October Tricks & Treats

Here's a roundup of images from my annual weird roadtrip (this year's destination was Pittsburgh), and general October spookiness. Included is a link to this year's Halloween mixtape. Happy Haunting, and many eerie returns!

(the Cathedral of Learning)

(hanging object by Thorsten Brinkmann at La Hütte Royal)

(an excellent record store find... listen here)

(the oldest funicular railway in the United States)

(crypt stained glass in Homewood Cemetery)

(Cathedral Commons Room)

(an old favorite... listen here)

(horse chestnuts or conkers)

(our favorite bat cat)

(homemade ginger wasabi chocolates)

And last, but not least, this year's Halloween mix:

Memento mori day trip

This year's weird October road trip included a visit to Edgar Allan Poe's house and grave, the final resting places of Johnny Eck, sideshow performer and star of Freaks, and Ouija board inventor Elijah Bond, lavender milkshakes at Papermoon Diner, John Waters' favorite bookstore, and oddity shopping at Bazaar.

Poe's house in Baltimore, where he wrote Berenice, and other stories

Poe's memorial grave, Westminster Hall Burying Ground

Westminster Hall, Baltimore

a crypt in Westminster Hall Burying Ground

a statue in Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore

Johnny Eck and his twin brother Robert,
both buried in Green Mount cemetery

Sadly, one place I would have loved to visit on my weird day out, the Shipley-Lydecker house in Baltimore, no longer stands:

built in 1903, the design of its facade was lifted almost wholesale by
Imagineer Ken Anderson for the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland

Nerd Tourism, Toronto

I had a few hours free in Toronto this week to fit in some nerdy tourist stops... first to the Bata Shoe Museum, which has a great permanent collection and two brilliant temporary exhibitions (Standing Tall, an exploration of men's heel height and gender identity throughout history, and Fashion Victims, showcasing restrictive, dangerous, poisonous, and flammable clothing and footwear of the Victorian era), then to the Toronto Public Library to see the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation & Fantasy and the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books.

"chromatic torpedoes" - dye would transfer and stain the wearer's feet

tartan boots, mid-19th Century

poisonous arsenic-dyed Victorian footwear

1920s deep-sea diving boot

sock knitted from human hair, 13th Century

dandified jack boot, early 1700s

despite the Wonderland perspective, my feet are huge compared to most historical shoes

open stacks at the Toronto Public Library

Smithsonian Summer

I've been teaching at the Smithsonian's summer camp for the last several weeks. It would have made my 7-year-old self, in love with the Smithsonian museums, very happy...

The Smithsonian Castle, standing in for the Great Hall
for "Hogwarts at the Smithsonian" camp

Ravenclaw pride for Hogwarts camp

Spit Spot the fez-wearing giraffe in his office habitat,
made by a camp of seventeen 6 to 8 year-olds

The surface of Pluto, created by "Out of this World" camp

England & Hessen

I'm back from a month away in green and pleasant lands, seeing friends and family, and celebrating weddings and birthdays.

the Wedding Tower in Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt, Germany..
part of a Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) artists' colony in the early 1900s

the Russian chapel in Darmstadt

Jugendstil pillars at the Darmstadt atelier, designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich

plane trees, Darmstadt

statue in Wiesbaden

Globe theatre, London

statue of Shackleton at the Royal Geographical Society, London

cricket in the park, Greenwich

St. Paul's

wedding meadow, Hampshire

Gilbert White's House,Hampshire

near the Maltings, Farnham