BG Williamsburg Howl O Scream (part 2) - Event Food!

Have I mentioned I love event food?
Hot dogs, funnel cakes, candied apples, sausages sold off a cart, and yes, deep fried things that should not be battered and deep fried, all make me giddy.
Not long after leaving Ports of Skull we entered Germany, or Vampire Point as they call it.  We went to the Festhaus, where the sausages live, to see if the show was any good.  It was not, so we left.

The bridge is decorated in lace and such.  Because that is how vampires do it, I'm afraid.

Not only does BG hang things on light poles and across the sky, but they also decorate the grassy knolls.  Here are some gravestones and a casket in Germany.  These were scattered all about the park in various woodsy locations.

A tribute headstone to the late horror master Wes Craven.  It might be hard to read but it says, "here lies Wes Craven father of freddy and ghostface".  Wes was responsible for so many things, but I suppose Freddy Kruger and the Scream series are the best known.  I liked Horace Pinker, the electrically powered ghostly killer of Shocker, but then I'm weird like that.  Plus it had a great metal soundtrack.  Megadeth famously covered Alice Cooper's "No More Mr. Nice Guy" for that soundtrack.

Leaving Germany and the Vampires behind we made our way to New France, currently Wendigo Woods, for a smokehouse lunch.

"Nom nom nom, snarl, keep your hands on your side of the table, buster."

All kitties are carnivorous.  I'm sure you remember enough of your biology classes to know what an obligate carnivore is.  Mine is an omnivore, of course.  I have proof because while selecting her plate full of lovely smoked meats she grabbed an order of fried pickles as well.  Me being more of a sensitive, liberal, modern male, I had a green salad.

Naaahhh...I'm just shitting you.  I had a plate full of brisket.  I love to eat the flesh of animals.  In this case the herbivore Bos taurus.  The Trappers Smokehouse really does a wonderful job with their smoked meats and honestly for the price it's decent.  They make up for it by charging $4 for a sodding Coca-Cola and don't ask how much a slice of cake will run you.

We had a visitor while we ate.  You are looking at Vespula maculifrons, or as it is commonly called the eastern yellowjacket.  Or as it is more commonly called ohshitawaspdon'tmoveohshit.

Being something of a pair of nature lovers, AND being too smart to try to shoo away an animal that has a reputation for taking zero shit from hairless monkeys, we observed the wasp for several minutes.  Finally moving the partially devoured rib off the tray we waited to see the bugger had spent the time carefully excising a rectangular piece of flesh which it then flew off with, clumsily I might add.  Lunch over, time to move on.

At the train track entrance to Demon Street (France) a dragon was being held in chains by two devils, one of which you can see on the left.  The traditional giant Grim Reaper figure had been altered slightly by adding a risible demon face to it.  That left me a bit sad.

Cornered is the corn maze haunted house situated a bit behind Curse of Darkastle, because nothing says "Germany" like a maize maze.  I despair at some of their placement choices.  We didn't do the corn maze, opting instead for the new Unearthed and the Cut-Throat Cove.

Here's fun, spot the asshat.  Here's a hint: the one not wearing a hat.
This shot is in Ireland, which was given the very clever name of "Ireland" for Howl O Scream.  They didn't know what to do with Ireland, it seems, since the jack o lanterns and such were put somewhere else, so they just stuck these monsters that had previously been in Germany (when it was a Frankenstein place, somewhat appropriately) all over the place.  Since we were in Ireland, where there is Grogan's Pub, and we were waiting for it to get closer to the 6 PM opening of the haunts, and since Unearthed, Scarlett's Revenge (Revenge for what?  Letting her out of a hole in the ground?) was located there, and since we'd had a meal of meats, we figured we'd take a wee break.

Which naturally led to drinking...

In part 3.

Halloween Weird Western Image o' the Day: Ghost Town Showdown

Ghost towns are, of course, abandoned towns found out West.  A proper ghost town seems like it was just lived in and suddenly everybody just left, which is more or less how abandonment works.

Several western films have been named Ghost Town, often with a literal interpretation of a town that is inhabited by ghosts.  Today's image has a gunfighter blasting a ghost gunfighter, probably with magical bullets.
Looks pretty cool to me, pards.  Just another image I grabbed from a Deadlands manual.

BG Williamsburg Howl O Scream 2015 (part 1)

We decided to do Howl O Scream this year after giving it a miss last year for various reasons, not the least of which is that it was getting boring.
This year the new theme, which I mentioned back in the Summer, is UNEARTHED.  The story being that they were digging and found this old underground demonic witch's house.  The horned witch lady is named Scarlett.  She's really pissed about something.  Probably having her house dug up.
The new haunted house, Unearthed-Scarlett's Revenge, would appear to be in the Europe in the Air show building, formerly Corkscrew Hill, which is in Ireland.  Otherwise not much goes on in Ireland aside from slutty nurses and drinking at the pub.  We hit the park around 1 PM and took in the pre-Howl sights and at 6 PM the scares officially began (well not really scares, but people walked around being obnoxious, if that counts) although it would not get dark for a bit after that.
Kitty said the vibe was weird, somewhat off, and I agreed.
It needed something.
This is not to say I didn't enjoy it, but it did feel like it was missing something.

Patrons enter the park via England, which is the TERROR-Tory known as Ripper Row.

The decorations that make England into Ripper Row

After dark there are some undead prostitutes and a Jack the Ripper (I guess) and an animatronic of a headless woman with a parasol.  England is a theater, shopping and dining and very small.  We did not attend Monster Stomp on Ripper Row, the latest iteration of the Monster Stomp show.

This "shop" is a mere facade.

We quickly found ourselves in Port of Skull, which Italy, and the whole thing was made up in a pirate theme.  Are pirates scary?  I suppose pirates with assault rifles taking over your modern ship are scary, but the Jack Sparrow type are not.

This, on the other hand, is scary.

The look didn't really flow, but it was better than I expected.  Italy section is very urban, so the ship bits sort of sticks out.

Beware, ye entering Ports of Skull, it tells us.  I suppose I should be happy it doesn't say "Ye be entering" but if you are going to go all Talk Like An Asshole Pirate Day, make the full effort, yeah?

"Boogity Boogity Boo, I'm a dead pirate!"

It's fairly standard decoration style at BG to stick things on poles.  In this case we have skeleton pirates, in the past we had roses with eyeballs in them, ghosts, and similar Halloween offerings.

Nothing says "Halloween" like a pirate statue.

Pirate statue that stands next to the Crow's Nest Grille, where the extra "L" and "E" signifies such piratical fare as turkey legs, Dipping Dots, and churros.

My lack of mobile phone camera skills betrays me.

Lots of churros.

This is the spot where that screaming chick was when it was Darkside of the Gardens.

The Italian section is divided up into two areas, the section known as Festa Italia has all the midway games and the Roman Rapids water ride, which is drained after the Summer season as it's too cold for a water ride.  The Rapids were turned into a haunted house, but I'll get to that later.

Bridge Troll,now converted to a Pirate Bridge Troll by the judicious application of an eye patch.  

Let us now leave the Ports of Skull behind for a bit, we've more to see and I was getting hungry.

Next up a brief stop at Vampire Point (Germany) and then on to Demon Street (France) and Event Food!

A Little Something Fer the Ladies

Cowgirls, saloon gals, and soiled doves, the ladies have their Western Options too.  Now it should be obvious to anyone that women were present on the frontier.  We have our traditional fictional concepts like schoolmarm, pioneer wife, and such, and we know that women sometimes took roles traditionally restricted to men in the Old West, which should come as no surprise because on a frontier you tend to relax the stricter social rules of a dense urban setting in favor of what is best for survival and success.  Also, there are always opportunities in a frontier setting for someone of enterprise and skill that is willing to buck society.
History has given us:

Annie Oakley, nicknamed Little Sure Shot, Annie was a professional sharpshooter who made her fame with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.  Her amazing feats with firearms and Bill's skills in promotion made a legendary figure whose name is remembered today.

Belle Starr, horse thief, outlaw, and all around bad girl of the prairie.  I like that she's packing a damn horse pistol but still riding side saddle.  That's danger and class in one image.

Calamity Jane, born Martha Jane Canary, famous for cross-dressing, being tough-as-nails, scouting and fighting with the Army, and apparently for being a kind and charitable person.  She too would gain a measure of fame with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, which probably did more to create the legend of the American West than any other single source.

And it's not just history, we have comics too:

For all you Girl Power aficionados we have Firehair, a 1940s publication by Fiction House.  Firehair is sort of the Wonder Woman of the Dakotas.  She's a redhead that is rescued by a Dakota Indian, learns to do all sorts of frontier things like ride bareback, fight like a Fury on a mission, shoot a bow, throw a tomahawk, rope, etc. and then has adventures kicking the shit out of rustlers, bad Indians, and all manner of evil men.  I assume you can see the picture.  There is some serious ass-kicking going on here.  There were actually a number of "good girl" comics in the 30s and 40s, like Phantom Lady, that cast women as fully capable heroes of justice.

And then there is the purely titillating bad girls of Women Outlaws.  True stories of Gun Gals!  Just look at it.  They are smoking, flashing some skin, shooting dudes...also redheads (is there a message here?)...but it certainly makes a change from the damsel in distress on the plains, don't it?

So with such a rich history of women in the West in both real life and fiction, I bet you can find some pretty good costumes, right?

Well this is what you get, ladies.  Don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger.
Now the can can floozy, sure, I know that dance hall entertainment was popular, and I am not here to deny you any affirmation you might draw from it, but sadly it seems that some variation of Saloon Gal/Soiled Dove is the most popular search result I can find.  That's paying some tribute to the sisters that struggled on the frontier, ain't it?
As for Jesse from Toy Story...well I felt obliged to provide an example of how a beloved children's character can be so ill-used.

Now I'm nothing if not divisive thorough so I thought, "hey, maybe there is an Annie Oakley costume out there" and damned if I was not rewarded for my efforts.  If by reward we mean quite disappointed with the results.

For your comparative analysis

So here you have it ladies and gentlemen, an O-Fish-Eye-Owl Annie Oakley costume.  I put it side by side with the real Annie to give you an idea of what a sham it is.  Firstly the dress is too short.  Annie, as evidenced by her many medals, was a woman that wanted to respected for her accomplishments and skill, not for a shot of thigh.  Secondly we have those heinous stripper boots.  Note Annie's low cut footwear and spats.  She's tromping the muddy grounds of fairgrounds set up for her exhibitions, she don't have the time to try to pull a spiked heel out of the cowshit.  Thirdly the fringe and faux cowhide.  What the dang-blasted tarnation is that all about?  Finally, let's talk firearms safety, especially in this current climate of gun control hysteria (yeah, I said it, you want to fight about it?).  Our real deal heroine of the West is holding her weapon with two hands, resting in the crook of her arm, fully in control and pointing away from the camera.  Gun safety.  The fake Annie is just casually resting it on her hip, looks like she got her finger on the trigger and is so concerned with having her picture taken that she is clearly unaware of the position of the weapon.  That's a disgrace to the memory of Annie and I won't have it.

Well, those're your options, ladies, if you choose to follow this route.  Good luck, and God help you.

Yeehaw and git them pumpkins lit!

A Weird Western Hero: the Ghost Rider

Before Marvel had their flaming skeleton on a motorcycle they had a Ghost Rider.  Schoolteacher Carter Slade, who moved out west to make a difference educatin' youngins I reckon but ended up, through a series of events, dressing in a white outfit covered in glowing dust and fighting crime.  The character was stolen from the defunct (and thus public domain) Magazine Enterprises character known as the Ghost Rider 18 years before.  Now Marvel's Ghost Rider wasn't very popular.  Most likely it was because the Comics Code was still in strict mode so no supernatural fun and since it was the Old West no supervillains either.  So he got cancelled and in 1972 the motorcycle guy showed up.  But Marvel wouldn't let old GR go, so they renamed him a few times and still nobody gave a coyote fart.

But there was once a better Ghost Rider, a real Ghost Rider, and he fought owlhoots and villains and monsters aplenty with his sixguns and his steed.  Ladies and Gentlemen I give you Rex Fury, THE Ghost Rider:

How is this not awesome?

ORIGIN

U.S. Marshal Rex Fury was captured by Apaches working under the command of white renegade Bart Lasher.  Rex and his companion Sing Song were thrown into the legendary Devil's Sink, a watery whirlpool from which none had ever returned alive.  Arriving in an underground grotto Rex lay nearly dead when he was approached by the ghost of Wild Bill Hickok.  Informing Rex that he was balanced on the border between life and death, and thus able to speak with the deceased gunfighter, Bill took Rex into a pseudo-afterlife where a team of the greats of the west made up of Kit Carson, Calamity Jane and Bill Tilghman charged Rex Fury with protecting the innocents of the west from evil and trained him in the use of sixguns, rifles, tracking, tomahawk throwing, bow and arrow and such.  Showing him to a plain where ran a great ghostly white horse, the ghosts instructed him to capture the horse for his own steed, then gifted him with his ghostly white outfit.  Instructing him to stop a quarrel between two prospectors before it turned to murder, which he did.  Then he awoke and thought it a dream until he discovered Spectre, the ghostly white horse waiting for him outside of the secret exit from the grotto of Devil's Sink.
He would then acquire for himself a suit of white like the one he'd been given in the otherworld, dusting it with phosphorescent power to make himself glow in the dark and set out on his mission to fight evil using the skills taught to him by the ghosts of the western heroes.

Except that's not quite how it happened.

The above origin is from The Ghost Rider #1 (1950, Magazine Enterprises).  It is a retelling/retcon of the original story as it appeared in Tim Holt #11 (1949, Magazine Enterprises).  In that story Marshal Rex Fury and his companion Sing Song were set upon by Apaches led by renegade Bart Lasher and thrown into Devil's Sink, but at the bottom they found a grotto and free from their bonds they survived.  Fury created the ghost identity to capture and expose Lasher, who believing it was the ghost of Rex Fury himself (he wore no mask) fled only to fall to his death, impaled on a broken wagon wheel.  Justice served, Fury added a mask and upheld the law by day as a U.S. Marshal and captured those that escaped the law by night as the Ghost Rider.  Originally he used his glowing costume and clever tricks to force confessions out of criminals and justice was often served by the agency of higher powers.  The supernatural, when it was in a story, was merely hinted at and usually had a simple ruse as its source.  In 1950 that changed, as noted above, and the Ghost Rider would find himself facing any number of seemingly supernatural threats with the aid of his keen mind and ghostly training.

See the little inset picture to Tim's right?  Eventually the Ghost Rider would get his own series thanks to his growing popularity, and Tim would become the Red Mask as well.  Costumed cowboy heroes were coming into vogue, it seems.

From issue 6 through 10 of Tim Holt Rex Fury was known as the Calico Kid, your standard dual identity spineless wimp by day, heroic avenger by night.  No great shakes given the usual fare of western comics.  It was the shift to the pseudo-supernatural Ghost Rider that marked the rise of the character's popularity.

Like most western heroes of any era that aren't comedic in tone, Ghost Rider was a master of gun, whip, lariat, horsemanship and all the other cowboy hallmarks.  He was also very smart and liked to set up clever traps to reveal villains, many of which were cold-blooded murders and employed tricks to simulate supernatural things themselves.  Then old Ghosty would show up, use his tricks to scare 'em shitless and save the day.  Typically the monsters in a GR story were just men, evil men, but men all the same.  GR would figure out their tricks and expose them (I assume you've seen an episode of Scooby Doo) but there was always that origin story that left the supernatural aspects of the character open to interpretation, and once he met the skeleton of a late Apache chief that was mobile enough to shake his hand and talk with him.

Not the real Frankenstein Monster, but in fact Harry Bennett murderer and thief.  GR defeated him through his skills and the use of a magic lantern to project a false image.

In the comics themselves GR did not use any supernatural powers.  His best tricks were centered around using the expectations and fears of others to his advantage.  His costume glowed in the dark, as did his weapons and his horse, but he kept the inside of his cape a stark black, and would use it at times to cover parts of himself to make it seem as if he were a disembodied head or an arm, thus scaring his quarry into giving up or making a mistake.

Whether truly supernatural or just clever stories of horrific western action, the original Ghost Rider is a great example of the early Weird Western genre.

Now git on out of hyere until next time we make camp on the trail.  We got pumpkins to light.

"Ride like the wind, Spectre, evil is afoot and the night cries for vengeance!"

Halloween Weird Western Image o' the Day: Jasper Stone

I've noticed that something fairly popular with the Facebook and the Bloggin' is postin' up pictures o' shit that ain't yore'n and I figured, "well, Hell, I can do that".  With or without commentary.
Today's picture:

Stone, from the PEG inc RPG Deadlands.  Jasper Stone, the undead gunslinging Grim Servant o' Death himself (as in the Horseman Death from Revelations), a man so vicious he gives the demon that inhabits him nightmares.  The original painting was done by the excellent Gerald Brom and the character as developed by the game has become the iconic mascot of the line.  The detail work is superb as is the attention to those details.  What really blows me away is that the whole thing, with the exception of Stone's feather is done in a basic earth tone shading evoking the sepia toned pictures of the era.  It gives the whole thing a dusty Western verisimilitude that belies the fact that it is a fantasy painting.

Old West Halloween: The Real Deal

Due the western genre in film and print we have various ideas about how the inhabitants of the setting looked, acted and dressed.  In the 50s the look was very much Howdy Doody or Woody from Toy Story.

He's no Buzz Lightyear, let me tell you.

Later westerns would try to be more authentic as our knowledge, or perhaps just our aesthetics, changed.  There is a definite look, is what I am saying.  Singing cowboy fringe shirts and flash western wear (still popular in some circles today) were out.  

"Check me out, pards...I'm a cowboy!"
You are about as much a cowboy as Toby Keith is, ass.

Earth tones, wool pants and dirt, lots of dirt, were in.

Your Halloween costume choices are going to be in the Frontierland style, I'm afraid.  As a public service I am going to provide a sort of baseline of reality for you all.

Judge Roy Bean, the Law West of the Pacos

Judge Roy Bean is dressed in a shabby chic mostly unbuttoned waistcoat with no tie and a masive watch chain.  Full beard and short hair, reasonably combed.  Roy Bean was a saloon owner, self-made judge and all around rapscallion.

William Barclay Masterson, a law dog

Bat Masterson was many things in his career, including a lawman.  He is dressed in your basic gentleman's daily wear.

Luke Short, well-known man of many talents, cad, and gambler.

Luke Short was a gambler, gunfighter, and not what you'd call a "model citizen".  He is dressed to the nines in top hat with walking stick and appears to have a topcoat, but I could be wrong.  It's an old photo.

Masterson and Wyatt Earp, for some reason damn near undressed.

Everybody knows who Wyatt Earp is.  I don't have to tell you.  In this picture they are just in shirts and pants.  This would be a heinous fashion crime during the era if they were back east.  Men without waistcoats are in a state of undress.  Fitting for laborers however.  Which they aren't.

In all fairness they are all posing for pictures.  Since we didn't have camera phones and instagram and shit back then when people posed for a picture they tended to try to look appropriate.  You don't get candid shots in this era.  We can assume that any of them, were he mucking out a stable or slopping the hogs would have dressed a bit differently.  Rolled up sleeves or old trousers that they don't worry about getting dirty.  The ubiquitous blue jeans, so popular today, were still quite new to America in the Western era, having arrived more or less in the middle of the 19th century.  The hard wearing, long lasting denim fabric was suitable for labor but not for polite society.  Similarly the cotton duck fabric used to make uniforms for soldiers and civilians for hard work was not considered fashionable.

Hats were common on both men and women (as well as bonnets for the women) and came in a variety of styles.  The Stetson hat known as the boss of the plains, with its simple round crown and wide brim, was a popular western choice in the late 19th century, being designed to keep sun and weather out of the face.  The sombrero was an option as well (Hickock seemed to like them) and above we see Bat Masterson with a basic derby (or bowler, if you like), which is not a good cowboy choice as it does little to shade the eyes from the elements.  Hats could be made of a variety of materials and straw was not uncommon for a cheap working head cover.

As for footwear we usually think of the cowboy boot, but honestly there were many varieties of footwear in use in the 19th century, including many styles of boot.  Again, in a fashionable Eastern city, like New York or Chicago, boots were considered a lower class form of footwear.  Fashionable men and women of the West, however, had to make allowances for their environment, so even a presentable men's daily wear working suit would probably be accessorized with a pair of boots.  The size and angle of the heel, the cut of the toe, and even laces or no laces were all part of the ever-changing mysteries of fashion.

If you have the money and the desire you can find some very nice authentic western wear (and steampunk and victorian) at the Western Emporium online:

http://www.westernemporium.com/mens_oldwest_outfits.php

Reginald Barnett, Tobacconist complete outfit from Western Emporium

The Western Emporium sells complete outfits as well as separates and accessories.  I have never purchased any of these, so I cannot speak of the quality, but they look great.  They have a large selection of waistcoats and frock coats, both of which are indispensable for a good western outfit of the 19th century.  Men loved frock coats is what I am saying. 

But you don't care nothin' 'bout any of this.  You want to know about the costumes.  

Well stick around, hoss, we got more a-comin'.