Halloween 2021: Week 2!
Time for a new thread! Hope everyone enjoyed the first official week of the Halloween season, not to mention the first week of Dino Drac’s Halloween Countdown!
I’ve been forcing myself to pace myself and not get hung up on weekly quotas and stuff. One thing I wanted to do differently this season is allow myself time to work on bigger videos, and then maybe let those videos have more than a minute to collect eyes before moving onto the next thing. (On that note, gonna be filming the next edition of Halloween Junk Food History this weekend. Onward to 2004!
Other than that, I’ve just been enjoying the season. Every little bit of it. Tonight I had to drive all over Jersey for a silly reason that’s not worth getting into, but the point is that it was chilly and dark, and with very little traffic on the highways. Rolled down the window and cranked the jukebox, and it was a total slice of Halloween heaven. Those uncelebrated parts of the season are so often the best ones.
This thread is here to carry you through Week 2 of the Halloween season. Talk about whatever ya want! Up above is a little ambiance, if you need it. Background noise in the form of an endless thunderstorm. Enjoy!
Halloween 2021: Week 1!
Dinosaur Dracula’s 2021 Halloween Countdown has begun, and with it, a new “season” here on Dino Drac After Dark! This year, we’re going to keep things extra simple. A new thread posted every Friday night, which’ll (hopefully) carry the discussions throughout the week!
Drop by as often as you like, and join the conversation with a bunch of swell Halloween maniacs who live for this stuff as much as you do. Don’t be shy — everyone is friendly around these parts. In the comments, feel free to talk about anything having to do with Halloween, and once you get settled, even maybe things that have nothing to do with Halloween.
New snacks! Planned trips! Horror movies! Whatever! Think of After Dark as a casual late-night clubhouse without a lot of frills or fuss, where you can chat about nonsense without the weird pressure that comes with most social media platforms.
…and for a little background noise, here’s ten minutes’ worth of vintage Halloween TV spots! This is my own upload and I’m pretty sure I’ve run it on After Dark before, but it’s just too perfect for our first night out. Dunno if it’s possible to watch this compilation and not FEEL the season.
Enjoy yourselves, and keep your eye on the main site, too — there’s so much yet to come!
Retro Commercials MegaMix #2!
Just gonna go ahead and throw another post on here, not because we need one already, but because I’m desperate to get rid of that damn Christmas tree before the Countdown starts!
Speaking of which, today was my annual “buy way too much shit for launch day” errand run. Hit Big Lots and Spirit, and I think I found what I need for the first Madd Matt video. Then it was off to Home Depot to grab stuff to light my videos with, because I really am low-fi enough to do it that way rather than purchase an actual lighting kit. While there, I saw the giant skeleton. He’s a beaut.
Last night, I set up my office for the Halloween vids. Halfway, at least. Still gotta do some cleaning and decorating, but I got the backdrop in place. In prior years I used a spray-painted dropcloth, but this year I just tacked up a whole bunch of Halloween throw blankets. Sounds low-rent and it totally is, but it actually looks good and has successfully blocked any sunlight from pouring in. So now my office kinda feels like a big Halloween tent, which is cozy and inspiring.
As for Dino Drac After Dark, my current Halloween plan is to simply do weekly threads. I’ll pepper in some embeds and surveys and stuff, but all things being equal, one weekly thread seems like the right move. (Last year’s experiment with the multiple thread drops was cool at the start, but after a while it felt like there were diminishing returns. Best to keep this place casual, as it’s meant to be!)
For tonight, here’s another of my hourlong compilations of ’80s and ’90s commercials. There are a LOT of spots in these comps that I’ve never uploaded individually, let alone featured on Dino Drac. I think you’ll dig it. I only included spots that I found interesting, but there are soooo many in here that you’re just not gonna see on the typical retro commercial compilation. Enjoy!
Retro Commercials MegaMix!
Well, it’s been forever since I updated Dino Drac After Dark, and since I need to get that damn Christmas tree off the first page ASAP, let’s do this.
I hope you’ve all been well, and I appreciate you guys holding down the fort so peacefully! It’s actually very odd to be adding a new DDAD post, as the last time I updated this place, my life was almost unrecognizably different. Seems like a lot of us are having that kind of year!
The Halloween season totally crept up on us, starting earlier than it ever has before. (At least, if you judge the “start” by when stores start smacking you in the face with black-and-orange stuff.) Happy to report that while I have been indulging, I haven’t been overindulging, so I definitely don’t feel like I blew my wad by going all-in on the season *too* early.
On that note, Dino Drac’s Halloween Countdown begins next Friday night. I didn’t go wild with hyping it because, honestly, this year, I kinda just want to do whatever feels right and not get hung up on any expectations — even my own expectations. That said, don’t you worry, I’m working on stuff!
For tonight, here’s an hourlong commercial compilation I uploaded last winter, which thanks to After Dark’s long lack of updates somehow still counts as fresh material! I put a lot of work into this comp, and I hope it shows — audio levels balanced throughout, aspect ratio consistent, and every spot color-corrected. (I can’t stand it when YT comps have roving aspect ratios, or even worse, audio that jumps from a whisper to a scream.)
The spots were all pulled from my VHS tapes, and they’re all from the ’80s and ’90s. Enjoy!
