Hoarders.

Watching Season 3.
Good God.
True, modern, horror. What a nightmare.

Of monsters in the night.

2011 has already been the wildest year for me, with this Disney Internship and all.

From what I can tell the internship will end on the most epic of notes: Marty Sklar, Disney Legend, and Imagineer Ambassador, will be talking to my Leadership Speaker Series Class on August 3rd.

Image By Ken Pellman

But what about after the internship? Well.... Folks.... 

The Impossible happened. Again. 

Jacob and I are going to the North East, in October.

H\Jacob has never been to the northeast, and I've only been to New York for one whirl wind week of Broadway shows. 

So we are going to Washington DC, New York, Boston........

................aaaannnnnd I get to see Haunted Overload.

Hauntedoverload.com

Thats right folks, the legendary haunted attraction that most people have never heard about (why?!) I finally get to go see. 

I am thrilled.

Jacob literally insisted upon it, for my sake.

Jacob is the coolest.

Hauntedoverload.com

So for you Halloween nuts up in the north east: Is there any other places I should visit while there?

Friday the 13th.

I nearly turned in to Jason, Hocky Mask and all.
Friday was the day from hell. I worked two 8 hour shifts in the course of 25hours. HELLOOOOOOOOOOO GRAD NIGHTS.
Yeah. Hellish. Never had to do that before, it was the epitome of not groovy. How ever I got paid, so I do not care. (I love, however, how they gave me just enough time between shifts to avoid overtime pay)
Today is my first real evening to myself this work week.
But a cool thing happened this past grad night: I work at TLT, and we have a stage. On that stage was a DJ spinning techno and house music all night.
At the stroke of midnight the all too familiar refrains of Toccata and Fugue in D Minor came over the speakers with a thick beat in the background. Deadmau5's ghost's and stuff then faded in, and then came a well timed Vincent Price Thriller Laugh.
Hehe.

I liked that DJ.

Halloween in May, and shotgun prop making.

I figure, well.... if the idiots for that other Holiday can have Christmas in July, why can't WE have Halloween in May?
Tomorrow is one of my rare days off where I have nothing that really "NEEDS" to be done, so I'm going to work on a photo-shoot here in Anaheim.
Which is hard because all of my previous pieces, candle holders, witch jars and ephemera are at home in Las Vegas.
This will be an exercise in ingenuity.
Putting together a photo shoot from literally nothing, and having to rely on finding cool items in a city I don't know very well. It's a bit of a challenge. OH, and I can't use actual candles in any of my photographs, because if it is discovered that I have candles I could get kicked from housing...
Let's see if I can pull it off.

Now the question is: do I reveal it on Friday the 13th, or on May 31st?

Choices.

Any suggestions for theme, reveal times and other parameters are welcomed.

Las Vegas Halloween Parade, and cool facts about my state.

Cool Fact: Nevada was admitted to the Union as a State on Halloween, October 31st 1864.
We used to, as students, get Halloween off for Nevada day (it was origionally known as admission day), every year. They discontinued that tradition several years back, and now Nevada day is the final Friday in October. So we get a three day weekend at the end of the month. They changed it just before I entered High School. So all through my TOT years, I had the day off to prepare. It was awesome.

Today, is Bat's Day.

And a steampunk couple walked up to my window. At Disneyland.
I LOVE my job right now.

Of Cats.

I think a few of you have seen my dear little feline in several pictures here on the blog.
Her name was Oreo, and she passed away yesterday at around 5:30 pm. She had been suffering from a voracious skin cancer for several months now, and she was starving herself as a result.
My husband made the decision to take her to the vet and end the pain.
I had already said my goodbyes, as less than a week ago, I saw her for what I knew was the last time, before driving back here to Anaheim. My husband avoided telling me until my work week was done, as I had asked, because he and I both knew I would be torn up about it.
I am.

Oreo was a loving little team mate of mine, introducing herself to me as an attentive, intelligent cat who understood my every word, who patiently sat in an open box and waited for me to return an hour later, and greeted me with a quizzical look and a purr afterward. She was a voracious hunter, nearly wild when I got her, but who quickly became an A/C junkie. She was about a year old when I adopted her in to the family.
She came home with me very soon thereafter, and was my purring little cohort through out the rest of my middle school and High School years.
She put fur on the dress for my first Winter Formal, the dress for my Junior and senior proms, and my wedding dress. She met every one of my friends and boyfriends, including my husband. Her favorite human other than myself was my best friend Jeff.
She was loyal, loving, demanding, charmingly ill mannered, and intensely vocal.
She was a cat who acted like a dog, and reveled in every second of it.
She was mine, and she let every one know I was hers.
If there is a heaven, I hope your in it. If there is a heaven, you deserve to be there. If there is a heaven, I hope I'm as good as you thought I was, so I can pet you one more time.
I really hope there is a heaven, and I really hope your eying me now with a quizzical look and a purr.

Bats Day in the Fun Park

Bat's Day.
Never heard of it? Oh neither did I, until last night. I was talking with a TLT comrade when a pretty little Cybergoth walked past, and then she said it:
Bat's Day.
The day when thousands of goths, of all shapes colors and nationalities, invade Disneyland. Its an unofficial event, but Disney allows the invasion because it involves Disney making money on the crowd of gothy consumers.

No folks, I'm not kidding. Its real. They even have a special, community made, ear hat for the occasion:

So getting one. found at LINK

Only picture that didn't involve a human, you all know how I hate using photos of humans I don't know.

I much prefer props.

Even better: Bat's Day is happening the same weekend as the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides premier is happening. The same weekend Thor is coming out.
May 6th,7th,and 8th will be a massive streak of awesome. I'm not a full blown goth, in fact I'm more nerd than anything, but I can appreciate the goth aesthetic, and the fact that this happens AT DISNEYLAND, is so intensely awesome.
Are you interested in attending Bat's Day? Do you want to find out more about Bats Day, do you want to see a picture of 2000 goths in front of Sleeping Beauty castle in the daytime? Click the web poster above and check it out.

Bat's Day. So epic.

Disneyland Creature Feature: Dragons Breathing Fire

Ladies and Gents: meet Murphy, Disneyland's 45ft tall, fire breathing Dragon.

Found on Flickr, image by douglasgordon

Murphy, as she is known, is so named because of the law named in her honor.... I mean... The law that applies to her. She breaks, a lot. Its actually supposed to be Maleficent's dragon-form, but because of the problems associated with her, cast members started calling her Murphy. 

Girl dragon with a boys name. 

Anyway, Murphy breathes fire, moves, roars, and does all that dragon-y stuff that dragons tend to do (She keeps her sparkly hoard of gold across the Rivers of America in Pirates of the Caribbean). 

But of course she can be a bit of a diva, so she randomly eats cast members and either feels sick from the black dye of their clothing, or chokes on the yellow satin jackets they wear (there is a rumor that there is one poor, rather large guy tasked with specifically performing the Heimlich on her.) During those days she does not preform. 

By the way, if you want some amusement go find the various Murphy the Dragon Twitter pages. Some of the hash tags are fall on floor inducing.

Zoltar

One of my favorite places on earth is the Musee Mecanique, they have all these coin operated machines, and I can spend hours just going through and examining the mechanical processes of each machine. Many of their machines are intensely creepy, and the creepiest are always the fortuneteller machines. You put your coin in the slot, and the half man or half  woman comes to life, moving extremely slowly. Their hand moves back and forth, or they lift a lid to somthing, and you might hear a recording, if its a newer model, but at the end a card falls out of a slot, and it tells you your fortune.
Its always extremely generic, and generically good.

Found On Flickr, Image by Thomas Hawk

I wonder if, on Halloween, they put bad fortunes in their machines.

"In three days, you will cut your finger off."

*Giggle Fit*

THE MUSEE MECANIQUE
Pier 45 Shed A at the end of Taylor Street
Fisherman's Wharf
San Francisco, CA 94133
www.museemecaniquesf.com 

Haunted Mansion Video Link of Extreme note.

Nearly lost this account because I forgot the bloody password for a short while.
Google is not helpful with password recovery folks, just a warning.
Anyway, I'm Back! It's my weekend, (my Sunday to be precise), and alls well in the wee hours of the morning here in Anaheim. So interesting fact: they are doing a number of progressive updates to the Haunted Mansion attractions here in the states because (I assume) of the upcoming new Haunted Mansion movie (I hope its better than the last, but it is from Del Toro, and he's messed up in the head, so yeah it'll be better.) WDW is getting the majority of the updates, but a slight few mods have been made to my Beloved Mansion here in DLR. Madame Leota has been sporadically flying through out the length of my stay, but now she has a little wispy friend in her immediate background.I'll see if I can find footage sometime in the next few days, if not, trust me folks. It's there.... there is a projection on a back wall of a wisp and green ectoplasm.
Anyway, in WDW, there has been a major change involving the Hitch Hiking ghosts! They now interact with your reflection!

Its a really incredible effect.
And before anyone asks, no I don't work in the Mansion. (I SHOULD) I actually work in Tomorrowland, which is more yesterday-land.
Anyway the video was so cool I figure I'd share it with you guys, legit Halloween awesome-ness will be returning shortly.

Oh, hey, I have a blog.

I'm working hard, living light, and have little to no time for blogging. 

So posts are now very few and far in-between. IF they come, they come.

First week at Disney, and yet I can actually post.... It's nuts! I'm having a lot of fun, but don't expect me to spoil the Magic here... well maybe a tidbit or two, but nothing in depth. 

(Tidbit of the month: Apparently The Tower of Terror costumes cost somewhere around $1400 a piece.)

So instead: MORE HALLOWEEN!

This monster is one of my faves, like a skele turned in to a scarecrow.

Found on Flicker, Image by Halloween Guy

Of Divination by Tarot.

Found on Flickr, Image uploaded by Museo del Tarot.

Museo Del Tarot Flickr Stream

I'm considering making a set of tarot or divination cards, that look ancient. Like, it should be falling apart in your hands, ancient. Like, so incredibly old, the paper is acting on par with cloth or leather. 

The paper should be thick, stained. The images drawn in ink and blanched watercolors, the language used should be a rarer language, the backs incredibly detailed. 

Oh yeah, it'll take a long time, but it sounds like fun. 

I don't actually beleive in divination, yet I own at least one set of divination cards. I use them in my still lives, but I think they are too shiny. Modern manufactured cards are sturdy, true, but they are too shiny and slick to fit in with a witch whose knowledge and tools has been handed down through several generations. Plus the clean-ness of the cards takes away from the effects I try to shoot for (grimy, unplanned, a whole lot of creepy). So I think I found a project I can do while in Anaheim that won't creep out my roommates too badly. I don't need my roommates going to the Disneyland heads and accusing me of devil worship. Although that would be a helluva funny story for you guys, wouldn't it?

Wait, its Disney: they'd accuse me of Chernabog worship. ;D

The Reaper

Small image, But Click-able, Sends you too a large version of the image.

Found on Photobucket, image by JaD__ 

I love his fingers... nice and long and creepy.

Santa Claws

Late for Christmas, but this is an awesomeness I HAVE to feature. Literally had a moment of "OMIGAWD AWESOME!" and woke up my husband in the other room and pissed my cat off.
I say its a great way to start up my featuring of other haunters again.
The holidays are dead and gone. Well... maybe not gone... rotting at least.
Santa Claws by Marrow.

Image and Monster by Marrow, can be seen at: http://marrowhouse.blogspot.com/

If I woke up X-mas morning too see this, I would have freaked the hell out, then laughed my ass off.
Marrow, I tip my hat to you buddy.

SICK!

No literally. I'm sick.
It really sucks.
I need a local apothecary shoppe that sells strange herbal teas that would work miracles on my sinuses and tonsils...

Found On Flickr, Image by Jing Tea Shop

I suppose my cabinet full of expired Celestial Seasonings will have to do. (yeah apparently tea bags expire, which totally sucks, but poor people can't be picky.)
Anyway, I hope you all are feeling better this fine New Years Eve-day. (awkward...) Be safe, don't drink and drive, and remember: always drive faster than your local demons can fly/run/scrape their talons across the ground.

Less than a month, Tron and Daft Punk.

And I'll be working at Disney.
Freaking crazy. It's hard to believe, but its happening.
So much to do.
Perhaps most appropriately, I finally saw and reveled in the visual and musical feast that is Tron: Legacy, It's an intense film, with a simple quest story that could have been deeper, as was if you knew where and had the presence of mind to look for the depth, but even short of that, I adored the movie, and its one of those films I can say is beautiful. Daft Punk's score is entrancing and addicting, and I now have it in CD form as my best friend bought it for me for my birthday/christmas. It's playing over my purple JVC flats headphones as I type this, the deep resonance of Arena rocking my ears with the awesomeness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFXYuw96d0c
I never thought I'd say "Daft Punks score" with reverence before, but trust me, its perfect.
Anyway, I just wanted to share my thoughts.

Christmas! Yay Christmas... is it Halloween yet?

Image by Strublay

Everyone here at Casa Strublay wishes you a Merry Christmas. 

Image by Strublay

Just a little bit of Halloween, just a smidge. *grin*

Where'd she go??

Life hit me with combat boots on...
I hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving, and Hanukkah.
Just wanted to let you all know I'm not dead. Yet. lol.
But! Strublay posting on BH will be non-existent through my birthday.
Yeah. Birthday. LOL.
God Help me.
I hope there are pumpkins. OH! AND CARROT CAKE! *SQUEE* I LOVE CARROT CAKE!
Anyway, so we'll be back to normal operations sometime after the 15th.
Pretty pictures and all.
Fair warning, there will be leather masks, and carnivals, and some very dark Christmas carols.
Muahaha.