I have to explain the video below. 

The figure sitting there in my office is named Van Ghost. But before I can explain him I really have to explain myself. (I know from experience this task is not always easy) You can watch it now, watch it after the explanation, or move on to YouTube where you can see millions of videos that don't need to be explained.  I took the video this morning with a new little digital video recorder Sandi got for her birthday.  Thanks Loddie.  I love her present.

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When I was a kid I fell in love with the movie "House of Wax" with Vincent Price. It started a passion for making life sized dummies. (I use the term correctly since they did not talk). In Texas I think they were considered Scarecrows but in my mind I was curator of my own Wax Museum of horrors.   Halloween became my favorite holiday because it offered an excuse to create a temporary horror show. Years later when I discovered my best friend Harry Anderson was also a Halloween freak we took horror shows to a new level as adults creating illusions and shows that are still talked about.  One "haunted house" in the basement of Harry's Pasadena home caught the interest of magician David Cooperfield who flew in for a private showing before we took it down. Those stories will be in a book someday, but....

 Back to the Scarecrows of my childhood. (I haven't forgotten about the video... Like I said, you don't get this commentary on YouTube.)

Occasionally I would move my stuffed scarecrow friends around from place to place, forget where I had left them and scare my sister or myself when they were accidentally discovered.  Soon I would "forget where I had left them" in really great places that were guaranteed to be "accidentally discovered".  I have offered apologies to my sister in our adult life. It is not the only thing for which I owe her a lifetime of apologies.  The fact that she still tolerates me to this day is a testament to the saintly quality of her forgiveness. 

So, now that you know, on to the video de´jour.  Before I left for London I was playing around with an effect for a ghost that would turn and look at you as you walk around the room. Halloween is never too far away to start planning. Since I thought I would be gone till just before Halloween it was less anxious than it seems. I knew I would have limited research time when I returned.

I found this likeness of Van Gough, Harry had given me years ago (Most if not all of the coolest stuff I have comes from Harry one way or another) and thought I could make it work. I "gaffed it", as magicians say, and with some simple lighting he will turn his head and watch you as you walk around the room.  It is not mechanical it is an illusion and several people in the room will see it looking at them at the same time no matter where they are standing.  You can see the illusion a little bit on the video, but in person it really is affective, and as Sandi and Taylor pointed out when he was in the living room for a while, disturbing, scary and unnerving. (I think Sandi said something like, "Get that thing out of the living room or take it with you when you move out.")

I was at the airport two hours before a 13 hour flight yesterday. I couldn't sleep on the plane, the time change was tough and by the time I got home I was fried.  It was dark before I finally made my way into my office on the other side of the house.  After being away for a month I flipped on the light and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw Van Ghost staring back at me. I forgot where I left him, I had forgotten I even had him.  I think that's what I like best about being schizophrenic, I get to enjoy my own insanity in a very entertaining way.

As you were,

Jay