Graveyards of Illinois is where we start our small tour of cemeteries and funerary art. To our left is Bohemian National Cemetery with its beautiful domed chapel, Odd Fellows Monument, and larger-than-life statuary. Another impressive Illinois graveyard is Acacia Park Cemetery and Mausoleum, known for its obelisks and its Masonic connections. more inside

Fear.net has made the move from reviewing and providing clips of horror movies into making their own. Their first effort, Devil's Trade, is complete, and offered for free online. It tells the tale of a cross made from pieces of a cursed tree, and the effect of the curse on the current owner of the cross. The current project is 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails, a tale of vampires in New Orleans. Episode 6 just recently premiered. more inside

Strange Horizons is a weekly webzine of speculative fiction, including short stories, articles, art galleries, reviews, and poetry. The 'zine is published every Monday. It was founded in 2000, and has extensive archives to peruse. Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest, a quarterly magazine, maintains an online archive of articles, short fiction, interviews, and reviews from past issues. Their area of interest is primarily dark sci-fi and horror. more inside

99 Rooms is a collaborative effort among four artists of different types - painter Kim Köster, Richard Schumann and Stephan Shulz on photography and animation, and sound designer Johannes Buenemann - that is more interactive artwork than game. Köoster painted murals on the walls of abandoned buildings in East Berlin's industrial sector. The murals were then photographed, animated, and given soundtracks. In each room, you find what allows you to advance to the next scene. It can be a simple click anywhere on the screen, pulling levers or throwing switches, or a number of other triggers. If you get impatient, the space bar will advance you to the next room. The presentation is morbidly beautiful. more inside

tma/svetlo/tma by Jan Svankmajer (YouTube), a surreal claymation video from the Czech master. (NSFW if your boss will have problems with clay genitals). The Periwig-Maker, a story about a wig maker and a little girl in a plague-ridden London. In Grey Matter, a man creates a strange replica of himself, which takes on life. And just for fun, a rhino dancing flamenco.

The Bat Company offers four Flash games for your haunting enjoyment: In Ghost Story, their first, you set off to investigate a house of old murder and your father's more recent erratic behavior and mysterious death. Factory of Fear casts you as a detective investigating a disappearance at a site once used for mysterious experiments. more inside

Hong Kong horror For someone raised on Western horror traditions, horror stories from the East can seem very strange. Doubtless the reverse is true as well. For comparison's sake for all of us Western Monkeys, A Chinese Ghost Story, parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 and 10 (all links YouTube). more inside

Digital redecorating I learned about Digital Blasphemy's 3D rendered desktop wallpapers years ago, when the entire site was free, and was impressed with the quality and artistry of the work offered for there. The site still has a free gallery, and links to other 3D artist sites. more inside

David Bolinsky talks about truth and beauty in science, particularly on the molecular level (flash video). One of the medical animators who worked on Cellular Visions: The Inner Life of a Cell (previously), he also provides some commentary about the first three minutes of the Cellular Visions animation. more inside

Ron Mueck is a former special effects artist and muppet designer turned hyperrealist sculptor. His process is complex(large video warning, dialup users beware), but the results are impressive. (Only first link guaranteed SFW.) more inside

Lights Out was a suspense and horror radio show that had its debut in 1934. It was one of the first shows to develop distinct sound effects and scripts specifically aimed at an audience that could only listen and not watch the action. more inside

Play with your food The Art of Food Carving as collected by Ivan Minic. Some very pretty and intricate stuff to be found here. If you prefer something larger, there's always watermelon carving. The Egg Man prefers to carve and sculpt eggshells of different kinds. I'm especially fond of his filigree eggs. more inside

Flesh for Fantasy The Living Canvas paints patterns of projected light on nude models. (Images obviously NSFW) Kim Joon fully paints nude models and poses them for some beautiful and amazing photos. (NSFW) At Flesh and Color, Dewayne Flowers also does photographs of painted nudes, in categories like metallic and skinscapes. (NSFW) Tatiana Parcero at Cartographies paints old maps and other images with an old world flavor on her models.

Haunting 101 For some, it's not enough to buy a cardboard witch to hang on the door for their spooky holiday decorating. They're coating armatures (and, accidentally, themselves) in monster mud to build the Grim Reaper or a well. They sculpt tombstones and make glowing water (YouTube). My favorite is the flying crank ghost(YouTube). more inside

Gothtober The Gothtober Countdown Calendar is a curated time-release flash-based online museum of 31 works of art by 31 different artists. The official run of the show is from October 1st to the 31st, a new piece being revealed with each day of the month. more inside

Picture This A selection of photography galleries for your enjoyment and to bring a little beauty to your workday: The Photography of Lilya Corneli, Desiree Dolron's photography and artwork, Chris Anthony's rather spooky/Goth photography, and Hours of Darkness, featuring both night/low light photography and galleries of photographs of modern ruins.

The Evolution of Dance (YouTube video) Judson Laipply's finale on his "Inspirational Comedy" speaking engagements, called by some "the funniest 6 minutes you'll ever see." It may not be the funniest I've seen, but it is fun. A (very) little more about Laipply can be found here.

Supernatural Crime: digital comics and pulp "Take a midnight stroll down the rain-slick streets of Port Nocturne, where the acrid scent of gunpowder hangs in the air like cheap perfume, where every dark alley comes to a dead end, and justice is... ...blonde." more inside

Black and white is the only logical choice, Captain. Who knew Mr. Spock was a photgrapher? I think Mr. Nimoy has captured some lovely images with his black and white photography. Some images NSFW.

BANG! Banned Xbox 360 commercial. I think my favorite part is the guy with the cell phone in the car.