I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought
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Stills from this episode of Grave Mood Rings, courtesy of Dare-g on Tumblr.
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The Real Horrors Are Always Backstage, Plus Notes on Managing Inner Demons
Horror-comedy is a bizarre genre. Most of the laughs are on camera, but most of the horrors occur behind-the-scenes. As writer / producer / director of the cult series Grave Mood Rings, I've endured horrors beyond comprehension, all rooted in terrifying reality. "Real horror is a fragile, glass-boned thing" (Carlos Clarens). Forget so-called friends cancelling you for being honest about your discomforts, or the excruciations of struggling against a system that automatically suppresses original voices. Forget crucial cheerleaders dropping away, or the irony of being unable to either sell or give away your labors of love. Profounder horrors leave a creator as fragile as a glass skeleton.
"The real horror is that unless we stop it, it's just a prologue" (Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1). Whereas a film or miniseries has a conclusion, an open-ended series can stop only if its creators decide to terminate it. In the absence of a finish line, the show takes on its own momentum, turning the crew into minions. It's not so much like riding an endless roller coaster but rather like building the diabolical track into infinity. With no network to threaten cancellation, no viewership numbers of consequence, no budget to run out of, and no reliance on outside talent, an indie production can die only by its own hand, and that is a real horror. Such a show is kept alive by intravenous feedings, by the very machine it has morphed into. With no promotion or backing, the show is essentially incapacitated, impotent, in its own sort of pain and unfit to communicate. Is it the show's life that's being prolonged, or is it the show's death? What a horrible thing to contemplate.
"The real horror is what drove you onto that alien shore in the first place" (Jay Amberg). Fellow creators may be able to relate — we might find ourselves in the midst of a project whose precise origin is hazy. Even if we can pinpoint its genesis, we're all-too-aware that we couldn't foresee exactly where it was all leading, how complicated it would turn out to be, how big it would strive to become, or how it would morph along the way. Though technically at the helm of our own undertakings, we are in fact strangers in a strange land. The feeling is its own form of horror.
"The real horror is not in the shadows, but in that twisted little world inside our own skulls" (Jovanka Vuckovic). "There is no force, no power from without which threatens me. ... The real horror is that which lies in myself" (Henrik Ibsen). When we stop blaming the system, selfish "friends," and fickle audiences, we might confront the very personal tribulations that come with producing a long-running minus-zero-budget tv series. Undistracted by outside voices, one must face and finesse one's inner demons. Here are some tips I've developed along the way, in no special order:
1. As an Inhuman Resources Manager, remember to fill every vacancy within yourself with self-motivated inner demons possessing leadership abilities. Realistically, we are living in a less-than-perfect world with less-than-perfect inner demons, but if we simply take steps toward improvement, we will move in the direction of world domination.
2. This might be a good time to invoke the serenity prayer: "Lord of Storms, give me the grace to accept with serenity the atrocities I must commit, the courage to pass the spawn of my enemies through fire, and the wisdom to distinguish gargoyles from cheap garden ornaments."
3. Being your own life coach, enable your inner demons to move toward their potential, both as individuals and as a legion. It's not enough to preach about teamwork or stand on the murky borderlands acting like a cheerleader. You must work to achieve the grand vision that lies over the scorched horizon. You'll have to join your own team, become a team player, and even place the teeming hoard's goals above your own.
4. Let your team of inner demons choose its own leader to manage infernal affairs. Ideally, each position should be rotated periodically, including whichever demon happens to be skewered on the rotisserie. Be sure to empathize with your inner demons, and let them know that you are all in the same sinking ship.
"The real horror is still to come" (Famous Monsters of Filmland #162). The beat goes on. Grave Mood Rings continues to laugh its way through the horrors. Check it out at MysteryArts.com, Roku, and wherever you watch videos online. —Hailed by the art world as the most unusual scholar working today, Craig Conley a.k.a. Prof. Oddfellow fled academia to author Weiser Books' Magic Words: A Dictionary, HarperCollins' One-Letter Words: A Dictionary, and The Young Wizard's Hexopedia. Esoteric publications include Books of the Dead, Magic Archetypes, The Care and Feeding of a Spirit Board, Seance Parlor Feng Shui, How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook, Heirs to the Queen of Hearts, Astrogalomancy, The One-Minute Mystic, and Divination by Punctuation. He produces, directs, and writes both Grave Mood Rings and Prof. Oddfellow's Penetralia. His work has been profiled in the New York Post, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News, Publishers Weekly, The Associated Press, and dozens of others. His website is MysteryArts.com
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From Ace Finlay's Soul Anarchy VI.
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A spirit message from 1932: "I got too tired to go any further. I thought I would get some sleep here before visiting the morgue? Do you recognize me?"
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From our outpost at Spacey Panda Music:
The Artistic Introvert / Extrovert Clash Too Few Are Talking About
"Light me, and I'll burn for you" is a lyric from the INXS song "Burn For You." It contains an entire philosophy of life, and see if you agree that it gets to the heart of the misunderstandings and resentments that occur between introverted and extroverted types.
I once marveled at how big a band INXS was, thinking, "A rock band with all of nine musicians on stage?!" Later, I discovered that Michael Hutchence had another band, formed during an INXS hiatus, called Max Q, this time with seven members. It finally became obvious: Hutchence's attitude seemed to be, "I like you, so why not be in my band?" One might recall the Kamen Rider Fourze series, in which the lead character seeks to make friends with every single student in his school while battling the powers of evil.
An artist can be as solo, uncluttered, and pure as a Zen garden. Then again, an artist can have an attitude of "the more the merrier" and join forces with as many people as possible, no matter how jumbled the stage gets. These are two diametric approaches to how art can be handled.
Lovers of collaborations may be taken aback when fellow artists shy away from making connections. The difference between the solo (narrow spotlight) and big-band (expansive limelight) approaches is so great it can be nigh impossible to reconcile the two, and hurt feelings seem almost inevitable on both sides (the extrovert feeling snubbed and unsupported, the introvert feeling crowded and pressured).
Some powerful insights are offered by psychologist Barbara Velazquez:
The extrovert lives in the world of what is; the introvert in the world of what can or should be. Neither is truly aware of the existence of the other's point of view. Upon perceiving evidence of the other's existence, both regard it as unnatural, alien, and irregular, little knowing that the other perspective is as common as their own.
The reason introverts and extroverts are so often unaware of the other's existence is that "our immediate environment tends to be consistent with our psychological perspective." Extroverts tend to marry extroverts and raise children who share that orientation, and vice versa. "Our friendships and our occupations also tend to reflect our psychological orientation." Crucially:
It is where introversion and extroversion meet as strangers that misunderstanding and resentment appear. The introverted son of extroverted parents would find himself chided for his shyness and introspection, and his unconventionality and pride in individuality could be considered an oddity. The Extrovert Sensation type, placed in a strongly metaphysical environment, could be regarded as overly materialistic, narrowminded, and lacking in faith.
It's interesting to note that:
The extrovert looks to observable clues in the external environment as a guideline for behavior. Since in the introvert such guidelines are not observable but are the result of unobservable mental processes, much of the behavior is regarded as nothing short of unfathomable. The introvert, on the other hand, expects others to manipulate and evaluate reality from a similar conceptual vantage point. When it slowly becomes apparent that this does not take place, the external demands placed upon the introvert begin to appear inexplicably superficial and limiting. Each, out of ignorance, tends to regard the difference in the other's perspective as a personal affront. (Thinking on the Edge, 1993).
Naturally there are many studies about how opposites can temper one another and work together successfully. Nobody is 100% introverted or extroverted (you may even be an “ambivert” right in the middle, an “omnivert” at one extreme or the other according to mood, or an “otrovert” who is socially capable yet feels like a perpetual outsider). Knowing about where you register on the spectrum and observing where another registers will obviously serve to help smooth misunderstandings and resentments as we all seek to create art.
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"Do not snore on satin sofas." From Expressways, Grade 3, Level 6, Handstands by Thorn & Irwin, 1977.
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"Peter Puck wants to know if bakers get all they knead." From The Children's Newspaper, 1924.
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Original Content Copyright © 2026 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
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