Memorias Perdidas

Star gazing tonight

2012-02-24T16:35:00.005-08:00

During early nights in late February the thin waxing crescent Moon will pass by the two brightest planets, Jupiter and Venus to form beautiful patterns in the night sky.

Even the most casual stargazers will recognize the Moon, but many people are less familiar with Jupiter and Venus. In late February these two planets are the brightest objects in the western sky shortly after it gets dark. Venus is lower in the sky and brighter than Jupiter in late February and early March.

On the evening of February 24, the thin crescent Moon will be below Venus when the sky darkens. The two planets and the Moon will therefore form a nearly straight line of increasingly brighter objects in the night sky.
On the evening of February 25, the slightly larger crescent Moon will appear near Venus in the early evening sky. Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon will form a long skinny triangle. Venus and the Moon will form the base and Jupiter will be at the tip.

As the Moon continues its orbit around Earth on February 26, the Jupiter, Venus, Moon triangle will reverse its shape to form an upside down skinny triangle. Jupiter and the slightly larger crescent Moon will form the base of the triangle at the top. Venus will form the tip of the downward pointing triangle.
After February 26, the waxing crescent Moon will appear a little larger each night. It will also move eastward of Venus and Jupiter, so that by February 28 the approximately first quarter Moon will appear near the seven sisters of the Pleiades in the night sky.

The bright planets, Jupiter and Venus, make good markers to allow stargazers to observe the Moon's monthly path through the night sky as it cycles through its waxing phases.
Many people think that the Moon's phases result from Earth's shadow falling on the Moon. As appealing as this idea sounds, it is incorrect. The crescent Moon, so low in the western sky just after the Sun sets in the west, is a simple observation showing that Earth's shadow can not cause lunar phases. As seen from Earth, both the Sun and Moon are in approximately the same direction in the sky. Hence Earth's shadow can not possibly be falling on the Moon. The relative positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon showing differing amounts of the day and night sides of the Moon cause the Moon's phases.
Enjoy the Moon, Jupiter, and Venus.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Crescent Moon near Jupiter and Venus late February 2012 - National Astronomy | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/astronomy-in-national/crescent-moon-near-jupiter-and-venus-late-february-2012#ixzz1nLhfN11O

La Pequena Gigante

2012-02-23T10:41:00.001-08:00

La Pequeña Gigante ( Giant little girl) first came to Chile on January of 2007, a giant mechanical doll-girl which has taken over the streets of Santiago since then.

Hillsborough Cemetery

2012-02-14T23:58:00.000-08:00

Hillsborough Cemetery is a quiet little spot overlooking the bay just south of Auckland city. We took a little detour through on a warm, rainy afternoon before heading over to Spookers, which is located in a real abandoned Insane Asylum from the 1950s. It's a beautiful building complete with peeling paint and cobwebs (both real and fake). The actors did an amazing job, one of the better haunted houses I've been to, though I couldn't help wishing that the place had been left untouched to explore. The revenue that Spookers brings probably has prevented the place from being torn down however...for now the real ghosts will be lying in wait.

The Owner of Spookers with his homemade Hearse

Leviathan from the Deep

2012-02-10T14:56:00.000-08:00

"Fishermen in the Pakistani port of Karachi got more than they bargained for Tuesday as they reeled in one of the biggest fish in the sea: a whale shark.

The Express Tribune, a Pakistani newspaper, reported that the 40-foot fish was first spotted ten days ago in seas about 150 km (93 miles) from the city. Mehmood Khan, the owner of a local fishery, said the shark was unconscious at that time and other reports said that it was found dead Tuesday.

A large crowd gathered as a succession of cranes were brought in to lift the shark on to the pier. After several hours and a number of failed attempts, the leviathan was finally brought ashore and promptly sold for 1.7m Rupees ($18,750).

The whale shark was added to the World Conservation Union's list of threatened species in 2008."

By David R Arnott, msnbc.com

Order from Chaos

2012-02-08T21:55:00.000-08:00

Ship Graveyard

2012-02-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

Perimetr

2012-02-02T14:12:00.001-08:00

Medium Mortem

2012-01-30T09:58:00.000-08:00

The story of Mudhouse Mansion

2012-01-26T13:23:00.000-08:00

Mudhouse Mansion is one of Lancaster's most famous abandoned places. It was built sometime between 1840-1850. In 1919 the property was sold to Henry and Martha Hartman. Henry Hartman died in 1930 and the property was inherited by Lulu Hartman-Mast, his daughter. Her descendents still own the land today.

Mudhouse Mansion is supposedly haunted. The most popular story goes that a government official who lived there after the Civil War still kept slaves. He was very cruel to them, he would lock them in one of the outbuildings every night. One slaves was fed up with the cruel treatment, and one night he dug his way out, entered the house, and murdered the entire family. The family and the slaves who lived there haunt the house today.

It is said that the "Bloody Mary" lives there. It seems that every haunted building, bridge, or cemetery is the place where the legendary Bloody Mary murdered her children. I highly doubt she lived in Mudhouse Mansion, or that she was buried at Lucas Cemetery (Mary Jane's Grave) in Richland County, Ohio :)

In September 2008 this letter was received from Chad P:

I have some information that you might find interesting. I became interested in the house a few months back due to a friend who drives by it everyday. So I started doing my research, and the best book that I found was my father. My father's name is Emmett Pinkstock, and he grew up in the Lancaster region his whole life. He actually lived in the white house next to the "Mudhouse" house, while he was a young boy (it burnt down in a fire a few years back.). His father and the last owner, Helena Hartman, were good friends. He gave me some really great info on the house and the stories. The house was still in order until the late 1960's when Helena passed away. She had inherited the house through her parents, who were farmers at the time they passed. Dad told me of the beauty that was in the house. There were 22 rooms with 10 bedrooms all upstairs...he told me that all the windows upstairs were all stained glass. The outhouses outside held different things. One building behind the back, he explained, was a generator room where they made their own electricity. Another building was divided into two sections for their carriages and a blacksmith shop. Helena was never married, and was a farmer who raised cows on the property. Dad remembers going up as a young boy and helping with the animals and farm. She was famous for her onion gravy that she fixed (Gross, I know!). She was a very simple woman and was a sweetheart by all means. She wore simple dresses and looked like she didn't have a toilet to pee in. He explained to me that when she died, the house was left the way it was. She was never married and had no kids. The house went over to her nephew who already had a fortune of his own. And also with the name of the house, he referred to it as theHartman-Mast House. Mudhouse was on the other road across the street...it was actually made of mud and rock. So the house was left pretty much to just decay away after she died. That's the reason its in the shape it is. He told me that after she died there were numerous breakins for the furniture that she kept inside. He explained she had silver everything and clocks throughout the house that were encrusted with rubies. And as far as the current owner, Jeanie Mast, she really isn't that mean old lady that everyone takes her to be. She's in her early 80's who lives right down from the house. I've been able to talk to her about the history, that house is AMAZING! But there is no Bloody Mary's or war general with slaves. Just rumors that came about. The house was one of the first brick ones in Lancaster and was one of the finest. So of course, like she said, you're going to have legends and stories about it.

Now we step inside Mudhouse Mansion for a look at the interior. The way I always get in is through an unboarded window on the back porch. The last time I went, we found a board loosely nailed across this window. While we were pulling it off we realized that we could hear an angry buzzing coming from somewhere nearby. It went away, then started up again when we made more noise working on the board. We realized it was coming from inside the porch roof--wasps or bees or something nasty, disturbed in their sleep. Being chickens, we decided to leave and didn't go into the Mansion that night. But the cold weather should solve that particular problem.

The house is built into a hill, so it's hard to tell the first floor from the basement. One one side it's the ground floor, while on the other side it's below ground level. So I'll just call the lowest level the first floor, the middle level the second floor, and the highest level the third floor.

Depending on how you look at it, Mudhouse is either a two-story or a three-story house. No matter how you look at it, though, it's an impressive place. With all this space and such nice property, you have to wonder why it was ever left to rot like this.

The biggest room on floor one is a sort of living room with the windows boarded over. It's pictured above.

But the weirdest room is this one. If you can't tell, it's a sort of bi-level room, built like bunk beds with a partial floor halfway up. The dropped floor is much lower than in the rest of the house, and is flooded with nasty water, which makes me wonder if it collapsed at some point. But the upper level is still higher than door level. I have no idea what the story is with this.

This is a furnace type thing in the kitchen. One of the coolest things I found in Mudhouse was a book of checks, some of which dated back to the 1930s. I found it in the kitchen, where most of the appliances still remain. I would advise you not to open the refrigerator in any abandoned building, since you're either going to find foul, stagnant water or a chopped-up human body, and either way, it stinks. Abandoned refrigerators always stink.

Click below to continue to the upper floors.

The best room upstairs is the better living room, which has a sliding door leading into it, and provides a beautiful view of the fields out front. This one has been trashed as badly as the rest of the house, but you can still tell how nice it must once have been.

There are a couple of bedrooms on this floor. With the windows unboarded, they seem much nicer and cleared-out than the first floor does during the day. In a front bedroom on the second floor I came across a few kids' books from the 1960s.

Here's the lovely bathroom, with all the junk piled inside. It's at the end of the hall on the second floor.

But it's the third floor which has the most bedrooms. In fact, the third floor is nothing but bedrooms. Most of them are filled with animal crap and stink pretty bad. In one we even came across an old bed with a really disgusting mattress.

Mudhouse Mansion has at least six bedrooms, maybe eight, depending on what an occupant used them for. On our first exploration it seemed to be in good enough shape that someone could renovate it, if they really wanted to put some effort into the job. But after the fire it's hard to say whether or not the house is salvageable. As long as the owners are stonewalling purchase offers there's not much chance of that happening anyway.

I used the box springs as a ladder and climbed through the opening in the third floor hallway ceiling to visit the roof. It's all angled so much that I didn't want to risk walking on it, but I did snap a terrible picture."

All info and pictures from Source

and Source

The Serpents Chalice

2012-01-22T22:26:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to my baby, from the depths of my black and burning heart I love you!

Music and picture by Watain

Snow Wolves

2012-01-21T15:17:00.000-08:00

Here are some shots of the animals in the snow at Woodland Park Zoo.

Childe Wynd

2012-01-20T21:42:00.000-08:00

Nostrae Tenebras

2012-01-19T11:12:00.001-08:00

Home

2012-01-15T09:35:00.000-08:00

Source

Cottonwood Church

2012-01-10T14:40:00.000-08:00

Dining in the Afterglow

2012-01-05T12:35:00.000-08:00

The McMillan Mausoleum,

Most people think family cemeteries, particularly ones in the western United States, consist of a couple of tumbledown marble or wooden headstones surrounded by a rotting picket fence. Sad to say, this is mostly true: but there are exceptions. Take for example the family plot of the McMillins, in Roche Harbor.

John McMillan owned the local lime works and was active in local and state politics. He believed he owed much of his success to his religion, personal philosophy and family, and wanted to express this through the construction of a tomb that was full of symbology that would be rich to him and to others.

The meaning of much of the tomb’s symbology has faded, but visitors can find several places in Roche Harbor that have maps to the tomb and pamphlets explaining the design and purpose of the magnificent structure.

The mausoleum is located near Friday Harbor, and can be found by following a trail leading through the local cemetery. The trail leads through a green, overgrown wood, a sign reading, “Afterglow Vista” marks the entrance.

After going through the gates, visitors must walk up three flights of stairs. The steps symbolise many things, especially to Freemasons. The first flight has three steps, which represent the three ages of man. The second flight of stairs has five steps, which represent both the five orders of classic architecture and the five senses. The last flight of seven steps represents the seven liberal arts and sciences and also symbolises the seven days of the week.

Once up the stairs, visitors reach a raised platform, on which several pillars support a domed roof. In ancient times, pillars lined the western entrance to any house of worship. At Afterglow, one of the western pillars was installed broken to symbolise the way death breaks the column of any man’s life.

The dome has a central opening, supported by Maltese arches between the columns. Originally, McMillan planned to have a bronze top placed over the opening, but the family left it open to nature. Rather than landscaping around it, they left the entire structure, including the family crypt on the platform, open to the elements.

Perhaps the most striking feature of Afterglow is the large, limestone table on the platform, which symbolises the entire McMillan family meeting in unity over dinner. Around the table are chairs for each family member, with the corresponding names written on the chair backs. A hollow niche inside each seat serves as the place in which the family member’s cremated ashes rests.

Besides the family, one other person is buried here: Ada Beane. She was McMillan’s personal secretary and more like family than an employee. After she died, she was cremated and the family kept her ashes, which were later interred in the family crypt.

Unfortunately, vandals turn up even in remote places like Roche Harbor. A few years ago, they attacked the McMillan crypt, damaging one chair back and removing another completely. Even so, the place still has a peaceful aura. As the sun goes down on summer evenings, the lights shine through the trees on the tomb. Some people believe that when it does, somehow the shadows change, and the McMillan family meets again to have a ghostly dinner together in the afterglow.

Story taken from the book "Weird Washington" Weird Washington

Happy New Years!!

2012-01-01T12:25:00.000-08:00

Wishing you Peace, Love and Blessings in the New Year ^_^

Yours,

La Tercera Madre

In the Woods

2011-12-23T22:09:00.000-08:00

Photography by Metalographer

Moss Reigns Again

2011-12-20T22:14:00.000-08:00

More stunning captures from my photography idol Metalographer...

Photography by Metalographer

Russian Military Bunker circa 1949

2011-12-17T14:17:00.000-08:00

29 августа 1949 года была испытана первая советская атомная бомба.

Все атомные НИИ и заводы СССР объединило единое Министерство среднего машиностроения (МСМ), которое должно было наладить серийное производство ядерных боеприпасов. Всю ответственность за испытания ядерных боеприпасов, их хранение, эксплуатацию в воинских частях, а также за разработку методов их боевого применения руководство страны возложило на военных.

В конце 1950-го года специальным постановлением Совета Министров СССР было принято решение о создании так называемых центральных баз хранения ядерного оружия - ЦБХ. Эти организации осуществляли сборку произведённых на заводах МСМ боеприпасов, хранили их, соблюдая в тайне сам факт хранения, производили при необходимости замену узлов с истекающими гарантийными сроками хранения, проверяли работу электронных и механических узлов на специальных стендах и при получении соответствующего приказа выдавали ядерные боеприпасы в войска для боевого применения.

August 29, 1949 was tested in the first Soviet atomic bomb.

All nuclear plants and research institutes of the USSR together with a common Ministry of Medium Machine (MSM), which was to establish serial production of nuclear weapons. All responsibility for the testing of nuclear weapons, their storage, service in military units, as well as for developing methods to combat use of the country's leadership has placed on the military.

At the end of 1950 a special decree of the Council of Ministers decided to create a so-called central database storage of nuclear weapons - TSBH. These organizations have carried out the assembly produced in factories MSM ammunition stored them, keeping secret the fact of storage, produced if necessary, replace the units with expiring warranty period of storage, test the electronic and mechanical assemblies and on special stands in receipt of an order issued to the troops nuclear weapons for operational use.

Source

Точки съемки
Ссылка на карту, там можно посмотреть, где были сделаны фотографии.

При написании использовался текст с сайтов:
kyzyl-tash.narod.ru

Крымский полуостров 2011
Сводный пост путешествия

Понравился пост? Нажмите на кнопку! Один клик, а мне приятно! :)

Desolate Funeral Chant

2011-12-15T18:26:00.000-08:00

Total Lunar Eclipse

2011-12-09T16:15:00.000-08:00

The show begins at 3:33 a.m. with the moon starting its total eclipse at 6:06 a.m. The peak of the eclipse will be at 6:31 a.m. and then the moon slowly lights up again starting at 6:57 a.m.

The moon will technically remain in partial eclipse until 8:17 a.m., but we won't see the whole show because the moon will set at 7:52 (we'll get the best part, though). But that could make for a dramatic scene since the moon tends to look larger than life when it's near the horizon.

But unlike a total solar eclipse where the sun goes pitch black, the moon gets a smoky reddish color to it. That's due to the Earth's atmosphere and the sunlight reflecting off the edges of the Earth and faintly illuminating the moon. In fact, Astronomy Magazine says it's the glow of all the sunrises and sunsets on Earth going on at that moment.

Francis Skiddy von Stade, Sr Estate

2011-12-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

Francis Skiddy von Stade, Sr was an importer of bristles and avid horsemen. It is fitting that his estate

lies in the heart of polo country, Old Westbury.

During the 1920's he was a polo player of distinction. His mansion was built in 1914 and later expanded in 1930. At the age of 82, Francis Skiddy von Stade passed away in the mansion he had built. After his 1967 passing the mansion became home to the Enternmanns family, of bakery fame.

For quite some time it has sat abandoned and decaying. Recently demolition has begun. At the time of article's publication the mansion is still standing, but an indoor horse circuit, and stables have been leveled.

Another beautiful spot on Long Island will make way for more McMansions.

Pictures and words from Long Island Oddities.

inside the stables

Gandini’s Circus

2011-12-05T15:27:00.000-08:00

Gandini’s Circus

Heading down busy Kelly Ave in downtown Edmond, passing an Arby’s and a gas station, you wouldn’t think anything of the obscure dirt road blocked off by a yellow fence.

At first you may just notice a barren field and nothing else, but it doesn’t take long to realize the full history of this strange, abandoned plot. Concrete foundations checker the tan grass while rusty metal poles protrude out of the bushes and trees. There are several houses that have

long since been vacated and later vandalized by passers-by. Further into the acreage, hidden behind some thick brush, you’ll start getting an idea of what this place used to be.

Gandini’s Circus went on for some time between the 1900′s and 1930, touring across various parts of the states. Fragments of the circus still linger around including 4 or 5 trailers where the clowns, acrobats and animals were housed.
Even the cages, large and small, are still there– discarded when the circus apparently disbanded. Although many of the trailers are burnt from the inside out by either arson or a terrible accident, you can still find fliers, popcorn bags and soda cups along with assorted pieces of memorabilia throughout the area.

What makes the area so spooky is not the place’s background, but it’s lack of obvious history. I’ve tried to search the Internet for information on the circus but could only find a few pages vaguely relating to what it was. Digging through the ashes in and around the trailers I was able to find a few old fliers in tact that shed some light on the place, but still not enough to make this area any less frightening.

The real scare comes at night, walking through this barren place, maybe tripping over an old cougar cage or deflated clown ball, when the full scope of what ‘haunted’ really boils down to.

Afterall, there may be nothing more dreadful than a haunted circus burned to the ground. A place does not necessarily require ghosts to be haunted, but if it’s scary enough, maybe we’re the ones who create them.

-Written by Robert Cole

Images and Words from Source

Shadowthrone

2011-12-04T15:04:00.001-08:00

We wander the fields of death... In eternity
wandering our own path
Which has been the quest of immortality
Yet to conquer for me - but dreams shall not be torn
He is spirit
He is stone
And he is immortality
The king of the shadowthrone
And he will then conquerer (of death)
Fall as a stone from the mountain
And die, led to destruction

Once he left in you then in the past
Then the sea should be worthless
Spirit rise from you rest and return for them

I am spirit
I am stone
And I am immortal

Words by Satyricon

Minerva and Charmion- Strongwomen

2011-12-01T17:15:00.000-08:00

MINERVA & CHARMION – Strongwomen

The strongman has long been a staple in circus and sideshows. The image of handlebar mustached man garbed in a leopard print leotard has become the stereotypical image associated with feats of extraordinary strength. But, what about the ‘fairer sex’? Was there ever a professional strongwoman?

Truth be told, there were several.

Perhaps the best known and traditional of these brawny babes was Josephine Blatt, who was better known by her stage name Minerva.

Josephine Blatt’s early history is shrouded in carnival gimmickry. She claimed to have been born in 1865 in Hamburg Germany but other sources, most notably The Guinness Book of World Records, pegged her as an American born in 1867 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Regardless of this discrepancy, few questions exist in regards to her remarkable strength.

In her displays she demonstrated her strength by breaking horseshoes with her hands, breaking steel chains by expanding her chest, and playing catch with a 24 pound cannon ball.

She was capable to lift a stone weight of 360 lbs with a single finger thrust through a lifting ring. Furthermore, The Guinness Book of Records recognized Minerva as having lifted the greatest weight ever by a woman.

At the BijouTheatre in Hoboken on April 15, 1895 Josephine Blatt lifted 3,564 lbs in a hip-and-harness lift. With that superhuman lift, Josephine Blatt nearly achieved the mythical status of her namesake

She retired with her strongman husband, Charles Blatt, in 1910 and eventually passed away on September 1, 1923.

Around the same time that Minerva was raising great weights, a young lady named Charmion was raising eyebrows with her unusual strength-related act.

Laverie Vallee, Charmion, was a Sacramento born trapeze artist who possessed strength and a physique most men would be envious of. However, she was most well known for her risqué striptease performances.

The act opened with Charmion taking the stage in full Victorian attire. She would then mount the trapeze and proceed to undress to her leotard while performing impressive and strength-dependant stunts. The act was incredibly impressive and provocative for the era. However, the controversy created by her performances did not prevent the formulation of a devoted, and mostly male, fan base.

One of her greatest fans was Thomas Edison. As a result of that adoration, on November 11, 1901 Charmion committed a simplified version of her act to film for Edison. The film, simply entitled ‘Trapeze Disrobing Act’ focused more on the erotic aspect of the performance, though a few remarkable feats of strength are featured. The film can be viewed here.

Charmion eventually retired to Santa Ana, California. She passed away on February 6, 1949 at the age of 73.

Information and images taken from thehumanmarvels.com

Solitary Death in the Nocturnal Woods

2011-11-29T16:15:00.000-08:00

This Blood Falls As Mortal

2011-11-27T17:01:00.000-08:00

Source
Music By Lurker of Chalice

St. Nicolas the Miracle-Worker Church

2011-11-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

Situated in Gurevo village and built approximately in 1874.

Church of the Archangel Michael

2011-11-17T13:06:00.000-08:00

This little church of Archangel Michael is tucked away in the woods in the Tverskaya region. The church built around1790 and was most likely abandoned in the1840s.

Source

Minions

2011-11-15T17:01:00.000-08:00

The church of Ivan Predtetcha, Ivanovskoe village, the Tverskaya region.

2011-11-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

The church of Ivan Predtetcha was built in 1779 on the money of a local landowner, in Ivanovskoe village. It was closed for good in 1935.

Source

Abandoned Church near Yaropolet

2011-11-14T12:25:00.000-08:00


The Kazan Our Lady Icon’s Church ia a unique landmark of XVIII century. The two domes are identical to each other, as well as the temple and the mausoleum under them. built in 1780s

A photo of the church in the beginning of the XX century.

Source

Lucky Mojo Curio Co.

2011-11-10T11:00:00.000-08:00

Lucky Mojo Curio Co is a shop in California that stocks all kinds of supplies and tools for hoodoo spells, rites and practices, packed into to handy kits including instructions for novices!

They have a good variety of handmade oils that are made the good old fashioned way with real herbs and roots. They also have all the fixings for spells, and the owner of the shop, Catherine Yronwode even has a course on Hoodoo magic that she teaches to a select lucky few.

This Hoodoo Magic Spells Correspondence Course is "a private class, sent only to people who want to study the matter in greater depth than through the web site. Both theoretical and practical matters are covered, including free magic spells, herbal information, tips on how to work with the tools of conjure, chit-chat about what it's like to be a root doctor working for clients"

Catherine describes Lucky Mojo Curio Co. "We carry a full line of hand-made spiritual supplies, including occult oils, incense, powders, candles, herbs, mojo bags, spiritual soaps, books, and spell kits for those who cast magic spells, love spells, money spells, and protection spells in the African-American hoodoo, Pagan magick, and other Witchcraft traditions.

We also import and distribute folkloric magical, occult, herbal, and spiritual supplies from Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East for those who work in Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, and Jewish religious and magical traditions."

For more information and orders, visit:

6632 Covey Road, Forestville, California 95436
voice: 707-887-1521 / fax: 707-887-7128
email: order@luckymojo.com
Open 7 Days a Week, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Pacific Time

Spell Kit to Ward off the Evil Eye

Love Spell Kit

First German Reform Church 1862, Cincinnati, Ohio.

2011-11-08T13:55:00.000-08:00

"...For Why would Jesus Christ be drawn to a withered hand? "...For Who Can Forgive Sins but God?" John 21:25

above the apse.

Vestments

Source

Wake up

2011-11-06T18:35:00.001-08:00

Strange Sightings

2011-11-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

"People see the strangest things in clouds and burnt toast, but this latest sighting can’t be topped: A face on a testicular tumour.

As reported by The Toronto Star, Canadian doctors were shocked when they looked at an ultrasound image of a testicular tumour (see image above).

“It was very ghoulish, like a man screaming in pain,” Doctor Naji Touma, who works at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., told The Star about the picture taken in 2009.

Dr. Touma and Greg Roberts wrote in their paper submitted to the journal Urology that they saw a “…man’s face staring up out of the image, his mouth agape as if the face seen on the ultrasound scan itself.”

Their Urology abstract notes:

"A brief debate ensued on whether the image could have been a sign from a deity (perhaps 'Min' the Egyptian god of male virility); however, the consensus deemed it a mere coincidental occurrence rather than a divine proclamation."

An ultrasound uses sound waves to produce an image. The Canadian Testicular Cancer Association says signs of cancer can include a painless lump, swelling of the testicle or aching in the lower abdomen. It’s the most common form of cancer in males between the ages of 15 and 29."

Article from Source

Here are some more strange sightings:

Receipt face

Jesus Pizza

Jesus in the Rock

Satanic bathroom tile

Crucified Vine Jesus

FishStick Face

Wax face

A Face in the Clouds

Il Était une Forêt...

2011-11-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

Music by Gris

Mystics

2011-11-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some portraits circa 1915-1935, women posing with crystal balls, tarot cards and other-wordly items. Mysticism became very popular around this time and saw the emergence of Mentalists, Psychic readers and Spiritualists such as Alexander.

woman posing with tarot cards

Victorian Albino sisters.

La Maison K

2011-10-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

Martino Zegwaard's set of La Maison K, words and pictures from source.

"First visit; i'd seen some pictures of a old farm somewhere in a small village in Luxembourg, but never had i expected the time capsule i walked in that april morning just before sunset.

Nobody's awake yet when Ransom and me sneak into the house. We have to wait inside for the sun to rise and light the inside up. The more light comes in, the more secrets are revealed. This place is a goldmine, everything is here and everything is authentic.

What grabs me most about this old house is the claustrophobic feel it has. It has been build a long time ago and all the ceiling are relatively very low. One can touch the lamps hanging from the ceiling without standing on your toes. This "smallness" combined with the fact that the house is packed with all sort of (personal) stuff makes it a unique experience.

During my 2nd visit i'm feeling pissed about most of the stuff that has been stolen."

Here the "claustrophobic" feel I referred to is most clear.

Living room with on the table a very old half gone bottle of whisky.

Small room, man sitting at the table, women in the bed/couch against the wall. Wood blocks in the stofe to keep 'em both warm.

Unlogical hallway, think about it; back in the days houses and the way they are build and mapped out was efficient, every detail had its reason. This hallway leads from the front door all the way to the back of the house.

By now, this is a famous alarm clock and a n even more famous shot of it, but it's a part of the experience.

he cellar full of jars with fruit and vegetables on the shelfs, and all kind of baskets, boxes and such underneath a blanket of cobwebs.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

This year my costume is a tribute to the great tattooed women of the 1920s sideshows, I modeled myself specifically after the lovely Betty Broadbent.

My companion, the Mentalist

A is for Akrid

2011-10-26T19:09:00.000-07:00

By PumpkinROt

The Spirit World

2011-10-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

In honour of Samhain fast approaching, here are some examples of the Victorian trend of spirit photography, in which people would pay a specialty photographer to take their portrait while "capturing" the image of their dead loved one who would supposedly visit them during the sitting.

It had been discovered that during the extremely long exposure duration of early cameras, an actor dressed as a spirit could enter the frame and be captured.

Photographers charged extremely high sums for these photos, and those posing in them were convinced that their real dead relatives were materializing in front of them.

Spiritualism in America--and more specifically, spirit photography-- was taken to court in New York City in 1869. The case: a preliminary hearing for William H. Mumler, who was charged with fraud for selling photographs that he claimed included images of ghosts or spirits. Testimony and arguments lasted for seven days.

On Mumler's side, witnesses included a prominent former judge who was also a spiritualist. Among the opposing witnesses were several photographers who explained how the same effects could be achieved by darkroom tricks, and P. T. Barnum--who said he purchased some of Mumler's photographs to exhibit them in his museum as specimens of humbug.
Mumler was eventually released free of charge, and went on to continue his work. While some believed him a fraud, others continued to believe. Mumler destroyed all his negatives shortly before his death.

Frederick A. Hudson (England)Mr. Raby with the Spirits "Countess," "James Lombard," "Tommy," and the Spirit of Mr. Wootton's Mother. circa 1875

F. M. Parkes (England)
"Mrs. Collins & Her Husband's Father, Recognized by Several."
1875

Edouard Isidore Buguet (France, b. 1840)
Mons. Leymarie and Mons. C. with Spirit of Edouard Poiret
circa 1874
Leymarie was the editor of La Revue Spirite, which circulated this image. Buguet and Leymarie were both sentenced to prison for fraud in 1875.

Phillips Bros. (Pontiac, Michigan)
Man Reading with Female Spirit Behind
circa 1870

William H. Mumler ( 1832-1884; active Boston & New York)

Moses A. Dow, Editor of Waverley Magazine, with the Spirit of Mabel Warren.Albumen print carte de visite, circa 1871.

William H. Mumler ( 1832-1884; active Boston & New York)
Mrs. French of Boston with Spirit Son
Albumen print carte de visite, circa 1868

Haunted Air: Halloween Photos 1875-1955

2011-10-25T18:23:00.000-07:00

Ossian Brown was a member of the dark, magical electronic music group Coil and is currently in Cyclobe, a duo with his partner Stephen Thrower. Ossian is a strange attractor. Weird things find him. Like his exquisite collection of antique vernacular photographs of Halloweens past. Brown compiled his favorites of the freaky found photos, all dating between 1875 and 1955, into a lovely new book titled Haunted Air. David Lynch wrote the introduction and Geoff Cox the afterword. Here is a glimpse of how the old, weird America celebrated All-Hallows Eve.

— David Pescovitz

"I like to experience each photograph as a magical event, frozen in front of me. I'm drawn to pictures with a mood that 'oozes' into the normality of the moment, and changes it. It's important to me that there's nothing to disturb this, no detail in the composition or in the models posture that could interfere with that magic."

— Ossian Brown

"I'm excited by pictures where I can see a natural mutation has occurred, not just in the condition of the photograph, with mould spots and tears creating new and unimagined landscapes, but also from the passing down and inheritance of a costume, perhaps over many years."

— Ossian Brown

"The perishing of fabrics and the rotting of early rubber, due to chemical instabilities and damp conditions, create new and sinister, puzzling abnormalities. Time and repeated wear have caused a beautiful metamorphosis, never intended or imagined by the maker."

— Ossian Brown

"All the clocks had stopped. A void out of time. And here they are - looking out and holding themselves still - holding still at that point where two worlds join - the familiar - and the other."

— David Lynch

"These are pictures of the dead: family portraits, mementoes of the treasured, the held-dear-in-heart, now unrecognisable, other. Torn from album pages, sold piecemeal for pennies and scattered, abandoned to melancholy chance and the hands of strangers."

— Geoff Cox

"Death masks reanimate, the once-living frozen whilst aping the ravages of their own demise. Life and death is clowned and puppeted, conjoined in the conjured bodies and faces of carnival mannequins..."

— Geoff Cox

"Wolf-Man, child-wraith, witch-wife, ghoul. Playful monsters. Familiar familiars, all strangely innocent, they caper, amuse, reassure. But as the eye is drawn closer, as the eye is set to wander - thorns in the cloth; ticks in the fur; weevils in the flour. A child's frantic distress."

— Geoff Cox

"Human creatures with the feeling of being turned strange and open to falling. And glee -- they seemed to have a glee for somehow stitching a laugh to darkness."

—— David Lynch

"I was somewhere else. I thought I was someplace but now I didn't know what place. I seemed to be inside foreign worlds where there was some kind of troubling camaraderie -- as if a haunting joke was known to everyone but me and yet faintly I knew it too."

—— David Lynch

"Seance pictures wound round in a mad cat's cradle of knotted light, each sitter wearing the simulacrum of his own end."

— Geoff Cox

Those Slimy Things

2011-10-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

Skele Love

2011-10-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

Two skeletons found in central-northern Italy reveal the couple was buried holding hands some 1,500 years ago.

The skeletal remains of a Roman-era couple reveal the pair has been holding hands for 1,500 years.

Italian archaeologists say the man and woman were buried at the same time between the 5th and 6th century A.D. in central-northern Italy. Wearing a bronze ring, the woman is positioned so she appears to be gazing at her male partner.

"We believe that they were originally buried with their faces staring into each other. The position of the man's vertebrae suggests that his head rolled after death," Donato Labate, the director of the excavation at the archaeological superintendency of Emilia-Romagna, told Discovery News.

The tender discovery was made during ordinary construction work in Modena and was announced this week. Labate explained the dig revealed three layers of scientific interest.

The deeper layer, some 23 feet below the surface, contained the remains of Roman-era structures, including a calcara where mortar was produced. The ruins belonged to the suburbs of Modena, then called Mutina.

"A middle layer, at a depth of about 10 feet, featured 11 burials, while a third stratification on top of the necropolis, revealed seven empty tombs," Labate said.

Excavated by archaeologist Licia Diamanti, the skeleton couple belonged to the 11 tomb necropolis. According to Labate, the simple fossa (trench) tombs suggest that the people buried there were not particularly rich.

"They were possibly the inhabitants of a farm," Labate said.

The area was subjected to several floods from the nearby river Tiepido -- which may have caused the male skeleton's skull to roll away from the female skeleton after burial. The necropolis was covered by alluvial deposits, and on top of them, another seven tombs were built.

"These burials were empty. Most likely, they were covered by another flood just after their construction. We think it was a catastrophic flood which occurred in 589, as reported by the historian Paul the Deacon," Labate said.

The two skeletons, which are poorly preserved, will be now studied by Giorgio Gruppioni, an anthropologist at the University of Bologna. The research includes establishing the couple's age, their relationship and the possible cause of death.

"In antiquity, it is not surprising to learn of spouses or members of a family dying at the same time: whenever epidemics such as the Black Plague ravaged Europe, one member of the family would often die while the family was trying to bury another member," Kristina Killgrove, a biological anthropologist at the University of North Carolina, told Discovery News.

In 2007 another skeleton couple, buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, was found at a neolithic site near Mantua, just 25 miles south of Verona, where Shakespeare set the romantic story of Romeo and Juliet.

Locked in a tender embrace, they also looked at one another in apparent defiance of time and decay.

"The two couples are separated in time by five millennia, and both evoke an uplifting tenderness. I have been involved in many digs, but I've never felt so moved," Labate said.

According to Killgrove, the positioning of the Modena skeletons, looking at one another and holding hands, indeed suggests they may have been a couple.

"Whoever buried these people likely felt that communicating their relationship was just as important in death as it was in life," Killgrove said.

Source

New Addition

2011-10-19T17:37:00.000-07:00

New Halloween tattoo

MILK

2011-10-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

These are the work of mysterious and incredible artist MILK (a.k.a Chiara). I love this woman's work!! Enjoy!

PumpkinRot

2011-10-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

Beautiful, disturbing work from a Halloween Haunter very dear to my heart, Mr. Pumpkinrot.
Pumpkinrot makes all of these creations completely by hand, from scratch. Can't wait to see what he has in store for 2011...
Check out more of his work here

The Marsden Archives

2011-10-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

Images from the incredible Simon Marsden, one of my favourite photographers. See more of his work here.

K.I.N.G

2011-10-14T15:40:00.001-07:00

Edward Gorey

2011-10-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

Critic Edmund Wilson described Edward Gorey's work as ''poisonous and poetic." He drew an early 20th century world --from the Edwardian era through the Roaring Twenties -- primarily black-and-white and strangely surrealistic.

Danger lurked everywhere: in sinister furniture, monstrous urns, terrifying topiary, and architectural horrors. It was a world inhabited by the disaster-prone, the decadent, the villainous, and the blithely innocent -- all of whom (unless poverty-stricken) tended to dress well. Gorey's writing perfectly mixed the macabre with humor and clever word play to (usually) tell a cautionary tale of moral instruction and devastatingly bizarre hilarity.

Edward Gorey was born in Chicago in 1925 and claims to have taught himself to read at age 3 1/2, to have read ALICE IN WONDERLAND and DRACULA at age 5, FRANKENSTEIN at age 7, all of the works of Victor Hugo by age 8, and continued growing up reading Agatha Christie mysteries. His father was newspaperman and his parents divorced when he was 11. They later remarried when Gorey was 27. Between those two marriages, Gorey's father wed Corrina Mura, best known for singing "La Marseillaise" in the movie CASABLANCA.

After three years in the army, Gorey arrived at Harvard as a French literature major. The very tall young man was known for wearing capes and numerous rings. His set included a group of young poets studying under John Ciardi -- his roommate, the future poet Frank O'Hara, Adrienne Rich, Alison Lurie, George Plimpton, Robert Bly, John Ashbery, and Kenneth Koch. Gorey and O'Hara were campus dandies in the manner of Oscar Wilde.

Gorey eventually moved to New York in 1950 where he drew book jackets and illustrations. He also began producing his odd little books. When he could find no publisher he kept writing books anyway and self-published them in small runs. The Gotham Book Mart became the central clearing house for Gorey, presenting exhibitions of his work, selling his books and eventually collectibles. In 1961 his THE CURIOUS SOFA: A PORNOGRAPHIC WORK BY OGDRED LEARY became something of a bestseller. (Gorey's pornography, like his horror, was never explicit. It was intimated rather than shown. Unknowable devices like the "thumbfumble" became all the more wicked because they were completely cryptic.) Over the next decade he became a commercial success -- Gorey's first anthology, AMPHIGOREY came out in 1972 from G. P. Putnam's Sons followed by its (first) sequel AMPHIGOREY, TOO in 1974 -- and theatrical designer -- he won a 1978 Tony for costume design for DRACULA and was also nominated for his scenic design for the show.

In the 80s, Gorey's work received its widest circulation with the animated opening and closing credits of the PBS television program MYSTERY.

Even as major publishers published Gorey, he continued to self-publish small batches of his books, paying little attention to their sales. All-in-all, it is estimated he wrote more than 100 books and illustrated more than 60 by other authors.

Gorey, evidently as personally unique as his work, was more jovial than mordant. Bearded, sporting an earring in each lobe and rings on most of his fingers, he often wore a raccoon coat and white sneakers -- although in recent years he became rather embarrassed about wearing fur in public. He moved permanently to Cape Cod in 1986 and lived in an old house overflowing with books, collections, and cats. Over time, he became reluctant to travel -- not even to see productions or exhibits of his work. He became what locals call "a real Cape Codder" -- helping with local charities, quietly attending summer art shows where he encouraged young artists of budding talent. Gorey wrote a series of surrealistic plays and puppet performances and directed them in local community theater.

My friend Marie Robinson is a Cape Codder. She met Edward Gorey in the Lovelette Insurance Agency one day when she'd stopped by to make a car insurance payment. "He was a very tall, slender man dressed in jeans, a nondescript T-shirt, an understated leather jacket, and sneakers," she told me. "He would have blended into the woodwork, if it weren't for his large hands that were cluttered with thick silver rings of dragons and skulls and a pirate earring that set off mirthful eyes. He drove a Volvo, rather than a hearse, much to my dismay. 'You aren't the first person who has said that,' he laughed."

When she commented how much she appreciated his work, he actually blushed, lowered his eyes, murmured a quiet "thank you," and said "I love my work, and if you want to do anything well, you need to be in love with it, for its own sake. And you must go to its darkest place."

Jean Pasch -- another local who described his "Victorian cedar shingled cape house" as "perfect" -- reports he "loved to be aloof, but signed anything you put in front of him."

For me, Edward Gorey represented an elegantly macabre perspective, slightly wicked, a bit decadent, always mysterious. He played it all offstage and revealed just enough to make your own imagination sprout bat wings and sail into the gloom. I'd love to be a Gorey femme fatale, even if it meant being plucked from a grotto by a fantod. Somehow Gorey made doom seemso attractive.

He reminded us, as Henry Allen wrote in The Washington Post, "the warmth of human laughter arises not from hope and cheer but from melancholy, cruelty and ill turns of fortune, the more pointless the better...what relief he offered: Life is not as bad as you think, it's much worse. Such a giggle."

Edward Gorey has been named as one of this year's Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award recipients. The award is given "to an individual whose work has substantially influenced the dark fantasy/horror/occult genre. It honors not merely the superior achievement embodied in a single work but acknowledges superior achievement in an entire career." Harlan Ellison will present the award at the Bram Stoker Awards Banquet May 14.

Gorey created a large body of small work that's influence is still growing. In the history of literature the willingness to take the graphic novel/story (and the work in that field of writers like Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore) seriously can be directly attributed to the earlier recognition of Edward Gorey.

"For some reason,'' Gorey told The Boston Globe in 1984, ''my mission in life is to make everybody as uneasy as possible. I think we should all be as uneasy as possible, because that's what the world is like.''

May you rest...uneasily, Mr. Gorey.

Sideshow 1901-1940

2011-10-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

Here is a little glimpse into sideshows of the past...times have changed in some ways and yet in others they have not at all!

A Clown and a donkey circa 1930

Miss Claire the Lion Trainer having tea.

1930s MEN and WOMEN of CIRCUS in makeup and costume

1930s Circus Clown With Big Book

1930s circus acrobats aerialists LILLIAN LEITZEL and ALFREDO CODONA

1915 Circus Barnum and Bailey 1910s Tent Exterior

1909 BARNUM and BAILEY Circus Parade 1900s SHELDON IOWA Main Street vintage photo crowd

1906 CIRCUS TENT INTERIOR BLEACHERS

1901 CIRCUS MAX SCHREYER Daredevil Ramp Crowd Bicycle Flying 1900s Vintage Photo

Gabrielle, the living Half Lady, 1890

Tubs

2011-10-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

Every day this building changes its look. Formerly the infamous and creepy "Tubs," it's been standing abandoned for a good long while, serving as a playground for local graffiti artists and taggers.

Vicky Unus

2011-09-28T00:05:00.000-07:00

The Legendary Vicky Unus performing her act of incredible strength and endurance.

Article from The Times 1963:

On the tanbark trail, the top status symbol is a private stateroom in the circus train. The occupant is always a center-ring star. As Ringling Bros, and Barnum & Bailey Circus last week moved out of winter camp just south of Sarasota, Fla., and began its 93rd national tour, one stateroom was reserved for the youngest person ever to have one—an 18-year-old girl.

Her name is Vicki Unus, but she will be billed as La Toria as she spins in the air on the Roman rings. Her performance lasts seven minutes and occurs 32 ft. up, with no nets. For four minutes or so, she does such maneuvers as swings, splits, twists, roll-ups, hand stands, half crosses, and one-arm planches.

Seat Brusher. Then she goes into the grand finale of the golden rings, the one-arm swing. She hangs on with one hand while her body turns over and over itself like an eccentric propeller. She does it maybe 75 times, 100 if it is an opening night. Last winter she set the alltime record: 125.

Vicki is the daughter of F. F. Unus, the man who stands on one finger. The Unuses, like most circus stars, live in Sarasota. In Sarasota, even the high school has a circus. Three years ago Vicki told her father that she wanted to perform. Vicki was 5 ft. 3 in. and 125 Ibs. Said her father, with a pro's cold cynicism: "What will you do, brush off the seats?" Vicki lost 10 Ibs. and went into training under the great Lalage, whose real name is Wolfgang Roth.
Word Eater.

She worked seven days a week, three hours a day. Where others often get much of their training as apprentices performing in public, she held out until she had perfected herself to the caliber of the center ring. Carrying a large plumed fan and wearing golden shoes, she is the new star of the traditional aerial ballet—one of the circus' four production numbers—and people of the circus have already compared her with the late, indubitably great Lillian Leitzel, who died 26 years ago in a fall in Copenhagen.

As a new face in the pin spots, she is part of a freshman class that includes East Germany's Prince Von, who puts skates on his hands and glides down two wires from roof to floor, and Mexico's Señor Antonio, the first aerialist in Ringling history to consent to do a hand stand while swinging on a trap bar at the top of the arena. As a child of the circus, Vicki Unus is proud to be La Toria and take her place among them—and among such old B.&B. stars as Harold Alzana, the high wire king, Trevor Bale, the big cat man, the Flying Gibsons and the Hanneford Bareback Riders. But she is proudest of all to be in the same show with F. F. Unus, her father, who has long since outlasted all competition in the art of standing on one finger, but who has just been forced to learn how to eat his words.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,829789,00.html#ixzz1Yv8eKPQd

Memorias Perdidas

Star gazing tonight

La Pequena Gigante

Hillsborough Cemetery

Leviathan from the Deep

Order from Chaos

Ship Graveyard

Perimetr

Medium Mortem

The story of Mudhouse Mansion

The Serpents Chalice

Snow Wolves

Childe Wynd

Nostrae Tenebras

Home

Cottonwood Church

Dining in the Afterglow

Happy New Years!!

In the Woods

Moss Reigns Again

Russian Military Bunker circa 1949

Desolate Funeral Chant

Total Lunar Eclipse

Francis Skiddy von Stade, Sr Estate

Gandini’s Circus

Gandini’s Circus

Shadowthrone

Minerva and Charmion- Strongwomen

MINERVA & CHARMION – Strongwomen

Solitary Death in the Nocturnal Woods

This Blood Falls As Mortal

St. Nicolas the Miracle-Worker Church

Church of the Archangel Michael

Minions

The church of Ivan Predtetcha, Ivanovskoe village, the Tverskaya region.

Abandoned Church near Yaropolet

Lucky Mojo Curio Co.

6632 Covey Road, Forestville, California 95436 voice: 707-887-1521 / fax: 707-887-7128email: order@luckymojo.comOpen 7 Days a Week, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Pacific Time

First German Reform Church 1862, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Wake up

Strange Sightings

Il Était une Forêt...

Mystics

La Maison K

Happy Halloween!

A is for Akrid

The Spirit World

Haunted Air: Halloween Photos 1875-1955

Those Slimy Things

Skele Love

New Addition

MILK

PumpkinRot

The Marsden Archives

K.I.N.G

Edward Gorey

Sideshow 1901-1940

1930s MEN and WOMEN of CIRCUS in makeup and costume

1930s Circus Clown With Big Book

1930s circus acrobats aerialists LILLIAN LEITZEL and ALFREDO CODONA

1915 Circus Barnum and Bailey 1910s Tent Exterior

1909 BARNUM and BAILEY Circus Parade 1900s SHELDON IOWA Main Street vintage photo crowd

1906 CIRCUS TENT INTERIOR BLEACHERS

1901 CIRCUS MAX SCHREYER Daredevil Ramp Crowd Bicycle Flying 1900s Vintage Photo

Tubs

Vicky Unus

6632 Covey Road, Forestville, California 95436
voice: 707-887-1521 / fax: 707-887-7128
email: order@luckymojo.com
Open 7 Days a Week, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Pacific Time