On March 26th, 1827 Ludwig Van Beethoven died in Vienna. The day after, a twelve year old boy took a lock of his hair as a souvenir. 167 years later the hair was sold at an auction in London. Its new owners were two Americans, Ira Brilliant and Che Guevera. Between those dates the lock of hair undertook an extraordinary historical odyssey. From hand to hand, from country to country, and from century to century.
This is the story of that journey.
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posted by 23
on May 18, 2013 -
15 comments
"Dead Bears" is a photographic collection by artist Michael Fortune documenting the regional Irish habit of erecting stuff animals wearing local Gaelic sporting colours as territorial markers.
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posted by distorte
on Nov 18, 2012 -
12 comments
It has been 30 years since it was first recorded, and almost that long since it was released as a
single and a
extra-long music video (alt. link:
YT), but
Thriller has remained at the top of lists for
best Halloween songs (
2,
3,
4,
5) and
best Halloween videos (
2,
3,
4,
5). You know
the dance, and you've read
Vanity Fair's extensive Thriller Diaries (
previously), or at least
Los Angeles Times' 25 Thriller facts, but have you seen
the almost hour long making of the video? Have you heard
the voice-over session with Michael and Vincent Price, with the bonus unreleased "rap" vocals by Price? You remember that
Vincent did Thriller just to make fun of himself, like he did when he
worked with Jack Benny and
Red Skelton, right? Or maybe you're in the mood for more of the comedic horror that Michael liked, such as
his collaboration with Stephen King,
Michale Jackson's Ghosts (HD, with Japanese subtitles and intro).
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posted by filthy light thief
on Oct 30, 2012 -
19 comments
Robert Aickman wrote some of the best ghost stories of the last fifty years. He also edited one of the finest genre anthology series of his time:
The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. Between 1964 and 1972, he curated eight volumes of horror fiction without repeating an author, favoring always the subtle, the psychological, the poetic, the rare, the neglected. 59 of his selections can be found online.
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posted by Iridic
on Oct 25, 2012 -
21 comments
For many years the BBC had a tradition of showing a dramatisation of a classic ghost story at Christmas. This tradition is being continued this year with
Whistle and I'll Come to You being shown tonight staring John Hurt. An adaptation of the same classic
MR James story was shown in 1968 staring Michael Hordern beginning the tradition (
1,
2,
3).
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posted by fearfulsymmetry
on Dec 24, 2010 -
22 comments
Though the sets and music are pure golden-age horror, the villagers are coded as ’50s sitcom types, bland exemplars of suburban uptightitude. Their ranks include a young Mos Def, though he’s seldom called upon to do anything other than act scared of supernatural goings-on in a manner that would cause even Stepin Fetchit’s ghost to say “For God’s sake, man, show some dignity.”
Just in time for Halloween, the AV Club series
My Year of Flops unearths the Stephen King-written, Stan Winston-directed
Michael Jackson's Ghosts (
2,
3,
4).
posted by Horace Rumpole
on Oct 27, 2010 -
15 comments
"Three years ago, on my first trip to England, I visited the Tower of London with my friends Tony and Emily. When I got home and uploaded my pictures, I found this strange blur of light on this photo taken outside the room that housed all the torture implements at the Tower... I told Antonia about my weird photo from 2007, and how I wanted to take another picture in the same place when we went, just for fun... [Back at the tower, I] took another shot of Esme on the walkway. And when I looked at it on my camera after, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Now don’t laugh at me, but do you see a sort of smudge to the center and right? Like a smudge made of light?... It made my heart stop for a second.
I’m clearly starting to see spooky stuff in places where there is nothing spooky to see."
posted by ocherdraco
on Oct 1, 2010 -
22 comments
When thousands of people depart, leaving an entire city dead that’s a real tragedy. There are mainly two reasons why people leave the place where they used to live for years or even generations: danger, and economic factors.
Abandoned Places In The World. ( previously
1,
2)
posted by netbros
on Jun 21, 2009 -
29 comments
You can take with you. A colleague of mine showed me this
page and asked if I knew what it was all about. I suggested, doll houses. He said you're warm. After a few more guesses I gave up.
When he told was it was about, it all clicked. I live in Taiwan and know quite a bit about funeral ceremonies here. I've seen a couple of cars and planes...but never have I seen items
like these or
these or
these.
Talk about going out in
style!
All of this stuff is made out of paper and is
set afire!
As for the prices....just divide by 34 to get US dollars.
posted by rmmcclay
on Mar 19, 2009 -
7 comments
One of the most
beautiful and
disturbing places in Denver. It a quiet place and quite the place to see. A
movie was made about a house and the fellow who rented it one day...adjacent to the park. Scared me to death as a little kid.
posted by shockingbluamp
on Sep 21, 2008 -
16 comments
But remember, talking to the dead can be dangerous. "All peoples of earth posess this natural ability," says Nicole Zapruder, who has been communicating with the dead since she was 4 years old. People aren't disputing her ability to use the Grey Walter-Berger Neurophysical Construct for communicating with the dead. They're asking her not to share it online because the technique is too dangerous.
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posted by destinyland
on May 11, 2008 -
69 comments
Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena was born in October, 2006 to help fight the good fight against the overwhelming majority of noise in the media supporting useless alternative medicine systems, psychics preying upon the vulnerable, the erosion of science education in the classroom, xenophobia of advanced energy and food production methods, and generally anything that distracts attention and public funding from scientific advancement. Episodes feature such prominent MeFi discussion material as
organic food myths, blood for oil, chiropractics, and
SUVs. Links are to podcast transcripts. Full
episode guide.
posted by arcticwoman
on May 24, 2007 -
38 comments
Fed up with old-fashioned boards and planchettes? Want to contact spirits the 21st century way? Try
iPod Ouija.
(not responsible for any possessions or nightmares. try at own risk.)
posted by divabat
on Oct 31, 2006 -
2 comments
Supernatural flashes and light leaks! The page layout is surely not the best of the web (forgivaness-- you've got to scroll past some bad 1998-vintage ads to get to the meat) but the credulous explanations for the photographic anomalies are some of the best leaps of logic I've seen posted anywhere. From
cigarette smoke to
light leaks, these guys leave no preternatural stone unturned.
posted by Devils Rancher
on Aug 24, 2005 -
44 comments
