DAY 29: Undead Pirates vs. Society!

We’ve got stop motion, we’ve got live motion, we’ve got miniatures and pyrotechnics and classically trained animal movie stars! Coral Lobera’s mini film “The Fifth Rider of the Apocalypse” is chalk full of enough intriguing visuals to make you have weird dreams for months. It is so very tempting describe in full the surprises this film has to offer, but Gothtober doesn’t like spoilers, so mum’s the word, you’ll just have to go check it out.

Something we can definitely reveal is that this piece is accompanied by THREE types of metal music: Heavy Metal, Death Metal, and Instrumental Metal. It’s like having your very own college metal primer, worth 2 Gothtober University units!

And if you want your very own Ghost Pirates from Playmobile, they are available online, and big gross chain toy stores… and they glow in the dark. SO COOL.

Day 27: Watch Out, Aunt Connie!

This especially harrowing and monster-laden adventure in the park was put together by Mother and Son team Michele East and her son, Caleb. Keep an eye on Aunt Connie, she’s played by none other than Barry Morse, Gothtober artist DAY 30, coming right up in just three days!

In the meantime, enjoy DAY 27, and don’t let the vampires bite!

DAY 26: Castin’ My Spell on You

Alyssa Sherwood with daughter Lily have teamed up to make this wild and crazy music video that will most certainly leave you possessed! Keep an eye out for blue and green snakes, shoes in the dirt and pears and horse hairs in this quick-moving animated piece involving TONS of hand-manipulated photos and home made sketches. If you want to see more of Alyssa’s super cool animation and other works, visit Movingarden.com

And if you want to see day 26, look no further than this very spot.

Day 25: NO YOGA.

We’re starting your week with an uplifting, mind-altering experience called The Waller Family Singers. The Wallers set out for the desert with the specific purpose of not doing any yoga, but instead to create a film combining the collaborative input of all family members.

Scenes were shot in Joshua Tree and 29 Palms, and you may catch a glimpse of some native chaparral, a ruddy desert landscape at eventide, some scampering gleeful kid jewel thieves, perhaps some toast made of felt, and an emblematic figure whose face is concealed by a gauzy and ornamental headdress.

The desert is a magical place, no one knows this more than The Wallers. Do not seek to understand, simply seek No Yoga.

Day 24: Interpretive Brains

I don’t know what your brain is up to, and sometimes I don’t know what mine is up to either, but now you get to decide what brains are doing in Oonstein’s “Horrors of Demography.”

Shannon Dedman invites you  to interpret for yourself some intriguing little dioramas featuring small sculptures of cerebral matter in mostly domestic settings.

There isn’t a “wrong” or “right” way to look at these scenes, which is kind of refreshing, no? In the day and age of everything being so darned “spelled out” all the time, having room for imagination is pretty special.

Feel free to tell us any stories or ideas you come up with from looking at these scenes, Shannon likes hearing what people decipher from them. Maybe the pictures will inspire you to write brainy songs, or leave extra long and poetic answering machine messages that sound smarter than ever before. Maybe you’ll channel your inner algebra teacher and suddenly be able to solve bizarre polynomial equations!

The lil’ brains are made from Sculpey, the larger brain in the “kitchen” scene is about the size of a golf ball. Shannon (aka “Oonstein”) built all the little environments/props herself, and as you can see, they are rather detailed little worlds. It is Dedman’s great hope that there will be more exciting brain pictures in the future, the Gothtober blog will keep you posted should they become available on an internet near you.

See the Brain Show!

DAY 23: Lycanthropy Saturday!

For some people, a Saturday night isn’t just a simple night of partying, they’ve got to be aware of what condition the MOON is in before they get any ideas, as the town will get painted red all right, but not in the way you might think.

Jenny Walsh sends up a superbly animated piece that gives us a window into the world of another… a hairy, hungry supernatural being in a city you may have heard of in your geography books. This is Jenny’s 7th consecutive piece for Gothtober, we’re thrilled as always to unveil her work for you to see tonight.

Take me to London…

Day 22: Fun with a Gun in the Sun

It’s creepy, it’s crazy, it’s Billy Kheel! Seriously, Billy has been freaking us out on Gothtober for years now. Every year, without fail, Gothtober’s headquarters has a slight chill of anticipation/trepidation before we open Billy’s files to see what may be inside. His work is always impeccably rendered, always unpredictable. Here’s hoping you’re ready to rock out, because Billy’s piece this year is a weird and catchy music video dedicated to tanning beds, firearms, monsters and suspicious activities.

Watch it now!

Day 21: chicks in love

Gothtober Helena KimToday’s piece by Helena Kim is a heartwarming tale of chick-meets-chick, told through gingerly crafted and stop-motion animated yarn and felt creatures. Hel acquired over 40 pieces of felt to prepare for this epic stop-motion journey, and each crocheted chick boasts about 400 loops apiece.

This lovely little Gothtober love story might make you misty, or foggy, or downright stormy, depending on your mood and the atmospheric conditions. And certainly it will make you appreciative of the time and care it takes to cut, shape, navigate and finagle each star, heart, pumpkin, cloud and candy corn!

Enjoy!

Day 20: ¡A Spin of the Wheel!

It’s a craft. It’s an adventure. It’s a user-guided experience, a dérive, a gamble. It is, ladies and ghouls, a musically-inspired chance operation bicycle expedition tool. And it’s a generous collection of free, fantastic song downloads, hey-o!

Gothtober Day 20Gothtober Day 20It’s also apparently a glitch in the Matrix, as evidenced by the disappearing/ reappearing cat. Spooky.

This is the first year that Jen Hofer — wordsmith, nostalgia-collector and other amazing things, and Rob Ray — boy genius, pixel-magician and also other amazing things, have teamed up as the Free Radicals. It is lovely to see the eon-spanning, old/new media-mashing outcome. Bicycles are some of the best old media, after all.

Enjoy this mesmerizing watch and listen, and download the project for your own wandering devices. Don’t let the megabytes scare you; this download is worthwhile. Did we mention the free songs?