Category: Uncategorized

I can’t remember if it was the Million Dollar Movie or the 4:30 Movie, but through one of them I was introduced to the horror movie Carnival of Souls when I was a kid. (If you grew up in New York you know what I’m talking about, they were movie programs from our youth.)

I was immediately drawn to this movie, which really doesn’t have much of a plot and very little happens that’s scary. But it’s atmospheric and haunting, and I think what grabbed me were all the scenes shot in an abandoned amusement park. This was the Saltair Pavilion in Salt Lake City, I learned. God, how did we survive before Google and Wikipedia?? I must use them 50,000 billion times a day every day of my life.

Sadly, the Pavillion burned down. It’s harder to find abandoned things to wander through and explore now. Every available space is used, every old building rehabbed. I was watching this movie yesterday, and I started thinking about one of my favorite articles of all time, Joseph Mitchell’s Up In The Old Hotel. It would be hard to find something like that anymore, if not impossible. At least here in the city.

For those of you who haven’t read it, there was a restaurant down at the Fulton Fish Market called Sloppy Louie’s. (92 South Street.) No one had gone up to the upper floors in I forget how long, 50 years maybe, and no one even knew what was up there except that it had once been a hotel. The whole piece was about Mitchell going up there and exploring. You can go there now and kinda see it how Mitchell saw it. They cleaned up the floors, but didn’t restore them so it looks like what he would have seen except swept up.

It would be hard to imagine something like that happening now, all the upper floors of a building shuttered up for decades, like something out of Edgar Allen Poe (or Dickens). But places like this have always had an allure for me.

That reminds me. I found Mr. Hunter’s grave — this is from one of Mitchell’s other pieces, another favorite of all time. I wrote about finding it, but no one wanted my piece. I don’t think I did a very good job, I was in a weird place at the time. Anyway, I should find the picture and scan it in. Fans of Joseph Mitchell might enjoy seeing it.

Finney is on me and I can’t take my own picture so here’s the Tulip Staircase ghost. From About.com.

“Rev. Ralph Hardy, a retired clergyman from White Rock, British Columbia, took this now-famous photograph in 1966. He intended merely to photograph the elegant spiral staircase (known as the “Tulip Staircase”) in the Queen’s House section of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. Upon development, however, the photo revealed a shrouded figure climbing the stairs, seeming to hold the railing with both hands. Experts, including some from Kodak, who examined the original negative concluded that it had not been tampered with. It’s been said that unexplained figures have been seen on occasion in the vicinity of the staircase, and unexplained footsteps have also been heard.”

Fun, no? Today there’s a dog in Halloween costume thing … somewhere. Was it Washington Square. Now I forget. No, maybe it was Tompkins Square. But that should be worth some great pictures.

It’s from Waverly Films. It’s brilliant. Trust me. I laugh every time, even though I’ve got all the jokes memorized now. Think of it as a Halloween warm-up. (I’m in a good mood because I’m very happy about how this draft of my book is shaping up.)

Last night I didn’t feel like reading or watching TV so I was browsing photographs on Flickr. I just cannot freaking believe how many mind-blowingly talented people there are in the world, and this was just one infinitesimally small piece of it. Just one area where people are talented, and yet there was more than I could ever look at in a lifetime. Seriously, the gorgeousness of some of the photographs, the incredibly sublime beauty and emotion I saw.

This one was uploaded by someone called cherynf. I couldn’t find a complete name. I was searching on “abandoned graves,” thinking I might find a possible cover for my book, although an abandoned grave wouldn’t really be right. Honestly, right now I don’t have a clue what should be on the cover. Not that I really get a say. Actually, I get a say, but it’s the publisher’s call, although usually they don’t want to go with a cover you hate.

I KNOW. I just figured it out! A picture of the Duke Building they used to be in, but taken at night. One, it’s a really beautiful building, two, taken at night it will symbolize that they are not there anymore, but give a slightly haunted feel. It could work! It’s perfect!

Here’s a shot I took, but this was just a quick, uninspired straight on shot. Someone shooting at night for something more atmospheric could certainly get more creative, shoot just one lovely corner, or window, in the moonlight. Maybe even looking out one of the windows.

Here’s the other side, with the statue. This is one of the old photographs I scanned when I went down there. As you can see, there’s a lot to work with here, for someone who is talented.

I saw this on Cute Overload. It was made by Simon Tofield. My cat Buddy does the patting the face thing. When he does it his nails are ever so slightly extended, not enough to pierce the skin but enough to give his pat some bite.

All praise Simon Tofield. Who absolutely must have a cat, this is so true to life (except for the bat, of course).