Gingerdead’s Calan Ree asks the important questions. Why is candy corn so emblematic of Halloween and why does candy corn taste so much less good than it looks like it should?

Most years, friends of mine have pumpkin carving parties. This year, the economy sucks so hard that spending a bunch of dough on squash abuse seems profligate. So I’ve been getting my jack o’lantern fix from the internet and photos of Halloweens past.

The Pumpkin Lady posts, in addition to her premium templates, free pumpkin carving templates. I admit that watching her pumpkin carving videos is not the same as the real thing, but it is still fun.

One of the supermarkets near me hasn’t been selling their pumpkins at all this year. I so deeply want to buy like a zillion of them, when they are marked down on November 1, and have Halloween late this year. And I just might get me and my unsavory pals some pumpkin carving template designs from Pumpkin Lady and do just that. If every day is Halloween anyway, that is really just taking it one step farther. Whoo-hoo! Pushing the envelope!

A while back, we were chatting in the forums about horror movies and gore on film. It occurred to me that outspoken Blue Blood superstar hottie Jax, with her extensive body modifications, would have a very interesting and unique perspective on subjecting the human body to extremes. Definitely a topic which called for an in-depth interview with Jax!

Amelia G: What are some of your favorite horror movies or other media?

Jax: I grew up on the oldies like Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween movies, I remember watching them with my dad when I was really young so I’ll always hold those as some of my favorites. I really, really like almost anything done by Takashi Mike.

Amelia G: What are some of your favorite real gore movies or other media?

Jax: My most favorite real gore are the Faces/Traces of Death series and the movie Cannibal Holocaust (thanks TOA for showing me that real gore movies are out there).

Amelia G: Do you find gore in horror movies scary?

Jax: Scary? Not really. Sometimes some things will make my toes curl, because I have an overactive imagination. But that’s because I’m thinking “Woah, what would that feel like?” or “Yeah, I remember when I did that, and it didn’t feel very pleasant.”

Amelia G: I think a lot of people would be freaked out by seeing someone hung off a hook or someone getting their tongue split or a hole punched out of someone’s flesh in a movie torture scene. Obviously, you have an intriguing and different perspective from the average person because you know what all those things would actually feel like. Do you think that your real life experiences make movie scenes more visceral for you or more ho hum or just more interesting?

Jax: I’d have to say more interesting mainly, but only because of other people’s perspectives. While I’ve actually felt what it was like to hang from hooks, punch holes in my ears, get my tongue split or any other sort of more extreme body modification, it’s interesting to see other people’s reaction to them on the TV. Like recently, my mom watched Strangeland, and was freaking out over some of the suspension scenes, knowing full well I have done multiple suspensions. The difference is she watched them on TV but wouldn’t look at the pictures of me doing them, haha. I think maybe if she saw pictures of me doing them, it would have become a little more realistic, I dunno.

However some scenes are more visceral for me. Seeing it and actually being able to relate to those feelings is almost odd in a way that sometimes those feelings will rush back to me. Almost as if I’m participating again.

Amelia G: Do you think the context of, for example, a consensual one hook suspension is so different from something forced on someone unwilling that the experiences are not really comparable? Does the manner in which something like that is done entirely change how an individual would experience it i.e. what aspects do you feel would make an experience like that more uplifting vs. more like torture?

Jax: Being forced and being willing I feel are two entirely different experiences. For example, when you willingly do a one hook suspension, it is because you want to experience the pain, the emotion and the overall sense of what is going on. I can’t imagine being forced to do a suspension. Your mind is just not in the right place to get the full aspect of what is about to happen. For anything to be an uplifting experience, you have to want to do it. You have to be curious, not repulsed, by the act in certain situations. I feel in these situations, torture is any physical or emotional pain that you are not willing to be consensual to, and is being forced upon you. Some people feel that suspensions, tattoos, piercings or any other body mod is performing torture and mutilation upon ones self. I completely disagree, because these are things I want to feel and experience as far as the mindset. In order for it to be uplifting, the number one thing (I feel) is you have to be comfortable.

Amelia G: Some people enjoy going to the gym and some people just like how working out makes them feel or look. To what extent have you enjoyed the process of getting each of your varied body modifications and to what extent was the ends of having them more enjoyable for you personally than the means of acquiring them?

Jax: If going to the gym and working out makes you feel or look great, then kudos to you. I respect your decision to do so, as I would hope those would respect my decisions for my body mods. The biggest thing I really enjoy about the process of getting new mods is the planning that goes into each one. While my piercings dont really have any sort of meaning other than I like the way they look, each and every one of my tattoos has meaning. And I have to say, through all the years the most enjoyable thing about having what I have is being able to look back and remember each and every detail about my life at the time I had them done. Almost like a picture album. Where I was, my thoughts on life, and my innermost feelings are things that could never be captured with a camera.

And I have to admit, the endorphin rush and the feeling of overcoming pain once its over is pretty attractive to me in itself regardless of the mod. No, I’ve never orgasmed while getting a body mod, the feelings of accomplishment and the love I have with the finished result is much more powerful.

I’ve always thought that the scent of certain foods should be packaged as cologne. Who wouldn’t want to lick someone who smelled like fresh doughnuts in the morning? Baked goods in general can provoke this sense. I find Mrs. Fields cookies uninteresting as a food, but they smell so damn alluring in the mall; I just want to get close to them. Even certain frozen foods, like Stouffer’s mashed potatoes, smell like the sort of thing that could make a prospective partner’s mouth water. I’d love to have a really good coffee body spray. Heck, I want to roll around naked in a two person tub full of Intelligentsia Black Cat espresso beans.

Taking this concept one step too far, Burger King (aka the people who brought you a pervert Subservient Chicken in garters), have introduced Flame body spray for (I think) men.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and admit that, although I did used to enjoy Burger King chicken tenders, I haven’t eaten them in many many years and I never ever liked the Whopper. On school field trips as a child, I did always vote for Burger King where they sort of had food and didn’t object to leaving off the disgusting fast food spreads. BK, where I could have it my way, was clearly superior to McDonald’s where pretty much nothing, except the french fries, was remotely food. Some of my classmates would want to go to a place called Micky D’s and it took me ages to figure out this was a hip (if you are like eight-years-old) way to refer to McDonald’s.

Genius demented ad copy for the body spray scent like working in fast food:

“The WHOPPER sandwich is America’s favorite burger. FLAME by BK captures the essence of that love and gives it to you. Behold the scent of seduction, with a hint of flame-broiled meat.“

My favorite burger is one I cook myself, pan fried well done, with goat cheddar on top, and no bun, and no spread, and no rancid pickles. If we are taking all of the Americas into account, the best burger meat I’ve ever had was in Brazil. My next favorite burger is the Kobe beef burger from Lucky Devils on Hollywood Blvd, well done, with bacon and cheddar on top, bun and aioli and broccoli on the side. And, yes, I know they don’t have it that way precisely on the menu. I’m not sure I’d want to smell like it, even made precisely the way I love most, but so it goes.

Flame Burger King cologne is available for online purchase from Ricky’s Halloween Costume Superstore, the site for which explains that it is “The hottest, funkiest, craziest costume shop in New York City!” At the very least, it is your go-to spot if you want to get that BK burger funk all over your bod.

I wonder if Los Angeles has more unqualified people attempt heists than the average city.

I just came in from my balcony. It is too dark tonight to see the Hollywood sign clearly. Or maybe it is too bright and the sign is overwhelmed by the nearly full moon and the holiday decorations visible on top of the Capitol Records building.

I just finished watching the Halloween episode of Boomtown. Boomtown is a long-canceled crime drama, which starred Donnie Wahlberg as a hard-driving detective with a good heart and a depressed wife. Each episode is shot from the point of view of multiple characters, who come together to show the whole story. I imagine show creator Graham Yost probably referenced Pulp Fiction during the pitch meeting. It is a sympathetic way to tell a story, such that the viewer understands where even characters at odds with one another are coming from.

Boomtown’s “All Hallows Eve”, written by show creator Graham Yost, features, in addition to a pumpkin hunt gone laugh-out-loud horribly wrong, an ambulance hijacked by a heist crew of desperadoes, dressed as cowboys, one of whom has been shot. The ambulance paramedic is one of the show’s more lovable characters, yet your heart just goes out to the lead hijacker.

The heist mastermind, Holden McKay, and his wounded brother Sam, came out to Hollywood to be stuntmen. After working as a janitor in a movie studio, Holden decides that a heist would be easy to pull on Halloween, when masks would not seem suspicious. Even though his master crime obviously failed badly enough that his brother got shot, listening to Holden explain how he could have been a janitor in Tulsa, but he came to Los Angeles for something more, I find myself thinking that pulling a heist would be totally reasonable.

The actor seems so convincing and compelling that I’m sure I must have seen him in a major role in something else. According to the internet, I probably saw the actor, named Tyler Christopher, also dressed as a cowboy on CSI, but his main claims to fame are that he used to be married to Eva Longoria of Desperate Housewives (which I have never seen) fame and, oh yeah, he is apparently a huge soap star, having appeared on approximately nine gajillion episodes of General Hospital. I looked up how many episodes of General Hospital George Clooney was on, so I could make a statement about how every huge success in Los Angeles is somehow dwarfed by someone else’s. Only it turns out George Clooney was on E.R. I’m assuming they both take place in hospitals populated by hunky men, so anybody (who had never watched either) could make the same mistake.

A funny thing about Los Angeles is that there is always the sense that there is something bigger, something really huge, something incredibly larger than the average life. And that something is just barely beyond your grasp. It doesn’t matter how ridiculously successful you are either. You don’t have to be a janitor to feel like this here. There is the sense that if you were just a bit bolder, just a bit more extroverted, just a bit more elusive, or just a bit more in the right place at the right time, then you would finally break through to the big time. I don’t think anyone in Hollywood is ever so rich or so famous that they don’t feel like this, like they could hold the moon in the palm of their hand, if they could just figure out how to possess a slightly better balcony.

In “All Hallow’s Eve”, the ambitious lawyer, played by Neal McDonough, who is planning to run for District Attorney goes to a party at a Hollywood home with lavish Halloween decorations. They are there because the attorney hopes to eventually hit the party-thrower up to film a campaign commercial. He and his wife joke somewhat disparagingly about how their host wrote “that one with the bus” and “that other one”. Graham Yost, in addition to creating Boomtown, wrote Speed, which was okay, was indirectly responsible for Speed 2: Cruise Control, which I had the sense not to see, and wrote Broken Arrow, which was bad enough to stall the careers of both Christian Slater and John Woo in one movie.

Boomtown seems solid so far and I was interested in the show because Graham Yost also created the more recent Raines cop drama, which is pure genius. Raines is brilliant enough that I can forgive Broken Arrow. Jeff Goldblum plays depressed Detective Michael Raines who solves crimes by being a crazy person who hallucinates speaking with dead people, but who has the misfortune to know he is out of his gourd, although very good at his job. Detective Bobby “Fearless” Smith from Boomtown has a cameo on Raines, so they both take place in the same world. It is a world where both horrible and wonderful things happen.

So I wonder if Los Angeles, as compared to most cities, has statistically way way way more giant crimes attempted by amateurs. I’ve also got a pal at the District Attorney’s office I could drop an email, but I can’t decide how a statistician would quantify such a thing. Maybe a statistician wouldn’t quantify such a thing. Maybe the aggregate average of longing for greatness, expressed as the cosine of plucking the Hollywood moon out of the sky, can only really be quantified by midnight philosophers and dudes who create unjustly canceled cop shows for NBC.

So, who wants to pull a heist with me?

Blue Blood sponsored an awful lot of events this Halloween, but the one I was saddest to miss personally, because I had to work, was the Release the Bats 10 Year Anniversary party. In addition to limited edition RTB 10 anniversary commemorative Blue Blood pins, the goodie bags for the event included limited edition RTB 10 anniversary commemorative pins and all sorts of fiendish goodies, including some Sisters of Mercy tickets.

When Release the Bats started in 1998, Shane Talada wrote in his Anorexic Press zine, “It is with complete and utter disregard for all that is established, and with murderous intent we seek to tear down and rebuild a part of the underground movement that became institutionalized by greed.”

He was talking about what was being called goth or gothic by flavor du jour club promoters in the Los Angeles club scene at the time. It was a situation where something, which had seemed like the dark part of punk, had diverged into this wussy netgoth scenario with prissy clothing and a playlist limited to corporate pop dark bands only.

So Jenn Bats, Dave Bats, Shane Taleda, and Jeremy Meza set out to participate in reclaiming deathrock for the scene. I’m not sure whether Jeremy Meza is still involved. I haven’t seen him there when I’ve gone in recent years and, liking everyone involved, I’ve never asked, for fear of the answer. The rest of Element was on hand for the anniversary festivities to perform air guitar in the video featured above.

All of this, I guess, just goes to show that sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same. In every cool scene, there are always good guys, always bad guys, always dramas, always pretenders, and always annoying dicks who care more about a dollar than they do about what they are involved in. While it all goes in cycles, the cool stuff hasn’t been wiped out entirely yet, not even with cool new internet astroturf technology. So keep your hopeful hats on.

Dana Dark is one of Blue Blood’s online OGs. It was after staying at her beautifully-appointed home in Houston for a week that Blue Blood launched its first membership site. Dana creates beauty and warmth in every little nook and cranny of her home. Like, if there is some tiny square of wall in the bathroom, she will think of the perfect antique frame or something like that to dress it up. There are now twenty-seven photo sets featuring Dana Dark in the Blue Blood VIP area.

I’ve spent more than one holiday with Dana and there is seriously nobody who does up holiday cheer better than she does. She really gets into the festive spirit, she is fabulous at decorating, she cooks, and she is starting her own clothing line. When my guy friends look at photos of Dana, she is always the girl they fantasize about marrying.

Amelia G: What are your favorite holidays?

Dana Dark: For me it would be Halloween, Christmas and Easter but I think holidays in general can help us forget about the worriments of our lives and connect us with others – even if it’s for only a day.

Amelia G: What are your favorite kinds of Halloween treats?

Dana Dark: As I look back of past young Halloween nights, longing of warm caramel popcorn balls and rice crispy treats still haunts me today. Another favorite of mine are homemade, moist, thick, Halloween sugar cookies with vivid icing and spooky sprinkles. Also a must have beloved treat for this season’s spell is a visit to my local Panaderia (a Mexican bakery) for Dia de Muertos Sweet Bread and autumn spiced pastries.

Amelia G: What kinds of Halloween decorations did you make this year? If you can even list off half of them all because nobody does up Halloween like you do!

Dana Dark: Now that I have my daughter Bella and a three year old niece, I find it very important to spend memorable time with them – and what better way then to do so making Halloween decoration! We have made glitter pumpkins, old fashion garland and a pumpkin and ghost lantern.

Amelia G: What Halloween outfits have you made this year?

Dana Dark: For Bella, I decided that I would make a Halloween dress, or more, each year for as long as she wishes. With the scraps I’m saving from each dress, I’m going to fashion a Halloween quilt for her to have as a keepsake. The first dress I made Bella for this year is an apron Victorian witch dress. I love how it turned out. The second dress I made (for my niece as well) is a glitzy spider number with a sweet touch. The third is a punky dress. Making these dresses for my Bella has inspired me to start a children clothing line called NaNa and Bell.

Amelia G: What Halloween-inspired tattoos do you have?

Dana Dark: Mostly all of them ;) One I would like to mention, my black cat, is from a vintage 1940s-50s Beistle Halloween diecut which I like to collect.

Amelia G: Can you share a Halloween recipe or two with us? Maybe one for something healthy and one for something nice and sweet.

Dana Dark: Well, for a non-grave related healthy dish, I made a delicious curried coconut pumpkin soup, which by the way is vegan if you fallow the original formula, vegetarian if you replace the rice milk with cow’s milk and carnivorous by replacing the tofu with chicken. A must for everyone! Another recipe I would like to share is Colcanno, traditionally made on Halloween, is an age old Irish fare. I’ve made colcanna for years and as part of my dumb supper – a feast for the dead prepared on Samhain. For a super sweet bloody bite, I’ll leave you with this, a family recipe and my ultimate favorite in this undead world – My Bleeding Sweet Cake.

Recipes:

Curried Coconut-Pumpkin Soup

2 tablespoons light olive oil
1/4 cup minced red onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, ribs and seeds removed, finely chopped
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 1/2 cups peeled, cubed (1-inch), seeded pumpkin
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup light coconut milk
1 cup rice milk
1 pound extra-firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 red bell pepper, ribs and seeds discarded, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
In large, heavy pot over medium-high heat, heat oil. Saute onion, garlic, jalapeno, and ginger until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add curry powder and pumpkin. Cook and stir for 1 minute.
Stir in coconut milk and rice milk; bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer; cover and cook for 15 minutes. Add more milk or water if needed.
Add tofu and red bell pepper. Simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes, uncovered, or until pumpkin is tender. Season with lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Garnish with whole cilantro leaves. Serve hot.
Yield: 4 servings

Colcannon

2 pounds russet potatoes
4 slices bacon
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 leek, rinsed and chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups shredded green cabbage
1/3 cup butter
1 cup hot milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. white pepper
Peel potatoes and cube. Place in saucepan and cover with cold water. Place on high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork.
Meanwhile, cook bacon in large saucepan until crisp and browned, turning often while cooking. Remove bacon to paper towels to drain; crumble. To drippings remaining in saucepan, add olive oil. Cook onion, garlic, and leeks until crisp tender, about 3-5 minutes. Then add cabbage, cover, and cook for 6-10 minutes until cabbage is tender.
When potatoes are cooked, drain and return potatoes to hot pot; shake over low heat for a few minutes to dry. Add butter and mash. Add milk and salt and pepper; beat until combined. Stir in bacon and cabbage mixture. Serve immediately, or place in serving dish and keep warm in 200 degrees F oven for 1 hour.
Serves 6-8

My Bleeding Sweet Cake

1 cup butter
1oz bottle red food coloring
1/2 cup shortening
3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoon vanilla
Combine butter, shortening and sugar in a super large bowl – cream (mix) until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time mixing well. Mix in Vanilla and food coloring. Combine flour and salt – add to creamed mixture alternately with milk beating well. Pour batter into a greased and floured pan. Bake at 325 about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Coll completely and frost witch choice of frosting. I prefer a butter powder sugar frosting.
Serves 16

As part of the Halloween festivities, a series called spiderwebs, featuring Natalie Addams shot by Matthew Cooke just posted to the Blue Blood VIP members area. (I actually meant for it to post tomorrow, but I’m a little distracted with the Halloween holiday celebration, so y’all get it a day early.) Natalie Addams busted out the gothic cobwebs beautifully for this. These sexy spooky images are the eighth Blue Blood set of Natalie Addams and mark photographer Matthew Cooke’s first set for Blue Blood. Forrest Black and I have shared a house with him before, but this is his first Blue Blood appearance, although you should expect many more. Let’s make him feel welcome! Although I promise Natalie is delightfully nude on BlueBlood.com, we can’t show you any nudity here on BlueBlood.net, but you can check out a very hot preview in this free Natalie Addams Halloween gallery. Some of Natalie’s other credits include magazine appearances in Marquis, Sonic Seducer, Rue Morgue, Bizarre, Gothic Beauty, Tattoo Savage, DDI, Drum Pro, and Secret. Blue Blood superstar hotties do tend to get immortalized in print. And now, I’d like to share the sensually artistic Natalie’s thoughts on Halloween with you all.

Amelia G: What are your favorite kinds of Halloween treats?

Natalie Addams: Vegan Candies!! peanut chews, pumpkin pie.

Amelia G: How do you like to spend Halloween in general and do you have any special plans for Halloween this year?

Natalie Addams: I love dressing up, and of course halloween seems like it’s everyday to us goths ;) I usually like to go out and strut my costume on halloween, and see everyone’s costume creations. This year I am in New York filming some amazing zombie footage for the SMack! Halloween party. Hope to show you the photos and video footage soon :)

Amelia G: Last year, you were a sexy marionette. What are you wearing for Halloween this year?

Natalie Addams: I am wearing a rad zombie costume featuring a amazing waist cincher by Eirik Aswang, lots of latex, blood, gore, medical crosses. Kinda a medical barbie doll/giesha gone horribly wrong.

Amelia G: What are your favorite holidays?

Natalie Addams: ^v^Halloween!! by far!! An excuse to dress up and make even crazier outfits!

I’m going to admit that this year, like many Americans, I’ve been too caught up, either following election coverage or avoiding it, to properly celebrate Halloween. Sure, Blue Blood is sponsoring a few Halloween parties, most notably the Release the Bats decade anniversary. And I remembered to freshen up my hair color and play with squash a little. Some years, I get all freaked out about wanting to do too much for Halloween, but this year I haven’t even had my favorite holiday at the front of my brain most of the time. But I’ve been enjoying a bit of vicarious Halloween joy today, checking out the work of people like Dana Dark and Ray Villafane.

More on Dana Dark’s Halloween secrets later, but I want to tell you all about Ray Villafane now. He is an artist who primarily appears to work on sculpture for folks like Sideshow Collectibles and McFarlane Toys. In the unlikely event you are not familiar with those companies, they make collectibles for the horror, science fiction, fantasy, and general monsters and comic books realm.

But, wow, can Ray Villafane sculpt a pumpkin! Some people paint or draw on pumpkins. Most people just scoop out the guts and cut holes for features. I like to make jack o’lantern art at one step remove and have nude models scoop out the guts and cut holes for features. But Ray Villafane turns the pumpkin carving process into real sculptural works of art.

I’m feeling more buoyant about Halloween just thinking about it!

What originally happened to H.R. Giger’s initial conceptual designs for the “face-hugger” creature in the 1979 film “Alien?” If you know that the answer is that they were seized by U.S. Customs, then you should head over to the Halloween Catalog Trivia challenge and use your horror trivia brilliance to unlock the fun special video footage.

The films covered include Child’s Play, 28 Weeks Later, The Hills Have Eyes, Pumpkinhead, Jeepers Creepers, The Omen, Misery, Turistas, Hannibal, and the classic Alien.

I always felt like H. R. Giger just knew how to make really great-looking alien monster people-eater terrifying kind of art. He has fallen afoul of the law a lot though. Most Blue Blood readers probably know that H. R. Geiger’s artwork was the center of the controversy over distribution of The Dead Kennedys’ album Frankenchrist.

Everyone ready for Halloween?