Le Carnival Noir-Underground

Moontime 18 tall includes all contents $43

Masquerade Kitty 10 tall includes stand $16

This is why I love old cemeteries. Inspired.

A favorite of my personal traits is my attraction to old things. Especially the kind that have an undercurrent of gloom and dreariness. This is an abandoned house I’ve been obsessed with for more than 25 years that sits along the Sacramento River. I discovered it on an early morning fishing trip but my request to pull over and explore was humorously rejected. So I recruited my equally adventurous friend Cindy days later and the two of us went back, ignoring the KEEP OUT sig...n nailed to the only half boarded up side door, and did a little.... shhhhh... trespassing? I explored that house more than once that summer and even thought to snap some pictures including a couple black and whites, one of which I framed and have hanging in my house. Over the years as I returned it had been whitewashed, boarded up and fenced in but I said my proper hello to it and went on to photograph and enjoy it’s local community which I found to be quite charming. I recently indulged my curiosity again and returned to my old friend. I hadn’t taken the drive in probably 18 years. It’s still there. I was afraid it wouldn’t be. There were some workers on the property burning some brush and clearing the rubbish and one told me it would stay standing and is a city landmark. They have a vineyard on the surrounding acreage now but the house will remain sealed as it’s quite unsafe and beyond renovation at this point. Unsafe? Puhleese....I need to make friends with a local with whom I can swindle a special circumstances pass to get in there and have one more good look around...and maybe sneak out a piece of that textured brocade wallpaper and a couple of those weathered corbels holding up the roof. I doubt anyone would miss them. And that leads me to the point of this post. Who would leave such a treasure to simply rot away and never allow it to contain life within its walls again? Life that surely would have given it the love and respect it commands? Even in it’s current state of decay I would have gladly taken the honor of that task if no one else. And who’s feet stood out on that veranda, as I did, and looked at that glorious river view and thought or needed to leave it behind? A question that I consider at every abandoned house, but this one especially. This one is personal. Because it’s beautiful to me and I feel connected to it. It is my favorite adventure with one of my favorite people and it’s my favorite thing to do....ponder the stories.

Happy Easter from the dreamers... https://youtu.be/2YukBYq4Qj4

A Certain Darkness is Needed To See the Stars

And when the night is cloudy There is still a light that shines on me Shine on until tomorrow Let it be... (Lennon, McCartney)

Oh how I love old books. The stories are almost always lessons in life and the illustrations are so vivid. Keep them around for generations to come. Way more satisfying than those devices!