Planning for the holidays

Well actually Halloween.

We finally got around to having the stupid mercury vapor yard light turned off. (been thinking about it for a while, just hadn't got around to it) Didn't need it, a couple properly placed fixtures with LED bulbs works for me.

Now we can focus on our nighttime holiday decorations, Fourth of July, Christmas and of course my favorite, Halloween. Have started drawing up plans for a small haunted cemetery in my front yard and scrounging up some old cardboard boxes for fake headstones. While compiling a list of sound effects and spooky song playlist (which we have added a list of some ideas at the end of this post). Have one of those boxes that you just hook up speakers and plug a USB thumb drive into and let it play several hours of MP3 files continuously. Now if I can find my old pair of PA speakers.

I'm thinking some select K-pop songs might be a nice touch (Dreamcatcher, PIXY, TRI.BE’s WITCH, Sunmi, Pink Fantasy, maybe some PURPLE KISS),

Maybe some Wonder Girls, just to make it more bizarre, with some sound activated strobe lights. All separated by various obligatory sound effect between them.

Perhaps BLACKPINK? Nah, — maybe just some Lalisa, she ought to stir up something. 😋

(Some may say, “Wait a minute, that's not Halloween music!” To which we would say, “Wanna bet?”)

Of course along with the classics as well, like Monster Mash, Dance Macabre, Night on Bald Mountain, Deep Purple's Burn, Child in Time, some Motorhead, a couple Hanzel und Gretyl tunes, and maybe a few Black Sabbath songs to round it out. (if I'm not careful, it may actually become haunted 😁 — I wonder if exorcists make house calls on Halloween? 🤔)

I'm thinking some of those songs should sound nice, blaring out of a pair of properly positioned PA speakers, on the usually cool nights we get in late October. Combined with a few local barred owls, off in the distance and an expected waxing half moon to add to the ambiance.

Dug out my old fog machine and plan to cut a hole in the back of an electric jack o’lanten to have the fog spewing out of the cutouts.

Combined with some junk from a box of various old 12 volt strobes, neons and marker lights. Which should supply my accent lighting. Which now should be much more effective without the glaring mercury vapor.

Amusingly I live in a very rural area, on what should normally be a low traffic road, but it seems to have quite a bit of local traffic. So, my efforts shouldn't be wasted. — unless, of course, I scare off the natives 😋

Have been watching some of the DIY videos on YouTube, and still have several months until then. 🙂

Of course, the Fourth of July is up before that, but much easier and not nearly as much fun (well, I suppose it could be). 😄

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author's note: Okay, this is a useless post, I'm just babbling, but hey, it's my blog. 😋

( —and perhaps may start someone else thinking)

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Here are a few suggestion and ideas for some possibly different music for your Halloween playlists. — of course, this is not definitive, but intended to give you some ideas, and start you thinking of other stuff that you may decide to add to your mix

Most of these can be found on the internet.

Do not screw up your already perfect playlist, just make a new one, if the new one does not work as expected, just go with your original mix.

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NOTE: You may want to be careful with some of these. 😁

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If you are unfamiliar with K-pop; and looking for some different music to add to your Halloween playlists. Depending on the level of dark you are looking for, here are a few K-pop girl groups, that we are aware of, who have varying shades to choose from. With some leaning more heavily into the dark than others. With a varying range of musical styles. There is no reason why some of these groups’ songs would not fit nicely into your usual holiday mix. — you may be surprised

(in some cases, using the audio from the music videos may give you some added sound effects)

( — and if you are into the projector thing, you may want to consider some of the music videos)

— you can find more on YouTube by searching for “spooky K-pop” or just "spooky songs"

aespa - Armageddon, Trick or Trick

AleXa (solo act)

ARTMS

Billlie

BLACKPINK - Pink Venom, Pretty Savage

Dreamcatcher

EVERGLOW - Zombie

f(x) - Dracula (some think Red Light is spooky)

Grace (solo) - Trick or Treat

i-dle

ITZY - Imaginary Friend

IVE - Accendio, HEYA

NMIXX - Dice, O.O

PURPLE KISS

Pink Fantasy

PIXY

Red Velvet (especially some by Irene and/or Seulgi)

Rolling Quartz (Rock band)

Sunmi (solo)

TRI.BE - WITCH

of course, you always have songs by classic western Rock and Metal bands: 

AC/DC

Alan Parsons Project

Black Sabbath

Blue Oyster Cult

Deep Purple

Def Leppard

Crocus

Girls School

Hawkwind

Jimi Hendrix

Led Zeppelin

Lita Ford

Mahogany Rush

Metallica

Motörhead

Ozzy Osbourne

Pat Benatar

Pink Floyd

Quiet Riot

Rainbow

Ratt

Scorpions

Van Halen

Vixen

X

… just to name a few that quickly came to mind

Oh, and do not forget to consider a few Classical pieces as well, for instance:

Bach - Toccata and fugue in D minor

Chopin - Funeral March

Mussorgsky - Night on Bald Mountain

Saint-Saens - Dance Macabre

Plus a few extra odds and ends to consider:

Ava Max - Belladonna, Freaking Me Out, Ghost, Sleepwalker, Spot a Fake, Sweet but Psycho, Turn Off The Lights

Bob Welch - Ebony Eyes

Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers - Monster Mash

Classics IV - Spooky

Cliff Richards - Devil Woman

Collide - White Rabbit

DOROTHY - Rest In Peace

Dua Lipa - Houdini

Eagles - Witchy Woman

ELO - Evil Woman

Flyleaf - I'm So Sick

Halestorm

Hanzel und Gretyl

Hollies - Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress

Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Mazzy Star - Ghost Highway

Miley Cyrus - Fly On The Wall, Midnight Sky

Night Club

Sarah McLachlan - Possession

Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild

The Pretty Reckless

The Prodigy

Wonder Girls - Tell Me   << Okay, yeah, it is not spooky, but adding it to our list seems to add just a bit of the bizarre 😋 — of course, you might come up with something else equally as bizarre 🙂

theme music from:

  Halloween

  Phantasm

  Terminator

  The Addams Family

  The Exorcist

  The Munsters

  The Outer Limits

  The Twilight Zone

  The X Files

— and do not forget some various game music that could fit into your holiday mix, especially from:

Descent

DOOM

Duke Nukem

Space Marines

— and just about any Gothic Rock songs

— Black Metal / Death Metal (if you you like that)

— Gregorian chants?

— Country and Western / Bluegrass ghost story songs?

Do not be afraid to mix, match and shuffle your playlist.