Local park getting own version of Stonehenge
WUT?
"Its monolithic stones will tower 7 feet above the ground with an additional 5 feet anchored into concrete rings below ground. The circle will be 20 feet across with a stone tablet in the middle."
... Tower? These stones are going to tower at 7 feet?
LOL with me now.
Showing posts with label allusions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label allusions. Show all posts
10 March 2009
"building a henge, are we?"
26 February 2009
19 February 2009
12 February 2009
Arkham and the joys of wikiality
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
While reading "Pickman's Model" on the train, I felt inspired to do some wiki-checking on certain endnotes I'd been reading. For one thing, I wanted hear more about Lovecraft's apparent inspiration for Arkham. Well, I live here, and that gives me a geeky jazz I can't quite describe without bouncing a little bit... But this is Arkham: the town. Arkham Asylum is another matter, the model for which is in another town that I frequent on a regular basis.
Danvers State Hospital 1893
And, yes. That screams Arkham Asylum to me. All it needs is a gigantic menacing gate to go around its gigantic menacing exterior.
As I read the beginning of the wiki entry, I thought, I need to go see this in person! But then I kept reading ...
Due to budget cuts within the mental health system the hospital was closed in June 1992.
And then--
In December 2005, the property was sold to Avalon Bay Development. A lawsuit was filed to stave off the demolition of the hospital, including the Kirkbride building, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. However, this ultimately did not stop the process, and to some public outcry, demolition of most of the buildings began in January 2006, with the intent to build 497 apartments on the 77-acre (310,000 m2) site.
Danvers State Hospital 2006 demolition
Say it with me: "Argh!"
Oh! And THEN:
... On April 7, 2007, four of the new apartment complex buildings and four of Avalon bay's construction trailers burned down in a large fire visible from Boston, some seventeen miles (27 km) away. The mysterious conflagration was confined mostly to the buildings under construction on the eastern end, with damage to the remaining Kirkbride spires from catching fire due to excessive heat. An investigation is underway concerning the cause of the fire. Avalon Bay provided a live webcam of the construction at the old site of the hospital at their website; however, the pictures cut out at approximately 2:03 AM the night of the fire, and the webcam was disabled, possibly due to the fire.
So that was a little weird. But, anyway, now it's an apartment complex:
Avalon Danvers October 2007
I hope it's haunted.
10 January 2009
spoiling the illusion
(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)
I've more than once contemplated rejoining a religious group, if only for the social outlet.
It is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day...
Even now, there's an odd look one receives ... I get it at work sometimes, not from everyone, but from a handful of people. Disbelief? Concern? I'm not sure how to describe it properly. It's the look I get when I decline an invitation to a church gathering, and then let them know why I declined when they ask.
Ambivalence ... nonchalance?
It does seem to be a reaction divided by race. None of my Asian colleagues think it strange (or if they do, they have the good taste not to react); most of my Caucasian colleagues are equally disinterested; it's primarily my Black colleagues that are most visibly taken aback.
So I wonder, as I read the common zealot rant on a message board, as I cross paths with colleagues and the occasional LDS pavement-pounder, Would I be more socially acceptable if I were part of a religious group?
But then I reconsider, knowing exactly how much I'd hate myself--how much I would come to loath the pretense, how much I would resent the people around me (whether they actually believed or were just similarly pretending for the sake of human company). Could I pretend? Oh, I'm certain I could--and quite convincingly, at that. Things move me for many reasons.
The right (or wrong) combination of musical chords can send a shiver down my spine, fictions make me cry or shudder every other day. To achieve the same reaction in any so-called holy place to so-called holy music or so-called holy words would hardly be proof of anything.
Reactions to stimuli.
[Sanity], [sanity], all is [sanity].
It's not to say that I don't think I can believe in things; but many things that were once categorised as beliefs have been moved to fantasy and fiction and intellectual interest. Fairly weighed, nothing "supernatural" makes any more sense than anything else. I guess that's where my mind stops.
It's not to say that I don't think others should believe in things. More [of something--though I'm not sure what, but "power" seems incorrect--] to them, if they can.
But I resent them and I pity them, and I can't make myself feel guilty about those feelings, because I'm almost certain that they feel the same way about me.
Back to the question: Could I fake it? Yes, for a while, but I'd probably self-destruct eventually; and, as is my habit, I'd most likely take a few people with me. People who, in their turn, would resent me for spoiling their illusion.
A more wicked side of me thinks, It could make life interesting for a little while ... Allow the most outlandish thing possible to recruit oneself (something like Opus Dei or equally miserable). Bewilder both friends and family for a good six months. Convince the believers of conversion. And then--leave, to the confusion and disappointment of all.
It's more for self-indulgent fantasy than reality, isn't it?
I'm lonely and bored of being lonely, but I'm also proud--too proud to whore myself to something I don't believe, too proud to keep my opinions to myself.
Maybe tomorrow I'll write out a few of my thoughts on the dichotomy of good and evil in Western literature.
Maybe I'll go see The Unborn instead.
Who knows?
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