I have to admit to being cynical. I didn’t intend to go to any haunts in NYC. As much as I love NYC, events held in here tend to be crowded and expensive. You can spot someone from NYC in any club in the country because they have a unique dancing style that involves keeping to the smallest space possible. Needless to say, I assumed any haunted house in NYC wouldn’t be worth my time. Google revealed negative reviews for this haunt, but I wen anyway because we have already established that you can’t trust everything that you read online.

Blood Manor was definitely worth my time. I was actually surprised with how well set up and different the rooms were. Sure, they did use a lot of purchased animatronics, but I felt that they were well integrated with the set pieces and the actors were plentiful and well trained. It wasn’t a case where they were using purchased haunt props to cheap out on the actor count.

WTF. :D This was on the 2nd floor before the attraction:

The attraction is located on the second floor of the building. The hallway up there is painted like this – slightly NSFW:

The actors were amazing. Their demeanor was uniquely New York in a good way. For example, one zombie ran at me screaming, “YO WHATS UP, GIRL?!?” They actually took time to mess with us and confuse us in certain rooms. Some of the scares were very well set up. They got me quite a few times. We were in the attraction for about 20 minutes, but we were walking probably faster than we should have been. We paid $25 each to go through. If we had wanted to we could have gone back through for an additional $10. We waited about 15 minutes to get in. They let small groups of about 5 through at a time. I am not sure if the bad reviews I read online stem from a long line vs attraction time ratio. Long lines and crowds generally come with the territory in NYC. We went the first weekend of November. Our line was pretty short and they had some actors outside to mess with us:

Blood Manor is your best bet for a solid, traditional haunted house within NYC. It’s not as big as a massive farm haunt, but it feels big – especially for NYC. I’d definitely go again.

This happened in Disneyland Paris. I don’t know why, but it seems that the costumed characters have much more freedom to do things like this everywhere EXCEPT in Disney World (Florida).

For example, this is HILARIOUS from Disneyland in California:

Nightwish’s new single Storytime is available starting November 9th. It is the first single of the upcoming album Imaginaerium. The album is released Dec 27th in the USA, but you can pre-order it now.

Also, I must be on the same wavelength. Before even seeing this I designed a Steampunk Snow White of my own. Please excuse the iPhone photo- I have to send it out to get scanned for real. After this it will look much better.

Steampunk Snow White at War:

It’s that time again when you can come and say hi to me in person. My schedule for AnimeUSA this weekend is as follows:

Opening Ceremonies Friday 4 PM-5:30 PM Main Events (Ballroom Level)

The Computer is Willing, but the Spirit is Weak: How to Build the Motivation to Keep Going
Saturday 4 PM-5:30 PM Workshop 1 (Kennedy 3rd Floor)

Portfolio Review Sunday 1 Pm-2:30 PM Workshop 1 (Roosevelt Room 3rd floor)

Introduction to Webcomics Sunday 2:30 PM-4 PM Workshop 1 (Roosevelt Room 3rd floor)

Stu Block from Into Eternity is now their new singer. So guys, what do you think? I’m still deliberating. It seems right off that he can hit both the Barlow and Ripper type styles really well.

Iced Earth began to become famous with Matt Barlow as their singer. They sounded something like this:

When he left the band, Ripper replaced him. Then they sounded something like this:

Everyone seemed to be angry at this point because most fans preferred Barlow. I agree that Barlow was very good and Dark Saga was one of their best albums, but I actually am in the minority here when I say that I liked Ripper the best on Framing Armageddon. At the very least, it sounded to us that their next album (with Barlow) The Crucible of Man was written for a style similar to Ripper’s style and it just didn’t work with Barlow on vocals. (I can already feel the hate mail coming…) I listened to it once and never again. Stu Block seems to be able to do both vocal styles. So far I like this new album, but I’ll have to get used to it before I make a final decision.