The Cult of the Great Pumpkin is pleased to announce we will be participating in the 2010 Countdown to Halloween:

“The Halloween Countdown is something of a virtual neighborhood to go trick or treating in. Imagine a neighborhood where all of the neighbors really got into the spirit of the holiday and went all out with decorating their yards and homes and on top of that also handed out the coolest treats whenever some kid in a costume rang their doorbell. Well, you are that kid in a costume, and the participants in the countdown are the neighbors with the cool houses and candy. When you visit their blogs, you will essentially be ringing their doorbell and shouting “Trick or treat.” rewarded by a solid thunk at the bottom of your plastic Halloween bucket which is their post for the day. In a way that’s even better than the actual Halloween (no way! I hear you saying) you get to ring their doorbell and trick or treat every single day throughout October. Not only that, but there is bound to be over 100 houses for you to visit each day as well.”

Visit http://www.countdowntohalloween.com for more information!

Some of the greatest horror and Halloween seasonal music, audio dramas, sound effects and other spooky audio artifacts ever recorded are also, sadly, no longer available. Thankfully, the internet has charged to the rescue, with blogs and dedicated bloggers who find yesteryear’s spooky sounds, painstakingly convert them to digital formats from old LPs and cassettes, and then post them, often with a bit of background and even cover art!

Following are some of The Great Pumpkin’s favorite sources for ghastly audio ephemera. Good luck and good hunting!

Scar Stuff – Named after the great, cheap, waxy scar-making make-up that you could get at any drug store in the 70′s and 80′s, Scar Stuff was one of the first blogs to really find great stuff and post it online. Sadly, it appears that Jason is no longer posting, and many of the things he’s posted are no longer available, but there’s still stuff to be had, here…

The Mostly Ghostly Music Sharing Blaaaahhhggg – Once a standard blog, the owner of the MGMSB was plagued by spammers and overly-restrictive TOS issues, so he moved everything to a discussion board format. It requires a small investment of time to learn the ropes, but your rewards will be many.

Digital Meltd0wn – While not strictly horror or Halloween, there are dozens of posts that are horror-related, especially featuring out-of-print movie soundtracks.

Vinnie Rattolle’s – Like Digital Meltd0wn, this blog is devoted to offering up weird bits of forgotten culture and, like DM, much of that is horror-related.

The Manchester Morgue – Find many classic horror soundtracks at this one.

Monster Shindig – Not posting much lately, but lots of great stuff in the archives.

These are just a few favorites – you’ll discover more sites linked from those. Have fun! Here’s a classic to start you off – Disney’s Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of The Haunted House! Get it at HERE!

Every year Eric “Toxic Toons” Pigors creates a limited-run Trick or Treat bag stuffed with all kinds of ghoulish goodies. I’ve ordered one every year for the past few years and it’s always worth every penny. Get yours now while they last!

A new video game from Double Fine Productions called Costume Quest is “coming this Autumn” to XBox and PS3 – it looks AMAZING. Check out the fantastic flaming-pumpkin-head battle scarecrow!

What: A Kid’s Halloween Art Contest
Who: Children ages 10-14
When: Now thru August 31st, 2010. The winner will be announced by September 7, 2010
Where: Online at the EHAG Facebook Page and EHAG Blog
How: Parents email an image of your little ghoul’s Halloween themed artwork to ehaagartists@hotmail.com along with the young artist’s name, age, date, contact info, title of piece and medium used.
Prize: $100 gift certificate for art supplies from the winner’s art supply store of choice.

Be as creative as possible and all artwork must be created solely by the young artist. We ask that no gore be depicted. Artwork will be judged based on originality and use of medium, and all mediums will be accepted. (All EHAG family members are excluded from participation.)

The artists of EHAG are obviously not the first generation to create Halloween art, and we certainly will not be the last. So, we decided to sponsor a kid’s art contest that both celebrates our most favorite holiday and nurtures their creative spirit! And, as we know that there must be children out there that love both art and Halloween, why not begin to encourage them today!

Good luck, and we look forward to seeing your creative Halloween art entries!

Special edition The Dead Matter DVD set including TWO new Midnight Syndicate CDs available at ALL Hot Topic stores nationwide on JULY 30th

Midnight Syndicate will release a special edition The Dead Matter DVD set that will be available at ALL Hot Topic stores nationwide on JULY 30th. The set includes 3 DISCS

. The Dead Matter DVD – The long-awaited dark fantasy film starring Andrew Divoff, Jason Carter, and Tom Savini served up with a score by Midnight Syndicate in glorious 5.1 Surround. The DVD will be loaded with special features including TWO Midnight Syndicate music videos, several Midnight Syndicate Video Contest finalists, and another special feature to be announced soon. Check out the new official trailer!

The Dead Matter: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD – Clocking in at just under 75 minutes, this disc will include the score to the movie, composed by Edward Douglas, as well as other tracks that appear in the movie including ghost-rockers Lazy Lane. Also featured will be three exclusive Midnight Syndicate remixes as well as a special track from the heavy metal act, Eternal Legacy.

Midnight Syndicate’s Halloween Music Collection CD. This disc is a compilation featuring some of Ed and Gavin’s favorite tracks from their first 13 years.

This special set will be available at all Hot Topic stores on Friday, July 30th all for the price a regular DVD!

Writer/Director Adam Green (Hatchet, Frozen, Spiral) has been making short films for Halloween for 11 years and The Cult of the Great Pumpkin recently discovered “JACK-CHOP”, a hilarious parody of the Slap Chop commercial. This video is NOT safe for work and NOT child appropriate, but it’s too funny not to post.

See Green’s other Halloween shorts on his website – click “Shorts”, then “The Halloween Shorts”.

Pumpkin head Girl Creepy doll ooak Halloween art no. 2

From the item description:

“DISCLAIMER-THIS DOLL IS NOT TO BE PLAYED WITH! SHE IS FOR DISPLAY ONLY! NOT FOR CHILDREN UNDER 17! SHE IS A HORROR RELATED ITEM AND IF YOU CAN’T HANDLE SCARY THINGS, THEN PLEASE DO NOT LOOK AT MY LISTING.

this doll is one of a kind. i bought a porcelain doll and then repainted her. i did not sew the clothes, i just altered them! the clothes cannot be removed .her body is cloth and she has porcelain hands, feet, and a resin pumpkin head. she is approx 16 inches tall .

the head is resin, not porcelain.

this doll is part of a series. I am going to be making several pumpkin head dolls. the heads will be from the same mold and painted similar but the clothes will be different.

this is a creepy doll with a pumpkin head. Jack o’ lantern face. hand dyed dress and bloomers. black shoes.

this doll will be signed on the body. this doll was made by me, christie or bastet2329.”

1. Leave a comment on this post at http://shellhawksnest.blogspot.com/2010/07/summer-pumpkin-giveaway.html.
2. Become a new follower of ShellHawk’s Nest and let her know you became one.
3. Follow ShellHawk’s Nest on Twitter. (Leave a comment to tell me.)
4. “Like” ShellHawk’s Nest on Facebook. (Leave a comment to tell me.)
5. Post about this giveaway on your blog and leave ShellHawk’s Nest a link so I can check it out.
6. Tweet about this giveaway and let ShellHawk’s Nest know you did.
7. Do a status update on Facebook and leave ShellHawk’s Nest a link.

The Cult of the Great Pumpkin’s resident designer recently got a couple of jack o’ lantern tattoos on his forearms, and it got me wondering about what other Halloween-themed tattoos there are out there. So, show me! Respond in the comments of this post and post a link to a photo of your Halloween tattoo(s), or post photos to our Facebook Fan Page – we wanna see your Halloween tattoo(s)! Whether it’s traditional Halloween imagery, A Nightmare Before Christmas or a portrait of Michael Myers, show us whatcha got!