70707Bride
10-24-2007, 10:22 AM
From Yahoo!
Extreme Halloween www.extremepumpkins.com (http://www.extremepumpkins.com)
“I just got sick of seeing those cutesy little pumpkins at the grocery store; I wanted to scare the kids.” -- Tom Nardone, extremepumpkins.com
By KEVIN SITES, MON OCT 22, 7:45 PM PDT
Tom Nardone thinks that corporate marketers have taken the scare out of Halloween, making the day of ghouls and goblins about as frightening as a "Hello Kitty" calendar.
http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/us/news/editorial/b/98/b98726b6b047451e254906982cd6002f.jpeg Tom Nardone is the "mad scientist" behind extremepumpkins.com.
So Nardone, evil genius that he is, has dedicated the last seven years to taking the holiday back.
"I just got sick of seeing those cutesy little pumpkins at the grocery store," says Nardone. "I wanted to scare the kids."
The father of three retreats to what he calls his "mad scientist" garage in a tree-lined Detroit suburb. There, in a workshop packed with power tools, he does his gruesome deeds, turning benign products of the pumpkin patch into a gallery of grossness.
http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/us/news/editorial/d/b7/db72ad0da1c9568aa148020f54cdaeaf.jpeg The grosser, the better. Nardone thinks jack-o'-lanterns should be scary!
No triangle-eyed, gap-toothed jack-o'-lanterns here. Nardone's pumpkins puke, are infested with worms, have oozing brains, or eat other pumpkins. All are showcased on his website, extremepumpkins.com. And now he has a book (http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Extreme%20Pumpkins%3A%20Diabolical%20Do-It-Yourself%20Designs%20to%20Amuse%20Your%20Friends%2 0and%20Scare%20Your%20Neighbors:3005033394%3b_ylt= AmoOjiZl_7NJNVsl1EHQa.YbFt0A%3b_ylu=X3oDMTBic2hxMG NhBGx0AzQEc2VjA3Ny;_ylt=AgLN.l2xmdhHLI.kAEHrCV0KwI d4?clink=dmps/extreme) with the same name.
Nardone's favorite? "Territorial Pumpkin," a deadly and destructive jack-o'-lantern protecting his turf.
Like Jason, Freddy or any of the other slasher characters from the Hollywood horror genre — Nardone likes to work with sharp instruments. But he's not patient enough to work with a kitchen knife. Nardone likes power. He uses jigsaws, reciprocating saws, and even routers to cut, slash and disfigure his creations. He claims to have carved more than 500 pumpkins during his self-described reign as the Internet's most famous pumpkin carver.
http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/us/news/editorial/e/e5/ee5f8f8ad987d2aabffa15e95d298755.jpeg Nardone scoffs at candles. He uses everything from propane to glow sticks light his masterpieces.
I challenge him to create one of his monsters in five minutes. He nods and pulls on his safety glasses. Within five minutes he has hacked, sawed, cut and routed a helpless gourd into a frightful ghoul skull. Alas, poor Yorick!
Being a mechanical engineer, Nardone is not content with just design — he wants performance, too.
"Do you want to see the flame cannon?" he asks me.
Now we're talking.
On a patch of grass outside his garage, Nardone rigs up a line connecting a propane tank to a metal cylinder that he places inside one of his pumpkin designs. No candles here: This pumpkin is going nuclear.
With a twist of his wrist, he opens up the propane and then clicks a remote igniter, sending a flame out of the pumpkin's head nearly as high as the peak of his garage roof.
The flame's orange glow reflects in Nardone's safety glasses as a sly smile spreads across his face.
"Bet you're popular with the neighbors," I say.
"Oh yeah," he replies. "Ours is the most popular house this time of year."
Not hard to see why.
Extreme Halloween www.extremepumpkins.com (http://www.extremepumpkins.com)
“I just got sick of seeing those cutesy little pumpkins at the grocery store; I wanted to scare the kids.” -- Tom Nardone, extremepumpkins.com
By KEVIN SITES, MON OCT 22, 7:45 PM PDT
Tom Nardone thinks that corporate marketers have taken the scare out of Halloween, making the day of ghouls and goblins about as frightening as a "Hello Kitty" calendar.
http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/us/news/editorial/b/98/b98726b6b047451e254906982cd6002f.jpeg Tom Nardone is the "mad scientist" behind extremepumpkins.com.
So Nardone, evil genius that he is, has dedicated the last seven years to taking the holiday back.
"I just got sick of seeing those cutesy little pumpkins at the grocery store," says Nardone. "I wanted to scare the kids."
The father of three retreats to what he calls his "mad scientist" garage in a tree-lined Detroit suburb. There, in a workshop packed with power tools, he does his gruesome deeds, turning benign products of the pumpkin patch into a gallery of grossness.
http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/us/news/editorial/d/b7/db72ad0da1c9568aa148020f54cdaeaf.jpeg The grosser, the better. Nardone thinks jack-o'-lanterns should be scary!
No triangle-eyed, gap-toothed jack-o'-lanterns here. Nardone's pumpkins puke, are infested with worms, have oozing brains, or eat other pumpkins. All are showcased on his website, extremepumpkins.com. And now he has a book (http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Extreme%20Pumpkins%3A%20Diabolical%20Do-It-Yourself%20Designs%20to%20Amuse%20Your%20Friends%2 0and%20Scare%20Your%20Neighbors:3005033394%3b_ylt= AmoOjiZl_7NJNVsl1EHQa.YbFt0A%3b_ylu=X3oDMTBic2hxMG NhBGx0AzQEc2VjA3Ny;_ylt=AgLN.l2xmdhHLI.kAEHrCV0KwI d4?clink=dmps/extreme) with the same name.
Nardone's favorite? "Territorial Pumpkin," a deadly and destructive jack-o'-lantern protecting his turf.
Like Jason, Freddy or any of the other slasher characters from the Hollywood horror genre — Nardone likes to work with sharp instruments. But he's not patient enough to work with a kitchen knife. Nardone likes power. He uses jigsaws, reciprocating saws, and even routers to cut, slash and disfigure his creations. He claims to have carved more than 500 pumpkins during his self-described reign as the Internet's most famous pumpkin carver.
http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/us/news/editorial/e/e5/ee5f8f8ad987d2aabffa15e95d298755.jpeg Nardone scoffs at candles. He uses everything from propane to glow sticks light his masterpieces.
I challenge him to create one of his monsters in five minutes. He nods and pulls on his safety glasses. Within five minutes he has hacked, sawed, cut and routed a helpless gourd into a frightful ghoul skull. Alas, poor Yorick!
Being a mechanical engineer, Nardone is not content with just design — he wants performance, too.
"Do you want to see the flame cannon?" he asks me.
Now we're talking.
On a patch of grass outside his garage, Nardone rigs up a line connecting a propane tank to a metal cylinder that he places inside one of his pumpkin designs. No candles here: This pumpkin is going nuclear.
With a twist of his wrist, he opens up the propane and then clicks a remote igniter, sending a flame out of the pumpkin's head nearly as high as the peak of his garage roof.
The flame's orange glow reflects in Nardone's safety glasses as a sly smile spreads across his face.
"Bet you're popular with the neighbors," I say.
"Oh yeah," he replies. "Ours is the most popular house this time of year."
Not hard to see why.