Vampires Sudge.

I learned a new word today courtesy of the Simpsons: substitute sucks with sudge*.

*Possible reference to A Christmas Story where the F word is substituted with fudge. 

Anyway, today I watched a handful of Hammer Vampire movies while carving fruit & veggies. 

 

Last night you may recall that I turned a turnip beet into a Jack o' Lantern.

Today at lunch, I transformed a pear into one.

Before and After:
 

 

Here I placed in under a blanket so it would glow better. Check it out here.

It took all afternoon for my next project, a Butternut Squash is difficult to squish.

 The end result was pretty good.

I tried to capture the essence of Escher and when I videotaped it here, it coincided with Dracula's demise at the end of Scars of Dracula. Scream and Scream again!

I had a can of Campbell's Pumpkin soup, so I added the butternut guts to with a bit of honey and some spices. Pretty good result.

 The vampire in my monster book looks pretty cool hanging upside down.

 

It's Vlad!

I wish I had some of this garlic for my soup.

 

Found this little creature the other day, I may have scored a special one, this guy doesn't match those on the box. Hey, it's a magnet!

 

 

If you liked the Hammer above, you may enjoy visiting Monster Movie Kid, there are plenty of old movies to browse.

Tomorrow, I'll be taking my vast amount of decorations to school so they can adorn their classrooms. Pictures forthcoming.
 

DracuLee.

Today, I watched 6 Hammer Horror Dracula movies all featuring Christopher Lee in the eponymous role. Starting, naturally, with Dracula from 1958. I found a Japanese cover to it.

As well as the finale of the revised Blu-Ray and the Japanese version side by side. (It's the finale so DUH>Spoiler Alert.)

 

Next up is Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966). 

Now here's a T-Shirt I'd like to own. Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968).

Unfortunately, the Twitch feed I watched didn't carry the next Lee-Drac, Taste the Blood of Dracula. I think it'd taste salty. But it did show the next one, Scars of Dracula.

The old bloodsucker makes his way to modern day (modern in its day) in Dracula A.D. 1972. This is one of the lowest rated of this series though I found it to be groovy. 

Skip the first 20 seconds of this trailer...

Finally, I also watched The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). Not as good as the others, but keep an eye out for Freddie Jones and a young Joanna Lumley in the cast. It also encouraged me to research the Hawthorne plant and its roots.

Whew, that's a lot of vamping for one day.

Dang it, why won't you upload the original of this Yokai? It only gives me the translation.

Okay, it's the Shunobon, Scarlet Tray Priest. Click the link and you'll find that he's a giant nasty ogre who likes to bop you on the head mess with your head.

Here's some Venomous Captain America for ya.

 

And that's about it for me. Stay tuned tomorrow, it's Thanksgiving!

(In the meantime, surely you can find something at i-mockery to keep you busy.

Yokai Secrets.

The secrets of Dracula:

Dracula is usually a gentlemen in a cloak, but once he opens the cloak, he can turn into seven different things, one after the other. (1) the Mist, (2) a Gecko, (3) a Rat, (4) a Bat, (5) an Owl, (6) a Wolf, and (7) a blood-sucking vampire.

The secrets of a Witch:

In addition to being adept at flying on a broomstick, Witches have the ability to transform as well. They can become (1) a venomous Bee, (2) a black Goat, (3) a venomous Lizard, (4) a man-eating Wolf, (5) a venomous Toad, and venomous Snake. It doesn't mention their familiarity with their familiar, a black cat.

Zombies aren't mentioned in this particular book, though I did find some delectable Zombie snacks today. 

I haven't tried them yet. Based on the picture below, they will make delightful additions to party snacks.

 I'm going to call it an early night. More Halloween lessons tomorrow...

Ol' Blighty!

There are a few Yokai from the British Isles besides the Irish. Here are a few from England. One of the most famous European Yokai has to be the 狼男 (Okami-otoko, literally "changing man").

Thanks to Henry Hull (Werewolf of London), Lon Chaney Jr. (The Wolf Man) and David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London), and Scooby-Doo (Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf), werewolves have often been portrayed as sympathetic creatures. I must say I like the Yokai version a lot.

ケルピー (Kelpies) are shape-changers that hang around the Lochs and pools of Scotland.

I don't know much about the one below though he does turn up in a Nintendo game somewhere.

Next up are コーモラン (Comoran: see this link about Jack the Giant-killer) and ゴブリン (Goblins, which don't need much explanation.

ドラキュラ伯爵 (Dracula, I've added his formal title of Count) doesn't need much introduction so I won't bother.

I found this guy for a buck a few days ago. I'm not sure what series he's from though he should fit in well with the above entry.

I wasn't aware that Pucks were a collective creature, I only knew of the one from A Midsummer's Night Dream. パック do look dashing in their formal headgear.

Finally, we have ブラウニー (Brownies) who also hail from Scotland. My sister was once a Brownie, that explains a lot.

It appears that this with this entry, I have once again duplicated myself. 8 years ago, I also wrote about the Yokai of The UK only in greater detail. Alas, all the pictures of the Yokai were weirdly askew, this time they're all right-side up. 

A quick treat for you is this tiny cheesecake KitKat.

This entry was supposed to have been written last night but real life got in the way and I've had a busy day today. Hopefully I'll have another entry in a few hours but first I'm going to sit back and watch new animated The Addams Family. 

Bela Lugosi's Dead.

Since this happens to be Bela Lugosi's birthday, I saved my Dracula book for today.

Before you start perusing these pics, open a tab and listen to this, Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus.

If you know the story as well as I do, you should be able to piece it together by the pictures.

Unfortunately with these books, they switch from colour pictures to black and white

 

 It was handy of Vlad to put his name on his coffin so that Helsing knew who to stake.

The author, Bram Stoker.

Vlad Țepeș aka Vlad the Impaler aka Count Dracula.

These are the other books in the series. The only other one I own is #14, The Wizard of Oz. (See the 5th picture of this bunch of books.

Speaking of bats, I picked up a 6-pack of tea a while ago and have been waiting for an opportunity to try this mask.

Hmm. not bad. If I'm going to keep it, I'll have to attach some string to it.

The most logical Kemono Friend to use today, has to be ナミチスイコウモリ namichisui-koumori or Common Vampire Bat.

I like the lowest version of this bat, she looks more like this:

Since I doubt whether I'll get an opportunity to add any other bats, here is ウサギコウモリ  usagi-koumori (rabbit bat?)

better known as the Brown-eared Bat.

Another of our chiropteran pals would be Honduran White Bat.

I can see the resemblance.

For a couple of fellow Countdown bloggers, check out the Instagram page of Battyville or the tumblr of Bat 'N Kat.