Build Season Week 6

Victory!!!

The volcano got done despite me being a prop nazi and waking up at 3am saturday morning for no reason and being unable to fall asleep again. I was grumpy, so I apologize once again to my fellow haunters.

Now to the volcano:



Courtney and Kendra help out on volcano (everyone helped BTW)











Next weekend I'll make his eyes and teeth a bit bigger, and paint him up. I'll try to test out the smoke and fire if there is time.

Some other shots of the weekend labors:

Joe finishes the bridge



Tricia re-works last years blue man into the Lava Creep





Zac makes some feet and paints his ground breaker







props that got finished or 95% done:

Kendra's Carnivorous Flower
Tricia's Venus Fly Traps
Patty's Peeping Ghoul and shield
Zac's Ground Breaker
Zac's Little butcher from last year got some feet
Joe's Tiki painted
Haunted Vines and Blacklight Flowers
Lava effect
Altar candles

I am quite confident that now we will finish everything. Yay Halloween!!!

Build Season Week 5

Oh what a headache! Come on Volcano, be done already!!!

More guys and ghouls in the haunted garage this last weekend.









Man it doesn't look like much but we got a lot done. Zac made a ground breaker in a day and half. Tricia got started on voodoo dolls and candles and stemmed her venus flytraps. Patty's tiki mask from last week got painted and hooked up with a motor, but I forgot to photograph that. Joe got more work on the bridge done. I cast skulls and jaws all week end long and built the "Tower of Death" as we call it with the neighbors. You can see the Firebringer perched up top practicing his prayers.

This weekend coming up is the do or die build days. The Volcano must be done or all of halloween starts to slide in to failure and abandoned projects.

Build Season Week 4

After a long holiday I got back to working in the haunted garage on Saturday. Due to work and camping, I was the only one there.

I got a lot done:








Then on sunday I Kendra and Patty didn't have to work and joined me, along with first time prop builder Joe.

Kendra attended to the flora of Haunted Tiki Island:




Patty made a Samoan style tiki mask:




Joe built his first prop, a tiki mask/shield, which was not too shabby:




and I started my first wood tiki ever:



Next week it's time to move some lumber big time with all hands on deck. Ahoy Halloween!!!

The Tonga Room

The Tonga Room

On Labor Day K and I went to The Tonga Room, a tiki bar located in the basement of our hotel, The Fairmont, in San Fransisco. I'm not gonna rate the drinks or the price, but it was a fun tiki themed experience. Usual bar and grill fare with $20-$35 dinners and $10 cocktails. Some good some bad, but all in all a fun place.

Tikis:

It's a little sparse on tikis, and in the vein of the Tiki Room at Disneyland.

Drinks:

Good over all, fruity and full of booze, $10 each is the lowest price, up to $17.





Music:

It was a cover band when we went on a sunday night. It was a $5 cover and not too bad. They play on a boat that floats in the middle of the room in a pool of water(by the way the Tonga room used to be an indoor pool at the Fairmont, so thats where the water comes from.)



If you dine there you get to sit in the boat house. This has a thatched roof, and boats slung from the ceiling, but it is the least tiki-riffic area of the whole joint.



If you sit in the cocktail area, you get more tiki fun and decorations.















Last but not least, the dance floor is the deck of a pirate ship, with a giant tiki guarding it.



Check out the Tonga Room if your in San Fran, it's good.

The Last Vacation - No time lost

This weekend K and I took off to San Fransicso for Labor Day weekend. We spent the weekend going to all the art and science museums. I had heard that the De Young Museum was having a display of African masks and statues and some photographs by some famous photographers, but I didn't really have an idea of what was going to be there. Well, King Tut was there on display, but sans a mummy, I wasn't interested in looking at gold stuff and old jars with a million other tourists and paying extra to do it. What I didn't know about the De Young Museum was that it is home to an awesome collection of tribal and ancient art and artifacts.

Here are some highlights:

Asmat Ancestor Skull


Asmat Ancestor Skull


Dayak Carving


Tiki from Samoan Islands


Skull Reliquary from New Guinea




Decorative Shields








While I didn't make anything for Halloween over the 3 day weekend, I got a whole bunch of ideas to try and squeeze in this years haunt.