![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greygirlbeastA rare alignment of cranial discomfort. Parallel lines of eye-bleeding hurt. I'm not sure Spooky and I have ever before had multi-day headaches at the same time. But we have now. And it sucks rancid weasel ass through a crazy straw, and it needs to fucking stop. My scalp feels like there's broken glass just beneath the skin.
This is a day on which there must be comments. I won't survive without them.
My thanks to Joah, who sent me a link to someone's list of "The Six Creepiest Abandoned Places." I'd argue the list isn't definitive, but it's still a pretty good list. I'm especially taken with Gunkanjima, Japan and Hellingly Asylum. The latter is genuinely exquisite. I would live there in a heartbeat:
On the sheets and pillow case,
In my bed for heaven's sake,
The devil's dancing until late in my head there.
But I could sleep with you there.
I could sleep with you there.
That's interesting. Firstly, that while thinking of Hellingly Asylum the lyrics to a Catharine Wheel song occurred to me. Secondly, that they apply so aptly to last night's insomnia (which was Nigh Unto Monumental, no sleep until after six ayem) and also apply to my emotional reaction to the photographs (follow the link from the article) of that place. Rabbit hole. Subconscious association. Pink Freud. 5 and 1/2 minute hallways. It's all the same thing in here. Anyway, I loved this bit from the article (about another asylum, one in New Jersey):
Listen, because this is important advice: If you ever start a sanatorium, you need to tear that shit down once you’re done with it. Not repurpose it or leave it empty or something; that is just begging – literally begging – for a group of stupid teenagers to sneak inside of it to have illicit sex, where they will inevitably get murdered by the ghosts of madmen. It’s like a Roach Motel for horny morons. You may as well put an “Idiots Fuck Here” sign out front and start up a mortuary next door; you’d make a killing.
See, I don't get to genuinely laugh – that sort of laughter that makes you hurt yourself – that often. That paragraph made me laugh. Oh, in particular, I was soothed by this photo from Hellingly. I'm not bullshitting you. I'm not being sarcastic. That's just...soothing. I think I look like that inside. If you cracked me open, you'd find that room.
---
On this day in 1900, Aleister Crowley broke into and took over the Golden Dawn temple in London, providing the catalyst for the demise of the original Golden Dawn.
---
Yesterday, despite the black mood and the headache, I wrote 1,072 words on "Fake Plastic Trees" while Spooky drew ravens. The story seems to be coming together. After reading yesterday's pages, Spooky said, "This makes me feel so bad. Really, really bad. The complete wrongness of it, of that whole world." I'm taking this as a compliment, because I know she meant it as one.
Intention isn't everything, kittens, but it carries a lot of weight with me.
After working on the story, I wrote an actual Wikipedia entry on Hauffiosaurus, because when I linked to it yesterday there was just a sad-ass, one-sentence stub. That took about another hour.
We saw the latest episode of Fringe last night. Jesus fuck, this show is brilliant. It's gone from a dull first season, all monster-of-the-week nonsense, to sheer fucking wonky universe-warping brilliance. Last night's episode, "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide," has to receive an Emmy nomination. If the Emmy's mean anything (and we already know they don't). This is the first series since Farscape that truly isn't afraid of being as weird as it needs to be, but which isn't just being weird for weird's sake. Pushing Daisies tried to be this brilliant, but was murdered long before it achieved this level of supremely masterful weirdness.
Spooky's doing the tax thing today. Taxes, taxes, we all fall down.
Gods, I just realized I've been wearing the same T-shirt for four days. "Reynolds/Washburne 2008: You Can't Stop the Signal." Dirty fucking nerd. Take a bath and change your damn clothes.
Oh, hello. How long have you been standing there?
You know, for kids,
Aunt Beast
This is a day on which there must be comments. I won't survive without them.
My thanks to Joah, who sent me a link to someone's list of "The Six Creepiest Abandoned Places." I'd argue the list isn't definitive, but it's still a pretty good list. I'm especially taken with Gunkanjima, Japan and Hellingly Asylum. The latter is genuinely exquisite. I would live there in a heartbeat:
On the sheets and pillow case,
In my bed for heaven's sake,
The devil's dancing until late in my head there.
But I could sleep with you there.
I could sleep with you there.
That's interesting. Firstly, that while thinking of Hellingly Asylum the lyrics to a Catharine Wheel song occurred to me. Secondly, that they apply so aptly to last night's insomnia (which was Nigh Unto Monumental, no sleep until after six ayem) and also apply to my emotional reaction to the photographs (follow the link from the article) of that place. Rabbit hole. Subconscious association. Pink Freud. 5 and 1/2 minute hallways. It's all the same thing in here. Anyway, I loved this bit from the article (about another asylum, one in New Jersey):
Listen, because this is important advice: If you ever start a sanatorium, you need to tear that shit down once you’re done with it. Not repurpose it or leave it empty or something; that is just begging – literally begging – for a group of stupid teenagers to sneak inside of it to have illicit sex, where they will inevitably get murdered by the ghosts of madmen. It’s like a Roach Motel for horny morons. You may as well put an “Idiots Fuck Here” sign out front and start up a mortuary next door; you’d make a killing.
See, I don't get to genuinely laugh – that sort of laughter that makes you hurt yourself – that often. That paragraph made me laugh. Oh, in particular, I was soothed by this photo from Hellingly. I'm not bullshitting you. I'm not being sarcastic. That's just...soothing. I think I look like that inside. If you cracked me open, you'd find that room.
---
On this day in 1900, Aleister Crowley broke into and took over the Golden Dawn temple in London, providing the catalyst for the demise of the original Golden Dawn.
---
Yesterday, despite the black mood and the headache, I wrote 1,072 words on "Fake Plastic Trees" while Spooky drew ravens. The story seems to be coming together. After reading yesterday's pages, Spooky said, "This makes me feel so bad. Really, really bad. The complete wrongness of it, of that whole world." I'm taking this as a compliment, because I know she meant it as one.
Intention isn't everything, kittens, but it carries a lot of weight with me.
After working on the story, I wrote an actual Wikipedia entry on Hauffiosaurus, because when I linked to it yesterday there was just a sad-ass, one-sentence stub. That took about another hour.
We saw the latest episode of Fringe last night. Jesus fuck, this show is brilliant. It's gone from a dull first season, all monster-of-the-week nonsense, to sheer fucking wonky universe-warping brilliance. Last night's episode, "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide," has to receive an Emmy nomination. If the Emmy's mean anything (and we already know they don't). This is the first series since Farscape that truly isn't afraid of being as weird as it needs to be, but which isn't just being weird for weird's sake. Pushing Daisies tried to be this brilliant, but was murdered long before it achieved this level of supremely masterful weirdness.
Spooky's doing the tax thing today. Taxes, taxes, we all fall down.
Gods, I just realized I've been wearing the same T-shirt for four days. "Reynolds/Washburne 2008: You Can't Stop the Signal." Dirty fucking nerd. Take a bath and change your damn clothes.
Oh, hello. How long have you been standing there?
You know, for kids,
Aunt Beast
Tags:
- abandoned places,
- catherine wheel,
- firefly,
- fringe,
- ghosts,
- insanity,
- insomnia,
- magick,
- money,
- pain,
- photos,
- psychology,
- sex,
- sick,
- taxes,
- weird tales
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:24 pm (UTC)Trust me (fellow migraine sufferer) when the glass on the underside of the scalp dances and you still work through what you have to do -- you are the victor. Slightly more insane, yes. But victorious with a capital V. But I've become convinced this year that we all are, truly. Normal is a bitter pill that we rail against.
I fucking hate taxes.
Love the abandoned places link. Thanks for passing it along.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:26 pm (UTC)Normal is a bitter pill that we rail against.
That's a very good sentence.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:25 pm (UTC)I can't remember if I told you about this at the time, but if you have not seen Stephen Wilkes' Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom, I recommend finding a copy posthaste. There was an exhibition about three years ago at the Griffin Museum in Winchester; they were some of the most haunting photographs of buildings I'd seen. The excerpt gallery online is small, but worth it.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:28 pm (UTC)I can't remember if I told you about this at the time
No, you didn't. Wow. Beautiful. Thanks.
I hope you're feeling better.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:30 pm (UTC)all blowing leaves, dripping raindrops, and empty buildings. The soundtrack was a series of interviews I'd done with people about their fears related to loneliness and dying, with a soft underscoring of Pink Floyd.
That sounds very, very cool.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:31 pm (UTC)Fringe has been so audacious this season (and last) that I hope the production team is allowed to be as weird as they like for as long as necessary. Because we need it.
My cranium offers its sympathies, as I recently emerged from a multi-day migraine in which I began to theorize multi-dimensional entities were torturing me for purposes unknown.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:35 pm (UTC)I found the commentary for that article to be hilarious becuase it seemed so much more appropriate than a sort of somber acknowledgment.
Agreed.
Fringe has been so audacious this season (and last) that I hope the production team is allowed to be as weird as they like for as long as necessary. Because we need it.
It has at least one more season, thank fuck.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:37 pm (UTC)I love that you wrote that Wikipedia article.
Oh and the dirty nerd comment, well it was just hot.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:44 pm (UTC)Centralia always gets me to thinking about story potential.
"A terrible beauty is born."
I love that you wrote that Wikipedia article.
I've written lots of them.
Oh and the dirty nerd comment, well it was just hot.
Big brains are sexy. I get that. But dirty nerds?
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:38 pm (UTC)Considering what came before, I find that sentence rather...punny.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:44 pm (UTC)I find that sentence rather...punny.
Oh, indeed.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:47 pm (UTC)the second Blair Witch Project movie
I never saw that movie. The whole thing with the "goth girl" sort of pissed me off.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:49 pm (UTC)I hope the headaches you both have go away soonest.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 06:51 pm (UTC)The correct response to 'you know, for kids' is of course to post a giant perfectly round circle with no explanation...
Oh, I'm so glad someone got that.
(no subject)
From:Painting
Date: 2011-04-17 07:02 pm (UTC)Re: Painting
Date: 2011-04-17 07:02 pm (UTC)I've been meaning to ask you if you've painted any lately.
It's been a couple of weeks.
Re: Painting
From:Re: Painting
From:migraines
Date: 2011-04-17 07:14 pm (UTC)It is rare that I have to deal with one when also fighting insomnia. I am sorry you are up against both.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 07:24 pm (UTC)I am on day four of a nasty cold though. Maybe the aliens have started their invasion?
Hope you both feel better.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 07:29 pm (UTC)Do you have a carbon monoxide detector?
No, but it isn't that. With me, it's mostly weather and hormone fluctuations. And Kathryn's had migraines pretty much her entire life. They were much worse when she was young.
Maybe the aliens have started their invasion?
They will come up through our noses.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 08:08 pm (UTC)Well, now I know about Hauffiosaurus, which I hadn't heard of before.
Few people can name a single genus of plesiosaur. Some might know Plesiosaurus, but that's about it.
(no subject)
From:The Book of Lost Places
Date: 2011-04-17 07:54 pm (UTC)Re: The Book of Lost Places
Date: 2011-04-17 08:10 pm (UTC)There are some places that seem to be physical manifestations of certain states of mind, and you can feel the atmosphere and the intensity of them.
I would argue this is true of all points in time and space. It's just that some strike us more strongly than others. Then again, it varies from person to person. Many are entirely unmoved by ruin, or see in it only ugliness and loss and even take offense at those who see beauty in decay.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 09:42 pm (UTC)Count me in as somebody who gets that. There's a wealth of crumbling warehouses and factories round the backstreets of Birmingham that I've fallen in love with. A lot of them are being redeveloped/gentrified, and I hate that.
"Dirty fucking nerd."
Nothing wrong with that. I'll often wear the same pair of jeans for a week.
My best friend has spent a fair chunk of today trying to tell me how good how Fringe is. Maybe I'll take up her offer and borrow the first couple of seasons.
Hope the twin migraines are sorted now. Never suffered from it yet, but I get constant eye strain. It's a bitch and a half.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 01:30 am (UTC)Count me in as somebody who gets that. There's a wealth of crumbling warehouses and factories round the backstreets of Birmingham that I've fallen in love with. A lot of them are being redeveloped/gentrified, and I hate that.
I lived at the Liberty Building when it was still loft apartments. Morris Avenue was beautiful. I hear it's all being gentrified and ruined.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 10:50 pm (UTC)On this day in 1900
I always enjoy your "on this day" mentions. I also enjoyed the Hauffiosaurus article - I hadn't stopped to fully verbalize this thought to myself before, but plesiosaurs are really beautiful. Masters of sinuousness!
I'm terrible at watching TV, but your commentary is making me think that I have to start Fringe. I crave really good weird in film/tv, but rarely have been able to find anything that really hits the spot.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 01:32 am (UTC)plesiosaurs are really beautiful. Masters of sinuousness!
That they are.
I'm terrible at watching TV, but your commentary is making me think that I have to start Fringe.
It's very awesome. Also, a lot can be streamed off Hulu free. Probably all if you pay the monthly $7.99 for Hulu PLus (which you can get free for one week).
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 11:23 pm (UTC)The first work of yours that I encountered was The Red Tree. Since then, it's been echoing 'round and 'round inside my skull, which is a bit frightening, but I like it.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 01:32 am (UTC)Thanks. It's meant to linger.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 12:05 am (UTC)Personally I liked the photo of the library at Hellingly. Though I think it might be the kind of room that would overwhelm me if I were there. And Gunkanjima I would really love to visit, if I ever had the chance.
My sympathies on the headaches, I know how they can be.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 01:36 am (UTC)Though I hear now they're thinking of turning the building into something else
I'm really not opposed to restoration. I'd rather see a building saved than lost. Perhaps it
s that decay should be seen as a transient state. Well, it is already. Obviously. But one that can towards or counter to entropy
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 12:09 am (UTC)That is a gorgeous room (the wide room in Hellingly) I would love to have a room with windows like that.
I hope you both get over your headaches and the taxes aren't too harsh.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 01:38 am (UTC)I hear there is talk of raising money so Nathan Fillion can buy the rights and get Firefly on the air again.
Truthfully, it's a well meant but absurd idea. Fillion has even said so, and asked people to drop that campaign. Even if he had the rights, which the studio would never agree to sell back (people seem to forget the part where the show's not for sell), there's no way he'd have the money to produce new episodes.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 02:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 06:17 am (UTC)the sort that could have very good ghosts.
The sort that is a ghost.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 03:02 am (UTC)In the meantime... A friend gave me this link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jan/02/photography-detroit
She gave me this link as a result of my husband and I visiting Tarrytown, NY (which is, of course, very close to Sleepy Hollow). She had lived in the area and was very familiar with it. Which led to these links. There seem to be a number of books with photographs of ruins in the Hudson Valley. And if you look for some of these books on Amazon it appears you can find yourself being led to other books for ruins in other places. I find a great deal of beauty in photographs like these but I feel a lot more that isn't as easy to describe as beautiful but probably contains things like despair, disappointment and disgust at such waste.
http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/book.html
The links on this site look especially tantalizing: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/links1.html
http://www.amazon.com/Hudson-Valley-Ruins-Forgotten-Landmarks/dp/1584655984
no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 03:06 am (UTC)~Jacob
no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 06:18 am (UTC)It doesn't help.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 04:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 06:20 am (UTC)E.g., the Komodo Dragon Expert sketch?
I do not.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:Loved the picture
Date: 2011-04-18 05:23 am (UTC)You know how women have periods around the same time? I'm convinced headaches are the same. My grandmother and I seem to trade the same one with one another.
Re: Loved the picture
Date: 2011-04-18 06:21 am (UTC)Is it wrong to think it looks fun and beautiful?
Very little is wrong, and that certainly isn't.
Fringe
Date: 2011-04-18 10:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 12:25 pm (UTC)http://valsen.tumblr.com/post/4712203751/greenhouse
I wish I could find the link to an abandoned playground here in Sweden as well, it creeps me out, but other than that I'm very fond of the abandoned wooden houses in Russia. They look like a fairytale have just up and left.
http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2008/03/10/abandoned-wooden-miracles/