Two days before Halloween

Just got home from some more Nukestock action. I missed the finale of the Road Rally, which was, to hear some people tell it, amusing, but I did manage to catch the annual trivia game. Our team came in second, I think - a distant second (but considering the game, it's a dubious prestige to be first). I also got a reprise of my friend Mike's impression of Christopher Walken doing an impression of my friend Scott, and a very funny (in retrospect) tale of when my friend Vic got struck by lightning. People have great stories to tell sometimes.

Costumes were pretty good tonight, too, although there were fewer to enjoy. There was an amazing witch costume walking around a werewolf on a chain, some good skull-face makeup, and an impressively faithful rendition of "Darkess," the demon that Tim Curry played in the movie Legend.

On the home front, we got a lot done today. The mausoleum doors are now complete, and we have some cool decorative skull statues that glower down over them from above. I ended up having to cut back the door plaques so that they fit on the door rather than over the door, but it was a good change that will be workable in the long run. Now all the crypts have name plates on them. The front facade is nearing completion, and the whole thing is ready to move out, I think.

The puppet show is looking to be really good this year. Last year, we had planned to have the show on our back porch, but the Halloween-day winds completely blew our completed set apart only two hours before the first show would begin. During that final two hours, we tore down the broken set, moved it into the garage, and reconstructed it. We pulled it off, but it was rushed, and the fact that the visitors could see all our garage crap lying around somewhat diluted the illusion of this being a "spirit parlour."

Well, this year, we planned from the beginning to have the show in the garage. We're going to be able to accommodate more people, and the set will be better. We picked up some "scene setters," which are long lengths of printed plastic wall decorations, and ran them around the perimeter of the garage, and the effect was striking - much better than I thought it would be. Our garage now looks like a creepy, wood-paneled parlor.

And Dana has built our two new puppets this year - Jehosaphat and Bob - and they look awesome. These lightweight puppets are skull heads on PVC pipe with some Salvation Army cloth draped around them into a tattered hood and cloak. Cotton batting and coat hanger wire provides the form and bulk for the bodies, and some fluorescent paint gives their faces and fabric an eerie glow. Truly, they will be the creepiest things at the Carnival of Souls this year when they start flying around, gibbering after one of our heroines.

Can't wait.