that to make a good, original, scary costume, you’re best bet is pick a feature and enlarge it, while minimizing others.
Larger eyes, mouth, teeth, etc.
But, really, “the valley” can apply to most things. We create certain expectations for any number of situations, and when something is ‘off’, we begin to get uneasy.
One thing I’ve noticed in my 6 years doing this yard haunt, the first thing I did remains one of those things that tends to make the trick or treaters uneasy. There is no one at the door. No candy, no reward for ringing that bell. Groups will go to the door, and then stand wondering what to do as they see other kids heading out into the yard. Is it right? Is it safe?
What other things can we take just left of center? What other things can we take into the valley?
