Wide Open Spaces

Here's a 1906 photo of Broad Street in Philadelphia looking north. City Hall is directly behind, and the Masonic Temple is on the right, followed by the Scottish Rite Cathedral. The U.S.'s first art academy, the Pennsylvania Academy of the fine Arts (PAFA) is, I think, just beyond that tallish building on the left.

But the point is: Notice how spacious and roomy cities could look before automobiles. Yes, immigrants were crowded into cluttered cramped disease-and-death playgrounds; but out there in the hustle-bustle, you could really stretch out. Just watch out for horseshit, of all kinds.

LAAAY-Deeez an Gentlemen!!!

Watching Nightmare Alley (1947) led me to geeks, which led me to Tom Waits; a natural progression. Here’s his Satan’s Barker intro to The Black Rider, a jen-yoo-wine Dark Ride. “And she’s the homeliest woman in the world!

See for Yourself!

(Back cover of Zap! Comix #1; photo credit: Larry Thompson)

Started in 1968 as a showcase for Robert Crumb, Zap Comix proves once again the truism that every new idea begins as heresy and ends as dogma (all due apologies to T.H. Huxley for mangling his Famous Quotation). Pot comix culture loved the "before/after" trope, along with a gee-whiz tone, one that would soon be appropriated by National Lampoon magazine (which itself inherited the gleeful, comic-book-y scorn of "official society" popularized by Mad in the 1950s). I'm getting into a pop counterculture mood, so GHOST TRAIN may be getting a bit snarky over the next few days. Apologies in advance.

Hey Grandpop, What's a "Cyclopedia"?

(gorse of course)

One of a handful of "inherited" books lying around the house when I was a kid, along with Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, was a battered copy of a (sadly long-gone) "cyclopedia" of, as I recall, "useful and practical knowledge." I've poked around online and found a number of similar books, all from the late 1800s (which as I recall was the date of the book we had back then). This one is very close to what I remember, although I don't think "entertaining" was in the title.

But the insides were something to consider! How to buy clothes, how to take care of a horse, parlor games and magic tricks, all kinds of strange housekeeping and everyday remedy information, and, as I still relate to students, a "'language of flowers" that felt so British I could almost hear the wind whistle across the gorse. If you must buy one crumbly old book this Holiday Season, you could do worse. Besides, haven't you always wanted to know how to discern if your hat has been properly blocked?

British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions (1880)

This is from the Public Domain Review. Visit this remarkable site the next time you have a couple of days to kill.

Forget Karen. Nancy!

It may be no surprise (to some with a certain something rattling around upstairs) that there’s a lot of Nancy-related folderol scattered around the internet. Remixed Nancy Bushmiller is a good one—but if you know Nancy, her actual life is already remixed. Found this on one of these sites. Real game? 

"WHERE ON TOUR": The Cramps at the Napa State Mental Hospital, 1978

Lux Interior (RIPieces), his soulmate Poison Ivy, Bryan Gregory (RIP), and Nick Knox (RIP)

One of us, one of us.

"The Beckoning Fair One" by Oliver Onions

 

Not to indulge in rank ranking, but this is one of the best ghost stories written in English. Edward Gorey would agree.