My dearest will o the wisps:
I understand that most of this country is suffering from a heat wave? Here in the sub-Arctic San Francisco summer of fog, we haven’t broken 65 so I can’t relate. Some nights this shit is truly gothic: it’s damp and misty and the foghorns are going and you are expecting something to walk right out of that bank of clouds. Probably some raccoons are fighting in my yard, and we’re all holding our breath that the state doesn’t burn down again this season. But hey, at least we also have monkeypox!!!!!!!
This week I have a roundup of ghost stories and grave gossip. It’s too hot for you all to read anything too long and I’m too tired to write it. Enjoy.
Xoxo,
Court
I love these Speakeasy haunted city videos – the voiceovers are so fucking creepy, I truly do not know if they are AI or human. They cover every location imaginable and there’s always some good stuff I hadn’t heard of yet. For instance – Sutro Baths?? I mean, it looks haunted as shit and you will NOT catch me in that fucking Goonies death cave, but I had no idea about all of the GHOSTS. Apparently I need to work a little harder lol.
OK so Kesha has a ghost hunting show??? On the Travel Channel, obviously. Because somehow the TRAVEL CHANNEL went from Rick Steves to Zak Bagans and is now GHOST TV CENTRAL. The new Dancing with the Stars comeback arc for C-Listers is paranormal shows, and I will TAKE IT.
This episode is about the Westerfeld House in the Western Addition. Every time I bike past it I imagine what it’s like in that beautiful, strange house. It’s like a caricature of a haunted mansion and that tower looks ominous as hell. If that thing isn’t an antenna to the spirits IDK what is. When I see it, I hear Ghostbusters music and lighting cracking overhead. Kesha gets it.
There’s a maxim in organizing that you should try to find ways to help the world in your own work. We can’t all run for office or quit our day jobs to work as activists, but you can find ways to bring an anti-racist lens to your own work, use your expertise to right cultural wrongs, or address issues that haven’t been prioritized before.
This is an amazing example of that! Cadaver dog handlers are training their dogs to help locate old remains to identify African American burial grounds and to assist in finding the unmarked graves of Native American children who died at residential schools. This is extremely important work that helps us confront our past and honor those who were marginalized in life. As you’ve heard me say many times, how we treat the dead tells us what we think of the living.
HAHAHAH SPEAKING OF DOING YOUR JOB, did you hear that QAnon wackos and Election Deniers are now running to unseat local coroners? Did you think coroners needed to have a platform position on whether or not Italy is rigging our presidential elections or unmarked vans full of Chinese Biden ballots are showing up at polling places? Well, they do now! This story is somehow shockingly weird and also TOTALLY EXPECTED in this these, the End Times.