Places with magic in them (Julian)

[Bellia]

Hello!

Music Tape / Music Tapes are looking for somewhere wonderful to spend some time writing, building, living, and generally preparing for musical travels. If you know a place with some magic in it, anywhere in or the world; somewhere where there might be crumbling old farmhouses, barns, cottages, abandoned barbershops, warehouses, or other assorted bedrooms available for a rent affordable to those of a lesser financial endowment, please write:

holidaywaistcoat@yahoo.com

Thank you very much

julian



[Edited on 6-27-2004 by Bellia]

[brokengambler]

While I'd love to help the great Mr. Koster find a place to live, I seem to be moving to Taiwan soon, and I fear that might be a bit out of his range.

This made me think of something though, and I thought I'd throw it out there. I try to make it something of a major part of my life discovering ruins of the past, and ghostly things in whatever backyard I happen to be in at the moment, and what always astounds me is the sheer abundance of it all. I'm sure many of you know the Wierd New Jersey site, and theres a Wierd Illinois site that isn't quite as good. I grew up in the silicon valley, and in hills around that headquarters of the modern computer revolution, there are all sorts of ruins from a time no one can remember (there is a small tower on an offroad, no one knows why it is there, it seems the only reason is so kids can drive by it at night and scare each other). I remember Julian mentioning somewhere in the greatest things list the Musee Mechanique, which is my favorite place in the world (though I don't like its new location), and then there is the sutro baths right near where it used to be.

I started writing a screenplay about a girl who's traveling across country trying to retrieve memories of her dead brother, and all along the way, while dealing with her brothers ghost, she deals with various ghosts of the American past, all somewhat surrealistic. The best part of the film as its written right now involves her going to a ghost town with two hitchhikers she picked up that were traveling around trying to find Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, with a flyer 100 years old, and at the ghost town, called Purgatory, she meets two old men, Waiting For Godot type characters, who run around playing cops and robbers and make up stories about a past thats too illusory not to be true.

Anyways, the point is, we should all get together and resurrect a ghost town, I don't know what we'd do with it, but it would give Julian a place to live, and me a place to work on my screenplay. Either that or start a traveling circus, I have an interview with Jeff Mangum where he says he wanted to do that. I just wanna find a place where everyone I know can get together and tell ghost stories, and unrealistic plans are always the best ones.

[Bellia]

A ghost town would be lovely.


p.s. To anyone with ideas outside of the United States, please feel free to e mail them to the address above. No place is too far.

Thanks again everybody! It's been wonderful hearing from you. I'm on the road so I hope my replies are not too slow in the coming, I realy do apreciate it.

[theaphidsarecoming]

julian! come to ontario! there are ghost towns glore! they've all moved away to find riches leaving there riches riches behind.

and it would be so cheap for your american monies.

a friend has an old blacksmith shop that he used for a home and studio but has since come to the city.

and there are so many small towns on the train line with beautiful empty theatres...

and if you wish to go to the edge of the continent, newfoundland has wonderful magical places that are practically given away. i find this sad, but exciting.

[Harnk]

Julian, I live around the corner from your granny in New Hyde Park.

[Bellia]

Hello

Please e mail Holidaywaistcoat@yahoo.com if u can...A journey towards some of the good places you spoke of is already in the works. Some of the finest souls I know are from thereabouts, and I'd be greatful for any ideas you might have for perching places. Old blacksmith shops....

julian

p.s. Mr Harnk: Bewair ghosts of the childhood me.

[Christophe dininski]

Hi Julian, let me start by saying I just heard you 1st Symphony........ album and I think its amazing thankyou.
Last month I was walking late at night , I have lived in the same suburb all my life. I took a turn down a street I have never been before, walked down a lane way and wound up in this strange religious comune. All the dwellings were really close together, franticly I ran around peeping around corners making sure no one was following me, after a few moments I was transported to a place of eerie solitude lost alone in the dark in a strange unfamiliar place it was awesome in a frightening way, I was not drunk or stoned, just loosing myself within what turned out to be the local school yard. My reality hit back when i fell down a small set of stairs into a sand pit . my point is sometimes your inspiration can be right in front of you , obscured by normallacy.
That failing last year I was in Nepal, In the Annapurna region. There is a small town named Muktinath (maybe not correct spelling) i think its a religious asylum of some sort , anyhow, there is a hostel /tea house called Bob marley Hostel. It has 1 Bob marley cd piped through out the entire place seemingly on costant repeat, and is run by nepalese transvestite. I don't really dig Bob marley that much but this place was something else.

Good luck

[brokengambler]

I'm thinking of renting a place in Taiwan, that should have empty rooms. If I do get it, I plan to furrow myself away studying chinese and making wierd contraptions that will attempt to record natural light on a phonograph disc. If anyone wants a place in it my email is brokengambler@hotmail.com, but I only think I'll be there till June at the latest, maybe March, I kinda wanna go back to Beijing.

[airplane]

Originally posted by Christophe dininski That failing last year I was in Nepal, In the Annapurna region. There is a small town named Muktinath (maybe not correct spelling) i think its a religious asylum of some sort , anyhow, there is a hostel /tea house called Bob marley Hostel. It has 1 Bob marley cd piped through out the entire place seemingly on costant repeat, and is run by nepalese transvestite. I don't really dig Bob marley that much but this place was something else.
hello there christophe dininski! i was pleasantly surprised when i read this as i'm from nepal (i'm a nepali, i live here).

your generous exotification of my country warms my heart..

did you spend time in patan? that's where I live, anyway..

[airplane]

oh, and yes, there's lots of magic here.. muktinath I find is too much of a tourist destination, though..

[nothinginspace]

Arizona has a lot of ghost towns. On the weekends me and my friends go see them sometimes.

The indian reservation and the woods and the valleys and the painted desert and all that stuff can be wierd too, especially at night.

We certainly dont have that old world charm of farmhouses and windmills and stuff though.
This is a harsh dry place. We have ranches and pine needles and copper mines and rattle snakes. Lots and lots of snow in the mountains and lots and lots of heat in the valleys.

Its cheap though.



[Edited on 9-2-2004 by nothinginspace]

[Christophe dininski]

Yeah airplane maybe a little touristy , but in the running theme of nepal , just as wonderfully exotic as any other. i wqs fairly restricted with time when I ws there , only managing to spend about 3 months, I would love to have been there longer . I spent pretty much the whole time slowly making my way around the Annapurnna region. it was an amazing experience 1 that I hope i can experience again some day