Author Archives: sf

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The Captain Beefheart Memorial Jack-o-lantern

The subject of this year’s Memorial Jack-o-lantern is Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart (January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010). Songwriter, vocalist, instrumentalist, and true rock innovator. Beefheart’s wild and wide-ranging voice led The Magic Band through 12 studio albums, and inspired musicians ranging from Tom Waits to Beck to The Black Keys. To create the epic, iconoclastic double album Trout Mask Replica (produced by Frank Zappa), the band lived and rehearsed in a small house for eight months, often in dire conditions. Beefheart wore the head of a carp for the Cal Shenkel-designed album cover (it is a trout mask replica, after all), upon which this memorial jack-o-lantern is based.

You can see a time-lapse video of the carving on the Memorial Jack-o-lanterns page.

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Halloween at the White House

I was invited to carve pumpkins at the White House for Halloween this year. Headed by James Parker, a small team of carving experts from around the country created a haunted display for the White House lawn. My main contribution was a life-size skeleton emerging from the ground, carved from three white pumpkins. You can see more photos here.

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Halloween Wars on Food Network: Sunday, Oct. 2

I’ve gone off to war. No, not with guns and bullets, but rather with knives and spoons upon a battlefield as spooky as it is delicious: the smoldering kitchens of the new Food Network show Halloween Wars.

I’m carving pumpkins on this new mini-series. Assigned to a team including a cake artist and a candy artist, I help create edible Halloween-themed displays by summoning my inner Edward Scissorhands against unsuspecting vegetables.

Four other teams of expert food artists oppose us. After four episodes, only one team will stand victorious with a bounty of $50,000.

The show is hosted by Justin Willman, and judged by cake decorator Shinmin Li and legendary concept artist Miles Teves. Special guest judges venture into the battlefield, including Jaime King, Scout Taylor-Compton, Goosebumps author R.L. Stine, and the one and only Rob Zombie.

Halloween Wars will premiere this Sunday, Oct. 2 at 9pm ET/PT on Food Network. The remaining episodes follow weekly: Oct. 9, Oct. 16, and the grand finale on Oct. 23 (plus reruns Wednesdays at 8pm).

Read more about it in this press release. If you haven’t seen them before, here are my Memorial Jack-o-lanterns.