That and this on a rainy (!) night.
The storm thrumbles and booms overhead,
the little dogs shiver and quake- and me clickety-clack
before a little late-night leftover scallops + gorgonzola grits
from The Blue Dahlia, muy delicioso!
Looking at this accordion girl makes me feel very free,
and makes me think of Miss Courtney Pocketmouse Lain
who lives by the sea and plays accordion and who I miss immensely.
I imagine she is wandering the shingle, looking for washed up sailors
and drying out her giant tentacles. At least, that’s what I would be doing
if I lived by the sea, which I won’t- probably not anyway.
I’m done with typhoons, and all. I’m thinking about them a lot lately.
Can someone please explain to me what the hell is going on here?
I got this from Bean, but it’s very mysterious.
It’s from an 1893 volume of St. Nicholas Magazine-
apparently it’s a play about math. Okay. Re-enactment, please!
Maybe this will be my Halloween costume this year. Holy-moly,
it’s right around the corner! Have you figured out yours yet?
The Adventures of Serene Limpness,
the Moon-Faced Princess,
Dulcet and Debonaire
This is the best book title ever, and you can read
the whole book online!
I found this at the always wonderful lady at Jezebel Stationary.
Her world makes me happy. I need to order some goodies from her!
★ As Japan’s Mediums Die, Ancient Tradition Fades,
an article from the New York Times.
Read all about Mount Osore (aka. The Mountain of Horror!)
A “weather-beaten temple..surrounded by a lifeless lake
and a wasteland of naked rock reeking of sulfur
that conjures images of Buddhist hell.”
The “itako” — elderly, often blind women
hold séance-like ceremonies that customers
hope will allow them to commune with spirits of the dead.
“Shojiro Kurokawa, 82, can remember as a child in the 1930s
when residents of his and other nearby villages would trek
to the temple to hold weeklong festivals of all-night dancing,
singing and séances. In those days, he said,
there were more than 100 itako.”
★ Nubby Twiglet + Gala Darling found the most magical,
uh, gym in the world! Seriously. I need one of these to open
up in Austin. My dusty little workout room is kind of like a haunted
mansion, except without any of the purple neon or amenities.
Mainly it just has bones and ghosts, and a shitty exercise bike,
elliptical and trampoline I bought but have not yet, um, experienced.
Yet! I need a personal trainer. With a whip. They need to be super-mean
and have an accent and tell me stories. Anyone up for the job?
Check it out: Lifting Weights in The Haunted Mansion
★ Many, many thanks to Coilhouse for turning me on to the
aural magic that is Headphone Commute!
Their Modern Classical mix is the very best late-night writing soundtrack, ever.
In fact, I’m listening to it at this very moment. Highly addictive.
★ I’m really enjoying connecting with all of you fascinating creatures
who read the Gazette! Thank you all so much for your comments,
and enchanting links. Keep it coming- I am so curious always to know
what blows your skirts up (or your trouser-leg!) and love it when y’all
send tidbits of wonderment and interest my way. I’m contemplating the
next steps for my beloved bee-log, because writing here is one of my
most favorite things to do. It’s a matter of making it sustainable, as I am
constantly juggling a lot of projects. I’m finding ways to manage my time
better, and post more regularly. Many strange and magical experiences
lately have been making me wonder if it’s time to add an advice column
here. What do you think? Do you have questions for me? Shall we try?
Also, reader-reader on a star.. How I wonder who you are!
Tell me about yourself, won’t you? Some of you are known and very dear
to me, but I think there are lots of you out there who I am just discovering…
How did you come to be a reader of the Gazette? What do you enjoy most,
and what suggestions might you have? I can’t wait to hear! xoxo A.
18 Comments
Marvelous ! I love the article about how the Japanese mediums are fading from their culture, presumably dying off. Sadly, the younger generation doesn’t seem to have the same belief in their “Itakos” as their elders. And that Gym. If we had that kind of loveliness would we need a personal trainer with a a whip and accent ?! Actually, I probably would, but it would be so worth the sacrifice.
Hello, hello! I found your blog accidentally during Hurricane K from postings by Blastmilk. She was terribly concerned about her friends in New Orleans and by following their posts, I found the Gazette. Your entries cheer me and inspire me, and occasionally make me cry. (Sometimes, that’s a good thing, right?) I am an old girl and retired opera chorus singer and collect dolls, old stuff, and sparkly things.
Hello! My name is Merilee, (Cloudycloud on LJ), and my dear friend Liza introduced me to your beautiful blog. I’m also friends with Valerie and Rachel, who I believe came to an Easter party of yours at Liza’s recommendation.
I’m from Austin and I met you once at Uncommon Objects when we recognized each other from an Enchanted Forest event where I was noodling around on the cello. But I’m sure I’d been seeing you around town for a long while before then because it’s Austin like that.
Now I live in Chicago and reading your blog reminds me of magical Austin times.
And that’s who I am and how I got here.
Greetings! I stumbled upon your bee-log via coilhouse. The first time I read it, I had this fantastic dream that you led me up this beautiful wildflower covered hill where we had tea and chatted. I enjoy stopping by to read your always inspiring posts to see all the pretty pictures you discover. thank you for creating such a beautiful and authentic space full of magic!
i’m not even done with this post but my heart is actually ACHING with raptures over the The adventures of her serene limpness, the moon-faced princess. Ummmm DEATH OF GOOD.
Gym! I’m enjoying my climbing gym muchly, but perhaps if it was designed to look like I was climbing giant ice mountains & glowing crystal magic caverns I’d like it more…
p.s. i enjoy everything! i would like an advice column, or mystical angel magic horoscopes, or more art and projects and craftiness?
I really enjoyed the article! Can you imagine a festival with 100 magical old women talking to the dead & everyone dancing and singing all night? (If all those women die out, what happens to all their magic?)
That’s such a great idea for a gym. (Maybe someone could combine the two: a theatrically gothic gym with a festival – singing and chanting on the bikes, being doused with sparkles around every corner, dancing through the halls & getting tangled up in the spooky net hangings.
)
The accordion girl is such a wonderful photo – I’d love to have a framed print on my wall (but maybe she’s too free to be owned?)
An advice column would be fun. I’d look forward to both the questions and responses. (I don’t have a question today, but maybe will later.)
Here are some other links I’d like to share:
Into the Hermitage (wonderful gypsy artists blog):
http://intothehermitage.blogspot.com/
The FIT Gothic Fashion exhibit (sadly over, but the website lives on):
http://www3.fitnyc.edu/museum/gothic/
The website of the amazing artist Peter Milton (His art lives in the back of my mind & feels more real than reality.)
If I were wealthy, I’d fill my walls with his prints:
http://www.petermilton.com/
A chapter from his upcoming artist’s book version of John Crowley’s Little, Big:
http://www.littlebig25.com/LB25bk1ch1.pdf
Did you ever see the series Carnivale? Every August about this time I get the urge to watch it again (and learn Tarot cards to see if they speak to me – or turn into something else, paint themselves new).
http://www.hbo.com/carnivale/
Happy end-of-August. (May all your sad rainy memories turn into river-flowing-into-peace healing.)
I highly recommend Miss Merilee above. She’s a fantastic mermaid.
My current obsession is museums, and in particular, the Museum of Jurassic Technology. I’m reading a book on it, called Dr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders. I stay up too late at night reading about human horns and Wunderkammers and that fuzzy border between the actual and the possible where wonder happens.
I am loving The Moon Faced Princess, and I’m loving you and all your marvelous musings. xoxo
I am not sure if this posted at all, or if it will post 1000 times, because it’s not showing up, but let me try one last time –
So we meet again, Miss Gazette! I am so glad that you are enjoying that Modern Classical mix – do you know that once I finished the very first listen, I went and purchased (!!) every album on that list?
It was just that compelling
Re: what is blowing my skirt up lately – this wonderful image:http://ghoulnextdoor.tumblr.com/post/173102897
A little backstory – I originally saw a tiny icon of just the face of this woman on netflix, it belonged to someone whose tastes coincide with mine, and it fascinated me from the start. ( I am afraid I snagged that tiny image for myself and have been using it ever since. Luckily my internet hangouts are few, because I think having the same icon as someone else is a bit of a faux-pas!) I have been searching and searching for the source of this beloved lady for 2 years, and I found her last Friday…she is Maria Germanova of the Moscow Arts Theatre, and that costumed image is from the play the Bluebird of Happiness. Here is a full-body link:http://ghoulnextdoor.tumblr.com/post/173218669
She inspired me to created a lovely outfit around her: http://www.polyvore.com/be_good_shall_eat_you/set?id=11647224
As a matter of fact, you’ve inspired a few outfits as well!
http://www.polyvore.com/wouldnt_you_like_to_get/set?id=11665750
http://www.polyvore.com/great_god_pan_is_dead/set?id=11591120
http://www.polyvore.com/night_is_very_large_full/set?id=11418861
Lastly: have you seen Valerie and her Week of Wonders? I do think you would like it quite a bit!
http://www.kinoeye.org/03/09/krzywinska09.php
Hello! I found you a few weeks ago via Lady Lavona, I think. I love your mix of 20s allure and girl-run-with-the-circus, your talent for finding wonders of all kinds (that article about Japan mediums! the fox wedding! the dreams!), the creativity and magic that permeates all your posts. Of course I also have a fondness for antique rhinestones and gilded eyelids (or nails, in my case). An advice column? Why not ? Maybe you could give us tips on how to organize Gadjo Disko-like extravaganzas…
(Forgot to introduce myself by the way. I’m French, working in the book industry, living in Paris with my musician boyfriend and very soon with a little cat ! I’m an avid reader of all kinds of books, I paint, I sew, and I write a little!)
Hello there! I think I stumbled across your lovely livejournal through Lord Whimsy a few years ago and it has been a source of delight and wonder for me ever since. You’ve been through such a lot and yet have a profoundly optimistic and celebratory attitude to life. You see and frame the world in such an enchanting, strange and poetic way that it has helped me to find the magic in my own life. I find you a huge inspiration and I always smile when I see you’ve posted a new installment. Just getting a glimpse of your universe is very special.
Sorry to sound all schmaltzy!! To introduce myself, I’m just a wee tap dancing, spoon collecting, cat lady, tea-party hostess from Scotland.
Hi Angeliska
I’ve actually been on your LJ (thejohngalt) list for some time now and I don’t even really remember how that all happened.. perhaps our common friend Abby, perhaps through Pandora… I’m not really sure. But I realize that you probably know almost nothing about me.. and well you asked… I am something of a mad scientist from a bygone era, but who sadly has succumbed to the pressures of modern day society. I still get to run about in my black suit, white shirt, black tie and fedora upon occasion, but probably with a little less magic then I used to. If you meet Abby in Austin I’m sure she could elaborate. Either way, I keep reading the Gazette for, quite simply, the magical things you find and, to my eyes at least, the magical world you live in. Frankly I’m jealous, but maybe someday I’ll make my way back to the gypsies and kitsune. Until then, I appreciate the reminders of that world.
I find your bee-log most delightful and came upon it through a visit to verhext a few weeks ago and I’m not quite sure how I stumbled upon hers, but I’m so glad I did. This is the area of the internet universe I’ve been searching for. You are a marvelous creature and I look forward to many more or your musings, insights and magic. You are very inspiring!
GHOUL NEXT DOOR:
Oh my. I am also immediately obsessed by that incredible image of Maria Germanova!
Wow. I see what you mean- my eyes almost fell out of my head when I saw her..
I love those polyvore outfits! How cool- maybe you should dress me everyday!
I hope I can inspire more- because they are definitely inspiring to me.. Sigh, if only
we could have all those gorgeous bits of frippery! Oh and, Valerie and her Week of Wonders
is one of my all time favorite films- I own a copy (thanks to Chad of http://monpetitfantome.blogspot.com/)
and the book and soundtrack as well. It is so amazing.
VALERIE:
I adore the Museum of Jurassic Technology! A friend of mine is a founding member,
and he’s told me so many fantastic stories.. Have you been to the Museum of Natural and Artificial Ephemerata yet?
You must! Human horns, Wunderkammers, and liminal states- YES!
ODETTE ODILE:
Thank you for these wonderful links! I’m drooling!
I adored John Crowley’s Little, Big- such a great book..
I’m giving Tarot reading again, by appointment-
and soon hope to be teaching a class! Come down to Texas for it!
Oh, Knoedlein, Osore-zan is unparalleled. There is the Blood Pool, dyed a dark crimson by the iron and other minerals, through which the spirits of mothers who die in childbirth travel. Also, in the same area, are the piles of stones left by the spirits of dead children in sai no kawara, or the “banks of extinction”. Because they couldn’t accept their dharma, or, in some myths, because of the pain their deaths inflict upon their parents, they are consigned to Hell and left stacking rocks in the hopes of climbing out of limbo. Of course, watchful demons destroy the piles before the souls can escape, and the children are trapped forever.
If you ever make it to Japan again, you MUST visit; it’s like being on the moon, if it were inside out and in Hell.
Hello from Headphone Commute! Thank you so much for the good words, and keep on listening!!! Did you check out our followup to Modern Classical mix called “Our Shelter, Our Tomb”?
http://reviews.headphonecommute.com/2010/04/11/hc-our-shelter-our-tomb/
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