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Doktor Events Other Haunts

Dead Residents of New Orleans

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Elsa and I could squeeze in only a bit of sight-seeing given the tight programming schedule of World Horror Convention / Bram Stoker Award Weekend. The sight we saw? New Orleans Cemetery #1, of course. We weren’t the only horror writers on the tour. In fact, the tour guide — Jennifer from Haunted History Tours — was the childhood friend of John Palisano who also roamed the houses of the dead. Jennifer gave us quite the tour, hitting the high points of New Orleans’ architecture, history, voodou and, obviously, burial practices. Jennifer’s talk reminded me that how we treat death is an important part of life.
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The cemetery itself felt like a subdivision for dead people, as fitting a “necropolis.” The white surrounding walls established a gated-community, if you will, and inside there were streets, single-family dwellings, yard fences, high rises and even urban renewal– I gather several of the older residents were, ahem, displaced to make room for Nicolas Cage’s spiffy new burial pyramid.

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Some of the dead residents are still vital members of the New Orleans community. Marie Laveau’s resting place, among others, is covered with mementos and XXX’s made by those seeking the assistance of such puissant departed. This voudou practice reminds me of the Catholic petitioning the saints to pray for intercession– saints who are by definition, dead.

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One way in which life mingles unpleasantly with death is in cases of premature burial. Jennifer was a treasure of deliciously morbid details, like how death in these cases often came from starvation, not suffocation since the tombs were not air-tight. She pointed out the customized graves fitted quite literally with bells and whistles for the unfortunately interred to signal the living. These techniques frequently back-fired because decaying tendons contract and pull the “dead ringer.” When watchmen on the “graveyard shift” hastily dis-interred these corpses, they often found “evidence” of vampires: the receding flesh of unembalmed bodies made it appear that hair and nails continued to grow, shriveled lips made teeth more prominent and blood tended to well up in the bellies, suggesting a recent midnight snack. Jennifer’s specialized knowledge was exhaustive and wonderfully ghoulish.

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Grave markers themselves were subject to decay, resulting in wonderful rubble. Death dilapidated.
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Though I am as morbid as the next horror-fan, my favorite part of the cemetery were the plants that sprouted in the nooks. Let me stop just short of some trite observation about life abounding in the midst of death. What appealed to me primarily was the aesthetic contrast, the subtle greens against the brick red and stone white and the organic leaf shapes juxtaposed to the rectilinear ruins.

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Categories
Elsa Other Haunts

Amber Benson’s Ghosts

Amber Benson speaking at the World Horror Convention 2013
Amber Benson speaking at the World Horror Convention 2013

When attending a convention, one expects to have encounters with other participants and the location, and then to come away with fresh knowledge and clearer understandings. One doesn’t expect to expand one’s impression of a television star as being insightful, creative or smart, but after two conference sessions with Amber Benson most famously Tara of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I’m ready to admit my impressions have been altered.

Amber appeared at the World Horror Convention in New Orleans as the “New Media Guest.” That didn’t tip me off about what to expect, but her presentation brought the invitation into light. She spoke about her project, the Ghosts of Albion, co-created with Christopher Golden. What started as a multimedia web series now archieved on the BBC’s website expanded into two book adaptations and two novels including Ghosts of Albion: Accursed and Witchery: A Ghosts of Albion Novel. In a roleplaying game based on the series, “players join in the fight to keep the ever-present forces of evil at bay.”

The story of the Ghosts of Albion revolves around a sister and brother, Tamara and William Swift, descendants of a wealthy earl in Victorian London. They are called to the bedside of their grandfather, a stage magician, where he informs them of his true identity as a protector of Albion, or England. They attribute his claims to his illness until he is attacked and killed by werewolves in front of them. With the help of mystical protectors including Lord Byron and Admiral Nelson, they take up the work of their deceased grandfather.

Amber inspired the audience to use all available avenues when creating the universe of their stories. She addressed the need to reach beyond traditional media to make connections with readers and invite them to become participants in the worlds authors and artists create. She was very funny, and warm, and welcoming– and I was reminded of the value of letting go of expectations to be open to learn from unexpected teachers.

Categories
Creepy Crafts Doktor Events

Robbed by a Pirate in New Orleans!

I was robbed by a pirate while I was in New Orleans this weekend for the Bram Stoker Award Weekend/ World Horror Convention.

I should explain.

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The World Horror Convention is a trade show, more or less, for folks involved with scary stories. Writers take meetings with their agents; writers pitch projects to editors; writers read for other writers. For most of the weekend, everyone is on their most professional behavior, looking all business-like and serious… with the exception of the Masquerade Party on Friday night. I need little excuse to dress oddly so it didn’t really matter that the prize for the best costume was a Kindle. I lie. When I learned of this prize, vowed to win it. The game was ON.

I developed a costume to express “Doktor Leech,” the personna I’ve adopted for my posts at DailyNightmare.com. I acquired a genuine Mad Scientist coat, technically a “Howie Coat” of black twill from Gentleman’s Emporium. On my hands, I wore my riding gauntlets from back in the day when I rode a Harley. My blast goggles were lovingly hand-machined by the folks at Got-steam.com.

But the bloody apron was the key to the whole costume.

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I work at a high school where one of the teachers runs an innovative science elective based around Forensic Science, sort of CSI-High. Students learn biology and chemistry and… well, they also learn a fair bit about decay and fingerprints and death. The crime scene dioramas they come up with would make your hair curl. I enlisted the demented enthusiasm of these juvenile bloodstain experts in making my costume.

I got four clean white aprons and divvied them between the two classes. This is the introduction I gave to my young assistants:

“This competition among the Forensics classes is to use your knowledge of blood spatters to create a gory apron for use in a Horror/Steampunk costume. The winning group will be awarded a pizza lunch and the aprons will be evaluated according to both their theatrical utility and their forensic accuracy.

The character I’m creating is a Victorian era “mad scientist” who dabbles in then-popular practices of magnetism, mesmerism and of course, vivisection. Victorian scientists were crazy about vivisection, the act of cutting open creatures while they were still alive to see how they worked. The stains on this apron likely come from such grisly experiments. A couple points come to mind that may influence your creations:

• Since the vivisection was performed on specimens that at least started out the procedure alive, the spatters should be consistent with that state;
• The Mad Doctor has likely been at this awhile so perhaps he started with smaller creatures and moved up to larger, more complicated ones. Humans? Probably.
• The tools used would likely be a surgically sharp scalpel but probably a bone saw as well. Punctures, cuts, hacking all would leave different kinds of marks on the apron;
• Bodies are filled with all sorts of fluids not just blood. Would any other juices have soaked into this apron?
• I suspect that this scientist has used the same apron for many experiments so consider if there is “old blood” in addition to fresh stains.;
• The scientist is probably working over an operating table which would likely influence what parts of the apron receive what kinds of stain;
• Remember this is a costume that I will have to wear around during a Masquerade Party. It wouldn’t hurt if it looked cool as all heck.

Make your choices. Do your best and be prepared to explain why you made the marks you did. I look forward to what you come up with.”

In the end, ALL the aprons were impressive so I bought pizza for both classes. I could only take one to New Orleans so I selected the one that had the most detail. On the apron I wore, the students used “blood,” tea and finger print powder in order to simulate the “other fluids” encountered during the Mad Doktor’s investigations. They also figured the Doktor might have gotten his fingers bloody and thus wiped them down the sides. These young Quincy’s also assured me that there were stains consistent with punctures and sawing and more processes than I cared to imagine. Most importantly, it looked cool as heck.

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Once I got to NOLA and WHC2013, I acted the part of a horror professional all day, then just in time for the masquerade competition, I transformed into the Doktor. In my opinion, there was no contest. A couple men wore t-shirts; a few women wore corsets. I was ready to win… until two guys walked in dressed head to toe as pirates in full regalia. They were simply jaw-dropping. I grinned and made the best of it, but I knew it was all over. I danced, I flirted — who knew that blood was sexy?– and I had a great time anyway.

Though I didn’t walk away with a Kindle, I did get a bit of a reputation. For the rest of the weekend, complete strangers referred to me as “that bloody guy.” And that was kind of a success.

Categories
Elsa Food

Gray Cakes in The Depressed Cake Shop

from Miss Cakehead's Depressed Cake Shop
from Miss Cakehead’s Depressed Cake Shop

I read with interest about The Depressed Cake Shop’s upcoming pop-up bake shop event. The cakes on sale will all be grey on the outside, with colours revealed on the inside. The event will take place August 2 – 4 in London, and the organizers are encouraging others to schedule pop-up bakeries of their own anywhere in the world. (Please note: in the US, the cakes would be GRAY with COLORS revealed on the inside.)

The point of the event is to raise awareness of the effects of depression and mental illness. As the original article notes, and the National Institutes of Mental Health confirm, one in four people suffer from mental illness at some point in their lives. The goals of the Depressed Cake Shop are to open up conversations and to raise funds for mental health charities.

Why are the cakes grey? There is room for interpreting this color choice. Certainly, shelves full of gray cakes will create a striking image, suggesting that the impact of depression is significant. Another point is that, for those suffering from depression, the world turns gray. It’s hard to experience fun and joy when depression is weighing a person down. Finally, the colors inside the cakes suggest hope, which may be hidden underneath depression or hard to locate– but the idea that hope exists.

I like the idea of using food stuffs to express complex ideas, like the conversations that could arise around the topic of depression. Food is almost always more than simply fuel. It’s a way to show creativity, innovation, individuality and love. Why not show a little love and bake a gray cake.