Fresh Loaf

December 23 is the date people are meant to celebrate “Festivus,” the Christmas-substitute holiday invented by Frank Costanza as per the 1997 “Seinfeld” episode “The Strike.” I’m not sure if people are still amused by the idea of Festivus traditions like the airing of grievances and the feats of strength, but this clip offers a quick refresher.

Last Friday I received an unusual email in my inbox: a holiday greeting from “Spook House Dave.” A new on-line puppet series, “Spook House Dave” is produced by Atlanta’s Dragonfruit Studios and features the puppetry, writing and vocal talents such local performers as Lucky Yates, Scott Warren and Jason Von Hinezmeyer. Yates explains the premise:

It’s about a regular kid who was left on the doorstep of a haunted castle when he was a baby. There was a note attached that read “Please take care of baby Dave”. Monsters cannot refuse the word “please,” because it’s the magic word. So, now Dave is 11 and goes to school in town (Mt. Savage, Pa.) and leads a pretty normal life, except that he lives with monsters. It’s a relationship comedy shot “documentary style” which means that there’s a confessional where the characters get to comment on what’s happening in a episode.

“Spook House Dave” is scheduled to launch in late January of 2009. The clip introduces the characters as they sing a modified version of a well-known Christmas Carol.

Watch Spook House Dave! Holiday Greeting in Family Videos |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

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Last night I hit The Center for Puppetry Arts for opening night of The Ghastly Dreadfuls II: Handbook of Practical Hauntings and Other Phantasmagoria by Jon Ludwig and Jason Von Hinezmeyer. I’ll review it in more detail closer to Halloween, but wanted to mention that it easily lives up to its entertaining predecessor, The Ghastly Dreadfuls: Compendium of Graveyard Tales and Other Curiosities (which I previewed in 2006).

The follow-up has the same cast and same format, presenting seven undead storyteller/musicians, who use puppetry to recount chilling ghost stories while playing spooky tunes between tales. The new version presents new songs and stories, with the exceptions of “The Girl in the New Dress,” inspired by vintage Coca-Cola print ads, and “Danse Macabre,” a performance of the classic-Saint-Saens composition while amorous, boozing skeletons and other haints party down in a graveyard. You can catch glimpses of the latter two in this preview clip edited from the show’s previous incarnation:

So a funny thing happened at opening night…

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