#picturing this as one of the Several heated conversations up at the lighthouse on the last day. probably literal minutes before max resets

[whimsicalcotton]

Angst on the Radio Anon

Tee hee found some dialogue from Scherzo 8th Doctor Big Finish play) that works way too well:

"I would've given anything to save you. I gave everything."

"I know! But I didn't want it if I couldn't have you too!"

anon you've inflicted 100000 points of psychic damage onto me and now i'm going to inflict it on everyone else

[katpowers]

So far, I think May has been my favorite month of 2023, and this stained glass commission was a big part of that. A friend of a friend of a friend who is also connected in several other roundabout ways, Liz, emailed me on the 18th of April to ask if I had any mosaic pieces for sale. A woman she worked with would soon be retiring, and they were trying to find her a gift. We went on to talk via zoom with a couple of her other colleagues, wherein I floated the idea of working in stained glass. We also found that several of them, including the woman retiring, had been at a series the mosaic workshops I led a few years ago, commemorating the life of a woman very dear to them. What a special connection.

Afterwards I sent them three sketches plus the book border idea, based on Virginia Woolf, books, and the English countryside. Our mutual friend Carla suggested that I look into some quotes by Virginia Woolf (who I have really yet to read, though I’ve just started The Lighthouse), as many are visually suggestive. Liz’s colleagues found the following: “And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees.”-from The Lighthouse, and “Arrange whatever pieces come your way.” from A Writer’s Diary. I will keep an eye out in future readings of Woolf to pull these elements together, to perhaps glean a title.

Below are some of the pictures of the process, including my ‘learning edges.’ After grinding down the sharp edges of each piece of glass guided by its affixed pattern, I found the pieces did not fit together perfectly. Instead of cutting them down to fit, as the patterns are cut to take the diameter of the copper foil into account, I continued on, cleaning and then soldering them together- only to find that they indeed still didn’t fit as expected. At this point I had the impulse to abandon this attempt and begin again. I spent a good chunk of time on Monday and Tuesday re-designing, tracing and cutting out the pattern (twice) before looking at the first version again, and sitting down with it a little longer. It ended up being so much more workable than I had anticipated. I heated up the solder at each book-end joint and removed the sad thin came border, and copper along the pages of the book, and then re-soldered fresh came with a deeper well that more closely resembled the width of seams between the glass. I filled in the gaps in the design with newly cut and foiled pieces. I learned how to have a bit of a conversation with it.

After handing this project off to Liz last night, I realized that, though Ive been doing site-specific work for a few years, somehow this piece confirmed how thoroughly I enjoy the process of designing specific pieces for specific people or places. I love the conversation I get to have with the person who wants the piece, and that later on, the potential conversation I imagine someone can have with or about each piece wherever it is in the world.

I think one of the drawbacks to this experimental methodology is that things take time, often creative ideas are slower to arrive, and sometimes the same goes for ideas about materials or technique. I am thinking here of a friend’s entryway, promised tentatively over last winter, which I’m still working through in my mind. Just thought that the peacock feathers she wants don’t have to be made from a homogenous material, but instead could be a representation of the time we have lived, and carry a history of their own, so that there will be a story that goes along with it. What is a story? My answer now is different than when I studied fiction writing twenty years ago. I find glints and threads in objects passed through space, given and received. They are both enormous and insignificant, encountered and remembered. Thinking thought-fully about future projects.

Thanks to my friend Judy for showing me her foiling techniques, as well as all the YouTubers whose videos I continue to devour; and thanks to Mr. Jardine for holding the stained glass in the photo above. Thanks to Liz, Liz, Donny, Carla, Mike, Dale, and all others who connected us. I am truly in love with this Chicago community of makers, and am glad to be part of it (albeit one in her recluse/hermit phase).

[propertyfind-blog]

On coming Halloween day this article gives you some extra chill, for some thrill-seekers, there’s something frighteningly fun about the idea of spending the night in a hotel with a tale of spooky events.

Ghost sightings and unexplained phenomena have long been seen at some of America’s most famous hotels there are many examples to give. We have picked up some haunted hotels. Well, if you have enough guts then you can go and experience by you. If you dare.

Picture Courtesy: www.siwallpaperhd.com

Chelsea Hotel (New York City) – Jackson Pollock, Patti Smith, Andy Warhol, and Madonna are among the many famous names who called the Chelsea Hotel home. But there are 2 who are said to still haunt the halls. It has been closed since 2011 for renovations and probably will open next year. former inhabitants and employees have long noted paranormal activity surrounding the ghosts of Sid Vicious, accused of killing his girlfriend while they lived there, and second is Dylan Thomas, whose dedicated plaque on the exterior of the building reads ‘Dylan Thomas lived and wrote at the Chelsea Hotel and from here he sailed out to die.’

Picture Courtesy: plusquotes.com

Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn, (Big Sur, California) – Hotel’s set designer, Ellen Brill, this lovely old cabin in the forests is haunted by the ghost of its founder, fondly referred to as ‘Grandpa Deetjen.’ Brill states she ‘heard footsteps and a door close and started to freak out.’ If the hotel’s haunt isn’t enough, the Point Sur Lighthouse supposedly holds the spirits of dead sailors and seamen, and it hosts moonlight and ghost trips throughout October.

Emily Morgan Hotel (San Antonio) – it was established in 1924 and formerly operated as a medical facility, with floors 12 and 14 serving as the hospital and surgery areas. Guests have told sightings on these floors, mainly of a woman in a white dress, and strange phone calls in the middle of the night with no one on the other end. The hotel is also located directly next to The Alamo, a historic gravesite of fallen soldiers and also reported to be haunted.

Picture Courtesy: deviantart.com

The Marshall House (Savannah, Georgia) – Established in one of the most haunted cities in America, the Marshall House supposedly holds the spirits of Civil War–era patients from its former emphasis as a hospital. There have been ghost sightings in the halls and foyers reported, as well as other creepy experiences like faucets randomly turning on—sans human touch.

Battery Carriage House (Charleston, South Carolina) – Touting itself as ‘Charleston’s most haunted inn,’ this historic hotel offers a Ghost Adventure Package: Guests can engage in a nighttime Ghosts of Charleston walking tour and sleep in Room 8 or 10, probably the two rooms where the majority of visitors’ paranormal encounters have happened. Watch out for headless ‘The Gentleman Ghost,’ who likes to show up next to guests sleeping in their beds.

Picture Courtesy: www.timeout.com

The Place d’Armes Hotel, (New Orleans) – The Place d’Armes was constructed on the site of a school that heated down during the Great New Orleans Fire of 1788. Though there are many haunted hotels in the city, this is said to be the one with the most action. Many guests have seen a bushy old man who nods at them and fades away, and lately, one woman said that she had actual conversations with him.

The Langham, (London) – In Room 333 at the Langham, there’s clearly a man who likes to hang out in his Victorian evening wear. Other ghost sightings at this popular hotel include a man dressed in military clothes, former frequent guest Napoleon III, who is said to haunt the basement. , And a German prince.

Picture Courtesy: eazysafe.com

The Hollywood Roosevelt – If you’re waiting at this boutique hotel—famous these days for its trendy pool parties and you hear the distant sound of a trombone, it might just be the ghost of actor Montgomery Clift. Several visitors to the Roosevelt have apparently heard his tune and have also spotted the ghost of Marilyn Monroe in the mirror in her old suite.

The Pfister Hotel, (Milwaukee) – If it’s scary enough for tough-guy MLB athletes to disclose publicly, then this place must really have some serious spooks and the main accused is allegedly the ghost of the hotel’s original owner, Charles Pfister, Baseball players in town to perform the Milwaukee Brewers are usually put up at this hotel and have told lights flickering, moving furniture and the radio turning on and off.