Spiders have played a role every year in Blaze, and this year will be no different. Well, actually, it sounds like it will be quite a bit different. Creative Director Michael Natiello is planning a big boost in the spider department by changing the scope, placement, and visual impact of Blaze's popular spider web installation.

"The spider web this year will be strung between two apple trees in the orchard and will be up to 30 feet in diameter at some points," Natiello told the Blaze Blog today.

Thus, the web will be more "upright" than in years past, which should allow visitors to get a better overall view, without the need for a ladder or stilts.

The main body of the web, the foundation of which is pictured here, is about 20 feet wide. From there, "strings" of web will radiate out and attach to the trees.

"Baby spiders will appear to be crawling off the web and towards the visitor while mother spider watches from a distance," said Natiello.

Love the concept. Can't wait to see it executed.

Somebody just slipped the Blaze Blog a preliminary sketch of what will be the new welcoming tent for The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze. Looks to me like the Powers o' Blaze have more than doubled the size of it, to 40 feet by 120 feet.

The text in the image is hard to read at Web size but I'll walk you through it starting with the light blue area at the top left. That's the membership desk, where HHV Members can take care of all things Member-related and visitors with a joiner-type personality can sign up on the spot.

I'm particularly excited about the orange station next door, which is billed as the carving station (pumpkins, not turkeys and roast beef, as far as I know). Blaze artists will be carving pumpkins throughout the night, which will then be available for purchasing (or just oohing and ahhing over) at the Blaze Shop. I imagine, unless they are the temperamental artist type, that you could also use the opportunity to ask them for carving tips. This is a totally new feature this year.

From there, we have the satellite merch shop...last year it was dubbed Shop ‘n Glow because it carried a lot of glow-in-the-dark jewelry...de rigueur Blaze wear, particularly for the younger set.

Next, in green, is the area for Blaze's generous sponsors. Also, the blue area at the bottom will be taken up by sponsor WHUD 100.7, which will be broadcasting live from the event on many evenings.

Last but not least, the rest of the space on the bottom is devoted to Café Blaze and its corresponding seating area. The café is again being run by Geordanes of Irvington. Man do they make a mean cuppa hot cocoa...

Also, as I noted before, the tent will have pumpkin chandeliers. Judging by your comments below, the concept is a hit. I need to give appropriate credit to Tom Hunt, an interpreter at Van Cortlandt Manor who came up with the idea. More on that to follow...

I recently unearthed yet another video on YouTube featuring The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze 2006. This one is culled from a news report that appeared on RNN-TV, but it doesn't have any call letters or text, just the video feed. Nonetheless, it's worth a viewing just to catch a glimpse of the event's creative director sporting a fab (and fitting) shade of orange.

Enjoy!

What's the real history of Van Cortlandt Manor?

Way before the European settlers and way before the Native Americans - way, way before, in fact there were any people at all - dinosaurs ruled the earth and, presumably, the ground on which Van Cortlandt Manor now stands. Blaze Creative Director Michael Natiello plans to hearken back to that stone age in October with a brand-new, sure to delight display of "life-size" dinosaur skeletons. All, of course, made outta pumpkins.

Blaze Blogger caught up with Natiello today on his grand dino plan.

"It will be inspired by the landscape of the past and the creatures that lived here millions of years ago," said Natiello, "The Great Paleozoic Museum that was originally planned for Central Park in the late 19^th century, but never actually created, is also a source of inspiration."

He added, "It is my ambition to actualize Andrew Green and Benjamin Hawkins' original vision...only using jack o'lanterns to create what Andrew Green, in a letter inviting Hawkins to create the museum, called ‘a group of animals of the former periods of the American Continent."'

The dinosaur installation will feature the classic clash between T-rex and stegosaurus - depicting their exact skeletal structure - as well as some other (smaller) dinosaurs, flora, and fauna, all, of course, entirely made from pumpkins. (Shown here is Faith Butterfield, a seasoned carver, VCM interpreter, fashion designer, and seamstress, working on dino-bone carvings.)

Way, way cool if you ask me. This is a seriously ambitious installation. I hope he can pull it off...

What would a great Halloween extravaganza like The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze be without a great gift shop? Just that, a great Halloween extravaganza sorely lacking a great gift shop. We can't have that. Neither can the Blaze organizers.

Instead, the Powers o' Blaze are already planning an over the top presentation of merch that should satisfy (they hope) even the most die-hard pumpkin/Blaze/Halloween aficionado. 

I've just learned the Blaze Shop, the last stop on the tour after the path of pumpkins, is expanding in size this year. For my money, some of the coolest new items will be the ones that are 100% Blaze specific and available there and there only, such as t-shirts, caps, magnets, paperweights, and mugs, all adorned with Blaze imagery.

But the highlight, (which, quite frankly, I can't even believe they are offering) has to be art-pumpkins hand-carved ON SITE by local artists. That's just incredible. It's like taking home a piece of the actual event! And, because they are art-pumpkins ("funkins," as they're referred to in the pumpkin trade), they'll never rot. 

But wait, there's more! Matted and framed wood-cut Blaze prints, 3D pumpkin postcards, journals and postcards featuring carved pumpkins from Blaze, porcelain pumpkin plates, platters, tureens, pitchers, lanterns, teapots, glass pumpkin ornaments...

OK, my head is spinning. Perhaps something to eat will help. The Powers o' Blaze Shop thought of that as well. They are offering pumpkin and ginger cookies, pumpkin pancake mix, Jack O'Lantern cookies, creme pumpkin candies, pumpkin cobbler, and pumpkin shortbread cookies.

And of course, you can adorn yourself head to toe in glow and/or flash in the dark necklaces, bracelets, rings, pins, and earrings.

There will also be more than 50 books for all ages such as "Spooky Pumpkin" "The Truth about Jack O'Lanterns" (uh oh), and "The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin." (I need to get my hands on a copy of that last one to see what all the fierceness is about.) 

Many popular items from last year will make a guest appearance, including BlazeBlogger's personal favorite, the punching pumpkin pen, pictured here. 

Are they missing anything?