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Photo Gallery Repaired
For anyone who may have noticed, out Photo Gallery has been repaired. All photos are back online.
What’s he building?
Organ Donor
On a recent visit to John Wolfe’s Season of Shadows, I was introduced to this little gem. I’ve enjoyed watching this one so much that I really had to share it. This is the music video for the song Organ Donor from Jeremy Messersmith’s latest album, “The Reluctant Graveyard”. Thanks again John for turning me on to this one. For anyone interested, I’ve included the lyrics below the video. Enjoy!
I was born in a mortuary
Full of worry
Ice water in my veins
Gave my heart in the school library
Never knew her name
Lost my tongue in the sanctuary
“Heaven spare me!”
Hands raised above my head
Sent my brain to the seminary
Never seen again…
Swing low
Grey bones
I don’t know
If I’ll ever be whole again
Left my spine in the wedding chapel
Full of people
Feet turning into lead
Lost a leg at the iron foundry
Where they found me dead
Drained my blood at the mortuary
No more worry
Ice water in my veins
Took my bones to the cemetery
Where they still remain
So swing low
Grey bones
I don’t know
If I’ll ever be whole again
It’s Snowing!
Just thought I would share that with everyone. Right now, Snowflakes the size of Potato Chips are falling in my back yard, and fallen leaves are quickly being covered by a thin blanket of fresh white snow. Hold on to your Long-Johns, here comes winter in the great northeast.
Buried
So here we are, Halloween now five days in the past, and I find myself buried in chaos. I had planned to have everything done before returning to work yesterday, but it just didnt happen that way. With so many things to do, I’ve gotten myself to the point where I just don’t want to do any of them. Post-Haunt depression I suppose.
As I sit here gazing at the mountain of Halloween decor, all still awaiting its off-season resting place, I know I can take solace in the fact that I am making some progress in settling the post-holiday ado. For those who may not have noticed yet, I’ve added several photos from our 2010 haunt to the Photo Gallery. There will be more added, but perhaps not until I’ve taken care of some of the other tasks that lie in wait.
In parting, I would like to share with you my favorite photo from this years Haunt. This is one from the Witch House, a new addition to our haunt this year.
Gazette Article 10-26-10
Stephen Austin carves a pumpkin as he decorates his Scotia home for Halloween Monday.
SCOTIA
Scotia native exhibits his Halloween spirit in big way
BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Michael Goot at 395-3105 or mgoot@dailygazette.net.
Stephen Austin wishes every day could be Halloween.
The Scotia native tricks out his house on James Street with a fullscale display including skeletons and tombstones, pumpkins and witches.
“Halloween is our Christmas,” said his wife, Lauri.
Because Halloween falls close to Austin’s Oct. 28 birthday, it has always been a big event for him.
“It’s like a giant celebration of my birthday,” said Austin, who is turning 40 this year.
Austin has been decorating for Halloween since he was a child when he used to help his mother. “I just kind of took it over. It got bigger and bigger,” he said.
Austin says he has always had artistic talent but pursued a career in public safety. He works as a Scotia-Glenville dispatcher. “I’d rather do it for fun instead of a job. It’s not fun if you have to do it.”
To work on his project, Austin takes off the week before Halloween.
Austin shows off his Halloween decorations on the front lawn of his home.
Most of the display is handcrafted. The dozen or so “tombstones” in the front yard are carved from foam insulation boards. He uses an utility knife to etch in epitaphs on the graves.
“Every one of the older stones is named after a character in a book I read,” he said.
For the more recent headstones, he just makes up a name that seems to fit the time period listed on the stone.
The skeletons are made out of papier-mâché — newspaper, paper towels and “a whole lot of Elmer’s glue.” The one holding a shovel in the center of the front yard is made from latex and cotton.
Austin said the most difficult part about his project is taking breaks. When he gets going, he does not want to stop.
“The hardest thing to do is my housework.”
He starts working Nov. 1 on the next year’s Halloween display, although he really gears up in the beginning of October. Austin gets some help from his three children, Savannah, 8, Bryce, 13, and Cody, 16.
“My daughter spent the entire day [Sunday] helping me with the pumpkins,” he said.
He is carving 50 pumpkins, about a dozen of which the family grew themselves. “We’re hoping for more next year,” Lauri said.
Cody made the bookshelf that sits in the enclosed front porch. The bookshelf contains jars with handwritten labels of various “potions.”
Bryce also helped with some of the papier-mâché.
“Halloween is a family event,” Lauri Austin said.
She added that it is a shame that more people don’t do their own decorations. She said Halloween has gotten too commercialized.
“There’s too much kitschy stuff you can buy,” she said.
Austin has a website at www. thehauntingrounds.com, where he puts videos about how to make some of these creations for people who want to do it.
The couple did buy an animatronic witch that will sit in the window and “stir” her cauldron. There will also be scary music playing from an Ohio-based band called Nox Arcana.
Because he is worried about the display being vandalized, Austin brings in a lot of the decorations at night until Halloween when it will all be illuminated.
“We have a lot of kids in the village who get a little crazy,” he said.
When the couple lived in an apartment on Fifth Street, some thieves stole a bunch of items from his display in the mid-1990s. That prompted him to suspend his display for a few years. When his parents bought a house in Glenville, Austin moved to the house where we was raised. He has been doing his most recent display for about three years.
The family enjoys watching the reaction from the kids that come up to the house. It’s usually “wow,” Lauri Austin said.
The two will be dressed in costumes — Lauri as a witch and Steve in a scary mask. He said he usually hangs out in the front yard while his wife gives out the candy. He does not want to scare anyone too much.
Austin said he tries to add more to the display and make it better every year. The display defi nitely attracts attention, Austin said.
“A lot of people do the rubbernecking as they’re going by,” he said.
